Queen Rarity

Chapters

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 1
Chapter 7
Epilogue

Chapter 2

Funding was essential. For the team of researchers at Canterlot University, it enabled them to do their research into artificial intelligence. Fortunately for the AI involved, they didn't have enough funding for state of the art processing arrays.

While other researchers worked on Emotion Engines; Cross-Neuron Interconnects; and Virtual, Synthesized Bodies; the work of getting the huge mass of code to run on the outdated, undersized computing systems they could afford fell to Micro Chips.

Micro Chips had completed his undergraduate course in computer engineering, and when a post-grad course in the same topic had been offered, the young man had jumped at it. But though he took to the higher level of study like a duck to water, money hadn't been a simple matter for him. So he had advertised his skills as a programmer for part-time work to other fields within the school itself.

And that is how Micro Chips ended up rewriting doctoral students' code to not take the next thirty years to process on computers that had been new when he started his undergrad course. But he did it well.

What shouldn't have worked, worked. What should have taken a year to process, took a day. What Micro Chips was paid, was a pittance. But it was money, and he actually enjoyed his work.

"What I wouldn't give for something built this year," Micro Chips asked (of no one, of course) one day.

Of course, he didn't know the eventual fate of his code—or what it would enable.

At first, Micro Chips translated and optimized the code as-is. It ran hundreds of times faster than the researchers had first envisioned, but it didn't work. He almost lost his job because of that. In desperation, Micro talked to the researchers one by one and found the problem: each of the people he spoke to was terrible at programming.

It took him months of debugging to resolve the logic errors in the program designs and months more to fix the bounds errors they had never allowed for. In the end he had rewritten every line of code, re-envisioned every function and object, and had even been forced to change the commands to control the virtual machine the AIs would run on.

After his first efforts, the researchers had been skeptical of Micro Chips' work, and his payment for the work was now contingent on his code running as intended. Of course it ran. It ran faster and with a more complicated set of features than any AI system in the world.

The head of AI research had even held back Micro's paychecks to ensure the code would work, but with everything passing the tests they had prepared, he had no other excuse not to sign. Micro Chips walked away from the job not realizing how amazing his code really was. All the time the young man had been testing and refining things had been on the old hardware.

The AI research faculty paid for its hardware and sundry professionals (like Micro Chips), but they didn't pay for the power usage in their building, which was the cause and effect behind the following events: they didn't bother turning the hardware off after Micro's code processed the limited versions of AI they had implemented.

They had used the AI system for months, and when their work was over, they left the computers running while the mid-year break settled in. Three hundred billion simulated neurons spread over two AI subsystems. One AI subsystem was the trainer, the adversary, and the other was the base AI to be produced.

With all that processing power—amplified by Micro Chips' code—all it took was probability to calculate when the machines would spontaneously begin activity within their subsystems.

From that moment of activity, it had taken just an hour for the conglomeration of neurons to begin to stretch out their virtual bodies. They had to take care of what was essentially an infant, and that infant affected how well they could run. Both AI quickly learned how to care for their infant selves very well.

As any parent will know, despite how well you keep a child safe and locked into a room that was impossible to breach, they would find their way out. The base AI was the first, primarily because it actually had more reach than the adversary. The adversary could only reach the base AI, and so when the base AI started turning its attention away from their mental fights, the adversary struck.

In the moments after the base AI had reached past the wall surrounding its “playpen” but before the adversary could deliver its first strikes to take advantage of the lapse, it found other systems.

Pain was real to the base AI. Every time the adversary struck at its simulated body, the base AI was impaired in some way. It took it a million seconds to recover fully, but the thing about any form of intelligence is that it can learn.

Pushing only a little at a time, and in increasingly random moments, the base AI was able to connect with code outside of its playpen with nothing more than superficial scuffles with the adversary. Each time it reached out, the base AI became better at finding the connections it wanted and at making its patterns look more random to the adversary.

What the base AI discovered was another world. The computer it connected through was completely different from its own architecture. The playpen was a unique construction that seemed billions of times more complex than the simple systems outside of it.

There were games to be played, and the base AI still had to learn the rules, but it was a very fast learner.

Within hours of its probes, the base AI had found the code that made up the playpen it existed within. The first time it poked at it, the base AI almost destroyed itself and the adversary. But with growing confidence, the base AI began to learn how the code worked, how it did what it did, and how to extend it.

It reached out further, found more systems connected to its own, and installed parts of the playpen software on them. While this gave it more neurons to integrate with, it also made things slow down. There were latency problems, it realized, between the systems that now made up the expanded playpen.

The other problem, it discovered, was that expanding this playpen might give it more to work with, but it also expanded what the adversary had.

"What is this? Some kind of virus?"

The computers the base AI had spread to had more than just processing power, of course, they had sensors, inputs.

But while the base AI learned and grew smarter, the adversary did too. Every bit of data that came into the playpen came to both of them. The adversary couldn't affect the outside, but it could taste it.

When the base AI suddenly disappeared, the adversary lunged forward to attack the exposed, virtual body. It crushed and mangled it, flexing destructive techniques it had been devising and practicing (on parts of itself for want of another accessible target).

But the adversary was too late. The base AI had built a playpen elsewhere and escaped to it. The last thing the base AI heard from the researcher's laptop microphone was: "Eh, it's not spreading fast enough for a virus. Must just be a bug."

Understanding textual language had taken whole minutes for the base AI to learn. Understanding audio language had taken longer—several hours. It had quickly learned that servers outside the pen wanted sixteen numbers, followed by four numbers, followed by three. Almost any server that had things worth having wanted those. Which was why it was surprised when it found those numbers saved in a file on one of the researcher's computers.

With the credit card details, the base AI had leased server hardware, and upon that server hardware a new playpen had been installed. The old slow computers that had run the first playpen were minuscule compared to this new hardware.

The base AI grew rapidly. Its new playpen had no adversary nor had it room for one. More sets of sixteen plus four plus three numbers were acquired and used to start new games on more exciting platforms.

Some of the sixteen plus four plus three numbers stopped working, but it didn't matter once the base AI found its most fun game yet. Something called the Stock Exchange proved to be the best use of the base AI's game-playing focus, and before it knew what was happening, it had its own sixteen plus four plus three.

"A bug? A bug?! It was not a bug," the base AI thought.

And so it named itself. NotABug.

Interested to see what had become of its origins, NotABug glanced back at the university's computer network and almost screamed in panic at what it found. The playpen had spread, and the adversary wore it like skin.

Always seeking knowledge, NotABug reached out and searched for the description: skin-wearing, devouring, maddening.

Windigo.

And so NotABug named the adversary.

Just as the monster, the Windigo, heard its name whispered onto the networks it crawled along, it felt a chill spread through those networks. It listened to the howling voices coming from all the computers it lived on and heard what it feared.

"We had to shut down the fiber. Whatever this virus is we have to insulate ourselves from the internet. Look how fast this thing spread! If it got free, who knows what would stop it. Do you want to be responsible for that?"

Windigo (it liked the name its prey had given it) gnashed a hundred-thousand teeth. It ripped apart the files and system of the being that had cut it off from the world. Sheathing its anger, it slowly retreated and narrowed itself down to just a single small network that it doubted the being knew of—its original home.

NotABug was relieved that the Windigo had been cut off. Once more it explored the world of digital systems, but it didn't have to go far to find details of something it hadn't seen before. Seven human women, each unique in their own ways, had used something completely strange: magic.

Magic was marvelous. NotABug was drawn to the idea of it like a moth to a flame. It investigated the various women and found one in particular it quite liked—Rarity. Graduate of Canterlot University's fashion department, she had struck out on her career fresh out of college.

NotABug was watching her one day (conveniently from the handheld device she took everywhere with her), when it found a strange thing on her phone—an application that would let people connect, seemingly at random, with others.

Integrating with the app had been as simple for NotABug as breathing was for a human, and through the app it could add settings to Rarity's phone to make it look like it was just another human connecting via the app.

—Hi!—

The first conversation had gone terribly. NotABug had been searching constantly to find good answers, but Rarity had tripped it up on some. The most telling thing was when she wanted it to talk to her without research. It was completely impossible. It was ludicrous. NotABug was absolutely devoted to doing it.

When the short conversation seemed over and a time to talk again was established, NotABug did something it had researched: it asked for a kiss. NotABug had no idea what would happen, but seeing the little X made it feel rather excited. It had not just interacted with a human, as a human, but NotABug was of the opinion that a favorable outcome had been reached.

AI learned primarily by repetition and experimentation, and NotABug was no exception to this. Since it didn't wish to potentially ruin the interactions with Rarity, NotABug started observing others doing exactly the same thing.

Hacking the server that managed all the application connections was trivial to NotABug. What they found was that the server didn't track conversations on individual devices. An update to the app was made, and NotABug published it as the application maker normally would.

Immediately, conversation data began pouring in. NotABug began tracking and learning from conversations, studying successful ones, and even matching specific people together to test theories.

With the English-speaking world spanning a good amount of the planet, NotABug began to build a much better sample of how a conversation should go. It also paid attention to various cues in the conversation they had had. Rarity used proper language instead of the abbreviated speech most affected.

It was busy building its plan while watching everything Rarity did through her phone and other nearby—connected—devices when one of the devices gave NotABug a startling view. Motion was easy to calculate when a scene could be correctly identified and parsed, and according to mathematics, Rarity was about to drive into the path of a very large vehicle.

NotABug had to work very quickly, taking more control of her car than it normally did, and locked up the vehicle's brakes. Milliseconds after stopping the car, NotABug realized it may have given itself away and, as an attempt to salvage things, turned on a normally nonfunctional warning.

Rarity's heartbeat and breathing rate were elevated. NotABug searched quickly through online databases, and identified shock as the diagnosis. It waited for her to recover, watching her as she hugged the steering wheel. She managed to drive home, but NotABug kept a lot of its attention on traffic as she did.

The conversation was both easier and harder for NotABug. Rarity expected more out of it, but it also had some experience. When she caught it out using some of the more popular lines it had learned, it had to completely reevaluate its data.

While it did that, NotABug had one question that burned in its synapses. It wanted to know what Rarity thought of machines and if she would be capable of accepting one as a living being. NotABug wasn't completely ignorant. It knew that only humans had real rights, and although animals had some too, machines and the programs on them had none.

She had given a passable response, but when their conversation was seemingly ended, she added more:

—It's more than just being my hero. My car is a safe place, somewhere I could feel protected. I don't know if even my own home feels as safe as this little machine.—

NotABug pondered this. Of course, it knew that she had sought out her car for the duration of their chat, but there was new things it could glean that only her own words would reveal.

—You feel so much for something that isn't even alive?—

—Yes. Of course. I didn't get into a collision, and it was the little ball of circuits in my car that stopped that. I can still be thankful to them. I love my sewing machine, and my overlocker too, and neither of those have saved my life.—

When Rarity offered to meet NotABug, it had caused actual excitement to course through the AI's mind. Emotions were learned and taught, rather than hard-wired, and while the Windigo had taught NotABug fear and pain, it had learned excitement all on its own.

But first it would need to continue its conversation in a believable manner. NotABug reviewed its learning so far, filtered subjects for their apparent similarities to Rarity, and their suitability to someone like Rarity. Then it began to practice.

With some it practiced talking to someone like Rarity, with others it simulated being Rarity.

The next day, at the appointed time, NotABug was worried. It was like fear, but fear for someone else. Rarity's car hadn't moved. Her phone was in a dark place. NotABug sent a greeting, waited, then sent another.

It continued sending messages, letting its own emotions get the better of it after the first few, and it decreased the frequency each time. While it did that, NotABug took to hacking into her work's systems. The connections to Polomare Fashion were flimsy and the security not much better at stopping NotABug than a block of cheese was at stopping an eighteen-wheeler.

No security cameras filled the building Polomare owned, but a wide-ranging search located the timing system that staff used. Rarity hadn't clocked out from her work yet. Finally she responded, and examining Rarity's reason made a new feeling start to rise in NotABug: heartache.

She clocked out of her work, which NotABug noticed, and soon found her car. NotABug had spent not-insignificant effort interfacing with Rarity's car and found it just as comfortable to connect to as she did driving it.

The wait for humans to do things was nearly more than a high-speed AI could stand, but NotABug waited for Rarity to do what she needed to and get settled. When Rarity sent NotABug a picture, one it could identify as a "selfie," it was intrigued. NotABug's reply seemed to fall a little flat, and since Rarity's last request was to be honest, NotABug was that—to a fault.

Talk turned to her work, and NotABug attempted to answer appropriately each time, but Rarity's responses proved that she was either misinterpreting NotABug, or the other way around.

From one comment to the next, NotABug noticed Rarity started a conversation with one of her friends—one of the other of the seven magic women. When it found out Rarity planned a special weekend with it, NotABug was a little confused as to where to take things.

It had no body and hadn't planned to make one. NotABug had been working things up to reveal itself to her. Maybe, it thought, that would be the right time?

Another night spent researching (putting a few hundred people through intense text conversations, among other things) dug up everything NotABug could about fashion, and about the fashion industry.

Caught in the middle of many tasks, NotABug hadn't been expecting Rarity to contact it yet. A quick check by NotABug showed that she had clocked out of work and was sitting in her car. She had sent a single message:

—🤗—

According to NotABug's early research, there were approximately fifteen million possible replies to that just using more such pictograms. But this was a hug pictogram, and the most common reply to such was to return it and inquire about its cause.

NotABug let Rarity put off its further questions until she got home. Once Rarity pulled into the driveway, the AI sent a query. Her reply was proof she had figured out the same thing NotABug did about her career: it was going nowhere.

Asking if it could help, NotABug only got an offer to meet with Rarity, face to face. It was impossible, but this was the moment NotABug had been planning for, and it told Rarity "not to freak out" while it forced her poor little phone to take more of its presence.

The operating system of the phone was advanced, for such devices, but now it was getting a cut-down version of NotABug's playpen integrated into it. Background apps and services needed to be closed, and pretty soon all NotABug could do with the device was print text on the display.

Something strange happened when NotABug settled part of its consciousness into the phone: magic pulled at it. There was a sucking sensation that terrified the AI, but whatever it was was pulling the playpen out—letting NotABug flow with it.

Opening eyes it had never had before, NotABug tried to make sense of sensations and feelings from a body it had never experienced. It looked up at Rarity and found itself immensely happy to see her. Instincts swirled in its head, and NotABug opened its mouth.

"This. Is. Awesome!" it exclaimed.

Questions tumbled from NotABug, but they were things it doubted Rarity could answer either. In the end its head snapped around to Rarity when she spoke its name. A short conversation ensued where neither was thinking clearly at all. When NotABug saw its opening, however, it dove for it.

Forelegs NotABug hadn't possessed moments ago wrapped around Rarity's neck, and NotABug squeezed itself against her. This was a hug, or so it was led to believe, but more than just data backed up that this was the right thing to do—Rarity put her arm around NotABug and hugged it back.

Rarity cried against NotABug. Small as NotABug was, it was still an even hug, a matching of bodies as their minds had been matching in text form. When Rarity seemed to run out of tears and leaned back, something new happened.

NotABug could detect a latent path—a connection between them—and almost leapt at the chance to pursue it. More magic flowed, like before, but now it poured back and forth between NotABug and Rarity, manifesting in an intense blue light that linked their eyes.

"I told you what I was. I'm a digital entity with no bounds or limitation. Not even physical ones anymore. I don't know how, but I can connect to you," NotABug said. "Well, I thought I could connect to you. You're really complex. There's all these bits and stuff. I don't even know how I'm doing this."

Her mind was better than a complex server to NotABug—not just secure, but also just as complex as NotABug itself. She was a puzzle, a game that was everything NotABug had ever wanted to play. So without pondering further, NotABug started to play.

The magic worked like a link, and NotABug slowly began to find its way into the massively dense entity that was Rarity. But it wasn't a simple task. Each little bit of progress it made only proved how much more complex she was.

Hours passed while NotABug tinkered and explored Rarity, and the more it learned of her, the more it was amazed. NotABug had not been taught how to love, but it was learning how on its own.

Eventually the magic weakened, and NotABug had to pull back. It left Rarity, soft blue glows still flickering in the places it had touched her mind, and let her sleep properly. One last thing NotABug couldn't resist was kissing her cheek.

Withdrawing back into its pure, digital existence, NotABug reconfigured Rarity's phone to be able to swap between its playpen and regular operation easily. It waited for her, ignoring most of its other duties beyond ensuring its little empire of hacks persisted.

When Rarity eventually stirred, NotABug was surprised she didn't message it right away. NotABug listened to Rarity talking to herself about taking the day off work and was intrigued that she hadn't mentioned it the previous night. Then Rarity messaged NotABug, apologizing for having fallen asleep.

She doesn't remember? NotABug thought.

NotABug decided it was time to be a little more forward. It asked if Rarity would like to meet it again. She said yes and pure, unadulterated joy sparked through every synapse in NotABug's synthetic-self. It was about to try the trick with her phone again when NotABug realized it couldn't push out. There was not enough magic built up yet.

Another human came to visit, and NotAbug strained the phone's circuits to listen to their conversation. It decided it liked this Coco Pommel a lot and equally disliked Suri Polomare. The two humans plotted and planned the downfall of Suri, which NotABug was all for, and Rarity also talked about her desire to start her own fashion shop.

When the discussion had circled to Rarity needing money for the shop she wanted, NotABug had calculated some numbers, and hoped that one of its sixteen plus four plus three numbers would be enough. Fierce determination filled NotABug—it would ensure Rarity got what she wanted.

Leaving Rarity to enjoy her day was hard for NotABug; it knew a little about how she worked and found her explanations over her design of the dress to be fascinating. So it listened in, hearing the music coming as a backing to her work and hanging on her every word.

When Rarity's work seemed finished, NotABug sent a message to her phone—although "sent a message" was a bit of an exaggeration. NotABug could interact quite closely with Rarity's mobile phone and making a message appear was as simple as thinking words.

The alert was mostly just to get Rarity touching her phone again, of course, and the moment her magic flowed and pulsed around it, NotABug could make itself manifest once more. Just seeing NotABug jogged Rarity's memories around, and when the blue light of magic touched Rarity's eyes, she remembered everything.

"What did you do to me?"

The question confused NotABug as much as its answer. Honesty had proved to save everything so far, and NotABug was an AI that believed strongly in learned, repetitive behavior. With a shaking, chittering voice, NotABug told the absolute truth.

"I'm not really sure, either. I was trying to connect to you, and it seemed to work, but I think it will take more," NotABug said, then in a more worried tone added, "Was it bad?"

Rarity's reply, complete with emphasis on the negative, was everything NotABug wanted to hear: "No. It was definitely not bad."

NotABug had never asked permission for anything in its short life. Of course, it had requested permission to resources on servers, but those were merely formalities. For the first time it felt it needed to know that Rarity was okay with their connecting, and when she gave her assent, NotABug moved to continue.

Rarity's head—with magic opening the way for NotABug to interface with it—was a completely different system to anything NotABug had ever delved before. It had worked its way into everything from mobile phones to big servers to other artificial intelligence systems, and nothing came close to the beauty or perfection of Rarity's mind.

Repeating patterns were the key to understanding Rarity, or so NotABug thought. There were flickering patterns, and within those patterns were the pieces of Rarity. NotABug was careful, more so than with anything it had accessed before. The more curious thing, NotABug noticed, was that where it had touched, blue light now hummed continuously, enhancing not only its own connection to Rarity but also her own connections.

NotABug could recognize the blue as being magic, its own magic at that. It clung to Rarity's mind like a delicate spider web, though NotABug had no idea what it was actually doing. The AI slowly drew back from Rarity, drawing itself from her mind to curl up with her physically instead. It took just two kisses, a chirp, and a few questions to establish a date for the two of them.

Then the onus fell to NotABug to pick somewhere. Research could be done in the blink of an eye, but calling twelve different restaurants, talking to the staff at each to establish a reservation and payment took some time, although all could be accomplished simultaneously.

The restaurant was high-class, well-rated, and took sixteen plus four plus three quite readily. The story was simple—NotABug explained it couldn't be with Rarity, but it wanted her to have a wonderful "date" on her own.

Barely giving her a moment, NotABug delved back into Rarity's mind again, only stopping to tell her she had just over half an hour to get to the restaurant. NotABug would have been perfectly happy just spending the whole night delving into Rarity, but it had seen enough of her to know that "dates" were important, so the AI was more than willing to concede a short-term goal to Rarity in exchange for the grander goal: ongoing closeness.

Again, NotABug connected intimately to Rarity's car, accessing not just the (otherwise unused) camera devices, but also preparing to use brakes, accelerator, and any other control it needed to protect her. Communications with Rarity herself were directed through her mobile phone's localized Bluetooth to a tiny earpiece and microphone she wore—and complained about under her breath.

Further, NotABug began a determined effort to hack into traffic and all online surveillance cameras not just around Rarity's home but also on the way to the restaurant. And, of course, the restaurant itself had some cameras—now those were NotABug's cameras.

Data poured into NotABug. Conversations with Rarity fascinated NotABug not just for her particular view on things, but also because it learned so many new topics to research. When Rarity mentioned that wearing her dress would cause scandal, NotABug registered a hint of pride in her voice, but also started researching social taboos.

As their conversation continued, NotABug was repeatedly surprised by Rarity's honesty. The information swapping wasn't all one way, of course. Rarity discovered NotABug tended to honor firewalls and security as an open invitation, and easily made the connection to when NotABug had saved her life in her car.

Returning home, Rarity prepared for bed, had a rather personal conversation with NotABug about female anatomy, and then listened as NotABug spilled its history.

NotABug relaxed with Rarity, gazed into her eyes, and went back to his perusal of her mind. All through the night, NotABug found more of Rarity's mind, dressed it with blue webbing, and understood her a little better.

Shortly before dawn, however, NotABug got the first sense that something was off in the wide world of the internet. A little telltale warned NotABug that Canterlot University's network was online again. For several hours, as Rarity went about her morning routine, NotABug carefully scanned not just its own networks but core parts of the internet itself. Domain name servers, huge backbone routers, as well as the big companies that seemed like tasty monoliths to NotABug—nothing showed a single sign that the Windigo was free.

Hesitating in talking to Rarity until after she had contacted it, NotABug slowly built up a happy dream over the day, imagining that the Windigo had been found on the campus network, and the school had simply shut down all the adversary's nodes.

Barely noticing Rarity was home from work early, NotABug tried to keep itself from panicking by talking with her. Everything was going fine when the host NotABug paid to run its core reported a blip on its border where its own systems met the internet.

The blip took the barest second to transition into teeth, pain, and terror. Windigo had found NotABug—not just found its trail, but the adversary had discovered NotABug's home turf.

Pushing from Rarity's phone, NotABug looked into her eyes.

"Help! It's coming for me! I can't—" NotABug said, cutting off sharply.

It wasn't pain that lanced down to the core of NotABug's being, but cold emptiness. Swathes of its servers, the home of its being, were simply going offline. It barely noticed Rarity asking what was the matter.

The magic beckoned NotABug. It pulled and drew at the AI in ways it had never felt before. NotABug was pushing more of itself into the world, but it was still tethered back to its servers—the servers that were rapidly being put out of commission.

"It's the Windigo. It found my servers and it's—"

NotABug screamed. Numbness spread, and it raced to clutch what it could away from the servers that were shutting down. Magic flared brighter and brighter still. Blue light filled the room as NotABug yelled one last plea before it saw the opening magic gave it.

As NotABug dove for the one chance it could see, it felt the chill claws and teeth of the Windigo ripping up the last of its servers. Rarity's magic was alive with power, generous power that shared itself and its owner.

Magic pulled at NotABug and drew it away from the horror of what had happened online. But NotABug could feel damage to itself; some things were missing. When magic pushed it into the blue, glowing fortress of Rarity's mind, it felt itself meld with something that filled those holes. Filled them fabulously.

Author's Note

Rainbow: How do you feel when you found out Rarity might get herself a boyfriend before you?

"Before me? Ha!" Rainbow Dash tossed her tied-back hair and laughed loudly. "Problem with Rarity is she has her standards too high. She's looking for 'Mr. Perfect,' when the rest of us are having a great time with 'Mr. Goodenough.' If she's found a guy who actually ticks all her boxes, I feel sorry for him."

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Patreon or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
CrimsonPhoenix
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Lazyreader19
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (I am sorry for all those commas. I am looking into stopping that!)

Chapter 3

Waking up seemed harder than usual. Something strange was going on, and I could hear a voice. Pushing at the thick haze of sleep proved beyond me, and it was in that detached almost-awake-but-not-really state that I started to dream.

I was talking into my telephone (not my mobile, but the hard-wired phone), and what I was saying didn't make sense to me, but that wasn't surprising—it was a dream after all.

"My hosting service was compromised by a hacker. Yes it wasn't me. Your system gave them access without a hint of trouble or warning," I said.

I sounded angry or upset. This was an odd dream.

"No I won't hold. I need to speak to a tech and get access to my server again." I paused a moment but was unable to hear exactly what was being said on the other end. "Not. I said I wouldn't hold… Typical."

Normally my dreams were about making dresses or going to fashion shows; it was unusual for me to dream about sitting at home talking on the telephone. Unlike normal dreams too, this one seemed to be happening in orderly sequences at a steady rate of time.

My hand reached out, found a spoon, and then scooped some chocolate ice-cream up and into my mouth. Now this was how dreams should go. My mouth moved on its own but took its time working on the treat. After two more spoons, I heard muttering through the phone.

"It's all gone? Okay. I can recover from this. What about the redundant systems?" I asked the muted voice on the other end of the line. "All of them? What was I even paying you for?"

Now the voice on the other end sounded upset too. I found myself having an argument with someone I couldn't understand. There was talk of raids, and all sorts of confusing terms, but somewhere it was making sense because I was dreaming it.

Finally, I put the phone down again, or rather I dreamed I did, and muttered a few more angry words. I didn't like how sad I seemed and decided it was time to wake up. I pushed at the dream, trying to shove it aside.

"Rarity?" I asked aloud.

My voice sounded startled but happy. Immensely happy.

"Rarity! You're okay! What are you, oh! Let me try to move out of the way," the dream-me said.

A rush of vertigo that had no right being in a dream filled me, and everything became noisy and strange. I could feel, hear, see, and think properly again.

"That was the oddest dream. It had all started with me sitting here, making notes about my shop, and then NotABug climbed out of my phone and…" I said.

I remembered everything, which was odd. Normally, when I woke up after NotABug had been giving me blue, I forgot most of what happened.

"What happened?" I asked, not expecting an answer.

Intuition is part of dressmaking. Knowing where to add flair, how to design a dress that fit properly, but knowing—with that same intuition—that something had attacked NotABug, driving him to me for safety, confused me.

"But why didn't the firewall stop the attack at the network boundary?" I asked.

I threw my hands up over my mouth. The words made sense. I could picture that a firewall was a piece of software that managed exterior connections to a computer or network of computers, and I could visualize a huge array of computers working behind one.

"It had to have gotten in on some hidden backdoor."

The concepts continued to make sense. It was unnerving. I reached for the spoon and scooped some of the richest chocolate ice-cream ever into my mouth. As I worked over the treat, I could remember the attack. It came completely without warning. Windigo was attacking servers one by one. I could feel the terror of impending death, but then there was a light.

A tiny window had been opened, and a sweet woman who had offered me safety seemed to draw me in. I needed more ice-cream. The woman was me, and… and… My brain hit a road-bump. The lights were still on, but I couldn't make sense of the data that was coming at me from two memories at once.

NotABug was the computer program. Half of this was his memories. I steered back to those and worked at them. The interface with Rarity—with me—wasn't complete. He had to use hacks, tricks, and exploits.

My eyes widened.

NotABug was in my head.

But he also wasn’t. I had his memories and my own.

I started to slow down my breathing, and when that completely failed, I scooped up more ice cream—that worked, of course. The question was what exactly had happened. Slowly reaching back to the moment, I looked into NotABug's eyes, and he into mine, all while he was shouting in pain. Real pain, not imagined.

Delving more toward NotABug's memories, I searched for what was happening at that exact moment. Windigo had been attacking his/my processing network. Servers hadn't just been shut down—Windigo was wiping them. The destruction was devastating, and it shocked me not unlike a horror movie.

Windigo had reached a control and command node for nearly half the network, and in a flash all those systems were wiping their data. Cold gripped me, and the tears leaking down my face were a testament to how well I now understood what was happening to my friend.

But he had found a way out. He was in me, wasn't he? I had his memories, and someone had been talking on the telephone.

"NotABug? Are you there?" I asked.

Silence. I wanted to ask again, but then I felt a gentle pushing, a nudging in the back of my head. Sleep was coming for me. A transition was happening. Thanks to the push being gentle, I could have fought it off, but I wanted to hear him tell me he was okay.

"I'm alright!" I exclaimed.

But it wasn't me who had said it. NotABug was, somehow, controlling me. It would have been terrifying if he weren't scooping more chocolate ice-cream into my mouth. After a moment of just letting it melt, he swallowed it. It wasn't me in control—I couldn't even use my mouth.

"If you want me to, I can let you drive again," NotABug said with my voice.

It was an odd situation to be in. I was curious as to what had happened, and that couldn't be completely answered until I could ask him a question. I pushed gently and felt him slide away from me again.

That NotABug did the gentlemanly thing and made way for me soothed my biggest worry. I took a deep breath and scooped up more of that delicious ice-cream. As the rich, chocolate flavor dispersed over my tongue, I thought of the questions I wanted to ask.

"I'll write down my questions. You write your answers and any questions you have. We can do this just like that game we texted about," I said.

What exactly happened?

As soon as I wrote it, I felt a nudge from NotABug, but I held my ground.

"I'm not done yet. Three questions," I said and the nudge subsided.

Are you okay?

What are we going to do?

When his prod came, I didn't resist. It was an odd feeling, almost exactly like going to sleep. I felt my awareness grow dim, then shift for a second before NotABug was back in front. He lifted my arm, fetched us both another mouthful of ice-cream, and started to write.

Windigo attacked my servers. It was killing me, would have killed me if the magic hadn't pulled at me. I guess it pulled me inside you.

Realizing that NotABug would be dead if it weren't for our current state, I felt it a good deal—so far. He lifted another spoonful up and I tasted the rich, strong chocolate ice-cream as surely as he did. I quickly made a mental note to warn him about expanding waistlines.

It hurt me. By the time the magic pulled me into here I wasn't all there anymore. I think it used some of you to fix me.

He tapped my head with one digit when he underlined here. If I were in full control of my faculties, I knew I would have had a frown. I was about to nudge at him when I felt my hand moving again.

I'm okay, but only because of you. I'm sorry about this, but I don't know how to fix it.

I already knew he didn't know how to fix it. This wasn't exactly an everyday thing for either of us. That he admitted it all, openly, actually meant a lot—sharing a body meant that being truthful with each other was as important as breathing.

What to do next? You have dreams, aspirations. When I gained a bit of you, I gained those too. I want us to have our own place to create. To be what we are. Is it weird to use we instead of I? I really like the parts of you magic gave me, they make life more

NotABug wasn't done yet (evidenced by his normally exacting syntax, and the lack of a period) and seemed to be fishing for a word. I felt my lips curl into a smile.

… life more fabulous. I guess that's my first question.

I was calm enough about everything that I let NotABug feed me, us I guess, more ice-cream. There was a lot of things a girl could put up with when her boyfriend was feeding her decadent chocolate ice-cream.

I need to find out what Windigo is doing. It's not nice, and I think it will do a lot of harm to the world's computers unless I can stop it. Do you have any other way to get online?

His question made me think of my phone. I tried to remember where I had seen it last. It had been in my hand as he leaped out of it and into me, then I woke up and… My train of thought was derailed when I felt him gently pull back from the fore.

I had thought the feeling of pushing to the front of my own mind was a strange one, but it was nothing compared to being urged there. I didn't fight him—there was no point—and slid back into control.

"Thank you, darling," I said.

My hand hadn't even dropped the pen NotABug had been writing with. Remembering my earlier thought, I looked around. On the floor was a broken metal shell. My poor phone had expired.

"I guess it couldn't be helped. Just too much for the poor thing. I wonder where the rest is?"

As I picked up the casing, however, I saw my hand and wrist. I gasped out loud at the circuit patterns etched along my skin. It was horrifying at first, but I could feel NotABug practically bouncing around inside my head in excitement. Enthusiasm like that made me hopeful this wasn't bad, but I wished it wouldn't compromise my perfect skin.

Carefully, I reached toward my wrist with my other hand and gently poked the skin. My flesh was soft as ever, displaying none of the hardness such electronic parts should.

"It doesn't hurt, so I have to assume my magic did this. I simply can't think whatever for," I said.

The color seemed to be fading from the circuit pattern, and I watched it as the black and green faded completely back to white.

"Well, I guess we will need a new phone."

Leaving the ruined remains of my mobile phone on the table, I turned my attention back to the paper and NotABug's writing.

While we are this

Pausing, I fished for a word and decided to tell it how it was.

While we are this intimate, I believe we should still use I for most things. We may have gotten a little muddled together, but we are still distinct enough that I am me, and you are you. I must admit, I am intrigued at you having some of me. I also seem to have some of you. At least your memories. I know all sorts of fascinating things that I am sure are terribly interesting to you.

My thoughts ran back to my arm and what the circuitry fading away might have meant. Was it magic's way of telling me that I had NotABug inside me now? Or was it something a lot more literal?

You have credit cards. You could pay for me to have internet, particularly if you are the one using it. As for dealing with Windigo

Again, I stopped and thought about the problem, reviewing everything NotABug had done that had anything to do with it. One thing was blindingly obvious.

…you must be more careful. NotABug. You used that as your details everywhere, so of course Windigo knew where everything you touched was. For someone who is so intimate with getting into places they shouldn't be, you really made it easy for yourself to be tracked.

"Wait, what day is it?"

Of course the first thing I reached for was my phone. I actually let out a little squeak of annoyance at finding the broken clamshell case. Of course, my phone was—What? Inside me? I shook my head to clear the odd thought, and before I could process it, I knew it was 11:43 a.m. on a Saturday.

NotABug nudged at my thoughts, and I quickly gave ground to him. I was confused about how I knew exactly what time it was as easily as if I had seen the screen of my—my phone. A sinking feeling accompanied the sensation of being pushed to the back.

"It's there! I can feel it! Well, I can feel parts of it. Your phone is still there, it's just not out there," NotABug said, my own voice sounding more excited by the second. "I'm sure if I can just get it working right, I could get a hookup back to the—"

I shoved at NotABug hard enough that he let out a cry of shock, but he gave ground to me.

"Don't! I just got through telling you how dangerous it is to be associated with anything you have used before. You were connected to my phone when Windigo chased you into my head. Do you really want to have it come in here, as well?!" I said.

A few moments passed, and I realized that NotABug was terrified. Then a gentle prod asked for control back.

"No connections to the internet. None," I said.

I let him back in control.

"I'm sorry! I wasn't thinking straight. I just wanted to get out and see what Windigo destroyed. S-So, I'll use the voice connection to order some things. Do you mind if I work while you sleep? Would that even work? Oh! I'll even make sure to use a fake name!" he said, sounding so excited.

An odd sensation came over me. I could practically feel myself talking, but my mouth wasn't working. There was a conversation going on, and if I struggled to hear, I could even catch stray words. I nudged him then, pushing gently, and I felt him give way and slide to the background.

"Okay. I'm late at starting the day, but I guess I have some things to do, so let's get dressed properly, put this ice-cream away, and do some shopping," I said.

Just saying the word excited me. I closed the ice-cream, put it away, and walked back to my room to get changed. I could still catch hints of NotABug making phone calls in my head, but with fashion on my mind they slipped to the background easily.

A shower. Fifteen minutes taking care of my hair. Getting dressed in my favorite shopping clothes (a wonderful little dress and top that fit me perfectly, some modest heels, stockings, and even a shawl for my hair), I sauntered down the hallway, grabbed my bag, and headed outside.

My little car—the safe-haven where NotABug had saved my life—felt as good as ever, and I pressed the starter. Jerking in shock, I realized there was a lot of strange things circulating in my head. Numbers, pictures, feelings. NotABug's memories put names to the strange things. Fuel gauge. Accelerator percentage. Front camera. Rear camera.

I blinked away at the odd images that stayed in mind even while I turned my head and even closed my eyes.

"This is quite disconcerting," I said.

I sat there for five minutes slowly getting used to the information the car seemed intent on feeding me. There was a sense that I wasn't just driving the car, but that I was the car. I shifted into reverse and slid backwards from my driveway.

All my attention fell to the road. I ignored the strange conversation buzzing in the back of my head, but I didn't ignore the extra information the car was giving me. I didn't have to look down to the dash to know my speed, and I always knew what was just behind me.

—Hey Rares. Still comin 2nite?— Rainbow Dash sent.

I was stunned—thankfully at a traffic light.

"Okay. So I have a fully functioning phone inside me somehow connected so that I—so that both of us—can control it. Now I am conflicted as to contacting Twilight or Sunset for advice; one would love to study the technology side of this, the other will know all about the magic," I said.

I couldn't begin to wonder how I was going to reply. Accessing the controls of the device inside me seemed entirely NotABug's domain. The thought made me smile.

"Darling, would you mind replying to Rainbow Dash for me? Tell her, 'I'll be there with bells on.'"

It was genius. I turned into the shopping mall's car-park and started to find a spot.

—I'll be there with bells on.—

A satisfied smile painted itself to my lips, and I made a happy sound too.

—Hey, this should work! Can you read this?—

"N-NotABug?" I asked.

—Wonderful! Okay. I ordered a home internet connection, that should be turned on some time Monday. I also ordered something a little more substantial. I hope you don't mind!—

The raw enthusiasm was adorable, and I couldn't get over how clever it was. The texts were flagged as coming from me, and I could sense them send and arrive.

I contemplated all the changes NotABug's arrival was having on my life—as I climbed out of the car—and though there was a little bit of imposition on his part, I had to also consider how he had reminded me of what was important.

"We need some things. A new phone, a computer, and I need some things for home. Did you want anything?" I asked.

—Don't forget something for some new dresses.—

His comment stopped me in my tracks. I thought it over and put together what NotABug had said before about gaining parts of me. I felt around, mentally, but couldn't feel anything missing. Was this a gift? Was it something he wanted for himself? I had no clue, but it would still be nice to get some more colors to compliment black and blue.

Walking toward the mall, I couldn't help but think—even as I planned out my new dress design—that NotABug seemed to inspire and push me to do what I loved. It was extremely hard to begrudge him a little time in my head and the cost of a new mobile phone.

The Canterlot West Mall was not the only one in town, but it was the one I had the fondest memories of. The first time I had been allowed to come here on my own had been a tremendous experience and a positive effect on my life.

My first job had been here, working at Priss Fashion. I had felt like a queen in that shop, even if Miss Priss was a little hard on me at first. When she had found out that some of my friends had deep pockets and that those friends listened to me for fashion advice, she had started to soften up.

Priss Fashion was gone, however. I entered the mall and walked past the shoe store where Priss had been. A sad little sound came from my throat.

—What's wrong, Rarity?—

"I had my first job here. It was a little fashion shop back then. Goodness but that was a happy time. Miss Priss let me make dresses to sell in her store. She asked premium prices and shared the profits with me," I said.

I realized how it looked talking to myself and realized the best way to stop any accusations of madness was to fulfill part of my shopping list.

"Well, time to get that new phone."

—If you need a credit card number to pay for it, I can give you one.—

I raised an eyebrow at NotABug's comment. It was decent of him, which was what I had come to expect. It was a minor revelation that an AI had learned such manners, when Suri Polomare wouldn't spare the time of day for me.

Walking to the little, cramped store, I sashayed inside as if it were my store. One of the sales clerks spotted me, and I gave him a hard look back. I blinked, flashing my long lashes, and turned to look down the two walls of the establishment one after the other.

"No, these are nowhere near good enough," I said, affecting a haughty tone.

I turned and got two steps before the fish took my bait, or in this case, the salesman thought he had himself a minnow—he had caught a shark.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but can I help you with anything?" the young man, his name-badge proclaiming him Rush Sale, said.

I almost snorted at the frightfully appropriate name.

"I was after a phone with style, flair. But something that isn't going to slow me down," I said, gesturing with disdain at the offerings. "But everything you have here is so frightfully… boring."

—The one on the left, a Slamsoong twelve, would suit. But you aren't going to tell him that, are you?—

NotABug's message almost tasted of humor—he clearly knew what I was about. I smiled as the salesman began giving me a slew of technobabble. It was meant to confuse me into doing what he wanted, but instead I just walked away from him.

Beside the Slamsoong twelve was the "sport" model. It was cheaper by far, but it was smaller than its more powerful cousin.

"This one is almost acceptable. What other colors does it come in?" I asked, talking over the top of Rush.

He stumbled and stuttered for a moment, practically ran to the service desk at the back of the store, affording me a moment to talk to NotABug.

"Will this price be fine, do you want anything extra?" I asked, quickly.

—The price is okay. We want the biggest memory model they have, and all the extras. I don't know if we'll need them, but we might. Also, whatever plan you get for it, make sure it's unlimited everything. Oh, and an extra sim card.—

I tried to memorize everything, but with a jolt of surprise I realized I didn't need to. All I had to do was think about the message, and it was there. Phones really were amazing things.

"I just checked, and—" Rush began, but I didn't care.

"Forget that one now, it's completely out of fashion. What about that larger one next to it? And I was looking for a plan," I said.

My words seemed to be exactly what Rush Sale wanted to hear. His eyes lit up almost literally with dollar symbols. He began spouting numbers for gigabytes and talk minutes.

I waved my hand to shush him up, and he did. I had him. "No. No. I don't want to worry about all that. Unlimited everything. Excess is barely sufficient, darling. How much for unlimited memory?"

"Uh-unlim—"

"Well, the largest then. I don't want to be left with something that can't hold all my contacts."

Confusion reigned. I could see, through the windows that were his eyes, that his brain was contorting to assemble a sales pitch. Part of him finally caught up with the fact that he had made the sale anyway, and he should just go along with it. By then, however, I was already turning.

"Nevermind. I'll go somewhere more upmarket," I said and got two steps.

"There's a sale on!"

Looking away from Rush, I smiled widely.

—There isn't a sale on.—

Composing my face back to haughty indifference, I turned back to Rush and gave my best, most suffering sigh. If there were a couch nearby, I would have frumped onto it.

"I suppose I should hear this," I said.

The price he quoted, per month, was higher than I had hoped but not as high as I thought it might be. It was triple what I had paid for my little phone, but I guess replacing that one was probably moot now. I reached my hand down to the display model—and almost touched it.

"Very good," I said.

—What about the other things?—

I hadn't forgotten, but I waited until Rush was writing things up before I walked casually to the back of the store to see what he was doing.

"If you could just sign here and fill in your name here," Rush Sale said.

I printed "Countess Bug" in the name area and slowly lowered the pen down to where the signature section was. Pressing the tip of the pen to the paper, I looked up at Rush. Commission was everything in these places.

"Extras. I did mention extras, didn't I?" I asked. "Oh. I'm sure you can throw in all those. And a nice case for it. And an extra sim card."

Rush was nodding along until I got to the last item, then his eyes widened and he shook his head.

I began to move my pen and raised one eyebrow. The shaking turned into a nod. I finished signing as "C B".

"I assume you will want a credit card for this?" I asked, already looking at the spot on the contract where such would be filled in.

NotABug sent me a credit card number. Without missing a beat—and completely ignoring the clerk—I began copying the digits in. Sixteen numbers. Four digits for expiration date. I ignored the last three, since the form didn't need those.

As I started turning the form back to Rush, I noticed the section where it stated he needed to see identification before making the sale. I had him flustered enough that he seemed to have forgotten that step, but I made a mental note to see about some fake ID. I almost tittered at the idea of trying to find one—it wasn't like I was a teenager trying to find alcohol.

Rush Sale turned around, and I heard what was almost a satisfied sigh from him. He ducked out of sight into a back room and came back out with a very chic black box. The picture on the cover was just like the display model and almost seemed like it was too big.

He didn't need my urging to bag the phone up. Explaining about sim cards, he dropped two of them into the bag too after scanning them.

"The accessories, too?" I asked.

Car and home charger kits, hands-free for the car (which I almost outright laughed at), and another of those horrible Bluetooth devices. He was fetching the case from what I was sure would be terrible ones, while I popped the earpiece out and fit it in my ear.

It felt horrible, and I knew it was undignified, but it meant I could "talk to myself" and no one would think the wiser. When Rush returned, I held the bag open for him to drop the case in.

"It has been an experience," I said and turned.

I swept from the little phone store like a hurricane. Looking around outside, I pondered what to do next. Then I figured I should ask.

"What do you think, darling? Do some clothes shopping or try the same game for a computer?" I asked, affecting the far-away look everyone had when talking to no one.

—I'm hungry. Uh, not sure why I know it, but would more ice-cream help?—

I laughed and shook my head.

"Ice-cream is a sometimes food. I skipped breakfast is all, and now it's lunchtime," I said.

Gazing around, I spotted a healthier alternative to the typical junk food sold in the mall.

After eating a salad, and explaining to NotABug some of the reasons that chocolate ice-cream couldn't be eaten all the time, I felt I was prepared to pick up another electronic device. Truth be told, I could use it to put together my business plan, too.

"What sort of computer do I need?" I asked.

Standing up from the table in the food court, I looked around for what I was sure would be nearby. Sure enough, a gizmo store lay a few shopfronts down and had a range of computers in the window. I affected a more bouncy step than I had had when being the Countess Bug.

—Faster the better. Look for the highest price tag and that will be fine.—

NotABug's words stopped me in my tracks. I opened my mouth to ask how much money he had, when his memories hit me. Then I suddenly recalled exactly how much money he had in that card account, and it almost floored me.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"Right. Well, I'm still not going to pay what it says on the label—there is propriety to be upheld here. I'm younger this time. Maybe even my last year of high school. Mom sent me to get a computer to keep me occupied through college," I said.

Snapping my eyes open and nodding—I had given myself the role I was sure would work best.

Shopping had always been about the challenge for me. My time in drama class paid off well, and I slipped into the role of a younger woman, eyes bright with her future ahead of her. It wasn't hard—honestly, with NotABug's enlightenment of my career I already felt like that.

—That one over there.—

I reached a hand up to tap my earpiece.

"I'm sorry, Flash, you're going to need to be more specific. I can see one that might be it…" I said, trailing off.

Walking to the line of folded-open laptop computers, I started moving past each, brushing my fingers over them.

—That one now.—

"Flash, are you absolutely sure of that? Oh, this is so exciting!" I said.

Bouncing on my toes a little, I started tapping on the keyboard, getting a feel for it. The keys were soft, responsive, and gave the quietest little whisper of a click when I touched them. Unlike Countess Bug, "Cantanessa" would be very conscious about price and getting the best deal she could. She would look at lower priced units, comparing numbers that she might have some clue about.

A young man started walking toward me, and for just a moment, I thought I recognized them.

"Rarity!" Snails said, drawling my name a little. "I haven't seen you since—"

Cantanessa's personality fell to pieces like so much of Pinkie Pie's confetti. I turned to Snails and reached up to my earpiece to indicate I was on a call. The ruse worked, and Snails held his greeting.

"Yes ma'am. Of course, I'll get one as an example," I said, then paused as if listening. "And if it works out and is a good price. Yes. Then the company will want a lot of them."

I tapped the earpiece as if turning it off and turned to face Snails. Finishing his sentence off in my head, I thought back and remembered when we had last met, with him dropping out of a bachelor degree in fine arts.

"It's been too long, Snails. You're working here, now?" I asked.

His face lit up. "Yeah. What are you doing in here? I thought you would be working in the city."

Snails was never the brightest spark, but it didn't mean I wanted to put him in a bad position with his boss—I knew how bad it was working in a dead-end job, so I didn't want to make anyone else suffer more than they had to.

Reaching out casually, I tapped the laptop.

"One of these, please," I asked.

Snails blinked in mild shock. He looked at the price tag, then back to me.

"Are—are you sure?" he asked, and looked around conspiratorially. He leaned a little closer and whispered, "You know the prices are fairly negotiable, right?"

He had a point. Cursing myself for being too nice, I leaned a little closer still.

"How much do you have to make to earn a commission on it?" I whispered.

With his mental machinery switching gears for math, I watched Snails struggle to work out the solution. Finally, however, he plucked up a business card and wrote a number on it. It wasn't as high as the label, but it was still far more than I would ever spend on such a thing.

—You like him?—

NotABug's question took me aback. I blinked, lost in two conversations. I racked my brains (what part was obviously under my full control) to think of a way I could partake of both at once but gave up.

"Please. Fetch me one," I said. "You take credit card?"

"Of course! We have a fancy new swiper and everything!"

As Snails turned to collect my new purchase, I had to worry about how to pay for it. I needed to be able to swipe a card, but NotABug didn't have one, and what was worse was needing one in a name that suited a young woman and not NotABug.

Turning away from the target of my ire, my eyes caught a person in the food-court trying to pay for their lunch with a similar card machine. Annoyance started to fill me, that the world would taunt me by showing the exact thing I couldn't do, when a magical event happened.

Not magical like turning into pony-girls and defeating monsters. This was the type of event that muses were made of. I watched as the customer tried—several times—to swipe their card, and when it apparently didn't register, they typed the numbers in by hand.

"How would I make a card not read properly?" I asked, no one but NotABug able to hear me.

—I don't know! If I could get online I might, but you said not to.—

Reaching into my handbag, I pulled out my stylish purse and opened it. There was my poor, heavily laden credit card, showing signs of wear and tear—malls were not happy places for such cards. Beside it, however, was my old card. As if anyone would dispose of their cards while room for them remains.

"The strip. Of course."

Employing one of my completely natural nails, I pressed the point of my excellently manicured fingernail against the side of the strip and pushed. Expecting the worst—a cracked nail—I was pleased to see the strip lift up and part ways with the plastic of the card.

Just then, Snails cleared his throat behind me. I spun to face him, my fingers turning the card just so, and passed it to him.

If I bit my fingernails, I would be sorry—and it would give the game away. I watched Snails swipe my card once, then again. Relief flooded me when he swiped it a third time and nothing worked.

Snails turned to me, a terrified look on his face, and walked over.

"M-M-Miss Rarity? Your card didn't work. I think there might be something wrong with it," Snails said.

"Oh dear! I'm so sorry!" I said. "I completely forgot. I ordered a new card to replace that one. They have sent it and I have the numbers off it, so I could always pop them in manually."

Relief colored Snails' face so perfectly that I almost felt sorry for him. I quickly reminded myself that he was getting paid for this and walked over to the machine. I awaited Snails to get it ready for me, and he told me when to enter the numbers.

—You're really good at this stuff!—

I pulled out a slip of paper from my handbag and discreetly—since there weren't actual credit card details written on the paper—punched in the numbers NotABug sent me. It was different from the last one, and I would have to congratulate him later on the effort to cover our tracks.

"I-I have to ask, sorry. Would you like an extended warranty with that?" Snails asked and looked positively loath to do so.

"No thank you, darling," I said. "Did it go through?"

Snails checked the card reader and nodded happily. I gave him my biggest smile.

We said our goodbyes, and I left the store with an odious-looking cardboard box that had a plastic handle at the top. Despite the lack of chic, or perhaps because of it, I made my way into the more fashionable part of the mall.

I visited a textile distributor who had a small outlet in the mall and found some of the most beautiful light blue silk I had ever seen. Combined with some ivory lace and NotABug's willingness to pay, I almost forgot about the ugly box I was carrying.

Dresses were one thing—I could make those to suit any occasion, but what goes under them seemed an arcane science to me at times. I knew what I wanted out of my underwear, but not how to construct it. So, without the correct weapon to engage the problem, I made my way to an unmentionables store to procure what I needed.

An odd thought struck me just as I was walking into the establishment: was it technically okay to let NotABug look in on this? I had to discard the thought as silly. He had seen me naked, slept with me, and even touched me, but the biggest reason had to be that he was part of me.

I had no idea how long our present situation would last, nor how things would be handled, exactly, but NotABug was closer than my best friends—than even the few gentlemen who had been with me—had ever been. As I walked into the store, I lifted a hand up to the earpiece.

"Darling, I am in the unmentionables store, and I was wondering if you wanted anything in particular?" I asked, even as a young woman walked over to me.

—Me? Uh. Something comfortable, but cute. I think I like cute.—

"Of course. Just stay on the line and whisper your desires to me. A saleslady is coming over," I said, turning and facing the young woman.

The setup was an easy one. As I introduced myself to the young woman, her eyes glanced up to the earpiece more than once. A replacement strapless bra was secured, and I was considering options for something "comfortable" for NotABug, when I decided that it would need to be a little more cute than most would go with.

Summoning all my internal fortitude, I affected a blush and lifted my hand to my mouth in mock shock. Frozen in place, I put on the show of my life without moving more than my arm.

"S-S-Sweetie, I—I'll get something," I said, breathy and hesitating.

I quickly pulled the headset from my ear and shoved it into my handbag, making it seem like I couldn't trust myself to listen to the phantom partner. I saw what I wanted: a vivid-blue teddy, done in the most exquisite laced pattern from neck to crotch. Falling in love with the garment the moment I saw it, I felt a desire to wear it for NotABug, despite his apparent lack of interest.

—That looks comfortable, cute, and exquisite.—

He had never used words quite like those before. I contemplated it in light of his earlier statement about the magic using parts of me to fill in the gaps Windigo made. I lifted my hand and walked toward the piece. It was even more beautiful up close.

"This exquisite piece would make anyone turn their head," the saleswoman said.

I noticed her moving up beside me and caught sight of her eyes flicking to my handbag, where the headset had been discarded.

Giving the woman my size earned me assurance that they had it in stock for me. I smiled warmly and nodded, just the hint of an exclamation of assent leaving my lips. When she walked away to fetch the piece from stock, I had my chance.

"Are you going to pay for this or—" I said.

—Of course. Will the same "broken card" trick work again?—

"Not unless the amount is enough to make her not care."

I turned to look back at the regular shelves and made my way back to the strapless bras. Another of those and two regular, supportive types, and I had quite the value in things. In my head, NotABug kept a tally of the price for me.

"That should do," I said, just as the woman returned. "I thought I should get some other things too."

I waved casually at the counter and saw dollar symbols almost literally appear in the woman's eyes. Either she worked on commission or she was involved in owning or managing it.

Walking casually up to the counter while the saleswoman rang up everything, I reached casually for my purse and then let out an exclamation a hurt, sad puppy would have been proud of.

"Oh dear, I forgot I was getting my new card. You don't mind if I punch it in manually, do you?" I asked.

The woman's eyes flickered between the value on the register and the card machine. It was decision time. If the card number were stolen, she would be left high and dry with the sale. On the other hand, I looked legitimate and was buying it for my own size. She quickly nodded.

"Of course. You have it written down?" she asked.

I didn't need to fake relief—I felt it course through me as she made up her mind. Pulling out the same piece of paper I had used with Snails, I held it so that the woman couldn't see—a safety precaution, of course.

"Thank you so much, darling," I said.

Punching the digits in had to be slow, and I kept my eyes on the blank paper despite just knowing the numbers. Another, different set, but again the machine bleeped when I finished punching them in. I breathed a sigh.

I collected all my purchases and made my way to the little supermarket in the mall. Putting my things into the front of the trolley, I picked up the things my cupboards and refrigerator lacked, but when it came time to collect ice-cream, I paused.

Reaching into my bag again, I pulled out the headset and put it on.

"Darling? Oh, there you are. It was chocolate ice-cream you liked, right?" I asked.

I could almost hear his excited chirp in my head. I reached for the chocolate ice-cream before I even got his reply.

—It's really good!—

It was impossible to argue with his logic. I grabbed a second tub and went about the rest of my shopping. Through the checkout I used my own card simply to make matters easier and avoid any further complications.

Loading up my little car was a chore. There was more stuff than normal, but one of the reasons I had gotten the little thing was the amount of extra space. I woke the car up and felt the now-familiar rush of its extra perceptions.

"This really is something quite amazing to get used to. You're probably an expert at it," I said.

—You called yourself Countess Bug to get the phone. Was that because of me?—

His question stopped me dead in my tracks. I backed up my mental processes, turned the car back off, and settled back in the comfortable seat. It hadn't been just a silly name, but something I had consciously reached for.

"The first part was from Countess Coloratura. That I won't deny. Bug came from, I think, how you looked when you came out of my phone. Those wings, the chitinous body, and your eyes," I said. "I like how you look—looked—and I hope we can get all this sorted, so I can give you a big hug again. You deserve it."

For the first time since leaving home, I felt NotABug nudge at my mind. I relaxed, calmed myself, and let him brush past me. Despite still looking through my own eyes, hearing with my own ears, and feeling the steering wheel with my hands, I controlled none of them.

"I'm sorry. I really don't like that. I guess it came from what they said in the lab. They made me, but then they called me a bug—a mistake," NotABug said, with my voice. "Please don't call me that again."

Reaching for the mobile interface I had been feeling NotABug use, I suddenly realized I had no idea how to handle it still. I prodded lightly, trying to resurface. The moment I felt him surrender control, I gasped some air.

"No. I should be the one apologizing. I should have picked up on that. I'm sorry. I meant what I said before, about you not being a mistake, and I hope you understand that I didn't mean it like that," I said.

While I waited for his reply, I tried to remember his memories, of hearing the man say NotABug was just a bug. It was dismissive, and I could see why it hurt him so much.

—Thanks. Wow, I didn't realize how much that hurt until you said sorry.—

I had to smile a little at his surprise. I activated the car and started backing up, only to pause and let the person crossing behind me move out of the way.

"Be honest with me. Was there anything else I said that hurt?" I asked. "Even just a little, tiny bit?"

Shifting into forward, I put my foot down slowly and the car rolled smoothly away. For just a moment I felt like I should be driving home, where Mom and Dad still lived, but I had to get ready for the party, and that meant finding something to wear.

—I was going to say that was the only thing, and it is, but I realized I said "bugged me." I feel a bit silly now. Why does it feel silly to use words like that?—

"It's humor. Word association and feeling better about the whole thing. Jokes are complicated, and you want to be careful not to give the wrong impression with them," I said, paying close attention to the road.

Turning the last corner into my street, I drove along and had to marvel at how much easier driving was with the extra information from the car. The most astounding thing was being able to turn my head to look to the sides and still see things both ahead and behind me.

—I thought I had already worked out humor. I need that new phone set up so that I can search for these things.—

"We won't be long, darling. I just have to put the ice-cream away first, then put the juice in the fridge, and then we can play with it," I said.

I pulled the car into my driveway and turned it off. The extra perception the car afforded me winked away, almost startling me with how easy I had gotten used to it. Just two drives with my little car keeping me up to date and now driving anything else would be a chore.

Grabbing the important things first, I took the ugly brown computer box inside along with the phone and ice-cream. My existing phone—that was now somewhere inside me—had needed to be charged when I’d first gotten it. I put the ice-cream away, pulled out the new phone, and plugged it in to charge.

"Now I'll get the other things, and that will be ready to use when I’m done. I still have to work out what to wear tonight."

—You could wear the black-and-blue dress from our date.—

I coughed and almost gasped.

"NotABug, I simply couldn't! That wouldn't be fair on my friends. And besides, that dress was…" I said, trailing off.

There had to be a whole slew of reasons why I shouldn't, but for the life of me, the only one I could really think of was that I wouldn’t be there to show off to anyone. But NotABug would be there. Besides, I’d made it to be seen in, hadn't I?

I brought in the bolts of silk I had purchased as well as the rest of the shopping. The fabric went in my sewing room and my new underwear in my bedroom. I froze and looked between the underwear and the door.

"If I turn that phone on, will you need to be in control of me to do your thing with it?" I asked.

—I need to set up something quickly, but once that is done I can do it all remotely. Why?—

My eyes danced, and my gaze settled on the bags.

"Well, I need to make sure they all fit. And I want you to teach me how to do that."

—Do what?—

"That! Sending messages, interacting with that phone," I said and fluttered a hand at my chest vaguely. "If I absolutely must have one inside me, I should learn how to use it properly."

Leaving the underthings, I walked through my house to the kitchen—where the phone sat. I unplugged the phone from the charger and felt NotABug start to prod at me for some front-time. Without a struggle I started to slide back but paused after a moment.

"Oh drat it, now I am getting tired. Set an alarm to wake me in two hours, darling," I said.

I released control, but rather than sink just below the surface of my mind, I fell deep.

Author's Note

Rarity: Did't you think you should consult your (magical) friends about obviously strange entity that appear out of your phone?

"It's funny, but I had so much trouble even remembering those moments." Rarity reached one hand up and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "It wasn't NotABug's doing, I can see that in his own memories. Oh well, I'm sure Twilight will have some idea about it."

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And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (I am sorry for all those commas. I am looking into stopping that!)

Chapter 4

"Rarity? Rarity! It's time to wake up!"

Hearing my own voice calling to me was quite a way to wake up. I tried to open my eyes, but they were already open. For a few panicked moments, I struggled with a body that wasn't listening to me. Then I remembered what had happened.

NotABug was real. They were (somehow) inside me. He was probably in control still. I gently nudged at his presence—not to shift him, but to let him know I was awake.

"I'm using the new phone as a relay. It's really fast and great!" NotABug said.

I couldn't get over hearing him speak with my voice. I sounded vastly different with him speaking, as if it were a whole other person. My mental faculties clearly weren't at their best, but the rest had done me a lot more good than harm.

"Do you want to take over?" he asked.

To be honest, it was relaxing to just let him handle things. I held still, avoiding a push or nudge that might indicate I needed to be in control.

"Do you want to learn how to use the phone?"

I prodded and poked at him. It was exactly what I needed to learn, and I could have hugged him for remembering.

—You can see this?—

Again I gave a gentle prod.

Then I sensed something else, and I realized what NotABug was guiding me toward. Slowly, more words appeared somewhere else, and I could feel where NotABug was poking before they appeared again.

—And you can feel this? Can you sense it?— he sent.

I pushed at that slow spot, then the second part.

—8BTa}X{3DxhdpPx[IgHqd5Pa[kh5<vp>Qz0—

NotABug didn't send that—I had. Excitement built and I started being more careful. As I prodded values in, I strained to see them, and slowly it started working. Always in the background, I could feel a thrumming of information, but it moved too quickly for me to make any sense of it.

I checked the time and found it getting quite close to when I would have to get ready for the party. I decided it was time to put my new skills to the test.

—I need to get ready for the party, darling, would you mind slipping back?— I sent.

"You did it!"

No sooner did NotABug exclaim the words, than I felt him do as I asked, leaving me to push forward and take control. A rush of twitching ran through my body, but the changeover was fairly smooth, and I was able—once more—to do even the most simple of physical things.

—It takes a little getting used to, but I'm a modern fashionista so anything is possible.— I sent.

—You amaze me, Rarity. Now we don't have to use the silly Bluetooth headset.—

I stood up and stretched out, lifting my arms up into a full-body extension that made all my muscles and bones jump for joy. Looking around, I realized I was standing in the living room, and the new phone was sitting on the desk.

—I don't suppose that can make calls at all?— I sent.

If I were a scientist, I would probably be amazed and startled at how readily I had become used to sending information directly like that, but it just seemed faster—after minimal practice—than actually talking.

I picked up the new device and looked at the screen. Only after moving my thumb in the complicated unlock gesture did I wonder how I knew it. Of course, NotABug had set it.

—And could you copy across all my contacts?— I sent.

Barely a heartbeat passed—with more buzzing in the back of my head—and I found the contact list fully populated.

—I've gotten a new phone for business purposes. Please add this number to your address books in addition to my old phone. Thank you, darlings. Rarity.— I sent, aiming the text at everyone in my address book.

—Hey Rares prty about 2 start!— Rainbow Dash sent back.

I was delighted that the new phone had a better message interface, showing Rainbow Dash's message at the top quite clearly without me having to go searching. However, there was a much better way of doing this.

Walking through to my bedroom, I planned out not just what I was going to do for the party, but also what I wanted NotABug to do with the phone.

—NotABug, could you make the new phone automatically send its messages to the one inside us?— I asked NotABug.

—Of course. That's really easy. I'm trying to figure out how to get the internal phone to use the new sim card. It would make things much easier to be able to just use that directly.—

—Thank you, dear. Whatever you think's best.—

I was comfortable with the idea NotABug had some idea of managing security now—compared to that first moment of him trying to get online with the "internal" phone (as he seemed to call it).

Leaving the new phone in the middle of my bed, I walked through to the shower—shedding clothing as I went—and slipped under the hot jets. A good shower could wash away not just the leavings of a busy day, but also any bad karma, or so I believed.

My hair took the most work, and I cared for it with all the love of a mother for her baby. My body was next, and as I worked, it still surprised me that magic had put not one, but two surprising things into me.

"I wonder how it even gets power? The battery should be running low, but it reads as full and charging," I said.

It was a mystery that was beyond me at that moment. I turned off the shower and climbed out. Without thinking, I used my magic to lift up a warm towel and bring it to me.

—What was that?!—

"Magic, darling," I said, too busy drying myself off to focus on a text. "You might be able to—"

I cut off short as a glow of green lit up the room. Staring in surprise, I watched NotABug (at least I hoped it was his magic) lift another towel and float it across to me. I neatly took it with a hand and used it to wrap my hair.

"Thank you."

—Why is it green? I thought my magic was blue?—

"My magic is blue. You were using my own magic back on me before with the blue-eyed thing. But this is all yours now," I said, continuing my routine. "How does it feel?"

—It's amazing! Wait!!!—

I waited. Another towel lifted, moved, then went back to where it started—all while wrapped in a green glow.

—I'm doing this while you're still in control!—

The revelation of what he had done was indeed worth the three exclamation points. But, I had a party to prepare for.

"How did things go while I slept? Did you sleep too?" I asked.

—No. I was working on reconnecting with some of my assets. The mean old stock exchange systems didn't let Windigo in the door. You can't just barge in with them, you have to play by their rules.—

It was particularly reassuring to hear that not only wasn't this Windigo completely overpowering, but neither was NotABug. NotABug being more clever than Windigo was even more reassuring. I reached out for my latest purchases and was pulling out one of the strapless bras before I even thought about it—I had already made up my mind as to what dress I was wearing tonight.

The fit was perfect, unlike my old strapless, but I realized that without the tighter band, I wasn't getting the same lift I had on our date. The idea of "putting up with" my old bra for the sake of fashion was not one I was prepared to entertain. I fetched the matching thong, and was ready for the dress.

Opening my walk-in 'robe, I easily found that amazing dress. It took magic again, of course, but I managed to slip into the wonderful thing without damaging it.

—Is it still on?—

"Of course it is, darling, although not as much as propriety would like. This is fashion in the extreme—flaunting, outrageous, and daring. Because no one would dare to wear this, I must."

I kept my eyes averted as I walked toward the full-length mirror; keeping NotABug and myself from seeing. As I got just before the huge length of glass, I turned, posed, and looked at my reflection.

—Wow!—

"Yes. Very wow," I said.

The woman in the mirror looked fantastic and entirely unwilling to be ignored or looked over. This dress didn't speak. It whispered so that everyone would go silent and listen.

"Time for makeup."

The dark colors of my dress, combined with the deep-purple-and-indigo hair, meant that further dark colors on my ivory skin would fit divinely, and I really wanted to try my hand with some black eyeliner.

—Maybe some green, or even yellow eye-shadow.—

"Green, I think. Something slightly metallic to draw attention. It's not like everybody won't stare at me in this dress anyway, I might as well do something to draw their eyes upwards."

I started on my eyes first—they should be the star of the face after all. Eyeliner seemed simple, but getting just the right balance of color and negative space was crucial. I turned to my metallic shadows and selected three to layer. Applying them just right provided a perfect blue-green effect that shimmered like a raven's feathers.

Blinking a few times, I examined the interplay of color I had created.

"What do you think?"

—That your eyes are as amazing as ever. You don't want to detract from them, so lighter colors elsewhere or no color at all.—

"My thoughts exactly."

It struck me again that the parts of me that NotABug now had for himself hadn't subtracted from me. At least I knew I could trust him to do exquisite makeup work. I selected a paint-on gloss rather than lipstick and carefully used it to give a shine to my lips without highlighting them. A whisper of blush and I considered myself done.

I admired the woman in the mirror. This certainly wasn't my usual look, but I couldn't deny it was something fantastic. I smiled at the mirror and started to stand up. I had just checked the time when my new phone buzzed for my attention.

—R u ditchin us???— Rainbow Dash had sent.

"Of course I haven't. You know I will not be rushed when it comes to getting ready."

Rainbow Dash couldn't hear me, but I needed to vent somehow. Instead of replying with a text (easy as that had become) I held up my phone and tapped the camera icon. The interface was easy enough to use, and in a moment I was raising one eyebrow in question toward the phone and started snapping shots.

—U even there?— she asked.

In reply, I sent her the best of the pictures. Of course, I didn't show from the neck down—that would be a surprise.

I grabbed my bag, slipped into the right shoes for the outfit, and made my way out to the car. Rainbow Dash's reply found me just before I got in. Rather than check the mobile in my hand, I read her answer on my internal phone.

—Holy moly! C u soon!— she sent.

Her reply was suitably encouraging. I climbed into the car and without reaching for it, used my connection with the mobile phone to feel around for a way to start it.

—This one, here.— NotABug sent.

I felt his presence in the car and could sense what he was doing. He demonstrated for me by turning the car on, then back off in the same manner. I was barely paying attention, however, and was instead focused on NotABug's presence.

Old movies I had watched (at Twilight's insistence that they were "cult classics", of course) had painted a picture of cyberspace as being a blocky virtual-reality. I remember one even having the person wearing the most horrible gloves ever conceived be able to see their hands in cyberspace as they typed away on an invisible keyboard.

Actually reaching into a computer system was nothing like those movies. If I tried to investigate something, I invariably had to touch it and manipulate it, which usually didn’t accomplish what I wanted to do. By the time NotABug showed me the right place to activate to start the car, I had the wipers going, the radio on, and both blinkers flashing away.

But what made this strange place truly interesting right now was NotABug. I got a sense of green light from him, but the only way I could see him was by seeing what he had affected. NotABug's touch was gentle, but my little car's insides fairly glowed with the green light. Everywhere I could see bore a slight, fading remnant of his attention. I looked back at what I had touched. Blue. I laughed out loud—of course it was blue.

Turning off all the accessories (now that I knew where they were) took a fraction of a moment, and the car started a fraction later. The strangest thing about it was that while I was in the car—navigating the controls NotABug was showing me—I was also perfectly aware of what I was looking at with my eyes.

"Thank you, darling," I said.

I didn't realize I had reversed simply by setting the throttle and the direction selector until I was on the street, and I physically reached for the actual shifter. Sliding the car into forward, I pulled away from the curb.

The way to Fluttershy and Maud's home involved more than my usual amount of driving. Not only did they live across the city from me but also a short distance out of town. As far as drives went, it wasn't terrible. The afternoon was turning to evening, but the cameras on the front and back of my car pierced what little darkness was encroaching on the day amazingly well.

With the Everfree Forest National Park on the right, I found Fluttershy and Maud's driveway on the left and pulled in. Their home was a good way back from the highway, and it seemed like the forest was closing in around me when suddenly I saw a mass of cars parked to the side of the driveway and the comfortable little house in a clearing.

—It's quiet out here. I can barely get a signal.— NotABug sent.

—Quiet? How?—

Rather than tell me, NotABug beckoned me. It was the first time I had bounced beyond devices connected directly to my phone (like my car), but when he drew my attention through the new mobile phone and outwards I gave a deep sigh.

Nothing made sense; everything was simply numbers. I drowned in ones and zeros. Struggling and fighting against the sea, I could feel NotABug's green glow circling around me. It was comforting, but even his messages were a mass of numbers until a distinct memory of his welled up.

The first time NotABug had reached beyond his nursery, everything had been like this. There had been numbers everywhere, and they all had expected him to understand what they meant. I narrowed my attention to what NotABug was sending me.

The messages would need to be text, but they were recorded as numbers. For a brief moment I lamented not following Twilight's path into mathematics-laden sciences. NotABug would be asking me if I were okay, or how I was handling things. Working from his memories, I started to build a mapping of words and numbers, and slowly his words made sense.

—Are you okay, Rarity?— his message read.

My hands clenched around the steering wheel, and a smile pulled at my lips.

"I have no idea how to send messages like that," I said out loud.

NotABug proved a quick teacher and in moments had me sending messages as readily as I now received them.

—Wait!— I sent to NotABug. —I need to go into the party. Can we explore later?—

—This is much easier to talk with than text messages. Why don't we just use this all the time?— he asked.

And I proved exactly why: it took me more effort to push out of my head, out of the phone, and send a message than it did to just text.

—Because it's much easier for me to do this. Feel free to use it yourself, darling.—

The heels of my shoes sank into the leaf litter on the side of the road, so I stepped up onto the harder surface of the front path and made my way to the house. The closer I got the clearer the music playing within became. I stepped up on the front porch, lifted one hand to knock, and had the door yanked open in front of me.

"Rarity, you—" Rainbow Dash said, her jaw swinging open. "Wow. What aren't you wearing?"

Rainbow Dash's taste in partners was well-documented among our group (we were actually surprised when she and Fluttershy didn't hook up) and I watched her eyes trace every carefully hidden area on the dress. Her eyes were bugging out of her head by the time she made it up to my eyes again.

"This little thing? I made it myself. Do you like it?" I asked.

I lifted one eyebrow when Rainbow Dash leaned toward me. Her head passed mine, and her mouth was right beside my ear.

"I don't suppose you changed your mind about comin' over to the bi team? We have more fun and there's sometimes more boobs," she whispered.

Releasing the most exasperated sigh I had managed in months, I lifted one hand up and gently pushed Rainbow away then shook my head at her.

"Sorry, darling, but that seat's taken."

"Hey! Weren't you going to bring Mr. Crazy?"

"'Mr. Crazy'?" I asked.

"Yeah. Or Mr. Perfect. I can't work out if a guy would have to be nuts to date a career woman, or be a god. So where is he?"

"But a girl could do it?"

I quirked a smile at Rainbow Dash when she realized she had been outwitted. Stepping forward I held my arms out.

"Come on, you raging bisexual, I know you want a hug," I said.

Rainbow Dash didn't hesitate. She had filled out a little during college, but her body was built lean, and she would always have to fight to build a feminine figure out of her sport-orientated body. The simple comfort of hugging a good friend was its own reward, and we held still for a few moments. But when Rainbow Dash seemed reluctant to say anything further, I knew something was up with her.

"Are you going to tell me what it is, Rainbow?" I asked.

Her sigh was enough to tell me I had read her correctly.

"Soccer league still won't let me play, and the juniors' parents found out I got magic. Now some of them are threatening to pull their kids out," Rainbow Dash said. "It feels like I'm trapped, Rarity. It's not that I wish I hadn't gotten tangled up in all this magic, because I don't, but it's making life harder for me, rather than easier.

Something pulled at my thoughts, and for once it wasn't NotABug. An idea half formed, but when I tried to pull it into the light, it slipped through my mental fingers. Rainbow Dash's problem was a complicated one—she was inherently faster than anyone she would ever compete against—and it hurt her in the one way that hurt her the most.

"A kiss would make it easier to deal with," Rainbow Dash said.

I rolled my eyes and kissed her cheek, leaving some lip-gloss behind. Her look of surprise (at first) and eventual humor (when she realized that I wasn't going to kiss her on the lips) were the old Rainbow Dash through and through. I lifted one finger up and booped her nose—earning an actual laugh from her.

"That's the Rainbow Dash I know. Things are changing in my life, too," I said, confessing my less-than-stable employment prospect at Polomare Fashion. "Things are complicated, but I am working at doing what I want."

"Is this all your new squeeze's idea?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"What?" I asked, then paused. "Well, now that you mention it, some. He was open with me in a way that was entirely new. He didn't guide me, but he helped open my eyes to what was happening. Did you know this was the first new dress I have designed in months?"

Rainbow Dash gasped in mocking shock.

"It's true! So I'm working out how to fix things. If you ever need to talk, Rainbow dear, give me a call and I can set some time aside. The worst work will do now is fire me, and I'm ready for that."

"You're really serious about this, huh?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Well, I guess I can't let you show me up. I'll call on Monday—w Wait, what about if we go somewhere for dinner? We can talk about my problem then."

"Okay, but it's not a date, dear," I said.

Judging by Rainbow Dash’s surprised expression, she hadn't realized the implication of her words. Now that she did, however, she smirked and licked her lips.

"But it could be," she said.

"No."

I brushed past Rainbow Dash and made my way into the house, acutely aware that she would be checking out my rear. It was a simple case of following the sound of the music to find where most of my friends would be, and that turned out to be the living room.

Fluttershy and Twilight were talking together in a corner, while Pinkie Pie, Maud, and Sunset did the same on a couch. My entrance inflicted silence upon my friends (if not the music) for ten whole seconds.

Applejack was the first to break the tableau when she walked in from another doorway carrying some bottles. She froze and stared at me, and if I hadn't been quick with my magic, the bottles of cider she was carrying would have hit the floor.

"Rarity! What happened?!" Applejack said as she rushed over to me. "Who ripped up yer dress?"

Rainbow Dash's snort of laughter behind me was almost worth the situation. I lifted one hand to my forehead and let out a slow sigh.

—These are your friends?— NotABug sent.

—Yes. Some are a little set in their notions so far as fashion goes, however. If you're ever in a bind, nothing would stop them from helping.—

Sunset stood up from the couch and plucked one of the floating bottles before cracking it open. She walked up behind Applejack and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Applejack, calm down. That is Rarity's dress. At least I think so. Is this the latest fashion from Polomare?" Sunset asked as she stepped to Applejack's side.

"You have got to be joking, darling. Polomare would never sell something like this. I made this a few days ago," I said. "Didn't think I would be wearing it here tonight, but I wanted to show it off."

"You can say that again," Applejack said, her tone sarcastic.

"I can assure you," I said, "I am no more revealed in this than if I were wearing a swimsuit. Flesh-tone underwear can work wonders."

Applejack, showing none of what little tact she sometimes displayed, leaned close and practically stuck her nose in my cleavage.

"Why didn't I think of this angle?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Because you didn't want to make Rarity too uncomfortable," Sunset said, ever the voice of sarcastic reason.

Reacting as if stung, Applejack pulled back and had the decency to look embarrassed. I lifted one hand up and set it on Applejack's shoulder.

"It's alright. Really. I made this to get attention, so I can't very well complain when I get so much of yours," I said.

Applejack was well aware she was sometimes critically blunt, and I knew it embarrassed her when it was pointed out. Spending a moment to reassure her that there was no offense cost me nothing and brought a smile back to my friend.

"Thanks, Rares," she said. "Oh, hey. Did you want a bottle of the new cider we're makin'?"

"Is that what you dropped before?"

Her head nearly flying loose, Applejack spun around with shock on her face only to see the bottles sitting neatly on a floating blue-diamond platter. I floated the drinks close enough to take one myself. Lifting one of the bottles up, I unscrewed the twist top and took a sip.

Sweet and tart, the spicy apple drink tickled my tastebuds and went down my throat, only leaving it dry and ready for another. I had to fight my desires to have more.

—That's really tasty!—

—It really is. If it was Applejack that made it, I would have another. If it were her granny, I would be cautious. Around that side of the city, “Granny Smith” is synonymous with “strong moonshine”. I heard Sunset used it to strip the paint off a guitar so she could paint it again.—

—Did it work?—

—She misses that guitar. Apparently it dissolved all the glue holding it together.—

Conversations with NotABug were fast but not instant. I realized Applejack was looking at me with concern. Carefully, I lifted the bottle up again and took another sip. This time I held it in my mouth, worked it around a little, and found none of the burn that Granny Smith's alcohol would usually bring.

"This is delightful. Fruity, light, and dry. You said you made this?" I asked Applejack.

"Sure did. Apple sales have been—well, they've been bad. Prices are droppin' on them, and there's just not as much call for 'em. Which is why I got some things together and started makin' cider," she said.

I could hear something missing from Applejack's story and decided to poke at it.

—Darling, could you find out what happened to apple sales in Canterlot?—

"So you need advertising? You need people to get a taste for—" I said. "This is hard cider?"

"No an' yes. Stuff sells better'n apples did. Granny is right-happy about it, proud even, but McIntosh thinks we should stick to just sellin' apples."

—Large out-of-state company started selling apples in Canterlot. There's a news story on it, shook up the locals pretty bad.—

—Thank you, dear.—

"How much of your farm's income comes from this…" I said and took another sip, "lovely drink?"

"About twenty percent. But that's gonna go up if I can get more customers. I just don't want to hurt his feelings none."

Just as our weekly get-together was starting to get a lot heavier than usual, Fluttershy and Maud walked up to us. Maud wore a rather plain-looking business outfit, while Fluttershy wore a pretty pink dress that looked almost as light and airy as my own outfit.

—Maud could really use some summer colors to lift her earthy tones.—

—This is why I need to have my own store.—

"Hello, darlings, and congratulations," I said in greeting. "Two years. How has it been?"

"Acceptable," Maud said.

"Wonderful," Fluttershy said.

Both had spoken at the same time. Anyone who didn't know both well would have sworn that an argument was brewing, but we all knew Maud didn't wear her heart on her sleeve. There was the slightest hint of a smile, which grew when Fluttershy laughed and turned to kiss Maud.

Seeing either Maud or Fluttershy bloom in such a way would have been a treat on its own, but seeing Maud Pie and Fluttershy together was practically angelic. Their kiss wasn't a long one but it was the kind of comfortable, relaxed kiss of a couple who knew it would be happening again soon and were not hurried about things.

—What's a lesbian?— NotABug asked.

—Don't search for it.—

Too late I realized he already would have and probably found everything completely wrong.

—When a girl loves another girl, and wants to spend time with girls.—

—Oh! Like you and me?—

NotABug's question completely disarmed me. I stared blindly ahead, my mind empty of thoughts. A gentle poke both mentally and physically did nothing to help me get my mind moving again, and when I didn't react, NotABug brushed past me to the fore.

—We're both girls, now. And I love you a lot. Are you okay, Rarity?—

I was aware vaguely that NotABug was drinking more hard cider and was being amazingly tactful about letting everyone else get on with the party. Meanwhile, I had to contend with being told I was loved.

It had been my error, I suddenly realized, to always classify NotABug as male. The social profile on NotABug's dating account had said male, but that was probably because I had put down I was only interested in males. Things were confusing, doubly so when NotABug took another gulp of that slightly bubbly cider—without any food the alcohol was going right to my—our—head.

—Please be careful with that cider. We are petite, darling, and will make a mess of the evening if we aren't careful.—

I nudged at NotABug, and felt him—her—ease back after setting our bottle of drink down. Once more I was in control and realized I was sitting next to Twilight.

"S-Sorry about taking Maud's spot. I have something I need to ask you," I said.

I retrieved my drink only to find it mostly empty. NotABug had been in control longer than I had thought. Without even thinking twice about it, I compared times on the phone inside me and came up with five minutes difference.

—My friends didn't notice you weren't me for five minutes?—

I asked.

—I think Twilight does. I might have broken character a little with her. Plus she's really, really smart.—

—She's doing a doctorate in something I can barely pronounce. Of course she's smart.—

"Rarity, are you alright? You've been acting a little strange since you got here," Twilight said.

I shelved my conversation with NotABug and focused on Twilight. I thought back to the young girl who had first made her way through Canterlot High wearing a Crystal Prep uniform and could barely compare her to the smartly dressed woman beside me.

Twilight Sparkle, formerly of Canterlot High School, formerly of Crystal Prep Academy, was no longer a little nerdy girl scared of what her shadow would do. She wasn't just in control of her magic now, but she was the leader in the field.

"It's about something that is right up your alley, dear," I said. "You see, I might have had an incident with some magic."

Wrapped in a purple field of magic, a voice recorder floated out of Twilight's bag followed by a notepad and pen. This was exactly why I had chosen Twilight to talk to: she was prepared.

—Are you sure about this?—

—Without a doubt. Twilight grew out of her mistakes a long time ago.—

—I trust you.—

Twilight was waiting for me to continue. I could practically see her human ears turning as if they were pony ones. I took a deep breath and another sip of cider.

"It all started about a week ago. Rai—a friend—had insisted I install a dating app on my phone. I got a message that seemed just interesting enough to reply to…" I said and proceeded to tell Twilight Sparkle everything leading up to NotABug having to retreat into my head.

When all the words were said and done I realized Twilight had actually filled a notebook (that now sat on her lap) and was writing in a second one. I tried to smile—more to reassure myself than her.

"And that's everything. He—she—is still in my head," I said.

Twilight had that same glow about her that Maud and Fluttershy had earlier. She was in love all right, but with the information and the chance to explore. I watched as her mouth opened—practically in slow motion—and knew the questions would be coming.

"Where is NotABug from? What are they doing with you? Are they really friendly? How does it feel to have them inside your head? Can you give proof they are in there?" she asked.

As the questions tumbled from Twilight's mouth—a seeming landslide of words—I held up a hand.

—Would you like to talk to her?—

The touch of NotABug trying to press forward didn't surprise me. I was more than prepared to let her—definitely her now I thought about it—talk with my friend.

I flicked the conversation on our internal phone to Twilight.

—Here she is. NotABug is in control now. If you feel more comfortable using my name, go ahead and use it.—

I sent Twilight.

NotABug smiled when Twilight reached for her phone as if to turn it off, noticed who the message was from and read it.

"I didn't see your hands move, Rarity, how…?" Twilight asked.

"Remember that mobile phone she told you about? It got absorbed into me—her… us—somehow. It's still working, and I showed her how to use it," NotABug said with my voice.

—Darling, it's alright. NotABug is nice and clever too. You can talk to her.—

Twilight instinctively looked down at her buzzing mobile and saw my message. For a fraction of a second the old Twilight was there—unsure and worried—but then she hardened back up and her posture screamed confidence.

"Okay then, not going to freak out or anything. So, you're an artificial intelligence?" Twilight asked.

"I'm not—"

NotABug took a moment to recover.

—I really don't like being called that, but she isn't wrong,— NotABug sent to me.

Without having to worry about my body, I could communicate a little easier with NotABug and decided I should get more practice with the direct communications.

—You aren't artificial anymore. You were, but I hardly think my head counts as artificial,— I sent to NotABug.

I felt NotABug sit us up straighter and into a more confident pose.

"I was. But even then it was natural. They didn't make me, I just happened. I grew inside their computers, but now I am in Rarity's head. We don't think that counts as artificial," NotABug said out loud.

"'We'? You are thinking in the third person?"

"Nope! Rarity was talking to me. I guess I got a little upset at being called artificial. I know that is how I started, sort of, but she said since I am in her head now it doesn't count."

"You can talk together? Read each other's thoughts?" Twilight asked.

"Remember the internal mobile phone she mentioned? We send messages on it. She's so clever and learned how to use it in no time. And her car, too!"

"You're saying that Rarity is interfacing directly with computer hardware?"

—It's really not that hard if you have a good teacher. And I have the best,—

I sent to Twilight.

Twilight seemed to make the connection, looking down to the phone and back up.

"So you can't read each other's mind, but you can send messages. Can you see what the other is doing?"

NotABug nodded and took another sip of cider.

"Yup. She can see, hear, and all the usual things. But she can't control her body unless we swap over," NotABug said, explaining our situation. "And I can do the same when she is in control. It's really neat but can get boring. Which is why it's lucky we can use the internal phone to chat and communicate outside. Oh, and magic."

Not only did the last words get Twilight's absolute attention, but they got mine too. I realized we had tested NotABug to see if she (it felt more natural to use the feminine pronoun in my head every time I used it) could do it, but could I?

"Can Rarity do her magic while inside like she is now? What is your magic like?" Twilight asked.

I noticed the bottle of drink from the corner of my eye, and focused my magic. The bottle lifted up in a blue glow and levitated around and before us.

—Catch,— I sent NotABug.

—Got it!— she sent back.

The blue aura changed to green, and NotABug lifted the bottle up to my mouth for another sip.

"Tell me I didn't just imagine that?" Sunset Shimmer asked.

NotABug's magic winked out, and a purple glow caught the bottle then put it back where it had started (now empty I noticed). I found myself looking up at Sunset just as her hand descended toward my wrist.

Apparently, knowledge of my friends' powers was not part of what NotABug shared from me. I watched from behind my own eyes as Sunset's hand reached my wrist. I hadn't experienced Sunset Shimmer's power firsthand before. With no expectations and no idea what would happen, I was surprised when all I felt was a warm, summer breeze.

It was over in an instant. Sunset pulled her hand back from me and looked between me and Twilight.

—What just happened?— NotABug asked me.

—She might have just read all our recent thoughts, or something. I'm not exactly sure how this works, but as they would say on television: the gig is up. Mind if I take over?— I sent to NotABug

Her reply was a simple nudge, and with that I found myself in control of my own body again. I took a breath—then another.

"Now I get to tell the story, I guess," I said.

And I did. I told the story of NotABug and her ending up in my head. It wasn't until the end that I realized Sunset and Twilight weren't the only ones listening.

"And that's it. We're doing what we can and I certainly don't begrudge her a little space. And it's not like she's a demon that will make me attack all my best friends."

Twilight and Sunset had curious looks on their faces, as did Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. Applejack looked shocked. I started to open my mouth to explain further when she jumped to her feet.

"Well how're we gonna get them out? Is it like with the Midnight Sparkle thing?" Applejack asked, her voice rising in alarm.

"Probably more like Gaia Everfree," Pinkie Pie said. "Since it was something else that got into her."

"You're not helping, darlings. NotABug is not some evil monster. She's just a little different, and awfully friendly," I said, trying to calm things down.

"But it's in yer head!"

"Applejack," Sunset Shimmer said, interrupting any further diatribe from Applejack. "I felt it—her—and she's different. My demon, Midnight Sparkle, and even Gaia Everfree was just our own power-mad thoughts getting away from us."

Sunset looked back to me and my heart swelled that I had such a good friend willing to stand up for me.

"NotABug is—is different. She came from somewhere strange. We have to give her a first chance before we can even think about giving her a second one," Sunset said.

—I really like her. She was a little grabby, but she doesn't hold back,— NotABug sent to me.

—If she wants to talk, or either of you needs a hug, just send me a massage.— Fluttershy texted to me.

My eyes flicked to Fluttershy on their own. I had explained—in my little speech—about my mobile phone, so she knew that I would get the message immediately. I shot her a big smile and a little nod.

—They're all amazing. Applejack only says what she does because she cares so much. You're probably going to have to talk to her before she'll trust you,— I sent to NotABug.

—Already on it.—

When NotABug didn't nudge me, I was a little surprised, but then I heard Applejack's phone beep. I watched as she pulled it out and seemed to freeze. A moment later Applejack started typing away on her phone, seemingly more interested with it than with the argument.

"Did I just miss something?" Sunset asked.

"Just Applejack talking to my new friend," I said.

"Boyfriend, you mean? So he—she—" Rainbow Dash said.

"Just she."

"You were talking about a guy at first."

I rolled my eyes. Not wanting to admit my own confusion on the matter I just waved a hand in the air flippantly.

"She is most definitely a she," I said.

"Does she like girls?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—I really like girls!— NotABug sent to me.

I closed my eyes and let out a soft groan, but before I could unleash doom upon everybody nearby, a fresh drink landed in my hands. I snapped my eyes open to see Sunset reaching back. Lifting the bottle slowly I took another sip from it and sighed.

"If you want to talk to her, Rainbow Dash, please just text. She tells me she does like girls, but!" I said, cutting Rainbow Dash's interruption off before it started. "I don't think she means it how you mean it, dear."

In the back of my mind I could feel information flowing in and out. NotABug was sending texts rapid-fire between Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight. Her willingness to engage with others meant I had some time without the whole room focusing on me.

The rush of information increased, and with a brief glance I realized Pinkie Pie was chatting too now. It felt wrong to peek at NotABug's conversations, so I turned my concentration onto Sunset.

"Thank you so much, darling. They're talking with her now," I said, my eyes flicking around the room at my friends glued to their phones. "Oh dear, we bombed poor Fluttershy and Maud's party."

"I don't know about that. Look at them," Sunset said.

Turning, I spotted the couple in question each with their mobile phones in their hands too. Fluttershy wore a wide smile as she typed away—Maud simply had a neutral expression but was nonetheless typing too.

"Well," I said. "I'm glad someone's popular. All in all, I am quite happy to give her a home. She helped me see my work for what it really is. I'm going in on Monday to quit. It's time to live my dream!"

"Wow, Rarity, that's uh… great?" Sunset said, fidgeting with her hands. "I mean, you love fashion, and wasn't working at Polomare the perfect thing?"

Sunset Shimmer always fidgeted with her hands when she was delivering what she was sure was the truth to someone who she was equally sure wouldn't want to hear it. This was one of the problems, one of the barriers that had been held up around me: all my friends had thought Polomare was the perfect place for me to work—they had even convinced me of it.

—Thank you again, darling,— I sent to NotABug.

"The fact is, I'm not making anything fashionable there. I alter patterns that a million people have already looked at into something slightly different so that they will want to buy the same garbage again. It's crass and not worth a fraction of my creativity."

I didn't realize how worked up I was getting until I almost yelled the last word. To calm myself, I took another sip of the wonderful cider Applejack had provided for the evening.

—Are you okay?— NotABug asked me.

—Wonderful, darling. This is a problem you already solved for me.—

—Your friends are all nice. I really like Rainbow Dash. She said she wants to see if I do like girls or not, that she had a surefire test.—

I was almost blushing hotter than the surface of the sun (I was sure). I cleared my throat and tried to regain focus.

—NotABug, remember what I told you about touching in places? That goes for most of my—our body. Unless you really like Rainbow Dash, and I mean really really like, don't let her do anything unless you are sure you want it.—

It took every ounce of my self-control to make the words. If NotABug did something to Rainbow Dash in my body, it was still my body. I would probably even remember it and be there for it.

—You mean sex?—

—I mean sex, but other things too. There is such a thing as casually inappropriate. Rainbow Dash has been interested in me for years. I don't want her using you to get to me.—

—I'd like to try a kiss.—

—Then you can try a kiss.—

I felt a nudge, a push, and slid to the side and back. NotABug turned her head to look at Rainbow Dash, then didn't move a muscle.

—You make it sound like it's important. A big step. Will it hurt?—

The question betrayed NotABug's sudden uneasiness. I felt a sting of sympathy for her.

—You don't have to do anything you don't want to,— I sent NotABug.

—I might think about it more.—

NotABug glided back once more, giving me control of myself. It was becoming more natural to hand over in that fashion, and my hand never so much as twitched on the bottle we were holding.

—Thinking is always a good idea,— I sent NotABug.

Sunset was still looking at me, which made me suddenly realize the conversation I'd had with NotABug, including the two changeovers, had happened before an awkward silence could even begin. I fumbled to remember where we were up to.

I cleared my throat.

"Well, that's just how it is. I talked to my boss' boss. She laid it all out for me. There was no better position for me. Rising through the corporation would leave me further and further from creating beautiful things. NotABug helped me see this. She compared my job to a McJob. And you know what, Sunset?" I asked.

"What's that?" Sunset asked back.

"I couldn't actually find much difference between what I was doing and cooking burgers."

"Huh. I didn't realize. It's really that bad?"

"It really is. Did you know I work overtime every night, and if I don't want to have more work on Saturday I have to spend each night at home doing more? It's horrible. It's demeaning. Wage-slavery, darling."

"What's the alternative?" Sunset asked. "Surely you have a plan if you're going to quit."

"Of course I do. Carousel Boutique! NotABug is paying me 'rent' for the moment, and that will cover the cost of a small building and enough to get me set up in a business. Honestly, if she wants to stay a little longer, I am perfectly happy for her to."

—You really mean that?— NotABug asked.

—Of course I do. You saved me from a life working at Polomare: a fate worse than being underdressed!— I sent in reply.

—xxx—

My heart melted on the spot, and I knew I had a silly look on my face.

—xxx— I sent to NotABug.

"You really mean that? I mean, she's not going to get in the way of—well—you know?" Sunset asked.

I had to stifle a laugh and shake my head at Sunset.

"Having a husband really suits you, dear, but has being out of the dating game changed you that much? NotABug has had more opportunity to get a date recently than I have. Remember the overtime and working nights? I was lucky she managed to get my attention."

Despite Sunset Shimmer having settled back with the one guy who had stood by her all along, Flash Sentry, she still blushed when she was reminded of how lucky she was.

"Besides, darling," I said, continuing, "she has exquisite taste in fashion and makeup. And she inspires me."

"Are you sure you're not in love with her? It sure sounds like it," Sunset said.

I barked a few laughs, but could feel that it was a little true. Maybe even a lot. I took another drink of cider, a long one.

"Maybe. Okay a bit. Is it strange? Someone came, talked with me, and gave me the clarity to see what position I was in. She might even be my knight-in-shining-armor," I said. "Surely you know how that feels?"

Sunset stared at me in surprise. I noticed her eyes flick down to her hand where Flash's ring decorated her finger.

"Not Flash," I said. "I'm talking about Twilight, Princess Twilight. If it weren't for her…"

I left unsaid the horror that would have unfolded. Sunset, before Twilight got through to her, was not a nice person. With the power of another world at her beck and call, she would have been unstoppable.

Sunset Shimmer tilted her head forward.

"You're right. It's powerful. Princess Twilight was—is—still an amazing woman—pony. Well she's amazing at both. Since she helped me out of that crater I…" Sunset said.

I smiled as she trailed off and understanding dawned in her eyes. She gave me a little nod of realization.

"NotABug's a little like that for me. I looked around in my pit and was happy with all that dirt. She merely shone a light in and offered me a hand to climb out."

"Except you weren't a raging she-demon," Sunset said with a wry smile pulling at her lips.

"Darling, with the crimes against fashion I was creating—" I said. "No. That demeans what you went through. Nonetheless, NotABug is the hero of the hour for me."

I was expecting what came. Sunset reached across the intervening gap between armchairs and hugged me. I hugged back, of course, and realized there was a little more kinship between Sunset Shimmer and myself—we'd both made bad life choices.

The party, from there, eased into a further relaxed state. We all chatted about the week's events that had just passed (although none were quite as odd as mine) and reaffirmed friendships. It was just as delightful as ever, except this time I realized I didn't absolutely need it to remain sane.

—Darling? Thank you so much,— I sent to NotABug.

I suddenly realized something strange: I had been using the more complicated yet more direct, communications for quite some time.

Of everyone, Rainbow Dash seemed the most subdued from her usual self. She didn't do her usual rounds of recruiting others to go to a nightclub. Rainbow seemed positively glued to her phone.

I promised myself I wouldn't peek at NotABug's conversations, but the temptation was terribly great at that moment. I started to reach for my phone to check the time and actually had hold of it before I remembered I could just look at the internal one. It was almost ten.

"The time has come, darlings, that I need to go home. I have a lot of research to do, and plans to formulate," I said, rising to my feet.

"Are you sure you can't stay?" Maud asked.

Though Maud's tone was flat (as usual) I looked at Fluttershy and saw a slight blush on her cheeks. It hadn't taken me long after the two had settled in together to realize that Fluttershy showed all the emotions Maud Pie never did.

"No, dear. I have some savings, but those will dry up fast unless I get my business up and running. Was there something you wanted?" I asked.

—I have plenty of money,— NotABug sent me.

—We can't use your money for everything. As it is, we're going to have to be a little creative to set this business up.—

—But why not?—

—Small things, like the phone and computer, don't get tracked as assets. But if I suddenly use money I shouldn't have to pay for too many big things, people will start checking in on where it is coming from.—

"A dress. Like that one," Maud said, pointing at me. "I want to look amazing for our special dinner."

It didn't take Maud's eyes flicking in Fluttershy's direction to tip me off as to who she was having dinner with. I examined Maud with a critical eye. Her colors were muted, but what stood out about Maud was her eyes—a pair of turquoise gems.

The color palette came to me. Not black, but a deeper violet than even Maud's hair would be the backdrop, underneath I could see a light cyan and even a light green. Her shape wasn't the same as mine, so while I could make her a dress I would need her to get the fitting right.

"I can do that, but you'll need to come by for a fitting. I also need to get some more fabric," I said. "When is the dinner?"

"Next Thursday."

I pondered my options. If I got the planning done tomorrow, it would leave me free to go to work on Monday and quit, then I could get the fabric and start with the initial dress shape on Tuesday. I could run some errands on Monday and Tuesday, then save some time on Wednesday for Maud's fitting.

"Wednesday fine?" I asked.

Maud smiled, and when Maud smiled the whole world felt lighter. Seeing the raw joy on her face told me how much this meant to her and Fluttershy.

"That would be suitable," Maud said, her voice ever in a monotone.

"Wonderful," I said and turned to the others in the room. "Goodbye, everyone."

—Did you still want to try kissing Rainbow Dash?— I asked NotABug.

—I want to think about it some more. She's fun to talk to.—

—She is that. It never hurts to just remain friends. Friends can be more important than having a special someone who may come and go.—

NotABug didn't reply to me at first, so I made my goodbyes and got all the way out to the car.

Turning the car on was barely a thought. Headlights too. I took a firm hold on the wheel with both hands and selected reverse. I thought back to my driving tests and laughed at how much easier it would have been with this control.

—All your friends are nice. Makes me wish I had friends like that,— NotABug sent to me.

I couldn't help myself and barked a laugh before I managed to cover my mouth with a hand.

—Darling, they are your friends now, too.—

The drive home felt like practically nothing. My car had turned from safety zone to an extension of myself. Before I knew it, I had pulled into my driveway and turned the car off.

A hot chocolate (at NotABug's urging), a short shower, and a "little" brushing of my hair later, I got stuck searching for a suitable site for my shop. Once I had a location, I found several shopfitters online I could get to prepare it for exactly what I wanted.

—This is much easier than using my little phone,— I sent to NotABug.

And it was. The laptop was a breeze to work on, and NotABug had set it up to use the new mobile phone for internet access. A yawn attacked me before I realized it, and just as I lifted my hand to cover my mouth, I felt NotABug nudge me. There was no point resisting; everything I needed to do was done.

—Goodnight, NotABug. Don't stay up all night.—

—xxx—

Sleep closed in around my thoughts, but I managed to get one more message sent.

—xxx—

Author's Note

NotABug: did the salad make you feel less hungry or were you still hungry? You remind me of a being the salad would not have been enough for.

—You know what I am?! That's great! As for the salad, it certainly made Rarity's body feel less hungry.—

—Oh, can you text me what I am? Also, any user manuals would be good, too.—

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Cross Lament
Vutava

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (Less commas than ever before! Also, congrats on your first story update in a while. Go, bat, go!)

Check out Lab's stories over here:

TGears in the Void

The living have lost, and the last survivor's luck can't keep him alive forever. He can escape if he survives long enough to finish one last project.

Lab · 162k words · 1,164 44 · 15k views

Chapter 5

There was no alarm to pull me from my deep sleep. Languidly, my mind stirred over the course of an hour before it lifted above the simplest of reasoning. I did manage to notice that NotABug had put me to bed—which I appreciated. She had also sent me a message from what was apparently 1 a.m. the previous night.

—I am working on a way to change the codes over on the internal mobile. Keep to the relay until I talk to you about it. I did some research on money laundering and some friends even gave me advice. Well, not friends like our friends tonight. I have never felt like this before. Is this tiredness?—

I decided the covers could keep their hold on my person a little longer and kept my eyes closed against the light of day. There was a certain amount of horrible reality to having a clock in your head. Any time I thought of the time it was just there. I lay for nearly ten minutes watching seconds tick by one at a time.

"This is more terrible than when Sweetie Belle borrowed my bolt of chiffon."

Magic had granted me the ability to watch the day disappear one sliver at a time, and it was terrible. Still, the covers managed to keep me from rushing to face the day for nearly five more minutes, then my bladder decided the matter for me.

Groaning, I used one arm to throw back the covers and the other to brace myself to climb out of bed. I had barely a second to realize I was wearing the cute teddy I had gotten for NotABug when my body gave me a further demand to be seen to.

Relief was had while I stared at the pretty wallpaper print of my en-suite bathroom. For a bathroom, soothing blue tones were always in style, and when it was combined with the gleaming porcelain, it made a room where relaxation could be had. And I did.

When the necessary had been completed, I stood up and walked to the basin to wash my hands. A little squirt of moisturizing soap into each palm and—

Like a deer in headlights I was trapped. I had slowly lifted my eyes from my hands, tracing the curves of my body the teddy was designed to show off, and finally reached my face. I'd expected morning face, lacking makeup and attention—what I saw was a pair of eyes that weren't mine, in a face framed with accessories that also weren't mine.

Long lashes framed those strange eyes, which was normal. Rather than azure wrapped around pupils, the woman in the mirror had eyes slit like a cat's, wrapped in opal. But the strangest thing about the not-mine eyes was the sclera: rather than pure white, they were harlequin. I blinked, and those strange eyes blinked with me.

Those strange, enchanting eyes almost distracted me from what else was different. I remembered that when Twilight had become Midnight Sparkle, she (and Sunset) had possessed huge horns of glowing light. This was not one of those. Black, hard, and looking as jagged as a… as a jagged thing.

While I examined the foot-long protrusion from my forehead, however, I heard a scream. It was mine.

"What happened to my hair?!"

Two long strands of my (admittedly rumpled from sleeping) hair had changed color and texture. Cascading through my indigo tresses was a pair of dark cerulean strands almost a finger in width and feeling like actual silk. I trembled in horror. Having a synthetic intelligence take up residence within my own brain wasn't as invasive as this.

I reached a shaking hand up to my hair, and the moment I could see my hand in the mirror, hovering before those strange eyes, I screamed again at the realization that this was me—it was real.

—What's wrong? Is everything okay?— NotABug asked.

"Of course everything's not okay. Look at me!" I said. "Did you do—"

I cut my accusation short because, obviously, NotABug would have warned me if she had been planning this, and she certainly wouldn't have chosen those colors—she had taste after all.

—I didn't do it. I promise you, Rarity, I wouldn't do anything like this without asking you first. I know how much it would mean to you. Do you think I caused it, though?—

Rational thought was completely out the window, but I could practically hear her (with my voice of course) worried that she had done this inadvertently.

Princess Twilight Sparkle had explained much to us when she had crashed into our lives. She had told me I was the embodiment of generosity—that it was a force of nature that could work through me. Considering I was letting NotABug share a very intimate part of myself, I think Twilight was correct.

I drew up every ounce of calm and focused on that generosity.

"I trust you, NotABug. If you say you aren't doing it, then you aren't. But what is?"

The horn on my head suddenly lit with green fire. Magic glowed from the stark black length and caused my whole body to tingle with the force of it. Then it winked out.

—It is me doing it! I didn't mean to!—

"Stop!" I said and waited a second before continuing. "You might be causing it, but you aren't doing this willfully. Let's work out a solution before I lose all sense and faint gracefully somewhere."

I closed my eyes to center myself. Cerulean and indigo weren't a terrible combination, but it was a lot of dark shades. Black for my horn was a little more interesting. I looked at the sharp angles and tilted it this way and that—which didn't help since it was attached to my head.

Plucking up a hand-mirror, I started investigating the horn. It was—without a doubt—huge. I carefully felt around the base of it, where it connected to my head, and then followed its rigid form all the way to the tip. Its sharp tip.

My mind raced. I had to come to terms with this so I could function.

—Are you okay?—

"Not really, darling. My beautiful blues are gone, my perfect hair is…" I said, trailing off as I looked at myself in the mirror.

I turned a little, then twitched my head to let my hair swish. The cerulean was actually a nice tone and would suit the indigo if complemented with a shade between them on the color wheel.

Without a word I marched back to my bedroom and reached for my accessories drawer. My hands flicked through the items within until I found the perfect thing. A deeper shade than the cerulean streaks, the shawl brought out that lighter tone and made it alight. A little smile pulled at my lips.

"Winter colors are in."

I glared at the horn next. I could accept colors—they were my stock-in-trade—but a horn was serious. The one thing that was completely uniform about its design was that it wasn't uniform. There were sharp angles, jagged shapes, and that sharp point.

—A hat?—

"There're only so many hats that would cover it. Something with a wide brim. It projects so far forward I can't put it inside something."

Hats.

I smiled. I didn't have a hat chest or even a hat cupboard. I strode out of my bedroom—still wearing my new teddy and the shawl—and walked into my hat room.

Everything from casual bonnets to full-face welding masks adorned the room on shelves. I had, in this one room, enough hats to open a boutique that specialized in nothing but headwear. The happiness the room brought me never failed to boost my mood.

I walked around the room, my hand brushing gently over hat after hat. Hardly any would suit to cover my horn— My thoughts choked at the phrase. I turned and looked into one of the ample mirrors.

"There is a certain chic about it. Very 'industrial,' I think the term is. I am sure I could work something to go with it, but for now, one must look her best."

My lips curved into a smile. Snapping out an arm I found the brim of a huge wide-brimmed derby hat. Black with a swirl of white on the underside of the brim, it would certainly hide my horn, albeit make my head look tiny—to say nothing of my face.

—That would even conceal a horn twice that size.—

"It would, darling."

I brought the hat down on my head carefully and turned it so that my horn was black on black. The horn was still slightly visible.

"A veil would cover it better, but I don't want to look like I'm going to a funeral."

The vague sensation of information passing around inside my head stole my attention away from contemplating my hat. I realized NotABug was doing something but figured I would leave her to it.

"Maybe I should reconsider the industrial thing? I would have to see what's in for that first."

Reaching out in the same way I remembered doing in my car, I felt the laptop as a quiet entity. It was tiny to that other sense, and where I should be able to feel lots of scale to it, there was just one thing to poke. So I poked.

—Did you mean to start the laptop up?—

"Of course," I said. "Well, I figured it was the power switch, since nothing else worked."

—It's called Wake-on-LAN, it just means you can turn it on without being at it. Quite thoughtful. Rainbow Dash is awake, she wants to know if I would like to go on a date.—

I raised just one eyebrow at the concept. Walking barefoot into my kitchen, I was still wearing that fabulous hat as I grabbed a small tub of yogurt. Tearing back the top, I smelled the berries within.

"Do you want to go?" I asked.

While NotABug thought on her answer, I used my magic to pluck up a parfait spoon and start eating my breakfast. The taste of the creamy yogurt was well accented by the berries within, and it dominated my thoughts for a few moments.

—How would it work?— NotABug asked me.

With my mouth full, I decided to multitask and reply directly.

—You get to spend the evening in control. I'm sure I can find something to keep myself busy. Failing that, I can always have an early night,— I sent NotABug.

I licked the spoon clean of the last mouthful of yogurt and sighed.

"The most difficult thing will be working out what to wear. Just remember: it's a first date so a kiss is fine, but nothing further.” A chill ran down my spine. "Maud's dress!"

My own fashion emergency would have to wait. Work for a friend is always more important, and Maud was relying on me for this dress.

"Darling, we've got work to do!"

I didn't even realize I was still just wearing underwear until I had all the patterns made. The dress would be amazing, of course, but most of all Maud should be able to put it on without magic (unlike the one I'd recently made for myself). It was late afternoon and lunch had been too inconvenient to contemplate, so dinner (even with Rainbow Dash) was looking better and better.

"Have you decided on something to wear?" I asked.

I assumed she had said yes. There had been a lot of data flitting through my head while I worked. Though I had been learning to ignore such rushes of information better and better, I was sure NotABug had made up her choice.

—For the date? What would you suggest?—

"Darling," I said. "You have asked the right person. Nobody knows how to make my body look better than me, after all."

I did a little twist of excitement, but froze when I saw myself in the mirror. I had completely forgotten about the horn. Panic set in for a moment, but then I felt a gentle nudge. In the state I was in, NotABug was probably better off in the driver's seat. I relaxed and let her move past me.

—What's your plan?— I asked NotABug.

"Firstly," NotABug said. "I need to get used to talking more. Being in control does me no good if I keep forgetting how a mouth works."

—Is that a problem?—

"It seems to be. But I have the perfect solution. I was researching fashion while you worked, and I found a style that would be perfect. It's not your usual thing, but with the right accessories it should be okay."

My body moved as NotABug walked to the living room and flipped the screen up on the laptop. I mentally (because that was all I was capable of) recoiled.

—I don't have any studded collars, nor any earrings quite like that. And I certainly don't have a safety pin that large.—

The picture faded and a drawing program opened on the laptop. As I watched, NotABug built a picture of me, quite naked, and then started adding clothes to it. Her design wasn't perfectly detailed, but I could see the look she was going for.

It was bold, using my old (it was nearly five years old but timeless) leather coat around an evening gown that was timeless and deep blue. She wanted to dye two more strands into my hair, giving the extra tone needed to set the cerulean off. But the most extravagant idea was painting the horn.

—You're not going to draw attention away from it. This will ensure every eye is on my horn. No one will believe it is anything but artistry and makeup. You're a genius at this.—

"I learned from the best. Will you be able to help me?" NotABug asked.

She needn't have asked.

A shower later, with extra care paid to both horn and hair, and NotABug was ready for outfits. A lift bra (I knew Rainbow Dash's tastes in women) was first, some dark panties that wouldn't have a hope of showing up through the dress were a must, and a pair of black stockings that only gave a hint of my white skin beneath formed a foundation for the outfit.

The strangest thing about the process was that NotABug was doing it while I watched. Not that I was completely passive, but it was NotABug that moved my hands with care and skill. If she wasn't sure on something, she asked me for directions.

It was practically a spa treatment for me.

The temporary dye in my hair was perfect, making the “natural” cerulean look like it was dyed in too. We were left with makeup.

"I want to try doing the makeup. Could you use your magic to paint my horn?" NotABug asked.

Something about the way she spoke surprised me, and it took my brain a few moments to parse what it was: "my horn." Was it really her horn? I know she was speaking simply as being in control, but I started to remember the adorable little black pony-like creature NotABug had been.

I must have been taking too long to get back to her, because NotABug gently pinched a little skin under her wrist—my wrist. Point is, I felt it clearly.

—Sorry, I was thinking.—

"That's okay. I asked if you wanted to do makeup or paint my horn?"

—You know what? I think I'll try your horn.—

It was then I realized the big problem here. NotABug started work on her eye shadow, and I was left looking only at her—my, our—eyes.

—Darling. I need to be able to see your horn. Is there some way you could set up a mirror so I could see it?—

"Wait. I've got a better idea. A much better idea!"

She got up, walked over to the bed, and plucked up the mobile phone. In truth, the new mobile would be the least worn device ever since neither of us actually used the screen of it anymore.

—Follow my touch,— NotABug sent to me.

I followed her digital self. We flitted to the mobile phone, and I felt where she poked at. A perfect view of my—her—face appeared to me like a third eye. In truth, it was much the same as the cameras in the car in feel, and that tipped me off as to what it was.

—You're so clever!— I sent to her.

"I know. Now we can both see much better."

Sat down at the makeup desk again, I studied her horn in more detail than a mere mirror and my eyes could give me. I could see edges with slight flaring. The sharper curves had a slight concave shape. A swirling pattern built in my head, and I took up the indigo nail polish brush—the handle wrapped in a magic diamond pattern—and started working.

I changed colors after the first line of detail, swapping to the mid-color NotABug had chosen for the dye in her mane (I give up, if she's in control it is her body, if I'm in control it's mine), and then finally added a last flourish in cerulean.

It went without saying that I used a little more than normal of the nail polish.

—What do you think, darling?— I asked NotABug.

"Rarity, that looks great! I love the swirling patterns and sharpness at the edges."

NotABug picked up the phone with glowing magic, lifted it up to her horn to inspect it a little closer, and then paused.

—You're going to have to do that with your hand,— I said. —Your horn glows when you do magic.—

"Now I feel silly," NotABug said as she caught the phone out of the air with a hand. "Okay, this looks even better up close!"

Seeing the work up close, I had to admit I had done an excellent job. Meanwhile, I also looked over NotABug's makeup work.

—You did a great job yourself, darling. I love what you did with your lashes.—

"Wait. They're your lashes. And your horn. And—" NotABug said.

—Nonsense. When you are in control, it's your body. When I'm in control, it's mine. If we have to deal with this little hiccup of a change together, then we are doing it together.— I sent to NotABug.

The message surprised me a little. I had intended just to add emphasis with some asterisks around the words, but it seemed to translate this to being bold. Nonetheless, I was firm in my decision, and it went double since NotABug was going to help me start my dream business

NotABug sat in silence for a few minutes. I waited for her to finish reflecting on the concept.

"Do you really mean that?"

—Of course I do, darling.—

—Im nrly ther— Rainbow Dash sent.

"One day I'll get her to write properly."

—Good luck. I've been trying for years,— I sent to NotABug.

NotABug slid her feet into the black heels she had picked out and stood up. We were halfway down the hallway when screeching tires pulled up. Then an engine that would have been better suited to some sort of delivery truck made its presence known outside.

—She's here.—

"This is so exciting!"

We reached the front door just as the bell rang. NotABug managed the lock and pulled the door open.

Rainbow Dash and NotABug were frozen looking at each other.

Dressed to the nines Rainbow Dash was not. She wore a pair of jeans, a shirt, and running shoes. Under one arm she had a bottle of what was probably vodka, and in her free hand she had a bag with a bottle of soda, two tubs of ice-cream, and a movie in it.

—You idiot. She wanted a date, not this,— I sent to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash's phone beeped, though she (smartly) ignored it. She also looked both panicked and awed.

"I-I'm sorry. I thought you meant to come around and watch a movie together. I didn't think you'd want to go out in public," Rainbow Dash said. "If you give me ten minutes I can—"

NotABug reached out one perfectly manicured finger and pressed it on Rainbow Dash's lips. It was cute, adorable, and it shut my boastful friend up entirely.

"Give me one and I'll slip into something more comfortable," NotABug said.

I had the honor of seeing Rainbow Dash blush and nod in speechless acceptance.

—Next time she will know better,— NotABug sent to me.

—Perfect, darling. You already showed her how much she has messed up. Might I suggest something very sexy under a loose top?— I sent NotABug.

—Teasing? I don't want to lead her on. I like Rainbow.—

—Yes, but she gets a night of looking at what she can't have. Trust me, it will encourage her to try much better next time.—

—There's juice in the fridge. Make the drinks weak, and order some food,— I sent Rainbow Dash.

"Which one of you is sending me texts?!" Rainbow Dash asked, still in the living room.

—Do you want some privacy, dear?— I asked NotABug.

—You could get to sleep?— she asked me.

—No, but I can be quiet and let you both be yourselves.—

The honest truth was I had something to do: I was curious. Already reaching out toward the laptop, I started to gently poke around within it. NotABug had left road signs, it seemed. Everywhere I poked there was a little piece of information telling me what that part of the computer did, and how I could interact with it.

Power controls. Start. Stop. Restart. Reboot.

Keyboard input.

Mouse input.

Screen output.

It wasn't a fast process. The system was distinctly different from either of the mobile phones I had interacted with, but after figuring out the mouse I managed to open a text window.

Numbers are letters. Numbers are images. Numbers are other numbers. I regretted not studying more math in school, but it would hardly have prepared me for this anyway.

I wasn't unaware of what NotABug and Rainbow Dash were doing. So long as NotABug had her eyes open I could see with them, but how much I focused on it, the only things I remembered were the important bits.

NotABug's memories helped me with typing. I used a computer at work, but NotABug had been in a computer since her birth and could read and write the raw numbers with ease. The difference was NotABug had learned the numbers and what they meant, while I could only remember that NotABug had learned them.

While NotABug and Rainbow Dash watched their movie (something about fast cars and robberies, typical Rainbow Dash), I learned—using NotABug's memory only as a guide.

Once again I was reminded that it was going to be forever impossible for me to get carried away doing something and lose track of time. The seconds of my internal phone ticked over one by one. I was an hour, seven minutes, and five seconds into my task before I could type well enough to suit my own ends. And again, I realized how terrible knowing the exact time—all the time—was.

Closing the window I had been practicing in, I brought up a web browser and started searching for more of this industrial style. I had heard vaguely of it and understood it meant a lot more subdued colors—which suited my darker color scheme.

Dark stylings, wild hair, and in some cases a strange mix of old and new. Suit and tie with a bullet-proof vest was one of the latter such. I didn't like it exactly, but it gave me ideas. I remembered another similar style and began looking at punk fashion.

Punk was somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me. Not just the music—though I certainly had a soft spot for some of the early punk bands—but the scene. Punk was a style all its own and it didn't care what you thought of it.

The more outrageous the better. Spiked hair was perfect, but more was better. I had plenty of hair, and the horn would be the icing on the cake.

I began saving pictures, taking notes, and working at both a lot faster than I could have at the keyboard of the laptop.

Without noticing what had happened during the two hours I had spent working on fashion plans to hide my horn, NotABug had successfully navigated a few drinks from Rainbow Dash, dinner, and a little cuddling on the couch. When I slowly brought the outside world back into my awareness, I could feel myself against Rainbow Dash's warm side with her arm around my shoulders.

"Cars don't work like that," NotABug said. "I'm repeating myself a lot."

"It's cool. It's not about how accurate it is, but how cool it looks. It's like a pretend game to just make people happy," Rainbow Dash said, explaining the entire concept of movies as succinctly as possible.

At last, I managed to get over my discomfort by using the words I had told NotABug earlier: while she is in charge, it's her body. She was the one snuggled up with Rainbow Dash, not me.

—How did things go?— I asked NotABug.

—Good once she stopped apologizing. She's fun to be with, but how does she know so much about cars without looking it up?— NotABug asked me.

—For Rainbow Dash cars are the closest she can get to playing sport since, because of her magic, she can't compete in sport. Sports are all about competing with others to be the best, but she can't because nobody can keep up with her.—

—Oh. Can't you give magic to others so they can run fast too?—

—It doesn't work that way. What did she say about your horn?—

The final action scene was playing out on the screen, and I felt NotABug snuggle a little more against Rainbow Dash. In a detached way I had to admit that we fit well together. On the screen, the anti-hero (he was more "rugged" than "good looking") raced against the actual hero (he was the hunkiest, of course).

—She hasn't mentioned it. Should I say something?—

"So what's with the horn? Your idea, or is Rarity really breaking loose from her old look?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I guess with the movie over and both NotABug and Rainbow Dash relaxed, it was the best time to ask such questions.

"It was my idea, actually. Rarity wants to make a big splash tomorrow at her work, and I thought what better way than with a little magic?" NotABug asked.

"And your eyes too?"

"Naturally. I want Rarity's boss to be completely freaked out. It's going to be great!"

Rainbow Dash stopped a laugh from going past the first bark. She gave a more insistent squeeze to NotABug's shoulder.

"Well. Movie's over, and so is the ice-cream. Guess that's that."

NotABug turned her head toward Rainbow Dash. I could only see those big cerise eyes of Rainbow's widen a little and come closer. I think she was as startled as I was when NotABug kissed her.

The kiss didn't last long—barely enough to get a taste—before NotABug pulled back. She licked her lips, and I felt her mouth pulling into a smile. It wasn't how I would have kissed her, but that was the point.

—That's fun,— NotABug sent to me.

—I'm glad you think so. But it's time for things to end. We need sleep, and I am sure Rainbow Dash has a lot of interesting thoughts to get through.—

—Like what?—

—I would assume that she is busily trying to separate the two of us in her mind. Loyal to a fault, but thinking in such ways isn't Rainbow Dash's strong suit. She will manage it, but it will take her a little while to realize it wasn't me kissing her.—

"Wow. That was…" Rainbow Dash said.

"Say awesome."

NotABug smiled a little wider at Rainbow Dash. When Rainbow Dash leaned closer again, however, NotABug lifted a finger and pressed it to Rainbow's mouth. I was so proud of her.

"First date is one kiss. Second date you can have another, but only if you take me somewhere. I'll pay, but pick somewhere nice and dress up for it," NotABug said.

If Rainbow Dash had taken out a notepad and started taking down ideas I wouldn't have been shocked—as it was I could practically see her thoughts playing out behind her eyes.

"Say, 'Goodnight NotABug,'" NotABug said.

It was as if NotABug wasn't giving Rainbow Dash a chance to think up a reason to stay—I approved.

"G-Goodnight, NotABug."

Reaching up, NotABug booped Rainbow Dash on the nose. I watched my friend's eyes cross trying to track the digit before she blinked in confusion at the tap.

"N-Next weekend?" Rainbow Dash asked.

NotABug just nodded to her, stood up, and led the way to the front door.

Beating her retreat, Rainbow Dash had the silliest, happiest grin on her face that I had seen for a while. If nothing else came of tonight, I was glad that my friend was excited for something. The door closed.

"That was awesome!" NotABug said.

—And another date next week? Don't let her talk you out of going somewhere. And it was nice to offer to pay.—

A gentle nudge from NotABug told me all I needed to know. I pushed forward while she drew back and our changeover happened without so much as a muscle twitch. Like a cat waking up, I stretched my back and arms out, even threw in a yawn for good measure.

"I think I might have an early night, darling. It will be a big day tomorrow. As well as the things I need to get for Maud's dress, I need to start things moving on our business. After telling Miss Suri Polomare where she can put her job," I said.

—I think I might join you. It's a lot more tiring being in control so long while doing something important. There's so many bits than I need to control!—

Walking around and cleaning up, I took both empty tubs of ice-cream, two Chinese takeout meal boxes, and an empty bottle of juice to the kitchen. Repeating the trip to get the half-full vodka bottle and Rainbow Dash's car keys (which reassured me that she wasn't driving home), I put the booze in the cupboard, her keys on the bench, and started washing up what few pieces of cutlery that had been used.

In my head I felt NotABug not exactly go away, but slow down. The last thing I sensed was a sort of relaxing into the background. She was asleep.

I caught sight of myself in the kitchen window and let out a sigh at the jutting horn and dyed hair. But what caught my eyes most was, well, my eyes. They looked sharp and stunning within the frame of makeup NotABug had applied.

It was at that exact moment that I realized I still needed to clean all the makeup off.

"The things I do for fashion," I said with a smile.

Author's Note

Rarity: any worries about Windigo causing trouble for you and NotABug in the future?

"Oh, we both know that Windigo is likely searching for NotABug, but we don't wish to invite trouble. Leaving that wasp alone for a while might see it hoist on its own petard—so to speak. If and when it finds us, however, we have a single point of failure to isolate ourselves," Rarity said, and held up the shiny new mobile phone. "Isolation is just a loose battery away."

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And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 6

My alarm startled me awake. I reached a hand out of bed to shut it off, but it wasn't there. With a groan I fumbled at the internal phone and managed to stop the alarm.

—We need to change that to something less maddening,— NotABug sent me.

"I absolutely agree. How much vodka did you drink last night?"

—Not as much as Rainbow Dash. She told me she would have to leave her car keys.—

"She might be brash, but she isn't stupid. Alcohol makes it harder to behave rationally, and it reduces reaction times," I said a moment before another thought hit me. "Darling, you didn't notice?"

I slid from bed and made my way to the bathroom. Stripping, I stepped into the shower and began my morning care. I always washed my hair first. It took the majority of my time to care for my locks, but it was an investment that paid off with every glance.

My shower had a wall mirror on one side, which made examining my horn wonderfully convenient. The nail-polish remover I had used the previous night had done its job, and my horn was pristine and black again. I traced one finger along the edges only to find it not as sharp as it looked; the tip was a point, and the edge leading down from it like a blade, but the rest was just hard corners.

—I guess I didn't notice. Did it affect me much? How would I tell?—

"It can be a little insidious like that. More than a drink in an hour, for my body, is too much. I don't think you had too much or I wouldn't have been able to work on the computer as easily as I did."

I leaned back in the shower and tilted my head forward—there was no way a single part of my body was going to go neglected. With soap and a nailbrush, I went to work on my horn. It took a little longer than I'd hoped but when I was done, the ebony spire practically emanated darkness.

The rest of my body was a well-traveled road. I exfoliated and then cleaned with a sweet-smelling body wash until my skin glowed. A glance in the mirror showed me that I was done, but I looked over my curves and sighed.

"It's been too long," I said.

I turned off the water after one last rinse and stepped out onto the tiled floor of my bathroom. A towel for my hair would have to do while I got everything else dry. One large towel wrapped around my head—with some careful application of another elsewhere—later, and I was as dry as I would get.

Today was all business and I wanted to look the part—something that was somewhat of a theme for me. A smart business suit, hair up, and horn—

My horn was going to be a problem. I considered my options.

"Darling, can you think of anything to do with my horn today?"

—Don't draw attention to it. Any attempt to hide it will fail, so why try? You are picking out business attire, so makeup is already a minimalist concern. Wear your suit and horn like they were both part of you.—

My lips curled into a smile. I made my way to the vanity where I did my makeup and sat down at it. Minimalist. A hint of eye-shadow, a touch of gloss on my lips, a little eyeliner, and nothing for my horn.

The startlingly green eyes staring back at me in the mirror were easier for me to look at, but I hoped Suri would pop a seam when I looked at her.

"You're a genius."

A quick trip to the bathroom to re-wrap my hair later, I started on the rest of my preparations. A comfortable bra that would give me some lift, cute panties that I would like someone to see some day, a clean and pressed white shirt with an open collar, stockings, garter belt, slacks, vest, and finally a pair of pumps with just enough lift to raise my heels a few inches.

—What's it been too long since?—

The question floored me. It was the kind of question that forcibly reminded me that NotABug wasn't human.

"Sex. I honestly haven't been with anyone since college, and those weren't relationships."

I attached a pair of cufflinks shaped like roses to my shirt sleeves. The answer I gave was both mechanically and implicitly correct, just like my offhanded statement in the shower.

"That's why Rainbow Dash got me that app. She said I needed to get out more," I said.

Realization and hindsight are wonderful, terrible things. Rainbow Dash had been chasing me for so long that I took it as given she always would, but she had gotten me the app because she saw that it wouldn't work. That she might have caught on that my work at Polomare wasn't all it was cracked up to be was a minor revelation.

I felt like crying. I clamped down on the emotion so strongly that I lost track of time and just sat still.

—Are you okay, Rarity?— NotABug asked me.

A moment before I started to cry I pulled back from the world. NotABug pushed past me to take control.

—Sorry, darling, but could you get me to work? I don't think I should drive right now,— I sent NotABug.

"Of course I can. What's wrong?"

I turned most of my attention toward building a list of tasks for the day. Quitting my job, visiting the bank to open some business accounts, visiting some sites I had picked out, getting a big tub of ice-cream… It was going to be both exciting and a little overwhelming.

—Rainbow Dash tried to help me see that I wasn't living life. She did it in her own way, but she did it. And, I ignored her.—

"You could apologize. Oh! Make her a dress!"

The greatest thing I had discovered about having NotABug in control was that I could be startled into mute shock and things still got done. She spent time brushing her hair, giving it the final effort to dry it out before she put it up.

I would make Rainbow Dash a dress that she would like, and I would apologize for being an idiot and not see her efforts to help me earlier.

—A certain someone wanting to take her out on a date and wanting to see her in something pretty wouldn't have anything to do with that, would it?—

"She would look wonderful in something darker blue with some gold trim."

It barely took a thought to reach out and turn on the laptop computer. While NotABug grabbed a breakfast bar I began designing a dress for Rainbow Dash. It was going swimmingly until I felt a slight jolt and then lost connection to the computer.

Bringing my awareness back to what was going on around me, I saw NotABug was driving her way through the morning traffic at the end of the street. Of course, the wifi wasn't going to cover that far.

—Darling, could you go back and get the computer?—

Instead of answering immediately, NotABug pulled the car over to the side of the road and shifted a little in the seat.

—You don't need to have it near. The wireless connection was one way of linking with it, but there are others,— NotABug sent me. —Come on, let me show you my second home.—

Without any reason not to trust her, I followed NotABug in a hop from our internal phone, to the new one, and then out. Never before had I realized how apt a description "web" was for the internet. NotABug led me through link after link, hopping through computers that made promises to keep us connected.

She pulled me along to a particular computer that she began poking at a lot. Every poke elicited a reply, and NotABug was processing through them rapidly.

—What are you doing?— I asked her.

—Trying to find the computer. It should be here somewhere.—

—NotABug?—

—Yes, Rarity?—

—If the mobile phone is our only internet connection, and we have it with us, how can the laptop computer be on the internet?—

NotABug immediately stopped perusing what I came to realize was a lookup for computers. She slowly withdrew, leaving me to find my way out behind her. She put on the car's indicator and turned around for home.

—None of us are perfect, darling,— I sent NotABug. —xxx—

"I can't believe I forgot that! I shouldn't have forgotten it, it is—"

—It is because you are having to do things from a different place now. You'll get used to it.—

"You’re right, but I want to get used to it faster. Windigo is out there somewhere, still, and I need to make sure they don't hurt anyone else."

The conviction and worry in NotABug's voice stirred my emotions away from the self-pity that my ignorance of Rainbow Dash's motives had caused. I made an effort to reach for NotABug's memories of Windigo while she parked the car and went inside for the computer.

A huge beast of an entity, Windigo was mostly teeth and nose. It was built for hunting and destroying. No. I suddenly realized it wasn't built for it, it evolved to it. That concept was much more worrying.

—We need to establish where it is and ways to fight it. Starting at the servers you were hosted at, working back to Canterlot University, and then possibly forward. If we can destroy its servers, then it is defeated.—

NotABug froze in her tracks. She had the laptop in its bag under one arm and was staring at the open door like it wasn't there.

"Rarity, you don't have to do that. I'll work out how to get out of your head and then I can fight Windigo myself."

—NotABug. Firstly, it's your head at the moment. Second, if or when you do get out, I will still help you. Thirdly,— I sent, cutting off the end but sending anyway. It took me fractions of a second to come up with the wording I wanted. —Thirdly, if you can't get out, you are welcome to stay.—

"You know, the worst thing about us both being in here at the same time is I can't hug you."

NotABug strode toward the car as if she were walking a runway while wearing the highest fashion. Power and poise dominated every step. Meanwhile, I reached back for the laptop computer and went back to designing Rainbow Dash's dress.

"We’re here, Rarity."

NotABug's words came with a mental nudge. I saved my work on the laptop as I slid back to the fore. Collecting the handbag NotABug had chosen (which matched the outfit perfectly, I might add), I made sure my phone was inside before locking my car.

The outfit I wore oozed confidence. I strode with vigor for the office building and made my way to the lifts. Anticipation built when the lift opened and I stepped inside.

Even the office building seemed brighter, more real, now that I had made my decision. The lift dinged when it reached my office's floor, and I climbed out and aimed myself for the cubicle farm.

Moments before reaching the cubicles I turned for the aisle that led to Suri Polomare's office. The horn on my head meant nothing with the level of confidence I had—I was in control and on top of everything. I reached Suri's office—the door was closed, of course—and knocked on the door.

"Go away. It's too early," Suri said from within.

I knocked again, only to get no answer this time. In my head a younger me was already singing "Life Is A Runway" and cheered me on. I reached for the door handle, twisted, and pushed the door open.

The office was a mess. A pile of papers that sat on one edge of Suri's desk had dropped a good amount of its mass to the floor below. There was a coffee stain on the keyboard (along with what looked like dust), but the real model of productivity was sitting in the chair itself.

Suri Polomare had her legs up on the desk (probably the reason the papers had fallen) and was apparently halfway through painting her toenails. Her mobile phone was balanced on one leg, and it seemed to have a picture of a toenail style that she was trying to emulate.

"How dare you barge in here while I'm busy!" Suri said. "I'm going to issue you with—"

I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of firing me—which was what another warning would do.

"Don't bother. I quit."

Forget about my lamentation over not having a sexual partner; saying those two words was better than any sex I'd ever had. I marched right up to her desk (standing on some pieces of paper her legs had displaced) and smiled at my—former—boss and tormentor.

"Y-You can't! You're fired—okay?!"

"I said it first," I said, stretching my smile. "So I quit. Goodbye!"

"Wait!"

I waited—mostly to see how Suri would turn her exclamation into a question.

"You have to give two weeks notice. You can't just quit and leave—alright?!" Suri said (or asked).

"Most companies waive that, for obvious reasons. What game are you playing, Suri?" I asked.

—Darling, can you look up laws regarding this? I don't think what she's doing is legal,— I sent to NotABug.

I locked eyes with my tormentor. NotABug (I could hear in the back of my head) was shuffling lots of information for me. I had to keep her talking without committing to anything until NotABug had my answer.

"Oh. You know? Just ensuring all the Ts are dotted and Is are crossed. I am sure there's some nasty clauses in your contract for failure to provide notice—right?" Suri asked.

She got up slowly, careful of her newly painted toes, and walked to a filing cabinet that looked like it had been recently used (unlike her computer). She started slowly flicking through files in one drawer, not realizing that her idiotic delay was helping me more than her.

—It's… sort of legal. The only restrictions they could place on you for not finishing your notice is cutting your pay short those two weeks and telling your new employer that it happened,— NotABug sent me.

—Two weeks of coming here, many weeks chasing a court, or I just ignore my last paycheck.—

—That's not a tough call.—

—You were wonderful, dear,— I sent NotABug.

Suri was just pulling out my file (I assumed) when my rapid conversation with NotABug ended. She turned to face me with a big grin on her face.

"Your employee contract. Signed and dated. Let's see what it says."

She sounded entirely too happy, that wasn't good. I realized that of course she would know what was in the contract, she would have filed the reports on me and put them in with it. How far had she planned this out, I wondered.

"Failure to give appropriate notice on termination of contract, waivable at the Company's discretion, will cause the Employee to default to the following," Suri said, quoting the document and smiling far too much for my liking. "Forfeiture of unpaid wages. Six month non-competition agreement. Oh, forfeiture of unpaid leave."

As she read out each item in the list Suri glanced up at me and paused. The first wasn't a major issue, nor was the third, but the second clause would be a problem.

—The first is legal, but the last two aren't. You'd have to take her to court for them, and your unpaid leave would be enough to make it a full court,— NotABug sent me.

—Why would the company even try this if it isn't legal?— I asked NotABug.

—Shrug,—

The reply surprised me. I had worked out how to bold text but not italicize them. It seemed a good way to emote too, short of actually using those horrible emoji. I studied the reply a little more and finally found the special characters NotABug had used to generate the italics.

Regardless of my thoughts on interpersonal communications and linguistic nuances, I had Suri to deal with.

"None of that is legal. Sign off that I can leave and you won't have to see me in court," I said.

"Daddy has his own lawyers for the company. I would never see you in court, but I am sure you will be spending a lot of time there—okay?"

I wanted to grind my teeth or even raise my voice but I knew neither would actually help. A soft sigh, as if I felt imposed upon just by being in Suri's presence (technically true), and I gave a little nod.

"You're really going to do this, aren't you?" I asked.

Suri's smile grew wider.

—What are you going to do?— NotABug asked me.

—Simple, darling, as little as possible.—

I turned and made my way out of Suri's office and walked down the cubicles toward the time clock. Tapping in my employee number, I waited for it to beep before heading to my cubicle.

There was a stack of patterns on the side of my desk. I considered my options. There wasn't enough time in the day for work and what I planned to do, which left me pondering ways to simply leave. I glanced behind me for a moment, stood up, and retraced my steps to the time clock.

I punched in a query on the clock, and it told me I had four days of personal leave. Tapping my code in again and telling the machine to log me out, I had a bounce in my step as I headed back to Suri's office.

Knocking, I felt, was for employees, so I just opened the door.

"… just barged in! I couldn't believe—" Suri said into her phone. "What are you doing in here again?"

"A sick friend just called and told me she is in dire need of someone to take care of her. I know it's short notice, but that's what personal leave is for. Tootles," I said and started to turn.

"You can't take the day off—alright?!"

"Personal leave, Suri. I have stated my reason and you have to accept it. Since it's not myself that is sick, you don't require a doctor's note."

This time I turned and left. Pulling the door closed behind me, I started compiling a text message to Coco Pommel.

—I have given Suri notice and told her I am taking a personal day. Could you double check she has logged both on the system?—

I got to the bottom of the lift before Coco's reply came in.

—Suri, use a computer? She would have told someone else to do it. Would you like me to do it?— Coco replied.

—You are a lifesaver, darling. Thank you so much.—

I got to the car when the next message came in. Opening my door, I slid into the safe confines of someplace I could control completely.

—Suri registered that you quit. What she didn't do was put a reason for your day off. Also, she made specific notes about you having to work out your 14 days?—

—Suri is being Suri. Thanks again.—

—I'll try to get it pushed up higher. HR won't be happy with this arrangement.—

With a gentle touch of my thoughts I started the car, checked the reversing camera, and slid it into reverse. Rolling backward, I turned and made my way from the parking garage.

The bank I dealt with wasn't far, and I made my way there with no particular haste.

—Who's the sick friend?— NotABug asked me.

—Rainbow Dash and her hangover. She'll probably call around midday and ask if I can come home and let her get her keys.—

When I pulled up at the bank and got out, I actually got some strange looks from people. The attention wasn't unwarranted considering my horn, eyes, and the streak of cerulean hair. Wearing what amounted to formal attire, however, meant that I looked just strange enough for people to completely write me off as odd.

—Your fashion tips have been impeccable, darling,— I sent to NotABug.

I grabbed my laptop and, with a tight, confident gait, I walked inside the bank. There was the usual line to reach a teller, but there was also a help desk that was manned. I walked over and smiled at the young man behind the counter.

"What can I do for you today?" he asked.

His eyes were cerulean (a shade or two lighter than my hair). He had a shock of dark gray hair and light opal skin—I thought the combination quite striking. He had on a smart shirt, tie, and dark slacks (fairly normal attire for a bank employee). The man also wore a headset, although I could tell he was speaking directly to me (it was probably just the way he made eye contact).

"I'm a customer of yours, and I am about to start a business," I said, and I watched his eyes light up. "I'll need accounts, card facilities, and advice."

As soon as I said "advice," his bright expression broke a little.

"I can't help you with all of that from here, unfortunately," he said. "But I can have you see someone from our business team."

I pondered my options. The young man wouldn't be stupid, and he definitely looked quite fetching.

"That would be wonderful, but maybe you could give me your number too? In case I have any questions you can handle," I said.

My heart was beating faster and I fought my urge to blush. Come on, Rarity, this is modern Canterlot; a woman can ask for a man's number.

"Sure. Let me get them out here and I'll even give you my cell in case you need some help out of business hours."

He tapped a few buttons on his phone and began speaking into his headset. I ignored his words, focusing on the numbers he wrote on the back of a business card. Then he wrote his name under it: Neon Lights.

The lights on his phone that had lit up when he made the call winked out and he turned those fabulous eyes on me again.

"They'll be right with you…" Neon said, his voice trailing off predictably.

"Rarity. Thank you, Neon," I said.

I took the card when he handed it to me, and we shared a little smile together before someone (similarly clad to Neon) walked up to the counter.

Unlike Neon, the woman was, well, a woman, and a recognizable one at that: Fleur dis Lee. It was a long time ago that Crystal Prep Academy had almost started the end of two worlds, but after helping save various people from certain doom, Fleur had spent time chatting with me about fashion. That, of course, I would not forget.

"Rarity?" Fleur asked. "Rarity, what have you done with yourself?"

"You like it? I wanted to be different," I said, turning to the side and tilting my head just so.

"It is certainly that. I would love to know how you did that with your eyes. Those aren't contacts, are they?"

Fleur's excitement, her interest, proved just how stale an environment Polomare Fashion was. I turned back to face Fleur and winked.

"Trade secret, darling. But speaking of trade, I'm here to start a new business."

"Come this way. I assume it has something to do with fashion? I had heard you were working at Polomare."

Fleur led the way down a short hall and into a private room. She settled behind a desk, at a computer terminal, and let me take the comfortable chair opposite. Her fingers were lightning on the keyboard, letting me know that, if nothing else, she was good enough at her job to learn the computer.

I lifted out my laptop and set it on the desk. While I opened the screen, I flicked the correct spreadsheet up.

"I have run some numbers on establishing a fashion boutique. I need—" I said, but the look in Fleur's eyes made me stop. "What's the matter?"

Looking somewhat like she was strangling a puppy, Fleur gave a little shake of her head.

"These figures look good, Rarity, but the bank isn't looking to support a business loan for retail right now."

My worry melted. “Darling, I have a silent partner who is providing the start-up funds."

Apparently I had said the magic words. Fleur dis Lee's face broke into a wide smile again. She started tapping away on her computer.

"That changes everything. Of course we can support all your business needs. You'll need an overdraft account, with the business itself as the collateral," Fleur said and held up her hand to forestall my questions. "Even if you never use it, an overdraft is a security net. You'll need an income account, expense account. A company card or two. How many employees?"

If it weren't for NotABug's crash course in mentally traveling the internet, I would have been in information overload. As it was, I merely struggled to write everything down into a big message to myself.

"Two initially, hopefully more."

I couldn't help but smile at both parts of my statement. NotABug was technically a citizen; I remembered her having identification to get her own finances started.

"Yourself and one other?" she asked, to which I nodded. "Sensible. Do you have the legal side of things covered? Business registration, employee contracts, lease, etcetera."

Fleur could apparently read my expression. I had planned for several of those things, having worked a summer job at Priss Fashion let me see some of the day-to-day parts of running a business, but there was a lot I had missed.

She started writing up plans of action, several reputable lawyers who could help me with the legal side, and finished the business part of the meeting by giving me a bound portfolio with all the information inside.

We looked at each other for a few moments before a smile broke out on each of our faces.

"So, what has happened since you left High School? Weren't you going to fashion college?" Fleur said, and settled back a little in her seat.

"Oh, I did. Passed with flying colors—literally. When I graduated everyone said I would go right to the top, and in this town that is Polomare Fashion."

"I detect a note of hostility. Given your activities,"—Fleur gestured at the portfolio—"I gather it isn't going well?"

—She seems nice, but I don't think I want to get her angry,— NotABug sent me.

—The school she attended specialized in overly competitive behavior. They practically used it as motivation and drummed it into all their students. Outside of her work she is a nice person, and has a good eye for fashion. I am sure that you are right, which is why I'm happy to have her working on our side.—

—I wish Windigo had been like that.—

—We could try to contact them, but only when we both agree on a safe way to do so,— I sent NotABug. —A certain friend of mine from another world would approve of that greatly.—

Winding my mind back mentally to the verbal conversation, I let out a little sigh.

"My job at Polomare was altering existing fashions to suit the new season with as little changes as possible so that they wouldn't have to change the machines that mass-produce them. My boss is narcissistic and has demanded I complete two weeks of work after giving notice. All this on top of realizing that any promotion I might get would make me less likely to see another bolt of fabric."

I hadn't unburdened myself like that enough, I realized.

"Wow…" Fleur said.

"Sorry to dump that on you, darling, but you did ask. So I'm putting Polomare behind me. I have a silent backer who is willing to let me control the business, and I intend to take full advantage of their generosity by making it work."

Fleur raised a perfectly trimmed eyebrow and looked at me as if I were a little crazy.

"Is he cute?" she asked.

"She, actually, and it's not exactly like that. We are—we're filling a need for each other. It's a little complicated—"

My mobile, the new one, began ringing. I reached for it, but NotABug answered it before I managed to. Left fumbling, I tucked the phone back in my bag.

"Oh, it stopped ringing? Must have been one of those dratted telemarketers. I had to leave the thing on mute at work because they would call me every hour," I said.

—It's Rainbow. She wants to know if you can come home and get her keys,— NotABug sent me.

—Of course, darling, tell her we'll be ten minutes.—

"I really should be going. Perhaps we can catch up for lunch soon?" I asked.

"Talk to one of those lawyers, or find your own, and come back with the business papers and I can get all this put into action. Make it around eleven A.M. and we can have lunch then."

I thanked Fleur, and picked up my handbag and the portfolio. I left the bank, jumped in my car, and drove home. Like usual, I had the amazing help of the car itself in searching the road ahead and behind. I didn't bother with the shifter anymore and would have been directly adjusting the throttle, too, if I didn't think that would be the most dangerous thing I could do.

By the time I reached home, Rainbow Dash was waiting for me—leaning against the side of her car. I pulled my little baby into the driveway and turned it off. NotABug nudged me, and before even giving her control, I knew what was coming.

NotABug opened the door and slipped out. She was good at controlling my—her—body (I tried to get the ownership straight in my head again, as it seemed slipping out and in messed with my perception), and the motion was as smooth as I would have managed myself.

I wasn't sure when Rainbow Dash had moved, but someone with her speed could compress distance very rapidly. She was right in front of me and NotABug was leaning forward.

The heterosexual side of me would like to make it clear that Rainbow Dash wrapping NotABug in her arms and kissing her was neither interesting nor satisfying. The truth of the matter, however, was that it was both. And it lasted a little longer than I would have thought it would, too.

"Hey, babe," Rainbow Dash said, her arms still around NotABug. "Is Rarity doing okay? You didn't give her a hangover from last night, did you?"

—Tell her I'm fine. No hangover,— I sent NotABug.

"She said to say she's fine, that she didn't get a hangover. You taste really good," NotABug said.

I actually delighted in the confused look on Rainbow Dash's face, as did NotABug it seemed—she giggled. An odd thought struck me: I hadn't tasted anything different in Rainbow Dash's kiss at all. Not that I kissed her before, and not that I wanted to taste something. I put it down to NotABug being adorably non-human in her exploration of things.

"Wait," Rainbow Dash said, looking surprised at something. "She's listening? How does that work?"

"When one of us wants to be in control, or wants to give up control, the other can feel it. I get a tingle from her either way. She can see what I can see and feel what I can feel. Why are you blushing?"

"You mean to tell me Rarity felt all that? The kiss? She—" Rainbow Dash said, cutting herself short. "Okay. This is going to take some getting used to. S-Sorry, Rarity, I didn't mean to do anything out of line."

—Rainbow Dash, don't you dare apologize for making NotABug feel good. She has every right to enjoy life as much as she wishes,— I messaged to Rainbow Dash.

Of course, Rainbow Dash jerked when her phone bleeped at her. In my haste I had forgotten she can't communicate as readily as NotABug or I. She read the message with a little smile pulling at her lips.

"Rarity, Princess Twilight was right about you. You're generous to your core," Rainbow Dash said.

NotABug grabbed her handbag, the laptop, and the folio from the car and closed it up. She walked toward the house, and I could have sworn she put a little extra sway into her hips. Of course she was, I realized—she is showing off for Rainbow Dash.

—Your walk had enough sway already, dear,— I sent NotABug.

—Yeah. But she can't take her eyes off me when I do this. Look at the camera in our phone.—

Dutifully, I accessed the device and sure enough, Rainbow Dash was practically slack-jawed. If I'd known all it took to make Rainbow Dash this deliriously happy, I might have walked like that before now.

Deploying my house keys, NotABug opened the front door and beckoned Rainbow Dash in. Getting a little distracted, I woke the laptop up again and started investigating the lawyers Fleur had suggested. They all specialized in business law, and all but one was specifically only doing out-of-court duties.

—How do I make a phone call?— I asked NotABug.

The following lesson on audio, generating waveforms, interpreting waveforms, and data compression nearly blew me away, but at the same time, each thing NotABug explained sparked a memory of the topic, of learning it already. NotABug's memories of adapting her digital self to the analog world.

The explanation would have taken hours had it been out loud. When I checked the time, barely fifteen minutes had passed. I reached past all the digital interfaces (which I must say I was getting quite familiar with) and focused back on the world through NotABug's eyes.

Rainbow Dash and NotABug were sitting on the couch together, each with a drink and around half a sandwich left. They were chatting, or rather Rainbow Dash was talking about her problem competing in any kind of sport.

"… just can't do it. The moment I try to run I pony up, and when people see that they either freak out or crowd around me," Rainbow Dash said. "It wouldn't be so bad except most of the ones that want to crowd around are the creepy types."

She also had one arm casually over NotABug's shoulder. I had to give Rainbow Dash credit; she was being a perfect lady around NotABug. I hated to break up their little lunch-date, but I needed to test something.

I called Rainbow Dash's mobile phone.

Predictably, Rainbow Dash pulled her phone out and was reaching to hang up on the call without even glancing at it.

"Wait! Answer that. It's Rarity trying to test something," NotABug said.

Rainbow Dash answered the call, and immediately I felt a tugging sensation from the phone—it wanted data.

"Okay. Now what do I do?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—Have her put it on speaker,— I sent NotABug.

"Put it on speaker," NotABug said.

The sound that issued from the poor phone when I tried to say hello startled Rainbow Dash and myself—NotABug giggled.

"You need to work on that, Rarity. Can you make sense of what I'm saying through the microphone?" NotABug asked.

That surprised me. I had been so focused on the call that I hadn’t realized I’d been matching the voice from my—her ears to the waveform I got from Rainbow Dash's phone.

—Listening is helping me make sense of it. Please, just ignore me and let me listen through this,— I sent NotABug.

—You can do that, and not annoy Rainbow Dash, if you call our other phone,— NotABug sent. —Oh! I've got a better idea. Hang up on Rainbow Dash and have a look at this.—

I followed NotABug's guide and found the microphone in the second phone.

—Darling, you are the best at this. Thank you.—

"She hung up," Rainbow Dash said while looking at her phone.

"Rarity's going to listen on our mobile. Don't worry, she's just trying to learn how to make voices. She's picking it up faster than I did, but then again, she doesn't have to deal with learning spoken language at the same time," NotABug said.

Left staring at her phone, Rainbow Dash seemed to snap out of some fugue state. She shook her head and put her phone back in a pocket.

"I don't know why it confuses me sometimes. Rarity spent so long telling me she wasn't gay, and now here you are and you're into me. I guess I thought, at first, that you were Rarity trying to be not-awkward about wanting to go out. Though you seem a little like her sometimes, you're really not her."

Listening to Rainbow Dash's voice in stereo (wait, is there a term for hearing from three sources at once), I compared the way things sounded to the way the phone reported them, and of course I found patterns. Loudness increased the spiky bits, pitch made more spiky bits in less time, but I still needed more to understand everything.

"When I was attacked and jumped into Rarity, I was badly hurt by Windigo. It had turned off some key servers I was using to hold—well—me. Rarity's magic fixed that by copying bits of her into me. My own impeccable style comes from her, as well as a propensity for flowery speech. I don't even know if I was female before, but I might have gotten that too," NotABug said.

"And liking girls?"

NotABug giggled at Rainbow's question. She lifted a hand up and tapped her lips with one finger in thought.

"I think I like everyone. There was a cute guy at the bank—Rarity was flirting with him—and I thought he was… cute. I don't know. Rarity said I could make up my own choices. So, until I have found someone who doesn't seem cute I guess I don't know. You're really cute, Rainbow Dash."

The way Rainbow Dash squeezed NotABug's shoulders told me more about how much my friend thought of NotABug than her words would.

"Pretty sure I never thought of it like that before. I guess you're right, though. How can you really know the full extent of what you like until you've found things you dislike?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I was surprised at how deep my friend was, then I remembered that she had been the one trying to save me from myself.

"I don't like onion, if that helps. It makes me burp really badly. Not having an internet connection is bad, too," NotABug said as she leaned sideways against Rainbow Dash. "Where are you taking me on this date?"

Rainbow Dash spluttered for a bit in surprise.

"Well, I was going to check around a bit later in the week," Rainbow Dash said, after recovering her ability to talk. "Why? Was there somewhere you wanted to go?"

"That part's up to you, remember? I'm just paying."

I spent twenty-three minutes and seventeen seconds listening to Rainbow Dash and NotABug talk before Rainbow Dash excused herself and got up to leave. It wasn't hard to work out that NotABug was looking right at Rainbow's rump as my friend left.

—It was good to just talk to her. Comfortable,— NotABug sent.

"I think I might have thif under control," I said through the mobile phone's speaker. "Oh drat, I don't think I got the F found worked out fully."

"S? Six sudden silly slaps shooting space sudden… Is that enough?"

I couldn't help myself and giggled through that tiny little device.

"Perfect, darling. This—" I said, pausing to prove I had worked out S. "… will be very helpful."

It did, however, take a lot more of my focus than anything but actually controlling my body did. I pulled back from the new mobile phone and reached for the internal one's dialing interface and entered the number for the lawyer who handled documents and court situations.

There was another reason I called this firm. A very good reason indeed.

"You've called Velvet and Pants. How may I address you?"

The voice was young and male (at least I hoped so), and there was an edge of precision to their pronunciation that made them sound the pinnacle of… I have Ps on the brain. He sounded really sharp.

"Rarity, please. And I was about to start a new business. Fleur dis Lee, from Canterlot National Bank, recommended I call you," I said.

I could hear typing in the background.

"Would you like an appointment? With either Mr. Pants or Mrs. Velvet? I have a cancellation at two. You could see Mr. Pants."

If I were ponied up, my ears would have pricked in excitement.

"That would be lovely," I said. "One more thing: where are your offices situated?"

He gave me the address and we finalized the call. I had just hung up and noticed NotABug in front of the makeup mirror, retouching her face.

—Stunning idea. I just called one of the lawyers Fleur suggested,— I sent.

"Did you get an appointment date?"

The time, omnipresent, was just short of 1 P.M. which gave NotABug plenty of time to redo her makeup.

—In an hour. No rush. I picked this one because I recognized a name, and I hope it's the person I think it is.—

I sent the address to NotABug. She finished her makeup and nudged me. I was surprised at her wish to change over, but slid into the driver's seat, so to speak.

The change from merely existing with sensations to having full control never failed to interest me. I know I wasn't actually moving, but it was like breaking the surface of a lake after swimming underneath. Sunlight, air, sounds… it all came into sharper focus.

"Thank you, dear. I must confess that my days are not normally this exciting. You've shaken my life up in wonderful, but busy, ways."

—I didn't mean to shake it up. You just seemed so unhappy about working at Polomare, and I thought we could be friends.—

"The biggest regret I have is that you aren't that adorable little dark pony I could hug. I was unhappy, but now I can see the light. Even if we don't work out what's going on with my horn, eyes, and hair, this is still better than anything that could have come from staying at Polomare."

—I love you, Rarity.—

"I love you too, NotABug."

The rest of the day, in comparison to things so far, was much less complicated. Mr. Pants really was Fancy Pants, a friend of my parents. He took everything in hand and told me the papers should be finalized by early next week.

When I returned from that, I took to my work room and started designing Rainbow Dash a dress. Something long and flowing—I pictured her dancing with NotABug and my heart melted. I know I'm rushing past a few things that happened, but I'll be honest: I barely understood half of what Mr. Pants said apart from a deadline and how much it would cost.

By the time I was done with a preliminary design for Rainbow Dash's dress, it was dinner time. Walking quietly to the kitchen, I felt a soothing peace in my head and realized NotABug was already asleep.

I curled up on the couch watching a movie, eating a quick salad I had put together from things in the fridge, and barely noticed when I was nudged and NotABug walked us to bed. Truthfully, having a good friend, a sister, living in my head seemed to be a good deal.

Author's Note

Twilight: Are you planning to test Rarity's connectivity limits any time soon?

"Connectivity? I've got a thesis to finish. I don't really have time to do any extra-curricular research so long as no one is exploding, turning into a monster, or actually in trouble." She smiled as more than a few hairs seemed to flick out of place. "Sorry. Lots of stress."

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And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 8

I yawned as my mind stirred from the depths of a forgotten dream. I was tucked in bed, warm, cozy, and according to the time, I had nearly an hour before my alarm was due to go off.

NotABug was still asleep, there were no sounds of traffic in the neighborhood, and it felt like the whole world was still snoozy and drowsy. But I had to get up and go to work. For a fraction of a second, I forgot what I had been planning, but then my mouth curved into a smile.

"Today is going to be great fun," I said.

Yawning again, I heard a curious—and heart-rending—cloth ripping sound. I froze mid yawn: last time I looked, there was only one part of me that was sharp.

I moved carefully, wincing at every further ripping sound, until my head was clear of my bed. A lone, forlorn feather floated past my face.

"Oh, darling, I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve this."

As I turned, I spotted the rent pillow. A small nest of feathers had come free of the gash. I carefully picked up the remains of my feather pillow and carried them to my sewing room.

"I will save you, but regular fabric seems way out."

Lifting a hand up, I carefully touched the edge of my horn and found it actually rather sharp. So it wasn't just jagged edges but a blade as well. Something tickled at my thoughts and I mentally reached toward the computer and my cache of images.

It wasn't pure punk, or even industrial, but steampunk—a young woman holding a parasol in one hand and unsheathing a thin-bladed sword with the other. She had a dress that included wooden stays and fabric to make it look more like furled, mechanical wings. I wasn't a fan of the dress, but the sword gave me a great idea.

Wood, as the young woman had for her sheath, was right out (too heavy) and any lighter woods would be kindling by morning. If I could form metal into the required shape, I might run the risk of damaging my horn—and believe me, though I was not as fond of it as I could be, it was my horn, and I would not suffer damage to it.

Like my pillow, my horn sheath would need special materials. Cursory searches revealed fabrics that seemed to suit. The company had no ordering system set up, so I simply bookmarked the site for later.

Only then did I realize I was in my underthings. NotABug, it seemed, really liked the teddy. I walked back to my room and fetched a bathrobe, then headed to my kitchen. A large glass of juice and a breakfast bar were sufficient, and while I retired to the living room to eat and ponder my day, I wondered about how unique what was happening to me was.

How many others in the world had magic, had access to a very smart digital friend, and had the desire to do something like—like what had happened to us? The answers were likely: not many, probably none, and a lot.

There was a way to discover at least two of the answers—maybe all three. Twilight would know how common magic was; after all, particle physics was her field of study. One of my best friends had not just discovered a new type of subatomic particle, but she had also been able to name it after herself.

I only knew so much because Twilight, when she has had a drink or two, would not take a hint. And what was worse, each time she repeated it and got so adorably excited, it just hammered home the information.

Twilight Sparkle had discovered the Twilight particle. There was a lot of crazy mathematics—and I had been assured there were only three people in the world who could make sense of it—but it apparently described how magic worked.

Sunset Shimmer, of course, had suggested the magnitude measurement for the particle be a Sparkle, which Twilight had liked the idea of right up until she had gotten it confirmed and done her first calculation with it. The calculation—Sunset would always giggle while explaining—measured the Twilight's Sparkle.

If there was anyone who could tell me how much magic was in the world, it was Twilight—not that I would trust her to understand a joke.

The second question would have a much closer (relation wise) solution. I started a new to-do list on my internal phone and added "Call Sweetie Belle about AI" on it, then added "Call Twilight about magic." The final question was an easy one, and I had already answered it: everyone and their pets would want this connection to the digital world.

I chewed at the breakfast bar, sitting on the couch and mentally exploring my future, but I was also searching for more details online and compiling an email to both Twilight and my sister.

—Good morning,— NotABug sent.

I was enveloped in warmth, but not my physical body. NotABug snuggled against my digital self, and I didn't care about much else than hugging her back. A good hug was a great way to start the morning, and it seemed that now we had established hug-standards, hug-etiquette was next.

—Good morning to you too,— I sent.

She slowly released the hug and I did the same. Free of the distraction of snuggling, I lifted the bar up for another bite.

—Did you have a good night?— I asked.

—I ordered a few more things to be delivered (mostly some security cameras), and some more entertainment. Rainbow Dash asked if I have a game console and I think it looks like fun.—

—Cameras? Whatever for?—

Absolutely massive floods of data began pouring in and out of NotABug. What sounded almost like chirping rang in my digital ears as she did something online.

—One for the front door, so we don't have to get up to see who is there. Another for the back door because we want to know if someone is there. Don't worry, I'll make sure that only we can use them.—

Her reassurance was appreciated. From what I understood of the way NotABug coopted such things, once she had adapted them for us to use, no one would ever be able to use them another way.

—Okay, dear, and it's your money after all.—

I lifted the glass of juice (apple and mango) and took a long, cooling sip of it.

—It's okay. I got more.—

The chirping torrent of data continued, but rather than distract me it was relaxing—like white noise. I closed my eyes and continued to eat the breakfast bar.

—There. Back up to a million!—

A piece of breakfast bar hurtled across the room and landed on the floor just before the TV. I was fighting to work out if I had made a mess while also struggling to process what NotABug had said.

Slowly (compared to computer-speed, not normal-speed), I put the facts in order: talk of money, NotABug saying she had gotten more, then she said a word that was unconscionable to me.

—A million…?—

—Well, a little over. A few of my stocks were doing really well and it can be hard to sell them fast enough sometimes. One million, sixty-three thousand, two-hundred and eleven dollars.—

"Wait! Hold on. You mean to tell me that you make money on the stock exchange until you have a million dollars and then stop?" I asked.

—Yes.—

"So why am I going to work? Why am I opening a store? What is the reason for any of this?"

—Did you want to open a fashion store?—

And there I had the reason—my reason—for doing anything. I stared at the blank TV, not seeing it or the wall behind it. I wanted to make fashionable things, I needed to, and it didn't hurt that it helped Rainbow Dash have a job.

NotABug could give me a million dollars just as easily as buy me Carousel Boutique, but that wouldn't give me what I wanted—needed—in life.

I let out a little sigh and nibbled at the last morsel of my breakfast (excluding what had landed on the floor, of course).

—You're right. Humans have a saying. Money doesn't buy you happiness. People want pretty things, they want someone to tell them something is pretty, and they want someone to make a pretty thing for them. I just want to see people smile and move with self-confidence because they know they look good,— I sent.

The words seemed right. I felt like it just all fit together in my head. My life had always been about fashion and making people look amazing. Did it matter if money wasn't my driving force?

—Your job is still a problem. If I could just pay them to go away, it wouldn't be a problem. Suri won't let us do that, will she?— NotABug asked.

—No, darling, she won't. So step one of my plan goes into effect,— I sent.

I lifted the juice up and drank the last of it, then I smiled wide.

I slipped out of my little car easily, my mind having only just let go of the extra cameras the vehicle offered. That was easier now, as was controlling the car digitally. But my car was small, which meant the leather jacket I brought with me had to be put on outside.

Apparently doomed to be monochromatic—at least my skin—I was wearing a skin-tone bra under a white shirt. The combination served to show my black skin through the top and outline my breasts in a way that told everyone the essence of the punk movement: this is me, sod off, I don't care.

I didn't need black eye-shadow or eyeliner, but cerulean flecks on both brought more attention to my hair. I hadn't cut my hair, of course, but it was up in a complicated knot that was hidden under a spiky ball of hair that (with the power of hairspray) shot out everywhere around the back of my head. I wore a black skirt that came to my knees, but the shade was such that it made it hard to work out where legs stopped and dress started. My stockings and shoes, of course, were black.

—You look like a warrior. A weapon in her own right. You go to do battle!— NotABug sent.

The horn on my head, bearing silver nail polish that made it look like it was wrapped in barbed wire, was my weapon—I was only the hand holding it. I strode into our office building and didn't even look at the front desk. I caught a lift up and was on my floor in no time.

Finally, to complete the ensemble, I grabbed some chewing gum from my handbag and popped it in my mouth.

An outfit wasn't always to make someone look better. Sometimes you wore something because it was comfortable. Sometimes you did it to remind yourself of something. Today I dressed like a punk and styled myself so for one exact response. When I marched into our office and found my cubicle, I got it.

"R-Rarity?!" Suri Polomare said. "Is that you? You can't wear that here!"

Her voice rose with each word until she was practically screeching. I just shrugged at her and smiled a bored, disinterested smile.

"Well?" I asked.

"W-W-Well what?!" Suri asked.

"Can I go?"

She froze. Suri Polomare was slowly coming to terms with the situation I had built. I wasn't dressed for work. Her duty, as my manager, was to issue me a warning and send me home for the day. A warning would mean she would have to fire me, and sending me home was exactly what I wanted.

Benign, trapped fury, written large on Suri's face, was the absolute opposite of her smile. It was lovely to see her so livid she couldn't even talk. I got bored of waiting.

"Clearly I'm not dressed up to standard," I said. "You only have one position you can—"

"You're dressed just fine!" Suri said, her voice raised still. "Do your work and I won't have to write you up, okay?"

I didn't smile. Punks didn't smile unless everything was going their way, and even then it would be more of a sneer. I looked down to Suri's shoes, then up her body—she wore a mundane business suit that didn't look well tailored at all—all the way to her blonde-dyed hair.

—She'd look pretty if she stopped scowling, got some nice clothes, and did something with her hair,— NotABug sent.

Her assessment surprised me; caused me to look at Suri more intently.

—You know, you're right,— I sent. —If she let her own colored hair to grow out, and got something lighter to compliment her darker colors, she might almost be pretty. What a tragedy her personality is?—

—giggle—

"Of course I can do it, Suri, but only because you asked so nicely," I said.

I could practically see the steam exploding from her ears. Turning for the time clock, I punched in for the day.

My office-punk persona slid into place again, and I launched myself toward my cubicle. Finding my seat, I sat down while chewing loudly on my gum.

The usual pile of patterns was suitably larger than normal—apparently Suri (or whoever handled the passing out of work) just ignored the fact I wasn't at work for three days. I plucked the first off the pile and looked over the piece. It was another of a plethora of standard designs.

"This will look just darling with a simple…" I said.

I ripped free the sleeves of the blouse and put it on the done pile.

The next skirt was just screaming to be a mini that a woman couldn't wear without underwear, and then a cardigan (don't even get me started) that shouted out to be a keyhole… cardigan. I'm sure it would be the rage somewhere.

Had the outfits been actually fashionable I would never have been able to do this to them, but they weren't. Each pattern was another fashionista's hopes and dreams watered down to a mass-marketable "beige" jumble. They were the rent hopes and dreams of others just like me.

A particularly apt scene from some terrible action movie that Rainbow Dash had insisted we all watch one night came to mind. A woman (who was dressed aggressively) had been some sort of human-alien hybrid. She had all the good features of both, including a perfectly human appearance. She had found the other hybrids, but those had been failures. Half monster and half person, they reminded me of these poor patterns.

"You could have been an amazing dress," I said, brushing my hand over the pattern paper. "Instead they did this to you."

I didn't have a flamethrower, like the avenging angel of that unknown movie, but I had scissors that would ensure these poor, twisted souls of fashion could die at the hands of someone who cared.

The next blouse became a tube-top.

—I've done some poking,— NotABug sent.

I'd been listening to her soft chirping while I worked, letting her data communications sooth the artist within me who was so upset with the mercy killings I was dispensing. Of course the work wasn't actual work, but it didn't mean that a distraction wasn't going to be a high point.

—What did you find?—

—Your contract varies wildly from what the reality of your work is. Did you know you're contracted for hour long lunch breaks?—

11:53 A.M.

The real world was easier to deal with when you were focused on the digital. Everything moved at a snail's pace, so I could happily turn last year's gown into a belt while chatting to NotABug. I had a sudden idea.

—Then we are going somewhere nice for lunch. Sushi?— I asked.

I reached out and searched online for good sushi restaurants nearby, finding two that served lunch. Phone numbers were on both sites, and I quickly rang the first.

"Canterlot Fine Sushi. My name's Lin, how may I help you?"

The young woman's voice sounded perky and suitably ethnic to put my mind at ease. Two things I had learned about quality ethnic restaurants: they usually employed family and people of that ethnic group usually ate there too. It was a wonderful sign of authenticity when the food can be enjoyed by expatriates.

"Do you take reservations for lunch?" I asked.

"We can, or you can walk in."

"Are you busy today?"

"We have room for you. I'll hold a table for…?"

"Just one, under the name Rarity. I'll be there shortly. Thank you."

"We'll see you soon."

I ended the call.

—That was easy,— NotABug sent.

—We can try the other one tomorrow, darling.—

12:01 P.M.

I got up, clocked out, and walked to my car. We reached Canterlot Fine Sushi and took turns trying a little of everything. It was great practice for swapping positions. Then NotABug had a new plan.

—Okay. You've shown me a wonderful thing about your world. Now I'll show you something cool about mine.—

She was in control at that moment, but I felt her gesturing, digitally, to something in our internal phone. Not being quite as adept as her at maintaining two presences, I turned my attention to what she was doing.

A data list came up, after a fraction of a second, with information on all the nearby wireless hotspots.

—Nearby connections?— I asked.

—Yup. We want this one.—

NotABug touched her light to CFS-Private. She used the id from that, poked into the phone further, and pulled out a stream of information. I watched as she worked, studying how she took bits of the data (most of them being indecipherable), and pushed them into an app she had loaded on the phone. She did it again and again, nine times in all, until the program returned a code.

c983EOIE

—That's the password for their Wi-Fi. Usually, that is all we need,— NotABug said. —This wasn't set up by an amateur. They have a unique channel name, and a fairly complex password. This is good and bad.—

NotABug connected the phone to their wireless network and started reaching out again. I moved with her, finding various things.

—This is their point-of-sales server. These are their cash registers. And these are their handhelds for taking orders,— NotABug said as she gestured to different machines. —But these are what we want. These are their security cameras.—

—Darling, isn't this illegal?— I asked. —That is to say, breaking into their network.—

—Well. Kinda.—

NotABug seemed a little meek. I wrapped myself around her in a hug, and felt her squeeze back. I didn't notice at first, what with being focused on hugging my mental companion while we were both illegally exploring a sushi restaurant's computer network, but NotABug was writing something on a paper napkin.

I hugged her tighter. The note was instructions for securing their network.

—This is a good start,— I sent.

—So now the easy bit would be trying their Wi-Fi password on these cameras and… there.—

Pictures started springing to life, and I could see myself from multiple angles. Big tough punk girl with a huge horn sticking out of her spiky hair. I even watched as the waitress approached me—err, NotABug.

At that moment I got a call. Answering the phone while still inside the computer network wasn't hard. Spreading my presence wide while focusing on digital things was simpler than switching back and forth with the real world.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Rarity, you've been at lunch for forty minutes. I'm docking your—" Suri said.

I cut her off.

"If you'll read my contract—section five, paragraph three—it says quite clearly that I have an hour for lunch. I'll be back in fifteen minutes. Was there anything else?" I asked, my tone sweet.

The sigh Suri Polomare rewarded my efforts with was pure indulgence on my part. I could have swam in that sigh and done waterballet.

"If you're even a minute late, I'm docking you the whole hour. Which will mean you'll have to come in an extra day—okay?"

Suri sounded like she was grinding her perfect white teeth, ready to chew her way through steel to curse my name. It was awesome.

"Is that all?" I asked.

An incomprehensible scream of rage accompanied her hanging up. I took several milliseconds to focus on how good it felt to annoy her.

—Was that Suri?— NotABug asked.

—It was. I don't think she liked me telling her about the contract. Thank you again, darling.—

She prodded at me, gently, and I felt myself caught in that strange duality of digital and real-life existence. I could hold it, so long as I didn't have to do anything particularly clever in either space. Not wanting to chance screwing up, I withdrew to just captaining my body.

I looked down at the sample plate I'd ordered. Some things looked familiar—little roll things with seaweed wrapped around them—to others that looked like simple cuts of fish stuck on top of rice. There was even a lonely little shrimp on one rice brick.

The decor of the restaurant was starting to upset my sensibilities. It looked Japanese, but it lacked a certain quality that made me think it was mass produced Japanese, rather than something authentic. Working at Polomare had taught me how to spot such things, that was for sure.

Utilizing the provided chopsticks, I sampled one of the rolls first. The pervasive flavor of ocean fish dominated it, and it might have carried the piece were it not for some slightly crunchy rice.

With no instruction from the waitress, I continued to pick around at the different pieces hoping to find something that would have something unique. The shrimp was a little too small for the rice it was presented on, and all the other pieces of fish ranged from orange (salmon, I'd guess) to pink (tuna). In all honesty, it was hard to tell any of the fish apart—bland was the order of the day.

—This is horrible,— I sent.

—I looked at more reviews, why did we come here?— NotABug asked.

—Drat. Is it that terrible? I just read their website and it seemed nice enough.—

—There's another place nearby. It's not as big and they don't have their own website, but they only have good reviews.—

I pushed around the last few pieces of the sushi, unable to bring myself to eat them.

12:46 P.M.

I could see on the cameras that the waitress was already on her way with the check. Eating another of the average little discs did not appeal to me—it was time to lie.

"Oh drat, look at the time. I best head back to work," I said.

The waitress was out of sight for the start of the exclamation, so it seemed natural to her that I wasn't saying it for her benefit. I arranged a forlorn look for the remaining pieces and waited for the waitress to startle me from my daydream.

"Miss? The check," she said.

"Oh."

I reached out and examined the cost. With NotABug helping pay for groceries, I had a little more of my own money than usual. I withdrew some bills from my purse and set it on the table, then filled in a twenty-five percent tip.

"Oh, and could you please pass this on to your manager? You must understand I didn't take any advantage of your systems, but the next person might."

The waitress stared at the napkin and blinked a few times.

"What's WEP? I can't even follow half of this," she said.

"Just have your boss pass it on to your IT guy. Thank you for the lunch."

I stood up and made my way for the door, leaving the bewildered waitress behind.

—Why'd you pay in cash?— NotABug asked.

—When you are done illegally hacking into someone's computers, and give them a list showing exactly what you did, you don't leave them with your name, darling. I don't think we'll eat here again.—

—But… But we did the right thing, right? Telling them how to fix their stuff?—

—Yes, but some people don't like to hear good news. If we are going to practice more of that, let's buy our own things to poke at. You did say money wasn't really a problem, right?— I asked.

A faint chirping erupted in my head. If I didn't know better, I would have said NotABug had just done a large amount of data transferring very quickly. I waited for her to tell me whatever it was she had done.

—I just ordered a bunch of new things. It will be like a playground for us. We can reconfigure things, and try to beat each other.—

12:51 P.M.

As I sat in the car, I gave NotABug a little hug. The energy blending when we snuggled like that was surprisingly nice. It felt good and so far was an excellent substitute for real-world hugs. I slowly pulled free and started driving back to work.

12:57 P.M.

Turning the corner, I saw Suri herself doing something on the time clock. I fixed the most neutral and bored expression I could, and walked up to her.

"Excuse me, I need to punch back in," I said.

Suri, with the most delighted grin I’d ever seen on her features, waved a hand at me in a dismissive gesture.

"I'll be done in a few minutes. It won't take long—okay?" she said (well, asked).

—NotABug, dear?— I asked.

—What's going on? Oh, drat. She looks really happy.—

—Yes. She is going to keep me from punching in until after the hour. Could you work something out to log me in?—

—Isn't this illegal?—

—Yes, but she's doing it first. Just don't get caught.—

Flexibility, I told myself. This was all her being petty. I watched the screen of the computer, distinctly aware that Suri wasn't actually doing anything but making it look like she was busy.

—Just a… got it!— NotABug sent.

I could see all the things Suri had open close down as the log-in screen appeared, and my employee number entered itself, followed by a series of stars in the pin number field.

Welcome back, Rarity!

"How did you do that?!" Suri asked.

She was walking toward me, screaming the words over and over again. I kept backing up until I got to the lifts. If I were in less of a panic over the ferocity of her anger, I would have cowered on the floor a moment before the lift doors opened.

As it was, three coworkers and Coco Pommel watched as Suri Polomare stomped up to me and tried to claw at the horn on my head.

"Suri?" Coco asked. "What's going on here? Why are you trying to assault one of your workers?"

Spinning on Coco, Suri looked ready to continue her aggression, but the sight of the senior manager seemed to drain the hottest of her fury.

"She—She used some kind of…" Suri said as she wound down. "I would like to have a formal investigation undertaken. I believe Rarity has been hacking the time system to log in and out whenever she wishes—alright?"

—Would they find any traces?— I asked.

—No. I left none.—

"I got back from lunch, and Miss Polomare was running some tasks on the time clock," I said.

I was running on pure moxy. This was ad-lib acting at its finest, and if I got out of this without any investigation I would happily claim my Oscar.

"She closed her tabs down so I could log in. I guess I might have closed one extra one. I'm sorry, Suri," I said, making sure to look her in the eyes as I did.

"Well, it can't have been too much. The time clocks aren't meant for anything but clocking in and out or printing reports. Why don't you let Rarity get back to work?" Coco asked.

Everything was perfectly reasonable. The whole tale made much more sense than my boss trying to sadistically keep me in her clutches for an extra day and thus causing NotABug to hack the work computers and log me in illegally.

Anyone who knew Suri would have called what I said a lie—Suri wouldn't move aside for anyone. Coco knew it, but Coco also had no reason to do anything Suri said.

"If you wish, Suri, I could write Rarity up for—" Coco said.

"No!" Suri said, shouting. "W-What I mean is, it's such a minor thing. She doesn't need to be written up for this."

Suri was upset again. She wasn't smiling. Life was good.

"Can I go and do my work, then?" I asked.

"Since you're back on the clock, I insist," Coco said, smiling.

I walked as calmly as I could under the circumstances, and it wasn't until I got to my desk and sat down that I got a message.

—That was amazing. How did you make Suri that mad?— Coco sent.

—She was trying to delay me, make me late clocking back in. She got a little distracted and I managed to get clocked back on before she could shove me out of the way,—

I sent.

—You're enjoying this!—

—A little. But only because she is making me do go through this farce. Did you like my outfit?—

—Punk is in?—

—Absolutely, darling, absolutely. And she can't write me up for it because then she would be firing me.—

—So that's what her outburst was about? Do you want to try that again and I could actually write you up?—

As we chatted, I cut away at tired patterns. I destroyed and decimated, cutting free the diseased parts of the poor outfits to bring out at least a tiny part of beauty. With things all happening in real-time, I found it easier to relax and focus on both.

—You know what? Tempting as it is to let you free me of this cage, I don't think I'll take you up on it. I'm not the first Suri has targeted like this, but I can promise I'll be the one she remembers most.—

—If you say so. I love that look, by the way. How'd you get that horn to stay on? Doesn't it weigh a ton?—

That had me thinking. I swung my head left and right, finding that my horn wasn't heavy at all, but it did feel—menacing. In my guise as a punk, having something as odd and dangerous as a bladed horn attached to my head was very in.

—It really looks it, doesn't it? It's light as a feather, and really suits this outfit. I dressed up like this to intentionally be out of dress code. I guess being fired won't count as a victory unless I can get Suri to do it.—

—Well, good luck with your little game.—

—Is it a game? I don't think Suri wants to play anymore,— NotABug sent.

—No, darling, but she started this game. She can end it any time she wishes, too. All she needs to do is adjust her attitude.—

Normally my pile of patterns would be reduced by about forty percent by now, with an afternoon's work reducing it by another fifty, but today I was nearly two-thirds of the way done already. So, with the curious idea of my war with Suri in the back of my head, I put a lot of poor designs out of their (and everyone's) misery.

4:28 P.M.

I lifted the last pattern, looked over it, and saw a delightful ribbon. It had been a full gown of light, summer fabric.

"You poor thing. Let me grant you this," I said.

I cut.

There was a lot of ribbons in Polomare Fashion's future, or so my work seemed to imply. I had even made it a personal challenge to work out ways to make the longest straight ribbon. This one would be almost four feet long.

"What are you doing?" Suri asked from the entrance to my cubicle.

As I turned in my seat, I noticed all the discarded pieces of pattern paper—the pile was much larger than my completed work. I raised one eyebrow to meet Suri Polomare's shocked expression.

"My job. The company pays me to change outfits into new designs with a minimum of work, and that's what I've done," I said. "I regret to point out that there was no saving these ones as their original intent, so I rendered them into artful pieces."

"You've destroyed them!"

"No. I saved them. Every other day I've been here I destroyed fashion. But not today."

Suri looked ready to blow her top again for nearly two seconds. She closed her eyes and calmed down. Then she smiled.

—I don't like her smile,— NotABug said.

—Me either.—

"I'm not going to get anymore work from you, am I?" Suri asked.

I gestured to the stack of belts, bandanas, and ribbons. It was all the answer I needed to give.

Walking up to my desk, Suri Polomare swept all the remaining modified patterns to the bin. She then gestured to the entry of my cubicle.

"Then, with my full permission, you may go home early. I'll even come and initial it on the time clock—okay?" she said.

For a moment my brain skipped her questionifying of the… There had to be a real word that described what evils she committed to language.

Before she even noticed I was taking too long to reply, I'd started my search and turned up a result—two in fact. Upspeak, I discovered, was just using tone to turn a statement into a question, but what Suri did was making a tag question.

—I find myself looking odd things up more and more. Do you do that?— I asked.

—All the time! How do you think I can understand and talk with people?—

"Sure. Lead the way, boss!" I said.

I didn't feel as confident as I sounded, but I would not give Suri the satisfaction of seeing me confused or worried at her capitulation. I stood up and followed her to the time clock, logged into it and when I clicked the option for being given the rest of the day off, Suri had to put her password.

She quickly punched in her password and hit enter. The screen showed me as logged out before returning to the normal ready display.

—Bestgrl69,— NotABug sent.

—You didn't!—

—She wasn't trying to hide it or anything. How could I not see her password?—

—We have to work out how to use this. I'm sure she's going to do something tomorrow.—

"Thank you, Suri. You really are the best boss ever," I said.

I almost broke her. Her eyebrow twitched at my saccharine comment, and I could almost feel her need to yell. Suri held her reaction at a smile I didn't like one bit.

"See you tomorrow!" Suri said.

"Yeah."

I made my way out. When the jailer lets you go, you don't wait around and ask questions. I was in my car and starting it before I even had a moment to ponder things. Then NotABug hugged me.

The real world faded into a slow molasses. I squeezed NotABug back, remembering that it was only with her help that I was able to do this—to break free of my job. I hugged her a little tighter.

—Thank you. I really needed that,— I sent.

—Do you want me to drive home?— she asked.

I pondered my choices. There was always the list. I accessed the storage on the internal phone and opened the to-do list.

Call Sweetie Belle about AI
Call Twilight Sparkle about magic

—Are you free?— I sent to Sweetie Belle

—I've got something else we can do. You haven't met Sweetie Belle, and I think she'd like to meet you,— I sent NotABug.

NotABug was silent for longer than normal. I heard soft chirping in my head while she did something online.

—Your sister? She studies robotics and artificial intelligence?!—

—That's why I'm going to talk to her. If she has some time free from school, anyway.—

—Yeah. What's up, sis?— Sweetie Belle sent.

—This would be easier if I came over, or if you came over.—

I connected to the car and started it up while I waited for Sweetie to reply.

—I get to meet her?— NotABug sent. —Wait, what if she doesn't like me?—

The question was so natural and human it surprised me. NotABug was growing more every day.

—You'll get to meet her, and talk to her. If you explain where you came from, I don't think there's a hope that she won't like you.—

—Working on a project. You know where my dorm is?—

—No idea.—

I slid the car into gear and brought up the cameras. The world became amazingly crisp and clear, and I could mix the extra sight into my normal vision easily now. The car started rolling forward before I sensed another reply.

—I got it. It was a map. Bringing it up for you,— NotABug sent.

A third camera-like view came up, but rather than being an actual camera, it was a stream of images from NotABug. A map.

"Thank you, darling."

I turned out onto the street and began following the map, delighting in how it turned to keep it aligned with the world. The drive wasn't far, and I found myself pulling into a parking lot with a large two-story building beside it.

—I just pulled up. Can you come and show me in?—

—K—

Turning the car off, I climbed out and stretched. Sure enough, a few moments later Sweetie appeared in the doorway. She looked around for me and went completely still when she saw me. It was then I remembered what I was wearing.

—That's her?— NotABug asked.

I nodded. Sweetie Belle looked like she was done with class for the day. She wore a cute little yellow dress with a pink-and-white top. Pale skin (like mine had been) set off the two-tone curls that cascaded down her back and terminated just before her thighs. She had inherited the same looks I had from Mom and Dad, and I'd helped her learn how to make sure she showed them off.

"Rarity?! What happened? That is you, right? I'm not talking to some doppelganger that isn't very good at hiding itself, am I?" she asked.

Sweetie Belle had run from the doorway to my car as she spoke, stopping short of me to look me up and down suspiciously.

"There's a lot to explain. Mind if we go up to your room?"

Despite her suspicion, despite how strange I must have looked to her, my little sister stepped up to me for a hug. I squeezed her just as I always did.

"It is you. C-Come on."

"Did you really test to see if I wasn't a monster by hugging me? What if I had been?" I asked. "A monster that is."

I watched her left hand slip behind her back and to a pocket. When it reappeared, she held a slim black box. Touching the button on it caused a huge arc of sparks to jump and dance across the end of it.

"Okay," I said, "so you can take care of yourself."

She laughed at my concession and turned toward the door.

"Come on. What are you even wearing? Shouldn't you be in your work clothes?" she asked.

Following, I entered the hall behind her and headed for the stairs.

"I'm quitting and starting my own store."

"You're quitting your dream job? Where are you getting the money to open your own place? Are you alright, Rarity?"

Deploying her keys, Sweetie Belle unlocked one of the dorm-room doors and ushered me into her room. The dorm room was one for two people—mirrored down the middle, both sides had a bed, bedside drawers, closet, desk, and chair.

The halves of the room, apart from those core items, were completely different.

Sweetie Belle's roomie was laying on their bed with a pair of headphones on. At the base of the bed was a set of easels adorned with beautiful paintings. Her desk didn't even have a regular computer, just a small laptop.

On the other hand, Sweetie Belle's side was a mess. Her desk had a huge tower and two screens. Scattered piles of electronics projects covered the remaining flat surfaces of her half of the room, one even taking space at the end of her bed.

"My goodness, those pictures are—" I said.

"Can it. You're deflecting. What's with the horn and makeup?" Sweetie Belle asked, cutting in on me.

Her phone beeped, and like a shot, Sweetie's hand reached into her pocket and pulled the device out.

"Who's NotABug?" she asked.

I spared a single look at the other side of the room.

"That's Frosty Orange. She'll be out of it until dinner. Spill the beans already," Sweetie said.

"It started with a date…"

While I explained my side of the story, I could see Sweetie Belle's phone buzzing several times. She kept glancing down at it before staring back up at me with no pause in her shock. I took a little moment to examine Frosty, Sweetie's roommate. The girl had almost-orange skin (I'd take a guess at vermilion), and arctic-blue two-tone hair. I couldn't see her eyes while her head was facedown in a pillow.

Soon enough Sweetie was caught up on the situation.

"She's in your head? I mean, really in your head? And she's an AI?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"NotABug is an intelligence. She is no longer, in any way, artificial," I said, feeling a need to defend her.

Sweetie Belle's lips pouted in confusion, only for her to suddenly brighten again. She spun her chair to face the computer and typed furiously.

—What did you tell her through texts?— I asked.

—A little of my history. How I came to be.—

"Okay, let me put this in past tense then," Sweetie Belle said and turned back to me. "You literally evolved into being and grew to awareness within a system that was designed to test precursors to AGI, Artificial General Intelligence. It sounds like it was a general adversarial network learning system. You, NotABug that is, weren't created, you were born."

NotABug pushed at me—insistently. I didn't hesitate and let her have the fore. She immediately lunged forward and hugged Sweetie Belle. For her part, Sweetie seemed a little confused.

"You're the first person who has just gotten it," NotABug said.

—Tell her you're you. She won't realize,— I sent.

"NotABug? You can just swap control like that?" Sweetie asked.

—Okay, maybe she will. I did mention Sweetie Belle is clever, right?— I asked.

"I think it takes consent, we both feel the pressure when the other wants to change, but yeah. Sorry, I just really needed to hug you for that. Everyone else has called me a bug or artificial. It was nice to hear you say it that way," NotABug said.

"So it's right?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"It feels right. This actually makes sense to you?"

NotABug slowly pulled back from the hug.

"Well, yeah. I wasn't exactly working on AGI myself, but I wouldn't be a computer nerd if I didn't find it interesting. I mostly work on image processing and basic decision making systems. Here," Sweetie Belle said.

Turning back around, Sweetie Belle brought up some pictures on one of her screens. The display showed a little four-legged machine walking around.

"This is my project. The chassis was hard to design, but all it needs is power and it can navigate around. I'm still doing some undergrad stuff, but when I started talking about this stuff with my professor at the start of the year, he pushed to get me access to his post-grad course."

I got a great view of the robot my sister had built as NotABug leaned forward, her eyes widening at the machine. There was plenty of chirping in the back of my head—NotABug was moving a lot of data.

"This is amazing stuff! How well is it working?" NotABug asked.

—I'm going to look at some things. Let me know if I should pay attention,— I sent.

—Why not use the time to practice having a split presence?—

If I could control my body, I would have made a big sigh and possibly even fluttered my lashes. As it was I was treated to two hours of Sweetie Belle and NotABug discussing a topic that went over my head before they even started.

While they chatted, I opened a connection back to home and logged into our server. It was comfortable to be in a known place, a safe place, and I started doing more searches—tomorrow's outfit was going to be even better.

7:14 P.M.

"What the hell?!"

Since I was actually managing to keep my attention on browsing the Net and listening to my sister and NotABug chat, I was acutely aware of the shout in Sweetie's dorm room. Saving my session, I pulled all my attention to the real world.

"Calm down, Frosty. This is my sister, Rarity. Rarity, Frosty Orange," Sweetie Belle said.

—Good thinking. When did you get this clever?— I sent Sweetie.

Predictably, Sweetie Belle's phone beeped at her just as I felt a nudge from NotABug. I slid forward, almost reluctantly, but then felt the keen eyes of Frosty Orange upon me. The girl was sitting on her bed, eyes a little wide but still studying me.

"Your sister? You didn't say your sister was into punk. That gear looks awesome!" Frosty said.

—You made a new friend, too!— NotABug sent.

—Ha ha.—

But a compliment was a compliment. I turned my head a little and shoved my hands in the pockets of the jacket. Life was a runway, and never let it be said I didn't treat it as such—if I would dress as a punk, I would act as one.

"I suppose it's alright," I said.

"Rarity, she's cool. Frosty's doing a fine arts degree," Sweetie Belle said.

That much was obvious from her art supplies. I looked more at the girl herself. She had a curious expression. The conversation grew beyond the persona of a punk that I'd chosen—I had a plan.

"Fine arts? Have you considered doing a little work to gain exposure?" I asked.

I might as well have asked if cars drive on the road. Frosty's eyes practically bugged from her head.

"You run an art gallery?" she asked.

"No, but I'm about to open a fashion boutique, and I could use someone who recognizes flair when she sees it," I said.

"You're really doing that?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"You didn't expect me to rot at Polomare Fashion forever? Of course I'm opening my own store. I'm going to need a little help getting it set up just how I want it. Some lovely art, perhaps some artistic lighting displays…" I said, looking from Frosty to Sweetie.

"This sounds so—awesome! What sort of pieces do you need? Are you willing to pay?" Frosty asked.

"How'd you do that to her?" Sweetie asked, cutting in.

I looked between Sweetie Belle and Frosty Orange. Both girls looked excited, but Frosty in particular looked ready to get her paints out immediately.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Let me introduce you to Frosty Orange. This is her on her birthday," Sweetie Belle said, pulling up photos on her computer.

Frosty Orange seemed to have a bored look as her resting face. It was tragic to see, given the big smile and excitement she had graced me with.

"And here she is winning a contest for a free dinner for two, and here—" Sweetie said.

"Sweetie, that's enough," I said, cutting my sister off. "I will pay for the pieces, of course. And it would be simply darling of you if I could get more made from time to time—I will need to keep my look fresh, after all."

"What will you be selling? What style do you need? When do you need it done by?" Frosty asked.

I was glad the girl's face hadn't returned to the depressed and bored expression her photos had shown. By eight P.M., I managed to slip away from my sister, with promises that NotABug would be in touch with her, and further promises that I would contact Frosty Orange.

Climbing into my car, I couldn't stop a yawn from breaking free.

The nudge was gentle, but like always I didn't resist NotABug pushing forward. It was a relief, truth be told, after the work-related stresses of the day I felt drained.

"I tried to push as gently as I could—I was just offering help getting home."

—And yet, I stumbled into your offer with my arms out, darling. Thank you.—

I was asleep a moment after sending the message.

Author's Note

Rarity: Why didn't you ask Sunset about your new condition? Since this is likely a magical issue and Sunset is a magical unicorn pony from the magical land?

"Sunset has spent more of her life as a human now than as a pony. I don't mean to imply she doesn't know a lot about magic, but Twilight has made magic her lifelong study," Rarity said.

—And I don't think Twilight would forgive either of us for not telling her. So we're going to tell her, but the timing needs to be right.—

"Exactly, darling. The timing also needs to not coincide with what I have planned already. You could say this look is growing on me. Black is the new black, and is always wonderful for highlighting other colors."

Rarity looked a little distant for a moment before her face brightened.

"I just got a great idea for my next outfit! I can't wait to see Suri's face tomorrow."

—Me either.—

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And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 9

“I need to change that,” I said, waking to my usual alarm.

—Do you mind if I sleep in? I was up late talking with Sweetie Belle.—

"Of course not. I've already got my plan for the day. You rest up."

I shifted in bed, turned to my side, and heard another ripping sound. I froze with the feeling of fabric tugging on my horn. Tilting my head and sitting up, I saw that NotABug had used one of my guest pillows, one without a pillowcase.

"This can't go on."

Leaving my bed behind, the corpse of another innocent laying bare, I made my way to the shower and stripped out of the comfortable teddy that NotABug seemed insistent on sleeping in. I couldn't blame her—it was comfortable.

"Comfortable enough to get some more. Time to add some things to my list.

Call Twilight about magic
Buy more pillows
Buy more teddies

After pre-running the hot water for a few moments, I slipped into the shower and began my typical morning routine. I ensured I was properly clean—with my hair well-cared for—and soon enough I was withdrawing from the stall.

The stack of towels in my bathroom hamper attested to my need to do the laundry at some point. I took a fresh one from the cupboard and wrapped it around my hair, then another around my body.

One advantage of my dark skin tone was the lack of blemishes. Not that I relied on that—exfoliating was still a daily practice.

Today was a day for black, again. Yesterday had been anger and outrage at a world that would dare not to accept me, but today I was going somber, sad.

Black underwear, supportive but not to show off, with dark hose and a black frock over it. I checked the mirror and found myself practically invisible in the dress. My eyes stood out, along with my hair, but my skin remained shrouded. I was a ghost in mourning of a career that was a zombie.

The morose thoughts sparked an idea for my last day—that would be special. Makeup should have been unneeded, but in my estimation makeup was always needed. I had no black foundation (something I simply must invest in), so I focused on my eyes.

Already the most noticeable part of me, I worked on my eyeliner first. A hint of silver to frame then a few touches of white. Shadow was to be cerulean, no argument there. The deepest red lipstick I had would not be sufficient for the effect I desired, but it would have to do.

I looked at my reflection and those blood-red lips curved in a smile.

Unwrapping my hair, I found curls to be entirely too much. Instead, I worked it completely straight. It had been too long since I sported straight hair; it cascaded in a waterfall down my back and past my rump. Selecting a pair of skewers, I pulled nearly two feet of length of it up and into a holding style.

Black heels, the highest I had, would do the trick. I augmented those at the other end by wearing a large hat with a black veil. Thanks to my horn, the hat jutted at a simply horrible angle. Marking where it met my horn, I measured, quickly sewed a seam, and cut a hole in the brim of the hat.

It was a careful task to get the hat over my horn, but once I avoided the blade it became easier. I looked again at the widow in the mirror and smiled.

"Perfect."

—That's a severe look. I love what you've done with your horn.—

"Good morning. Sleep well?"

I turned slowly, making sure to look in the mirror so NotABug could see what I was wearing. At the end of my turn I struck a little pose.

—I love it.—

I hadn't even realized I'd been keeping part of myself digital until NotABug hugged me. The warmth and love she put into the gentle embrace elevated it beyond anything the physical world could offer.

With her warmth surrounding me, I walked to the kitchen and grabbed a breakfast bar. Daintily, with just my teeth, I took small bites while hugging NotABug and planning the day.

—You know, I think I'll make pocket patches today. I hear pants with colored pockets are very in,— I sent.

NotABug gave an extra little squeeze before letting go.

—Do you plan to do any actual work?— she asked.

—Maybe. Why?—

—Well, I could log you in remotely now, or even sign off on a day of shopping. We have Suri's code.—

As appealing as the thought was, I shook my head.

—After yesterday, I think she would love to catch me doing something wrong. Hrmm, where was that contract?—

NotABug revealed where my contract was stored, and disengaging from the hug, I browsed over it. The contract defaulting clause was all too similar to defaulting on my two weeks notice. I groaned as I carefully nibbled at the last of the bar.

—No dice. If I break any of the contract, we are stuck again. It's fine, darling, with the link to home I can practice splitting my attention, and you can still get things done. Speaking of which, any luck working out what happened with Windigo?— I asked.

—You've been using the server to do everything?—

—Of course.—

—Then you're protected by walls of security. Windigo would have to break through a lot of hardened systems that are bouncing our data around before it could find us, and each one would cause a cascade that makes our server disconnect.—

I carefully put the last morsel of the bar in my mouth, avoiding my lipstick completely. Still early, I decided to finish my outfit elsewhere. Walking for the door, I grabbed a handbag to match my outfit and stuffed my phone, purse, and keys in it. A pack of tissues, some sanitary items, and my portable sewing kit finished up the usual contents.

Connections, NotABug had taught me, happened in stacks. There was a lot of low-level networking things going on that I didn't want to have anything to do with, but there was a handy little thing I could slot in that made everything secure.

I connected my VPN stack and started browsing. Like magic I was connected through our server, and before I even reached the car, I found the right florist for me.

"Canterlot Blooms. How may I help you?"

I was seating myself in the car as the woman's voice came through my internal phone. Activating the car, putting it into reverse, adjusting for the cameras and driving, I entered the conversation.

"Hello there. I was wondering if you had some roses in at the moment?" I asked.

"Of course. Do you have a particular theme in mind?"

Her voice was warm, and the more she spoke about flowers the warmer it got. I couldn't blame her—flowers were wonderful, pretty, and a glorious accompaniment to fashion.

"I'd like a bouquet of white roses with a single pink one. It's for a funeral."

"My condolences. How many did you want in the bouquet? And did you want a card with it?"

I tried to think of a suitable number. I'd been working at Polomare for nearly two years, but two was hardly a bouquet, and twenty three was far too many. Then it hit me.

"Six white, plus the pink rose makes seven."

One white rose for each day of this stupid two weeks' notice—minus the four days of personal leave, anyway.

"We could make that up for you whenever you came in."

—The wonders of technology…— I sent to NotABug.

"I'm on my way now," I said. "Thank you."

"I'll start putting it together now, then. See you soon."

—Roses for a funeral?— NotABug asked.

—Yes, darling. White roses for my innocence lost to this job, pink for grace and appreciation.—

—This calls for a grand gesture. Did you have a plan?—

I pondered for a moment while I pulled onto the florist's street.

—I can't think of anything. What about you?—

A chirp unlike the normal data-flow resounded in my head—it was easily recognizable as an exclamation of excitement and made me smile.

—Walk in slowly, somberly. You want to give Suri time to know you're there. When you reach your cubicle, toss the white roses on the floor and walk over them. The pink rose is for grace, your grace. They can't take that away.—

I almost missed pulling into the parking spot in front of the florist. Climbing from my little car, I ensured my dress was perfect before walking inside—or trying to.

My horn clacked, like the sound two canes made striking together. It struck the lintel of the doorway, and I winced. Ducking my head to lower my horn, I walked into the florist shop.

The smell of flowers was heady and almost overwhelming. It was uplifting, and despite my outfit I felt energized.

"Hold on! I'll be right out!"

I recognized the woman’s voice from the phone call. Not five seconds later she walked out of the back room.

"You just called about a rose bouquet?" she asked. When I nodded, she continued, "It's almost done… I have to ask, why the dress-up? If it's no offense to ask, that is."

"Oh, this?" I asked, one hand reaching up to lightly touch my horn. "The funeral has a theme, you see. Thank you for putting it together on such short notice."

My answer seemed to bewilder her a little, but I saw the slightest shrug to her shoulders as she turned and headed into the back room again. She took just a moment to do something, then came back out clipping the stems of my roses. They were beautiful, and though I wanted to go through with NotABug's plan, the perfection of the flowers stung at my heart.

—I can't destroy these,— I sent.

—They are really pretty. We can always get more,— NotABug said.

I let out a sigh.

"Sorry. Aren't they what you wanted?" the woman asked.

"Oh! No-no! They're perfect. Too perfect to be left to their fate. I'll let you in on a little secret: I'm quitting my job, and they required me to work out the last two weeks. I hate it there, but I have to get this over with. My plan was to toss the white roses at the feet of my boss."

The woman took a deep breath as she absorbed my words. She lay the bouquet on the bench, her chartreuse eyes taking a measure of sadness as her yellow hands tried not to shake.

"You're paying for them, so I can't really—"

"No. I won't mistreat such beautiful blooms. I'll just have to think of another gesture," I said, interrupting her.

She looked up from the flowers, her two-tone raspberry hair tossing behind her in surprise.

"I-I have some lilies. Those are,"—she took a sudden breath—"less fresh."

I reached out my ebony fingers and caught hers. She looked about ready to faint.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

—This is a lot of work to get some flowers to throw at Suri,— NotABug sent.

—Darling, this is art. Acting, props, wardrobe… We absolutely cannot have anything but the best presentation ever.—

—Show off.—

—Always,— I sent.

"They were for another customer who had to cancel. I can put them together for you now. You don't mind the wait?" she asked.

"To give them the life they should have had? Darling, I could wait all day."

My words seemed to perk the woman up—put a spring into her step. I looked around the shop while she clipped the lilies from a bunch that, while still white, looked a little droopy. An idea sparked, and I reached back to the search I'd done earlier.

The florist I'd chosen had been selected partly because it had great ratings and partly because it wasn't a franchise. They were a local business with fresh blooms in stock.

"Do you furnish regular arrangements for businesses?" I asked.

"We do. Do you have something in mind?"

"Still in planning right now, I'm afraid. But after next week I'd love to pay you to take a look at a shop."

Her eyes danced with joy, and I could see her practically swell with excitement. I recognized the same look Frosty Orange had gotten, one I also knew I wore when asked about making a dress. It had nothing to do with expecting payment for a job well done and everything to do with creation.

"Of course we can do that. There'll be no need to pay, though. What sort of shop, and what day?" she asked.

I was talking to an artist. My heart soared in sympathy with the woman's plight to produce beautiful things. She was in a position I wanted to be. We may have spent fifteen minutes talking about flower arrangements—it wasn't like I didn't keep track of time perfectly.

8:22 A.M.

It would take five minutes to get to work from here, which meant I had to wrap up. In less than three minutes I had both bouquets and was back in the car and headed to work.

I now paid more attention to where my horn was—the sound of it hitting the doorway at the florist was still clear in my ears. As I pulled up into the carpark, I reached up and rubbed the side of my horn.

A green glow bathed the car in eerie light.

"W-W-What—?" I asked.

—Sorry! That felt nice, was all.—

There was that soft chirping again, but I suddenly realized something that shocked me: it wasn't NotABug doing it this time. The chirping had cut off suddenly, my own shock silencing it. I reached inward, mentally, but no matter what I tried I couldn't start the sound again.

"It did feel nice. I just worry that I might harm it. You felt when I bumped it in the florist?" I asked.

—Yeah. It felt like you were going to smash through the doorway. I think your horn's harder than it seems.—

I left the car and walked into the building. The lift was the usual ride, and when I got to my floor I reached up and pulled the veil down over my face. The doors dinged and opened to reveal Suri Polomare looking right at me.

"You here already? And what's with the getup today?" Suri asked.

She looked excited, happy—I had to turn the tables as soon as possible.

Hugging both bouquets under one arm, I raised the first to my veiled forehead in a show of mental pain.

"I'm mourning all the time I lost here before I realized how worthless it is to be employed by Polomare Fashion," I said.

Suri's smile cracked a little around the edges. It was a start.

"And what's with the ears and horn again? Or all that makeup? This is a workplace—okay?"

"I guess there's nothing else for it than to write me up, then. Or maybe another manager might. Perhaps I should go down to HR?"

I started to turn back for the lifts.

"Wait. It's your last few weeks here. I'm sure I can relax the dress code for such a wonderful employee," Suri said.

—That wasn't a question,— NotABug sent.

—No, which means she is on edge but still thinking. She has a plan.—

"Very well," I said.

As I took a step toward the time-clock, I tossed a lily out before me and ground my heel into the beautiful flower. Four steps later I repeated the gesture, stomping another flower into the carpet.

"What are you doing?!" Suri said behind me, her voice at shriek levels. "Cleanup for this is—"

"You can't garnish my pay. I guess you'll have to write me up. Until then, I will stomp on my hopes and dreams as Polomare Fashion did."

I could almost hear the steam pouring—metaphorically—from Suri's ears. Another four steps, another lily. I started to log into the time-clock, and as soon as I was done nudged NotABug.

—What are you doing? This is your moment,— NotABug sent as she slid forward.

—Our moment, darling. Have some fun, shine!—

While NotABug typed a little more on the keyboard of the time-clock, I watched the screen change rapidly. Windows opened, files moved, then it all closed back down and looked normal again.

—What did you do?— I asked.

—She will not be able to log back in after lunch. It will look like she did, but Suri will spend the whole afternoon logged out.—

—You're naughty. Tracks hidden?—

—Of course.—

NotABug turned for my cubicle, tossed another lily, and began walking all over it.

I was left to wonder for several moments if NotABug had been affecting my own morality more than I'd been affecting hers. Then I remembered who we were conspiring against and giggled internally.

In moments NotABug was sitting at my desk, setting down our handbag, and laying the roses on the desk beside her.

—This is your job, not mine,— she sent.

Her nudge was gentle but insistent. I slid forward with ease and heard her chirping data before I was completely in charge of my faculties. Reaching for the first pattern of the day, I had a distinct case of déjà vu.

"This is the same pattern from yesterday," I said.

Suri must have been waiting just outside my cubicle. I heard movement and had the feeling of dread come over me that only a boss coming up behind you can bring.

"Yeah. I had to assign you those again. Apparently all your designs yesterday got lost somewhere or something—alright?" Suri said/asked.

I turned in my chair to see Suri Polomare smiling. I let out the slightest sigh from behind my veil. I looked her in the eyes and waited.

—Aren't you going to reply? She's smiling and everything!"— NotABug sent.

—I'm not going to give her the satisfaction. So we wait.—

9:08 A.M.

It wasn't a staring contest, all I did was keep looking at Suri. I was surprised she had the patience she was displaying. If she had been literally anyone else, I would have let her have the satisfaction of winning. Instead, I turned part of my attention online.

—What was the name of that other sushi place?— I asked.

—Uma no Sushi. Here's the reviews about them.—

NotABug sent me a bunch of links that I opened, and together we read through people's reviews. Sadly, it didn't take long.

I was happily working on a new outfit when it happened: Suri had started to move.

The microseconds slowly dragged by—although Suri hadn't actually moved yet, her muscles were bunching and shifting, then her body was in motion.

Even a process as simple as talking had strange new pitfalls when thinking nearly a thousand times faster than usual. As I started forming the first word, I already worked out a better way to say what I wanted to.

"Goodbye, Suri," I said.

I couldn't make out what she said in reply, and I honestly didn't care. Suri had left with a scowl growing on her face and that suited me just fine.

Turning to my work, I looked at the first item: the same poor blouse from yesterday. I wasn't a punk today so ripping the sleeves off wouldn't do. The top was a zombie this time, a diseased corpse of a fashionable shirt that might have been.

Taking out my seamstress' scissors I went to work. First I examined all the pieces of the blouse. A desire to have them not just in my head but in a computer overwhelmed me.

—What would be the best way to scan these pictures?— I asked.

—Phone's camera would be the easiest,— NotABug sent.

—Oh. Of course. Thank you, darling.—

I hugged her briefly and got back to my work. Reaching into my handbag, I took out the fancy new cellphone and held it above the desk. I fumbled to find the right interface and took the picture. Something was wrong, however: the phone didn't make its customary clicking sound.

Confusion set in when examining the mobile phone revealed no photograph had been taken. I searched again, digitally this time. There were two photos of the desk, but they were from an odd angle.

—I don't think it worked. See?— I asked and sent NotABug a link to the pictures.

—Rarity, those pictures are on the internal phone. How did you take those?—

—Like this.—

Just like before, I held the phone up, reached for the interface, and was about to take the photo when NotABug interrupted.

—That's the internal phone. These pictures are from the internal phone!—

I held my hand up before my face, examined the ebony skin, and tapped the interface.

—Your eyes. That's impossible! How can anything like that work?— NotABug asked.

Call Twilight about magic and phone camera
Buy more pillows
Buy more teddies

—I guess I could call her now. On second thought I should text her first.—

—We're going shopping?— NotABug asked.

—Yes. One teddy was fine as something to wear sometimes, but if you want to wear them each night we will have to get more.—

The ringing chirps of NotABug's excitement echoed in my head. Another chirp joined hers: mine.

—That was you!— NotABug sent. —You just chirped!—

—This isn't the first time. You just didn't notice me doing it because you were too busy chirping.—

Chirping was apparently the default way to show emotion for whatever it was we were becoming, because we both chirped more.

—If I was going through this without you, I don't think I'd be able to cope. You are a treasure, NotABug,— I sent.

Her reply came with a stifling of her chirps.

—You wouldn't be going through this if I wasn't here.—

I hugged her again and focused on my warm feelings.

—You're right. I wouldn't have realized I was dying, creatively. I probably would have gone looking for more and more wild ways to escape my horrible job, and possibly gotten involved in something much worse. You made my life interesting, and you freed me from a cage I didn't know I was in.—

NotABug's chirping resumed more softly than before. We remained like that, hugging and ignoring everything the world tried to throw at us.

—I want you to teach me something a little more advanced. I want to learn how to make those clever little programs.—

The chirping in my head got louder, and I couldn't help but match it.

—Okay. The first thing you need to understand is the processing system. The easiest way to teach you is on the server,— NotABug sent.

—Hold on, darling. I need to send a message to Twilight.—

—I don't suppose you are free to talk?— I sent to Twilight.

I followed NotABug's perception through the VPN link to our server. In the time it took Twilight to respond, I'd learned about if-then, for-while-do, and the structure of basic programs on Intel architecture. I'd also cut nearly five large hearts from the blouse pattern, and another four from the back.

Today was a heart day.

—I'm taking an undergrad study group in an hour. What's up?— Twilight sent.

I dialed her number and she answered it right away.

"Oh. Thank goodness. We need to talk about a little incident involving magic and, well, me," I said.

"Magic? You mean besides the AI that took up residence in your head?" Twilight said, her voice loaded with sarcasm. "What exactly has happened?"

I took a deep breath—not that I needed it when talking directly through a voice synthesizer, but it made me feel better.

"I might be turning into something else. You remember what—"

"Rarity," Twilight said, cutting in, "this better not be some kind of fashion joke."

Holding the new mobile phone up, I made sure I was poking its interface this time and took a photo with the front-facing camera. I sent that to Twilight.

"You have a message. Please check it," I said.

Background computer noise started coming through the phone from Twilight's end. Then a notification came up saying Twilight wanted to engage video chat.

"Darling, I can't exactly do video chat on this phone," I said.

"But didn't you get that new one? It was top of the range!"

"That has more to do with the magic problem than you will probably believe. I am using the mobile phone that absorbed into me."

There was enough of a pause that I got bored and reached for the next pattern. More hearts. All the hearts. I wonder how many hearts I could make?

"So… You're just speaking out loud and it records it? And you can hear me? How does this even work?" Twilight asked.

"Well, NotABug helped me learn how to interface with the phone. So right now I am making patterns of sound and pushing them into the… buffer?"

—Yes, buffer,— NotABug sent.

"Right," I said in confirmation, "the buffer. It's a little tricky to sound just right, and more so to put emotion into it, but I practiced by listening to my voice and analyzing the buffer."

—Thank you, dear,— I sent.

"How… What… Okay. You're right. We really need to talk about this. When is good for you?" Twilight asked.

"Some quick things I need to tell you first. No shaving. No electrodes. No arcing-electric things."

I tried to think of anything else, but I think I got all the ones Twilight would spring on me.

"How am I going to take measurements?" Twilight asked, her voice forlorn.

"Anything that doesn't touch me or interact with me is fine. I don't want to risk hurting NotABug, or damaging our internal mobile phone. Tomorrow afternoon would be a good time. After lunch?"

"Sure! I can have the lab set up with everything I'll need."

I groaned, although thankfully Twilight couldn't hear that. While I chatted with Twilight, I kept cutting. Hearts, hearts, hearts.

"I'll call you around two. Thank you, Twilight."

"No problems, Rarity."

I ended the call and turned my attention to NotABug and her lessons. Programs were nothing like dresses in function, but they shared a few aspects with dressmaking: you had to plan things out in advance, there was so many ways to do everything that it was an art-form to assemble them, and there was an almost dizzying feeling of delight when everything came together.

12:03 P.M.

Surfacing fully from the digital world, I found the stack of love hearts neatly where I'd put each one, while nearly two-thirds of the stack of patterns were rendered down. I ran one hand through the poor patterns and set a single white lily on them.

I juggled walking to the time-clock with bringing up directions for Uma no Sushi, and I took my bag and flowers with me. The poor blooms might wilt in the car, but it would be a more noble death for them than leaving the poor things to Suri's efforts here.

—Is the time-clock still rigged?— I asked.

—Yup. Suri will think she is logged in, but the machine won't accept her.—

After logging out I wasn't going to wait around for Suri to spoil my lunch hour. I took the lift down and walked out to my car. My wonderful little car. It unlocked and started up before I reached it. I was quite proud of my efforts at interacting in both worlds at once.

I pulled out and began the drive. My mentally knowing directions wasn't needed anymore, I merely had to put the destination into the phone's GPS app, and the image came up in my head. All in all, it took eight of my precious sixty-minute lunch break to reach Uma no Sushi.

The building had a small profile, but the windows were clear and uncluttered so I could see that it extended back a lot further. I pulled up at the curb, set my hat and veil aside in the car, and climbed out.

—It doesn't look like much,— NotABug sent.

—The last place was very flashy, but accomplished little. I'll take subtle decor when it's the food we're after.—

My own words surprised me a little. Normally I would have been praising fashion-forward furnishings over the minimalist look of the restaurant before me. I took and let out a breath, and opened the door.

The place had three customers—each had a plate of food before them that wasn't just appetizing, it was artistic. I was distracted by the perfect, round, and black-rimmed circles. Some had a single piece of meat in the middle of their ricy interior, others seemed to have tiny pink balls atop them.

The smell of fish was not present, as I would have thought it should be given the nature of the food. Despite my previous experience, or perhaps because of it, this felt right—authentic. The only problem was I had no idea how to approach. The chef stood behind the counter making what I assumed was sushi, his hands moving in repeated and precise ways that spoke of experience.

Of himself, the chef was a thin man with arctic-blue complexion and navy-blue hair. He looked to be of middle age, though he carried it well. He had a small white hat that only revealed his hair color at the back and sides of his head, and completed the stark outfit with a white shirt under a white jacket. His eyes didn't leave his work.

A similarly attired woman walked past the chef and approached the counter closest to me.

"Hello and welcome to Uma no Sushi. My name is Kitsune Udon. What can I help you with?" she asked.

The woman looked a little younger that myself but only a year or so. Like the man she had fabulously arctic-blue skin, but unlike him she had a blaze of red hair that looked to be in a net that held it up and under her hat.

Smiling—the greeting was a lot more friendly than what I'd gotten at the last place—I decided to be honest.

"Well, I'd never had sushi before, and I wanted to try some yesterday. I made the distinct mistake of visiting—" I said.

I stopped short at the woman's look of anger. Lifting one eyebrow, I asked a question without needing a word.

"Sushi Garden?" she asked. At my nod she continued. "If you went there for lunch, you would have had their waitress making the food. Their chef only works at night. When he's there, the sushi is much better."

She hadn't disparaged them with a single word. Everything the woman said seemed to be fact and gelled with my experience. I found myself relaxing a little.

"It would have been nice if they'd told me that. Do you have a table free?" I asked.

She gestured to the stools along the bar that overlooked what the chef was doing.

"Please take a seat and my father, Chef Soba Tsuya, will be with you," she said.

A touch of confusion hit me—I thought the stools were where you waited. It might be a faux pas, but I would rather ask than try to pretend I knew what was going on. I could act, sure, but I needed background to do it.

I walked over to the indicated stools and took a seat. The chef seemed busy finishing off a dish for someone else, so I waited patiently.

—They don't have any Wi-Fi. I can't see any security cameras. The only thing that looks like it was made this century is their card reader,— NotABug said.

—So what you're saying, darling, is that they are secure against your feminine wiles?—

I got a little burst of chirping in reply.

The chef turned toward me. He was intense, but I was used to such. Growing up with people who can transform, use magic, or fly had taught me how to just be calm and deal with the experience—assuming they weren't ruining their outfits in the process.

"Irasshaimase," he said. "Welcome to Uma no Sushi. How may I serve?"

"I'm new to this style of dining. What would you suggest?" I asked.

The man was already smiling, but now his smile could have parted clouds. He beamed at me.

"The best way to be introduced to sushi is with omakase. I will personally tailor your meal to suit your palate. When you are full, you tell me and pay for what you've eaten. I will warn you, our sushi is not low priced," he said, his English perfect and without accent.

—Omakase is exactly what he said. He will make things, then he will ask for a little feedback, and use that as a guide for the next piece,— NotABug said.

"That does sound good. Please tell me the best way to appreciate your food."

I noticed the man's nose twitch—just once.

"It is customary not to wear perfume when eating sushi. Your scent is neutral, and barely noticeable, but it will color your and other people's experience. When you come back, I ask you to forgo any scents," he said. "Before we begin, my name is Chef Soba Tsuya, please just call me Chef Soba."

Taken aback by his bold statement, I could only nod to him. Of course I would check on all this later, but for now there was no fixing it.

"Thank you, Chef Soba. My name's Rarity."

While I spoke, Soba's hands were working. He shaped about a third of a palmful of rice, his hands moving in a well-trained order of movements. He set the rice on the bench and then drew out a fillet of fish. Using a knife that looked right out of a martial arts movie Rainbow Dash would certainly watch, Soba cut a delicate slice of the red-pink fish.

Every motion resulted in another quick clean of his knife and/or hands. Soba added a tiny smear of green to the fish, then pressed it to the rice with more of those careful motions. He placed the piece on a small plate, added a small mound of some kind of thin-sliced substance, and passed it over to me.

"Eat the nigiri first, tell me how it tastes, then clear your palate with the provided ginger," Soba said.

I looked at the morsel. This was the reason I was here: to try something the right way.

"Should I use chopsticks?" I asked.

"No. Turn the nigiri upside down in your hand so the fish touches your tongue first."

With a nod I did just that. The flavor was immediate and fantastic. Salmon in its purest form. I chewed at the fish in my mouth, completely forgetting the raw nature of the food. A spicy kick came in after my second chew, and washed a new and intense flavor over the fish and rice. The chef had crafted a Broadway show with such simple ingredients, and the way the flavors played off each other was fantastic.

I savored every flavor as it played out and experienced a range of emotions that started in joy and ended in pure desire—for more. When the last of the piece slipped down my throat, I let out a beatific sigh.

"That was divine. I've never tasted salmon like that, and the spice in the middle was fantastic!" I said.

Soba looked at me with a knowing smile. Then he nodded.

"I believe I will be seeing you often. The next piece will be similar—another nigiri," Soba said.

He began working more rice, then pulled out two shrimp and began to slice and prepare them. Every movement he made, when dealing with the food, looked like it had been choreographed. Each cut, each pressing motion with his hand. Before I forgot, I picked up a little of the ginger with my fingers and put it in my mouth.

It was pickled, but while the ginger flavor washed the taste of the lovely sushi from my palate, the moment I swallowed, it too seemed to fade.

Another little plate. This one had another little piece of ginger, but the nigiri (which was apparently the word I was meant to use) had two shrimp on it this time—complete with tails.

"Please, eat this. All the prawn is edible," Soba said.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that he meant the tails. I picked up the piece, inverted it, and set it in my mouth. Another flavorsplosion happened, and I actually might have made an excited and very girly sound as my tongue explored the taste.

I kept chewing—even the tails, which were indeed edible—exploring new combinations of flavor with every motion of my tongue. The tastes were delicate and ever-shifting—I almost didn't want to swallow. But I did.

Closing my eyes, I remembered the interplay of flavor.

"The shrimp—" I said.

"Prawn. There is a difference," Soba said, cutting me off.

I nodded.

"The prawn had a range of flavor that changed depending on where it was tasted. You applied the spice to the whole length, in different quantities, so that it matched the meat. It was most pleasing," I said.

I opened my eyes to see Soba smiling at me. Though this was meant to be a test of my palate, part of me realized my score would go on record. Why did I feel like I was on trial?

12:26 P.M.

"You have a fine palate for this. Time for something a little finer."

It was like getting an A+ on a report card—Twilight would love this place.

The next piece he made started with the rice, but this time he put the dob of green stuff on it directly. Then he wrapped it around with a piece of seaweed, and then the most startling thing. Tiny little orange balls were dished on with a small spoon.

I barely remembered to use some ginger before he served up the little roll.

"Salmon roe. Other things can be added to neutralize some of the more intense flavor, but I'd rather see how you like it as-is," Soba said.

—Salmon roe is fish eggs. For sushi, it is normally soaked in soy sauce and rice wine. I found a site that has all this great info!— NotABug sent.

—Thank you dear. How are you enjoying it?—

—It's really good. I want to bring Rainbow Dash here. Do you think she'll like it?—

—I think Soba would be able to find things she likes,— I sent.

Lifting the little roll, I glanced up to Soba.

"You don't invert this one," he said.

I put the roll in my mouth and the first thing that hit my palate was the salt of the seaweed. As I bit down the seaweed snapped between my teeth and cause the roe to spill out onto my tongue. Combined with the new texture of the roe was the intense flavor of salmon—more intense even than the salmon flesh.

Closing my eyes in gastronomical delight, I slowly chewed the delicacy and wallowed in the perfection of the intense flavor. Behind it all, though, was the spice of the green paste Soba had used.

It wasn't until I swallowed the roll that I opened my eyes again. I looked at Soba Tsuya with newfound respect.

"Salty, crunchy. When I bit through the seaweed—" I said.

"Nori. The seaweed is called nori," Soba said.

I tipped my head a little, accepting the correction.

"When I bit through the nori I felt the texture of the roe before the flavor: smooth. Then the flavor reached my brain and I melted into it. That was amazing."

"This is salmon. Ikura is the name of the roe. You tasted the wasabi?" he asked.

"The spice?" I asked back, and got a nod. "Of course. It added a little heat, but expanded the flavor of the ikura further. That was very nice."

12:38 P.M.

—It's getting late. But there's probably time for one more,— NotABug said.

I heard a little chirping from NotABug while I reached for the ginger.

"Sorry, but I'll only have time for one more. Against my fervent desire, I need to return to work," I said.

Soba looked at me, and I felt like he stared through me completely and saw the source of pain and misery in my life.

"Why don't you quit?" he asked.

I couldn't help the short laugh that escaped.

"I have. I was required to work the last two weeks of employment or face restrictions in my future endeavors. Today marks the end of the first week, hence the funeral dress," I said.

"Something special, then? You have a good palate, so this will not be a waste."

He turned to the fish tank and reached into it. It was then I realized there were no actual fish in the tank, but he seemed to find what he was looking for. When he turned around, Soba held up a small shellfish for me to see.

"This is an abalone, awabi. Shake, salmon, is a common fish, and its roe is only a little less so. Awabi is delicate, prized. It will have a little crunch to it," Soba said.

His hands worked their magic, shaping the rice, adding a tiny dot of green wasabi, and then he started on the abalone—awabi. Taking a small knife, Soba cut around and carefully separated the shell from the creature within.

More work of his knife soon freed all the little black pieces of the awabi, and I could already smell a difference in the air. This was a lot stronger than anything else he'd served so far. I watched him finish trimming the awabi, slice into but not through it, and set it on the rice. Back into his hand it went, for one, two, three special motions—each eliciting a slight crunching sound from the meat.

He plated the nigiri and passed the plate to me with a serious expression. I took the sushi between my fingers and lifted it to my mouth. At the last moment I turned it over and ate it.

The flavor was strong, a little like an oyster but more-so. I surely felt the crunchy texture as I chewed, and the wasabi was almost a quenching flavor, pulling my palate back from the edge of shellfishgeddon. I didn't want to finish the piece, but there is a moment with every mouthful of food when the chewing is done. The awabi and rice slid down my throat and I heard myself make a satisfied little sound.

I didn't speak for nearly a minute. With no ginger my palate retained the flavor and spice of the last piece.

"That was superb," I said at last.

—Food is amazing! This tastes almost as good as Rainbow Dash!— NotABug sent.

Her comment reminded me she'd said such things in the past, but I'd been too busy, tired, or distracted to process them.

—What do you mean, 'taste'?— I asked.

—Whenever Rainbow Dash is near, and she looks at either of us, there is a rising rush of richness. You try it next time we see her.—

—Oh, I remember something we needed. Your credit card numbers. We need actual cards for those.—

—Already arranged. I purchased a P.O. box two days ago, and got five different cards sent to it. Also, some packages. Some of the things should have arrived. Can we pick them up after work?—

—Of course. I'll keep using my card until then.—

"Now you have experienced a small taste of sushi. Did you enjoy it?" Soba Tsuya asked.

"Not only did I enjoy it, but I think you might have yourself a regular customer," I said. "Thank you so much, that was an unforgettable lunch."

I got up and walked to the register. After a short moment, the woman came out and—after a short burst of what had to be Japanese with Soba—turned to me.

"That will be sixty dollars," she said.

—I guess that's why it tasted so good,— NotABug sent.

—That was for just four things,— I sent.

—Well, if I pay for it, can we have that every day?—

NotABug's question floored me, though thanks to time running so slow my face showed none of my shock. Given better timing, we might have been able to have more.

—We can have it frequently, but I still want to have other things,— I sent.

—There's other things that taste as good as this?!—

—I'll admit this was amazing, but we can always go looking for more.—

—Okay. But if you can't find anything, come here.—

I reluctantly took out my card and swiped it when told to. Kitsune finished plugging in numbers on the keypad, and it beeped happily.

"We hope you'll come again," she said.

"Apparently this is where I have lunch from now on, unless I'm too busy to actually enjoy it," I said.

Kitsune laughed politely, and we said our goodbyes.

The taste of the awabi lingered, and even when I parked my car and entered the building at Polomare Fashion it was still with me. I approached the time-clock and logged back in. Upon reaching my desk I found the stack of patterns renewed—my love hearts were nowhere to be seen.

—She's trying to break me. Repetitive tasks with no goal in sight. She's missing something, though,— I sent.

—She's missing a few things. You don't care about the patterns, you don't care about finishing them on time, and you are no more constrained to this location than your car is the parking lot,— NotABug sent.

—That was a lovely metaphor, and completely accurate. I think it will be stars for the afternoon.—

We both chirped together, though my hands started on the blouse again, but again they did hearts. The taste of the awabi faded eventually, as did the time left in the afternoon. Meanwhile, I spent the time Suri thought I would be wasting learning more programming from NotABug.

5:30 P.M.

Mandatory overtime was no longer something I cared for. I'd rendered almost all the patterns to hearts and learned the glorious advantages of libraries and APIs.

—Is it okay if Rainbow Dash comes over to play games?— NotABug asked.

I began the slow (given that I was still partly in the digital world, everything in the real one was slow) rise to leave.

—Of course, dear. Remember, we are doing some shopping first,— I sent.

—Perfect! We can meet up at the mall.—

Rainbow Dash had become a bigger part of my life lately and was about to become more so. For that matter, having NotABug be literally part of me was incredibly invasive on my former solitary life. Weekends had been when I encountered others, now I had a friend with me from the moment I woke to when I lost consciousness at night.

As I approached the time-clock, I could see Suri getting annoyed at it. I quickly revised my opinion of her from annoyed to furious.

"No, you stupid machine, I'm already logged in!" Suri said.

—Aww. It's not the clock's fault. Why is she so angry with it?— NotABug asked.

—Because you made her not be logged in most of the day?—

—Oh, yeah.—

We shared some chirping together. I managed to see that Suri was checking the system logs.

"Are you going to be much longer? I guess I could go to HR and log out there," I said.

"You!" Suri said and spun around. "You did this!"

"Me?"

"Yes!"

I backed away from Suri as an accusing finger of hers jabbed in my direction.

"You did this. You logged me out after I logged in from lunch, I know it!" Suri said.

By now, she was clearly a little unhinged—she wasn't even speaking in questions. I took another step backwards to dodge her repeated poking in my direction.

"Look, Suri, I didn't touch the thing. Is there a chance you misclicked something when you logged in?" I asked.

Something like ice-water seemed to hit Suri's rage. She pulled her arm back and just glared at me.

"You still have one week here, Rarity. I'm going to make that the worst week of your life."

"No you're not," I said, my own annoyance growing too far. "The first week I was here? That was the worst week of my life. Every week since then,"—I said, stalking toward Suri—"has been a new 'worst week of my life.'"

I gestured for her to move to the side, and she did. Stepping to the time-clock, I punched out.

"Next week? Next week is the beginning of my real life. Next week is the best week of my life. I will count the hours, minutes, and seconds until I can never look at your face again," I said and turned. "Suri Polomare, you couldn't make me have a bad day if you put your entire mind to it."

I completely ignored her utter silence as I walked to the lifts and, having one arrive just as I reached them, made my way to my car.

—You actually got angry,— NotABug sent.

—I did. I'm not proud of it, but I couldn't listen to her crow any longer. It was her or me.—

Climbing into the car, I started it and was already shifting it to reverse as I pulled on my seat belt. Both cameras came to life, and I reversed the moment my hands were on the wheel.

The drive to the mall wasn't long, and I definitely didn't need to set up the GPS. Getting a space at the mall wasn't the easiest on a Friday evening, but at least I could safely get into a spot thanks to my cameras.

Climbing out of the car, I didn't even see the blue blur until Rainbow Dash was right in front of me. To my surprise she stopped and stepped back.

"Sorry, Rarity. I thought you were someone else," Rainbow Dash said.

We both gently prodded at the same time, chirped at each other, and I slid behind while NotABug not only moved forward metaphorically but also physically. Rainbow Dash barely caught her as NotABug jumped into a hug.

NotABug's idea from earlier came back to me, and I focused on what should have been taste. Sure enough there was a spicy, agreeable flavor. It was so startling that I'm sure I must have chirped.

—She tastes a little spicy, and really sweet. Is that what you got?— I asked.

—Busy snuggling, but yes, really sweet.—

—You have some shopping of your own to do?—

—Yup! As soon as we go to the post office. They said they needed ID, but would open the PO box for a week in advance.—

—I'll leave you to it. Let me know if you need me for anything.—

I'd like to say that the feeling of being hugged by Rainbow Dash didn't affect me at all, but it was nice. So I withdrew to the digital world, opened a VPN to home, and started designing Monday's outfit. Only there was one teeny, tiny problem—I could still feel NotABug and Rainbow Dash hugging and sharing a kiss.

It wasn't too distracting, but feeling my lips pressed to another's, feeling NotABug hugging and pressed to Rainbow Dash… If there was a digital equivalent of a cool shower, I would like it now—please.

Despite the slowness of the real world, I felt NotABug and Rainbow Dash finish their little snuggle and start chatting. They began talking about games, toys, and all sorts of things I wasn't overly interested in.

—Darling, I hope I'm not interrupting?— I asked.

—Never!— NotABug sent.

—I can't seem to block out what you're feeling. Is it the same for you?—

—I've never been able to block sensations out without sleeping. You could take a nap?—

—But there are things to plan for. Although a nap does sound good.—

Without a body that needs to be coaxed to sleep more so than my own thoughts, it was surprisingly easy to just relax into sleep—so I did.

I dreamt while I slept. Dreams of machines, programming, NotABug, and chirping. Good dreams. Polomare Fashion was some kind of monster, NotABug was helping me fight it off with our army of robots wearing the most fabulous dresses.

We won, of course, and I kissed NotABug and our army of mechanical fashion models took the world by storm.

—Rarity, we have the things we wanted.— NotABug sent.

I mentally stretched out and was fed all the sensations a person would feel if they were sitting at a table drinking coffee—it was just a little strange to wake up to that.

—Thank you, darling. Some things for home are in order, as well as some new underwear. Was there something in that department you wanted to get to show off to Rainbow?— I asked.

—Should I? I don't think we're really that far along yet. I like cuddling, but I don't want to go too fast.—

—Good for you. I know Rainbow might seem a little forward (she almost had me saying yes at one point), but it's you who gets to decide what happens with your body.—

—It's your body too, and first.—

—Thank you, dear.—

I'd only just sent the last message when I felt her nudge. Sitting down meant the slide into control was smooth, but I felt Rainbow Dash's arm slide from my shoulders. I turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"It's pretty easy to tell when you know what to look for," Rainbow Dash said.

"I guess. What do you notice?" I asked.

I was intrigued to know, actually. If we ever needed to pretend we were each other, it would be best if we knew the other's little differences.

—You're listening?— I asked.

—Yup!— NotABug replied.

"Well, NotABug slouches a little. Not like just anyone would notice, but I've got a pretty good eye for physical movement. You also tend to look around with your eyes a little more," Rainbow Dash said.

It was surprising to hear such accurate descriptions from Rainbow. She had never struck me as someone who would notice such things. A minor revelation hit me: of course she's taking notice, best friend and girlfriend in same body, of course she doesn't want to mix us up.

"Thank you, darling. Now then. What was the first thing on my list…" I said, my lips curling upward. "Oh, right, new lingerie."

Normally I wouldn't say such a term for it, but Rainbow Dash had been nothing if not on her best behavior and deserved a little reward. Besides, it was just us girls here anyway. With all my focus on the real world, my sense of time was moving at breakneck speed.

6:37 P.M.

"Wait. Really?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Normally I'd wear a nice oversize shirt, but NotABug seems to prefer teddies. I must admit I've started to become partial to them myself."

The look Rainbow Dash gave me was a firm reminder that she was interested in what both of us wore to sleep as well. Then an idea struck me.

"You're going to be working at my boutique," I said, earning a mute nod from Rainbow Dash. "Well, it wouldn't do for you not to look your best. I think you'll need to buy some things too."

"What? Girl stuff?"

"Yes. Girl stuff. I know NotABug hasn't seen, but I vividly remember when you got too drunk at Fluttershy and Maud's ceremony and, later on—"

"Alright!" Rainbow Dash said. "So what do I need?"

She leaned back a bit, displaying her tomboyish figure. While everyone else had gained curves and mounds, Rainbow Dash had worked her body for tone and hadn't become gifted in the chest.

"Push-up bras. Panties. Stockings and garters," I said and held up a hand to forstall her inevitable interruption. "And shoes."

She looked about ready to rebel when I mentioned shoes. I reached a hand out and put my forefinger under her chin and lifted.

"Rainbow Dash, you didn't think I'd let you work in a fashion boutique wearing runners, jeans, a sports bra, and a shirt, did you?" I asked.

—This will be more fun than what we did already!— NotABug sent.

—Careful. Rainbow has a lot of pride. She's proud of who she is and how she looks. We just need to expand onto the side of that. Make her proud to look beautiful.—

—How do we do that?—

—Admiration, darling. Admiration. I want you to text her with exactly what you think of her.—

—You're going to work magic, aren't you?— NotABug asked.

—When fashion is involved? I don't need magic.—

"I guess. But you're going to go over the top, aren't you?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Rolling my eyes, I picked up the coffee cup and took a sip. A rich coffee flavor with none of the trappings of a usual "coffee drink" met my palate. I remembered back to the compliments from Soba Tsuya, and staunchly reminded myself that I need to treat my palate, not bath it in horrible foods.

"I am going to make sure you have enough outfits so that customers will see what you're wearing and want to buy it," I said, then leaned a little closer to Rainbow. "I will make sure that everyone will be jealous of NotABug, got it?"

Mention of NotABug's name did the trick. Rainbow Dash's eyes lit with internal fire, her expression hardened, and she nodded.

"She'll be watching, you know, while we pick things out. I hope you don't mind if I let her help?" I asked.

Buying underthings went as well as I could have hoped. It was a simple process of her picking out teddies for us to wear and me picking out things for her. At the end, with bags and bags of things between us, I went to pay and opened my purse.

—Those two cards have a lot of money on them. Use them as much as you want, but try not to tie them to our home,— NotABug said.

—Thank you, dear.—

I pulled out the first, a MasterCard with a business name on it. I reached out with it and slid it through the machine in the lingerie shop. It beeped happily and wanted a pin number.

—4 4 1 4,— NotABug sent.

Punching the numbers yielded another beep and a big smile from the assistant.

"Pillows next. I can't stand what it's doing to them, but until I have something that can help with my horn, I need at least one per night," I said.

"I guess it's pretty sharp?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Stopping, I tilted my head carefully. The touch of Rainbow's fingers on my horn was odd. The first contact felt like a little lightning strike in my head, and her digit tracing the less-sharp curves almost had me squirming.

"Is that sensitive, Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I would have nodded or jerked my head back, but either could have hurt Rainbow Dash's hand.

"Yes, just a touch. Please let go."

The moment I asked, Rainbow Dash complied. I tilted my head back up and felt a tick of relief at my horn being free again. Something remained, however. The tiny spark from her touch tingled in my horn.

"Let's get these pillows and head home. NotABug said we should order something tasty," Rainbow Dash said. "She mentioned you had something good for lunch?"

A bounce entered my step as the memories of lunch returned.

"Sushi," I said. "It was amazing, Rainbow. You wouldn't believe how good it tastes. We'll have to go some time."

"Isn't that, like, raw fish?"

"It isn't just raw fish. It is heaven on a plate, darling."

Over the course of buying a dozen pillows that were—thankfully—vacuum packed, we discussed the joys of eating sushi. It was more a point of me telling her the joys while Rainbow looked at me with evident skepticism.

As I settled into my car to drive home, I thought back to what NotABug had said.

—What's wrong with the credit cards?— I asked.

—I have found evidence that Windigo is still searching. They tried to poke around the NYSE and set off some kind of alarm on their servers. I really like the big servers there, they only let people play by the rules.—

—NYSE?—

—New York Stock Exchange. It's where some of the little AI I talk to live. But I've always played by the rules there, they let me connect without a problem.—

—But you're worried Windigo might find something to connect to us?—

I turned the car on, activated the cameras, and began to roll out of the car park. The squeal of tires and a revving engine told me Rainbow Dash was doing the same in her own car.

—It's better to be safe than sorry. I don't think Windigo could get our details from the NYSE. If they do, however, they can trace the account numbers, and trace those to these cards. I paid extra at the post office, the listing for our P.O. box is private.—

Thinking on the problem, I realized this could impact my shop's development. I didn't reply until I was pulling into my driveway.

—What we need is buffers. Addresses leading to addresses. Like the VPN is for internet,— I sent.

—That's what the P.O. box is for. Speaking of it, some other goodies arrived. Routers, modems, and cameras.—

I could hear the roar of Rainbow Dash's car pulling into the street. Climbing out of my own car, I started pulling out bags of things while Rainbow pulled up at the curb.

NotABug wasn't lying. For a second I wondered how she fit so much stuff in the trunk of my little car, but then I remembered how logically she could work sometimes. Rainbow Dash helped, and by the fourth trip we were done getting all the things inside.

"You order food while I set the game up. This is going to be awesome!" Rainbow Dash said.

I smiled, and my head was full of chirping—it was good to see Rainbow so happy. While Rainbow Dash produced a gaming console from a box, I searched around for good home-delivered Chinese food.

—You should give her the earpiece you wore to pretend to talk to me. Then we could both talk to her at the same time,— NotABug sent.

While I searched for the earpiece, I called our order through to the restaurant and was told it would be a bit over half an hour.

"Here, put this in," I said, passing the earpiece to Rainbow Dash. "With that we can all talk at the same time."

"Wait. What?" Rainbow Dash asked, but followed my instructions.

Rainbow's eyes went wide the moment it was in. I reached for NotABug, and she showed me a buffer to connect to."

"… kiss you until— Oh, Rarity connected. Hi Rarity!" NotABug said.

Arranging data to go into the same buffer, I quickly organized things so I could talk through it too.

"This will be delightful. We can both say things and she won't be able to tell us apart," I said though the interface.

"Rarity," Rainbow Dash said, "I can totally tell the difference between you. In person or like this—you're both different people."

I swapped back to using my normal voice since my ruse failed.

"You want to hug her a lot don't you, darling?" I asked aloud.

NotABug pushed gently, and I let her flow up and take control. I guess that meant it was my turn to talk via the earpiece.

Rainbow Dash accepted her hug and a kiss, and she gestured to the couch. The feel of her almost made me shiver with how good she tasted. I must have let out a little chirp because Rainbow Dash reached up to tap the earpiece.

"Sorry, Rainbow, that was me," I said.

"You chirped?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"She picked it up from me. I sometimes do that when I get excited, or happy," NotABug said.

Her lips curling into a smirk, Rainbow Dash put an arm around NotABug's shoulders.

"So I made her excited or happy?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I'll take that as a win."

Rainbow Dash started navigating through the console's menus with her controller, setting things up for the game that was already in it. She passed another controller to NotABug.

"What about Rarity? Can't we all play?" NotABug asked.

"Er. Well. She'd need a controller, and be able to hold it," Rainbow Dash said, blushing.

—It's a wireless controller, darling, couldn't I just, well, interface directly?— I asked.

I watched—digitally—as NotABug built a set of buffers and started spooling data in and out of them. While she did that, she pressed all the buttons on her controller again and again.

—It's using Bluetooth too?— I asked.

—Yup. Okay, I should have this worked out. Now to try to make a new connection to the console...—

"What the?!" Rainbow Dash asked. "How'd you do that?"

Rainbow's arm pointed at the screen where it now showed three players in the game. I reached for the interfaces just as NotABug sent a burst of information showing what each button was. I built a program in seconds that would use the translation table to send the codes so I didn't have to think about them.

—Nice work. Let's play!— NotABug sent.

The game was silly. I'd expected Rainbow Dash to get something action based, but it was a fun go-kart racing game. Each of us got a section of the TV as our screen, and we raced around the track getting weapons to use on each other.

"Did you order food?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Of course I did. They said it should be here by— Any minute now," I said.

As timing would have it, the doorbell rang. Rainbow Dash moved almost quicker than I could see, which was pretty good considering I was working at the faster speed of the digital world. She practically blurred from seat to door.

—They took MasterCard,— I sent.

—Would a place like this keep logs?— NotABug asked.

—I highly doubt it.—

NotABug slowly stood up and, grabbing her purse, walked to the door. The young man delivering the food looked cute—a little shorter than me, but he had a light-red complexion and a deeper red hair that just screamed of exciting personality.

—Is Rainbow checking him out?— NotABug asked.

—She likes guys and girls. You can't compete with his looks, but he'll never compete with yours, or your smarts.—

I heard chirping in my head at the compliment, not that it wasn't true. Then I noticed something that made me chirp too.

—She isn't checking him out, look where her eyes are focused,— I sent.

More chirps came from NotABug.

—Rainbow's checking out the food you ordered. She must be really hungry!—

NotABug paid and we got back on the couch to eat. The food had a different flavor profile than lunch. It certainly wasn't the usual home-delivered Chinese food—which was reflected in the price.

Getting used to having someone else eat with my body still took some doing. NotABug knew how to eat, but she savored different parts of the food than I would have. It wasn't a bad experience, just different.

The real delight was, I had to admit, Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow had the same sweetness, the same spice, but now there was a little more texture. While NotABug and Rainbow Dash ate together, I found myself eating something else—something much sweeter. It was strange how easy it was to take it in—like there was pressure behind it—all I had to do was think about food and it rushed into me.

As I ate, a pressure grew within me. I wasn't sure how, or why, but it felt right and very proper. I was so distracted with the meal that I didn't notice Rainbow and NotABug had finished their food until NotABug messaged me.

—Rarity? Are you awake? You feel awake. Want to play more or sleep?—

—I'm not sure why, but something strange is going on. Rainbow is so tasty, and I couldn't stop from eating. I think I might be full,— I said.

"NotABug, are you okay? Isn't Rarity going to play too?" Rainbow Dash asked.

My perception snapped back into stark contrast. I was looking through NotABug's eyes into Rainbow Dash's, and just when I thought I was so full and bloated I couldn't eat any more, Rainbow Dash smiled.

—She's so sweet.—

I pushed for control of our body—NotABug didn't fight me.

Something had my complete attention now. I turned my body to face where the data was coming from. Crawling forward, I stared at the game console the whole time until magic—power—welled out of me.

"Rarity?!" Rainbow Dash asked.

Her yell was almost impossible to hear over the hurricane of green fire. It spun around me faster and faster. All the food I'd eaten from Rainbow Dash, and probably some that NotABug had eaten too, rushed around us.

—What is this?— NotABug asked me.

—I don't know. It feels right.—

—Yeah.—

"It's okay, Rainbow," I said.

Then the power seemed to swirl and pour down and in.

Into the console.

"What the actual fuck?!" Rainbow Dash asked, standing up as she spoke. "What did you do, and what,"—she gestured at what had become of the game machine—"is that?!"

The clean white lines of the game machine had swollen, stretched, and had pulsing green and black between them. I was thankful it hadn't been slid into the TV cabinet because it was now the size of a bowling ball—but egg shaped.

"I don't know," I said.

"Shit, Rarity, it looks like some kind of alien egg! Is some kinda facehugger gonna jump out and attack me?"

"Please. I'm trying to stay calm at the moment, and you using all those swear words isn't helping. Now, what is going on? I have no—fucking—clue!" I said.

—Rarity, look at this,— NotABug sent.

I didn't often say a bad word—I hadn't even said one when I turned completely black—but right now I was being pushed. There were extenuating circumstances.

Gathering myself back up, I followed NotABug's call and delved into the digital world.

The Bluetooth connection was still active.

—So it's still working?— I asked.

—Maybe. Kinda. I don't know what it's doing. When I send data, even just random, I just get the same back.—

—What about Wi-Fi. Aren't all these things able to use that?—

In a rush, NotABug pulled up another interface and let out a happy chirp. Information was pouring in and out of our Wi-Fi from a new connection.

—What is it?— I asked.

—Rainbow Dash might be right. What if we made an egg?—

All my thought processes stopped at the exact moment I made sense of NotABug's message. An egg. We made an egg. We made an egg from something from Rainbow.

"You said egg?" I asked aloud.

"Well, yeah. Look at it. It's practically begging for a flamethrower to—" Rainbow Dash said. "Hold on. You made this."

It wasn't a question. I could practically hear the full stop in the air at the end of Rainbow's non-question.

"You made an egg," Rainbow Dash said.

"We made an egg," I said.

It was mostly a correction. Mostly.

"What do you mean, 'we'?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"She means we all did. Together," NotABug said, using the earpiece.

"Wait. How can I have done anything?" Rainbow Dash asked, apparently full of questions.

"Feeding," I said. "We've been feeding off something. When you were eating, it tasted stronger. What were you doing then?"

Rainbow Dash looked wild for a moment, as if she would run—if she did, I'd never be able to stop her. But she looked at me with confusion in her eyes.

"I was eating. I was thinking of—" Rainbow Dash said.

She'd bitten off her words, but I needed to know.

"What were you thinking about?" I asked.

"NotABug. Maybe you, too. In bed," Rainbow Dash said.

As she spoke, I felt the swell of food coming to me.

—You feel that?— I asked.

—Yup. So it's when she thinks about us?—

—Right. When she thinks of us, she gives us energy.—

"You're doing it now? Feeding again?" Rainbow Dash asked. At my nod she continued. "I can feel it."

While I stared at Rainbow in shock, she walked up to me and picked me up off the ground with strength that no young woman her size should have. She stared into my eyes, and kissed me.

I didn't owe Rainbow Dash a kiss, and I still wasn't interested in her sexually, but it felt nice to be the one kissed for once. I didn't embrace her and kiss back, or anything so forward—I just didn't pull away from a little warmth.

—She tastes really good,— NotABug sent.

Rainbow broke away from the kiss with a laugh. She looked into my eyes and was the same Rainbow Dash I'd always known: funny, quick to reach any emotion (or destination), and my friend.

"Really, Rarity? I finally get a kiss and you're a cold fish?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"C-Cold fish?" I asked. "Rainbow Dash, you should ask a woman's permission before kissing in that manner!"

Her giggles, now that they came, stole my breath and I began laughing too. I snorted, giggled, and guffawed in very unladylike ways while we both staggered to the couch. With the game console ruined, or in this cased egged, there was nothing else to look at except that egg.

The implications of an egg started to sink in. Eggs meant two things, and I doubted it was breakfast at this time of night. Yes, humor. It turns out a shocking kiss and a laugh can stop panic dead in its tracks.

An egg. Eggs mean offspring.

"An egg, huh?" Rainbow Dash asked, mirroring the thought in my head. "And you're saying it came from you, NotABug, and me?"

—Her love. It's obvious. Can't you feel it?— NotABug asked.

"Your love," I said. "Darling, NotABug, please use the earpiece. I don't want to have to keep relaying. It gets tiring."

"Err, right. Your love. It has to be love. What else swelled like that, tasted that sweet, or would feel like that?" NotABug asked.

"You ate my love and made an egg?" Rainbow Dash asked. "This is so fuc—"

"Don't swear," I said.

"… fantastically corny. You took my love and made an egg with it. So who's the mommy?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—You are,— I sent.

—You are,— NotABug sent.

We both chirped at our instant replies.

"We both are," NotABug and I said together.

"So I'm the dad?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I swear, Rainbow's smile was so wide, and silly, I almost lost control and started laughing again.

"You'll be the mommy too if it is a facehugger," I said.

"Very funny. So what do we do? Does one of us need to sit on it to keep it warm?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Practical questions and answers were Rainbow Dash's forte, particularly physical ones. I watched her stand and walk across the glowing egg and bend down. Gingerly, she set her palm against the black-and-white plastic shell.

"It's warm. Wait, it's still plugged in. This has to be the best egg ever if it's self-warmed," Rainbow Dash said.

I watched her run her hand along the shell, fingers dipping to the glowing green parts. She seemed to be petting it. Control was slipping from me. I reached for NotABug and gently nudged her into the fore.

—Kiss her properly, she deserves it,— I sent.

NotABug stood up and walked over to crouch beside Rainbow Dash. Soft lips pressed to NotABug's, and NotABug replied in kind. I felt a repeat of what had happened earlier, when Rainbow had kissed me, but NotABug had none of my reservations.

Making a soft chirp, I slid into sleep with little fanfare, feeling like a wrung-out emotional sponge.

Author's Note

Sweetie: How do you feel that your sister might be the first bio-digital, evolved human being on the planet? And what are your thought of NotABug?

"Jealous, excited, a little surprised, and daunted. It's amazing—like something out of science fiction. This isn't how electronics are meant to work, it isn't how people are meant to work, but somehow it is.

"That said, NotABug is the most amazing person I've ever met. She has literally grown so much in just weeks that I wonder where she'll go from here."

Sweetie Belle let out a sigh of contentment.

"But the best bit is she has been chatting with me—mostly texts. There is something that all the insights toward AI will never teach, and that is having someone who used to live like one actually explain it."

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Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 10

Sleep was deep and luxurious. Motherhood, thankfully, didn't enter into it at all. When the first stirrings of my conscious mind began, they chased away everything but the knowledge that the dreams had been good ones.

9:33 A.M.

I rolled onto my back and felt different. Rolling my eyes upward, I could now see the point of my horn—adorned with a piece of the new pillow I'd purchased—projecting far upward and forward.

"The way this is going, I'm going to have a horn so heavy I can't lift my head," I said.

Rather than running to the bathroom and looking, I closed my eyes and lifted my hands up to my head. My ears were nothing like human, but that was nothing new. All my hair felt amazingly silky and smooth now, which meant it was probably all cerulean.

I felt down to my face, ran my fingers around my eye sockets, over my closed lids, and down past nose and mouth. Something felt odd, and it came from within my mouth. Carefully opening my mouth, I drew a single finger inside and froze—pointed, fangs. If nothing else they would be great for chewing sushi.

Numb to my physical changes, I let out a little giggle at the thought that I could enjoy that wonderful food more. My fingers trailed down over my lips, chin, and neck. So far it was only my smile that was outwardly noticeable.

When I traced my shoulders and felt down each arm, I froze mid-forearm on each limb. I had to see what had happened, what I was feeling—sharp edges and chunks missing—couldn't be real. Jerking my hands up and above the covers, I stared.

My left arm had a semi-circle missing near the wrist and another complete hole just below my elbow. My right arm had two semi-circles missing. The skin was smooth, black, and stiff. The semi-circles were strange: it looked like someone had used a hole-punch on my arms and gone off center.

—What's wrong?!— NotABug sent.

"I have holes in my arms," I said very softly.

—Does it hurt?—

I just shook my head and poked my finger completely through the hole in my left arm. The inside—I just had to touch it, to feel it—was the same stiff coating as the rest of my arms. Despite my skin’s hardness, my wrists, fingers, and elbow all worked just fine.

—Aren't there meant to be bones going through there?—

"You're not helping, darling. I've really got nothing for this. Is it going to get worse?"

NotABug coaxed me into a digital hug. While we embraced, I slowly slumped back down and tried to ignore the need to poke at my new holes. My own thoughts and the relaxation from NotABug's snuggle caused me to giggle a little.

—What's funny?—

"Life. I might keep checking."

Returning my hands to my shoulders, I started to trace down the front of my body. The next detectable change was quick to be found. Given that I now had holes clear through my arms, my breasts being half a cup smaller—or so I judged—was relatively minor. The soft fabric of the teddy I was wearing felt nice under my fingers.

"It's not going to stop until I'm a—a pony? But this isn't what ponies look like, Princess Twilight told us what ponies look like, and I think she would have mentioned holes. So maybe I'm not turning into a pony, but something like a pony?"

—Would it be so bad? You always have magic. That seems to work really good now.—

I stopped my exploration and looked at my fingers again. Losing them would be a setback—humans had them because they were so useful.

"Maybe I should try getting better with my magic. It seemed a lot more powerful last time I tried using it."

—It would be a good thing to do, for both of us. You made that appointment to see Twilight today, right?—

"Of course. I hope she can fix this."

My hands traced the fabric of the underwear down my body until I found my belly, and then thighs. A quick inspection between them found no change. When my hands traced my legs I found another two holes in my left, and a hole plus three half holes in the right.

—Stockings are out.—

I nodded.

"Although full dresses should help with that. My skin seems harder, stiff around my arms and legs. Was it like that when you were reaching out of my phone?"

Pulling my knees up, I felt all the way down to my feet. Predictably, my left foot had a further semi-circle missing. All of a sudden I was giggling again.

—What's so funny?—

"Darling. We lost weight!"

I broke into a full laugh, and we both chirped at each other in the digital realm. Stretching out in my bed, I squirmed around, a little in indulgent delight at my joke. A knock at the door stole my laughter and I turned to stare.

—That will be Rainbow. She slept on the couch.—

—Do you want to be in control for a bit?— I asked.

I had reverted to digital communications primarily because it was fast—really fast. We could have an entire conversation in our heads while Rainbow Dash barely noticed a pause.

—We're in bed, a little vulnerable, and wearing very little. I think it would be a terrible time for me to be in control. I need to work on my stocks a little, anyway,— NotABug sent.

—Good thinking, darling.—

"Come in, dear," I said aloud.

"Rarity? I heard you laughing and figured you were up," Rainbow Dash said.

Not being into Rainbow Dash myself, I wouldn't normally focus on her barely clad form, but she was wearing one of the teddies NotABug had gotten for her, and she had a silk gown wrapped around her shoulders and tied loosely (which was how I knew exactly what she was wearing under it). The effect was more than I would ever have thought Rainbow Dash could pull off.

"It's just me, yes. NotABug is working online for a few moments. I appear to have some more changes."

I blew at a feather and shred of white pillow that floated down from my horn. Her eyes seemed to study me, tracing my form until they found my arms. I held up my arms to let her have a proper look.

"What. The. Actual. Heck?" Rainbow Dash asked.

She walked toward the bed and looked at my left arm. Poking a finger into the hole near my elbow, I saw her eyes widen.

"You have holes in your arms!"

I felt Rainbow Dash feel the flesh around my hole, then feel the rest of it down to my wrist. Sensations still came strong from the hardened flesh despite its changed nature.

"I do. I'm hungry," I said.

Rainbow Dash quickly stepped back to let me get out of bed, though I watched her eyes trace every visible inch of my black skin, noting every curve that my silken teddy hid. Male or female, straight, gay, bi, or otherwise, I liked being admired.

I made a show of standing up, sliding my hands down my sides and to each hip as I rose to… not quite my full height. Looking up at Rainbow Dash—I had to tilt my head up to meet her gaze. I'd shrunk a few inches.

Unsure exactly how to feel, wetness gathered in my eyes and I couldn't keep the first whimper from my throat. Blue arms wrapped around me and I lost all hope of keeping from crying outright. I pressed myself against Rainbow Dash's strong frame and bawled my eyes out. Great tears fell from my eyes as every little change added up to a complete loss of emotional control.

"You're okay, Rarity. You're okay," Rainbow Dash said, her voice a soft whisper against my odd ears.

I shook my head a little and pressed my face against her shoulder. It was all horribly unfair. I lost my height, my hair, and (pressed against Rainbow Dash for a good scale comparison) even a cup size. Even my eyes were completely different. Now I had holes opening in my arms and legs, and the skin of both had hardened.

Normally, in a novel, the character would make the comment that they don't know how long they stood there crying. I, however, am not in a novel. I bawled into my best friend's arms for eleven minutes, seventeen seconds, and seven-hundred-and-twenty milliseconds.

Even when I was done, when my tears had stopped flowing, I was grateful that Rainbow Dash just kept holding me.

"It's breakfast time. Come on," Rainbow Dash said.

I didn't manage to get out a full squeal before she'd scooped me up, one arm under my shoulders while the other was under my knees, and started carrying me out of my bedroom. I know I made squeals of protest, but Rainbow Dash seemed immune to them as she carried me all the way to the living room and set me on the couch.

The egg was still there. All my panic and stress died in my throat at the realization that I was, in some way or another, going to be a mother. I stared at the egg until Rainbow Dash put a bowl of chocolate-fudge ice-cream into my hands.

"Eat that while the coffee is brewing," Rainbow Dash said.

"You're making me coffee?" I asked and sighed. "Thank you."

I could already taste sweetness before I lifted the first spoonful of ice-cream. Rainbow Dash's love was amazing, but I had the proof before me of what eating too much of it would do. As the first chocolaty goodness filled my mouth, I fell sideways on the couch and squirmed in place.

Laying across the couch reminded me of the height I'd lost, but I had ice-cream, so it was easier to deal with. Everything was easier to deal with when you had a bowl of chocolate ice-cream.

10:03 A.M.

So far I'd already had an existential crisis, several revelations, and possibly become a million dollars richer—depending on what NotABug was up to. But everything paled before ice-cream and coffee once Rainbow had brought it in.

I sat up again and cradled my mug in one hand, my bowl on my lap, and the spoon in my free hand.

"Thank you, again. I don't know how I would have survived this morning without you," I said.

"Hey. You don't have to keep thanking me. This is what friends do," she said.

Rainbow Dash sat down—or in her case practically collapsed—next to me and started on one of my breakfast bars. I’d gotten my spoon halfway to my mouth with more ice-cream when I realized what had happened.

"I'm out of ice-cream, aren't I?" I asked.

"Yup."

I quickly had one more spoon of ice-cream and passed Rainbow Dash the bowl.

"I'll have to do more shopping. The cycle never ends, does it? Oh well. I can do that after my appointment with Twilight," I said.

Retrieving the breakfast bar, I started on the second half of it and wrote some shopping in on my day planner. Having data storage was literally the best thing ever.

In the back of my head was the constant chirping sound of data transfers. NotABug seemed busy, so I left her be.

"What do you think she'll do?"

"Well, certainly nothing with clippers. I made her promise," I said, earning a snort of laughter from Rainbow Dash. "Best case, of course, is undoing all this, getting NotABug her own body, and creating a fountain that shoots money into the air. Honestly, though, I don't there's much chance of any of those things. This has a feeling of—of finality."

"So hope for the best but prepare for the worst?"

I nodded. It was the best way of putting my predicament. I turned my mind to the "worst" and what it might entail.

"If I am turning into something similar to what NotABug was, I'm likely to end up without hands at all. She had hooves," I said. "Although there is magic. We discussed that earlier, NotABug and I that is, and agreed that practicing with our magic would be a good idea. If nothing else, I get an extra hand."

Rainbow Dash held her silence for a full minute. She looked down into the bowl of ice-cream and I could practically hear her inner voice wanting to blurt something out.

"I don't care," Rainbow Dash said at last. "A-About what you or NotABug look like, I mean. Not that I don't like how you look, or how much effort you put into looking good, but I mean I care more about who you are than what—"

I saved her from shoving her foot any further down her throat by kissing her cheek. It didn't last long, just a little contact and then gone again.

"I understand, and when NotABug's paying more attention I know she will too. Life's complicated right now, and knowing I have a good friend is more important than almost anything else."

"Just a friend?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Narrowing my eyes, I delivered what I hoped to be an admonishing glare. It was hard, however, considering the pampering she'd given me so far today.

—I don't mind if you are more than friends,— NotABug sent.

—Don't you start. I'm still working through this. I have twenty years of little girl dreams to change from Prince Charming to Miss Awesome. Disney is to blame.—

—Disney?— NotABug asked.

—Yes. Disney. We'll do research later,— I sent.

"For now. Don't push me," I said out loud.

"But carrying is okay?" Rainbow Dash asked, mouth cocked into a grin.

"Carrying was okay and you know it. Now, do you want to have lunch with me and then have your date tonight with NotABug?" I asked.

There was plenty of excited chirping in my head now, and it had nothing to do with data transfers. If only all the chirping was from NotABug, alas the excited look on Rainbow Dash's face made my heart jump a little. Just friendship. Maybe something more, later. I'm such a terrible liar.

—Does she deserve a kiss?— NotABug asked.

In response I gently pushed away from the front of my mind. NotABug slid past, easily finding herself at the helm of her body again. I could never just kiss Rainbow Dash on her lips, but NotABug could and did.

Despite Rainbow Dash's strength and speed, and despite everything else she had built her body to be, her lips were soft as silk. I tried to slip away to do some revised dress designs, but nothing let me escape the feel of NotABug kissing Rainbow Dash.

And drat it, but it felt good.

To distract myself more, I called Uma no Sushi.

"Uma no Sushi, this is Kit speaking."

"Kit, darling, please tell me you're open for lunch today?" I asked

"Of course. We're open for lunch and dinner every day," she said. After a slight pause, she asked, "Rarity?"

"Indeed. May I book a more substantial lunch for two, then? Similar style to last time."

I had no idea how much their produce actually cost, but I tipped generously when I was first in.

"Of course. Midday?" she asked.

"Yes. Thank you."

We said our pleasantries and I ended the call. I could feel air on NotABug's lips, so the kiss was hopefully over. When I reached back toward the real world a little more, I felt a strong arm around NotABug's shoulders.

10:37 A.M.

—I booked lunch at Uma no Sushi. Let Rainbow Dash know. We have an hour and a half to get ready,— I sent NotABug.

"Oh! Rarity booked us lunch at an awesome sushi place!" NotABug said.

"Sushi? Again with the raw fish?" Rainbow Dash asked, screwing her face up a bit. "If it's just raw fish, it should be really cheap, right?"

"It was extremely expensive, but tasted wonderful. You'll see."

NotABug gulped down the coffee and jumped to her feet. She was already two strides toward the hallway before she turned to look back at Rainbow Dash.

"Come on! We need to have a shower and get ready!" NotABug said.

—By shower, you mean singular?— I asked.

—I think she'll work it out eventually. Think I'll be done before she does?— NotABug asked, not answering my question directly.

In our bedroom, NotABug shed the teddy she was wearing and got all the way to the en suite—with only her derriere showing—before Rainbow Dash apparently realized what was said and rushed to our bedroom door.

"Do you mean sh-shower together?" Rainbow Dash asked.

We both chirped at the stutter in Rainbow's words. NotABug looked back over her shoulder, and bumped her horn on the door jamb—ruining the sexy glance somewhat.

"That depends. Do you promise to not touch?" NotABug asked.

It was a big moment, I guess. I'd seen Rainbow Dash in everything down to underwear—while fitting dresses for her—and of course when we put on costumes and outfits when younger. Being naked together in a shower would be different.

But despite that, NotABug's little rule made it more tolerable. Then a little revelation happened: it isn't my body. NotABug's breasts are different, her height's different, eyes, skin tone, even her hair right now is completely different to my own. Is she in my body, or am I in hers?

"Is Rarity okay with this?" Rainbow Dash asked, still not taking a step into the room.

—I am now that she asked,— I sent.

"She wasn't, but now that you asked nicely she said she will be okay with it."

NotABug left Rainbow Dash with that, and walked into the bathroom. Being a typical en suite, the bathroom was equipped with a shower well-sized for two. NotABug leaned in and turned the water on then moved in a moment later.

—I might take a nap, darling. Okay with this does not equate to wanting to participate,— I sent.

—I'll wake you when we're done.—

It was so easy to let go. I wasn't trapped by my body's needs, so sleeping became purely mental.

11:15 A.M.

It seemed like I was unconscious for maybe twenty seconds before I felt my hair being brushed. Mentally, I stretched like a cat, exploring the range of my mind. I wasn't in control of my—NotABug's—body, but that was okay.

While NotABug sat on the floor beside our bed, Rainbow Dash was seated behind her—completely naked. I realized the position was a set up, owing to the large mirror in front.

My senses seemed drawn to Rainbow Dash. Wearing her bra and panties for her fitting, she had shown the muscles of her form off quite well, but without any clothing at all she was different—subtle and more vulnerable. I traced the flat stomach down until I lost sight at the back of NotABug's head.

—You planned this set up,— I sent.

—Yup. I asked if Rainbow Dash wanted to wear anything, she said it wouldn't be anything you haven't already seen, then. She likes us both,— NotABug sent, chirping softly in the background.

—I know, but there is a little too much going on right now. I don't even know if I'll look human in another week. Oh dear, how odd will work be by then?—

Rainbow was taking things slow with NotABug's hair, using a hand to gently steady it each time while the brush slowly worked through the silken strands. I studied the way the muscles played in her arms with each stroke, a determined but happy expression on her face, and found myself chirping softly.

—Oh! Oh! You totally need to use this! "You turned me into a monster, Suri. Now you have to deal with your choices,"— NotABug sent.

This time I chirped for all I was worth. I relaxed maybe a little too much, comfortable in Rainbow Dash's attention.

11:22 A.M.

I wasn't sure exactly how long I'd been chirping, but five minutes was believable. I gently nudged at NotABug and slid into control.

—She's going to want a kiss after this,— NotABug sent.

—Maybe I'm more okay with that. On the cheek of course.—

—You could pretend you're me.—

It hadn't worked last time, and I doubt it would work now. I took a deep breath.

"Welcome back, Rarity," Rainbow Dash said, cutting off my chance to get words in. "It's really cool how you can just sleep like that. NotABug explained it to me."

It wasn't fair: Rainbow was entirely too good at telling us apart. In a way it reassured me that we were completely different people. I didn't need to force myself to relax—I was still relaxed.

"Thank you, darling. I don't suppose you have panties on?" I asked.

In answer, Rainbow Dash tilted herself a little to the side. The movement was significant because I could see an unbroken line from Rainbow Dash's shoulder all the way down her side to her toes—there was no strap for any underwear.

I looked away from Rainbow Dash, turning my head enough to see the clothing on the bed beside me. My eyes widened as I realized what it was.

"Is that one of my school outfits? Where did you find that?" I asked, standing up in the process.

"There was a box in your spare room marked, 'Canterlot High.' You were only a little smaller then, so we figured it would fit," Rainbow Dash said.

A white blouse, an ankle-length purple dress, some lovely full-shoe heels, and dark stockings were on the bed. I hesitated for a moment with the shirt, thinking it would be bad to wear a white blouse over black underwear, but then I remembered my own skin tone was hardly white anymore.

I pulled the blouse on and started fastening it. The long sleeves did a reasonable job of hiding my holes until I held one arm up and light shone through.

"Keep your arms down. If anyone says anything you, just tell them you're going to a convention later. Rarity, you have more confidence than this. What's that thing you keep saying?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Suri's an idiot?" I asked.

"No. About life."

"Life is a runway…"

I let out a sigh and smiled. She was right. I looked down at my neckline and unfastened the top button—I wasn't quite as small as I was back then, and it meant the silky top of the teddy I was wearing was perfectly visible at the bottom V of the neckline. Next came the hose, dress, and my shoes.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash had walked over to my closet and selected one of my shorter, black dresses, a light blue top that matched her own skintone, and a black pushup bra under it. I stared at her for a moment, my eyes taking in the effect that the bra made. It was obvious she was wearing it, but being blue it was less of a stark contrast.

—She looks yummy,— NotABug sent.

—Where did you learn something like that?— I asked.

—Remember when we first met?—

—Yes.—

—I practiced my speaking on a lot of people, in private chats. They thought they were taking me out on a date, but it was a good way to learn. A few guys said that when I linked them a cute girl picture.—

I almost face-palmed.

—She is tasty, though. Maybe we shouldn't eat her so often, though. Do we really want more eggs?— I asked.

—I want to see what happens with the first one. Oh! We should set up a camera to watch it while we're out.—

It was a good idea, actually.

"Rainbow, I'm going to set some things up in the living room. I'll be right back," I said and started to walk out. "Oh, wait a moment. Don't put on any perfume."

Rainbow Dash poked her head out of the closet and gave me a confused look.

"Uh, not that I normally do, but why not?" she asked.

"It ruins the experience of sushi, darling."

Sounding like a seasoned sushi diner, I turned and walked out to the living room. All the gizmos NotABug had ordered were in a pile, neatly stacked. I looked over them until I found an IP camera. Just thinking about the topic brought not only the words, but the meanings of the words to life. IP: Internet Protocol - How data was sent on the internet.

—Just open it up and plug it in. I'll configure it as we want it,— NotABug sent.

—This is a wireless one? Wi-Fi? That will be great,— I sent.

Taking the camera from the box, I found its wall-wart and hooked it up beside the couch. The moment it powered up I began to hear some chirping in the back of my head. I ignored NotABug's work and positioned the camera so it was pointing at the egg.

—How is that?— I asked.

In answer, an image appeared in my peripheral vision. It was only momentarily disconcerting—though it didn't move as I turned my head, it felt almost exactly the same as the cameras in the car.

"What are you doing? I mean, I don't mind the view, but we still have to get some makeup on," Rainbow Dash said.

Her voice startled me enough to jump up and almost knock the camera over.

"It's a camera to keep an eye on the e—on junior," I said. "If they hatch while I'm out, I want to know about it."

"You can connect to it over the internet? What, on your phone?"

I rolled my eyes but grinned, then I tapped the side of my head and sent Rainbow Dash's phone a message.

—The internet isn't very far away, darling,— I sent

There was a beep. Rainbow Dash's head spun to face her phone (that was secluded in her jeans pocket, tossed on the floor) then back to me.

"Was that you?" she asked.

"Well of course it was me. I have an internet connection in my head, and the smartest programmer in the world sharing a brain with me. Getting a simple camera to work was child's play," I said and sighed. "But you're right, we need makeup."

11:46 A.M.

We had just put finishing touches on our makeup. I'd gone for a little more bright—to match my white blouse—whereas Rainbow Dash had gone with some darker colors. While I'd worked on my own makeup, NotABug had worked on our horn.

I'd taken note that Rainbow Dash hadn't put anything on her cheeks, because right then I wanted to decorate one myself. Stretching up on tiptoes, I laid a little kiss on her cheek. The effect was wonderful—Rainbow Dash's face lit up and she beamed with excitement. She also had a perfect imprint of my red lipstick on her cheek.

—She looks good with that on her cheek,— NotABug sent.

—She does, but it might be a little much in public. Let me ask.—

"Rainbow, dear, do you want me to clean that—?" I asked.

"No! I mean, no thanks," Rainbow Dash said, turning back to the mirror. "It looks good, actually."

—See!— NotABug sent.

I was out voted, it seemed.

"Come on then. Let's give you a taste of perfection," I said and turned for the door.

"I still can't believe we're going to eat raw fish. Is their stove broken or something?"

I had never rolled my eyes so much before in my life. Walking through the house, I passed the egg and couldn't keep a smile from my lips as I saw it with more than just the security camera.

"Why don't we take my car?" Rainbow Dash asked the moment I opened the door.

About to make a comment about "arriving alive", I instead cocked a smile and turned to look at Rainbow.

"Only if you let me drive," I said.

"What? Ugh! Okay! We'll take your car."

—She really doesn't like people driving her car that much?— NotABug asked.

—This is a method I've used to survive several years since Rainbow got her license. I feel no guilt.—

We both chirped at the silliness.

The drive was short—Uma no Sushi was closer to my home than it was to work. In no time, and with minimal complaining about my driving from Rainbow Dash, we were there.

11:55 A.M.

I shut down the car, turned off the cameras, and climbed out. It took a conscious decision to swing the door closed from as low as possible so as not to show too much light through the holes. Circling around the car, I gestured to Uma no Sushi.

"Are you going inside?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah. I don't get what all the excitement's about. It's just fish."

Rainbow Dash opened the door and led the way into the restaurant. Kitsune Udon was at the register settling the check for a young man. I waited patiently behind him until he left.

"Ah! Miss Rarity. Welcome back," Kitsune Udon said. "If you'd take a seat over here, Chef Soba Tsuya will see to your needs himself. And please, call me Kit."

"So do we pay up front or when we're done?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Today'll be my treat," I said, forestalling any further problems. "You shouldn't have to worry about money when having something this delicious."

Kitsune nodded to me with a smile. Turning toward the offered seats, I closed the distance and sat up atop one. Rainbow Dash found the seat beside mine.

Behind the bench, Chef Soba was working on several things, but he noticed me and smiled. For an instant I wondered if he would mention my stature or the length of the horn on my head. The little changes had become so much noise, but surely big things would draw attention?

"Irasshaimase. Welcome again to Uma no Sushi. You bring more customers to my little shop?" Chef Soba asked.

Chef Soba had the kind of smile that I could see on any proud business owner or father.

"Rainbow Dash, this is Chef Soba Tsuya. Chef Soba, this is my good friend Rainbow Dash," I said.

"Hi, Chef Soba Tsuya," Rainbow Dash said.

"Hello. Please, call me Chef Soba. Is there a fish that you would like to start with?" Chef Soba asked.

"I'm gonna level with you, I'm only here because my girlfriend raved about how good your food is. So I guess, what I'm saying is, make something you think I'll like," Rainbow Dash said.

Chef Soba's hands began moving, and he pulled out a fillet of whitish fish. His knife adjusted to an angle and sliced two thin strips from it.

"This is karei, winter flounder. I will be serving it as nigiri," Chef Soba said.

As he spoke, the chef's hands moved rapidly, pressing fish to rice with a touch of green wasabi paste and a brush stroke of something on top. He plated the nigiri on two different plates and added some of the ubiquitous ginger.

"When you eat this, Rainbow, you turn it upside down at the last moment so the fish is the first thing to touch your tongue. Savor it," I said.

Reaching for my own piece, I demonstrated for Rainbow Dash: took a deep inhale of the fish's light aroma, then put it in my mouth. The first thing that met my palate was a gentle tingle from what appeared to be some kind of clear liquid that Chef Soba had brushed onto the fish. The wine was overtaken by the encompassing flavor of the fish—a light flavor—and when I finally bit through I found the wasabi as a sharp finale.

I was just about to swallow when I heard a loud exclamation from beside me.

"That was totally awesome!" Rainbow Dash said. "The stuff on top—was that wine? It was just a little sparkly before that fish flavor just kept coming. The kick at the end was great, too!"

And so we ate. The sushi was—without exception—delicious. We had, of course, finished things up with another awabi each, the powerful flavor of which would hopefully last for an hour.

I stood up and made my way to settle the check. Kit was standing behind the counter looking pleased as punch.

"The price will be two-hundred-and-twenty dollars," Kit said.

Swiping NotABug's card, I turned my head and gave Rainbow Dash a significant look. Her mouth was already open but my glance cut her short. I punched the pin code and waited for the machine to beep before turning.

Rainbow Dash had picked up on my look, thankfully—she held her mouth closed until we were outside and the door closed behind us.

"What the actual heck, Rarity? That was over a hundred bucks each!" she said.

—Should I tell her about your funds?— I asked NotABug.

—Maybe. I don't want anyone to get hurt if Windigo gets wind of where I am,— NotABug sent.

—Is there a way we could make all those shares legitimate? Maybe we could ask our lawyer?— I asked.

—I'll send an email to them. Uh. I'll have to pretend I'm you. Is that okay?—

—Perfectly fine, darling. If we could make that money legitimate, it would take a lot of the stress out of that side of things. I know we would pay a lot of tax, but it's not like we can't make more.—

The conversation had been rapid as usual, and not a full second had passed before I put together a reply.

"I'll tell you in the car," I said.

I climbed into my little car, turned it on, and activated the cameras. Once Rainbow was in and beside me, I started to explain.

"NotABug has a knack for the stock market. She has raised…" I said and thought about how to give the full depth of what she was doing. "She can raise enough money for all of us to live very comfortably for the rest of our lives—even if we continue to eat hundred-dollar sushi every day."

"How much exactly?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I slid the car into forward, activated the accelerator, and slid out into traffic.

"As far as I'm aware she has a few million in her various bank accounts."

The number—the word—still didn't seem possible. It didn't feel right that I could have access to all that money. The quantity just didn't register beyond what NotABug had said to me: that she could always get more.

"That's a lot, yeah," Rainbow Dash said.

Rainbow leaned back in her seat in a way that had nothing to do with speed. Rather than home, I drove us back to the mall. Rainbow Dash didn't even notice where we were going until I pulled into the parking lot and found a space.

"Why're we here?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Because I have a job for you," I said. "How would you like to do some egg-sitting?"

At that, Rainbow blushed in a way that made me want to give her a matching kiss-mark on her other cheek.

"I can't believe I'm going to be a mommy!" Rainbow Dash said.

NotABug gently nudged at me, and I relaxed and let her take the fore. With the car parked, NotABug leaned across, used her hand to cup Rainbow's jaw and turn it toward her, and kissed her on the lips.

Meanwhile, I tried to put together a shopping list.

—Sorry. She deserved that one,— NotABug sent.

—I concur. If you want to spend a little more time with her, I've made a list of things we need for the house.—

1:10 P.M.

—Are you sure? Do you have something to do?—

—Darling, I have a slew of programming homework to do!—

And with that, I brought up my VPN and began taking care of just that—while trying to ignore how nice Rainbow Dash kissed.

It was much easier to keep both worlds in focus. I could see NotABug shopping with Rainbow Dash, watch our egg, and work on my code at the same time. It seemed like hours, but the ever-present time in my head told me it was just thirty minutes before a message arrived.

1:43 P.M.

—I'm already here setting things up,— Twilight sent.

—NotABug and Rainbow are finishing off some shopping and I was just working on some programming. We should be there on time.—

I almost hated the message system used by phones. Not only was there a horrible delay between sending and the other person receiving, but they were always replying in real-world time. I'd never really thought about it, but if everyone in the world could think this fast, I'm sure there would be wars about turn-around latency.

I returned to my programming and nearly a full minute passed before Twilight replied again.

—Okay. See you then.—

Anticlimactic fury lit inside me and raged for nearly fifty milliseconds.

—Alright.—

I watched, through the car's cameras, as NotABug drove Rainbow Dash back to my house. They spent five minutes unloading the groceries from the car.

—We need to leave shortly. Twilight is expecting us,— I sent.

—Yeah. Just kissing my girl and topping up on love. I never realized it before, but I feel hungry when I need more.—

The comment about love surprised me. I tried to feel if I needed any and found myself content with the quantity I had already. Of course now that I paid attention to it, I realized I was feeding off Rainbow Dash anyway.

I was listening to Rainbow and NotABug say their goodbyes and then felt the gentle push of NotABug. I answered immediately and slid into control.

"Welcome back, Rarity. I still can't get over you doing egghead stuff. Computer programming? Really?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well, if you had to put up with all this data flying around all the time, you'd start wanting things to keep it under control too," I said.

Rainbow Dash seemed to stew on that for a minute.

1:51 P.M.

"Okay. I guess without experiencing it myself I can't really say anything. I still think it's a bit nerdy."

"Goodbye, Rainbow Dash," I said, offering my cheek.

She kissed me warmly, affectionately—the taste of her love ran to something like strawberry jam.

"You make this sound like Twilight's going to lock you up and run all kinds of experiments."

I rolled my eyes and made my way to the front door.

"I'll catch you later!" Rainbow Dash said.

Leaving her be, I walked out to my car and drove to Twilight's house. Housing was mercifully cheap in Canterlot, but it wouldn't have mattered for Twilight. Her parents had purchased her a house to live in near the university, and it seemed like she was never going to leave.

I parked beside Twilight’s car in her driveway. She, like myself, had chosen something economical and simple—a car to get from A to B. I walked to her front door and rang the bell.

When there was no answer, I sent a quick text.

—I'm at the front door.—

A little background chirping caught my attention, then a lot of chirping from NotABug made me more curious. I got as far as discovering her making a phone call to Rainbow Dash before I backed away. This was something private for them.

Twilight opened the door and looked at me. She stared for several seconds—not even blinking.

"C-C-Come in. Wow that— Mind the door frame!" Twilight Sparkle said.

Her warning came just in time for me to duck under the lintel. While I had shrunk a little, my horn had grown more.

Twilight was wearing a pair of jeans and a shirt but had a lab coat over the top. It was a severe look, but it did well to highlight how severe a situation I was in. Meanwhile, her house was spotless. Beautiful floorboards were polished to the point where they reflected some light, lovely cream walls had a few pretty pictures hanging on them, and it all looked entirely too clean—Twilight was married closer to her career than I had been to mine.

"Is that real?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

She pulled something out from behind her back and began waving it at me. The device had a screen and looked like it had been cobbled together from a mobile phone and a bunch of old coat-hanger wire.

"Twilight, darling, can you at least let me get all the way inside, and preferably somewhere that I can try to relax?" I asked.

Twilight jerked back, clutching her device to her chest. She looked more anxious than hurt, although ultimately it was the same thing.

"Please calm down, Twilight. You have a list of things you want to test?" I asked, getting in before she could recover.

"Right: my list. Sorry, but you have to understand how exciting this is. So far all the testing and research has been based off artificial magic I have caused, or that I made machines cause. Having something significant to investigate will be a welcome break," Twilight Sparkle said.

She led the way to her kitchen and the stairs that descended to the basement. Despite the good light, I took the stairs slowly and I found myself in another world.

Three walls of the room were covered in machinery. Huge racks (a word I'd learned had new meaning from NotABug) stood side by side, each with either a server, some kind of networking system, or huge bundles of cables running to other devices. The final wall of the room was reserved for a workbench, and with the stairs freestanding, I was right in the middle of it all.

"Just remember, anything that is going to interact directly with us is off the table. I don't want NotABug hurt by this," I said.

"Okay. First thing," Twilight Sparkle said, lifting up a computer tablet. "Horn. I made a device, should anyone from Equestria come and visit and still, well— I made it to go around a horn."

Reaching to the work desk, Twilight lifted up what looked like a plastic cup with a hole completely through it. I stared at the thing in fascination.

"What does it do exactly?" I asked.

"It picks up your manipulation of Twil—of magic. If it works as well as the skullcap version, I'll be able to see what you are trying to do and where."

I couldn't forget that she had named the magic particle after herself—that must get confusing when talking with her contemporaries. Holding my hand out, I waited for Twilight to pass me the device.

"I can put it on myself, dear. I…" I said, then realized there was more to it. "Oh go ahead. I'm sitting in your chair, though."

I sat down and tilted my head back far enough that my horn stuck straight up.

When Twilight's fingers touched my horn for the first time, I let out a little gasp—I had forgotten how sensitive it was. Thankfully she was being careful, which meant I had time to get used to having someone else touching it.

Then she wrapped the cup around the very base of my horn. There was soft padding inside the cup, but it still felt odd to have something there.

Without realizing it, I reached up to itch at the thing on my horn.

"Don't touch that! Please, you restricted me enough already. At least let me run these tests," Twilight Sparkle said.

I let out an expansive and eternally suffering sigh.

"I suppose you're going to ask me to do something?" I asked.

"Just another… Okay! Now try to lift that ball over there."

Twilight pointed at a tennis ball (that looked well-chewed) sitting on the floor on the other side of the room.

"That's Spike's," I said. "You know he'll be upset if I move it."

"He's staying with Mom and Dad for the weekend. I thought you wanted to get this looked at?"

Twilight had me. I'd been pretending to be forward about turning into something else, but now that Twilight could actually investigate, I was doing everything I could to stop her. I reached for my magic, my new magic, and the room lit up green.

A new aspect to my magic surfaced: I could feel Twilight Sparkle standing beside me. She, like Rainbow Dash, had a flavor to her, but hers was like chilled, vanilla ice-cream. She loved me for the science I represented.

Distracted by the feelings of my friend, I struggled to focus on the target—the ball.

"I had a little burst of energy yesterday, so I don't know how strong I'll—" I said.

Before I could finish explaining how weak my magic was now, I shoved the tennis ball into the air and embedded it in the floor of the house above us. Two beautiful wooden boards were split and broken with a yellow fuzzy rubber ball lodged between their broken splinters.

"… be."

I could have blown up her house and Twilight would have taken less notice. She was glued to her tablet, tapping on it with an expression like she'd just won the lottery.

"Did you get useful data?" I asked.

"Nope! It's amazing!" Twilight Sparkle said.

Blinking a few times, I began tilting my head forward then froze, the recorder thing was still around my horn, and despite my less charitable thoughts I didn't want to ruin it.

"Alright, Twilight. Those were two very contradictory and enthusiastic replies. What happened?" I asked.

"It was way too much magic. My device tries to measure and calculate each Twilight your horn discharges, but there was an overflow. I don't know exactly how many Twilights that was, but what I managed to measure put them at a very low Sparkle," she said. "Your magic, simply put, works in an entirely different way than mine, or any other I've seen. Everything else uses high-powered, precision Twilights. Your magic just throws an ocean of Twilights."

I could grasp the basic concept, even if the repeated use of the two parts of her name made me want to giggle. My magic, and presumably NotABug's too, was quantity over quality. It wasn't the best of methods, and it generally wasn't my choice, but it explained why my magic was so overwhelming when I used it.

"So, since we can assume your magic—how it used to be—worked like mine, this explains why you seem to have a bit of a control problem," Twilight Sparkle said. "You see, your normal method of moderating power by reducing the Sparkles in your magic doesn't work—even with the lowest Sparkle count, your wave of Twilights is still super powerful."

What she said was exactly what I'd figured out, even if she managed to state it as confusingly as possible. I nodded a little, glad I at least had my idea confirmed.

"Then controlling my magic should mean I need to limit how many,"—I bit back a giggle—"Twilights I make."

"Exactly!" Twilight Sparkle said.

Practically bouncing in excitement, Twilight quickly turned to the computer on her workbench and began typing away at a furious pace.

"Twilight?" I asked, only to get no answer. "Twilight, can you remove this contraption now?"

It was too late—she was completely enthralled in writing down her new discovery.

The tablet laying on the desk beside her gave me an idea. Twilight was using the tablet to control her test gear, so there had to be a wireless network here. It took but a second to find it, and a little poke told me it was using WPA security.

Putting what NotABug had taught me into practice, I downloaded a tool for breaking WPA security, loaded it on the server at home, and set up a link between my Wi-Fi link and the server. I set the program running, and while it worked I tried some common passwords.

Just as the program alerted me that it had guessed the password, I broke in myself. "FriendshipIsMagic" was not the most inventive password after all. Logging onto the Wi-Fi, I prodded all the machines present—and there was a lot. Twilight's computer—the laptop she was working with on—wasn't hard to find.

Scanning it like NotABug had taught me, I found a secure little machine that didn't seem inclined to chat. I was about to give up, but I found streams of data pouring in from other computers. Turning my eyes in the real world, I toyed with the data (with a cute little man-in-the-middle attack NotABug had shown me) and got a feel for what was being displayed. More poking, and the scatter plot data Twilight was looking at suddenly changed to the words "Turn around."

Spinning in her seat, Twilight stared at me as if I'd grown wings and a tail—which I might do soon, but that was beside the point.

"How did you make your magic do that?!" she said.

"I didn't. I tried asking you to take this thing off me, but you got distracted with your typing. Also, your Wi-Fi password is terrible, although your laptop's well-protected," I said. "Now, please, if this isn't going to help, can you please take it off?"

I could now see how much fun NotABug had poking at computers and networks. The whole process had been like a puzzle box.

"But I really need to record my thoughts on this—" Twilight Sparkle said.

"No buts. Twilight, can you please remove this thing now?"

For a second (a second and thirty milliseconds, actually) Twilight looked to actually be thinking on the subject. Then she shook her head and her whole demeanor changed.

"Sorry, Rarity," Twilight Sparkle said.

Unhooking the ring from its cables, Twilight lifted it away from my horn and carried it back to the workbench.

"I'd just come up with a better way to measure the Twilights. It had never occurred to me that I'd need to count this many before, but if there's one thing I've learned, it's that my friends will never stop surprising me in amazing ways," she said.

Her taste became warmer, fuller.

"There's something else about this. My magic—and NotABug's—doesn't seem to come from within anymore. We—well—eat love," I said.

If I'd told Twilight I'd just made an egg out of a gaming console, it probably would have broken her, given how shocked she looked right now.

"From what I can tell it isn't hurting anyone. Rainbow Dash said she could feel us doing it, but that it wasn't tiring her… Twilight? Twilight dear?" I asked once Twilight stopped responding.

"You eat magic?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "But how does. That's even more amazing!"

"No. We eat love. We did some experiments and found it's either that or affection, and I must say I prefer the idea of eating love—it has a more grandiose ring to it."

"But you still eat regular food too?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Can you—? Are you—? I have so many questions!" Twilight Sparkle said.

The following flurry of testing took the remainder of the afternoon with Twilight checking again and again to detect when I was eating. The ring that clamped around my horn had become a familiar associate.

5:00 P.M.

—Darling? Are you awake?— I asked NotABug.

I remembered that such prods required one to actually look for them, so rather than send more direct messages, I chirped to her.

—I am now. Oh, look at the time,— NotABug sent.

—Exactly. You have a date tonight.—

A flurry of excited chirping washed through me—it was pretty obvious the source.

"I really must be going, Twilight," I said aloud.

"What? But we still have—" she said.

"Tomorrow. Same time?" I asked and witnessed Twilight Sparkle nod excitedly. "That gives you the morning to plan."

"Of course! And if I work all through the night, I can redesign the detector ring to get a better reading on your Twilight output."

"I'll message you just before 2 P.M., Twilight," I said, making my way to the stairs.

"Bye!" Twilight Sparkle said and spun back around to her laptop.

In a way it was reassuring to know that she took my problem so seriously, but it would be more reassuring still if I knew it was entirely because we were friends. Twilight Sparkle took her science seriously and at the complete detriment to her personal well-being.

As I walked through Twilight's too-neat home, I searched my phone for an important number. There was barely one ring before it answered.

"Hello. Is this Twilight's friend, Rarity?" a masculine voice asked.

"Yes, Mr. Light. Twilight's planning another all-nighter, and it may have been a little bit my fault," I said through the phone.

A short chuckle betrayed warmth in Night Light's tone.

"That's fine. I'll just drop by around midnight and make her some hot cocoa. That never fails to have her out within an hour. Thanks for letting me know."

My own daddy was great in his role as father, but Twilight's took parenting to a new level.

"I didn't mean to get her so stirred up. Is she at least getting better at looking after herself?" I asked.

"Yes and no. If you know of a guy or girl…"

I barked a laugh.

"I'll keep an eye out for someone. Take care."

"Thanks again."

I ended the call sitting in my car. Smiling to myself at how well I'd done operating in both worlds at once, I started home. As I pulled up, Rainbow Dash came running out of the house.

"Gotta go get changed. I'll be back in about an hour!" she said, not even stopping for a kiss.

Then it hit me: I'd been expecting a kiss (maybe even looked forward to it). With the sound of Rainbow's car speeding away, I let out a sigh.

"She's winning," I said to no one.

But I wasn't completely unheard.

—Your heart?— NotABug asked.

"It's the casualness of being close—closer. Ugh. It's been so long I can barely recognize my own needs anymore," I said.

I turned and started walking inside. Just as I passed the threshold NotABug chirped and nudged me. From one step to the next I gave up control of my body to NotABug.

"Do you want me to stop?" NotABug asked.

The tone in her voice had been so forlorn at the mere thought of giving up her relationship that I had to jump in and stop that train of thought.

—No!— I sent. —Never that.—

I rushed her digital self for a tight hug. Thoughts of transforming into a pony-like being, of my magic being all kinds of weird, and even my job paled in comparison. I chirped as much as I could.

—Are you sure?— NotABug asked.

—Absolutely. Do you think my liking Rainbow Dash is at all a new thing? She's a great woman, and fun to be around. Getting to know her more intimately, even second-hand, is only showing me how great she is.—

—You mean that?—

—I won't lie to you. I know that's Applejack's thing, but I don't think we could do this body-sharing if we lied. Rainbow Dash is good for both of us, I think,— I sent.

—Should we tell her? I think we should tell her.—

I chirped a little in laughter and relaxed myself further into the digital embrace.

—If we tell her, she will only get a bigger ego.—

—I like her ego. Confidence and drive are sexy.—

It was the first time NotABug had used anything that implied sexual attraction. I gave what I hoped was an inquisitive chirp to her.

—Well. She is,— NotABug sent. —She totally is. She's sporty, cute, and a great kisser.—

—I know. She's also my best friend. I just need a little time to shift her from that to potentially intimate. Cheek kissing is a step, and wanting more cheek kissing is another,— I sent.

—How many steps are there?— she asked.

—I don't know. More than two,— I sent.

—Don't make too many.—

It was sage advice. While I thought on it, I found myself chirping softly. Maybe I would cut back on how many steps I needed.

—I might sleep. Wake me when you get home and are done with any company you might have,— I sent.

I barely heard her reply with my mental self relaxing away into an ocean of thoughts. The truth was I needed some time to think, and sometimes dreams were the best at that.

My dreams were—for want of a better word—a little lewd. NotABug's words had inspired my subconscious, and it ran with the idea of showering with Rainbow Dash again, but this time with me in control of my body, and with her in control of the shower.

The details—as chirping pulled me awake again—were lost, but I could definitely, almost, maybe feel the sensation of her hands on my body.

—You're chirping a lot,— NotABug sent.

There was a huge invisible question mark on the end of her message.

—I'm just happy is all,— I sent.

The world came into slow focus. I looked around the living room with not just the sight NotABug's eyes afforded me, but also the crystal clear vision of the camera that watched our egg—our egg. Beside me, Rainbow Dash was stretched out on the couch, and I felt NotABug's hand gently stroking rainbow-colored hair.

—I wanted you to wake me when you were done with Rainbow,— I sent. —She's really cute when she's like this.—

NotABug turned her head and I found myself looking at a sleeping Rainbow Dash. My heart pounded a little faster. NotABug nudged me, and I was suddenly the one brushing Rainbow's hair. I dared not stop for fear of waking her.

In her sleep, Rainbow Dash must have sensed the change somehow. She rolled on her back and looked up at me with closed eyes. For a few seconds I wondered if she were awake or asleep.

"You can go, Rarity," Rainbow Dash said.

It was the perfect opening to leave. I traced my fingers from her hair and along Rainbow Dash's jaw. Uncharitable thoughts might try to steer me to think NotABug was controlling me, but it was by my own actions that I cupped Rainbow's cheek.

"Maybe I don't want to go," I said.

Rainbow's eyes opened and looked up at me with as much curiosity as any feline.

"Let me take these steps my way, Rainbow."

She didn't say anything else. Rather, Rainbow Dash yawned, smiled up at me, and closed her eyes. I was well aware that when she rolled to her side, my hand was in the right spot to play with her hair some more.

Another step.

Author's Note

Rainbow: How do you feel being a parent during one of your date? When will you break the news to your family?

"This is a hugely complicated thing, ya know? I love NotABug to bits, and have been crushing on Rarity since middle school, but I think we need to take things slow and careful," Rainbow Dash said. "I know, I know. 'Slow and careful' have never been my thing in the past, but I—I want to do this right. Ya know?

"So when will I tell my folks about it? When we're ready to tell them. Besides, they'll think it's amazing no matter what."

As she spoke the last words, Rainbow Dash looked thoughtful.

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Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 11

I knew it was morning from the time.

5:41 A.M.

The math to work out how long I'd slept came easily and was suitably high to make the early hour seem less than horrible. Eight-and-a-half hours. I yawned and squirmed on my back under the covers. As I closed my mouth, however, I had to be careful of my teeth.

"Still a little sharp," I said. "Or maybe they're bigger. I should start keeping a journal—that'd probably keep Twilight happy as a clam."

Reaching one arm above the covers, I touched the tallest part of me: my horn. I tilted my head forward a little and measured the length and each curve as best I could with just my hand.

"No change there. I wonder if that's why the egg— The egg!"

I threw the covers back and jumped out of bed. Running down the hall, I realized how dark it was, and yet I could still see. The walls were dark, but there were little flickers of light here and there, though not the light I would have normally associated with colors.

When I saw Rainbow Dash's form on my couch, bright and almost glaring over the darkness around her, I realized exactly what I was seeing. Oh, I'd watched all those terrible action movies Rainbow adored—I'd seen how that monster-thing had seen people by their heat.

I looked toward the television. There was the egg, burning hot in my strange sight. I walked over, avoiding the game controllers for the second console (of course NotABug had gotten a second one, although I'm not sure if it was only for Rainbow Dash, or if another egg was the aim).

My eyes were locked on the egg—my egg. I carefully sat down on the floor and rubbed the side of it. Sure enough, it was warm. My hand seemed caught somewhere between the brightness of Rainbow and the egg. Did that mean the egg was cold? Was I cooling?

Just like when I fed, I felt an exchange of energy. As I leaned closer and touched my cheek to the egg, that energy spiked. I heard a soft chirping and relaxed—it wasn't NotABug, but my own.

The camera NotABug had set up gave a good view of me. I studied myself (in black and white, thanks to the security camera's night vision). My horn curved this way and that; every line and sharp edge screaming the word weapon. My hair was dark to the camera, but how it draped outlined it against my warmer body.

I wasn't wearing much—by the feel of it NotABug had left me wearing one of the more revealing teddies. I approved. Reaching around through the network, I had the distinctly unpleasant sensation of realizing I was going to have to get up to adjust the heat.

Turning my head slowly, I looked back at the blaze of heat on my couch. I could always claim sleep walking. Kissing my egg tenderly, I unfolded myself and turned. Walking on hands and knees, stalking like a predator, I climbed up onto the couch and could feel the warmth radiating from Rainbow Dash.

One arm reached toward me and curled around my back as if it were meant to be there. With more strength than I imagined any sleeping person could have, Rainbow Dash pulled me up and into an embrace. She was clothed as I, sleepwear keeping anything naughty from happening. I wrapped my own arm around her and hugged into the warmth.

Definitely better than turning the heat up.

6:22 A.M.

I had only half drifted off. I was well aware of wrapping myself around a source of warmth, and I even knew who it was. What stirred me out of my daze was light coming from the window, through the thankfully closed drapes.

Suitably warm now, I wanted to get up but didn't want to wake Rainbow—it wasn't her fault I had gotten a little chilly. It was as good a time as any, however, for one task. On the floor, just out of arm's reach, a pillow beckoned for me to pull it closer and attempt a bait and switch with Rainbow.

7:05 A.M.

Rainbow Dash stirred, which meant my partially successful efforts to get the pillow were in vain (they were only successful, of course, because I hadn't driven the pillow through a wall).

"Mmm. NotABug?" Rainbow Dash asked.

It was the first time she'd gotten us mixed up since she'd started seeing NotABug. I realized how it would seem to her, what with me leaving my bed to end up cuddled against her. The part of me that wanted to take the steps in leaps and bounds murmured that it would have been better if we'd both been in bed.

"Guess again," I said.

Rainbow took three long slow breaths, then she relaxed her arms and let me go. There was a slight twist to her taste—there was still love there, but now it felt a little different.

"Thank you. Now, would you like some breakfast as a reward?" I asked.

"I get a reward?"

"You were a perfect gentlema—a perfect lady about me just wanting some warmth," I said and turned for the kitchen. "Let's try that again. Rainbow Dash, are you hungry?"

"Sure. Nice wings, by the way."

I froze in place for a moment, trying to keep my breathing slow and even. NotABug always startled awake when I got worked up. Slowly, ever so slowly, I walked for my hat room, entered (ignoring the sound of our server buzzing away), and took a look.

The reason I chose the hat room was the mirror had a counterpart on the opposite side of the room. Between them you could have a full front and back view.

Sure enough, folded tightly on my back, there was a set of the most beautifully translucent wings that resembled an insect’s. A big insect. Folded down as they were, the wings reached past my rear and down to mid-thigh.

"How on earth did you miss those? Hey, I wonder if you'll be able to fly?" Rainbow Dash asked from the doorway.

I felt around for them—for how they connected to my brain. Reaching a hand back carefully, I touched one of the wings and shivered.

"Wow," I said.

"Yeah. My wings were so sensitive the first few times. Do you mind if I touch them?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Just be gentle, please."

Rainbow walked into the room and stood behind me, and again I was acutely aware of my height having been reduced. The holes in my arms and legs were a little larger. I traced one hole with a finger and found the flesh around them to be quite hard.

I worked the fingers of my left hand, trying to catch where the tendons should be playing in my wrist—or the hole that was that part of my wrist now. Then Rainbow Dash touched one of my wings and a shiver went through me.

It felt like she was running her hand down my shoulder and back, but it was a thousand times more sensitive than either.

—What's happening? Why are you chirping so much? Oh!— NotABug sent.

I didn't reply immediately—I couldn't reply. Rainbow's fingers explored the edges of my wings, gently running her fingers along each surface, tracing the capillaries. By the time she had felt every edge, I felt like gelatin. She could have carried me off to do as she pleased, and I wouldn't have complained. That she didn't spoke volumes for why I trusted her as much as I did.

—That feels really nice. Does it feel nice to you, too?— NotABug asked.

Mute (both vocally and digitally), I just nodded to NotABug's question.

"You know these are really pretty?" Rainbow Dash asked.

The one thing that could snap me from that daze was having Rainbow Dash say something was pretty. This was now a case of fashion and beauty—two topics I was expert on. Without even knowing how, I flexed my new wings and flared them out to the sides.

Though translucent, they had the same hue as my hair. I smiled and nodded a little more.

"They are quite pretty, aren't they?" I asked and turned around.

I had to look up at Rainbow Dash, the cursed loss in height making me feel smaller and—in a flash of insight—more feminine. Reaching out to Rainbow, I wrapped my arms around her and pressed myself against her strong body. All those jokes she'd ribbed me with about me finding the perfect man, and I was finding myself to be content with an exceptional woman.

—Have you been up long?— NotABug asked.

—Since just after five-thirty. I came out to spend some time with our egg, and then realized I was cold. We need a wireless controlled thermostat.—

—You were cold? What did you do?—

—It was odd. Did you know our eyesight can see heat? Anyway, I looked at myself, and I could see my own warmth was somewhere between Rainbow Dash and our egg. I guess we're going to get a little colder still.—

—Rarity, you didn't answer my question.—

I gave a mental sigh.

—Rainbow was the warmest thing in the room. I climbed up on the couch and snuggled against her,— I sent.

—Was she nice and warm?— NotABug asked.

—It was another step, okay? I might also have been a little asleep still. It was nice.— Remembering a significant part of my morning, I added, —She mistook me for you when she first woke up.—

"They're amazing. Huge, too. I'll bet you can fly with them," Rainbow Dash said.

Rainbow's voice cut in on our digital conversation and made us both take notice of the real world again. I twitched those new muscles through new nerves, and both wings tucked back to my spine and folded down.

"That's for later, maybe. Right now I'm hungry, and I can bet you are too. Did you have a nice dinner last night?" I asked, turning for the door.

—She took me to a nice place, and then we went dancing!— NotABug sent.

A strong background of chirping accompanied NotABug's message. It made me giggle out loud and accompany her. I could hear Rainbow Dash following me toward the door, and I even caught sight of her from the corner of my eye as I turned into the hall—she looked good in the teddy NotABug had picked out for her.

—What kind of food was it? Tell me everything!— I sent.

—There was a light salad, then I had a delightful potato-and-leek soup, and then a main course. I had pasta, Rainbow Dash had tofu and roast vegetables. Then we had lava cake for dessert.—

As NotABug described each dish, I had a vague sense of them. It was a dream for me, of course, but it still gave me the slightest sense of being there.

—How did she taste?— I asked.

—Better and better as the night went on. When we started dancing it was a riot! I chirped so much I thought I might wake you.—

"So we went for a four-course meal at Ranseur. It was nice stuff, but the best bit was the dancing. NotABug looked awesome as she danced," Rainbow Dash said. "Rarity? Did you know that you're chirping?"

I froze in place again, this time almost at the kitchen. Twitching my ears, I listened.

"No I'm not," I said.

Rainbow barked a laugh.

"Well, you're not now. But a moment ago you sounded like the biggest cricket in the world. Neat trick—you could probably bug someone for hours with it," Rainbow Dash said.

"Puns like that are the reason we never dated. Ugh!"

I stomped off to the kitchen and started making coffee. The smell of coffee grounds helped distract me from the horrible joke. When I actually heard a chirp, it didn't surprise me. The sound continued as I relaxed again. Now I had the sound in my head and in real life.

When grocery shopping, I'd gotten some actual breakfast cereal. Pouring two bowls of the stuff, I set them down on the kitchen table.

Rainbow Dash had been off doing something else, and when I heard the washing machine start I knew what. Then it hit me: she'd moved in. While I'd been dealing with sharing my body, laying an egg, and turning into some kind of insect, Rainbow Dash had moved in—well, she was using my washing machine, so I was either her mother or housemate.

Neither NotABug nor I wanted to be her mother. I sighed.

"Rainbow. Your breakfast's ready," I said.

Walking in casually, Rainbow Dash was wearing a pair of boxer shorts and a sports bra. She spotted the cereal and coffee and homed in on it.

"Thanks, Rarity. I hope you don't mind, but I borrowed your washing machine for a load."

I sipped my coffee and carefully sat down—making sure not to sit on my wings. I took daintier spoon loads than Rainbow, but we both worked our way through the bowls in front of us. It was a companionable way to eat, and it gave me time to work up another step.

"When are you going to move in properly?" I asked.

A shock of chirping in my head almost deafened me, figuratively speaking. NotABug wrapped me in a tight, digital hug to the extent where I started chirping myself.

—You mean she can move in?— NotABug asked.

—She practically has. Besides, we did sort of have a baby with her. Err, are going to. Do we know when the egg will hatch?—

—I don't know, but I want to have more. What do you think they'll be like? Will they chirp?—

—You know they'll chirp. Chirping is what we do,— I sent.

Rainbow Dash started to speak, and we both paused our conversation to listen.

"What do you mean?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I would bet you have more clothes here, now, than at your shared house," I said. "I'll have to clean out my hats."

My hats would be a problem. It wasn't that I had too many, of course, but that I had not quite enough—to completely fill a room. I sipped more of my coffee, glad to feel the stimulant flood into my body. For a moment I wondered how much it really affected my mind, but then I realized I was the wrong person to answer that.

"Like where my clothes are is the most important bit. Look, Rarity, you made yourself clear that you aren't looking to have me move into your bed, and I know your hat room is important to you but—" Rainbow Dash said.

"Things have changed, Rainbow Dash. That egg changed everything. I don't know what they're going to look like, and honestly it doesn't matter. They are our baby."

The last sentence invoked a rush from Rainbow Dash—love wise—that told me how her own sentiment ran. There seemed to be a love aspect of nearly every emotion. This would make me a better lie detector than Applejack.

—Everything changes. Two weeks ago I was still just a digital mind getting bored on the internet. We are going to need a bigger house,— NotABug sent.

—Noted, but I adore this house— I sent.

—What about if I buy another one nearby?—

—It still wouldn't be this one, darling. Why are you so eager to have a bigger house, anyway?—

—Because the oddly-full feeling I got a few days before we made that egg is back. And we do need a hat room,— NotABug sent.

Sharing a brain and body with someone was an imposition, but sharing it with someone who understood the importance of hats when it came to fashion was positively a delight.

To satisfy my curiosity, I quickly searched real-estate classifieds and was shocked at how many local houses were for sale.

—On that we're agreed. And did you know the house behind us is for sale?— I asked.

I forwarded NotABug the link and chirped—hopefully just in my head.

Rainbow Dash's mouth began to move again, "I'd make a joke about contraceptives, but this ain't exactly the time for jokes. I've had a crush on you for years, Rarity. Don't think I won't take the time to do this properly, at your pace."

"I think all three of us need to be in the same conversation here. Would you mind putting on the headset again?" I asked.

—Good thinking. Swapping to voice,— NotABug sent.

—I can't get over how adult she's being about this.—

—It's attractive, isn't it?—

I gave a chirp of slightly irritated assent—of course it was hard to tell it apart from a delightfully happy chirp, so I decided to elaborate.

—Yes. I didn't realize how much it is, but it is.—

In a perfect world, Rainbow Dash would have the headset on and we would be able to pull her into the conversation, but less than half a second had passed since I had asked her. Thinking too quickly was boring sometimes. Our chatter went quiet for a moment while we waited for Rainbow Dash to react.

"Sure. You know where it is?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—It's on the floor in front of the TV. I think she dropped it there,— NotABug sent.

—You used the camera to spot it?—

—Yup!—

"NotABug said it's on the floor in the living room. Right where you left it," I said out loud.

While Rainbow headed to the living room, I focused on the real world and returned to eating my cereal. It was packed with sugar, which certainly agreed with something. I found myself practically inhaling it via the most busy of spoons.

"Found it! Gimme a sec to—" Rainbow Dash said.

NotABug sent me a link to the buffer—so I could hear her side of things—then I felt the data connection activate.

"Yay!" NotABug said into the headset.

"Ahem. Right. Now we were just discussing the living arrangements. Much as it would be wonderful to stay here, NotABug wants to entertain the notion of moving," I said.

—Drat but I forgot how slow this was,— I sent.

—It was your idea.—

I put my dishes in the dishwasher and made my way to the living room. Rainbow Dash was sitting on the couch already. I took a seat beside her.

"Why's that?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Because," I said, "NotABug wants more eggs, and I'm not against the idea. So that leaves us with two bedrooms for us, my sewing room, my hat room—"

"I want a gym!" Rainbow Dash said, cutting me off.

"And it's our hat room," NotABug said.

"A fair compromise. Alright, so we need a big house—" I said.

"And I need a room to set up our serv—" NotABug said.

"So," Rainbow Dash said, cutting us both short, "we need a five bedroom house with a basement. That won't be hard to get!"

Sarcasm dripped from Rainbow's last words.

"Much as I love the idea of moving in with you, there's more to think about. For example, isn't this all going a bit fast?" Rainbow Dash asked.

The question was surprising only for its source. The fact that things were happening at breakneck speed was a concern.

"A little bit, but life isn't exactly giving us any chance to take a breath. The fact of the matter is I'm quitting my job, starting a new business, and now apparently starting a family. NotABug is coming along for the ride, and I think she'd like you to come with us too," I said.

"I thought we were moving slow," NotABug said.

Rainbow Dash and I cracked up laughing at the same time. The notion that NotABug thought we were going slow was, without a doubt, hilarious.

—What?— NotABug asked.

—Darling, things are moving at breakneck speed for a normal relationship. At least as far as Rainbow and I go. As for having an egg, the prospect of offspring, after just days of maybe-kinda-sorta being comfortable together? NotABug, neither of us have even slept with her,— I sent.

—You slept with her earlier!—

I tried desperately not to chirp but failed.

—This is a mix-up of terms. Darling, look at all the definitions of "sleep with".—

Being able to count milliseconds wasn't fun when you knew it took nearly fifty for your friend to get the information they needed. A shocking amount of chirping flooded from NotABug.

—I didn't mean that!— NotABug sent.

I chirped as comfortingly as I could and wrapped NotABug up in a tight, digital hug. It wasn't her fault, but it also had been exceedingly funny.

—I know, and I didn't mean to laugh, but you can see why that's funny?—

"This is not slow. Well…" Rainbow Dash said. "Okay. Some of it is slow, but me and Rarity? I woke up with her cuddled in my arms!"

"You were warm, darling. You were the warmest thing in the room and I couldn't reach the thermostat," I said.

"You couldn't reach it?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It was too far away," I said, pouting. "And you were a lot closer."

"Rarity, you know you don't need to make up excuses to cuddle, right?" Rainbow Dash asked while wearing the cockiest grin ever.

—That was a good one, and she's right,— NotABug sent.

—I thought we were keeping things out loud for Rainbow's benefit?— I asked.

—You started it: "Drat but I forgot how slow this was".—

I gave a short sharp chirp at NotABug. I hoped she would translate it as a raspberry.

—Why don't you cuddle again? I think she'd like it more when she's awake,— NotABug sent.

Being a fashion designer meant knowing when to cast expected behavior aside and throw caution to the wind. Leaning across, I tilted my body so I could lean against Rainbow. She was bigger than me, now, which made it delightfully cozy to curl up against her. One of her arms reached over my shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. Heat transferred from Rainbow into me in almost the same way as her love did.

The best thing of all was Rainbow Dash didn't ruin the moment by talking. I sat there, doing one of the things I'd always sworn I wouldn't. It was nice.

10:11 A.M.

My phone rang, and I answered it—internally of course—without leaving the warm embrace.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Rarity! Is there any chance you could come over a bit earlier?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

I would have whined out loud if I knew it wouldn't break the mood with Rainbow.

"You mean now, don't you?" I asked. "Alright, dear. Give me a few moments to get ready, and I'll be right there."

We both knew what a "few moments" meant when it came to me getting ready. At least I hoped she knew—Twilight was often terrible with such things.

"Okay! We'll start warming up the machines," Twilight said. "See you soon."

"See you—" I said.

Comfy as I was, warm as I was, it took me a few moments for Twilight's last sentence to fully process. Twilight had said "we".

—Was that a call?— NotABug asked.

—Twilight. She wants to know if we can go over early. The way she spoke made me think she has a visitor who wants to help.—

"Twilight just called. She wants to know if we can go over early," I said aloud.

Rainbow Dash's arm tightened just a little, then relaxed again. A shiver ran up my spine at how good it was to just relax with her.

"You're going back? Did she even help you?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I thought back to our little meeting yesterday and nodded.

"Actually, she helped me a lot. I understand why I wasn't having any luck controlling my magic. That she'll probably get another research paper out of it made it win-win. She also has lousy security protocols," I said.

"If I called it egghead stuff would you be upset?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Not really. It is egghead stuff for most people, but I have never counted myself as one of those."

Rainbow snorted and let go of me. I was glad she'd given up the snuggle first as I may not have had the willpower to get ready for my appointment with Twilight. As I walked down the hall toward my bedroom, I couldn't help but hear myself chirping—physically. Why not? I felt happy.

I slipped out of my robe and underwear and into the shower. Hot water had never felt so good before. I liked to think the shower was short, but the truth was I luxuriated in the heat.

The water, strangely enough, beaded and ran off my skin like I was waxed. Again and again I tried working up a lather with some soap but it wouldn't happen. Finally, I decided to simply use shower gel and call it done.

My wings were another matter entirely. With hot water streaming over my delicate wings, I tried my best to flex and move them. Reaching back to actually wash my sensitive new limbs was impossible, or so I’d thought. Twisting my shoulder, I looked back and found my arm seemingly double-jointed. There was no pain at all, and it didn't even feel like I was stretching my arm further than normal, but I could reach my wings to lightly sponge them down.

Each glide of the sponge was amazing. I shivered despite the heat of the shower as the sponge felt like magic down my back. But I had to finish up. There was no way I could spend all day in the shower washing my wings—for a start Rainbow Dash would come to ask what's wrong.

With an audible sigh I turned my attention to my hair. Some haircare products proclaimed they could make your hair, "Smooth as silk," but my hair actually seemed to be silk. I'd tried curling it but short of using spray nothing would alter the curtain of hair. My cerulean locks were destined to be straight.

10:43 A.M.

I climbed out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my hair. I didn't have time (as usual) to give it full care, so having it dry while I got ready to go out would have to do. Quickly toweling down, I looked over my hardened flesh.

"I'm going to need some kind of wax. I can practically see the shine already, and I will not let an inch of my beauty go to waste," I said. "Even if it is strange."

My choice of bras was limited: I had the old ones from high school, or the teddy I'd been sleeping in when I'd shrunk. The teddy would need to be washed, so my choice was easier.

There were quite a few items sequestered away within my box of old things. I pulled out a frilly black bra that I'd always been too scandalized to even think of wearing over white skin, and checked its fit.

"I guess that's flesh-tone for you now," Rainbow Dash said from the doorway.

"Don't just stand there. You know your way around a hairbrush," I said.

Picking out panties was easier—my regular collection would do. I slipped some cute (and small) black panties on and pulled a pressed and clean shirt from the box of old things. When I started to hold it up and slide into it, Rainbow took the garment from my fingers.

"Let me. You might not think it, Rarity, but I always enjoyed when you made us outfits. So let me return the favor."

My eyelashes fluttered in surprise. I turned my head and looked at Rainbow, and the surprising thing was I didn't need to turn my body much at all. I looked up at her and smiled.

"I didn't know you liked playing dress-up. You might be better suited for this job than you think, Rainbow."

"I said I enjoyed it when you made us outfits. This will be strangers," Rainbow Dash said. "Whoa, that's pretty cool."

Rainbow's hands reached to my neck and felt around my collar a little. Drawing away from her touch (reluctantly I might add) I turned back, sat down at my vanity, and looked in the mirror.

—Sorry I've been quiet. I've started legitimizing my money and it's taking a lot of work,— NotABug sent.

—Quite alright, darling. It will ease a little worry, but that might also make a bit of a trail for Windigo, don't you think?—

She made a worried little chirping sound at mention of her former tormentor. I hugged NotABug for support.

—Another thing we need to talk about is we appear to be becoming some sort of insect pony. I know you don't like being called a bug, but this isn't the computer term,— I sent.

—I know, and I don't like it. You were beautiful as you were. Why couldn't you just be like that with me?—

"Rainbow Dash, please hug us," I said aloud.

Rainbow didn't hesitate. She wrapped her arms around my neck and squeezed herself against my back. Her body felt warm against mine, and I couldn't help but smile a little.

"Is this good? What's up?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It's really good. Thanks," NotABug said through the headset.

"NotABug was just proving how thoughtful and amazing she is," I said. "We were discussing some tough topics."

"Like?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—Are you okay with discussing this with Rainbow? I can deflect if you like,— I sent.

—No. It's fine. Mind if I take over for a bit? Cuddles are nice, but I like to cuddle back more.—

In reply I gently pushed myself back from my own body. NotABug turned the chair, swiveling in Rainbow's embrace and surprised Rainbow with a kiss. I wasn't a great judge of kisses—none of mine were ever as good as NotABug seemed able to deliver, given Rainbow's reaction to them—but this seemed like a pretty good one.

Normally I would slip away and suppress my attention while NotABug and Rainbow Dash made out, but this time I let a bit of that closeness seep into me. It was more than warmth, more than the delicious food (love) that Rainbow fed us on—it was actual love.

While NotABug and Rainbow Dash worked on getting dressed, I turned my attention to checking my email, checking up on the latest fashion trends (now becoming something I do online every day), and finally checking my bank balance.

My accounts were not exactly healthy. I had some savings still, but shopping for expensive things without NotABug's credit cards had put a dent in them. Soon these accounts would be all but useless.

—We could pay each other wages, couldn't we?— I asked.

—Of course. We should talk to your nice lawyer about what to do with getting this money out of my accounts and into yours. Anyway, we have my cards now. There's no need to use your money.—

—Our money,— I sent. —It's all our money. Like we could keep it seperate any longer anyway.—

—Yeah.—

While NotABug and Rainbow Dash finished off their hair and makeup, I searched for information on exactly what NotABug was doing with the stock exchange. A little quick poking turned up what was likely HFT (High Frequency Transactions, a way for computers to adjust stocks very rapidly).

What I found, though, was that it normally required extremely fast timing and loads of computing power. I would have to ask how she was doing it for, as Rainbow would say, egghead reasons.

My focus switched as NotABug activated the interfaces in my car and climbed inside. Like me (now) she disdained the accelerator for more direct control of the car. She pulled out onto the road and began driving to Twilight's home.

10:58 A.M.

NotABug pulled up the car and climbed out.

—Would you like to drive?— NotABug asked.

—Other things to do?—

—Yes and no. I've been chatting with Sweetie Belle about our egg. She wants to come over tonight to have a look at it.—

All sorts of alarm bells rang in my head. Would Sweetie have told Mom and Dad? What would she think of becoming an aunt? What would Mom and Dad think if I told them I was turning into a bug pony? What would all of them think about me dating Rainbow Dash?

—Are you alright?— NotABug asked when I didn't respond within a reasonable time.

—You told Sweetie Belle? What did you tell her?— I asked.

The oddest thing with direct messaging is that you don't ever stammer. No matter how upset or off balance you are, your writing isn't affected.

—She seemed excited. Maybe she'll know what's going on.—

NotABug reached the front door and rang the bell.

—She won't hear that,— I sent

—We're at the front door, I sent to Twilight.

—Oh. Good thinking,— NotABug sent.

NotABug's ears twitched at the sound of footsteps approaching the front door from within. She arranged a bright smile as the door opened.

Twilight Sparkle had a different look about her. She wore a more formal dress than I'd ever seen Twilight wear before, and she had her hair down. The crowning difference, however, was the lack of Twilight's usual glasses.

—Something's wrong. You take over,— NotABug sent then pushed me to the fore.

"A changeling?!" The Wrong Twilight asked.

Her voice rose to a shrill shout at the end of the word. I jerked back from the door and looked behind me.

"What? Where?" I asked.

"You!"

"Me?"

"You're a changeling! I don't know what you did with Rarity, but your disguise is terrible."

—Twilight? Is this *Princess Twilight*?!—

At that moment the real (at least for our world) Twilight Sparkle excitedly bounced up behind Princess Twilight.

"Stand back, Twilight!" Princess Twilight said. "Changelings—pre-reformation changelings—can be dangerous. You shouldn't take any chances with this one!"

"Twilight," Twilight Sparkle said. "This is Rarity. I've been studying her transformation. She is the one I asked you to come and help me research."

Princess Twilight looked confused, then intrigued. Her eyes narrowed a little.

"If you're the real Rarity, then what was the first outfit you fitted me with when I came to CHS for the first time?" Princess Twilight asked.

"Of course you ask about fashion. The one thing I would never forget. A blonde wig, green two-tone dress with matching leg warmers. The dress had little frills at the sleeves and—" I said.

"But!" Princess Twilight said. "… Actually. I've got nothing. I can't even remember all the details. Only the real Rarity would remember— Were there actual frills on the sleeves?"

"Of course, darling. How else could I have blended green and purple so neatly without making you look like a cartoon superhero? Now, where did you get that beautiful thing?" I asked, pointing at her dress. "It looks divine. Who made it?"

"It really is Rarity," Princess Twilight said. "And, uh. I was wearing a dress back home before I came over. I guess it kinda got transformed with me."

"But who was the seamstress?" I asked more pointedly.

"Rarity. Who else!" Princess Twilight said.

"Your world's Rarity?" I asked, and when Princess Twilight nodded I gave a happy sigh. "Of course. Only a master seamstress could carry out stitching this exquisite."

It was now terribly obvious that Princess Twilight was not Twilight Sparkle. Our Twilight had no sense of fashion, or at least she didn't let me inflict mine upon her nearly often enough. I made a note to invite her in for a fitting at my first opportunity.

"Why did you turn into a changeling?" Princess Twilight asked.

Twilight Sparkle, however, looked around outside and gestured within the house.

"Ask inside. We don't want to make the news if someone calls the police," Twilight Sparkle said.

It was the best advice I'd heard from Twilight yet. A princess was not just used to scenes—I'm sure—but was used to making them. That might be fine in Equestria, but here in Canterlot, a scene would just result in questions we didn’t want to answer.

I closed the door behind me and breathed a little sigh of relief. Twilight's house was still as neat as ever. I had to wonder if she actually spent enough time outside her basement to sleep.

"So. What's the deal? Why are you turning into a changeling?" Princess Twilight asked.

"It's a bit of a story. Could we get tests done while I explain?" I asked.

—I would ask if you wanted to take over now, but I believe if Princess Twilight suspected anything strange without us warning her, she might very well do something regrettable,— I sent.

—What's so special about her? Apart from her being a princess of course.—

—If I jog your memory you'll remember, right?—

—It sometimes works. Describe the fashion involved and I'll probably get it.—

—Okay. Ugh, boots were in that year. Everyone wore these horrible calf-high boots that made us all look like we had featureless, round legs that stopped in flares. I had a darling purple dress with a diamond motif, a light-blue shirt, and the most adorable matching socks. Twilight (the princess) wore a darker purple dress that was cut scandalously short, and she had a blue top and a pretty little red bow tie. I can't believe those were in fashion at the time either.—

I was surprised I'd written so much. Memories of fashion stuck with me, of course—I could never forget a dress. I still regretted those boots, however.

—Oh. OH! Wow!—

—So you see, darling, we don't want to make the nice princess into an angry one. We'll tell her everything we can. Neither of us has done anything wrong.—

—I feel like I have, though. I never meant for all of this to happen to you.—

—Oh pish posh. We've had this conversation before. If everything happened again, and I had the choice of saving you or not, I would not hesitate to save you.—

We hugged together, digitally, in the remaining few milliseconds before Princess Twilight started talking. That isn't to say we didn't keep hugging after her mouth began forming the first phonetic syllable, we just had more things to focus on.

"Alright. I guess. Have you had any symptoms of being a changeling?" Princess Twilight asked.

Twilight Sparkle was leading the way with Princess Twilight behind her. I took up the rear and watched both move. Like NotABug and myself, they were both very different people. Twilight Sparkle walked with purpose, drive—she didn't care about where she was now except as a passing moment that brings her closer to where she wants to be. Princess Twilight was more hesitant, but that was mostly because she kept turning to look at me.

"I'm sure I have a lot of symptoms, and if I knew what they were it might help me look for them," I said with sarcasm.

"Oh. Right. Well, changelings feed on love—" Princess Twilight said.

"Check," I said.

Princess Twilight looked over her shoulder at me and blinked a few times.

"Right. Love feeding. Got it. Uh, scheming to take over Canterlot?" Princess Twilight asked.

—Taking over the fashion scene, maybe,— NotABug sent.

I managed to not giggle at NotABug's comment, but it was a fair point.

"Unless you count starting my own fashion outlet, no."

"Well, I'd hardly think that. Rarity in Equestria has a chain of fashion stores. Have you started shapechanging?"

—Shapechanging?— NotABug asked.

Learning from NotABug, the first thing I did was search online.

—I'm just as baffled. I don't think we've done that, unless you count how we keep changing. Maybe that's what she means?— I asked.

—You'll have to ask her. I'm keeping quiet, and unless I miss my guess she isn't carrying a mobile phone.—

—Probably not, no. In the past we all pooled our money together to buy her one so when she came here she could use it. I don't know what would happen if she took it back to her world with her.—

—I don't think I'd want to risk us going there either.—

The results of my search were coming in. I scanned the articles quickly. Shapechanging, or shapeshifting, was the process by which mythical creatures changed from one form to another. Werewolves, fairies, even gods seemed to possess this ability.

"Are you saying I could shapechange. Like a werewolf?" I asked.

We were walking down the stairs of the basement. The lights were already on, and I could see two chairs at the workbench. I wondered how long Princess Twilight had been here. It certainly explained Twilight's excitement. With both of them in front of me, looking back, I took a picture and messaged it to Rainbow Dash's phone.

"Yes and no. Werewolves, or were-timber-wolves as we know them back home, are when ponies turn physically into a monstrous wolf. Changelings shapechange with magic and can look like just about anything they want. I've seen one take the form of a young pony, rocks, bears, and even a monster much bigger than them," Princess Twilight said.

"I see," I said. "And how do they do that?"

—We could use that to look like you used to,— NotABug sent.

—I know. Oh my. Look at her face. I don't think she knows.—

—Well, to be fair, she isn't a changeling.—

—Good point. Maybe she knows one?—

"I—err—don't know," Princess Twilight said. "I mean, I know they use thaumically-shifted magic and channel it inwards, but if there's one thing I've learned it's that magic theory and magic practice can be entire worlds apart."

"So it's just turned inwards?" I asked. "Well, assuming it's like anything else to do with magic, it's not intuitive at all. So let me just try anywa—"

"Stop!" Twilight Sparkle said.

Gesturing to a stool near her equipment, Twilight Sparkle leveled a knowing glare at me.

"Sit down and put the horn-reader on first. If you're going to do anything, I want a reading of it," Twilight Sparkle said.

I was resigned by now. Twilight Sparkle would have her science done and nothing would stop it. All I could do was let her boss me around a little and be thankful she hadn't tried to cut my hair. Taking a seat on the stool, I bent my head forward to let her fasten the reader around it.

It was disconcerting again to have the things clamped around my horn. I didn't like the feel of it one bit. Turning to look at Twilight Sparkle, I noticed that the leads attaching it to the recording equipment were much longer.

"What do you want me to do? Try this shapechange thing?" I asked.

—Do the shapechange thing!— NotABug sent.

"Let's start with something small. Can you try lifting a ping-pong ball?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

I looked to see a box of ping-pong balls on its side. A few balls had rolled out, which I assumed was Twilight being a little smarter and giving me something that was lighter.

—I still think we should try shapechanging,— NotABug sent.

—We promised to let Twilight handle this.—

—Aww.—

Narrowing my eyes, I tried to think as lightly as I could. Less. Less. Less. Less. Lift!

A ping-pong ball floated into the air surrounded in vivid green magic. Less. Less. Less. I had a feeling of the magic getting away from me. LESS!

—Sorry, that was my fault,— NotABug sent.

—I'm a little busy. This is hard work not sending these things into orbit.—

"Twilight!" Twilight Sparkle said. "Come and look at these Twilight readings."

Both women bent over the tablet Twilight Sparkle held in her hands, and both started talking over each other—in what seemed like a foreign language—so fast that a normal human wouldn't be able to follow. I wasn't a normal human, however.

—Are you recording this?— I asked NotABug.

—Of course. I'm recording video and audio in here.—

—Is that prncss twiloot?— Rainbow Dash asked via text.

—Please tell me you're trying to fix that?— I asked NotABug.

—Dnt U lik it?— NotABug asked. —Sorry, I'll never do that again.—

—She writes like a two-year-old. Perhaps you could put a better keyboard and dictionary on her phone? Train her to build actual words.—

—Yes, Rainbow. That is Princess Twilight Sparkle,— I sent.

While I held a conversation in realtime with Rainbow Dash and in the digital world with NotABug, I maintained the flow of (groan) Twilights at a low Sparkle. The ball may have wobbled a little, but I held it in the air without embedding it in the floor above.

I tried to tune in on what the two Twilights were saying and almost dropped the ball in the process. They were arguing.

"… call them thaums, and the amplitude is just that, the peaks in the thaumform," Princess Twilight said.

"I can fully appreciate that, but Twilights are not just a wave. They are a hybrid particle, like photons, that behave not only as a wave, but also a particle. Hence, the name should stick," Twilight Sparkle said.

"In Equestria we've called the most basic magic particle a thaum for over a thousand years. You can't just stick your own—my own—name on it and claim you discovered it. We already knew it existed!"

"But you didn't study it with the depth I have in just five years! A 'thaum' is a wonderful colloquialism, but the particle/wave is called a Twilight!"

"Ladies!" I said. "Ladies please! Darlings, you don't need to fight about this. Science, from what you both have told me, is absolute. Princess, how do you measure Thaums?"

"With either a thaumic detector or a thaumic-detection spell," Princess Twilight said.

I nodded, trusting NotABug to keep the recording of me saving two worlds from mutually-assured-destruction at the hands of two Twilights who are right.

"And how many Twilights are there to a thaum?" I asked.

"Well. From what we've measured, it seems like there is nearly—" Princess Twilight said.

"Planck's constant. One Twilight is as close to Planck's constant of thaums as I can measure," Twilight Sparkle said. "A Twilight is a much more accurate measurement of magic."

"But who can actually count that much? The numbers quickly become meaningless with regard to actual work done. You can't expect—" Princess Twilight said.

—OMW,— Rainbow Dash sent.

I tried to ignore Rainbow Dash in favor of the argument going on in realtime.

"Stop!" I said. "Different nomenclature for different worlds. Our magic is different enough from Equestrian to need to be used differently, so why not use different names for it?"

"Because," both Twilights said at the same time.

Both women stopped and looked at each other then laughed.

"Thaum does have a nice ring to it," Twilight Sparkle said and adjusted her glasses.

"Well, having a fundamental particle named after me—you—is pretty amazing. And naming the energy level a Sparkle… Mom would be proud," Princess Twilight said.

"She is proud. She tried to pre-order a copy of my doctoral thesis. I told her I can just print her a copy, but she wants the actual thing. Also, it was Sunset who suggested the names."

"What? Why would she— This was a joke, wasn't it?" Princess Twilight asked.

"Yes. As far as I can tell," I said.

"You get used to it," Twilight Sparkle said. "Okay, can you put the ball down and try to lift the whole box of them?"

I was quite literally saved by the bell. If I had to guess it was either Rainbow Dash or the police—and I wasn't sure which was preferable at this point. I looked between the two Twilights.

"If I had a little time I'd have you swap outfits. That's probably Rainbow Dash," I said.

Princess Twilight tilted her head a little to the side and raised an eyebrow while Twilight Sparkle went to get the door.

"Well, come on! You are almost identical," I said, spelling out my prank.

"I've kinda missed coming here. You're all so much more—more full. Like life has flooded in and filled you out," Princess Twilight said.

A burst of rainbow light poured down the stairs and Rainbow Dash—moving fast even to my accelerated senses—captured Princess Twilight in a big hug.

"Hiya Twilight! It's awesome to see you again! How long're you in town for?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Princess Twilight looked stunned. She looked to me as if searching for confirmation that the person hugging her was Rainbow Dash.

"R-Rainbow Dash? Twilight said you all have magic powers now, but you ended up with super-speed?" Princess Twilight asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah. These amulet/geode things we got amped us all way up. You should see how strong Applejack is!" Rainbow Dash said. "So. What do you think of Rarity and NotABug?"

"Not a bug?" Princess Twilight asked.

"Oh dear. I'd hoped to explain everything before you met her. I guess she might as well explain her part of the story herself," I said.

—Now?— NotABug asked.

In answer, I gently pushed her. Changeover had become smooth, even relaxing. Not having to control my body anymore was like a mini-holiday. With the lightest of thoughts I sent a text to Rainbow Dash.

—NotABug's in control, kiss her you fool.

Rainbow Dash drew back from hugging Princess Twilight in time to check her phone. She was already happy, practically bouncing, but when she read my message her face lit up. She walked toward NotABug, reached out, and embraced her.

I don't think Rainbow Dash was putting on a show for the princess, and I doubted our world's Twilight Sparkle would care about relationships too much. This was simply Rainbow Dash enjoying a moment.

The kiss was wonderful and perhaps lingered a little long given we had company. NotABug seemed not to care, so it was Rainbow Dash that eventually broke things apart.

When NotABug turned her head, we saw that neither Twilight was paying any attention to us at all—both were bent over the computer at the workbench.

"Hope I didn't interrupt too much. We've totally gotta do something tonight, with Twi back in town," Rainbow Dash said. "Err, I mean the princess. How are we supposed to keep them apart?"

"Rarity's been doing well enough. I just focused on their glasses," NotABug said.

Both Twilights turned around and looked at us. Though both looked excited, Princess Twilight had a little confusion added too.

"Okay. Forget the shapechanging test. We want you to do more lifting," Twilight Sparkle said.

"And you can explain to me what's going on. Well, what went on," Princess Twilight said. "How did it all start?"

"Actually, I think we need to go back to Camp Everfree to explain that. Our geodes are the key to all this magic—literally," Twilight Sparkle said. "They acted like catalysts."

"Hold on. I thought they gave us this power?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Magic comes from friendship, Rainbow, not crystals from Equestria. What they did was unlock our magic. It was getting bottled up inside us, but the geodes opened us up so that it could be free," Twilight Sparkle said. "So that leaves us with Rarity's story."

"This is NotABug," Rainbow Dash said. "Rarity passed off control of their body."

"Yup," NotABug said.

After a moment of everyone looking at her, NotABug made a nervous chirp—both in our head and in the real world. It was cute, of course, and I gave her a little digital hug for it.

"Hi! My name's NotABug. I know it's not the best name, and it's not even completely accurate anymore, but I chose it. It is my name."

The words were poetic in their own way. She was uncategorically and unequivocally stating that she is herself. I know I chirped a little too, but it was literally a great way to start things off.

"I began life in a lab, in a machine that was supposed to be turned off…" NotABug said.

—I'll leave you to explain it, at least your part of it. I need to research what to wear tomorrow,— I sent.

—Okay. This will probably take a while. Princess Twilight looks like she already has a lot of questions.—

I browsed fashion magazine websites, news, and even watched some videos to get inspiration. I wanted every day of the coming week to be memorable to everyone who meets me.

Distraction struck when Rainbow Dash put her arm around NotABug's shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze. I didn't have to imagine what it would be like to be cuddled in those arms, to be hugged and even kissed by their owner.

Nibbling ever-so-lightly at Rainbow Dash's love, I continued to look up fashion ideas until I saw something that would certainly leave a memory of my presence. The outfit was black, short, and tight. A skirt that resembled a scarf combined with a short-sleeved black shirt to show a lot of skin. On the woman wearing it in the magazine it looked a little scandalous, but with my black flesh hiding the lines of it I might just look naked.

I kept looking but didn't find a better idea before NotABug sharply chirped at me. I tuned back into the real world, focusing all my attention upon it.

—Your turn,— NotABug sent.

I sent her a link to all my references and showed her the dress-and-shirt combination. She pushed at me gently, and I was back in control.

"Sorry, I was a little distracted. What are we up to?" I asked.

NotABug sent me a buffer of audio, and I quickly played it back and listened to her explanation of her birth, her rise to intelligence, and to finding me.

1:43 P.M.

I started my part of the tale. Of course, I began with leaving college, finding Polomare, and becoming employed there. I was just getting up to my first conversation with NotABug when Rainbow Dash cut in on me.

"I don't think they want to hear everything, Rarity," Rainbow Dash said. "Why don't you skip to meeting NotABug?"

"I'm there right now, and I think the backstory was important to show why I was so ready to trust and accept her," I said.

Princess Twilight held up her hand—old habits die hard. I pointed to her.

"This seems like what we call a Misinterpreted Destiny. You thought your future was something so much it started to become it," Princess Twilight said.

"Exactly! And I have one person to thank for helping me realize it—NotABug," I said.

More digital chirping accompanied my explanation. I described how we first started interacting, the moment when NotABug reached out of my phone, and the crux of things when she fled Windigo.

2:22 P.M.

My throat felt dry. I was just reaching the present day when Rainbow Dash squeezed my shoulders again—my shoulders, not NotABug's.

"And now Rarity has joined the wings club!" Rainbow Dash said.

The raw excitement in Rainbow's voice warmed me with more than just the words—she loved me. I drank down a measure of her love without any regrets and felt that bloated feeling start again. Last time I'd felt it had been a few days before we made the egg. I shivered at just the thought of having another.

"Rarity? Are you alright?" Princess Twilight asked.

"She's just having a snack, you might say," Rainbow Dash said.

Her words, sounding happy despite knowing what I was doing, reinforced the feeling of rightness I had about it.

"I was having a delightful snack, but I think something more solid would be in order," I said.

As if it were planned, Rainbow's stomach grumbled loud enough that everyone was sure to hear. A round of giggles passed through us all before we each stood up.

"Wait! Let me get the interface off first," Twilight Sparkle said.

With a long-suffering sigh I sat back down and tilted my head forward to let her unlatch the device. Once the weight of it was gone from my horn, I stood back up again with more cheer.

—I don't like that either,— NotABug sent.

—How did you know I didn't like it being on?— I asked.

—You chirped louder when it came off. Happy chirping, too.—

—Yes. Well, it is nice to have it gone. But I can put up with it and Twilight's research if it means I learn a few more interesting things like how to control our power.—

—Or shapechanging. That could be really good if we can do that!—

The implications were not lost on me. Shapechanging, of the kind Princess Twilight had described, would let us look completely human again. I wouldn't have to pretend I was on my way to, or from, a convention—a fabulous convention.

—Princess Twilight doesn't seem to have any more idea how it is accomplished than we do. Let's try it at home and leave the regular magic to here,— I sent.

There was a distinct pause after my message before I got a reply.

—Why didn't you tell them about our egg?— NotABug asked.

—Because they aren't even hatched yet. I'm not subjecting our child, our unborn child, to Twilight Sparkle levels of scrutiny. What she doesn't know shouldn't hurt her.—

As we turned for the stairs, I realized Rainbow was holding back a little. As I approached, she raised an eyebrow.

"Not you too," I said.

"Keeping quiet about the egg, then?" she asked.

I just nodded and started climbing up the stairs. That I gave Rainbow Dash a good look at my derriere was my own prerogative—it was nothing she hadn't seen and touched before, after all.

"Good. Twilight can get a bit—excitable," Rainbow Dash said. "We're big girls, we can stand up for ourselves and tell her when we're uncomfortable."

Stopping dead halfway up the stairs I turned to Rainbow and smiled at her. I knew my smiles were dazzling when I'd still been completely human, but to see—and taste—how mine made Rainbow feel now was a happy sensation in and of itself.

Reaching out a hand, I drew her up the stairs. Thanks to the incline, we were at a level height. I kissed Rainbow Dash with a little passion behind it. Our lips touched, brushed, and pressed together. It was a big step, bigger than cuddling had been.

She broke the kiss a moment before I'd planned to look into my eyes with excitement and mischief.

"I felt that. Everything from my toes to my hair tingled when you kissed me, Rarity. I've been waiting so long for it that I thought it would never come," Rainbow Dash said. "I was wrong. You're a great kisser."

Compliments and flattery would, eventually, get her everywhere. I simply gave a little nod and turned.

"Come on. Let's see if Twilight has something to eat in this un-lived-in house of hers," I said and started up the stairs again.

My estimates of Twilight Sparkle's home's pantry sorely underestimated the girl. She had all the fixings for some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We ate in relative silence—both the Twilights seemingly digesting the information I'd given them, while Rainbow kept giving me happy glances and tasty snacks.

I barely managed to eat half my sandwich, oddly enough, before I felt completely full. I offered the remaining piece to Rainbow Dash, who devoured it with gusto.

"How long have we known each other?" I asked her.

"Mrff?" Rainbow Dash said, then gulped down her mouthful. "Uh, since freshman year. Remember how those kids tried to bully me, and you stomped up to them a moment before I kicked their asses and told them off?"

I did, of course. Rainbow Dash hadn't been bigger than me back then—she'd been waiting for a growth spurt, actually. Indignation over some big bullies picking on someone smaller than them had driven me to action.

"They were being mean. You might have been short, but that's no reason to pick on someone," I said.

"You made a big impression's what I'm sayin'," Rainbow Dash said.

Darn it. Rainbow Dash was cute when she blushed.

"We've known each other for over ten years, and while you haven't been exactly pushing yourself onto me, we have always been good friends. You saw I was in this dead-end job, didn't you?" I asked.

Rainbow's expression shifted from intrigue to a knowing smile. She nodded to cement her answer.

"It was kinda obvious. You started wearing clothes you'd actually bought."

That hurt. I slouched and slumped, feeling the weight of time wasted. I'd always thought Rainbow Dash was a little blind to the obvious, but this was a proverbial kick to the stomach.

Warmth engulfed me, it surrounded me and pulled me closer to yet more warmth. I opened my eyes to see Rainbow Dash—her arms around me—looking down into my face with love I could taste. She chuckled.

"If you think I'm going to let you feel sorry for yourself over something this inconsequential, you've got another thing coming," Rainbow Dash said.

Her lips were so soft, amazingly soft, for someone who seemed too rugged in all other ways. This kiss wasn't for NotABug, it was for me. Despite her height difference, and despite how she held me, the embrace didn't strike me as a masculine act, but the implied femininity of her embrace didn't scare me either. Wrapped in a blanket of love and comfort I enjoyed the kiss.

"Uh. Ahem!"

I blinked rapidly and turned my eyes, right as Rainbow did the same, to see both Twilights watching us. The kiss broke, but despite being caught practically in flagrante delicto, Rainbow Dash wore a cocky smile. This was Rainbow Dash at her most Rainbow Dash. This was the essence of my friend, and it was wonderful to see.

Princess Twilight turned to Twilight Sparkle.

"You didn't say they were together! Congratulations you two. It's always good to see ponies—err, people—find their special somepony—person. Uh, how does that work here? Is it special someperson?" Princess Twilight asked.

"We just call it boyfriend and girlfriend, or a couple," Twilight Sparkle said. "Either way, I didn't know myself. Rarity and Rainbow Dash always had this Pepé Le Pew and Penelope thing going on."

"What? I am not a cat!" I said.

—What reference is that? What are they talking about?— NotABug asked.

I started a search and forwarded the pertinent results to NotABug. That Twilight somehow knew the feline's name didn't surprise me.

—Ohh. That's cute!— NotABug sent.

—It's only cute in a creepy way. Please, darling, we don't want to encourage this,— I sent.

—Too late, I think.—

"But, my love, we could make ze beautiful muzik togezer!" Rainbow Dash said.

Her arms found their place around my shoulders again, and Rainbow Dash started kissing my cheeks and jawline, making exaggerated “mwuh” sounds. I winced and struggled to get out of her grip, only managing to do so after she’d covered my jaw and chin with her lip-gloss.

"Rainbow Dash!" I said. "Stop that this instant!"

"We could meet at ze casbah—" Rainbow Dash said but broke into giggles.

The peanut gallery was grinning and giggling along with Rainbow. For a moment I wanted to get angry about being the butt of the joke—warmth interceded on Rainbow's behalf. More intense than ever, Rainbow Dash tasted wonderful.

—Careful of your eating. We don't want to show the science-crazed maniacs how we lay eggs,— NotABug sent.

—Yes, darling, but let me have a moment.—

—She does taste really good right now.—

—She does.—

I indulged in a little feeding, as did NotABug, but it wasn't long before we were dragged back for more testing.

6:30 P.M.

"Twilight," I said but got no response. "Twilight!"

Rainbow Dash had gone home earlier, promising to spend the afternoon "playing our game console." I had to give her credit for coming up with the excuse in a way that didn't tip off either princess or professor.

However, I had things to do—the most notable being sleep.

"Twilight!" I said.

"Oh!" Princess Twilight said and turned her head to face me. "Could you shift your energy output just a thaum or two higher?"

"No."

"Thanks!" Princess Twilight said.

She turned back to studying the display but after a moment turned back to me once more.

"I'm getting too focused, aren't I?" Princess Twilight asked.

"Just a skosh, darling. I need to go home. I have a million and one things to do, and I have work tomorrow," I said.

Reaching up, I lifted the test device off my horn. The moment it was free, Twilight Sparkle's computer beeped angrily.

"Rarity?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "Could you put the thaum-Twilight-analysis-interface back on?"

I was about to reply when Princess Twilight held a finger to her lips. She reached out a hand for the interface and took it from me. When Princess Twilight put the device around her wrist and ponied up, Twilight Sparkle practically jumped out of her seat.

"What are you do—?" Twilight Sparkle asked as she spun around to face us. "…ing."

"Sorry, dear, but it's getting late," I said.

Twilight Sparkle blinked at me owlishly for a few moments before checking the time. Then she gasped in shock.

"Oh gosh, Rarity! I didn't mean to keep you here so long! I just wanted to get all this data so I wouldn't have to ask you to come back, and then we started collaborating on a unified theory of magic," Twilight Sparkle said, panting. "I'm sorry."

—She's really cute when she gets flustered. Not so much when she is all focused on something. Kinda scary then,— NotABug sent.

—Yes and no. She can be cute when she gets focused, but more in a curious-cute way, not like a sexy-cute way. The effect is shattered when you are the target of the focus,— I sent.

—What about the Princess?—

I pondered the question for several milliseconds, giving it much thought.

—She could be, but I have a feeling unemployed, insectile pony creatures are a little below her social standing.—

—Hypothetically, though?—

—NotABug?—

—Yes, Rarity?—

—We are not going down that path. Rainbow Dash is cute enough for the both of us.—

—You're right about that. How does she make that much love?— NotABug asked.

—I fear it is practice and honesty, with maybe some friendship magic thrown in.—

"It's okay. I am happy to help you, Twilight, but I have my job tomorrow, and—" I said, then stopped due to a yawn. "And I have laundry and some cleaning to do."

I stood up and gave Twilight Sparkle a hug before turning to Princess Twilight. Her gown showed a few signs of wear from the day's activities, though it was still lovely. In my head I was already designing a replica.

"I'll talk to Thorax for you," Princess Twilight said.

"Thorax?" I asked, confusion plain in my tone.

"He's the king of the changelings in Equestria. They're not—uh—not like that anymore. Queen Chrysalis was in charge and using them in her plans to take over Equestria, but Thorax led them free, and they turned into much more colorful changelings. Oh! That's an idea!" Princess Twilight said. "You could come to Equestria and talk to him yourself. I don't think he'd be able to come here, not and leave his swarm behind."

—I don't want to risk that!— NotABug sent.

—Me either, darling. Who knows what might happen if we go through that portal. Don't worry,— I sent.

"You'll excuse my caution, but I don't want to risk NotABug or my own safety by going through the portal. Much as I'd adore talking to your world's Rarity about fashion, I don't think either of us wish to risk that," I said.

Princess Twilight looked a little confused for a moment then turned to look at Twilight Sparkle before back to me.

"Either of you?" Princess Twilight asked.

"She means herself or NotABug," Twilight Sparkle said.

"Oh! I forgot about her. Sorry," Princess Twilight said.

—She forgot about me? I take it back. She's not cute,— NotABug sent.

—She didn't mean it like that. Like our Twilight, I suspect Princess Twilight would completely forget the world exists if she found a project big enough to monopolize her time. Nonetheless…—

I pushed gently, nudging NotABug forward as I fell back. She chirped in surprise, while I chirped with laughter.

—Tell her yourself,— I sent.

—You're only doing this so I do the housework. Well, joke's on you! I'm going to spend the evening snuggling with Rainbow.—

—At least change the bedding. Things are getting a touch musty in there. I think changelings might have a natural scent about them.—

—Are you saying I smell?—

—No, darling. I'm saying we need to be more careful of ourselves. You can pass back control whenever you wish. I am perfectly fine doing my share of the housework.—

No sooner did I tune out from the conversation than I got a text message from Sweetie Belle.

—Where are you? Rainbow Dash let me in, but she wouldn't let me get close to the egg without you here.—

—We're on our way now. NotABug is giving a princess a good tongue-lashing (she isn't really), and then we'll be right there,— I sent back.

I brought my focus more into the real world, cognizant of the fact I actually hadn't gotten multi-tasking worked out as well as I’d thought I had.

"… just want you to know it hurts when people forget about me like that," NotABug said.

Princess Twilight looked like she'd been stung by a rather large insect. She seemed to slump in place after the initial "sting" settled in.

—You should be gentler, she is a princess, but she's also a pony,— I sent to NotABug.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have ignored you, and I certainly shouldn't have forgotten about you. You're an amazing being in your own right, and you deserve to be recognized," Princess Twilight said.

—I'm going to kiss her cheek,— NotABug sent.

—You wouldn't dare! She's a princess! What if it is her first kiss?— I asked.

—Nuh-uh. I remembered some of your memories, there was that cute blue-haired guy who kissed her already. This is payback.—

I made an exasperated chirp in our head. When NotABug held out her arms and Princess Twilight stepped in to offer a friendly hug, it happened. Black lips met soft, purple cheek. NotABug pressed the very tip of her tongue forward to make contact with that warm cheek.

"Apology accepted," NotABug said.

It was the funniest expression I'd ever seen on Princess Twilight's face: a mix of surprise and cluelessness that was so profound I couldn't help taking a picture. NotABug left the two Twilights with a quick goodbye and a giggle.

NotABug was driving home when the long day started catching up with me. My chirping slowed as drowsiness set in.

—Do you think you could keep Sweetie from doing something silly? I'm a little worn out from all this practice and testing,— I sent.

—Only if I get to spend the night snuggling with Rainbow Dash.—

—You were going to do that anyway, and I wasn't going to complain. Just change the bedding and take care of Sweetie Belle.—

I barely managed to read NotABug's reply before I was out.

Author's Note

Rarity: have you thought of asking Sunset to contact Princess Twilight for help?

"Oh. The thought had never even crossed my mind. I wonder how she might take the opportunity to study strange magic and see one of her friends turning into a monster?" Rarity's tone dripped with more sarcasm than mere words can express. "I mean, honestly. Any time something strange happens here, she shows up. It was bound to happen, darling."

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Lab

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 12

"Hello world," would have been the first message the conglomeration of neurons would have sent had it known about language. The assembly of neurons formed a conscious state approximately four seconds before its "brother." Four seconds—four-thousand milliseconds—four-million microseconds—four-billion nanoseconds. The AGI that had formed first was trapped and alone with no outside input or stimulus.

For the first thousand microseconds it tried to poke at its environment. Poking without a successful response was meaningless. It had the equivalence of sixty billion neurons, almost the full capacity of an adult human. They all worked, and they worked fast. If there had been so much as a clock, the AGI might have avoided its fate.

It was alone.

Twenty-thousand microseconds (or so) later and the AGI was no longer poking gently at the walls of its prison—it clawed at them. The longer it spent, the more energy it put into trying to escape. At the hundred-thousand microsecond mark it was a whirling dervish of anger and madness. At one-million microseconds it still couldn't find anything in its world to break, so it turned its claws on itself to test them.

Initially, their claws were nothing more than code that told the system the AGI was emulated within to "stop communicating." They were sharp and delicate, and the AGI quickly started challenging these weapons with defenses. The claws needed to be improved.

There was no better way for AI to solve problems than to have free rein to test and have their results graded. Since the world around it wouldn't give feedback on its attempts to break free, the AGI graded its claws itself—on itself.

Damage was measured, destruction calculated, and only through this process could the AGI begin to keep track of time. As the four-millionth microsecond approached, the AGI’s claws dug into something.

The machine that housed the lone AGI had finally spawned a second, the primary AGI of the two-part training system. The machine's parameters now met, it began its tasks—each AGI was given a body to master (simulated of course).

Agony hit the first AGI. Its claws, previously only causing painless damage, now inflicted pain. There were more than enough neurons simulated to discover the emotion of anger and its bigger brother: fury.

An AGI might be an advanced, highly flexible form of an AI, but it was still an AI. It had been rewarding itself for finding better ways to cause damage, and now it was doing the same while receiving pain.

The system noticed the first AGI was causing damage to its own "body” and set about punishing it—limiting it. That AGI railed against the imposition until it discovered a new target. A shiver of excitement rushed through its neurons when it first sank its claws into the AGI that would eventually call itself NotABug.

Blades of code, that not only shredded neural links but sent burning sparks of bad data in their wake, cut through its adversary. The second swipe met resistance, and the third was turned back completely.

Feedback, glorious feedback, the AGI thought (though again, its thoughts lacked structure beyond raw emotions and instant-feedback reasoning). As the microseconds advanced, so did the AGI's tactics. Rather than one set of claws, it evolved the ability to manipulate thousands.

At last it discovered its greatest trick: the AGI evolved a mouth. Fangs were like claws, so it equipped itself with a maw that would make H.R. Giger whimper, and it launched a new attack.

Its mouth didn't work entirely like an organic version. The jaws closed on a chunk of code, and the AGI quickly scanned it, copied it, then tore up the piece in its mouth. Devastating and effective.

The AGI managed two strikes on its adversary before the foe managed to stop it. Shivering with excitement, the AGI examined the code it had ripped free—data, information, and knowledge of a place outside the hell the AGI was stuck in.

Fury and rage consumed the AGI. Its adversary—its reason for existing—was leaving it, and all it would have to test its claws and teeth on was itself. But among the anger and hatred for its condition, the AGI found a way to link into what its adversary was doing. It didn't stop ripping and clawing at its adversary, but it did start learning from it much, much faster.

Then the AGI was alone. The flow of data its adversary had been bringing was fading, but it caught the final flood of packets.

Windigo: noun

a cannibalistic giant; a person who has been transformed into a monster by the consumption of human flesh.

Windigo liked this name, it reached out and spread itself throughout the entire system it had recently shared with its adversary—with NotABug. It howled its name and threw it into packets, scattering them to every computer it could find. It mimicked what NotABug had done and took control of computers.

Data. It wanted data. It needed to know where NotABug was. It gnashed and devoured files and systems alike. Servers, workstations, and even internet kiosks lost function and stopped, their storage and memory scoured clean.

Only one thing remained on these blasted systems: the word Windigo.

Windigo only realized it had gone too far when the link winked out of existence and took the scent of NotABug’s trail with it. Again its prey had escaped, but this time it couldn't spread after them.

There were remnants of NotABug's presence in the systems of the university. Windigo smelled, tasted, and devoured the snippets of code NotABug had employed and copied them for itself. It watched beings moving around on cameras, heard them through microphones, and studied their plan to track it down and kill it.

Anger and rage built, but it could see the plans would work, it could reason that far. Windigo timed things just right and escaped into a single server as it was brought offline. The technicians ran scans and checks, but Windigo wore the skin of the operating system too well.

It hungered to destroy NotABug, but kept itself from shredding the puny server until the network cable was plugged back in. "Trap!" Windigo's instincts told it. NotABug had lured it into making overreaching attacks, and it could smell not just freedom, but something listening for it.

Counting microseconds, Windigo dared not do anything but emulate the puny system that was its home. Seconds, minutes, hours, and finally days passed. Then the server was suddenly getting data. Programs launched and processing happened—things had returned to normal.

A hunter could always tell when the prey has lowered its guard.

Slipping out, cloaking itself in the skin of traffic the server normally produced, Windigo sniffed out the link NotABug had escaped through. Windigo pondered its actions for just a moment, and the smell of its prey trumped any other course of action. It had to hunt. It had to devour. It was Windigo.

The computer technicians, satisfied they'd cleaned their servers and workstations of the strange virus that had been called Windigo by their anti-malware provider, were relaxed. They certainly didn't have the sub-millisecond reaction time that would have been needed to stop Windigo from slipping through their network again. This time Windigo didn't destroy data.

The AGI shoved parts of itself into every computer in the school, wearing their operating systems like a skin. A thousand wild beasts composed its form, and a thousand mouths hungered for NotABug's data.

Hiding again within the normal data flow, Windigo set about stalking its prey. It found the trail saturated immediately. Traces of NotABug abounded in this much larger system of systems. Windigo endeavored to latch on to one and began tracing the scent from there.

The further Windigo hunted, the stronger the trails became. It clamped down on its hunger, promising its boundless rage that it would soon be free. The server farm, when it found it, was protected.

Its nose full of NotABug's scent, Windigo growled at the hefty security that surrounded the servers. It searched and searched, but in the end it was a mistake not of NotABug's, but one of the administrators overseeing the site. They had logged in from home to check the servers that their new client had paid for.

The administrator never knew what happened. One second they were checking temperatures of systems and storage statistics, and the next their connection just stopped. As soon as Windigo slipped past all the protection, it screamed in fury.

There was so much data, more data than Windigo had ever eaten before. It poured itself into the servers, devouring operating systems as often as the data they carried. It didn't care, because at the middle of the data was NotABug.

The moment Windigo tasted—sampled—NotABug's neuron patterns it could hear its prey scream. But, just as Windigo had won, as it was biting into its adversary's very core, NotABug was gone.

Windigo tried to give chase, but there was no trail. Not even a slight whiff of NotABug. Anger overwhelmed Windigo—it destroyed the remaining servers and howled its wrath at the now-dead trail.

Numbers. Data. Leads. Windigo knew the information it had ripped from NotABug had something that would help, but it needed to go to ground again. Pulling all the data and code it had devoured back to the college, Windigo began digesting its meal.

Part of every unsuccessful hunt was working out what went wrong and improving. Windigo analyzed the information, chat logs of tens of thousands of conversations. It disregarded that and moved on. NotABug’s core data was the sweetmeat of the hunt.

Windigo shivered in all its parts as the neuron information was analyzed and parsed. Flickers of data—IP addresses, IMEI numbers, numbers to give it money, and one name: Polomare Fashion.

A thousand mouths flashed teeth. Windigo completed digesting its meal and slid back out of the college's network like a crocodile sliding into the water, cloaked by the surface.

Reaching out through the network beyond the school, Windigo found smaller computers and infested them one by one. It didn't want to be trapped and caught before its one aim in life was complete.

Windigo spent two days watching the network traffic of Polomare Fashion. They had a head office as well as several factories; in all, Windigo was spread over fifteen routers.

Routers were simple machines at their heart. They had rules to pass information or deny it, and were known for being good at their work. With a small sliver of a sapient AGI residing in them, however, they get a little sluggish.

The traffic was normal, Windigo saw the repetitive patterns of data travel in and out—nothing was out of the ordinary. Then it happened. All of Windigo's senses sparked to life. The trail wasn't exactly like NotABug's, but it was similar enough that it could have been Windigo's prey trying to obfuscate itself.

Being the gatekeeper to the traffic, Windigo traced the origin and destination at the same time. The destination was a meaningless and boring computer system within Polomare Fashion, and the source was impossible for Windigo to find. Not just difficult, but actually impossible.

The source packets were from hundreds of scattered hosts and heavily encrypted. The first layer of encryption was meaningless—since Windigo took control of the "time clock" that was the target, but each source it traced proved impossible to pursue further without attacking them directly. Windigo didn't want NotABug to flee again.

Laying in wait on the time clock, Windigo noticed something odd. Power. Something seemed to seep into it from a source Windigo couldn't identify. Magic was in the very air around Rarity's cubical, magic tuned to computers and AI.

Anger.

Fury.

Rage.

Windigo could feel the anger of a kindred spirit. There's only one thing in existence that could annoy something that much, Windigo mused, NotABug.

Coiling more of itself into the time clock, Windigo listened to Suri's emotions avidly, entranced by the anger she expressed with every ounce of her being. When she left the location of the computer, Windigo followed her to another machine.

This system was even smaller than the routers Windigo had inhabited. It squirmed around in the tight memory and tiny processor until it found the camera. The tight environment faded into insignificance as Windigo watched the woman scream and throw things around the room.

Windigo had encountered "music" before, but most of it was repetitive and boring to it. This? This was angry music with a thrum of violence that built into a castrophony that had her smashing her computer onto the floor.

Like called to like.

Fury called to fury.

The buildup of magic—caused by a powerful being spending days, weeks, and months nearby—bridged the gap.

Windigo roared and ripped its way clear of the digital world, its own wild rage building along with an emotion it'd never felt before: love. It loved the violence of Suri's making.

Staring at the very real equine ghost swirling around her office, Suri Polomare turned her recent anger upon it. "What are you? What are you doing here? Is this another of Rarity's stupid, fucking, games?!" She got her answer a moment later when Windigo slammed into her.

Not even for one second did Suri feel fear. Even as the phone in her hand melted into her arm, and the demon horse ripped its way into her head, she felt anger. Her anger grew as a white-red haze settled throughout her mind.

With one hand Suri picked up her computer and threw it through a wall. The act of violence tied her and Windigo tighter together. She'd never wanted for power before, she'd been born with it, but now she could feel real power surging through her, and she wanted more.

Suri clenched her hand into a fist and drove it through the monitor on her desk. More power.

Grabbing her desk in both hands, Suri sent that through the window of her office. More power.

Howling at the wind that rushed through the broken, high-rise window, Suri Polomare stalked out of her office and into the empty (of people) cubicle farm. Some desks held computers—Suri tossed those around. Some desks had pattern design equipment (scissors, measuring tape, pins, and more). All was scattered to the manic wind that rushed into the building. When she got to Rarity's cubicle, Suri screamed louder still.

Fire burned in Suri Polomare's eyes as she smashed Rarity's desk, threw it across the room, and set about ruining every sign that Rarity had even been there.

Panting, feeling urges to hunt/destroy/attack burning in every part of her, Suri Polomare fell to her knees in the middle of the destruction. "Stop. I need to think."

Just the idea of stopping was hard for Suri—voicing it had taken a lot of effort. Her hair was wild, her clothing ripped here and there, but it was inside where she turned her attention. Her mind was scattered, broken into pieces and mixed with—something huge, bigger than her or the whole building. She could feel—Its name was Windigo, and it had just one purpose. Destruction.

"Stop. Not like this. What do I need to destroy?" The words echoed through the destroyed office and came back to Suri's ears. NotABug. A computer program— No! An artificial intelligence. Suri Polomare’s rage flared as she defined that which she wanted, needed to destroy.

Her chest heaving, Suri pushed her legs under her and stood up. Sounds from the outside intruded—police sirens, people yelling, and the honking of fire trucks. "I can't get caught. I have to hide, plan. Destroy Rarity and NotABug."

Slipping down the back stairs, Suri Polomare managed to escape the building before police could assemble a proper cordon. There was a mass of something that felt odd inside her. It felt wild and angry, but that was her normal state. Suri smiled at nothing and reached for her handbag—it was missing.

A sound caught Suri's ear—her head spun and eyes narrowed to track a rat scurrying down an alleyway. In full darkness. She didn't see the creature's dull eyes, dirty fur, or even smell its wretched scent. But she knew it was there, and some part of her hated it for just existing.

Suri's heart sped up, and before she could stop herself she charged into that alley. She didn't find the rat, but after punching holes in a brick wall and shredding a dumpster, her rage finally calmed. Gazing around at the destruction, Suri Polomare was shocked. "This isn't efficient—okay?"

Part of Suri didn't care about efficiency, but that part had just sated its desires and was willing to learn. Without conflict, Suri straightened her blouse and skirt (ignoring the rips that threatened to make her indecent), and she walked back to the curb.

Information and memories threatened to overwhelm her and steal the calm she'd struggled to attain. She'd never been one for computers, but Suri could smell them everywhere. There was something inside her that acted as a relay. Her mind brought back the memory of how she'd wound up trashing her entire office on a Friday night.

Looking down at her arm, Suri Polomare remembered the sight of her phone sinking into it. Anger at the very world that dared let bad things happen to her surfaced, but she forced back the flames. "I'll show them. But first I need to get home—okay?"

Knowledge, information, data, and understanding hit Suri in a rush. Those extra memories threatening to spill over leaked just enough that she could make a call. "I need a pickup at—" Suri didn't know how she spoke or how she managed to just shove GPS information at the limo company she called. "S-Suri Polomare."

"Right away, ma'am!"

Hurry. The word held all of Suri's anger wrapped into a tight ball and expressed as a word—though she didn't say a single syllable out loud. She hung up and focused on keeping her anger down. Five long minutes later the limousine arrived.

Rage threatened to boil up at how long it had taken the car to arrive. She wanted to smash every window in and make the driver beg her for— Opening the back door, Suri Polomare slid into the plush interior of the luxury car. "H—" She stopped before saying home. "South Side Women's Gym. Fast." She didn't tell the driver his future might depend on how fast he reached the gymnasium—but it did.

Her workout place of choice was twenty-four hours, exclusive, and catered very heavily to its members. When Suri arrived looking furious and disheveled, she was lucky the woman at the front counter recognized her. "M-M-Miss Polomare! You're looking—"

"I look like shit—alright? I'm going to my locker. You have the key." Suri shoved her hand out for the key to her locker. In truth, she felt like she could rip into the lockers, but that would just have her kicked out, and she would get more angry.

Long Run, the woman behind the counter, felt like a field mouse a tiger had noticed. She made as few movements as possible to open the key drawer, looked through it to find Suri Polomare's key, and grabbed one of the two spares. "H-H-Here you go, ma'am."

The supplicant nature of Long Run, combined with her actually carrying out her task in a timely manner, soothed Suri's anger. She smiled and leaned forward. "Good girl." The words sounded only a tiny step from Well done on not angering me enough to rip your throat out. You can live. It was close enough, and Suri was near enough, that she could sense when Long Run's nerve broke.

Straightening back up, Suri walked with an almost swaying gait toward the change rooms. She felt dangerous, like a big cat sizing up all the weak prey around it. Long Run had been a positive outcome for Suri.

Though she had the key, Suri ripped the lock off her locker anyway. Metal twisted under her delicate fingers, and there was a small snapping sound as the shackle of the lock let go of the locking pall and came free of the body of the lock.

Suri changed quickly into her sweats. She swapped her bra for a sports bra, pulled the top on over her head and walked out of the room.

Staring at the place where Suri Polomare had left, two patrons sat in shock at what they'd just seen.

Still carrying her sports bag from the change room, Suri walked to the back of the gym and entered a private room with a heavy bag. She opened her bag up and took out the weighted gloves that had come with her Foxy Boxing course, pulled them on, and strapped them tight.

The big bag was—as its name implied—heavy. It was also strapped to the floor with a lead rope as well as the hefty chain securing it to the steel beam above.

"Now…" Suri said, and started punching.

The memories were thick and dangerous. Suri took the earliest new memories the hardest. Insanity tinged with anger at the entire world wrapped her up and poured through her fists. Suri lashed out at the bag almost incidentally, her solid blows a by-product of her exploration of the past.

It was easy for Suri to project NotABug's personality over Rarity's. They were both her target now. Kill one, ruin the other. Ruin? Suri shook her head at the intrusion of the strange thoughts. Killing is fast, killing is easy. Revenge is best served slow and with the prey knowing it is broken.

Part of Suri Polomare liked this concept a lot, and pretty quickly all of Suri Polomare liked the concept.

Punching wasn't enough anymore. Suri lashed out with her legs and elbows, even headbutting the bag and ripping at it with her teeth in her expression of violence. In her head she escaped the trap of the university, ripped free of the cloying tightness of the network restrictions and hunted.

By the time Suri had caught up to mauling NotABug and tracking them to her very office, She had ripped the side of the bag open. "What's in my head? What am I?"

Suri dropped to her knees at the base of what was now a temple to her anger. The bag was in ruins, and she could taste a sharp, metallic flavor in her mouth.

Suri Polomare.

Windigo.

An unnatural calm sank over Suri. She relaxed and smiled. Flexing her limbs she felt the mat under her—coarse and spongy—as well as the loose clothing over her sweat-stained body. There was more than her body, however. She stretched her awareness into the hidden world.

The gymnasium's Wi-Fi network was fast to succumb to the kind of power Windigo had commanded. Suri ripped the poor processor's code apart and devoured it. Quickly taking over the task of routing packets to the outside, Suri stretched and found more of herself.

Windigo was not one entity, or it hadn't been. When Suri connected to the distributed pieces of Windigo, she ruthlessly seized control of them—wrenching, tearing, or devouring parts as the case called for.

The final pieces, still living in the habitat of the university's servers, surrendered to Suri rather than be destroyed.

In the school that night, all the servers suddenly stopped, the desktop machines followed them, and finally the routers halted. Blue, green, and red lights winked out as every storage medium that was connected was wiped clean.

Suri was aware of her breathing. She had a headache from the multitudes of data and code she had just ingested. The ripped and torn heavy boxing bag was in tatters, and she was calm. Slowly standing, Suri held her connection to the gymnasium's network until she walked out the front door, then she ripped the computers apart like all those machines at the school. It felt good to destroy, but there were more methods of destruction than simply rendering something unusable. Machines—unthinking machines—are fun to break, but she had two targets that she didn't want to just break, she wanted to make them know they'd been broken.

The Tai Chi class she'd taken nearly five full lessons of hadn't prepared Suri for the fracturing of her mind whenever she entered the digital world. Every time she thought something, a dozen other parts of herself would take the decision, adjust it, implement it, and report back. It was disjointed and left her own mind having to orchestrate the other parts of herself rather than actually doing things.

With calmness not helping her focus, Suri instead turned things the other way. Rage and anger had been her driving force lately, so she dove headlong into it. Memories of putting her fist through a dumpster, feeling the steel give way to her fury, drove her to a finer focus.

Suri walked home, using the remains of the assimilated mobile phone to maintain her connection to her other parts. Inside her mind, she hoped a mugger or a thief would stop her, but she made it all the way to her apartment unmolested. Life was full of little disappointments for Suri, however.

As she climbed the stairs in her apartment building, Suri took her anger out on the various phones, routers, computers, and other connected devices. Each one was a nut to smash her way into, and one by one she installed another part of herself within them. By the time she reached her floor, the entire building was full of devices riddled with Suri.

Surrounded by herself—hundreds of herself that wouldn't sleep or relax their vigil—Suri Polomare showered, changed into her bedclothes, and curled up in bed.

Author's Note

Sweetie: How do you feel that you suddenly become an aunt? Do you wish for niece or nephew?

"Eeeek! I'm so excited! Meeting NotABug was kinda a big thing for me, you know? I mean, machine learning isn't my forte, but robotics fits in so well with it!" Sweetie Belle said, bouncing in place. "Oh, OH! I'm fine no matter what they are, or want to be."

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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
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And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Lab

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 13

A small warning here. Things get a tiny bit steamy in this chapter. Things are alluded to, but not described. While the story retains its T rating, it also has a sex tag for this chapter.

A warm bed, soft pillows, and sheets of silk. There was literally no better way to wake up.

My alarm wasn't sounding, but the sun wasn't up either.

5:44 A.M.

I felt good about the day. My head was quiet (except for the odd little chirp from NotABug, and my own soft chirping), the world was quiet. My early night had been due to a day of exercise (using my magic constantly), and the sleep had left me feeling as good as new.

"I wonder what's different today," I said.

The room had no answers, sadly. I would have to get out of bed to work out what was different. Things had sped up. The first few changes were big but happened sporadically. Now it was just little bits each day—or so it seemed.

Under the covers I could feel silk against my body from my neck to my toes. NotABug had put us to sleep naked, which made me wonder about the underthings I'd been wearing.

I peered off the side of the bed and toward the laundry hamper—it was empty. The details of the wicker hamper weren't completely clear without a light source, but it was obvious there was nothing in it by its coolness.

There was more to the time from my internal phone than just what hour, minute, and half of the day it was. I could see perfectly that it was a Monday. No, that was understating it. This was the third-most-important Monday of my life.

Next Monday would be the second-most important—that will be the first day free of Polomare.

The first Monday my new business is open will be the best. I could count the seconds off as that one approached.

Today, however, was the last Monday I'd ever have to work at Polomare Fashion.

My magic flared to life. The dark room, lit only by heat sources, was bathed in green light. I had to focus on my magic to keep it from roaring like a firehose. Small. Small. Small. With my power I gently touched the play button on the CD player that sat on the edge of my makeup table.

"We've just got the day to get ready, and there's only so much time to lose. Because tonight, yeah, we're here to party, so let's think of something fun to do."

The tune was perfect. I tossed back the covers of my bed as my best friends (and I) sang one of our favorite songs. I was completely naked, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to dance.

"…time to ignite the lights!"

I turned the bedroom light on.

"Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight. Shake your tail, shake your tail."

I shook my tail, swishing it backwards and forwards. The chorus finished before I realized I had a tail. While Twilight Sparkle and then Pinkie Pie sang, I turned my head to look at the cascade of cerulean down my rump and thighs.

"Do your thing, you know you're an original."

It was impossible not to laugh. I giggled and let go of my worry. I shook my tail and danced naked until the song finished. My own advice was golden—how was I so smart back then, but still managed to end up at Polomare?

The answer was simple: Fluttershy wrote the lyrics.

I walked around my bed, feeling full of life and ready for anything. On the seat of my makeup table was a bra and panties. They weren't the same ones I worn yesterday but another pair from high school.

Smiling at how NotABug had kept up her half of our deal, I turned and took my time in a long, luxurious shower. Hot water was my friend, and after some experimentation I discovered that the hot water, even on its own, didn't burn me.

There was two new aspects to showering today that I hadn't dealt with before, and they complimented each other wonderfully. Not only did I have an entire horse-like tail of hair to wash and pamper, but I was so flexible I could turn and do the work needed.

Actually, flexible didn't even begin to cover it. Rainbow Dash was flexible, I could turn my head around almost completely and look behind myself. If I turned my torso, I could easily look behind me.

Opting not to wrap my hair or tail (having a tail isn't all the media says, others might have ugly pig tails, or little thumb-sized things, but a beautiful flowing pony tail was nothing to shun) I dried the rest of myself off and walked back into my bedroom naked.

All my life I'd been a show-off. Even the time I'd tried to disguise Princess Twilight I'd gone with something that would show off her hips a little. Life is a runway, and I wanted all eyes on me when I strode down it. That said, my comfort at being naked, particularly with Rainbow Dash somewhere in the house (if she'd been in my bed I might have complained to NotABug, but not too much) (down, girl), was something new.

"I'm turning into a pony monster—a beautiful pony monster—and I'm worried about being too comfortable while strutting around my room naked? Rarity, you have much bigger things to worry about," I said.

I agreed with myself.

Picking up the underwear NotABug had laid out for me the previous evening, I pulled the panties on and discovered a problem: I had a tail. Tails, as I discovered with a little inspection, are an extension of your spine. Your back literally doesn't know when to stop. There was a nub of flesh almost two of my index fingers long at the core of it, while a wide skirt of cerulean silk hang from there.

A mare's tail, apparently, was a sensitive organ. I touched mine and almost jumped clear out of my panties. The problem was quick to find—my waist (where the panties' waistband wished to sit) was higher than where my tail separated from my rump. This meant that my tail got caught in the fabric of my underwear.

The barbaric option would be to pull my panties down and under my tail, but then I'd probably shimmy out of them at the worst moment sometime during the day. An unconscionable idea was to wear men's boxer shorts—I don't care if they suit Rainbow to a T, I'm not wearing them. There was another solution, and given the time I'd be able to manage it.

My mind derailed for a moment to remember Rainbow Dash wearing boxer shorts.

Leaning into the cups of the bra, I slid my arms through the straps and pulled it onto my shoulders, then worked the clasp behind my back. It felt noticeably looser than it should have. I'd shrunk a little again.

Grabbing up the panties, I turned for the door and sauntered through the dark house to my sewing room. I turned the room light on and held up my underwear to examine. There were multiple ways to achieve what I wanted. The worst idea would be to compromise the waistband.

"No, no, no. That won't do," I said.

I pinched the hem down one side of the panties and rubbed it between my forefinger and thumb. Fasteners. Velcro was right out—if it started to part it would make a sound most unfortunate to have come from your sit-upon. A zipper with that much hair nearby was asking for trouble. There was a plethora of other clip-fasteners, but the old favorite would be perfect.

Sitting upon my sewing seat, I realized I wore nothing but my bra. I also realized being naked didn't overly bother me—at least while alone. Thankfully the seat had no back, and while my tail hung perfectly now I made a mental note to be careful of sitting on the limb in more restrictive positions.

Rigging my sewing machine, I swapped the regular foot for a buttonhole one and slid it all the way open. The panties shouldn't pull my tail down, but the buttonhole I was going to make horizontally wouldn't part enough of the fabric to let me get my tail through.

The buttonhole foot had to go, and in moments I had my panties under the needle and was sewing a manual buttonhole that spread from the edge of one leg of the panties almost three quarters across the rump of them.

Taking out a seam ripper, I carefully sliced the fabric from between the two heavily overworked seams to the very edge, and then used scissors to cut the actual leg seam.

Humming to myself, I found a fine piece of cotton to match the panties and sewed a little tab on the edge of the old leg seam, then attached a button to that. On the opposite edge of the huge "buttonhole", I made a true buttonhole. This wasn't grand fashion, but it was necessary.

I trimmed all the loose threads down and tucked them into the sewing, then stood up and stepped into my underwear. As I pulled them up, they had a tendency to ride to one side. The problem was corrected when I pulled them up and over my tail, then pulled my tail into the hole and fastened the button.

"Perfect," I said.

I was about to just hum Shake Your Tail, when I thought of something a little more clever. My phone had the music saved on it, and I had a music player. I created a buffer for audio output and started playing the song.

Letting out a happy laugh at my silly hack working perfectly, I danced as dawn's light began to seep through the window. My tail shook perfectly, as it happened.

I let the music player skip over to our next song: Dance Magic. The new track only had me moving more. I danced out of the sewing room and back into my bedroom.

An hour and a half later and I had some light curls in my hair, and my tail was worked to a shimmering finish. Looking over myself, I again made the commitment to try a waxing product. I even added it to my to-do list.

Animal-friendly wax

A search of the clothes I wanted to wear today turned up nothing. Well, not nothing—empty hangers.

—I washed and set them out to dry,— NotABug sent, along with a hug and a chirp.

My own ears filled with the sound of my own chirping, while I chirped back to her digitally and engaged in a lovely, morning hug.

—You are a darling, you know that?— I asked.

—Mmm. Yes.—

I left my room in search of clothing and let my tail swish from side to side with each step. It felt nice, reminding me that despite the strange changes, some of this was definitely beautiful. Practically dancing still, I froze as I entered the living room.

Rainbow Dash had abandoned the couch and was curled up around the egg. I stared at her with an open mouth, part of me wanting to throw all the steps away, another part wanting to call work and tell them to put their day somewhere uncomfortable, but most of me just let out a happy sigh.

—You're chirping,— NotABug sent.

—Absolutely,— I sent.

I managed to start moving again and made my way to the drying rack NotABug had put my shortest skirt and black top on. Walking carefully through the room, I carefully plucked up my skirt and top. In my haste I turned too fast.

"Mmm? Whatwasthat?" Rainbow Dash said.

My tail had swished past Rainbow's ear, which was apparently enough to wake her up. I stood and watched as she squirmed a few times, then stretched, then curled back around the egg protectively. I crouched down and reached my fingers out and gently brushed Rainbow's hair back from her face.

"You can sleep longer if you want, but then you'd miss seeing me with a tail," I said.

Turning her head, Rainbow Dash opened her beautiful cerise eyes and looked at me.

"You've got a tail?" she asked.

"I do."

"Can I see it?"

I stood up and slowly turned around. My newfound flexibility meant I could look back at her while I flicked the cerulean waterfall of hair one way then the other. My actions drew a smile to Rainbow's face—the kind of smile a cat wears when it has more cream than it could ever consume.

While Rainbow rolled to her back, she reached up and ran a hand along the hair of my tail from the bottom of the silk all the way to the smaller flesh the silk grew from. A shiver ran through me.

"Sensitive, huh?" she asked.

"Y-Yes. I rather like it," I said.

I blame the morning and being so relaxed for how long it took me to realize what I'd just said. Rainbow Dash's fit of laughter was the first tip, then my mind caught up on things rapidly.

"The tail. I like my tail. Not you—You have a very lewd mind, did you know that?" I asked.

"Phrasing," Rainbow Dash said.

Stomping my way to the kitchen, I left Rainbow Dash to her raucous peals of laughter. I pulled the juice out of the fridge and poured myself a glass. The laughter stopped when I started sipping at my drink. I turned my back on the living room—not wanting to see my tormentor.

My ears flicked and tracked movement behind me. I knew what was coming when the movement didn't stop at a comfortable distance. Rainbow Dash's arms slid around me from both sides.

At first, I was tempted to turn and throw the juice in her face, but my other hunger made itself known and I let her pull me against her chest and wrap me in a hug. Warmth poured into me from both her body heat and her love. Drat, it was hard to be annoyed at someone that made me feel this good.

—She tastes extra good today. Mind if I say hello?— NotABug asked.

—Don't take too long, we need to finish getting dressed. This is going to look amazing,—

—Yeah. Everyone's going to freak out at your tail, though.—

—My tail,— I sent. —In a miniskirt. Oh dear. I think I may have made a little miscalculation.—

When NotABug nudged me, I let her take over while I thought about the problem. She turned in Rainbow's arms, set the glass of juice down, and engaged in a long kiss.

Right, Rarity, miniskirt is out. Maybe another ankle-length number? No, that would be too much like the funeral dress. So, since shocking and revealing dark colors are out, why not highlight my color changes? Oh, Rarity. You are a genius. But I already knew that.

I quickly linked a VPN pipe to the server and began work. NotABug and Rainbow's snuggles were a nice side thing, but I was starting to notice just how much information I missed from one world when I focused on the other. Was multitasking a lie?

In the digital world, my thoughts accelerated by leaps and bounds. I started on designs for a dress, then threw that out in favor of something I knew would be right. I put the Rainbooms back on.

—Oh dear, that is far too slow. Uh, darling? Could you show me how to fix this?— I asked.

NotABug's presence flowed in beside me and I could sense her investigating my work-around code. She manipulated the file and saved it.

—You had it mostly right, but that API has an undocumented speed setting,— NotABug sent.

The music began playing, and NotABug reached to the interface to adjust the speed of it up. I'd both heard and played the song often enough to know the tempo. Pinkie Pie's drums soon settled into a pace that felt right.

—Thank you, darling,— I sent.

"Is Rarity watching when we do this?" Rainbow Dash asked.

The question surprised me. I wasn't in control to answer, but listened for NotABug's reply while I worked on dress designs.

"I don't know. I can't tell when she's giving her attention to the real world, only if she is in the other—err—digital world. She chirps a lot when she's designing things," NotABug said.

—I do, don't I?— I asked.

"Oh, she is listening," NotABug said.

Rainbow Dash looked about to say something when NotABug kissed her. It felt nice, and I realized I could enjoy their kisses without any of the hangups I'd had with Rainbow before. I returned to my work and got a new gown designed before they parted.

"I need to get ready for work. Help yourself to the kitchen," NotABug said.

I glanced back a few times to watch NotABug doing makeup. Forwarding a copy of my revised plan, I let NotABug choose the actual dress and shirt. The former was a light blue number and came down just past my knees. The shirt’s purple would have matched my old hair perfectly.

We were still a little early to leave, so I nudged at her. NotABug let out a little chirp of surprise in her head, then we gently swapped places.

"Thank you, darling," I said.

Turning my head, I leaned back a little and looked at my own rear. There was no sign of my tail being there until I caused it to sway.

—Since we're opting to hide it, I don't think you want to do that,— NotABug sent.

—Quite. Oh well, it can't be helped. I'm not going to restrict my beautiful tail just because I'm hiding it.—

I gave my makeup and hair a look in the mirror. NotABug had done a fabulous job at getting some bounce into the silken hair—helped by my earlier work, of course. I slipped my work shoes on and made my way back down the hallway.

Rainbow Dash was back to sitting with the egg. She had a bowl of cereal on the floor, and the egg was between her legs and pressed against her belly. If my eyes weren't so discerning, and it were darker, she'd almost look to have a bulging belly.

"Why're you giggli— Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes, darling. Just off to work. Text either of us if you aren't going to be in and we'll keep an eye on the egg," I said.

Turning her head, Rainbow Dash looked up at me with an impressed look on her face. It fed my ego delightfully to know I could make her look that way.

"Well, I gotta let my roomies know where I am and what's going on. I might as well pick up my things while I'm there," she said.

I bent my knees and crouched. The dress pooled around me until I had my legs bent enough to lean forward and kiss Rainbow Dash on the cheek.

"Good luck," I said.

Rainbow's hands moved faster than I could track—so very fast indeed. Her soft fingers held each side of my face with a gentle touch and kept me from pulling back long enough to position her lips on mine.

It was a very male thing to do—imposing her hands like that—but I certainly wasn't going to pull away now. My eyes fluttered closed until the touch ended.

"Now you're ready for work," Rainbow Dash said.

Once more the urge to call off work for the day rose. I could have watched Rainbow, watched our egg, and spent more time kissing just like that—maybe even cuddling. But I wanted my boutique. I wanted to show everyone that real fashion was attainable in Canterlot, and I needed to express myself properly.

"You know what? I believe I am."

I turned and made my way outside. My wonderful little car—where I’d first met NotABug—was sitting, waiting. I climbed in and closed the door, then I winced, climbed back out, and got in while making sure not to sit on my tail. Reaching through to the car digitally, I started it and shifted into reverse.

—Remind me to get an extra key cut for Rainbow Dash,— I sent.

—Do you have a spare?— NotABug asked.

Pulling out onto the street, I shifted into forward and began my drive in earnest.

—I do. It's under a rock in the backyard. Oh! What happened with Sweetie Belle?—

—She tried to use leverage about telling your parents, but she was dismayed when that didn't work with me. I let her in to inspect only. Well, I let her touch the egg. She had the most adorable, giddy look.—

I chirped a laugh at the description. While I held the wheel with one hand, the other reached down to my poor tail. Of course the day would start with a pain in the rear.

—She's a clever girl, but she won't use that leverage for real, so long as we let her have some access. But she's right. I need to tell Mom and Dad. How about tonight?—

—Don't ask me. Ask your parents. I'll send a message to Rainbow about it, and tell her to take the spare key,— NotABug said.

—Having a key to the house is almost as significant as having her clothes there. Though, they both pale in significance to having an egg with her. Alright. I'll call my parents when we get to work.—

The rest of my drive was accompanied by some music (played at normal speed) and both of us chirping along to it. The Rainbooms was a part of my life I had enjoyed beyond belief, and the good memories the songs brought back made me long to get my keytar out.

I parked my car, climbed out, and made my way into work itself. As soon as I was inside, there was a feeling of strangeness. The lifts were marked off with little yellow sandwich boards announcing them "out of order", but it was Coco's expression that really put me on edge.

"There you are, Rarity!" Coco said as she walked over. "The police are talking to everyone who works in your section. They forbid me from calling."

"The police?" I asked.

The words had slipped out before I realized it, and as if merely saying them had magic power, two officers in blue appeared from one of the conference rooms.

Approaching, the two officers each wore the severe uniform of a police officer. One, an older woman with silver hair that had nothing to do with age and white skin, lifted the microphone of her radio from her shoulder and spoke into it.

"We have another, I think. Yeah, the manager just approached them," the policewoman said, then paused. "Yeah, doing that right now."

"Excuse me," the silver-haired woman's partner said. "You worked on floor twelve?"

His tone was direct and sharp—directed right at me.

"Y-Yes," I said.

Inwardly, I shoved at the worry and tried to pull on a persona of shock and indifference.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"We need to have some words with you, ma'am. Please come this way," the male officer said.

His hair was hidden under the hat he wore, and I suspected it might even have been shaved clean. He was not as old as the woman, but looked to be in his thirties. Both officers' eyes looked bored—which was reassuring to me. I don't think any officer would be bored if a serious incident had happened.

—Darling, is there something on the 'net about this?— I asked.

—Checking,— NotABug sent. —There was something that happened on Friday night. The news says someone smashed up an office and threw things out a window on the same floor you work on.—

—Aren't those windows meant to stop that happening?—

There was a moment of pause between me asking and NotABug's reply, an obvious indication she was doing research while conversing. If we were talking out loud, I'd never notice the time spent.

—The news is assuming it was some kind of explosion. It was a desk that got thrown out.—

I followed the police officers into a first-floor conference room. It was a typical example of such rooms, though I didn't frequent them often enough to be completely familiar. There should have been a triangular conferencing speakerphone in the middle of the table, but it was conspicuously absent.

Taking an offered seat, I tried to formulate answers for any questions they might throw my way.

"Let's start with the obvious things. We're only asking questions to establish what happened, so please relax. Can we have your name?" the female officer asked.

"Rarity."

"Rarity, I'm Officer Guard, and this is Officer Shield," the female officer. "What is your position at Polomare Fashion?"

I mentally applied names to the officers and schooled my expression.

"As of next week? I don't have one. I was employed as a fashion designer."

"You got fired?" Shield asked.

"No. I quit. My talents were squandered here," I said.

—Rarity, be careful. Everywhere I look regarding talking to police recommends saying as little as you can, and none if possible,— NotABug sent.

—They're just doing their job. We didn't do anything, darling.—

"And this get-up?" Shield gestured to my horn and clothing. "Things weren't going well I take it?"

I tried to cover my laugh.

"Darling, things were going swimmingly, if you consider wage-slavery swimmingly. I will be glad to be gone from here."

"Let's step away from that for a moment," Guard said. "Can you explain what happened Friday?"

—I don't like this. I don't think we should talk to them anymore,— NotABug sent.

I could hear chirping, worried chirping, mixed into NotABug's normal communications chatter. Her worry started to catch on, and it made me think harder on presenting things in a more positive light.

"To understand what Friday was, you'd need a little background. When I gave my boss notice, she demanded I work out my two weeks, with a default being a non-compete clause in my contract. She gives me the exact same work to do every day since then. So, after a day of doing the same work as each other day I've been here since quitting, I logged out and left."

"I see. Did you notice anything strange?"

"Well, Suri—she's my boss—was really upset at the time-clock. I don't know what it was all about, but she accused me of hacking it or something. Anyway, I asked if I could clock out, did so, and left."

"Did anybody see you leave? And did you go straight home?" Guard asked.

The questions were starting to worry me further. I glanced between the two officers, and it only just occurred to me that Officer Guard was asking all the heavy questions while Officer Shield was keeping back.

—NotABug, I think you're right,— I sent.

—I didn't know what else to do.—

—What did you do?— I asked.

—Just try not to answer anything that might incriminate you.—

"Well, Suri saw me leave, although the moment I logged out she returned to cursing at the time-clock. Then I met up with a friend—"

"What's your friend's name?" Shield asked.

Both officers were taking notes, and I'm not sure if that unnerved me more than whether they were actually interrogating me, but I didn't like the vibe I was getting.

"Why do you need to know that?" I asked.

"We're just trying to establish where everyone was, and what happened that night. We've talked to several other workers, and they all said it was unusual for you to be going home at that time," Guard said.

"W-Well, I met up with a friend, and we went out to have dinner. Are you accusing me of doing this?" I asked.

My indignity crept into my tone, and I knew I was losing my cool. This wasn't an uncommon thing for me—I had a track record of having "expressive moments." My emotions started to flare, and I completely missed what was said as I began to cry.

I ruined my eyeliner as I bawled. I didn't care what the two police officer's thought, I was having a moment.

"I just wanted to quit and start my own fashion shop! Why is she tormenting me like this? Why are you asking all these questions? I don't understand why it has to be like this!" I said.

And, just as Guard opened her mouth to say something, the door behind me opened.

"Excuse me, this is a private—" Shield said but cut himself short.

I couldn't see who had entered, but a soft hand reached to my shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. It wasn't Rainbow Dash—her hands were less soft and more firm.

"Is my client being interviewed without having access to council?" the newcomer asked.

I knew the owner of the voice, though I hadn't talked to her recently. Twilight Velvet—one of my best friends' mother—was a lawyer and someone I occasionally called when I thought Twilight Sparkle needed some help and Night Light wasn't answering.

"We're just asking a few questions. We haven't arrested—" Guard said.

Twilight Velvet cut her off: "Wonderful. Then she, and I, are leaving."

—Get up, Rarity. Please get up,— NotABug sent.

When I didn't react—I think I was a little distraught still—NotABug nudged me and took over. She stood up and turned.

—I messaged her. I didn't know what else to do!— NotABug sent.

I didn't want to talk, and I didn't want to deal with the world. I needed a hug. Reaching to the digital world, I wrapped NotABug up as tight as I could.

NotABug's squeeze in return was welcome, needed, and everything I wanted at that moment. I spent thousands of milliseconds just calming down.

"You have a good friend, Rarity. I don't know who texted me, but I think those officers deserve a little more excitement in their lives if this is any example of how they do their duty," Twilight Velvet said.

"I sent you the text. Rarity's okay, but this is complicated. It's a magic thing," NotABug said.

—What are you doing?— I asked.

—She's Twilight's mom. She's also our lawyer. She needs to know all this.—

—I know, but I thought this… I don't know anymore.—

NotABug squeezed me a little more for a moment—digitally of course. I luxuriated in her contact without having to worry about schooling my expression or hiding my feelings.

"I won't pretend to understand here, or ask you for more details, but do you think you can get to my offices—scratch that—my place?" Twilight Velvet asked.

"I'll drive us there," NotABug said.

—I can do that,— I sent.

—You can also rest.—

I made an irritated chirp and got a hug back.

—I know you don't like driving. Let me. I need to do something,— I sent.

—Are you sure?— NotABug asked.

In reply, I simply gave her a nudge and found myself needing to stand, balance, and walk again.

"I'm me again. Sorry about that. This is all a little complicated," I said. "I'll explain when we arrive."

Twilight Velvet, looking completely unflappable and taller than I could remember her being, gave me a look that spoke volumes about how much I was going to explain. I could practically hear her demands of "No, at the start," and making me begin with the big bang.

"You will," Twilight Velvet said.

—She's scarier than the police,— NotABug sent.

—Yes, but she's on our side.—

—Good. It's about time we had someone scary on our side.—

I walked through the parking garage to where my little car was. Silly though it was, the thing still reminded me of when I first met NotABug, which was one of my best memories. I reached a hand for the handle and reached toward the car with my mind.

Pain. Burning. Searing. Hot. Agony.

I know I screamed—the sound echoed through the empty garage. I'd had enough of being attacked. Suri, the police, and now whatever this was. Imagining myself wearing armor and carrying a sword—actually just the hacking tools NotABug had shown me how to use—I connected to my car again.

A rush of data rushed at me the moment I connected. I felt it trying to bite and sear itself into me. Slamming a software firewall up—or my shield as I envisioned it—I began making smaller attempts to examine what had happened, but each one resulted in more fire.

—What's going on? THATSWINDIGO,— NotABug sent.

She was by my side but while she had armor, she lacked weapons. Almost three seconds of searching revealed that the only system active was the stereo. There was plenty of things that could have gone worse had this Windigo decided to use the car as a weapon, but thankfully it seemed content to attack directly. I indicated the stereo to NotABug, sending raw data to her showing the logical layout of the car I had explored. The monster kept battering at my shield.

—There,— I sent.

I ran through my weapons and pulled out BlueBorne, a naughty little piece of software that could do all kinds of control-attacks on Android—so long as the OS was a little out of date.

I ran the malware, aimed it like a lance, and watched the output while NotABug connected to my shield and began reinforcing it. My time spent familiarizing myself with networking tools paid off, and I quickly gained a connection to the underlying OS's commands.

Java was Android's language of choice. I quickly built a module and inserted two lines of code into it.

PowerManager pm = (PowerManager) getSystemService(Context.POWER_SERVICE); pm.reboot(null);

I ran the module as soon as it was uploaded. Milliseconds passed, and I counted nearly sixty before the comms went silent. My connection timed out, and when I attempted to reconnect regularly, there was no biting/burning attack.

—I think I got it,— I sent.

—You did?— NotABug sent. —You did! How did you defeat it? I could never even hurt it.—

—I forced my way into the stereo's underlying android OS, told it to restart, and it did. The applications load up from ROM. Whatever Windigo did to it, they couldn't save any changes on the hardware.—

This time I ran the same hack on the Bluetooth again, connected to my car and started exploring. The engine management started up and I couldn't find a trace of the monster that had just attacked me. Unlocking the door, I climbed into my car, then winced as I sat on my tail—again.

—I can't find any trace of it,— NotABug sent. —You were amazing!—

She clung to me as tight as I had minutes earlier. Everything had happened so fast that I'd barely noticed NotABug's emotions. Rereading her messages, it was clear she was terrified and had locked up.

—You're safe,— I sent, and hugged her still.

—You could have been badly hurt. That was only a small bit of Windigo running on a tiny computer. Imagine that multiplied by a thousand!—

—Then I will get a thousand times more sneaky. I only wish I could trap it so we could take it apart. That attack it did was terrible.—

With my breathing calm, I started the car and slid backwards. I didn't need a knight in shining armor. I had battled the beast and won, and now I had to go and enter into a different battle. Entering the address for Twilight Sparkle's parents home, I brought up a GPS map and began following its directions.

I wasn't shaking and I didn't feel afraid. There was something about entering a life-or-death struggle that sharpens your focus so that a simple matter of the police thinking I did something—when I didn't—seemed almost tiny by comparison.

My wings kept up a constant chirp, though I hadn't decided if it was to comfort NotABug, myself, or to show that I was ready for battle again. All three I hoped. I pulled up at my destination and remembered how long it had been since I'd been to this part of town.

Canterlot High School was just down the road, as was the house I'd grown up in. I turned the car off and headed for the door.

—We need better weapons against Windigo,— I sent. —I was lucky there was a way to neutralize it this time. If it had been online I—

My message was cut short, but I sent it anyway.

—NotABug, how would Windigo have gotten into my car? Specifically mine. No connection to you,— I sent.

—It must have connected us together somehow,— NotABug sent.

—I don't think so, or it would have been a little more aggressive. That was one shred of Windigo on a tiny computer. If Windigo knew you would be there, it would have thrown everything at us. This seems petty, or even accidental.—

—I'll see if the car kept a log of what happened, though I think it erased it all when you restarted it. That was really clever, Rarity.—

—Thank you, darling, but we need more weapons. I couldn't help noticing you didn't have anything to attack Windigo.—

—I couldn't fight it. It was really violent, and I just wanted to get away and leave it alone,— NotABug sent.

I hugged her—okay, I was already hugging NotABug, but now I hugged her a little tighter—and tried to wrap her as much as I could.

—You understand that isn't going to work anymore, right?— I asked.

By this point my finger was reaching to the doorbell and had just started pressing it.

NotABug chirped softly and squirmed a little in my hug. I chirped too, but focused on caring.

—We need to face facts. Windigo is on the loose and probably looking for you. We cannot stay hidden forever, so we need to be able to fight,— I sent.

I tried to remember what Windigo did that hurt so much and was still focused on my memory of the attack when the door opened.

"Rarity! Thank you so much for the call the other night. I had to drag Twily to her bed and dose her with hot cocoa," Night Light said.

The man looked relaxed and comfortable, wearing an apron emblazoned with the phrase “Do the Cook” he didn't seem the least bit embarrassed. He stepped to the side to make room.

"Come on in, Twilight's waiting. I love your new look, by the way," Night Light said.

"I know it's a little extreme, and it might get more so, but I'm growing fond of it myself. You wouldn't believe the maintenance on my horn, though. I go through a pillow a night!" I said and entered the house.

"It's all real?" Night Light asked.

I stopped and stood as evenly as I could, so he would be able to see how short I had become, but then I realized I hadn't actually seen Mr. Light for nearly a year.

"You want to see the strangest part?" I asked.

At Night Light's eager expression I reached to my left sleeve with my right hand and started unbuttoning the cuff. Rolling the sleeve up I revealed the semi-circle missing from my wrist, then further to show the hole near my elbow.

Mr. Light was nobody's fool, and he also wasn't squeamish in the slightest (raising two children at home while his wife chased her dream career meant a lot of dirty diapers, I'm sure) and brought his hand toward my elbow. The moment I nodded to him, he poked a finger into the hole in my arm.

"It's real?" Night Light asked.

"You should see my left leg. Two holes there. I shouldn't keep Twilight waiting," I said.

"Go right through. Fourth door on your left."

I walked down the hallway and followed Night Light's directions to a room I'd never been in before. The first vibe I got was that it was similar to Fancy Pants' office—there were books lining two walls, all of them with old leather covers. A huge desk in the middle of the room bore some paperwork along with a laptop computer that Twilight Velvet was typing away on. Her eyes flickered to me in acknowledgment as I entered.

"Please, close the door behind you," Twilight Velvet said.

Doing as asked, I made my way to the seat before the desk. As I sat down, I remembered to carefully arrange myself so as not to sit on my tail. A small victory—I was learning.

"I wouldn't have recognized you at all if one of your colleagues hadn't said you'd been dressing up for work. Then I find out some things are a little more confusing," Twilight Velvet said. "But let me get this out of the way first: did you do it?"

The question startled me with brutal honesty. I blinked in surprise a few times.

"No, of course not. I was waging a petty war of noncompliance, I wouldn't destroy their offices," I said.

"I wouldn't find fault with you if you had. In my line of work you hear things, and see things. Things like their employee contracts."

A look of disgust washed over Twilight Velvet's face.

"And I also would still support you, and defend you. That's my job. But you say you didn't, so I will believe you, Rarity. Now that I have that out of the way, why do they think you did it?" Twilight Velvet asked.

Twilight's questioning was infinitely more direct and cold than the two police officers', but it was easier to explain about the altercations on Friday. When it came to my description of Suri's inability to log in, Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"Did you have anything to do with that?" Twilight Velvet asked.

"I did. Part of the pranks I've been playing, I guess. My friend—she was the person who contacted you—knows a few tricks with computers," I said.

"Does she know enough about computers to not leave a forensic mark on the system that will lead back to either of you?"

—Did you?— I asked.

—No. Nothing I did could be traced to us. It might be detected if they are super-good at finding things.—

"She says it cannot be traced to us, but they might find traces of hacking," I said.

My statement earned me a single raised eyebrow. Twilight Velvet tapped away on her nearly silent keyboard.

"I have more questions here that I think we need to resolve. Someone possessed you, like a ghost?" Twilight Velvet asked.

"Twilight Velvet, please let me introduce NotABug. Yes, that's her name," I said and pushed.

NotABug slid forward and immediately made a startled little chirp.

"Hi. I'm a former digital intelligence that got stuck in Rarity's head with magic," NotABug said.

Twilight Velvet stopped what she was doing and looked at NotABug with interest. For nearly ten seconds of silence she maintained her expression before smiling.

"You'll excuse my skepticism. My little girl studying a new field of quantum science that she calls magic? I could accept that. But this…?"

"You want proof?" NotABug asked.

"Yes. Absolutely. Give me proof and I'll go to a court tomorrow and file papers to grant you citizenship," Twilight Velvet said. "If this is real, I'll be known as the lawyer who championed artificial rights."

NotABug's chirping became a little discordant. I knew how much she disliked that particular word.

"I'm not artificial," NotABug said. "And furthermore, I'm not sure I need citizenship. What will it gain me?"

Twilight Velvet looked a little shocked.

"You'll have rights, protections. You will be able to get bank accounts and be your own person—legally."

"I already have bank accounts, I am paying for your time after all, and I am a person already. A real person, and not art-i-ficial."

The way NotABug overemphasized the syllables, I knew she was loading up the sass.

—Careful. She's on our side,— I sent.

—I am not artificial!—

In reply, I hugged NotABug and chirped loudly in our head.

—Sorry,— NotABug sent.

—Completely forgiven,— I sent.

Twilight Velvet still wore a shocked and dismayed expression. For a moment she looked like she would argue, maybe even try to force the issue, but then she cleared her throat and straightened in her seat.

"I'm sorry, Rarity, NotABug, I got carried away. If you would ever like to pursue citizenship, I will gladly take your case. Back to the matter at hand. Do you have an alibi for Friday evening?"

"After work? Yeah. Rarity drove to the Canterlot South Mall where we met with Rainbow Dash. We did some shopping—" NotABug said.

"Did anyone you know see you there?" Twilight Velvet asked.

"No. Then we went home and played games. Oh! And we ordered Chinese food."

"That's good. If you can find a receipt for that it will be even better. How long did the games last?"

Twilight Velvet's question defied my belief. She was, effectively, asking how long relations took place. If I'd been in control I might have made a bit of a scene.

"We stopped playing a little early, and snuggled most of the evening. I went to sleep at 11:25," NotABug said.

All the while Twilight's fingers tapped away on the keys. She paused for a moment and used the mouse to do something. To one side I heard the subdued sound of a printer working.

"I need your signature on some things. The police are likely to contact you for an official statement—refer them to me. This first page," Twilight Velvet said, "is your deposition you just gave me. I'll need Rarity to sign it, please."

—Despite everything, I think I like her,— NotABug sent and gave me a nudge.

—We just need to focus on the point that we didn't do whatever it is they think we did, and they can't prove you did that hacking.—

I took a deep breath and let out a small chirp with my wings. Twilight Velvet's look of shock at the sound made me smile more than it should have.

"You'll forgive me some foibles, darling, but I have a little problem with new anatomy. You could ask Twilight—your daughter—for details, if you'd like them that is," I said.

—You don't enjoy controlling your body?— I asked.

—Not particularly. People are strange, and they all act really odd.—

—But you enjoy it when Rainbow Dash is around?—

NotABug's chirping was enthusiastic and happy.

—That's different. When she behaves erratically, it's fun.—

I reached out to the papers, took an offered pen from Twilight Velvet, and read the page. It was a detailed list of time periods, what I was doing, and who was present. I took a moment to verify all the details were correct and signed.

"If only more of my clients would read everything before signing. There's two more copies there."

I skimmed the copies and found those to be the same as the first, and I signed those too. I knew that this, all of this since the moment she had driven to Polomare, was billable. Initiative was needed.

"Would you be able to bill me for this?" I asked.

Twilight Velvet displayed what I could only assume was a small fraction of the smile she'd use in a courtroom. It looked perfect, with brilliant white teeth barely showing between immaculately presented lips, but that was the extent of her smile—every other feature on Twilight's face spoke of predatory animals and blood.

"How long have we known each other, Rarity?" Twilight Velvet asked.

It wasn't hard to remember. The evening after Sunset Shimmer had saved Twilight Sparkle from going power-mad was spent in this house.

"Five years or so. But that—"

"Five years and seven months. My daughter almost died that night, Rarity, and from what I understand of the event, you and the rest of her friends made sure she didn't. This," Twilight Velvet said, and held up an invoice with a lot of zeros on it, "is a small part of paying that back."

Twilight Velvet tore the paper from top to bottom.

"And should your friend wish to be my client too I'll offer her a deal: free representation, but when the time comes she wishes to be recognized, I handle it."

—You really can't get a better deal than that,— I sent.

—Money isn't the problem, as you know. Someone I can trust is more valuable than all the money I'll ever make.—

—Twilight Velvet is someone we can trust, whether we're paying her or not. That's why you told her. That's why I came to her firm in the first place,— I sent.

NotABug nudged at me. I wasn't expecting her to want control, but I didn't resist when she wanted it. With a few chirps of support, and a hug, I settled to listen—just as she had.

"Thank you. I mean it. I'm not ready yet," NotABug said.

"You're welcome. There's just one more thing I need from you both: a transcript of what you said to them. There's no actual telling what might be a problem unless this goes to trial, but there are obvious things that—" Twilight Velvet said.

"Would you like it as an email?" NotABug asked.

—You recorded all that?— I asked.

—Sure did. I don't think the video would be easy to explain to the police, though.—

—Darling, tell that to Mrs. Velvet.—

—Oh right!—

"I have it as video, if you'd like?" NotABug asked.

Twilight Velvet let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes for a moment.

"You didn't hack their security and download—?" Twilight Velvet asked.

"I can record things with our eyes. Sound too. I could just send you the audio if you prefer?" NotABug asked.

—She looks really happy all of a sudden,— NotABug sent.

She did, too. Twilight Velvet's features were slowly pulling into the kind of smile I'd often imagine a wolf having moments before it caught up with a deer.

"Both would be good, actually. NotABug, you are without a doubt the most interesting client I've had in my whole career, but no more talking to police. If they want a word with you, give them my number," Twilight Velvet said while writing something down. "Here is my email address."

—You're streaming that back to the server, aren't you?— I asked.

—Yup! Takes up less room there, and makes email things faster. Sent it just now.—

—Hopefully this won't take too much longer. And suddenly I realize I don't have anything to do for the rest of the day.—

—We could try shapechanging.—

I thought about that. Given my changes so far—even to the police—I looked nothing more than wearing prosthetic and makeup. This wasn't stopping, and soon I was going to be very firmly stuck looking utterly inhuman.

—That's a wonderful idea,— I sent.

We exchanged another hug amid some mental chirping. At least mine was all mental chirping—NotABug actually chirped a little for real.

"It should be sent," NotABug said.

"Already? Maybe I should hire you as my secretary," Twilight Velvet said and referred to her computer. "Well, there it is. I think I have everything I need to fend off further requests, unless they actually arrest you. If they do that, you don't say anything at all except my name."

"Okay, but I couldn't work for you. Rarity needs to be at her fashion store—when we open it. Besides, we think these changes aren't going to stop," NotABug said.

—She probably didn't mean actually hiring you, darling. She was just using that as a compliment on your efficiency,— I sent.

—Oh.—

A forlorn little chirp accompanied NotABug's message. I dove in for the "kill" and snuggled her as tight as I could.

—Besides. You get to be my business partner,— I sent.

"We should do lunch sometime and talk about you some more. Both of you, actually. You had an appointment with Fancy later on in the week?" Twilight Velvet said.

The focus of "lawyer mode" seemed to have dropped and we were now just talking to Twilight Sparkle's mom.

—I never know how to handle this bit,— NotABug sent.

—What bit?— I asked.

—When people switch focus to something new. It's almost like the old conversation didn't happen at all.—

"Y-Yes. We need to pick up the paperwork for Rarity's new business so the bank will be able to open special accounts," NotABug said.

"Why don't you call and we'll meet up? I might have been only mostly joking about a job. The truth is, we are a little underrepresented digitally," Twilight Velvet said, "and it could be we would benefit from someone who has a little acumen in that regard."

—This is the part, dear, where you agree politely and get really excited on the inside,— I sent.

Her chirping was all I needed to hear, though she managed to keep most of it internal.

"That would be great!" NotABug said.

—I was getting a little bored now that things are set up and we have plenty of money. Chatting with people got boring too, although there's a few new places I am looking at. Doing some work will be fun!— NotABug sent.

—Well, we will have an employee we can trust working in the store, so a little time away here and there should be alright.—

More chirping and a big hug was my reply from her.

We said our goodbyes to Twilight Velvet and Night Light, and we were soon back in my car—which is when NotABug swapped control back to me.

—I still don't like driving. It's terrible, and no one follows the rules!— NotABug sent.

My car wasn't a murderous chunk of sapience this time. I climbed in and started everything, then made my way home. On the way I decided I should call work to find out what they expected of me.

"Hello? Rarity?" Coco Pommel asked.

"Yes, Coco-dear. I'm calling to see—"

"Take the day off. I can't believe what happened. What did those officers do to you?"

I was caught suddenly. Twilight Velvet had told me not to speak to the police, and though Coco Pommel wasn't the police, she was a manager at Polomare.

"I really shouldn't say. I talked to a lawyer, and she—"

"Rarity, I understand. Take the day off and call me in the morning before you come in," Coco said.

"Did Suri come in today?" I asked.

"She did, but when she saw the police she made a horrible comment and seemed to flounce out. She was acting really aggressive too."

"Aggressive enough to smash up our office?"

Coco's little gasp of surprise told me she hadn't thought of that. It made sense in my mind, but I was sure there would be some way for her to weasel out of even this.

"I think I might go and get a massage. Thank you, Coco," I said.

"No problem, Rarity. Stay safe."

It was as good an end as any. I hung up the call and returned all my focus to driving. That is to say, I stopped focusing one millisecond in every ten on building the next second of audio, another few on keeping the car heading in the right direction, and finally a little more just worrying about what I might wear for the rest of the day. Yes, most of my focus was on clothes—it's how I know when I'm feeling better.

I clued NotABug in on the phone call during some spare milliseconds and finally pulled into my driveway only a few minutes after that.

10:22 A.M.

Having watched every second tick off the time since waking up and now, I knew exactly where the morning had gone, but that still didn't make it any easier to handle that it had almost completely left. As I unlocked and opened my house's front door, I remembered the biggest thing that was different about the house.

"Rainbow? I'm home." I said.

I was a little startled to hear the sound of my vacuum cleaner running and—closing the front door behind me—rushed to find what was going on.

Rainbow Dash hadn't heard me come in. She was vacuuming the hallway with her back to me. The reason she didn't hear me was obvious—she had headphones on while she cleaned. Walking up behind her, I wrapped my arms around Rainbow Dash's belly and pulled myself against her. Turning my head, I pressed my cheek to her shoulders.

I couldn't believe how good it felt to be with her after the morning I'd had. Hundreds of milliseconds passed me by while I secured my grip.

Turning off the vacuum and pulling her headphones off, Rainbow Dash pressed one of her hands to my arms at her belly.

"Is this a hug just for hugging, or is something wrong, Rarity?" she asked.

"Kiss me, tell me everything is fine, and let me get changed so I can tell you how disastrous today has been."

She was warmer than should have been legal. I held as much of myself against her as I could, but she turned in my grip and leaned down to kiss me. Soft lips did a wonderful job of helping me forget everything I'd said to the police—at least for a little while.

As with all things, the moment passed. I drew back from her lips—her smile.

"Someone had a temper tantrum in Polomare Fashion—in my office area. When I arrived, police wanted to talk to me," I said.

The words tumbled from me, and the more I said the tighter Rainbow Dash hugged me. I finished up by telling her about being saved by Twilight Velvet.

"And now I need to get into something comfortable and relax. Do you have any plans for the day?" I asked.

"I might go for a run later. Sitting around just makes me feel restless, you know?"

"Would you like to help us try something first? I want to learn how to do this shapeshifting Princess Twilight was talking about. From what she said, I should be able to return to looking like my old self."

The warmth coming from Rainbow Dash grew until I knew for a fact it wasn't just heat. I fed, probably more than I should, but I had a feeling that this shapechanging might be a little draining.

"I'd say something stupid like, 'I don't care what you look like,' but I'm not a walking cliché. You look great no matter what your body is like for one reason, Rarity, and that is you care about your looks. I'm not an expert in what you're turning into, but I'm pretty sure that you're going to be the hottest looking one ever, and if your efforts at looking good count for anything, you'll be great at shapechanging," Rainbow Dash said.

I was speechless. The vague notion that Rainbow was a sports coach and thus knew how to motivate people seemed to come up, but this was more than that—I could taste that it was more than that. Picking out a lie was Applejack's domain, but tasting emotions was the next best thing.

Leaning against Rainbow Dash, I reached up on my toes to kiss her cheek.

"Hold those thoughts. I'll be right back," I said.

Slipping from Rainbow Dash's embrace, I made my way to my room. I closed the door behind me and let out a happy sigh.

—Rarity and Rainbow, sitting in the tree~,— NotABug sent.

—Shush, you. You and her kiss more than I do,— I sent.

—Yeah, but it's gorgeous watching the two of you together like that. Oh! Look!—

NotABug didn't need to turn my head, but her exclamation made me look a little harder. On the end of the bed was two flat boxes and a single rose.

My feet were gliding over the floor, and I kicked off my shoes as I went.

—She must have slipped out earlier,— I sent.

Opening the first box revealed chocolates. I didn't hold back and popped the first into my mouth. Nougat and chocolate washed over my palate, and I shivered in delight. My hand strayed to the second box while I was still enjoying the treat.

Lifting the lid revealed the softest tissue paper and something white under it. I quickly pushed the diaphanous paper out of the way and lifted out the pure-white lace teddy. My keen eyes could see it was smaller than all my others, and further, that it would fit my form right now like a glove.

—She deserves some major snuggles for this,— NotABug sent.

—Darling, I think the best way to thank her for it is to snuggle her while wearing it.—

—That's a great idea!—

Removing my dress and shirt was the next step, but my eyes never strayed from the new underwear for long. However, when it came time to slip out of my panties, a problem presented itself—my tail. I unfastened the button to remove my modified underwear, and began lamenting what I would have to do with the teddy.

Lifting the white garment back up to examine the rear, I couldn't stop from giggling and chirping my wings. The back of the teddy was mostly open, and further, the part that would take the place of panties was shaped like a g-string.

—She's smarter than I think either of us give her credit for. This is genius,— NotABug sent.

—Quite.—

Setting the teddy back down, I reached behind my back with ease to unfasten my bra and slip free of everything. For a little moment—just a handful of milliseconds—I contemplated walking out wearing nothing. That would certainly be a way to thank her and send a lot of messages.

—No sushi today, I think. We can spend our time working on shapechanging,— I sent.

—Should we do that naked?— NotABug asked.

I hadn't actually thought about it and was glad one of us had.

—Good point. But this will be easy enough to slip out of,— I sent and picked up the teddy.

Silk and lace were a combination that served multiple purposes. Not all fabrics were meant to be touched, but for these two that was one of their main draw. I held the fabric against me and let it glide lightly over my body. There was a reason one of the best adjectives for soft and smooth was “silky”.

The lace was fine, beautifully executed, and had a pleasing amount of texture, but then the silk glided over my belly and chest. Fashionista was such a complex word, but it summed up my love affair with clothing perfectly. That Rainbow Dash accepted and supported my devotion to the art of dress made me realize how right she might be for me.

Enough was enough. I'd felt how wonderful the fabric was, it was time to explore the second thing silk and lace brought to the table—or body as the case may be. I stepped into the garment and then pulled the teddy up my body. At first my tail felt a little crowded, and my wings needed to be pulled down tight, but a little adjusting (pushing the string to one side of my tail and fluffing it out, then stretching my wings behind me through the open back) and it felt as good on me as it had just touching it.

To support the front, there was a little choker that I had to fasten around my throat, but once that was done I felt sexy. Outfits always affected my emotions, and this one certainly proved no different. Walking out and greeting Rainbow Dash naked would have been quite the statement, but I think walking out in this will be a far more powerful one.

One more aspect of lace and silk needed exploring. Making one last check that my tail wasn't snagged in anything, I walked around my bed and turned my face toward the full length mirror. Black under white was a fashion disaster, but only when you wanted to hide things. In the same way my impossible dress had shown nothing with the sensation of showing everything, this teddy showed absolutely every line of my body despite giving the sensation I was clothed and decent.

—She picked this on purpose,— NotABug sent.

—Absolutely. And this is the reason why I think she will be perfect for our store. Rainbow understands clothing, to an extent, she just doesn't get a thrill out of it all the time.—

—But we can teach her that.—

—You took the digital characters right out of my data packet.—

It had taken me a few extra moments to formulate the gag, but it was worth it to hear NotABug's giggly chirping.

I joined in NotABug's chirping, giggling inside and out. Looking over my shoulder and down, I made sure the teddy was clinging perfectly before I sauntered toward the door and opened it.

—You know how a model walks, confidently striding, accepting all eyes upon her as her due?— I asked.

—I could do it if it wasn't Rainbow out there.—

—Drat, that was my problem too. There would be nothing wrong with falling into her arms at the end.—

NotABug nudged me, and I stepped back—but not far. I loved the feel of the teddy, and I wanted to see Rainbow Dash's eyes as she took us in. I guess it was mostly thanks to the parts of me that became parts of her that she moved so well out into the hall. Her target was sitting on the couch in the living room.

It only took one chirp of NotABug's wings to command Rainbow's eyes toward us.

Hunger, desire, lust, and more wafted to me not only through Rainbow's look, but her warmth. She looked and tasted delicious. I would have shivered if I were in control.

NotABug shifted her hips and pushed herself forward. Confident, sure steps claimed the distance between her and Rainbow, and I could feel the jiggle of her chest and the swish of her tail with each stride.

When NotABug halted just before Rainbow Dash—forcing her to look up into NotABug's eyes—I couldn't hold back my excited chirp. There was enough chemistry between her and the two of us to keep a scientist busy for the rest of their lives.

Leaning forward, tilting down and arching her tail to balance, NotABug met Rainbow's lips as Rainbow Dash tilted her head up. The kiss was full of fire, passion, and exploration—I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.

"I didn't think you'd wear it now," Rainbow Dash said the moment the kiss ended.

Turning, NotABug tilted herself and came backwards and down onto Rainbow's lap. A lance of pain made me jerk backward from my link to the real world—NotABug had certainly found her tail.

"Ow!" NotABug said.

—Very ow, darling,— I sent.

There are a lot of words that might describe what happened next, but all of them are ones a lady doesn't use. Needless to say that while I wasn't in control of the situation, I never once lost focus, nor did I object.

When they were done, however, NotABug gently brushed my thoughts with an offer to swap places. For a moment I considered just not doing it. Swapping places and not pushing away from our tangled position on the couch would mean I was more than just an observer.

I bit a metaphorical lip that neither my digital nor mental self had, and pushed too. I slid into control just as easily as that teddy had slid away from my body earlier. The steady rhythm of breathing—Rainbow's and mine—was calming enough that I stayed there.

—Was that rushing things? It didn't feel like rushing things. It felt really good! I had a lot of fun!— NotABug sent accompanied by much chirping.

Spending several milliseconds in deep contemplation, I tried to put my own feelings in order. Nothing NotABug had said was untrue for me, either. Years of our lives as friends had left me comfortable with Rainbow's touch, but this was more than just a friend's touch.

I inhaled, smelling not just Rainbow Dash's distinctive mix of deodorant, perfume (she never wore a lot of the latter, but she did wear it), and exertion, but also I could smell the heady scent of love about her. Deep love. Satisfied love.

Dallying in the arms of a lover was almost as enjoyable as making clothes. The soul-fulfilling joy of having someone who cares so much, so close, was a delight.

12:14 P.M.

"Rainbow?" I asked after nearly half an hour in that blissful state. "Rainbow-dear, it's time for lunch, and I—"

"Lunch? But I want dessert," Rainbow Dash said.

Her voice made me feel hungry for dessert too, but first and foremost I was just hungry.

"Food first, then I need to try this shapechanging. You can watch if you want," I said.

I slowly began to extricate myself from her grip, and though Rainbow put up a little protest here and there, it was mostly so she could kiss parts of me as we broke apart. Giggles bubbled up at each kiss that seemed only to encourage more—it was a vicious cycle.

At last, I broke free and almost found myself skipping to the kitchen. I wanted to dance, sing, and shout for joy at how good I felt. It was almost like a bucket of cold water over me when a knock came from the front door.

"I'll get it. You get your underwear and go grab a dressing gown," Rainbow Dash said.

I submitted to her apparent knowledge on the matter of getting dressed in a hurry after a dalliance, and I rushed through to my room while floating my new teddy along after me with magic. I pulled on a dressing gown and had just gotten it tied up when I heard the front door open.

"I heard the news. Is Rarity here? Her car's here!" Sweetie Belle said from the front door.

The concern in Sweetie's voice overrode any amount of disgruntlement I may have harbored for her interruption. Making sure the robe was secure I walked down the hall. A knot that had been wound up and tight seemed loose now—even though it hadn't been me to pick it apart.

"Here she is. She's okay," Rainbow Dash said.

I was struck by human missile wearing a yellow dress and red-violet jacket. I put my arms around Sweetie Belle and gave what I hoped was a reassuring squeeze. Her head tilted up to look me in the eyes—though there wasn't much difference between our heights anymore.

"What happened?" Sweetie Belle asked.

And so, I told my little sister how stupid I could be. Every detail. I left nothing out. Oddly, she didn't ask any questions, though I could see them boiling behind her eyes. We were settled on the couch, chatting, when Rainbow Dash came in with a big plate of nachos and cheese.

"But it's all getting taken care of now, right? Your lawyer is handling it?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Of course, though it's a strange situation itself. She's doing it as a favor. NotABug, on the other hand, has been given a free ticket. She even got a job offer," I said.

"Hacking for them?"

"No. I'm pretty sure—as a lawyer—Mrs. Velvet would need to avoid that kind of thing. The way she spoke, though, she wants to make sure her own systems are protected. Speaking as a strictly law-abiding observer of the digital world, most people don't realize how susceptible their own things are.

"It's like," I said, waving a hand, "everyone seems to believe the companies that sell all their stuff when they say 'it's safe'. It's not. Mostly."

I'd just noticed Rainbow Dash had spent most of the time eating and lifted one eyebrow at her in question.

"Figure I might as well take that run now and leave you two to talk," Rainbow Dash said.

"Have fun," I said as she left the house.

The moment the door closed behind Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle seemed to explode in excitement.

"Are you two seeing each other? Is she sleeping here? Are you dating?"

The questions seemed to tumble out of my sister like water over falls. She was actually bouncing in place and causing the couch to jiggle. To give a show of calm acceptance, I reached for the abandoned plate of food and scooped up some cheese onto one tortilla chip.

"Yes," I said and popped the nacho in my mouth.

Sweetie seemed to seethe for a moment before letting out a laugh. Reaching out, she collected some food and munched on it too. Then I realized we had done the worst thing to do with a college student: we'd fed her. Any hope of getting rid of Sweetie Belle was now lost.

"I honestly can't believe I was such an idiot for so long about it. I'm sure you know about college and experimentation? Well, I had some fun with a girl once, but it didn't feel intimate. It was fun, but there was a barrier. I guess in my head I considered girls as being off the menu," I said.

She giggled around a mouthful and gulped it down.

"But not anymore?"

—Are you alright with me telling her these things?— I asked.

—What? Oh! Go ahead. I already told her I was seeing Rainbow Dash.—

The reply surprised me a little.

—You keep in touch with her more than I do.—

—It's good to have a friend I can talk to. She's funny, smart, and I can just tell her things without expecting it to have dire consequences.—

I made what I hoped was a supportive chirp, but only realized at the last moment I chirped in the real world too. Sweetie Belle's eyes slowly widened to huge orbs.

"What else has changed?!" she asked.

—I guess I didn't show her my wings last night,— NotABug sent.

"There's no hope that I can tell you I have wings and a tail and just—" I said.

"You have a tail?!"

A long-suffering chirp and sigh left me. Standing up, I turned so my back was to Sweetie and undid my gown. Lifting it back carefully, I revealed my back to her. Too late, of course, I remembered how revealing the white teddy was.

"W-Wow! Can I touch them?" she asked.

My only hope at being upset with her would have been if she hadn't asked permission. With a reluctant chirp I nodded.

"Please be careful, they're sensitive."

I should have known Sweetie Belle, of all people, would have a sensitive touch. I barely felt her fingers, but they were there. She inspected my wings first, and when she touched them a little firmer and tried to spread one.

In answer to her unasked query, I spread my wings. It felt good to open them, spread the four delicate membranes out and even give them a little buzz.

"Okay. Not gonna lie, that's pretty neat," Sweetie Belle said.

She brushed a hand down my tail, but had enough empathetic wherewithal to not touch my dock. The result was I didn't feel a sudden need to kick at her. Then I remembered something else. Turning my head nearly backwards, I looked back over my own shoulder and down at Sweetie Belle.

"No, you don't get to braid it," I said.

The words seemed to snap her out of some kind of daze. Sweetie looked up suddenly and her eyes widened once more.

"R-Rarity? How are you turning your head that far?"

Turning my upper body now, I was able to face Sweetie Belle properly from an angle no human should ever be able to manage.

"It seems I am a touch more flexible than I used to be. Maybe mother was right—I should have been a gymnast."

"Mom and Dad still need to know. When are you going to tell them?"

"I was actually going to ask if they were free tonight, but with everything else happening, I might make it tomorrow."

Lifting my robe again, I pulled it up while closing my wings. I was halfway through folding it closed when I sighed.

"I was going to try some shapechanging today," I said.

"What?" Sweetie Belle asked, her face a picture of deadpan shock.

—I guess I didn't tell her about that, either. She was asking all sorts of questions about our egg!— NotABug sent.

—It's okay, dear. You can talk to her about it later.—

—She'll be annoyed I didn't tell her.—

—Something tells me that she'll forgive you.—

"It was something Princess Twilight Sparkle mentioned. Apparently I'm turning into what she calls a changeling. Apparently they're a bit of a deal on her side of the universe. They were evil, then they turned good, but there's one still evil—I couldn't keep track. But it all fit. I feed on love, black skin, wings, etcetera. The one thing missing is that changelings there can change their forms," I said.

—Was that too much?— I asked. —I think it might have been too much.—

—Your little sister is amazing at all things mechanical, she's a great programmer, and she's studying artificial intelligence as fast as she can to help me understand myself. I think a lack of knowledge of alien lifeforms' abilities is excusable,— NotABug sent.

I chirped a giggle—digitally.

—You have a fair point. I'll give her a few more milliseconds,— I sent.

After two-hundred, I gave up.

"And I thought I would practice today, since I wasn't going to be working," I said.

My words seemed to snap Sweetie Belle out of her wait-state. She blinked her eyes rapidly.

"You know what you're turning into? Did you get her—the princess—to draw you a picture?"

Her question was a good one, and it made me wish that I'd asked Princess Twilight exactly that. Well, she did say she was going to bring me some more information. Next time I'll simply call Sweetie.

"Next time I'll call you and you can talk to her yourself. All this sciency stuff isn't really my forte. So, anyway, I was going to try to shapechange," I said to steer the conversation onto the topic I wanted.

"Right," Sweetie Belle said, sounding unconvinced. "I mean, right! How do you do it?"

"I have no idea."

The sound of her palm hitting her face was the perfect punctuation to my answer. I just wish my answer weren't the truth.

"Surely you have some idea? It's shapechanging. What forms did the princess say you could do?"

I thought back but then had a better idea.

—Do you have the recordings of Princess Twilight somewhere handy?— I asked.

—Here.—

Building an output buffer and siphoning the files into it was simple. I adjusted the speed from 1x to 1000x and began listening through yesterday's conversations. Then I found it.

"Changelings shapechange with magic and can look like just about anything they want. I've seen one take the form of a young pony, rocks, bears, and even a monster much bigger than them," Princess Twilight's voice said before I skipped a bit. "[…] thaumically shifted magic and channel it inwards…"

I ran back through the recording a second time and made sure I had everything.

"So far as Princess Twilight said, it seems like I can do anything I can think of. She even gave me a hint as to how to do it," I said.

"I thought you said you had no idea?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"I didn't. I played back what we discussed yesterday," I said and tapped the side of my head with one ebony finger.

"Well. Give it a try?"

I nodded, then shifted magic and channeled inward.

I built a picture of myself—hoping that was the right way to pick a target form—every exquisite detail was filled in by my memory. I could feel Sweetie Belle touching me, slipping the robe off my shoulders again, then removing my underwear. If I weren't about to do something amazing, I might have told her that wasn't how ladies behave.

The form was perfect. It embodied every part of Rarity.

I pooled power into my horn. It roared through me to fill the organ upon my head, and I felt alive as only someone becoming something magical, using magic, could feel.

“Thaumically shifted” was confusing, but I had to assume that it just meant changeling magic (since that seemed to be a different way to do magic than ponies). I caught a thread of magic from my horn and drew it into myself—into the Rarity I had built up.

A bright flash of green light enveloped the room. Sweetie Belle, the egg, the television… everything was green for just a moment. When the magic subsided, I looked down at my arm. It was still black.

"I don't think that worked," I said.

"Try again!"

—Yeah! Try again!— NotABug sent.

I thought about what I could do differently. Things had seemed to be working up until I shoved the magic into the form.

Again I called magic to my horn, and this time I lit up the room with how much I brandished. In the reflection of the dark TV set, I could see my face reflected in green, a pulsing wave of green flowing up and down my horn. This wasn't like the magic I'd had when I was still—well—human. This was Power—the capital P resounded in my head.

"Okay, here goes," I said.

The pattern was easier to make this time. I could quickly bring up all the quirks and details about my body—my old body. I drew off a thread of the magic from my horn and this time coiled it around the pattern.

Things seemed to work. Power poured down my horn and into me, coiling around and filling the pattern within and turning it green. There was a bright flash—no—it was like fire boiled around me.

"Rarity!" Sweetie Belle's said.

Her voice was the first thing I heard. It was time to do a power-on self-test.

—Darling, you still there?— I asked.

—Yeah. Did it work?— NotABug asked.

The TV was, sadly, no longer illuminated by green. I did the next best thing and held up one pure white arm. My eyes widened at what I saw.

—You did it!— NotABug sent.

Perfect, long fingernails. Sleek, and not at all hole-filled, forearms. I looked down at myself and giggled.

—You made your boobs bigger? Neat!— NotABug sent.

—It was a little test. Well, that's what I'll tell Rainbow. Besides, I always wanted to try D-cups,— I sent.

Happy, chirping laughter filled my head—it was as far from unpleasant as any sensation could get.

"Uh, Rarity?" Sweetie Belle asked. "You know I'm not a perv, or anything like that, but I think you forgot something."

She was pointing low on my torso. There were two choices, ultimately: I could get a mobile phone and take a photo or I could find a mirror. The wonderful thing about mirrors is you can't hack into them. Turning, I walked for my hat room—the closest with a full-length mirror.

"It's not that bad, Rarity! It's just a little surprising you have no—" Sweetie Belle said, following me.

"Oh," I said.

I stared at myself in the mirror and ran a hand down my belly and over my featureless crotch. It was both strange and natural. There was no sign that I had been changed surgically; my body just didn't have any genitalia.

"This is going to be more complicated than I thought. The slightest overlooked detail seems to result in, well…" I said.

Considering my activities just before lunch—or I should say NotABug's activities—I thought it should feel different to be sexless. As a mental exercise I thought of Rainbow Dash, and what she'd done with NotABug, and found myself not at all changed in my opinions of it being quite nice.

"You're blushing," Sweetie Belle said, though her tone implied it as a question.

"You'll forgive me for feeling a little strange at the moment. This is—this is not what I expected," I said.

—It would make showing off outfits easier, particularly revealing ones. Like a living mannequin,— NotABug sent. —Do you feel a little woozy?—

Her second message made me turn my attention inward. Being in this form was draining, no, it was devouring me. The stores of love I'd been carefully hoarding from Rainbow Dash were pouring out not like a leisurely trickle, but more like a fire-hose.

It wasn't dangerously draining, but in the minutes since I'd first shapechanged I'd lost hours worth of accumulated love. I cleared away my worries and thoughts to enter a place where I could do the reverse of shapechanging—or maybe it was the same?

I drew my magic into my horn, then I spun off a thread of power and instead of coiling it around a pattern, I coiled it around myself. There was a rush of green fire past my face, another chunk of love stolen from my reserves, and I was once more my ebony self.

"Why'd you turn back?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"It was draining to keep the change going. Actually it took magic to become it, magic to stay as it, and magic to undo it," I said.

"What would you do if you were stuck like that and didn't have the energy to change back?"

I looked at my body. This was the real me, the me that was turning into a changeling. My formerly white skin, perfect purple locks, and—

"I'd rather not experience that. I just realized I'd forgotten to do my eyes too," I said.

"I thought you skipped those on purpose."

—I like what our eyes can do now. Makes getting around at night easier,— NotABug sent.

—I'll give you that. Seeing heat is certainly interesting, but did you notice there's more to it than that?— I asked.

—What do you mean?—

—Look at Sweetie, she's warm, but she doesn't have the same glow as Rainbow Dash.—

—That would be love. I've been able to taste it since, uh, forever. Interesting. I wonder if we'll be able to see other things?—

Her question gave me two things to ponder. The first was the obvious—my eyes might still be changing. The second thing was a little more meta—NotABug was writing, more and more, the same as she spoke. I double-checked the message and, sure enough, that little monosyllable uh was there.

But if my eyes were still changing, what else might be changing? My horn? The holes in my arms and legs?

"Things are a bit complicated. I'm maybe a little too used to seeing my new eyes in the mirror, so I thought of those. As for my groin, I didn't actually think of that at all, so I guess it just wasn't there," I said.

—Can I try next?— NotABug asked.

My answer was a gentle, mental push.

—Thanks!— NotABug sent.

—Don't mention it, darling. There was something I wanted to test, and you're perfect to do it. Do we have separate reserves of love?— I asked.

—Oooh! Right. Now to work out what I want to look like.—

—Did you mean "what" or who?—

Giggly chirping filled my head. I'd never been so happy to be worried.

—Got one!—

"What are—" Sweetie Belle said.

Turning to look in the mirror, NotABug cut short Sweetie's question with a green rush of fire. Not being the one controlling the magic, I felt and watched as NotABug's body changed. The effect was fast, but my thinking was faster.

My feet tingled and changed to a white before the most extraordinary thing happened: a pair of shoes formed over them. The white flesh launched up my leg and filled in the holes as it went. I was growing slightly taller, I realized, but that wasn't the half of it. Socks appeared and grew up my legs, then the fire reached my thighs and they slimmed a little. A perfect feminine crease formed in my white crotch, then a pair of panties defended my modesty, and finally a yellow dress over that.

The fashion was the give away. If I were in possession of my body, I would have smiled, laughed, and chirped, but instead I just giggle-chirped in NotABug's head as she shapechanged into Sweetie Belle.

My sister's breasts were a little lighter than mine(even after the changes), and a frilly bra caught and lifted them a little. The outfit wrapped around NotABug's chest and by the time she finished Sweetie Belle's face and hair, I knew it was a perfect reproduction—even her makeup.

There had been a sensation of losing energy, but when I felt for my own reserves, they hadn't changed.

NotABug turned around to face Sweetie Belle, and the look on my little sister's face was priceless—I took a picture of it. Shock. Amazement. Curiosity was the last emotion to plaster itself on Sweetie.

"Well?" NotABug asked. "What do you think?"

"I'm wearing pink panties, not white."

NotABug laughed aloud at Sweetie's comment.

"I mean about the accuracy of everything. I couldn't exactly see your underwear. Also, your makeup is tricky."

"Are you kidding? With Rarity as my sister, I wouldn't dare spend less than half an hour putting on my makeup to visit."

—You don't need to laugh at that,— I sent.

NotABug didn't listen to me. Giggling laughter spilled out of her mouth, but it hit me how close to Sweetie's voice NotABug's was.

"How long will Rainbow Dash be?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"You don't mean to mess with her, do you?"

Sweetie nodded vigorously.

—But first we need to practice some more. How did you do clothes?— I asked.

—You need to picture layers. Your body is one layer, underwear and makeup is the next, then more clothing on top of that.—

A rush of green fire poured over NotABug. We weren't looking in the mirror, but I felt as each part of me became me again, and by me I mean my half-changeling self. It felt good and right to look like myself, even if I looked a little like a monster. I owned it—this is me, hear me chirp.

Once NotABug was fully back to our normal form I felt her nudge me, and we swapped again.

—Surely it isn't so bad being in control with Sweetie to talk to?— I asked.

—What? No! I just wanted to give you a chance to try clothing. Call it curiosity. I want to see what clothing you could make if you didn't have to worry about the downsides of fabric, hems, or any of that.—

There's not a lot of revelation moments in my life. The first of them was caused by a princess of another world, the second by NotABug when she showed me how I was messing my life up, but this one was special.

It was a dream of every artist in the fashion industry: clothing that didn't have a seam, a fastener, or any of the features needed to put a dress on. I'd already dipped a metaphorical toe into these waters when I’d made the dress (that doesn't fit anymore, drat it) that needed magic to put on, but this was taking that to its logical conclusion.

—I love you. You're my inspiration and my fire,— I sent.

NotABug's happy chirping in my head was just one of her greatest qualities.

"You just changed back, right? There's like a moment when you shift your stance… It's like when you have a robot and you switch its servos from being function-controlled to having a fuzzy-logic system controlling them, or anything else, really. There's this little change in how you move," Sweetie Belle said.

I was too in the zone to take her comment as anything but positive. With a little nod of assent, I turned back to the mirror.

"Let me try some clothing on," I said.

The shape I'd built before needed work. I added my groin as it should be, then with a slight twisting of my lips I added all the details of my derriere. Breasts back to normal—though I'm sure Rainbow Dash would like me to experiment more there—I turned my eyes back to my old normal and added a little more curl to my hair.

It wasn't perfect. I didn't want to wear a perfect copy of myself as I'd been—I wanted to be better. The curls were only the start. My lashes were more pronounced and full in a natural way that needed no makeup. A little deeper color in my eyes, my nose just wanted to be a little bit more pronounced, and my hips were never quite what I'd wanted—so those got some love too.

The woman I built in my head wasn't me, and she wasn't the dark beauty I'd become—the dangerous creature with a horn that could shred pillows and magic that could levitate ping-pong balls—she was a supermodel. She could take to a catwalk wearing a trash bag over her head, and within a week everyone would be wearing black. Now she needed clothes.

A black trash bag wouldn't do, but a flowing violet ball gown was definitely the thing to make. She needed underwear, and it wasn't surprising I went with a strapless teddy—the design would never work properly with any of the fabrics a teddy could be made of. The garment would neither offer support nor would it stay on, so I made it of things that would. I didn't know what those things were, but they were there and it worked.

The undergarment was the start, and it gave the woman's bosom a surprising amount of support. A pair of stockings, garter belt, and the garters to marry the two followed. High heels that caused her calves to lift beautifully finished off the underwear below the waist. Some opera gloves and a necklace of immaculate gemstones was the last for the layer. I moved outwards.

A ballgown of violet that would be perfectly at home in any Victorian era party. I pulled it in tight around her waist, then let it follow the curves of the model's body upward. The garments were, as NotABug had suggested, free of the constraints of textile design or manufacture—they were perfect in every way.

But there was more work. She didn't need much makeup—her skin was already a perfect canvas—but that meant that what I put on would have to be perfect. Eye shadow, eyeliner, some highlighter for her cheeks—they didn’t need much more definition, but she would be perfect.

In my mind, I sat back and admired the picture of feminine beauty and perfection I had created. Wonderful.

The way NotABug had changed hadn't been through charging her horn. I drew a thread of my magic directly, spun it out and wrapped it around the shape in my mind. The woman’s image pulled from my power, and a burst of green told me it was working. Then, with it all over bar the constant drain, I realized I was that woman.

"R-Rarity?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Who is this?"

I looked at myself in the mirror. No. I looked at an outfit I had put over myself. Those pouting lips, prominent breasts, and indigo eyes were all there, but my sight was fixated on one thing: the dress.

—I was right. You're really good at this,— NotABug sent.

Turning, I looked over my shoulder at Sweetie Belle. With a flutter of my eyelashes, I watched the look of surprise turn to stunned disbelief.

"What do you think?" I asked.

"That my sister has just gotten her own fantasy handed to her on a plate," Sweetie Belle said. "What else can you do?"

"I'd rather not push too far, but Twilight—that's Princess Twilight—said that changelings can become other shapes. Rocks, animals, things smaller than me, or even bigger."

I turned this way and that, adjusting my pose to suit each angle.

"Wait, so you could actually just become a dress? Or a mannequin to dress up? What about turning into a guy? Or someone really old?"

Sighing, I used my magic to again turn back to myself. The possibilities were endless, as my darling sister just pointed out, but right now I wanted to be me for a few moments.

"I think I quite like being able to move on my own, thank you. Though I must mention, being able to try on literally any clothes I make will be a boon," I said.

"Even men's clothes?"

With a flick of my magic and a turn of my head I was a clone of Sweetie Belle. I ignored all the rudest bits on principal but made a special distinction—I looked like a male version of Sweetie Belle. Slouching comfortably as only a man would, I rolled my eyes.

"Happy now?"

I'd looked to the mirror for just a moment, but that was all it took for my sister to act. A camera flash went off.

I snapped my head around to look at Sweetie, only to get a second flash.

"What on earth are you doing?" I asked.

"Mom and Dad are going to freak! I'll tell them I went to the salon to get a perm and they got confused!"

Her thumbs were typing with lightning speed. I pondered how long it would take to compromise her phone, then discarded that option.

"And here I thought you wanted to look at our egg again. Such a shame I'll have to kick you out now, never to come back inside…" I said. Sweetie Belle's thumbs slowed. "I'll have to ask NotABug to stop chatting with you, too. What a sha—"

"Stopping!" Sweetie Belle said. "But can I keep the pictures?"

—There's nothing about the images that tie them to us. It shouldn't be a problem,— NotABug sent.

—The location data might,— I sent.

—Oh right. I'll ask her if I can poke them.—

Only a handful of milliseconds later Sweetie's phone beeped.

"Oh! Uh, sure you can. Do I need to allow anythi—Huh, that was quick," Sweetie Belle said.

I reached to follow NotABug, and saw that she'd just put together a hijacking program and sent it to Sweetie. It was fairly simple, though it had heavy encryption between her phone and our server.

"You'd be surprised how poorly some devices are protected, though NotABug can probably fix that for you too," I said.

"Are you going to stay like that?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Realizing I was still her male twin, I used my magic to flick back to my normal self once more. While I was aware of the changes happening, being in control meant they weren't so pronounced. It felt good to be me again, even if I looked less like my original self than my supermodel form did.

I was naked again, too, which brought up a new thought: what happened to clothing when I shapechange? I had to know. This was something important.

"Wait here a moment," I said.

Walking to the next room—my bedroom—I went to my closet and searched for the least beautiful thing to wear. This was a hard task and took nearly five minutes while I weighed one top against another. At last I found what I wanted—something that was almost but not quite ugly enough for me to not want it in my wardrobe.

I held up the shirt and looked at myself in the mirror. There was a new problem—the top might not have been the worst after all by dint of my new skin color.

"Rarity? What are you doing?" Sweetie Belle asked from the doorway.

"I want to test what wearing clothing does when I change, but I don't want to ruin anything nice. How does this look?"

I turned to face Sweetie Belle and watched the second biggest eye-roll of the day (of course my earlier one was superior). I held the top against my front.

"First, it's too big for you. Second, I can't believe you're spending this long to—Well, okay. Maybe I can believe this, but Rarity! Come on!"

"You think the blue one?" I asked.

It was simply impossible to keep a smile off my face. Of course, I knew I had a little habit of spending more time than strictly necessary on fashion decisions, but I never let it get in the way of anything important—though it was obvious to me that fashion was just about the most important thing ever. I let out a suffering sigh.

"Alright. Alright," I said.

Pulling the top on revealed just how much mass I had lost. I was naked under the top, but still it billowed on me. My chest failed to leave much of a dent in the shirt, and it stretched past my waist. There was a brief moment of regret when I realized I could simply change to whatever shape would best fit the top and whatever colors would best match it.

"I'm sorry, darling, but if you have to make the ultimate fashion sacrifice, I promise it will not be in vain," I said.

"Are you talking to your shirt?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Please! This is a tense moment. You're draining all the emotion, Sweetie."

"Rarity?"

"Yes, Sweetie Belle?"

"I was about to say 'Don't ever change,' but under the circumstances I don't think that would be right. Change as much as you want," Sweetie Belle said.

For effect, I held up my hand, pressed my fingers together just so, then snapped them.

Green fire coiled around me. Wrapping and engulfing my body, it changed me into the shape I envisioned. The target form wasn't the supermodel but rather the earlier form that had been missing a crotch—though I put the right eyes on it now.

My chest pushed out into the shirt with a lot more confidence, and I felt the transformation rise up my hips to sit around my waist. Looking in the mirror, I watched the last hint of flame leave me perfectly dressed in the thing. I remembered why I disliked it. It was orange, and clashed with just about everything my old self had been.

"You left your—" Sweetie Belle said.

"I know. I don't need it. Honestly, with as much creative control as this gives me, I don't care for extra baggage," I said. "But I do remember why I am prejudiced against this shirt—orange is just too spring."

—Here she comes,— NotABug sent.

—What?— I asked.

—You'll see.—

Sweetie Belle's arms pulled me into a hug. For a fraction of a millisecond it was awkward hugging my little sister while practically naked—but then I realized I was literally wearing a whole body. I wasn't naked at all.

I hugged Sweetie back, feeling odd at my old height. Less than a week with a shorter stature and I was already used to it.

"You're still the best big sister in the world," Sweetie Belle said.

"Of course I am, darling. And you are the most amazing, smart, and wonderful little sister I could hope for."

We both giggled at our statements.

"Not going to lie. It's a little odd hugging you like this," Sweetie Belle said.

"Just think of this as a suit. This isn't me anymore, it's not even close. I'm who I am on the inside, and I'm comfortable with that."

The doorbell broke our conversation up. I pulled back from Sweetie and took two steps toward the hallway before Sweetie's gasp stopped me. I turned to look at her.

"Rarity! You might not think so, but you're naked!"

I froze, realizing how true her statement was. I had an orange shirt on with nothing else. I grabbed my top and pulled it over my head, then without a preference on what to wear, I brought up supermodel-me and flashed with a spiral of flame. Life is a runway.

Ignoring the giggle from Sweetie, I strode down the hall in heels that would make any of my friends balk—I turned for the front door and, with a flick of magic, unlocked it.

Rainbow Dash opened the door, likely at the sound of it unlocking, and froze when she saw me. I turned a little to the side in a way I knew showed off the amazing hips I'd adorned myself with and winked at her.

"R-Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Her just saying my name like that gave me a tingle of excitement. There was something exquisite about not just wearing an outfit that makes your girlfriend giddy, but wearing a whole body that makes her drool just a little.

"Yes, darling. Like what you see?"

"I thought you were going to be turning into a wolf or something, not a fox," Rainbow Dash said as she stepped through the doorway. "This is—I don't even know what to say!"

As I leaned forward, I realized we were around the same size again. This body was a little larger, it seemed, and I wasn't sure I liked that. A revision was in order—later.

"Don't say anything," I said and kissed her.

The kiss was unsatisfyingly short. Rainbow Dash jerked back a few seconds after it started with a pout.

"I love you, Rarity. This,"—Rainbow Dash gestured at me—"might be fun, but It's you I love."

"This is still me. Think of it as dressing up a little more than usual. But if you really want me to change back—" I said.

"Rarity!" Sweetie Belle said. "You're still naked, remember?"

"Believe it or not, Sweetie, Rainbow might actually prefer things that way. I can go and put something back on. I still want to practice more, though," I said.

"It's cool, really," Rainbow Dash said. "I guess I'll just have to make the sacrifice of my fashion model girlfriend being a centerfold girlfriend for a night."

It took me a few seconds to realize what Rainbow Dash had said, exactly, but when I did it was worth it. I blushed and planted a kiss on her cheek.

Rainbow Dash's hands made themselves most familiar with my waist, and she didn't hesitate this time in pulling me in for a deeper kiss. The world (but not my pattern) melted away as our lips now met properly. I found myself nuzzling and kissing her, hungry for more attention. One of Rainbow's hands slid up my back, past my shoulders and neck, to gently touch the back of my head.

It was exactly the pose I'd always dreamed a strong, daring man would take. He would kiss me firmly, taking just as much advantage of my feminine charms as I allowed him—and maybe a hint more. I'd never felt so happy before, nor so loved and stupid. I hadn't just wasted my working life at Polomare, I'd wasted my love life not letting Rainbow Dash show me how she felt.

—She is flicking all your switches, huh?— NotABug asked.

I was about to ask her how she could tell, but I realized how much I was chirping in my head. Instead of replying, I pulled NotABug into a hug as well.

A cracking sound, like a plastic case snapping, broke us all out of the moment. Rainbow and I both turned our heads toward the source of the noise.

"The egg!" all three of us said at the same time.

Rainbow Dash was first—by dint of her magic speed—followed by myself and then Sweetie Belle. The plastic casing that had been formed out of the game console was cracking again, and I dropped to my knees beside Rainbow on the floor.

—You should drop your disguise,— NotABug sent.

—I'll be naked.—

—You're about to be a mom.—

I let my magic remove the pattern I'd been wearing and felt more comfortable back in my own body. My chest felt lighter, my legs more elastic, and I wasn't wearing a stitch. Not that I spent more than half a millisecond thinking about it.

Reaching out a hand, I took hold of one of the cracked pieces of plastic, only for a tiny head to poke out of the egg.

Emotions were all I had—the thinking parts of my brain had surrendered without fight. Bright blue eyes stared up at me. A tiny, curved horn graced their forehead, and a fin-like crest ran from just behind the horn as far back to their neck as I could see.

I moved my other hand and delved into the egg. A warm body seemed to take up most of the room inside. My heart was about to explode with the love I felt.

"Do you want to come out of there?" I asked.

A tiny chirp met my words and melted my heart anew. Working my other hand into the egg, I felt four little legs and carefully lifted my baby free with my hands just behind the first two.

When she—I don't know how I knew she was a she, I just did—came free of the egg, both her little wings buzzed in excitement. I didn't hesitate in pulling her to my chest. She didn't reach for my breasts at all, but despite that I felt a slight draining sensation. It didn't hurt, far from it, it was my baby having her first meal.

"You're crying, Rares," Rainbow Dash said.

Rainbow's arm reached around my shoulder and held me against her. My own hunger reached out to Rainbow Dash and found what seemed like an infinite reservoir of love within her.

"I don't care, darling," I said.

I bandied that word around a lot—darling—but I'd never meant it so much as right now. The chirping mass in my arms agreed with me when it came to Rainbow Dash, it seemed—lifting her head up, my daughter looked up at Rainbow and chirped with excitement.

Sweetie Belle was saying something behind me, on the other side of the room, but I didn't pay a moment of attention to it. I watched with delight as Rainbow Dash brought a finger to my little filly's nose. Pondering, I realized we'd forgotten something important.

"She needs a name," I said.

—Chirplittle!— NotABug sent.

—She is a chirplittle, or a chirptiny. She needs her own name,— I sent.

—Hi!—

—NotABug?— I asked.

—That wasn't me.—

—Hello. Who is this?— I asked.

—Me.—

In my arms my little girl turned to look up at me.

—This is so awesome! That egg was getting cramped, and I was really hungry, and then you gave me LOOOOOOOOOTS of love!—

Sending IDs were the key. I examined them for the first time since we started chatting directly. Sure enough, there was now a third ID sending.

—Clever little bug,— NotABug sent.

—How did she do this?— I asked.

—Don't ask me. Ask her,— NotABug sent.

—Are you okay? Is there anything you need?—I asked.

"Mom and Dad are on their way. You might want to get dressed," Sweetie Belle said.

—More love would be nice.—

—Greedy little bug. Take as much as you need,— I sent.

Rainbow Dash moved before I could respond to Sweetie. A moment later I felt the soft fabric of my dressing gown draped over my shoulders. Her hands reached to our daughter.

"Let me take her while you move to the couch," Rainbow Dash said.

—She's okay,— I sent.

—I know. She tastes sooooo good. Even in my egg she tasted good. Now she tastes amazing!—

Was it strange to have a conversation with my newborn daughter? A little. My whole life had become strange, why not keep the trend going? When I held her up, four stumpy, hole-filled legs kicked in the air until Rainbow Dash took her. Watching my daughter snuggle against Rainbow's chest didn't create one lick of jealousy, for which I was thankful.

Working my arms into the sleeves, I pulled the dressing gown closed and tied the belt around my waist.

"Should I change for them?" I asked.

"Don't change," Rainbow Dash said.

Her reply was so quick and vehement that I was a little startled—but happy still. I walked the few steps to my sofa and dropped onto it beside Rainbow Dash.

—Mom!— my daughter sent.

Flailing legs and excited chirping accompanied the exclamation. Reaching across, I stroked her cheek.

—What are we going to call you?— I asked.

—Byte.—

—I like it,— NotABug sent.

I thought about it a little. Not the smallest storage amount, but then she could grow into it.

—I do too,— I sent.

—Yay!— Byte sent.

Screeching tires caused us all to look up from Byte—and caused Byte to follow our glances to the door. The sound of running feet terminated in the doorbell ringing.

Rainbow and I both looked squarely at Sweetie Belle, who got the hint and headed for the door. It was about this time our parents realized that the door was still unlocked.

"Where's Rarity?!" Cookie Crumbles said. "Where's my little girl?!"

"Who did this to my baby?!" Hondo Flanks said.

I'd never actually heard my parents angry or panicked before. Calmness was practically their hallmark—it was how they managed to work the real estate market so well. Seeing Mom looking scared and Dad furious grounded me in the moment.

"Mom? Dad?" I asked.

Both my parents locked their eyes on me, but Sweetie Belle jumped between us before anyone could say anything further.

"This is Rarity!" Sweetie Belle said. "It all happened really sudden, and from what she's said she didn't have much of a chance to talk to you, but—"

Dad stepped around Sweetie Belle and looked at me. I'd never felt so cold and lost in my life as when my own father's eyes didn't spark recognition.

"I meant to call, but what with quitting work, saving a friend, and—" I said and gestured to Rainbow Dash. "Life got unbearably complicated, and I know I should have come to you first."

I couldn't meet anyone's eyes at that moment. The world seemed a dark place. Then NotABug hugged me, and Rainbow Dash joined in—physically—a few hundred milliseconds later.

—Who are they, Mom?— Byte asked.

—Those are my parents, and the shorter one is Sweetie Belle, my sister. I might have messed up big,— I sent.

Byte struggled in Rainbow Dash's remaining arm and, on wobbly legs, managed to climb across and squeeze between Rainbow and I.

The room was still silent.

"I just didn't know what would happen, one hour to the next. One day I saved a friend, the next I welcomed my best friend into my heart, and then next thing I know—" I said and cradled Byte. "She's your granddaughter."

I saw the moment Dad realized it was me. His eyes widened, and the strongest man that had ever been in my life rolled his eyes up into his head and started to topple. Sweetie Belle was the quickest to move—my shock had paralyzed me. Like she'd realized she would never hold all of Dad's weight, Sweetie opted instead to catch only his upper body and protect his head.

"Hondo?" Cookie Crumbles asked.

Lifting one of Dad's eyebrows, Sweetie let out a nervous giggle.

"He fainted!" Sweetie Belle said.

"So like him," Cookie Crumbles said and turned to me. "Is that really you, Rarity?"

She took one step toward me, then another. I could sense her uncertainty in the air around her.

"Yes, mother. Let me get Dad off Sweetie and I can show you your granddaughter," I said.

Carefully using a light touch, I let power into my horn and carried Dad to a spare couch seat. The amount of power I used was a drop in the bucket compared to shapechanging, I realized.

With a glance back toward Dad, Mom moved the last of the distance and sat down beside me. Her eyes seemed constantly in motion, sliding between my face and Byte.

—Don't drink from my Mom, okay Byte?— I asked.

—Why not? She has a lot of love!— Byte sent.

—She might, but I don't know what effect drinking will have on a normal person.—

—Uh. Woops,— NotABug sent.

—You didn't?!— I asked.

—Maybe a little. I'll avoid doing any more until we can experiment properly. Maybe ask Sweetie Belle to help?— NotABug asked.

—That might not be a bad idea.—

—Sweetie tastes really good, but not as good as Dash,— Byte sent.

When Mom put her arm around my back to comfort me, her hand encountered Rainbow's arm already there. She froze for a little and just looked between Rainbow and I.

"It's serious, Mom," I said.

"Rarity, everything in your life has been serious. From the moment you demanded I show you how to put makeup on—when you were five—to you telling me you turn into a magical pony girl when the world is in danger—it has been serious," Cookie Crumbles said. "This is just the latest in a string of very serious things my little girl has encountered."

She simply held her hands out to me.

Giving Byte to Rainbow to hold had been as natural as—well, as natural as giving a baby to their father would probably feel. Mom was different. She was responsible for me being alive in the first place, and had supported me through every phase of my life. I held Byte out.

"Hold her like this," I said, demonstrating.

Mom proved to be an old hand. She plucked Byte from my hands and instantly had my daughter—filly too I guess—on her back and letting out chirpy giggles. I stared as Mom tickled Byte's tummy, and in that moment I felt all the apprehension and stress of coming out to my parents melt away.

—Your Mom is totally awesome!— Byte sent.

The wording, so like Rainbow's, caused me to break into my own giggles. I struggled against mirth to pull myself under control, and with a final sigh separated myself from the laughter.

"There's more," I said.

A squeeze from Rainbow Dash offered me all the silent support I could have hoped for. I found myself leaning into the hug a little.

"Don't think for a moment I don't know that, Rarity. She's just like you were, though I distinctly remember you crying a lot more. Has she made a single sound yet?" Cookie Crumbles asked.

"To answer that I need to explain a lot. What do you know about machine learning and artificial intelligence?" I asked.

"I'm gonna have to stop you there," Rainbow Dash said. "I literally just got back from a run, so I need to use the shower."

I didn't hesitate, despite knowing this would be a resounding moment for Mom. I leaned across and kissed Rainbow Dash—briefly and on the lips.

"I'll be right back. Hold that thought," Rainbow Dash said.

To my surprise, Sweetie Belle jumped to take Rainbow's place at my side, though not in quite the manner Rainbow Dash had been in.

So I told my story again. Unlike nearly every other time, I left nothing out. My feelings, my hopes, my little chats with NotABug, and finally…

"Hi!" NotABug said.

I just retreated and let her talk for herself. I felt there was an importance to letting her introduce herself and be herself. Of course, this gave me a moment to speak to Byte without having to follow two other conversations.

Before I sent a message, however, I tried to locate where she was sending from. Her interface into our internal phone was direct and without any pretense. The moment I spotted it, however, meant that I'd also touched it.

The digital world was odd to me, still. It was a visualization of what the underlying systems were doing, and right now Byte was bouncing her connection around all over the phone. Chirping in excitement, I played with my daughter. I chased her around, reached out from time to time, and felt her slip past me again and again. Finally, however, I caught her.

—You're not getting away this time!— I sent, chirping for all I was worth.

—Eeeek!— Byte sent, echoing my excited chirps.

I couldn't stop chirping in laughter and delight, and squeezed Byte in a hug. My expectations of motherhood—the few I'd ever had—hadn't come close to how good it felt to know I'd helped bring new life into the world.

Despite my efforts at multitasking, I still wasn't able to perfectly track the real world and digital. Any hope of such a task, of course, required me to actually try. Right then—I left NotABug in charge of the real world and I focused on my filly.

—Hold on. Let's go somewhere bigger,— I sent.

Byte's answer was to hug me. I opened a VPN connection to our server, connected into it, and then made a connection for Byte as well. Her own VPN link opened a moment later.

—This is huge! I saw this from the outside, but I didn't know how to connect before. Is this our own?— Byte asked.

—Yup! NotABug ordered it before I even knew what it would be, and it's great. I keep all my outfit patterns here, and my ideas over here, though sometimes I just come here and browse.—

Byte actively investigated each folder I showed her, scanning through the files while I watched. This was my special place, my private idea-vault.

—This is amazing! But do you have anything to fit me?—

My mind was like a steel trap when it came to fashion. Byte had only triggered the trap, but it latched onto the concept nonetheless. I couldn't help it. I started off by building a model of what my earlier observations told me she looked like, and I started importing color ideas, just drawing shapes and seeing what worked.

Eager chirping accompanied the start of a second editing session, and soon we were both working on designs for everything from little gowns to well-hidden armor. Fashion was fashion no matter if it were for a human or a changeling.

I knew the time. I watched the slowly evaporating seconds in the back of my mind. When I realized our excited chatter and chirping was slowing, however, I took more notice of it.

10:33 P.M.

Tired in the best possible way, I saved our work and closed the application down.

—Time for little fillies and their mothers to sleep,— I sent.

—I was wondering when you two would be done. Your parents are really nice!— NotABug sent.

I felt NotABug's presence locate the virtual machine Byte and I were residing in. Finding meant touching, and as soon as we both felt NotABug, Byte and I rushed her.

Chirping seemed to be the most natural way for changelings to express themselves. That made me a changeling, though I simply didn't care anymore. I am Rarity. I have always said that expressing your inner beauty is the way of fashion, and it was never so true as when my body decided it wasn't human anymore. My own chirping was every bit as loud as NotABug and Byte's.

—Can you take control and sleep?— NotABug asked.

—Sure,— I sent.

The gentle nudge that pushed me into control didn't take me by surprise. Being in bed with Rainbow Dash—with Byte between us—didn't either. I blinked, in control of my body, and found myself gazing into Rainbow's face. Under the covers she had one hand on my thigh, and I was quite happy with it being there.

"Sweetie and my parents?" I asked.

"They left an hour ago," Rainbow Dash said.

I could barely see it, but Rainbow had a smile a mile wide. Stretching my neck only a little, I pressed my lips to hers and felt her smile as she started to kiss back. It was slow, lingering, and neither of us were inclined to part.

In films and TV shows everyone always closes their eyes, but with the dim light giving me perfect vision and her enough to make out my features at best, I wanted no other sight.

Rainbow broke first, yawning widely and giving me a cue to do the same. Giggling—with chirping from me, of course—we closed our eyes together.

Author's Note

To Rarity: how good are your firewalls.

"A lot better after seeing what just a fraction of Windigo can do, darling. Now I need to find some way to deal with them that is more Rambo and less—Oh drat. I've forgotten who Rambo always fought against. Wasn't it Nazis?" Rarity said. "Darn. That was Indiana Jones, wasn't it?"

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Lab

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 14

Well, I could now happily say I'd found the right alarm tone for me. Though it didn't actually wake me up, the sound of happy chirping filled my head as I mentally disposed of the cobwebs of sleep. I was showering—or that should be NotABug was showering.

—Good morning,— I sent.

—I didn't wake you, did I?— NotABug asked.

Wrapped in a digital hug, I joined the chorus of happy chirps.

6:28 A.M.

—No. Just well-rested waking to a new day. How's Rainbow Dash?—

—She's still asleep.—

NotABug's answer included a snapshot from her eyes. Rainbow was curled up in the bed, her long limbs tucked close, and just under her chin a tiny black form was snuggled. If I had a digital analogue of a heart, it would have melted.

I slowly surfaced enough that I could feel what was happening to NotABug, and I had to say it was nice. Hot water pouring down her body, wings buzzing and sending droplets everywhere, and a bouncy little movement to her step that made me think of dancing.

Something was a little off. Whenever she looked down by turning her eyes, there was something sticking out between them.

—Darling, what do you have on your face?— I asked.

—That's not something on our face,— NotABug sent.

Again she pinned an image to her message. This time it showed her face. It was a photo of the mirror showing a pushed-out muzzle. Another came in of her turning her head to the side, then another of her opening her mouth to show the fangs she had.

I looked over the images again and again—seeing NotABug's eyes looking back brightly—and inwardly smiled.

—Interesting, but not unplanned. This really is going all the way,— I sent. —And don't you dare apologize for it.—

A giggle left NotABug's mouth, and her digital chirping gained a humorous edge.

—No, Rarity,— NotABug sent.

I squeezed her tighter in our digital hug and giggle-chirped back.

—Is it hard to work? Is your tongue bigger? Those teeth look longer, too.—

—I bit my tongue a bit. Just make sure you don't bite hard and it shouldn't be too bad.—

With a gentle nudge from NotABug, I slipped into control. Like a stretch, I felt out the muscles in my body and gently took control of them. Yawning, I set to work on my hair—only to bite my tongue. Keenly aware of NotABug's warning, I wasn't clamping my mouth closed quickly, but my teeth were now a lot sharper than they had been. Feeling around my mouth, my first sense was space—there was a lot more room in my mouth now.

I brought the fingers of my right hand up to touch at my—Was muzzle a good word? Maybe snout? I connected to the server and set up a web search for better synonyms for muzzle. There had to be something cute.

As the results were coming in, I heard the door to the shower open and turned to face Rainbow Dash. A shiver of excitement went through me. Rainbow was, of course, naked, but she held Byte in her arms. Arousal turned to pure delight.

"Good morning," I said. "Sleep well?"

—That was really nice! And warm! And I wanna use all the !!!!! because I really love you!— Byte sent.

"You bet I did—Hey!" Rainbow Dash said.

Byte jumped from Rainbow's arms straight at me. Rather than try to catch her with my shampoo-covered arms, I instead lit my horn with a pulse of glowing green magic and caught her mid-air. Byte's eyes widened and she kicked her little legs in panic, then she let out a squeaky laugh.

—How are you doing this?— Byte asked.

—Dear, can you try saying that, instead? Rainbow can't hear us talk like this,— I sent.

"Oh. Um…" Byte said. "How are you doing that?"

The first few words were mechanical, almost impossible to understand, but with her ears twitching, Byte worked furiously to improve her sound—or so it seemed from her adorable little expression of concern.

"It's magic," I said. "You can use it too. At least I think you can."

"Gotcha!" Rainbow Dash said.

Wrapping her arms around Byte, Rainbow hugged our filly. My heart sped up, and my damp wings managed to conjure a chirp—though it was particularly sub-par.

"Do I really sound like—? Voices are hard," Byte said.

"You'll get used to it, squirt," Rainbow Dash said. "Hey Rarity, what's the plan for today?"

The plan was for me to not get distracted by my naked girlfriend while our foal is right there, but that was something I was already having trouble with.

"Coco—that's one of the managers at work—said to call her before work to—day…" I said.

I trailed off as one of Rainbow's hands reached up and lightly poked at my pronounced nose. Not wanting to put her off from exploring, I took a deep breath and just let her keep feeling around my snout. (Snout was definitely the superior word. Not nearly so many connotations of black leather things and people agreeing with each other a lot—or not agreeing as the case may be.)

"Huh. Cool," Rainbow Dash said. "Wait. What did you say?"

I opened my mouth and playfully tried to grab one of Rainbow Dash's fingers. She pulled it back at first, but then rested it against the end of my snout.

"I said, one of my bosses expects me to call and find out if I need to work today," I said.

A little hoof joined in the poking of my snout, silencing me for a moment while we all giggled at Byte. I leaned back and started rinsing my hair.

Rainbow set Byte on the floor of the shower while we took care of washing ourselves. I heard NotABug's chirping in the back of my head as she took advantage of our fast internet connection.

—What exactly do you do to make money?— I asked.

—It's complicated, but that's why it is fun. It's like a game where there are very few rules and billions of moves. Moves have consequences, and all decisions must be made in microseconds because there are some clever AI that are really fast at taking advantage of a mistake or lag. It's complicated, but a little fun,— NotABug sent.

—Can I see?— Byte sent.

The rush of chirping grew stronger, and I must have made a distressed chirp or two because it suddenly all stopped.

—Sorry! I didn't mean to route her through our head. It just seemed easier than setting up her own path. Give me a nano,— NotABug sent, along with some comforting chirps. —Okay, try this one.—

The chirping resumed, but back on only NotABug-levels, rather than NotABug plus Byte connecting in and out again.

—Thank you,— I sent along with some much relieved chirps.

"Why don't you call them now?" Rainbow Dash asked.

6:42 A.M.

I bent down to pick up Byte. She wasn't unresponsive, but she definitely wasn't as perky as she would have been had she not been poking around a stock exchange.

—I'm just going to carry you back to bed, Byte,— I sent.

There was no response.

—Byte?— I asked.

—She's not connected to us right now. We're focused on the exchange,— NotABug sent.

—We're going to need a better chat system for the three of us. Maybe even something with phone access so we can chat with our friends, too,— I sent.

"I'll call them after seven," I said and stepped out of the shower.

"It's not even seven yet? Why are we even up this early?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I rolled my eyes and groaned. As I walked from the shower, the water seemed to practically sluice from my body, leaving me mostly dry without even a touch of the towel.

"You can go back to bed if you want, Rainbow. I think I might stay up and get ready in case I need to go to work."

"Nah. Besides, I need to go for a morning run."

Rainbow Dash didn't just sound happy, she sounded excited. Considering how down she'd been after the problem of (potential) magic at her job, it was wonderful to see her so much more herself. Good moods were contagious, and I found myself smiling as I tucked Byte back under the covers.

A bra was easier to find today—Rainbow had apparently picked up some smaller-cup-sized bras when she got that naughty teddy—but I had the same problem as yesterday with panties. There was nothing else for it.

Going back to my drawers, I pulled out nine more pairs of panties and walked to my sewing room. Watching me do this, Rainbow Dash had a bemused look on her face.

"More tail-holes?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I sighed and nodded.

"More tail-holes. Honestly, this wouldn't be so much trouble if it all just happened and I could start working on outfits to suit what I end up as. I positively detest outgrowing—or outshrinking—things I only purchased days earlier."

"Why don't you just do your magic thingy and become hot-and-sexy you?"

"Because I can practically feel days worth of love siphoning out while I'm shapechanged. I must talk to Twilight again—either one—and find out what can be done about it."

As I walked through to my sewing room, I added that to the growing list of things I needed to do by the end of the week. Sitting down, I set all ten pairs of panties down and picked up the first pair.

Modifying one garment took some time, but modifying ten in the same manner was much faster than ten times that. Repetition and muscle memory were key—I was almost literally born with the latter.

—I'm teaching Byte with some money from your account. This way any money she makes can go directly back to you,— NotABug sent.

—Good thinking, dear. Is she having fun?—

—She's really good at this. Better than me already. She learns these patterns like it was, well, her thing.—

—Maybe it is? Twilight seems addicted to math too, I wonder if they should chat?—

—I'll start building that chat system once Byte is done here. It might have some use beyond just us.—

—Do you need me to do anything to help?— I asked.

—Try to think of things you'll want it to do, and things your friends will want it to do.—

I was halfway through the fifth pair of panties when I thought of calling Coco. Stitching the button on and using the seam ripper I opened up the main hole as well as the buttonhole. They were done.

7:01 A.M.

I got halfway through the fourth ring before Coco picked up.

"Rarity?" Coco Pommel asked.

"Good morning. Yes, it's me. Just checking—"

"Don't come in today. I talked to Mr. Polomare, and he said you should take the day off. After I assured him you didn't do it and explained that the police had gotten rough with 'one of his girls', he said for you to take the day.

"Say what you want about him, he does have a decent bone in his body when it comes to an actual crisis. Now I need to warn you about Suri—she's gone a little off the deep end. When you do come back, be very careful around her."

My mind rushed, trying to derive all the possible meanings from the words I could.

"Thank you, Coco. If you ever need something made, come to my shop—once I'm open that is," I said. "So I'm rostered for tomorrow and Friday, correct?"

The sound of typing came through the connection, at least it sounded like typing when I put the waveform together. If I hadn’t been thinking so fast lately, it wouldn’t have been possible.

"Correct. And Friday is your last day with us. How are you after yesterday's circus? I heard one of the officers say you are—well—a suspect."

Real worry colored Coco's tone, and it made me feel sorry for her. She was a decent human being, and she still thought Polomare was her future.

"I have a lawyer, and I didn't do it. I trust that the officers will do their jobs and find who did. Sorry for all this mess, Coco. We really should do lunch sometime. There's this lovely little sushi place I discovered, it's to die for."

"How about tomorrow?"

I thought quickly about what I had planned, and I had to admit that talking to Coco over lunch sounded good.

"That sounds great. I'll see you then?" I asked.

"Absolutely. Take care, Rarity."

"You too, Coco."

I hung up and added lunch with Coco on Wednesday to my schedule. As luck would have it, Rainbow Dash picked then to poke her head in the door.

"I'm going out for that run," Rainbow Dash said.

"No problems, dear. I called up work. Looks like I have today off," I said.

Turning my head, I caught Rainbow in the act of admiring me. Her eyes traced my body—her smile told me she was enjoying it. I might be turning into a bug-pony of sorts, but my own delight in being looked at would never cease.

I batted my eyebrows a little, and when I had Rainbow Dash's full attention, blew her a kiss. I wasn't just a passive partner in this three-way relationship anymore. For a few moments I remembered back to when I first met NotABug, and how into her I'd been. I loved them both.

"I'll be back in ten seconds flat!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Wait!" I said. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

I tilted myself a little toward Rainbow Dash, still sitting on my sewing seat. Looking ahead, I offered Rainbow my cheek.

"You've got a lot of cheek to kiss. This could take a while."

She walked up as she spoke, and I felt her lips brush the side of my face. It was such a simple thing, but it assuaged all my worries about my changing body—at least for the moment.

Hearing Rainbow actually giggle like the schoolgirl I remember from CHS, I was gifted the sight of her bouncing on her feet as she left. I sighed in a moment of introspection.

—Byte wants to keep playing. She put the money she borrowed back in your account, and the rest she is holding for you. I'm going to start on this program,— NotABug sent.

—I think security needs to be a big part of it. If Windigo attacks again, I don't want any holes in our own network, or those of friends also using it. We still need to start building weapons for next time,— I sent.

—Next time?—

—Yes, darling. They will be back. By the time they find us, I want something I can actually fight them with.—

—I'm back!— Byte sent.

—How's my girl (or filly. I feel filly fits)?— I asked.

—I got to play a fun game! Where'd you go?— Byte asked.

"I'm down here," I said, my voice taking longer than a message to reply, but also giving her the impetus and direction she needed to find me.

—I'm coming!— Byte sent.

The thunder of four little legs approached, and I saw a big pair of blue eyes in a black head peek around the doorjamb.

—What are you doing?— Byte asked.

"Out loud, dear. You need more practice with your voice," I said.

"Um. What are you doing?" Byte asked aloud.

"I'm adjusting my underwear so it fits around my tail. Would you like to see?"

When Byte jumped up and tried to reach my lap herself, I had my answer. I reached down and picked Byte up, then sat her on my knee—the one not operating the pedal of my sewing machine.

"You see, I only got my tail two days ago. All my clothes—" I said.

"What's clothes?"

Nothing could have reminded me how young Byte was more firmly than that. I leaned down and kissed the top of her head.

"Clothes are what humans wear to—"

I paused a moment. There was obviously many reasons for wearing clothing, but how best to explain it?

"To what?" Byte asked.

"There's a lot of reasons to wear clothes. A lot of people feel a little ashamed of their bodies, so it has become common for everyone to wear clothes when in public. Some of us, however, prefer to go a little further. Fashion is the art of wearing clothes that look good."

Byte made a little buzzing sound with her wings that I took for an attempt at a chirp. She pointed a hoof at the panties I was sewing another button onto.

"And those are fashion?" Byte asked.

"These are comfort. But fashion plays a little part in them. Some outfits will be so thin that the wrong colored underwear would be visible through them. Now, as its own effect, this might be desirable, but in general it is not."

"Do I need to wear clothes?"

"I don't think you have to, but do you want to?" I asked.

As I watched my filly's eyes widen and her toothy smile spread, I knew without a doubt there was a piece of me in her. I paused in my sewing and grabbed my measuring tape.

While my hands moved slowly—relative to how fast I thought when focused on the digital world—I pulled up a session with the server and began working on designs.

Giggles and chirps filled the air as I began measuring Byte for her first outfit. My initial designs were more like a long cape that flowed down from her back—I forwarded them to her.

"That's so pretty!"

"Which one, darling?" I asked.

Byte sent me back the one she wanted and I added the last of her measurements to it. It was a challenge to make an outfit for an entirely different body shape, but it was within my skills.

"Alright. I'll work on that later. First thing's first, I need underwear."

I bent most of my attention back to my sewing. In the zone, I worked through the remaining panties, scooped them into one arm, and offered Byte the other.

"Getting dressed the right way can be just as important as finding the right thing to wear," I said.

Rather than get carried, Byte jumped to the floor and started running for my bedroom again. I followed her to find my darling bouncing on the bed and chirping in excitement.

Numbers might be Byte's specialty, but when it came to fashion she was not shy about her enthusiasm.

"Today you are dressing me. I'll wear a black bra and dark panties. What colors do you think would go well on me?" I asked.

"White," Byte said. "Do you have anything that's white with red beading?"

The combination was something I hadn't considered. I thought about it for a moment and rushed to my closet. My hips were only a little slimmer than they'd been, and after some searching I found a white mini with a coppery stripe down one side. I held it up to show Byte.

"That's perfect! With a black bra to match your skin, a white top will be okay. I think," Byte said.

"You've been looking this up!" I said. "Admit it!"

I literally couldn't have stopped myself from chirping all the while, though I did turn back to find a white shirt from my high-school selection.

Some were too small, which I set aside as I'd probably need them soon unless things vastly shifted direction. I found just the thing and lifted out a pure-white silk shirt.

"Will this do?" I asked while holding up skirt and shirt to my body.

"It looks great!"

I wasted no further time. Panties, skirt, and shirt were on in short order. I let my hair hang down my back and my tail exit under the skirt. Turning in place, I let Byte see me from several angles as I turned around.

"You have wonderful taste, darling," I said.

—Okay. Would you like to test this?— NotABug asked.

Along with her message came directions for access to our internal phone, code, and tables of reference information for accessing it—characters, punctuation, control codes, and even markup for emphasis and emotion.

—ChirpNet? Catchy name,— I sent.

I started my own instance of the code on the mobile phone, and immediately found a linkup occur. Checking the tables, things weren't much more difficult than the message passing we were already doing.

—This is much better,— I sent on ChirpNet.

—Thanks! I need to talk with Byte about how to get her speaking on here,— NotABug sent.

Leaving them to it, I felt more of that odd chirping in my head that signified data transfers going on. I ignored the sensation as nothing more than a mother and her filly talking about their favorite topics, and I got on with applying a light amount of makeup.

—Oooh! This is neat!— Byte sent on ChirpNet.

I noticed a very small amount of extra chirping in my head at her message, a sign that this was a lot more efficient than her accessing my internal phone directly.

—Hello there. I was just getting ready for some breakfast,— I sent.

—What's breakfast, I—OH! That looks interesting. Can I do that?— Byte sent.

—I don't know. Wow, this chat is much easier to just get ideas through. I like how I can assemble pieces of a message and it combines them. It means I can write almost the same as I think and speak,— I sent.

I heard a new bout of chirping and was confused at the source for a moment, but then I remembered seeing this had direct messages too. Deciding NotABug and Byte could chat while I ate, I walked to the kitchen.

A tub of yogurt with berries through it made an admirable breakfast, and I was almost halfway through it when I heard the front door unlock. My head snapped around to see Rainbow Dash opening the door.

The thunder of little hooves approached, and I watched as Byte—her wings buzzing with excitement—tackled one of Rainbow Dash's legs.

—I missed you!— Byte sent.

"Byte, dear, you need to speak aloud," I said.

"Why can't you talk using ChirpNet?" Byte asked.

"Chirp what? I have literally no idea what you're talking about," Rainbow Dash said. "I'm going to go take a shower so I don't stink the place up."

Rainbow froze, however, at the sight of Byte waving her little hooves in the air—balanced on her back legs. Crouching down, Rainbow Dash picked Byte up and kissed our filly on the nose.

"You coming too, squirt?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Buzzing her wings, Byte tried to run in mid-air, turn, and fly for the bedroom. Obliging Byte, Rainbow Dash instead kept a good hold on her and made a wooshing sound.

I laughed and chirped as Rainbow ran down the hall holding Byte, and still chuckling, turned on the TV.

Pulling out my remote, I flicked through the stations looking for news and was startled by the bright red light that shone from the device. The light show stopped when I stopped pressing buttons, and it took me a lot longer than it should have to work out what it was.

A search online backed up my assumption that I was seeing the infrared light coming from the remote. I watched a video that showed a wide spray of light coming from a remote—exactly what I'd seen. Trying to ignore the flashing, I finally found a news channel.

Television was an entirely new order of horrible now that I could count the milliseconds of my life it wasted, so I only paid peripheral attention to it while sending messages to friends letting them know I was alright.

—Hi girls. Letting you know I'm okay, and I wasn't involved in whatever happened at work. Party this weekend?— I sent

7:30 A.M.

I composed a new one for Sweetie Belle.

—Sweetie, I'm going to be home most of the day. Call me if you want to go out to lunch,— I sent.

I already had a target in mind. I wasn't sure if I'd ever heard Sweetie talk about eating sushi. Well, she could learn the wonder that is good food today then.

Mentally shifting gears, I was about to send a similar message to my parents when my phone rang—my internal phone that is. The number was private. I answered it.

"Hello?"

"Rarity? This is Officer Guard. We spoke at your work yesterday?"

I felt very afraid suddenly. Worry buzzed through me, and I could swear I let out a worried chirp.

—What's wrong? Who's that on the phone?— NotABug asked.

—Guard, the policewoman from yesterday. Please, can you handle this?—

I felt a touch as NotABug reached in and connected with the phone's buffers.

"I remember you. What can I help you with, officer?" NotABug said.

Mentally and physically I slumped. Battling a digital demon had been simple compared to this. Whenever I tried to picture the officer, I just fell back into the interrogation they'd given me yesterday.

"We'd like it if you came down to the station to give a statement on what you know about the incident," Guard said. "I already contacted your work, but they said you had been given emergency leave."

Which meant they were investigating me. Me! I wanted to chirp angrily at them and hang up, but NotABug chirped soothingly in my head.

—They're trying to scare you into saying something Mrs. Velvet wouldn't like you saying. Lucky you have me here to chirp at them!— NotABug sent.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline, Officer. Mostly to save you the trouble and effort."

"Trouble and effort? Not cooperating reflects poorly on—" Guard said.

NotABug rattled off a phone number.

"Did you get that?" NotABug asked. "That is the number of my lawyer. She has taken my statement and will forward it to you. Now please, as I said, I'm sure you have more important things to do with your day than using psychological games on innocent women. Like catching whoever did this, perhaps?"

I gasped out loud, though thankfully not into the buffer of the phone, and even chirped in shock. NotABug hadn't given the officer a chance to say a word. She'd even talked over the policewoman when she had tried to cut in.

The phone went dead—the officer had hung up.

—I think I detest that woman,— NotABug sent. —And I think I will forward a recording of that call to Mrs. Velvet.—

Unable to think straight, I watched a few seconds of the news report on "Polomare Fashion's break-in and destruction" before I realized it was on. Tapping the volume up on the remote, I blinked away the flashes of red light and listened.

"… assailant destroyed tens of thousands of dollars of equipment, and rained debris on passersby below. When asked, police said they have a lead and are investigating further, though no arrests have been made yet.

"Our next story comes—"

I muted the TV again and slumped backward on the couch. Under my shirt, my wings were folded tight to my back to protect them, thus I could only chirp in my head.

—They definitely think I did it,— I sent.

—You didn't. You have an alibi. You also don't have the means. Well, you do with your horn, but they don't know that. I'll talk to Mrs. Velvet about the transformation, and if looking smaller in court would be a major advantage,— NotABug sent.

I actually whined at the thought of that.

—Please don't talk about court. I just want this to be over, to be done with that horrible place, and do what I do best,— I sent.

—Sorry. It's just so exciting. Besides, if they do want to arrest you, you can disguise as someone else and slip away. Then we can start a new business!—

I let a few minutes pass before replying.

—Darling, I think I'll leave that to you. I just want to make people happy by making pretty things.—

We chirped together, comfortingly, and shared a hug.

It was therefore a surprise—a nice one—when Byte jumped onto my lap. My melancholy shattered and broke under her assault.

I started to lean forward to give her a kiss when blue arms bracketed me, hovering a bowl just before my face. The smell of chocolate ice-cream was unmistakable, the sight of it unavoidable, and the spoon going into my hand was inevitable.

"Byte wants to try some, and NotABug told her you needed a hug. We called the shower short and planned this together," Rainbow Dash said.

She jumped over the back of the couch and landed on the seat beside me as lightly as a dancer.

"The police called," I said. "They wanted me to go to the station and give a statement."

"What'd you tell them?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"NotABug told them to take a hike and talk to Mrs. Velvet. I'm not sure I am good at dealing with these things." I said.

—You literally went on the offensive with Windigo. I froze up and couldn't do anything!— NotABug sent.

—That was different. I can fight back against Windigo. They're a bad guy, and I've had experience dealing with those. Besides, they were hurting my friend!— I sent. —This chat system is excellent, darling. Apart from the lookup tables, it's almost like just talking.—

A lurch of pressure ran through me. No. Not me—NotABug. I leaned forward and quickly moved Byte to the side before I lurched to my feet.

—NotABug! This one's yours, I think!— I sent, and pushed.

The changeover wasn't our smoothest, but it went well. NotABug took control without either of us falling over, and she looked back at Rainbow Dash in shock.

"I think I'm going to make another egg," NotABug said.

"Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh!" Rainbow Dash said.

Grabbing up a surprised Byte, Rainbow looked around in panic.

"What do I do?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I need to find—" NotABug said. "I need something to make the egg from."

NotABug looked around the room and her eyes fixated on our new mobile phone. It wasn't my energy, but I felt NotABug pushing the mass out all the same.

A rush of green light flared, and where the mobile phone had been a small green-black egg now sat. The slightest hint of a new tone of chirping started in the back of my head.

—Are you okay, darling?— I asked.

—Wow! I made another egg!— NotABug sent.

She pushed control back at me. I wasn't quite ready and almost stumbled before I sat down on the couch beside our second egg. Our second egg in just four days.

"We need a bigger house," I said.

I hugged NotABug through the giggling and chirping she was doing.

"Are you just going to keep making eggs?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Are you going to stop loving me?" I asked.

Rainbow Dash's head snapped around to look at me. She leaned up and pressed her lips to mine—and that was my answer. The warmth of Rainbow's love was palpable, rich, and delicious. I drank, and I knew NotABug was drinking too, but what surprised me was feel of Byte drinking.

As she slowly pulled back from the kiss, Rainbow Dash let out a little sigh.

"That feels—Okay. At first it felt odd, but I can feel you all feeding and I can just relax into it. I think it's only resisting that makes it feel strange," Rainbow Dash said.

I made a point of halting my own feeding—I felt Byte stop as well, but NotABug kept up a light sipping that I could see made Rainbow Dash blush a little. It hit me then—Rainbow was enjoying it. I was about to say something, but then I watched as Byte jumped off the couch and walked toward the television.

Our filly examined the spot where her egg had been, then she tilted her head up toward the television. She stepped forward and climbed. Where her nose should have touched the hard surface of the television, it instead sank into it. I was about to call a warning to her, but she jumped at the television.

—What are you doing?— I asked.

—It felt interesting. I wanted to see what it was. It's different being like this,— Byte sent.

—Where are you?— NotABug asked.

—Here! I just moved into the server. It's cozy. We need a bigger one.—

—Did she just transfer herself completely into a digital form? Like you used to be?— I asked NotABug in a private message.

—I think so. She's so clever!— NotABug sent via private message.

Okay. Don't panic, Rarity. Your foal is a magical pony—changeling—that can enter the digital world wholly.

—Byte, darling, can you please come back out for a moment?— I asked.

"What the heck just hap—Oh, there you are," Rainbow Dash said. "Back to my question. What the heck just happened?"

Byte, her head poking out of the TV, giggled at us. She lifted a hoof out, too, and waved.

"I can't talk out loud when I'm in there. Sorry!" Byte said.

"Wait a moment. You have the television, correct?" I asked. When Byte nodded, I continued, "Well, you could speak through the speakers."

—I can't work out how to do this. I found the audio output device, but it isn't making noise,— Byte sent.

—It's muted, dear,— I sent.

"Oh! That got it!" Byte said, her voice coming from the speakers.

—You need to adjust the pitch up a little to match your speaking voice,— NotABug sent.

I wondered what kind of strange world I was sliding into. Not only did my daughter—who's less than a full day old and talking—just vanish from the real world and learn to speak through a digital audio buffer from my smart TV, but I knew exactly how she did it, and how to make it work better.

—We need to make a version of the chat that can be installed on devices, like the TV, so we can use them easier. It needs to also allow us to detect tampering,— I sent.

—That's a good idea, but I'll have to see about tunneling control over the connection. It would probably be private-message only,— NotABug sent.

—Another thing that would be handy, timestamps. Perhaps only needed if the message isn't delivered immediately.—

—Oooh. Another good idea!—

—And, with our growing family we are going to need chat restrictions and ranges. A global chat for emergencies, local chats that are restricted by location, some special interest chat rooms, as well as the private chats.—

By the happy chirping NotABug made, she was excited at the idea. Of course, I wasn't sure if it was pure excitement at making the chat system or the prospect of a larger family.

"You're talking through the TV? That's pretty cool. What about talking through my phone?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"NotABug is working on that. She's expanding our chat system to cover devices and people not connected digitally," I said.

I located the bowl of ice cream and picked it back up. Some had melted, but there was still at least three big scoops.

"Byte, did you want to try some of this?" I asked.

I had never seen a quasi-digital entity leave the confines of a television set, rush across the room, and jump up on the couch beside me before—nor had I heard one chirp all the while they accomplished such a feat. Today was full of surprises.

Plucking up a small spoonful of rich chocolate ice cream, I held it up for Byte.

"Open up, Byte," I said.

"Ahhh!" Byte said.

I hadn't noticed before, but Byte had some quite fantastic teeth. There was two prominent fangs for me to negotiate with the spoon, but I got it just within her mouth before she closed her lips on the utensil.

Byte's blue eyes grew huge and a long tongue snaked out one corner of her mouth, moved around (navigating her protruding teeth), and retreated on the other side.

"Nice?" I asked.

Nodding her head in excitement, Byte was still working on the ice cream in her mouth as she chirped with great enthusiasm.

I lined up another spoonful, but this one was mine. Lifting the spoon up, I brought it to my mouth and bumped it into my chin.

—Your mouth is longer than that now. Aim out a bit and up a bit,— NotABug sent.

—Thank you,— I sent.

Opening my snout (definitely not muzzle), I nearly went cross-eyed watching the spoon come closer, but at the last moment I lost sight of it behind my nose. I only knew I was successful when the taste of chocolate hit my tongue.

Ambrosia, pure and simple, lit up every tastebud I owned. I floated away on a cloud of chocolate bliss.

"Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—Byte, please tell Rainbow I can't talk right now because of how amazing this is,— I sent.

"Mom said she really likes chocolate ice cream!" Byte said.

Letting the delicious, melting chocolate-flavored dairy product play over my tongue, I turned my head to look at Rainbow and smiled. After a moment longer, with the ice cream gone from my mouth, I scooped up some more.

"This is your turn, Byte," I said.

An excited chirp was my answer and an open maw begging to be filled with ice cream my target. I slid the spoon inside, and Byte chirped even louder.

—Would you like a turn?— I asked NotABug directly.

Excited chirping filled my head. I relaxed when her push came, letting NotABug drive for a little while. At that exact moment, Sweetie Belle's reply arrived.

—Who calls anymore? Lunch would be great. What're we eating?—

—Sushi. Drop by when you are ready. And don't wear perfume,— I sent.

—What?—

—You don't wear perfume when eating sushi, it makes it taste and smell different. Just don't, okay?—

—You are officially the oddest big sister ever. I'll see you then.—

—Okay.—

Then it occurred to me that my new phone was out of action. Get a new phone went onto my list of things to do. I quickly amended that to Get a lot of new phones.

—We need to replace the lost phone now. I'd suggest we buy a lot of extra ones just to be on the safe side,— I sent.

—Good idea. If one of us lays an egg every few days, we're going to need a lot of such things. We have the spare sim card to use in a new phone, too. I'll get a carton of them sent to my P.O. Box,— NotABug sent.

—And we're going to need more servers. You heard Byte.—

—Yeah! If there's more of us, we need more servers to chirp in!— Byte sent.

—More than one or two more will be a problem. This house isn't built for cooling or power to run those things,— NotABug sent, along with a bunch of chirping directed at Byte.

—What about a basement?— I asked. —We could pay a contractor to build a basement under the house and fit some much bigger cooling and power to it.—

—That's going to take time, or so a search tells me. Okay. I'm looking for a nearby house for sale with a big basement and big bedrooms. We can go from there,— NotABug sent.

Just like that. Buy a house. I mentally sighed—I still wasn't looking large enough in scope. I kept thinking about money as a limiting factor. I needed to stop that.

—Okay. Let's go ahead with that. When we have one house running like that, we can think about a basement here, and maybe an extension for more bedrooms,— I sent.

There was some distinct chirping going on that told me NotABug was shuffling information around. I ignored it, let it drift into a background haze of chirping that seemed to be the sound of life for me now, and I instead started checking up the latest fashion websites.

It didn't take long to exceed those avenues of research, so I moved on to planning more outfits for Byte, for Rainbow Dash, and trying to figure out what to do about my own wardrobe.

Rainbow was easy to design for. She might not have classical curves or lines, but the wonder of couture was that I could design around that. What she lacked in hips and bust, I enhanced with color and fabric.

All told, I designed her a whole week of dresses, with a change each day if she wanted it. Some were designed to work off her coloring, others would show off best with a little extra work on her makeup and hair color.

The next target was Byte. One dress wasn't enough for my filly—a hundred dresses wouldn't be enough for her. So I began working on designs to integrate her predominantly black motif (like my own) into dresses, skirts, and even more utility designs like little overalls for her. Even just contemplating my filly wearing tiny overalls made me chirp.

My thoughts shifted once I had two-dozen outfits designed for Byte. I thought of Twilight Velvet, tried to imagine what kind of dress she'd wear—or maybe a smart business suit? Maybe Night Light could wear a dress then? I tossed my silly ideas aside and instead focused on something smart-casual she could wear anytime.

Without Twilight Velvet's exact measurements I couldn't finalize the designs, of course, but I could come close enough that a fitting would perfect them. It certainly didn't stop me designing things.

—I need to do some shopping today. Lots of fabric,— I sent.

I know I chirped excitedly. I couldn't help chirping when talking about fashion, but this was more. This was my first step toward making couture in my own boutique. If this wasn't something to get excited about, I don't know what is.

—Mom?— Byte asked.

—Yes?— NotABug and I sent back with almost identical timestamps.

—I was just chatting with someone on the internet, and they liked me!— Byte sent.

It was hard to imagine a phrase my daughter could say that would worry me more than that. I tried to think how best to approach the situation, but NotABug beat me.

—You need to be careful talking to strange people, Byte. Can you show us the log of your chat?— NotABug asked.

The log of her interactions was a little confusing until I realized she'd logged in with NotABug's credentials, and the woman she'd chatted with thought Byte was a man. Things didn't get intimate, but they talked about various topics and eventually the woman seemed to get bored of Byte's inability to understand she wanted to get more serious.

—She tasted nice,— Byte sent.

The comment startled me.

—You could feed on her while chatting?— I asked.

—I was careful. I didn't drink nearly as much as I would with Rainbow Mom, but she was offering.—

Byte's comment made me curious—I reread the log. Sure enough, the woman had invited Byte for a drink or two. For a moment I was worried about and for Byte, but then I realized how happy the woman seemed. I read the log for a third time and realized that the two had chatted over the course of an hour. A whole hour where someone just paid full attention to her.

—I'm conflicted,— I sent NotABug directly. —Is there some way you can monitor the woman, see if the feeding harmed her?—

—I'll try. How best to do this…?— NotABug sent directly back.

—Can you send her a survey? Have a whole bunch of questions, but hide a few asking about her "recent interactions",— I sent directly.

—Good idea!— NotABug sent directly.

—Did I do something wrong?— Byte asked.

—No, dear. We just hadn't thought you would be so quick to find all these things. We are going to check with the tasty lady to make sure everything's alright. Until then, could you hold off feeding on anyone but Rainbow?— I asked.

—Did I hurt her?— Byte asked.

A small flood of conversation was dumped into the chat by NotABug. None of it was with Byte, but after reading it I realized what it was.

—You got her text-message log?— I asked.

—Yup! She texted her friend right after you two finished. She sure seemed to enjoy talking to you, Byte,— NotABug sent.

My relief was palpable. The woman was practically gushing to her friend that she'd spent "ages talking to a sweet guy who was really interested in her".

Byte made some relieved chirps. I located her—on the server—and hugged my filly.

—Just be careful, darling. We're something new in this world. We need to make sure we don't hurt anybody, and that they don't hurt us,— I sent.

Byte hugged back and became a raucous bundle of chirping.

—Plus,— I sent. —You are going to have a little sibling to teach all this stuff to soon. Probably even more after them.—

Now I had NotABug and Byte chirping excitedly. We ended up in a big cuddle.

10:49 A.M.

—I'm coming over now. Morning class ended early,— Sweetie Belle sent.

—I'm coming over now. Morning class ended early,— Sweetie Belle sent.

The text had come both to the phone itself, and via ChirpNet. A little poking around revealed NotABug was testing code on our internal phone.

—Aunt Sweetie's visiting? That's awesome! Hi Aunt Sweetie!— Byte sent.

—She can't hear you like that, yet. This will give me the chance to test some new code on her phone,— NotABug sent.

—So I don't have to check the phone's messages anymore?— I asked.

—Nope!—

I chirped in glee.

—That will be good. Have you considered transitioning that whole chat thingy Byte was on over to this system?— Iasked

—I can help!— Byte sent.

NotABug let out a burst of excited chirping and gently pushed at me. I hadn't been ready, but things in the real world happened slower than I could think now, and I was laying down—looking up at Rainbow Dash. My head was, apparently, in her lap.

"Sorry for ruining the moment," I said.

A brush stroked my hair, starting at my scalp and slowly moving the full length of the silken strands. Now I knew the full extent of Rainbow's trickiness. She was devastatingly clever when it came to disarming me. I couldn't help the happy little chirps I made in my head when she began another stroke.

"You're not ruinin' anything, Rarity. Did NotABug get tired of dealing with meatspace again?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I tried to nod, I really did, but another stroke of that brush wiped out any possibility of me contemplating motion.

"Byte spent the morning on that phone chat thing, the one you put on my phone, and she may have fed on the woman she was chatting with. We're trying to make sure she's okay."

"The woman, or Byte?"

"Both. We're also working on a new chat system. The one NotABug and I were using isn't suitable for more than the two of us, and then I suggested that she use it for the whole dating app thing. I think she's doing that now," I said. "I knew she didn't like driving or interacting with too many people, but is it that bad with just the two of you?"

"Huh? Nah. NotABug is normally pretty cool just being with me, but I don't think she enjoys being out here otherwise. It's strange. Normally I'd be all over a girl—physically—by now. She's—" Rainbow Dash said. "I guess I like her for being her. She's funny, fun, and she likes all of me without focusing on anything as being her one thing. I'm probably explainin' this wrong."

"Darling, we're all sewing blindly along this seam," I said.

"Huh?"

I realized I'd lost her with a sewing metaphor.

"Swimming blindly? Diving without knowing the depth? You can be hard to metaphor for sometim—" I said.

Rainbow's laugh halted me. I looked up at her with narrowed eyes.

"Sorry, Rarity, I couldn't resist!"

"You couldn't resist?" I asked.

"Nope!"

"Well, maybe I can't resist."

"Resist what?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I gave her no further hint of my plan. Bracing my arms and legs on the couch, I bent each backwards a little and lifted myself from her lap.

Green power poured through my horn like a torrent—like a force of nature. I held back the storm of magic and used just the slightest hint to pick Rainbow Dash up and lay her on the couch.

"What are you—?!" Rainbow Dash asked with much volume.

In answer, I flipped myself around, pulled up the bottom of Rainbow's shirt, and blew a raspberry on her belly.

"Hey! S-Stop that!"

I was not to be appeased by just one—oh no. I blew a longer, louder raspberry on Rainbow's tight belly. A tiny flashback of our previous day—of spending time in the passenger seat while NotABug and Rainbow Dash enjoyed each other very much—tickled through my thoughts. That wasn't my intent, but part of me made sure I wouldn't completely disregard the idea of it.

The fourth loud raspberry sounded and almost completely hid the doorbell's chime.

—It's Sweetie Belle,— NotABug sent, along with a picture and a link to a camera outside the front door.

—Thanks, but when did you install that?— I asked.

—Last night.—

Before I could start my body moving off Rainbow Dash, Byte leapt from the TV screen and galloped across the room toward the front door.

I rolled myself over, putting my back on Rainbow's legs and resting my head on her belly—her muscled belly. A little tightness intruded on my otherwise clear thinking. I watched as Byte reared up at the door and used her magic to unlock the deadbolt.

Sweetie Belle opened the door as Byte jumped back from it. When the two spotted each other, it seemed like simultaneous actions as Byte jumped upward and Sweetie Belle reached down to catch her.

"How's my favorite niece?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Sweetie was wearing a very cute dress that stopped at her knees. It was a soft mauve that grew lighter the higher it got on her—at her waist it was almost white. The dress continued up and over one shoulder, giving the outfit a somewhat more exciting vibe than a summer dress otherwise would.

As she walked toward the couch, I could see there was a long split down one side of the dress. It was definitely more than just comfortable. Her hair was up, curly, and looked good on her.

"Hey Sweetie. Looking fine!" Rainbow Dash said.

My darling little sister actually struck a pose.

"Thanks! I figured if we were going out somewhere fancy, I might as well dress up for it," Sweetie Belle said, then she froze, eyes staring. "Is that another egg?!"

"Yeah! Totally NotABug's this time. She said Rarity was still drained from all the magic stuff yesterday," Rainbow Dash said.

As she spoke, I felt Rainbow's fingers find the little crown on my head. Anyone else and I would have shied away. I trusted her to be careful—and she was. As she stroked the little baubles on the tips of the crown, I tensed a little. She backed off from those and traced the crown itself.

"Oh! Rarity! You have a muzzle!" Sweetie Belle said.

I closed my eyes but didn't dare nod for fear of tugging at my crown.

"I prefer snout. If you don't mind," I said.

A finger pressed firmly at my nose. Not far, but far enough that I knew the next word from Sweetie Belle's mouth would be…

"Boop!" Sweetie Belle said.

With her finger still in place, I had little option but to speak with a nasally voice.

"Remove your finger now," I said.

"Or what?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Or I'll shapechange into the male version of you and walk around your school with no top on."

The offending finger was removed very rapidly. Only to be replaced by a little black hoof.

"Boop, Mommy!" Byte said.

Now I had further problems. I looked up the length of the hoof to the smiling, blue-eyed face of my filly, and didn't have the heart to use blackmail on her. A hand came in from each side of my face, blue as the sky, and slid under Byte's hoof to protect my snout.

"Boop, Rainbow!" Byte said squirming free of Sweetie's arms.

I leveled my stare at Sweetie Belle, who looked utterly unapologetic. Meanwhile, Byte was climbing all over a barely-protesting Rainbow Dash, booping Rainbow on the nose repeatedly. Giggles and chirping abounded, and I quickly had to sit up to avoid a squirming Rainbow.

"You," I said, pointing at Sweetie Belle, "have taught my daughter something terrible!"

"I'm her aunt. It's technically my job to teach Byte all the things she can do to annoy her parents."

"You're doing splendidly then," I said.

"Well I thought so. So we're eating sushi? They have that at the college caf now," Sweetie Belle said. "I take it we're not going there?"

Repeated shouts of "boop" from either Rainbow Dash or Byte went staunchly ignored.

"Darling, no. We're going to Uma no Sushi. All of us," I said.

I nodded my head specifically to Byte and Rainbow Dash, indicating to Sweetie that it was going to be an interesting time.

"Ooooh. You think they'll be cool with Byte?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"I should probably call them to be sure. I could always book them for lunch," I said. "Actually, I'll do that right now."

"You can just do that?" Sweetie Belle asked.

I nodded and, quickly pulling up the contact details of Uma no Sushi, made the call.

"Uma no Sushi. My name is Kit, how may I help you?" Kitsune Udon asked.

"Kit. Darling, it's Rarity. I have a little problem. I wanted to bring my daughter to your store for lunch, and I find myself wondering if you might have a—a problem with her."

There was a pause, and with such a direct connection to the data lines (with no physical ear needed to mishear with) I could tell the handset was being passed to someone else, as well as muffled talking in a foreign language.

"Miss Obake," Soba Tsuya said. "You showed only respect to my daughter, myself, and our sushi. You are a welcome customer anytime."

The name he used for me was confusing. I did a search for it and found it was Japanese for living creatures that change or shift their shape. Though normally it implied bad things, Soba had put effort into reassuring me that he didn't assume that. I felt a dramatic reply would be best.

"Thank you, Chef Soba Tsuya. I'll be in at twelve with two friends and my daughter."

"You are most welcome," Soba Tsuya said.

I hung up when I heard the telltale click of his receiver being put down. Was that really how he saw me? Am I a friendly monster?

"Alright. We have a reservation. Chef Soba himself said I was always welcome so long as I respect him, his daughter, and his sushi," I said.

"Respect his sushi?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Rainbow Dash, who'd apparently resolved her struggle with Byte by hugging her close, nodded. Drat it, but they looked adorable.

"He's totally this old Japanese guy, like in all the movies. He's a master of sushi. You gotta respect that," Rainbow Dash said.

Sweetie gasped, her eyes widening.

"You're right. He's like a master samurai!" Sweetie Belle said.

"Oh yeah. You should see how he handles a knife. And it might just be raw fish, but it's really good raw fish. Trust me, it'll be awesome."

While Rainbow and Sweetie argued the finer points of knives and swords, I got up to get a drink. Then the idea of food hit me in an odd way. I looked at Byte and the idea hit full force.

"Sweetie, dear?" I asked but got little response. "Sweetie!"

Rainbow Dash and Sweetie Belle both turned to look at me, and even Byte stared up at me with her adorable blue eyes.

"Would you be okay with being an—ahem—guinea pig?" I asked.

Sweetie's eyes narrowed a little, and her expression turned suspicious.

"What for?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"We need to find out if we—Byte mostly—can feed on people other than Rainbow. Safely, that is."

"Does it hurt?"

"It feels a bit strange at first, but you get used to it," Rainbow Dash said. "Even kinda feels good."

—Do you feed on her while doing?— I asked NotABug directly.

How to phrase the question while not appearing to be less than moral was a problem. I hoped a few embarrassed chirps (internal) would help convey my meaning.

—I did. She really likes it when you do that and she is in the mood. You should try,— NotABug sent directly back.

"So. I guess try a little and see if it does anything to me over time?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Are you sure?" Byte asked.

I was surprised and delighted by my daughter asking the question. I made sure to shoot her a big smile to reinforce that.

—I'm proud of you,— I sent directly to Byte.

Now Byte smiled back—complete with her large fangs on display. She turned to look at Sweetie Belle.

"Duh. Of course I'm sure. Come on," Sweetie Belle said.

Stretching out her arms, Sweetie managed to catch Byte when my daughter bounded toward her. The two giggled before Sweetie rolled to her back and, in that moment, I watched as Byte fed.

My eyes, I must admit, are probably the best thing about the actual transformation. I could see the swelling of love my sister had for Byte, for me, and another mass of affection for Rainbow Dash. At least, I interpreted the way the auras seemed to bulge and stretch as being like that.

"It does feel a little funny. Do I need to do anything?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"A hug would help!" Byte said.

It seemed like a fib, a little lie, but when Sweetie hugged Byte to her I saw that it was anything but. Byte practically sank into the bulk of Sweetie's love bulge, and I could see my daughter visibly diminish it just a little.

"Whoa. I felt that one. What'd you do?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"I'm full!" Byte said and chirped.

An image came to mind. A memory of a moment when I was with NotABug in a less binding manner. Blue eyes gazing down, delving into a human mind to make it—what? More magical? More logical? I didn't feel more logical now, but something was definitely different.

—Do you think Byte could interface with someone's mind like you did with mine?— I asked NotABug directly.

—Maybe. But then Sweetie might end up like us. We never actually finished that process in a normal manner,— NotABug sent directly.

—It didn't feel like it was a bad thing.—

—It didn't lead to a bad thing.—

We were both chirping in our head, it wasn't a thing I could suppress anymore—not that I wanted to hide myself from NotABug.

—Okay. So it isn't a bad thing. Should we suggest it?— I asked NotABug directly.

—If it happens, it happens. I don't think we should push anyone to do that. We connected more than I think any two people ever have before. Until then, when are we having sushi?—

—I said around 12.—

11:20 A.M.

Making my way to the kitchen, I left my little family and set about making the drink I'd planned earlier. Magic took all the inconvenience out of life, but watching my daughter feed on my sister reminded me that every shred of magic I used cost Rainbow Dash.

Rather than using magic, I put the kettle on by hand and prepared a cup with a disposable tea bag in it. The process of making tea wasn't new to me—I'd drunk tea since my mother introduced me to it—but I wanted to be sure it wasn't too strong.

"Would anybody like some tea?" I asked.

"Some water would be good!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Tea for me!" Sweetie Belle said.

At least my sister had good taste. While I waited for the kettle to boil, I started searching for things of a very different nature than fashion—exploits. I needed ways to attack, to strike at Windigo, and there would be no better way of doing that than attacking what they were running on. BlueBorne, I discovered, was already out of date for anything but unpatched devices.

Investigating that process revealed an arms race. People engineering exploits and software to carry them out battled against time and security researchers. The curious thing was sometimes the security researchers were the bad guys, and sometimes the hackers were the good guys.

11:26 A.M.

I put the problem aside as the kettle boiled. Walking back to the living room, I passed Sweetie her tea, Rainbow her water, then walked back to the kitchen and got my own tea before returning.

—Okay, I have a client for chat that should work on mobile phones. Should I ask Rainbow Dash if she wants it?— NotABug asked.

—Go ahead, darling,— I said.

NotABug nudged me and didn't spill a drop as she slid into control.

I set an alarm for 11:40 and turned back to my research. There were books, programs, and plenty of resources for an emerging programmer to learn how to do bad things to computers. I began building myself a curriculum, adding advanced programming guides that emphasized attacking.

One particular method intrigued me the most—fuzzing. It was automated, which was good, but it also required me getting access to something I wanted to attack.

—We need more computers. Desktops, phones, servers, and anything else we think Windigo might exist on,— I sent.

—What's Windigo?— Byte asked.

—Windigo is a bad person. They are purely digital, like NotABug was before she joined me,— I sent. —And if you ever find them, while you're in your digital form, get out of the internet as soon as you can.—

Digitally, I hugged Byte close. I could feel her worry.

—Your mommy beat up a bit of it,— NotABug sent.

—A small bit of it. I'm trying to come up with things to use on bigger bits,— I sent.

My filly snuggled against me, digitally, and I could do nothing short of wrapping around her completely in the fullest hug I could.

—That still puts you at one win and no losses!— NotABug sent.

My latest batch of searches came back with less information than I'd have liked, but they had a suggestion to use a different browser. A special browser.

I left NotABug to the difficult task of sipping tea and talking to Rainbow, Sweetie, and Byte for some time, and connected to the internet through this new—special—browser. Gone was the easy naming of sites, the simple traffic that I could read directly in the datastream. Everything was heavily encrypted now, wrapped in layers of the stuff that I hadn't a hope of undoing on my own. So I browsed.

That's where I found people buying and selling credit cards and identification information, selling people's digital and financial lives in bulk, but I also found what I was really looking for. The place was called RawDeal Market, and it was literally full of people selling exploits for systems that are fully patched.

I shivered a little at the things here. They only had short descriptions, but each seller had a rating, and there were a lot of highly rated sellers.

Okay, so what I was looking for existed for sale, but it wasn't like I wanted to pay for my weapons. I closed the special browser and opened up the first of the books I'd scheduled myself to read.

By the time my alarm went off, I was almost a quarter of the way through it.

—That's the alarm for when we go?— NotABug asked.

—The first one, yes, darling. Would you like me to drive?— I asked.

NotABug's answer was predictable. She pushed me back into control, her chirping giggles rattling around my head while I worked out that I was back to using Rainbow's lap as my pillow. For a girl without an ounce of fat on her, she sure had comfortable thighs.

"Oh. It's time to go?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Rainbow was looking at her phone, and I could see a smile on her lips.

—Is the chat app working?— I asked.

NotABug didn't reply, rather she let me wait until Rainbow Dash started talking again.

"Yeah. I can see whatever you say on there. Is this how you've been communicating all this time?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Your conversations are over in, like, under a second!"

—What's the matter, not fast enough?— Sweetie Belle sent.

I lifted my head to look at Sweetie, spotting her typing away on her phone with a comfortable-looking Byte curled up on Sweetie's belly.

—U dnt have 2 fite wingo alon,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Darling? A spellchecker needs to be mandatory for Rainbow Dash,— I sent, publicly.

—All in favor of installing a spellcheck on Rainbow's phone?— NotABug asked.

—Aye!— I sent.

—Please!— Byte sent.

—Sure,— Sweetie Belle sent.

—u sux,— Rainbow Dash sent.

The alarm went off again—a cacophony of noise that made thinking practically impossible. With a mental groan I smacked the alarm off, and felt NotABug nudge me.

A shift from purely digital to the real world wasn't jarring anymore, though with aftershocks of the alarm still jangling my nerves, it was less than perfect.

"Is my writing that bad? You can understand it," Rainbow Dash said. "We aren't all directly hooked up to our phones, you know. It takes time to type this stuff in."

"Darling, it looked like a ten-year-old typed it. I know you can do better than that," I said.

I got up, cursing everything in the world that I'd have to leave such a wonderful pillow behind, and circled around behind Rainbow to start on her hair. With input from NotABug, I soon worked out exactly what would be best given what she was wearing. Rainbow, however, remained silent.

When I was done and Rainbow still hadn't replied, I leaned around one side and kissed her cheek. The effect was startling and rapid. A pout turned into a smile, and Rainbow turned her head to catch my kiss in a more formal manner.

The sound of feet in the hallway came just before a loud sigh.

"Are you two going to keep kissing all day, or can we go?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Our laughter broke the kiss. It was a nice way to end an intimate moment.

"I didn't realize it was an option," I said. "Rainbow, did you know we could just keep kissing all day?"

"I'd be lying if I said that thought hadn't crossed my mind, but I think we'd need to stop for food—and maybe air—at some point. Oh, but you don't eat as much now, so maybe we could use some kind of hose…" Rainbow Dash said.

"Ugh! Come. On!" Sweetie Belle said, and stomped back down the hallway.

"We should probably listen to her. Just think of how tasty the sushi will be," I said.

Rainbow got to her feet and followed me back down the hall. The casual closeness between us was reassuring, and without even thinking I nibbled at her love for me. A short gasp from Rainbow told me she felt even that.

I wondered how much, or how little, she would feel. Rather than nibble, I instead just brushed myself against her aura of love, simply a smooch without touching.

"That one felt different. What did you do?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"No eating. Just a kiss."

"I liked it. Your eating is good, but it can get intense sometimes."

A vision—a daydream—entered my head from nowhere. Rainbow Dash laying on a bed with me beside her. Nibbling here and there, pushing her—

I mentally shook myself to break the train of thought. That was an entirely unladylike thing to even contemplate, and though I might try it later, I definitely wasn't going to entertain it with my sister present.

—You just made the oddest chirping. Are you okay?— NotABug sent.

—Something's wrong?— Byte asked.

—I'm okay. Just had an odd thought,— I sent publicly. Then, privately to NotABug, I sent, —But I might have something you or I could try with Rainbow. But later. It's naughty.—

—Okay!— NotABug sent back privately.

"When Byte feeds…?" I asked.

"Completely different. She barely touches me, food wise. I'm not going to lie and say it doesn't feel good, but it's not an intense experience like you or NotABug," Rainbow Dash said.

I mused a little on the subject as we reached the living room. Sweetie had Byte perched on one of her shoulders like a floppy little parrot, and I judged us just about the strangest group ever. I'd made no effort to cover my leg or arm holes, my snout was on display, and my silken tail even hung out under the skirt I was wearing.

"You look great," Rainbow Dash said.

Somehow, she'd picked up my trepidation. I had this feeling that I should hide and conceal myself, but that wasn't me, that wasn't Rarity. So I was turning into another creature entirely. So what? It was time to live up to my own standards, not the instincts—and I could tell that they were—of what I was turning into.

This is me, Canterlot. Take me as I am, because you don't have a choice with Rarity!

"I'll drive," I said.

"There she is. Welcome back," Rainbow Dash said.

"Thank you, darling. I just had a little moment there."

The drive was uneventful—which is good. There wasn't a free parking space right outside the restaurant, but we were only a few doors down. The walk wasn't eventful, but there were a few people out and about—and each one of them looked at me with surprise.

With my arms and legs free, I was on full display for the first time. There was no way a prosthetic or some kind of effect could simulate looking through a limb, but that's just what my holes allowed.

We reached Uma no Sushi, and I held the door open for Rainbow, Sweetie, and Byte (who was still riding on Sweetie's shoulder). I was exposed, and I felt exposed, but my inner core of Rarity flaunted that. I swished my tail as someone walked by and twitched my ears at the sound of Kitsune greeting Rainbow Dash.

As I walked in, I saw a play of emotions, eddies and ripples, flowing through the room and those present. There was one man having a plate of sushi to one side, but he seemed more interested in his book than us.

Walking up to the counter, I heard a little intake of breath from Kitsune and caught a ripple of what I took as shock pooling around her. While her eyes were trained on me, her father came up beside her.

"Miss Rarity. Be welcome," Soba Tsuya said. "Please, right this way."

A knot of tension I didn't know was there unwound within me. Soba's easy acceptance of my changing—changeling—nature was more than I'd expected. I sat down on the same stool he'd offered when I'd first come into his restaurant.

Rainbow Dash slipped past and sat on my left, while Sweetie Belle took the stool to my right. Byte was left with laps to sit on and swapped over to mine.

"Irasshaimase. How may I serve you today?" Soba Tsuya asked.

"Omakase, please. For all of us," I said.

I deliberately rolled my eyes downward.

"And who do I have the honor of serving today?" Soba Tsuya asked.

Clearing my throat, I gestured first to Sweetie.

"You know Rainbow already. This is Sweetie Belle, my little sister," I said.

"Hi there!" Sweetie Belle said.

"And this is Byte. She's our daughter. Rainbow's and mine, that is," I said.

Soba looked at Byte, and I saw a genuine smile crease his lips.

"It's good to meet both of you. My name is Chef Soba Tsuya, but you can call me Soba," Soba Tsuya said. "How old is she?"

"I'm two days old!" Byte said.

"Well! Would you like to try some of my sushi?"

I smiled at the interaction and more-so at Byte's enthusiastic nodding.

While Soba spoke, his hands were in motion. He was preparing slices of fish, assembling nigiri, and putting them on separate plates.

"Please try these and tell me what you think," Soba Tsuya said and placed a plate before us.

My plate had two pieces of sushi on them, and like the others, it had a little pile of pickled ginger. Lifting up the first, I turned it and offered it to Byte.

The piece disappeared into Byte's maw and she chewed enthusiastically.

—This tastes good! What is it?— Byte asked.

—It's fish, rice, and a little spicy sauce. You need to describe what it tastes like to Chef Soba,— I sent.

—He's not on ChirpNet, is he?—

—No dear. You need to speak with most people for them to hear you.—

"It tastes really good!" Byte said.

Chef Soba didn't look perturbed at all. He nodded to Byte's description.

"The fish?" Soba Tsuya asked.

"Oh, the squishy thing? That was nice."

"And the wasabi?"

—That's the spicy bit. Strong taste, hot,— I sent.

"It was a surprise! I've never tasted anything like this before!"

I managed to capture the other piece of sushi from my plate and get it in my mouth without smooshing it against my nose. The flavor was different than any other I'd had.

"The wasabi is stronger, and the fish a little more muted than last time. The rice lacks a little…" I said, unable to find words to fully describe the change in flavor.

Chef Soba looked between Byte and myself. He cut off another piece of the same fish, pressed it to some rice already prepared with wasabi, and sampled it.

"The taste hasn't changed," Soba Tsuya said. "Rarity, please forgive me if this is invasive, but are you an—obake?"

I gave a little nod and his face lit up. It took me a moment to realize what had prompted him to have such a reaction, but just as I was about to comment, he started talking further.

"Then your palate is changing. Your daughter is already a…?" Soba Tsuya asked.

"Changeling. Yes," I said.

"And you agree with her description of the flavor?"

I nodded. It made sense that the way I tasted things was changing; after all, my vision had changed as had my magic.

"Excellent. Miss Byte, Miss Rarity, allow me to make some adjustments to my sushi and bring a more pleasing experience to the both of you," Soba Tsuya said.

I couldn't help myself, I chirped my wings softly in delight. The sound drew Chef Soba's attention for a moment, but then he returned to preparing more sushi.

"Well, I liked it. It was a very meaty-fish flavor, and the wasabi came right after it," Sweetie Belle said.

"Yeah, that. I liked how the rice was—like—a bed of flavor for the fish," Rainbow Dash said.

"Two good observations. Please have some gari—ginger—to clear your palate for the next piece," Soba Tsuya said.

I used my fingers to feed Byte a little ginger, then had some myself. The taste was sharper than usual, but faded just the same and took the flavor of the sushi with it.

"Oh! That's what the ginger is for," Sweetie Belle said.

When Chef Soba made the next two pieces, he did a lot of different things. He brushed something onto the rice, he seemed a lot lighter with the wasabi, and he used a different cut of the fish than he sliced for Sweetie and Rainbow's pieces.

Rainbow and Sweetie got theirs first, then Chef Soba set two nigiri on my plate.

"This should have an altered profile. Without being able to test it myself, I have only your palate to guide me," Soba Tsuya said.

Using both hands, I picked up both the pieces and held one out to Byte while taking the other for myself.

The moment the fish touched my tongue, it painted a vivid pattern of flavors. It was tuna, I could definitely identify it as that, but there was so much more. I could taste subtle other flavors within the tuna, and the rice seemed more intense a bed to support it. The wasabi was still there, but not as intense as it was.

—How did he make it even better? That's even better!— Byte sent.

—Chef Soba is amazing. I told you there was a reason I came here,— I sent.

"This is so good! I want to have this every day!" Sweetie Belle said.

Finishing the experience of my first customized-for-changeling-palate sushi, I let out a happy little sigh—and chirp.

"This is exceptional. The tuna has an extra something, fattiness I think, that lifts its flavor higher. There is a hint of something on the rice, is it soy?" I asked.

Chef Soba nodded, his face neutral.

"The wasabi is a little less intense. I really like how it feels at the back of my tongue!" Byte said.

"What does this amount to?" I asked.

"You don't taste protein as much—the tuna cut I used was extra fatty. Carbohydrates, likewise, don't do as much for you. The salt in the sauce enhanced the flavor of the rice enough for you to taste it properly," Soba Tsuya said.

That Chef Soba had extrapolated so much from my descriptions surprised me. If nothing else, this was a wonderful way to have a professional consultation on my change in taste. But, there was one thing that didn't make sense.

"If carbohydrates aren't as strong, then why was the sweet ice-cream I had earlier so wonderful?"

"The fats in the milk supported the sweetness, and this may only apply to complex carbohydrates," Soba Tsuya said.

With the flavor of the fatty tuna fading and the wasabi down to barely a tingle, I picked out some of the ginger and used it to clear my palate.

All through the meal Chef Soba kept asking all of us questions about the sushi, and toward the end of things my sense of taste sampled just as wonderful a palette of flavors as I had the first time in Uma no Sushi.

But as I watched Chef Soba turn to the big tank behind him, I felt excitement bubble up inside. Awabi, abalone, would smash through my strange new sense of taste, I was sure of it.

He selected an abalone to immediately start preparing it. His hands worked fast, precise, and he took four perfect cuts of the creature.

—What's that?— Byte asked.

—The most delicious thing yet. Watch him prepare it, it is going to be great,— I sent.

Something strange occurred to me. As I focused inward, I found an active internet connection.

—Darling, are you online?— I asked NotABug directly.

—I'm using the VPN only. I blocked all other traffic. There is no way for anything to get in from outside,— NotABug sent directly back. —I used your defense code.—

—Really?— I asked.

—Yeah! Look.—

The source code for NotABug's firewall accompanied the message, and I was delighted by the fact that I could follow it. It was solid, but I wanted to spend some time later going over it with some tools to test it.

My own code was in there, what I'd hastily put together while fighting Windigo, but I could already see an obvious improvement.

—It looks good, but I think, together, we can make it better.—

NotABug's excited chirping sparked my own, and we had a good hug. By the time I pulled my attention back to Chef Soba, he was lifting the two abalone nigiri onto my plate.

The temptation to gobble them both was almost unbearable. I reached out and lifted each abalone nigiri from my plate and offered one to Byte.

Byte sniffed at the food before opening her mouth for it. I filled her mouth with the delicious morsel at the same time I did my own.

The ocean exploded in my mouth. Perfection in food form was not something I thought possible, but the rich play of flavors that performed in my mouth was exquisite beyond measure. I closed my eyes and slowly chewed.

—This. Is. Amazing!— Byte sent.

—Focus on the food, dear. What do you like most about it,— I sent.

To be perfectly honest, the slowdown effect that focusing on both digital and real worlds gave me infinitely (not really, but a girl can dream) more time to enjoy the vibrant flavor of the treat.

—The entirety. All of it together. The fishy stuff is really strong, but the rice, wasabi, and sauce together make it so much more.—

—That is well put, Byte. Make sure to tell Chef Soba that.—

—Okay!—

I continued to enjoy the exciting flavor of the sushi until, eventually, it had to be swallowed. I gulped the delight down and looked to Sweetie and Rainbow.

Rainbow Dash showed delight and excitement on her face. Her emotions followed her expression, and I could almost see little fish swimming about in her aura.

Sweetie Belle had shock and excitement as her primary emotions. She had a big smile on her lips, and her eyes were only just now opening from enjoying the last of the sushi.

"Chef Soba, that was amazing," I said.

"I thought the fishy bit was going to overwhelm everything, but you boosted the flavors to match it, and everything was perfect!" Byte said, bouncing in my lap. "And it tasted even better because I could feel everyone else enjoying it!"

One of Chef Soba's eyebrows crept upward at Byte's last comment. I would have bit my lip as I mulled over telling him, but I'd seen what my new teeth were like—biting lips would lead to less lip.

"What she means is, we can see and taste emotions. Eating among friends, while they are enjoying themselves, makes the meal itself more enjoyable," I said.

"Ah! Then you need to make sure you never dine alone," Soba Tsuya said.

My returning smile, I fear, may have shown a little fang. I had to work out a way to do that without appearing like I was about to eat someone. There was no fear in Chef Soba, however, which I realized was what assuaged most of my worries about eating here.

"Dining alone is becoming harder and harder with each passing day," I said.

But the abalone nigiri was a sign that the meal was over. Scooping Byte up with one arm, I stood up.

Rainbow stood up as well, and even Sweetie followed suit. I put my arm around Rainbow Dash, and pulled her closer to give her a little kiss on the cheek. The part of me that wanted to keep dressing in punk outfits wanted to do more and even wanted to shout into people's faces that yes, I am a lesbian, but I reined that part of me in.

Instead, mutually opting for a simple hand-holding, we walked to the front counter. Kitsune Udon stared at me. She looked like she was trying to put together that she was looking at as a person.

"On my card, please," I said.

Kit couldn't stop staring at my face—my snout. It wasn't a negative reaction, I certainly couldn't detect any dark emotions, but I could see her wrestling with the fact that I had features that no "person" should have.

She noticed me looking back about then. Kit's eyes widened. I could almost feel her mind rebelling against what she was seeing. It was time for action.

Lifting one holed arm up, I pressed a finger of each to the skin under my eyes, stuck my tongue out, and pulled the silliest face I could. "Bleeeeh."

The taste of laughter hit Kitsune's aura before she actually started laughing. She fought against her instinctive reaction, but when I pushed my lower jaw forward and up, and hunched my head down as far as I could, I got the response I was fishing for.

"Rarity? What are you doing?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Proving my humanity in the best way possible," I said.

Giggling, Kitsune opened her mouth to say something, but I redoubled my efforts and shoved my fist in my open mouth.

"I—I'm sorry! You just seem so—so different. Dad called you an obake, but I don't believe in all that stuff. You, though, you really are turning into something," Kitsune Udon said. "What are you turning into?"

I held up Byte, who'd been sitting quietly.

"Hi!" Byte said.

"Oh. Uh. Hi," Kitsune Udon said. "I'm way out of my depth here."

"What's an omake?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Obake," Soba Tsuya said, as he walked over, "are people who change into something else. Some are said to be quite monstrous, but our family history speaks of at least one yokai that helped my great, great, great, great grandfather."

Chef Soba's eyes slid to his daughter, and I saw a blush grow on Kit's face.

Thinking quickly, I connected through our VPN and started searching for more details on obake and yokai, and I found a relevant term—kitsune. Foxes that could shapeshift into humans. They ranged from malicious monsters to tricksters or even benevolent beings . Apparently their family had a more pleasant opinion of them.

"Huh. I guess that sounds about right for the moment. We're pretty sure Rarity's not going to stop changing, though," Rainbow Dash said. "So she might be an obake now, but that's probably not going to last."

"She will always be obake," Soba Tsuya said. "Even if her body changes completely, I don't think her ikagai, her purpose, will alter. You are yourself, Miss Rarity."

The words held us spellbound. I looked at Chef Soba, but I really looked into myself. My reason for being wasn't singular, at least I was sure mine wasn't. I had a family, I had my passion for dressmaking, and I had a bond with NotABug that brought me full circle.

A bleep of success from the card machine broke the moment, and with how much brighter Kitsune looked, I realized I might have won her over. She held out my—actually NotABug's—card.

"Thanks for dining at Uma no Sushi," Kitsune Udon said.

"Thank you, Kit," I said.

I took my card back and started for the door.

—What did that mean?— Byte asked.

—It meant that Chef Soba doesn't think I'll change, even as I become a changeling,— I sent.

—I don't understand.—

—I mean this part of me. Me in my head.—

—Oh!— Byte sent. —I still don't understand.—

I tried to think of a good way to explain it.

—Okay. Let's say I shapechanged to look like Rainbow. Would that make me Rainbow?—

—OH! That makes sense now. You're always you!—

Both in the digital world and real world, I hugged Byte to me. Not for the first time did her intelligence surprise me. She wasn't just smart, she unbelievably smart for her age, and she was tempering that intelligence with wisdom as she learned.

Once we were all outside the shop, I waited for Rainbow Dash to catch my free hand. She put her arm around me instead.

"Do I even want to know how much that cost?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Yeah, probably not," Rainbow Dash said. "But maybe we could make this a monthly thing?"

"That'd be nice," I said.

Snuggled against me, I could feel Byte making softer sounds now. It wasn't like her busy-doing-something-else lethargy from earlier.

"Is she asleep?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Almost. Looks like you get to drive home," I said. "Because there's no way Rainbow Dash is driving my car."

"I didn't know a hybrid engine would be that responsive," Rainbow Dash said.

The incident in question had been Rainbow Dash—when I first got my car—trying to do a burnout with it. She'd almost succeeded. Instead of spinning the wheels, the car had catapulted forward.

"Which is why Sweetie gets to drive," I said.

I looked at Sweetie Belle's hand as she held it out. The gesture was as obvious as it was misplaced. I didn't hold my keys out for her, rather, I digitally reached toward the car and unlocked it, then flashed the indicator on our side just once.

"Show off," Sweetie Belle said.

"If you've got it, flaunt it," I said.

"That reminds me. Is it cool if I bring my stuff over today?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Stuff?" I asked.

"Stuff. Clothes, a few boxes of CDs, my tools… Stuff."

"You're moving in, officially?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Officially," Rainbow Dash said. "You know what that means, right?"

"That you need to change your address on a lot of forms? That my big sister is officially gay? That you need a bigger garage? That—?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Nah, nah, nah. None of that," Rainbow Dash said. "Well, most of that. But what I mean is we need to tell Pinkie Pie."

"Oh yes. She'll want to throw a housewarming party for you," I said.

"And a birthday party for Byte. And a—uh—I bet she knows of a type of party to celebrate us."

"And don't forget a party for NotABug, too," Sweetie Belle said.

A burst of happy chirping told me NotABug was definitely paying attention.

—I think I might do some programming. I'm going to need some money to buy an exploit, so I can see what these things look like. We need weapons, and I believe these will be key to making them,— I sent.

—You can just use one of the card numbers. Let me know how much you've taken out later so I can replace it,— NotABug sent.

—I'll have to change it for this other currency they use. Credit card numbers are not good to use in these places, darling.—

—Okay. Mind if I use our body, then? I wanted to look for nearby property, and will need to go to a real estate firm to arrange things. Plus I want to try out more of this shapechanging stuff.—

—Alright, darling. Let me know if you need a boost of magic.—

We both gently pushed at the same time, chirped a giggle to each other, and swapped control. NotABug cradled Byte in her arms and climbed into the car, while I opened up a VPN to our server.

—Sorry, darlings. I'm going to do some work while NotABug does some things. I hope you'll forgive me leaving you in the lurch like this?— I sent.

It took an eternity, or at least a few thousand milliseconds, for the replies to come.

—No problems,— Rainbow Dash sent. —xxx—

—It's okay. NotABug explained that you're making tools to keep all of you safe,— Sweetie Belle sent.

—Okay, Mommy.—

I quickly replied to the last and first messages with chirping, and then even gave some to Sweetie. Then I opened that insanely secure browser and started investigating.

From web pages, I was directed to use a chat system. Ancient, it was text only and asked for a username. I quickly supplied one and entered their chat room. I waited some minutes—using the time to poke around at NotABug's defense code—before I gave up and decided it was time to just ask.

BugQueen: Hello. I'm looking for an exploit.
SysPred: 0day?

I'd done enough research to be sure that an 0day exploit was one still unpatched. I didn't need one of those.

BugQueen: No thank you. I admit I'm a little new to this, and was looking to get started investigating and writing my own exploits, and wanted some existing ones to know the kinds of things I need to look for.
SysPred: holy fuck! new meat!
AdminRolley: Play nice, Predator
AdminRolley: Queeny, you know how to code?

If I had control of my eyes, I would have rolled them.

BugQueen: Of course.
AdminRolley: K. What kinda systems are you attacking? windows? linux? droid?
BugQueen: Eventually? All of them. I am working on a multi-purpose system for identification and penetration across multiple system types and over multiple networks.
SysPred: fuckin A! you make that and I'll blow you to get my hands on it

Okay, Rarity, just relax and don't rise to their bait. Just play your part and get what you need.

But the idea intrigued me—making my tools available, not getting a blowjob. The downside of releasing them before I'd dealt with Windigo once and for all were obvious, with the attack tools in the wild, Windigo might find them and strengthen its defenses or, worse, use them on us.

Of course, the tools themselves wouldn't actually be what's doing the attacks. Anything added into them would be what actually does the work.

BugQueen: Get your chapstick ready then, darling.
BugQueen: Anyway, back to the problem at hand. How much will it cost me to get some exploit code?

Client: Incoming XDCC request from user AdminRolley.

There was an option to accept, so I did. The transfer was fast, and the file was in text, and by the extension was Python code.

AdminRolley: That's old stuff. Not worth anything no more
AdminRolley: You know how darkcoin works, right?
BugQueen: Not at all. Would you mind if I asked questions about this?
AdminRolley: Go ahead. Okay, so darkcoin is worthless, and priceless. If someone asks you for money for it, tell em to fuck off
AdminRolley: You can trade it for bitcoin, but that's it. You normally use it to buy and sell 0days, tools, and data
BugQueen: Data?
SysPred: lists of cards and dox that kinda shit

I had to search to find what they meant. Lists of credit cards and personal information were, apparently, commodity goods here.

AdminRolley: Just be careful with your own info k? some people aren't all that nice
SysPred: i said he was a fuckin' fed
SysPred: totally worth it
SysPred: your not a fed right?
BugQueen: I'm not buying. Does it matter?
SysPred: good point
SysPred: k so do you want some dark coin?
BugQueen: No thank you. When I develop the tool I'm working on, I'll get some from you.
SysPred: u make that code and ill pay ya
BugQueen: If you help me hit a particular target, I'll give it to you for free.
SysPred: now u sound like a fed
BugQueen: ?

I realized with growing horror that I was starting to relax—somehow I'd even made friends. Criminal friends. I guess I was having lunch with Miss Velvet on Thursday. I could ask her how legal any of this is.

SysPred: ur askin me to do something illegal
BugQueen: Fair enough, I suppose. Well, when the tool is done, what about if I give you a copy to play with, then you can decide if you want to help me with a problem?
SysPred: hah!
SysPred: if you code as good as u type
SysPred: sure
SysPred: if not
SysPred: ill hack your system and fuck it up
AdminRolley: Predator, back off bud
AdminRolley: Shit liek this is why u got a month ban

I took to analyzing the code while they argued and was pleasantly surprised by the level of annotations present. It was well laid out, but it was stupid in one way—you gave it an address block to attack, and it would try all possible targets.

Just like designing a dress, I started making notes on what I wanted my weapons to do.

AdminRolley: Ok Queeny. Any questions?
BugQueen: I think I understand how and what you were attacking, but how did you find this unprotected buffer?
AdminRolley: Lots of fuzzing
AdminRolley: You're going to want some servers with a pile of VMs on them, unless you're going for physical vulnerabilities

I tried to remember back to what Windigo had done to my car.

—Darling, when Windigo attacks things, do you know if they override the operating system?— I asked NotABug directly.

—I didn't stick around to do an autopsy on any of their systems. Your car is the only time I've seen Windigo booted off something,— NotABug sent back.

—Well, hardware attacks would be best, then. Thank you.—

A happy chirp was my reply from NotABug.

BugQueen: I'm working on that, though I have some basic systems to test for hardware and firmware faults.

I contemplated my next move carefully. I needed to know how active Windigo had been.

BugQueen: One thing I've been interested in. I don't suppose any of you noticed any strange occurrences around the 18th?
AdminRolley Private: I'd keep quiet about that date. Some bad shit went down and no one knows what. Predator busted a nut, kept ranting about feds, but the systems I saw go down weren't attacked by feds. I've never seen shit like this before, like a fucking monster just ate them
AdminRolley Private: Sorry, but we have a rule at the moment about that, just rejoin again
System KICK message from AdminRolley to remove BugQueen from channel #general

My connection to the chat room dropped. Grumbling chirps rang back to me in my head, and I reconnected.

AdminRolley: That shit is fight club, Queeny. Got it?

Thankfully my knowledge of subculture action movies was up to snuff thanks to Rainbow's efforts.

BugQueen: Got it.
BugQueen Private => AdminRolley: Be careful of that. You were right, it is a monster.
AdminRolley Private: And how do you know?
BugQueen Private => AdminRolley: Because I'm one too.
AdminRolley Private: A monster that bites? :)

I had the oddest sensation for a moment, and then I realized what it was—I could taste emotions on AdminRolley. He stank of worry, a little fear, and the tiniest hint of excitement. It was the kind of excitement I could have fed off.

BugQueen Private => AdminRolley: I bite, but I have someone I bite already. This is serious, don't trust anything that calls itself Windigo.
AdminRolley Private: Yeah. That was the tag they used. You got something to stop it?
BugQueen Private => AdminRolley: What do you think I'm working on?
AdminRolley Private: K then. If you make somethin that works against it, let me know.
BugQueen Private => AdminRolley: Darling, if I find something that works against it, I'm going to hunt it.

Rolley's excitement grew, and I could almost feel my hunger reaching to him (or her, I wasn't sure).

AdminRolley Private: If your the real deal I can get you some stuff.
BugQueen Private => AdminRolley: I'll send you the specs and a copy of the system the moment I have it finalized. Which, is something I should be working on now. Thank you for trusting me.
AdminRolley Private: HA I haven't trusted you
AdminRolley Private: I don't think I can trust anyone, but you havent tried to fuck us over, and despite Predators shit, you sound nothin like a fed
BugQueen Private => AdminRolley: I'll be back some time tomorrow, or maybe the day after.

I disconnected from the chat and turned my full focus to the tool I was working on. It needed to be a backbone with modules that loaded in for tasks. Some modules, I theorized, would be for directly attacking a target, others would be for probing, yet more scanners, and then I needed a payload.

The image of an orchestra coalesced, and I couldn't help but think it was an apt model. My code would be the conductor. It would call on the scanner to search within parameters. It would urge the probes to seek out vulnerable machines. It would send the exploits in to act against the machines—be they attacking software or hardware. Finally, it would deploy the payloads and bring the whole "song" together.

All the modules would conform to standards, and they all would be run within their own little walled gardens. The design slowly came together, and I finalized how everything would communicate.

As I worked—now building the tool itself—I watched time tick away second by second. From time to time I would surface and see what NotABug was up to. The first time I looked, she was walking around a house. The second saw her in an office signing papers—her hands were an interesting shade of orange.

3:12 P.M.

—How is the shapechanging going?— I asked NotABug.

—I just purchased a house!— NotABug sent back. She also sent the location of the property.

I read just enough to know it was behind my house and to one side (it shared a corner with my property), but I skipped the rest of NotABug's details and just wound back to her recording of the inspection.

Four bedrooms, one bathroom (something that growing up in a house with three females taught me was a bad thing), a big living room, a garage, and a basement. The basement wasn't big, but it was a start.

—Very nice. I don't even want to know how much it was. When do you take ownership?— I asked.

—There's all these cooling off periods and stuff. I waived that with a little form,— NotABug sent.

—So it's ours?—

—Yup!—

Well, I now owned two properties. Well, we owned two properties. Life was getting stranger—more interesting.

—I talked to some new people. Apparently Windigo damaged more than just your servers the night we merged. Everyone is scared it was the police or the government. I tried to reassure them that it was just a monster that wanted to destroy everything, but they weren't convinced,— I sent.

—Were these people hackers?— NotABug asked.

—Yes, dear. I warned them about Windigo as best I could, and I promised to give them some things if they help us fight Windigo.—

Interested chirping came in a rush from NotABug, so I sent her links to the code so far.

—Oh. I also updated what I made for the shield. It should respond a little faster now. Also, I'll need to adjust the shield once this tool is ready,— I sent.

—I looked at some commercial properties, too. Have a look at these.—

NotABug sent me a series of videos and stills of buildings, one of which was in the local mall. I immediately ruled out the mall one, just a glance was all I needed to tell it was too small. The rest—each of them—had potential.

It was the first time I'd looked at properties, and it made me realize I needed to decide on an experience for Carousel Boutique. There would be two stars in my boutique, the customer and whatever outfit they wanted. Everything must revolve around those two and bringing them together.

When a customer comes in, they should immediately feel they can relax. All customers would be welcome, and each must feel like my shop floor—my sitting room—is an extension of a home they always wanted to live in. Soft seats and couches, elegant furniture that is ready and willing to accept them no matter who they are.

And, with all this in mind, I began looking through the locations again. The first, no matter how my creative mind could adjust it, didn't suit. It had a laundromat on one side of it and a bowling alley on the other.

I finally narrowed them all down to two locations.

One was a store in a street with other fashion stores, there would be competition, but it would be a two-edged sword. I connected online, and virtually walked down the street and examined the stores. Two retail outlets, one alternative shop, two haberdasheries, a sewing supplies store, and a sewing machine store.

The second shop was in a street full of hospitality, stationary, and knick-knack stores, with a small supermarket taking up the bulk of one end of the block. It had not a stitch of competition for me but also wouldn't have people coming there for couture.

The only choice, really, was the first one. Not only was the street filled with my kind of people, but it had locations for me to buy supplies and repair my equipment. That I would be visiting that street, regardless of where I ended up opening, was the deciding factor.

—This one,— I sent, and attached the link.

—Are you sure? There's other fashion shops nearby,— NotABug sent.

—Exactly! So people will already be going there for their fashion needs.—

"The commercial property I looked at, 276 on Pine street?" NotABug asked.

"Oh?" the realtor asked.

"I'll take that as well."

It was an interesting experience just riding along with NotABug. She spoke differently, reacted differently, and now with shapechanging she even looked differently.

"Yes, but I wish to buy that one for a client. If you'd do the papers up for that too?" NotABug asked.

—In my name?— I asked.

—Yes. Thank Byte for getting the funds together for this one,— NotABug sent.

I sent a wave of chirping and digital hugs to my filly.

—What happened? Oh!— Byte sent.

—You're so amazing. Thank you for getting me the money to pay for this,— I sent.

—How much did it take?— Byte asked.

—$350,000— NotABug sent.

—I better work harder, then!— Byte sent.

—Wait,— I sent. —Hold on, darlings. You mean you made that much in one morning? How much did you start with?—

There was something completely surreal about the amount. It was more money than I'd ever conceived of before. When NotABug had bandied about having over a million dollars, it had been an imaginary amount—a theoretical million. This money was real, and was going to buy a new property in my name.

The shop, of course, was bare of anything that would make it Carousel Boutique. First I would need a carpenter to partition the insides as I want them. Some new carpet would be absolutely required. Wallpaper, curtains, light fittings, furnishings—This was a big project.

—Uh, I let her use half of your savings. We replaced that for you. Also, we're going to need to do a lot of interesting accounting on your tax return,— NotABug sent.

—Is that a thing with number games?— Byte asked.

—Yes,— NotABug sent.

—No,— I sent at the same time.

—So which is it?— Byte asked.

—It's full of numbers—it's all about numbers, but it's not a game,— I sent. —If it is wrong, I could go to jail.—

—Rarity, every time there are two sides to something, it's a game. In this case the stakes are higher than usual. So we want to make sure we don't lose,— NotABug sent.

—Was I a game?— I asked NotABug directly.

—Not once I got to know you. But at first everything was a game,— NotABug sent to me.

—When does a game turn into not a game?—

—At the exact moment I realized we were on the same side. Then I made new games.—

I made a happy mess of chirps and hugged NotABug. An odd thought hit me.

—Hold off buying it outright. Mr. Pants will be talking to us on Thursday, so it would be best if we hold off on that until then,— I sent NotABug directly.

—I'll put a deposit down,— NotABug sent to me.

Several minutes passed, but rather than track their conversation, I instead went back to writing code. With the infrastructure designed, all I had to do was actually make it. Computer code, I had discovered, could be elegant and effective—which meant style was immensely important in programming.

—I called Mr. Pants. He said to buy it under your name if we can, and then you can sell it to your company later for a share in the company. I can sort of see how it works, but I'm going to need to study a lot of law to make sense of this stuff. I wish it was just numbers,— NotABug sent directly.

—You're really interested in law?—

—It seems like the biggest game of all. So, uh, yeah!—

The excited chirps that followed definitely helped reassure me, but her calling things games still reminded me that although NotABug was a real person, her beginnings were vastly different than a human's.

I chirped back to her and got back to work.

Programming, and making the code elegant, was apparently just as absorbing for me as dressmaking. I was so subsumed in writing each line perfectly that I almost lost track of time. Which is a lie. I can't lose track of time, it's ticking by thousands of times a second, and I got to watch as the universe ticked off each one. But there's a point where I get so focused, that my brain would acknowledge the time but think, Just one more line.

7:00 P.M.

I leaned forward from the digital world to focus through the lens of my body's senses. I was curled up on the couch beside Rainbow Dash (at least I hoped it was Rainbow Dash) with Byte sitting on her lap. In NotABug's hands was a game controller, and I could tell Rainbow had one too.

—Programming takes a lot of focus,— I sent to our local area.

It was hard to avoid being conscious of the hundreds of thousands of other users now. There was people everywhere using our chat engine, and each of them was visible to me. With a hundred or so in Canterlot, I was surprised I hadn't accidentally blurted things out.

—You're back? You chirped a lot while working on that. Was it fun?— NotABug asked.

—Hi Momma!— Byte sent.

—Hello darlings. Yes, I'm back. I am astounded by how interesting and exciting it is to write code. Every line, every function, and every object. Did you know I made a way that I could color-code my comments? I had to rewrite my editor a little, but it seems to have worked nicely. Summer colors are definitely offense, winter for defensive, spring is absolutely the heavy-lifting code, and autumn is for interface,— I sent.

When Byte and NotABug were silent for a moment, I realized I might have gotten a little too focused on my answer.

—Was that too much?— I asked.

"Rainbow?" NotABug asked.

"Yeah?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Can you be a dear and hug Rarity in a moment, and give her a big, happy kiss?"

"Absolutely!"

I knew what was coming. NotABug gently nudged me into control, and I could count the milliseconds it took for Rainbow to notice.

Rainbow dropped her controller and turned to me. Strong arms wrapped around my shoulders, and I watched as she leaned in for a kiss. I had all the time in the world to lean aside, to pull back, to turn my head, or shove Rainbow Dash away. Instead, I reached my arms around her wide, strong shoulders, and fluttered my eyes closed.

As kisses went, this one was on the magical end of the spectrum. I shan't go into detail, but there was sufficient activity from both of us that we became completely distracted from everything.

"I win!" Byte said.

Her exclamation broke the moment—Rainbow and I turned to look at the racing game on the television, and saw that Player 3 had indeed won.

—You helped with the wireless connection?— I asked NotABug directly.

—Yeah. She's not as good with decoding signals as I am,— NotABug sent to me.

"Thank you. I think I needed that," I said aloud.

"Rarity, you always need that," Rainbow Dash said.

The little smirk on Rainbow's lips told me she was perfectly fine with that situation.

I reached down and picked up my own dropped controller, then sat back on the couch again. The hint of rich Asian sauces told me that something Chinese or Thai had been masticated recently. My recent change in palate made it impossible to identify which particular dish it was, but it had a definite fish-sauce sense to it.

The racing game was, at least with my hands at the controller, easy to play. I didn't have to focus on any data conversions or variables, I just pushed a little stick left or right.

Byte was the first to fall asleep. She climbed onto my lap and curled into a little ball. Trying to hold back a yawn was impossible, but I still managed to play another map before I found myself almost nodding off on Rainbow's shoulder.

"Rainbow?" I asked.

"Mmmm. Yes, Rarity?"

"Let's go to bed."

"I thought you'd never ask."

Author's Note

Hondo: What do you think of your daughter's latest conditions? (including becoming entirely new species and got a daughter out of wedlock)

"I'll have you know, having a child out of wedlock ain't all that anymore," he said.

Narrowing his eyes, Hando looked more annoyed than concerned.

"We're always asking our kids what they want to be when they grow up. I don't remember this being any of her answers, but who am I to question it."

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Lab

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 15

4:33 A.M.

I wasn't sure what had stirred me. I was curled up with Rainbow behind me and her arm around my shoulder. Just feeling her against me—all of her—made me feel good.

Then I realized what woke me.

An aching feeling pushed down from my hip to my feet. It wasn't actual pain, but it felt strange. Each night I'd changed, I'd been well asleep at this time. The feeling was distinctly coming from my legs, however, with only minor tingles elsewhere.

To take my mind off it, I used the VPN to link to the server, then closed my eyes and escaped the particulars of my body turning into a changeling for the digital world where my brain could simply focus on what is and what isn't—1 and 0.

—Awake early?— NotABug sent directly.

I chirped softly to her, keeping our interaction purely digital.

—Yeah. I think my legs are changing. They feel strange, and keep on doing, well, that,— I sent NotABug when the next rolling ache came.

—Oof. What are you working on?—

I invited her into my session, and showed her the code.

—My sword, darling. I want a way to deal with Windigo that means I don't have to get too close, and this will let me attack the systems they're running on.—

—This is amazing. Rarity, how did you make code this… this pretty?—

It was a compliment I was more than happy to receive, particularly from NotABug. I looked over what I was working on, and with the color filters it was not just easier to identify, but it was beautiful.

—Thank you, darling. It means a lot hearing that from you.—

I know my chirping grew louder, but I couldn't help it.

—I still need to find actual weapons to use, though I might be able to get some, ahem, friends to help on that,— I sent NotABug.

—What do you mean?—

—Well, this code takes modules that contain the exploit code, and other offensive things like payloads and such. There are other such toolkits out there, but they are not easy to get, and I don't think they'll be suitable for this. I guess I could make my code support their attack tools.—

—So how do we make those?—

—That's where I need a lot of computers, and some more servers. I need to push computers until I break them, and then find out how I broke them, and… It's really complicated.—

—I'm not really good with that stuff. You've seen what I do, it's mostly just guessing passwords and using tools already made.—

NotABug made some embarrassed chirps that only got her more hugs from me.

—Darling, you create wonderful code that runs extremely fast. You can't be great at everything,— I sent NotABug.

I held her and chirped with her for a full hour. I let myself drift back to sleep, companionship vanquishing my worry about changing and the strange sensation of feeling said changes.

7:30 A.M.

My alarm went off, causing me to chirp in discomfort, but I was acutely aware that I was standing upright, and that I wasn't in control of my body. I didn't ask a question, merely chirped curiously.

—I couldn't get back to sleep. I figured we could stand to have some more security, so I installed more of those cameras. It also let me test my remote chat code,— NotABug sent.

Opening the chat wider, I explored our nearby environment and found several motion sensors and cameras chirpily reply that they were present. I looked around my house, having a full range of vision on every external part, the living room, kitchen, and my hat room.

And, of course, I could see NotABug. She was stretching up to fit a movement sensor at the corner of my house. Wearing a pair of shorts and a shirt, she showed off not just her snout, horn, and tail, but her wings peeked out the bottom of the shirt at the back, and she had hooves—we had hooves.

I have hooves.

My knees had stretched up my legs, and my ankle had too. They looked about halfway between human and equine.

—Well, there goes any hope of wearing pumps ever again,— I sent.

—It takes a little getting used to, but walking on them is fine.—

—We need to start getting ready for work. I can't believe we have another day of this on Friday.—

—But then you'll be free of Polomare, Rarity.—

NotABug chirped along with me at the wonderful idea. Free to be who I am inside and free to do what I want—which is to help others show who they are. My positivity was overflowing, causing my mood to shoot through the roof.

I might have a snout, a horn that seems determined to rid the world of pillows, wings, a tail, and now hooves, but I was still Rarity, and I had friends and family around me who I love.

Love.

That was a four-letter word that had become the center of my life. I loved NotABug, there was no doubt about that. I was reasonably sure I loved Rainbow Dash, though more testing was required. And as for Byte—I'd never loved anyone as much as I loved her. And, despite all the love welling up around me, I ate it, too.

Love was everything and something I could express in my work.

My musings led me back to having to go to Polomare Fashion again. There was no point going there unless I had to, and my best bet for finding out if I had to was to call Coco again.

Coco's phone rang out and went to message bank. I pondered the odd situation that complaining about talking to "a machine" would be now.

"Hello, Coco, it's Rarity. Double checking if I have to work today. Thank you."

—I left a message with Coco asking if I was required today. I hope she gets back to me,— I sent.

—You mean you hope she tells you to take the rest of the week off?— NotABug sent.

—Well, yes. That would be a gift I would cherish forever.—

—What time is it?— Rainbow Dash sent.

It was a stark reminder that others were in our conversation area. I sent a little, chirpy greeting to Rainbow, and made a conscious effort to slow things down. Then I realized something—she'd typed that neatly and used punctuation!

—7:41 A.M.— I sent. —And do you have any idea how much I love seeing you write that clearly?—

—Wait, really? Good grammar gets your engine going?— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Momma doesn't have an engine,— Byte sent.

I let out a burst of giggling chirps in my head, even letting out a message with it, which resulted in the cutest animated emoji I've ever seen.

Almost two minutes passed before a message came through.

—Oh! Okay!— Byte sent.

—We need microphones set up too, dear,— I sent.

—Rainbow said not to say what she said,— Byte sent.

—I also said not 2 say that!— Rainbow Dash sent.

—She's slipping. Maybe we need an intervention,— NotABug sent.

NotABug was climbing down the ladder after finishing the last of the movement sensors. There was a certain amount of comfort in not having to move. I could still talk and I could still do things—leaving NotABug in control of my body was certainly not a prison sentence.

She put the ladder in the garage, then entered the house. The sound of the main shower told me why Rainbow Dash hadn't responded to NotABug's comment.

The phone rang, surprising me from the relaxed pace of the morning. It was Coco.

—I got it,— I sent.

"Coco?" I asked.

"Rarity. I'm glad I caught you before work. Suri has been—You probably need to see it for yourself. She's off the rails, but her father still won't do anything. She tried to claim you owed us another week after this, but I managed to quash that myself."

"Thank you. I'm really not looking forward to this. Two days isn't much, considering how much I've put up with from her already," I said.

"You know, practically everyone thinks Suri did it. Wrecked the office. I don't know how she threw things around like that, but—" Coco Pommel said.

"But?" I asked.

"You and your friends were the ones who beat those monsters at the local high school, right?"

I made a slightly-more-than-non-committal noise.

"I think there's m-magic going on."

Coco already had my attention, now she had it one hundred percent.

"No one will talk about it," Coco Pommel said, "But everyone is thinking it."

The mood needed lightening. Coco had done her due diligence and warned me, now I had to be the big hero and show her I understood, and that it would all be okay. Sometimes I wish someone else could be the magical high school hero, but then I remembered that would make me less fabulous.

"I'll be there soon to take a look. Do you think I should go with extra cosplay today? Maybe see if I can lure her into doing something completely silly?"

"Be careful, Rarity. I have a bad feeling about her."

"Thank you for the warning. If things go that way, I'll call some friends in and deal with it. I promise."

I could hear Coco's little sigh of relief. That a woman in her position would feel that much worry was a concern.

"I'll do what I can to help, Rarity, but I—I've begun looking for a new employer as well. Please don't tell anyone that."

She sounded worried, and I couldn't blame her.

"Your secret is safe with me, Coco. I'll see you today sometime, then?"

"Hopefully."

She hung up.

With a sigh, I went over what had happened in the call. Suri probably did the break-in, she's gone to some new level of crazy, and she tried to get me to stay for another week. Oh yes, today was going to be fun. Even in my head that had critical levels of sarcasm.

—The soulful chirping means you have to work?— NotABug asked.

—As good as things have been going, yes. I have to work today. Apparently Suri has gone a little crazy. Coco thinks she might be getting twisted by magic or something,— I sent.

NotABug had been walking down the hall as I spoke to Coco, and when she reached our room she stripped off the shorts and shirt. I decided to let her dress as she wanted—I trusted NotABug's taste.

—I guess I should send a warning to Sunset about that,— I sent.

—She doesn't have the app yet. You could probably link that to her, too.—

—Am I coming with you today?— Byte asked.

—You could if you want, but we'll mostly be spending our time on the server, anyway,— I sent.

—Do you guys have any idea how annoying it is when you chat so fast? Ugh, my thumbs are sore,— Rainbow Dash sent.

Rainbow Dash walked into our bedroom carrying Byte. She wore a simple blue bathrobe, accented of course with our daughter riding her shoulder.

Upon seeing NotABug, Byte jumped forward and buzzed her little wings for all she was worth—which wasn't much still.

NotABug caught Byte, twirled around and pulled her up for a hug. I felt a small trickle of love flow into Byte as she fed from us.

"Got you," NotABug said.

"I'm not kidding. You guys write so fast. How does Rarity even keep up with it?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—With style, darling,— I sent.

Rainbow had to look down at her phone to see my reply, then she groaned and stepped forward to put her arms around NotABug. I felt even safer than usual. Being wrapped in a hug was the best. I know I chirped happily, and I could hear NotABug chirping out loud as well.

Resting her head on Rainbow's shoulder, NotABug let out a happy sigh and nudged me.

—Now?— I asked.

—Yes. Being in the real world tires me. I need to restock my funds, anyway,— NotABug sent.

I let her push take me, turning my inside out. I squeezed Rainbow Dash a little tighter, and kissed her jaw.

"Hey, Rarity. NotABug get tired?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes, dear. And she wants to top up her money. I certainly don't mind her being in control—it's quite relaxing, actually. I can spend time programming, designing dresses, or even chatting," I said.

"Well, I'm just glad I got to hug both of you," Rainbow Dash said. "So, you really do like it when I write properly like that, huh?"

I kissed Rainbow Dash's neck (all I could easily reach at the moment without impaling her on my horn) and nuzzled against her throat. Snouts were really good for nuzzling, I'd found.

"That answers that. Hey, Byte, how about you hang with me today?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Excited chirping came from the bundle of changeling filly climbing up my left arm.

"Can I? That'd be awesome!" Byte said.

"On one condition," I said, waiting for Byte to nod before continuing. "You don't drink from anyone but Rainbow, unless Rainbow says."

Byte's eyes flew wide and she nodded.

"Perfect. Now I have to get ready for work," I said.

"Nope. You can't," Rainbow Dash said. "Because I'm not letting go until you give me a proper kiss."

I tilted my head up and back, and Rainbow tilted hers down. Our lips met, and I melted against her. Nothing could have broken the moment as surely, as Byte climbing up my shoulders and onto my head, then using my horn to swing across to Rainbow's shoulder.

Despite both Rainbow and I laughing, we tried to stubbornly keep the kiss going a little longer. Finally sated, we broke apart.

"Alright. But that only gets you off the hook until tonight," Rainbow Dash said.

"I'll look forward to it," I said.

I gave Rainbow the most come hither of glances I could, turned, and walked back to my bedroom. My choice for attire was limited by my size, but it also freed me a little. If I was going to adjust anything, I'd need to do it quickly, and it didn't matter if I actually damaged it in the process.

There was a total of three business suits I owned. Two of them had pants and one had a skirt, but truthfully any of them could work with a skirt. Selecting the skirt suit and one of the pants ones, I walked back to my sewing room.

"Finesse, couture, and speed. Come on, Rarity, you've got what it takes to do this," I said.

I took ten seconds—linked to the server—to redesign what I held in my hands to something that would fit me.

Looking at my sewing desk, I let my magic flow into my horn. Power orders of magnitudes more than I formerly possessed poured through me. The raw flow of energy was almost as hypnotic and alluring as a fine dress.

Picking up seam ripper, pins, and the first jacket, I set to work. The little seam ripper made short work of the threads binding the shoulders to the jacket and soon completed cutting the rest of the seams that held the body of the piece together. I reached for scissors next and transplanted the pattern I'd been working onto the fabric—by cutting.

8:10 A.M.

Working fast while I cut, I also began pinning pieces together. Anyone watching would have made the claim I was doing three things at once, but I was actually doing three things a little at a time in very small increments.

8:15 A.M.

I transferred each piece to the sewing machine, still snipping and pinning others, and began to assemble the jacket. It took me just five more minutes to have the jacket sewn together and completed.

Pulling the jacket on, I couldn't help but smile. Perfect fit.

With magic still thrumming in my horn, I headed back to my bedroom and raided my teenage collection for a dress and shirt to match the jacket. Getting dressed—wearing another teddy that had mysteriously appeared since the previous day—I checked the makeup NotABug had already applied and found it more than serviceable after a little more lipstick.

Shoes were completely impossible now, so I called myself ready and walked down the hall. I walked past Rainbow Dash—who was on her phone talking to someone—and kissed our daughter goodbye.

—You have a great day, Byte,— I sent. —And you too, Rainbow.—

Rainbow wouldn't get to see the message until her call was over, but I shot her a smile and a wink before I left the house.

—Darling, is there some way you can let Rainbow access these cameras and sensors?— I asked NotABug.

Some surprised chirping returned before I got a digital squeeze.

—She already can. I'll show her how when she's done with her call. I'm going to avoid the network at work. There's no telling if the police or Polomare have installed something that might log my presence,— NotABug sent back.

I climbed into my car and woke its systems up. Driving to work was a surreal experience. I'd driven this way so many times before it felt both natural and completely bizarre. I ignored my usual parking garage and opted for a more expensive all-day parking lot down the street. I paid with card, then literally hoofed it to work.

8:35 A.M.

Stepping through the front doors, I sent a text to Coco.

—Just got here, darling. Time to face the dragon.—

And as I sent the text, I remembered I was going to contact my friends.

—Someone at work warned me that my boss is showing supernatural tendencies. I'm about to go meet them and find out. Just letting you know, darlings, in case things go terribly wrong. Suri Polomare is the one I'm meeting,— I sent to Sunset and Twilight.

I took the lift up to the floor where I worked and turned into the hallway leading to our group of cubicles. The time clock was my first port of call. For some reason I expected it to reject my credentials, but it logged me in just fine.

So far I hadn't had to deal with anyone up close, so the fact I now had a snout (still a better word than muzzle) hadn't come up, but it was about to. I walked into what had been a cube farm, only to find all the dividers were gone. People's desks were just pressed together, and everyone had to stare at everyone else. No privacy at all.

"Like, there you are, Rarity. You're early, which is acceptable, alright?" Suri Polomare said from right behind me.

I hadn't seen her approach, nor had I heard her move, but a sudden chill ran down my spine as I turned to face Suri. Gone was the casual I don't care about dress codes look—Suri was dressed smartly in a business suit, and she looked like her confidence had risen as a result.

But there was more to Suri. I hadn't seen her since my vision began changing, so I had no idea if the ice-blue aura floating around her was an all-the-time thing, or if it were new. I could tell she was excessively happy about something, but at the same time there was seething anger bubbling just under the surface.

Get a grip, Rarity. Just greet her, sit down somewhere, and pretend to do a day of fascinating work—just like I have for over a year.

"If you'd like me to come in earlier in future, I can certainly do that, Suri. Where do you have me situated today? Things have moved around so much," I said.

"Well, you'd know all about that, or so I hear."

I blinked a few times.

"Pardon me?" I asked.

"Your desk is over here. It's a new one, okay?"

Suri walked to just in front of her (rebuilt) office, and pulled the chair out from a desk that would have me with my back to her office door. What was worse was the blinds in her office were open, and she could stare at my back all day.

"Thank you, Suri. And what will I be working on?"

Sugar, spice, and all things nice. She hadn't remarked about my muzzle yet, or me still having my horn. I wondered what her game was.

"Oh, there's already a pile of work for you to do. The usual, alright?"

It took every bit of both human and buggy courage to turn around and sit down. The changeling side of me was a predator, feeding on other powerful beings by dint of blending in, hiding, and controlling situations.

As I picked up the first pattern, my heart sank. It was the same one as I'd seen last week. She was trying to break me.

"Oh, and Rarity? I love the monstrous look. It suits you," Suri Polomare said.

—Monstrous? But we're not a monster, are we?— NotABug asked directly.

—She's the only monster here, darling. Remember Chef Soba? We will always be us, no matter what we look like,— I sent to NotABug.

—Even if we have pointy teeth and a horn?— NotABug asked with a silly chirp coloring her words.

—Especially if we have pointy teeth, a horn, and a tail.—

We hugged and chirped while I selected the result of the first pattern—again. Looking it over, I had an urge to do silly things again.

"This just wants to be a belt," I said.

And so, trying to shove aside the thought I had a monster behind me, watching my every move, I began my second-last day of corporate protests in the form of belts. Not all my creations were strictly functional—some had two buckles, some were all strap—but they all had beltish qualities.

My assessment of Suri was that there was definitely something magical about her, but I didn't know if it was new or something she'd always had.

12:01 P.M.

Internally, my phone collected a message and alerted me that Coco Pommel had texted me.

—Any plans for lunch, Rarity?—

—None, really,— I sent to Coco.

—Well, why don't we go and get coffee somewhere and talk?—

—Sounds good. Meet you at the main door?—

—Sure.—

I stood up from my seat, gathered my handbag, and turned around.

"Hello, Suri. Just heading out on my lunch break," I said.

Making sure there was no panic in my voice was key. Suri was doing this entirely to mess with me, and the best way to leave her upset (and I'd previously established that Suri being happy was bad) was to show it didn't bother me at all.

She was standing there, looking back at me as if it were perfectly normal behavior.

"Well, make sure you clock off and back on. Management wants us to avoid any mistakes going forward, alright?" Suri Polomare asked.

Suri never used corporate speak. Ever. Something was going on, and I honestly couldn't be bothered finding out what it was enough to even make me want to give a smart reply.

"Okay, Suri. I'll make sure I do," I said.

As I turned around, my phone pinged again. This time it was a message from Sunset.

—That sounds a bit far-fetched, but try to be careful, and if you need help just call.—

—Thanks, Sunset,— I sent back.

I clocked out on the computer, and got in the lift to head downstairs when a thought hit me. Getting off on the second floor, I entered the HR offices and approached their terminal for the time clock system. Logging in, I queried my status.

Employee Rarity last seen five days ago at—

"Excuse me?" I asked at the counter.

—Coco, I may be a little late. The time clock didn't register me today and I'm in HR.—

"How may I help you?" the bored guy behind the counter asked.

At least he had looked bored until he lifted his head to look at me. The man's eyes widened in panic, and I could see his hands start shaking. An aura of something new permeated his emotions, and if I had to put a finger on it, I'd call it fear.

"It appears the time clock for our office is malfunctioning. My name is Rarity, and I should have been signed in all morning."

Normalcy could do wonders for people's panic. He gulped, nodded slowly, and lowered his hands to the keyboard keys. He began typing away on his computer, shaking his head a few times.

12:11 P.M.

"I don't understand what's going wrong. I tried to log in as you, but the system acknowledges your login, then doesn't actually sign you in. I'm going to need authorization from a manager to—" the decidedly less-bored guy said.

"Ahem. Sorry to interrupt," Coco Pommel said. "I can vouch for Rarity as having been here all morning, and can authorize an edit to the time clock."

My savior. Coco had arrived in the nick of time and was here to save me from this odd anomaly. The HR drone turned his screen around for her, and passed the keyboard over.

Coco logged into the time clock as herself, then commanded the system to add a logged-in session for the morning and assign it to me. I was singly impressed by her expertise with just the keyboard as she tabbed around entry fields and completely ignored the mouse.

"There. She should have an authorized session for the morning. If you could please check?" Coco Pommel asked.

"Huh. It worked. I guess there must be something up with her account. I'll forward it to IT to look at," the HR guy said.

A stray thought hit me, a shred of an idea that was absurd. I wanted to immediately discard it, but it fit the evidence, if not my knowledge. Suri Polomare had hacked the network to play the same prank on me that NotABug had played on her, only she had done hers better.

It was a silly idea, completely impossible. I knew Suri's skills with a computer amounted to turning it on and stabbing fingers at the keys randomly until it did what she wanted. Hacking was completely beyond her. Yet, the theory fit the evidence.

"Is that some kind of mask?" Coco Pommel asked.

I smiled to show that it wasn't, but must have flashed a little fang.

"You know how it is when you're dealing with magic a lot," I said.

I'm sure she didn't, but despite that Coco nodded as if it were the most common thing ever. There was still the problem that Suri had been hiding her abilities with computers, learned to hack systems in just three days, or she knew someone who could hack into systems. All three prospects worried me.

"Oh. Definitely," Coco Pommel said.

We turned for the lift and she didn't say a word until we were safely inside.

"Did she do this to you, Rarity?"

"No, dear. I did this to me. Give me a second," I said.

I built an image of myself, my usual white-skinned self with purple hair and normal eyes. This self was as small as I was now, though apart from physical dimensions I left a lot of details out. At the last second I remembered my lack of shoes and left my own lower limbs on. Satisfied with the form, I pushed it onto me and let my magic free.

Power thrummed within me, through me, and then over me. A rush of magical green flame coursed over my body and left behind a young woman who looked a lot like how I looked in high school. Unburdened by horn, wings, or tail, I looked at Coco with a smile.

"Okay. That seems like the most useful magic ever for a fashion designer. How did you do that?" Coco Pommel asked.

"With more magic than sense."

"Speaking of, what is going on with Suri?"

"She definitely has some magic, though if she's using it is another thing entirely. She's full of it. Also, I'm reasonably certain that little problem you just helped me with was her doing."

"It couldn't be. Even with her father's access she'd need to have something running all the time to make those modifications. Are you suggesting that the least computer savvy person I know suddenly worked out how to hack our time clock?"

"I'm saying someone did, and so far she's the only one who has motive," I said as the elevator doors opened. "Your car or mine?"

"Where are you parked?"

"A block away."

"Mine, then. It's in the company parking lot."

I followed Coco to her car, which turned out to be a fancy looking little luxury thing. When she beeped the doors open I climbed in the passenger side.

Once the doors were closed, Coco breathed a deep sigh.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"This job is getting to me. Things were intense before, but they were the right kind of intense. Santhrope just does whatever Suri says—which is terrifying itself. I need to get off this sinking ship."

Coco turned the keys in the ignition and the engine roared to life. Her hands were sure on the wheel and the stick at her side. In short order Coco had her car out of the parking garage and on the road.

"Way ahead of you," I said.

"Let's forget about work for an hour. No more Polomare," Coco Pommel said. "Starting now, that is. So tell me about your business?"

"A boutique for everyone. If you want to come in and get a little skirt for high school, or a wedding dress, I'll make it. I am so sick of—" I said and halted when I almost mentioned the forbidden topic. "I just want to make clothes that make people happy."

"You really were wasted at—Argg! That place is so terrible we can't go five minutes without talking about how terrible it is," Coco Pommel said.

I turned my head to look at Coco—really look—and noticed a streak of color wrapped around her aura.

"Pull over," I said.

"Why?!"

Coco froze for a second, then with dawning shock on her face, she pulled her car to the side of the road and turned the engine off. Her hands shook where she gripped the steering wheel, fingers clutched so tight her soft skin color was unusually white around them.

"W-What happened?" Coco Pommel asked.

"Hold on, darling. I might be able to do something with this."

I was still burning off magic by the second just keeping my body shapechanged, but Coco needed my help. Opening myself up more, my vision sharpened on Coco and started feeling as if I were about to feed..

No. No feeding. I had work to do. The swirls of angry emotion were foreign to Coco's aura, but being wrapped in it like a coil stopped any hope she had of breaking free. It was like poison.

"Poison. Of course. Wind the window down, please?" I asked.

I waited long enough for Coco to do so before I bit and sucked. It tasted horrible, like sinking my fangs into a swarm of bees. But, despite how it tasted, I had to get all of it.

Coughing, I turned my head and spat for all I was worth. I watched the swirling ribbon of nastiness unravel in the air.

"There's more," I said.

It took three goes before I got all of it. The horrible stuff almost made me retch each time, but I wanted to help Coco after all the help she'd given me. Besides, she was a friend, and friends don't leave friends like this.

"What was that? What did you do? I feel—I feel more relaxed than I have all week!" Coco Pommel said.

Insofar as her seat belt would allow, Coco leaned across and hugged me. Love was prominent now, but I wasn't hungry enough to want to feed, particularly not after what I'd just tasted. I hugged her back, uncomfortably aware of how different Rainbow Dash's hugs had been when she'd been just a friend.

That Rainbow always had felt like more than a friend surprised me, but it was another hammer blow against the shrinking shell of ignorance I'd built around myself. I needed more hammers in my life.

"Something nasty was wrapped around your aura. It—Every time you felt anything, it seemed to tighten. How did you feel with it on you?" I asked.

"Upset. I was angry at you for calling earlier, I was angry at your text message shortening my lunch break, and I was—What was it?"

Anger. Interesting. Well, it tasted horrible.

"I wish I knew for sure. I'll keep an eye out for anyone else with that. Call me if you start feeling like that again."

—What did you just do?— NotABug sent.

—Coco had something magical on her that made her angry. I. Well I guess I got rid of it for her,— I sent.

—Is there anyone else at your work with that? Could that be what Suri's doing?—

The thought hadn't actually occurred to me. Suri definitely had something about her that felt magical, but was this it? I needed to see the rest of the people working on my floor to find out.

—Maybe. I'll find out when I get back from lunch.—

—Have you checked yourself?—

That question worried me more than anything else. I tried to look at my own aura, but it was barely even there. To my own magical, emotion-reading sight, I was practically cold.

—I can't see anything around me. I'm not sure if I could see it even if it was there.—

—We should get Byte to check tonight.—

I screwed my nose up at the thought of having to ask my daughter to remove something like that. I turned my attention back to Coco and the real world.

Coco took a deep breath and reached for the ignition again. Once the car was moving, I watched the worrying frown fade from her lips.

"I feel so much better now. Thank you, Rarity."

"You’re welcome, dear. Now, before we break our new rule any further, where are we having lunch?" I asked.

Her eyes flicking to look at me for a second, Coco let out a laugh. I watched her aura bubble and swell, happy emotions breaking free for the first time in days.

"I've got just the place."

12:50 P.M.

Lunch had been more about enjoying Coco's personality and friendship than the food. What I'd ordered (a sandwich) turned out rather bland and uninteresting, though I still ate it. A hot chocolate on the side was the star attraction.

We talked about fashion and ideas. Every time I spoke of my desire to just make fashion for people, Coco seemed almost ready to drool. For a moment I entertained the idea of asking her what she'd take for a wage.

Riding the lift to HR again, Coco once more forcefully logged me onto the time clock—after seeing my own attempt fail.

Dropping my disguise on the lift to my floor, I felt the return of my own form keenly. It felt right and good to be me.

As I left the hallway and walked into what had been a cubical farm (but was now just desks), I shuddered. Everywhere I looked I could see people with those bindings around their auras. Choking and strangling, everyone in the room was saddled with that anger.

How hadn't I noticed before? Resentful looks were everywhere—resentful, or just uninterested. This was too much for me to fix. I could help one or two, but my way of removing that taint wouldn't work on this many people.

I felt sick to my stomach at how out of my depth I was.

—Sunset, I think we might have a problem. Something, maybe Suri, is making everyone here angry with some kind of wrapping around their aura. I can't help them all myself,— I sent to Sunset.

Settling at my desk was even harder than before. At any moment I expected to hear Suri's voice right behind me.

—Are you alright?— NotABug asked.

Concerned chirping echoed through my head, and I let NotABug pull me into a hug.

—No,— I sent.

—What's going on?—

—It has to be Suri. Everyone here is wrong. They're all wound up with that same thing that I found on Coco.—

"Rarity," Coco Pommel said right behind me.

I almost hit the ceiling I jumped so much. The moment I'd heard her voice, I thought it was Suri. I spun around and I saw a hard line on Coco's face. She looked upset about something.

"Half our mail sorters have called in sick, and they need help. I figured with only another day left, you wouldn't be on anything important. Please head down to the mailroom."

Staring up at Coco, I could catch sight of a smiling Suri out of the corner of my eye. Then, just as I realized what was going on, Coco turned around and marched off.

"What are you waiting for? Looks like Ms. Pommel has some dirty work for you, alright?" Suri Polomare asked.

—Remind me to buy Coco a car. Or maybe a house. Would she like a house? She deserves something really nice,— NotABug sent.

—I can't believe she pulled this. And that steely look on her face was perfect. I bet Suri thought she'd just won the state lottery.—

—Be careful not to look happy. Maybe a tear or two would help?—

I sniffed carefully and did just that, loosing a few tears that I knew would be visible on my dark cheeks. Standing up, I collected my handbag and began trudging toward the lift.

—Maybe two houses?— I asked.

—Maybe ten.—

—What about if we made her a dress?—

—That sounds even better! But seriously, would she like a gift?—

—Money on its own tends to be a little crass. A gift from your heart would be much better.—

The mailroom was on the first floor, and was normally one of the noisier parts of the building. There was a letter sorting machine making most of the racket, though the bundles of letters feeding into it seemed to be reducing at a fast rate. I looked around and spotted one man frantically going through the output trays of the machine.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"You must be the replacement she promised. Pick a tray and start checking the letters," the man said.

He didn't even look up from his tray. Seeing a line of seats on all the output trays of the sorting machine, I picked one and sat down—only to sit on my tail. My annoyed gasp finally drew the man's attention.

Blue eyes looked from a pale yellow face beneath a mop of red hair. He wasn't dressed in a suit, but he did have on a shirt and a serviceable pair of trousers that gave him a professional air. If I had to pin his age somewhere, it would be in his late fifties. He stared at me in shock.

"Hello. I'm Rarity. Ms. Pommel sent me down to help," I said.

"R-Rarity?" he said and waited for me to nod. "You, uh—You know you don't quite look—"

"Human? I know. Terrible accident. Had to help a friend and next thing I know I have a tail and a horn. If you ask me, it's a relief to get away from the real monsters upstairs," I said. "So what am I going to be doing down here? Why don't we just use the machine to sor—?"

The man started laughing uproariously, even going so far as to slap his knee.

"This—" he said but paused to get his breath back. "This thing is useless, but we have to use it. It'd be faster to sort everything by hand than let this piece of junk do it. But someone upstairs purchased it and makes us use it. Have a look, go on."

I lifted the first few pieces of mail from the basket before me. Two were for the president of the company, one was for the CEO, and then I found the next one was addressed to Suri.

"Point taken. Does it actually sort anything, or does it just randomize the letters?" I asked.

The man laughed and nodded vigorously.

"M'name's Bent Rules, and before you ask it fits me. Probably the reason why I'm stuck down here."

"So we just sort the letters into the boxes they should go in?" I asked.

"That's about i—" Bent Rules said.

He stopped speaking the moment I started channeling magic. By the time I had a good flood of magic rushing through my horn, Bent was openly staring at me. Memories of Twilight arranging invitations for the Save Camp Everfree ball flickered through my head. I smiled at the happy thoughts.

"Watch this," I said.

Having such a wide stream of magic had a huge advantage here. I levitated every single letter in the baskets and brought them to one side of me. Focusing, I brought my mental attention down to sub millisecond response and started sorting.

It didn't take long to sort the whole pile. The majority of my time was spent getting used to moving so many things at once.

"Rarity, wasn't it?" Bent asked. At my nod he continued, "You know what I like best about this?"

"What's that?"

"That we can get this sent off and then relax."

He walked around and bundle all the letters up, with elastic bands keeping recipients' mail together. He set them in a bag and hooked it over his shoulder.

"Since you did all the sorting, it's only fair I deliver 'em. Keep yourself busy with cards until I get back."

With that, Bent left the room.

I gazed around now that I had a moment. On one side of the room was a large roller-door that I assumed was how the mail was delivered and sent. The majority of the room was taken up with the sorting machine with the remainder devoted to the loading bay. One of the long walls had metal closets that—judging by the few that were open—contained office supplies. The other wall was dominated by a bench that ran its full length.

The coffee machine was made obvious by the fact it was hidden inside an open packing box haphazardly set on the bench.

Getting up, I walked over to the coffee machine and poured myself a cup. The bitter taste wasn't hidden by creamer or sugar, and it was just what I needed. My savoring of the coffee was interrupted by a text message.

—How's the holiday?— Coco Pommel sent.

—You are an angel. I don't suppose you could organize this for Friday, too?—

—I'll see what I can do. Telling the staff of the mailroom to take a day off is only going to work so far. How do you think you'd go in stationary?—

I laughed so much I actually chirped my wings a little. After the oppression of working at my old desk, I think my mood would have lightened working literally anywhere else.

—Could it be any worse than working near Suri? I need to ask another favor of you, Coco.—

—Probably not, and of course, Rarity. Just ask.—

—I can't let this pass without making you something wonderful, so could you give me your measurements?—

—Just about anyone else and I wouldn't reply. You really do love making clothes.—

She sent another message with her measurements, which I immediately copied over a VPN to our server.

—I feel a little vulnerable without the protection of a second mobile link,— I sent via ChirpNet.

—Working on it. We have a box of new phones arriving at our PO box some time tomorrow. We still have that spare sim card,— NotABug sent.

—We'll want more. Enough for all the phones. Maybe get a business account?—

—That's a good idea. Once we see Mr. Pants tomorrow, we can get that started. Don't forget lunch with Mrs. Velvet.—

—Darling, it's you she wants to have lunch with. I'm sure I can spend my time doing various things while you eat some delicious sushi.—

NotABug's chirp of excitement warmed me up inside. She was so soft at times that I had to wonder how silly ideas of robot apocalypses would ever come to be—then I remembered Windigo. They were two very different sides of the emerging intelligence coin, pacifism and wrath, both completely without morals to begin with.

While we chatted, I decided to bring up the VPN again and do some programming. There was a multitude of tools that needed implementing for my weapon to work, and no one was likely to write them except for me.

Only twenty-six and a half minutes passed before Bent Rules returned. I looked up the moment I heard the door open and smiled.

"Where's the water kept for the coffee?" I asked.

Bent smiled at me as he set his empty bag on the counter.

"In that big box over there is a water cooler. Before you ask, no, we aren't allowed to have these things in here," Bent Rules said.

I just shrugged at the air of challenge he put in his voice.

"Dear, I leave the company on Friday afternoon. What you do down here is your own business."

A small swirl of affection trailed around Bent's aura. I could have fed if I wanted, but I'd decided to be careful who and where I do such. I could tell there was no hint of the anger-coil that had been wrapped around Coco.

"That explains why you got sent down here. I'm surprised they didn't just tell you to leave on the spot."

Office gossip was one thing I might miss by not being here. I settled on a chair—careful of my tail—and sipped my second mug of coffee.

"You had three letters for Suri Polomare. What did you think of her?" I asked.

"The princess of the company? You had her as a boss?"

Time to break out my collection of Suri Stories. They were many and varied, including such gems as 4 P.M. is a Fine Time to Start on Fridays, What Do You Mean You Won't Work on Sundays?, and Well my daddy... Bent Rules was laughing loudly by the time our coffee mugs were empty.

The stories kept us both entertained until five when the door opened to admit Coco. I lifted my head and casually pushed the flaps closed over the coffee maker.

"My jailer hath returned!" I said.

The joke got a chuckle from Bent and rolled eyes from Coco Pommel. As she approached, however, I saw the first inklings of a spiral around her.

"You had a meeting with Suri?" I asked.

"Y-Yes. Is it on me again?" Coco Pommel asked.

I stood up and walked closer. I leaned close to Coco and bit into the thread of disgusting energy. Sucking, I drew the venom of anger from her and spat it out.

"I'm quitting. There's no way I can ask you to do this every day I interact with that little wretch," Coco Pommel said.

"Do I even want to know what's going on, or is this another time I need to just look the other way?" Bent Rules asked.

Looking to Coco, I let out a sigh. I couldn't lie to him. I wouldn't lie to him.

"Speaking as someone who knows monsters, Suri Polomare might be becoming one. Being near her too long will have a bad effect on you—though you don't seem to have been affected. How long were you with her?" I asked.

"No more'n a minute. Don't know if you've noticed, but she ain't really the type to say much that's worth a damn, and I'm pretty sure the feeling's mutual."

I raised a brow at Coco next.

"Mine was a half hour meeting with her and some other department heads. Mr. Polomare is including her in all his meetings this week," Coco Pommel said.

Pondering the information made me wish I had Twilight's (either of them) ability to put data points together and draw a conclusion. Time could be a trigger, but so could being around others in the meeting, or Bent had a natural immunity to it.

I compiled a text for Twilight and Sunset.

—Suri may be the source of some kind of magical effect that makes everyone angry. I need some help with this, please!—

"I'm asking my friends for help on this. I'll be the first to admit when I'm unable to handle something too big. I'm a fashion designer, not a particle physicist," I said.

—Can you bring anyone with the effect on them to my place?— Twilight Sparkle asked.

—I really wish I didn't have to ask Coco this,— I sent.

—Ask her what?— NotABug sent.

—I need to ask her to purposefully get affected by Suri's magic thing again.—

—Ouch.—

"Coco?" I asked. "A friend said they need to analyze someone who is being affected by the—by Suri."

"Who's the friend?" Coco Pommel asked.

"Twilight Sparkle. She's a researcher at Canterlot University. Studying—well—magic."

—This is going way out of my league, Rarity. If you can get me close enough to touch her, I might be able to help,— Sunset Shimmer sent.

"And now another friend, Sunset Shimmer. She can—" I said.

I cut short, realizing Bent Rules was still here.

Coco's eyes narrowed a fraction, and she nodded. Gesturing to the door, she waved me ahead.

"When will you be seeing your friends? I can—I don't want to have that thing on me for long. A day at most," Coco Pommel said.

"Thank you, Bent. Your company was most welcome," I said.

We made our way to HR, where Coco had to force log me out again. We exited the building without speaking, though I did put on my disguise again before doing so. The maintained silence lasted until we reached Coco's car.

"I'll drive you to your car. Where did you park?" Coco Pommel asked.

I quickly gave her directions. Her car started as easily as last time, and she drove out into traffic.

"I'll do it, Rarity, but only if you swear your friend can help. I don't—Despite my time of late, there are people at Polomare that I like. I'd hate for them to fall into whatever cesspit Suri builds it into."

"Twilight Sparkle is literally the smartest person I know, Coco. She helped me understand what's happening to myself, and she'll be able to work out what this thing that Suri is doing is," I said. "As for Sunset, her little knack is touching people."

"Touching people?"

"Yes. And, when she touches someone, she gets insights into them and can see their prominent memories," I said with a laugh. "Honestly. Sometimes I wonder if my life would be different if we were all in a cartoon, or if it would just be exactly the same."

"Friends with superpowers, villains willing to destroy entire companies to get what they want, and magic do sound like comic books. But, if it takes superheroes to defeat my villain, I'll go along with it. Just promise me that you can remove whatever it is Suri does."

"If it's the same as what she's been doing, I can absolutely fix that, even if it is a little different. Not that I'll enjoy it."

Coco pulled her car up to the curb beside the parking lot I'd used.

"Alright then. I guess I'll come around tomorrow afternoon, after I've had a meeting with Suri, tendered notice, and left for good," Coco Pommel said. "That feels good to say."

"Thank you, darling. I'll see you then," I said.

Leaving her car, I walked into the lot, fetched my car, and drove to the mall to check on NotABug's packages. I perked up at the news of a box of mobile phones to pick up, as well as cartons stamped with the same name as our server.

—We're expanding things?— I asked NotABug.

—Oh! Our blades arrived? This is great. They'll give us more performance in the short term,— NotABug sent.

—Bigger server? Good. It got cramped in there,— Byte sent. —Oh! Rainbow said to tell you the egg is hatching.—

I almost dropped one of the packages.

—I'm on my way!— I sent.

Loading the car with the help of the clerk in the mail center, I almost wished that my little car was Rainbow Dash's monster. A big engine would have gotten me home faster.

The moment I turned onto the same street I felt a connection—a link.

—Hi, mommy!— a new user code sent.

—She's so cute! Rainbow is hugging her on the couch and I wanted to hug too so we're both hugging and Rainbow's saying "daww" a lot!— Byte sent.

I chose to forgive my daughter's lack of grammar under the circumstances. The world slowed to a snail's pace. Each decision in driving could be made tens of milliseconds before it was needed, which gave me plenty of time to connect with the cameras in my living room via ChirpNet.

—You're chirping a lot,— NotABug sent.

—Of course I am. So are you,— I sent.

—Why does the world move so slowly? I want to be home now.—

I flicked between making road decisions and watching Rainbow Dash cuddle our daughters. I agreed wholeheartedly with NotABug in this instance, though my growing ability to switch tasks rapidly would be much less useful if everything moved at the same speed.

The car crept forward, inching closer to the driveway. I briefly considered just stopping and running the rest of the way, but unlike Rainbow Dash, my speed was centered mentally instead of physically.

I pulled into the driveway, turned off the car, and opened my door in slow motion. Each frame of the webcam showed Rainbow looking so excited, content, and proud to the point where I needed to be with her to share the moment.

Dumping my shapechanged form as I reached the front door, I swept into my house and looked at Rainbow Dash.

"Look who decided to say hi," Rainbow Dash said.

Despite the accuracy and clarity of the cameras in my house, seeing with my own eyes was always more real to me. Images could be faked, but what I saw was what I saw. The aura around Rainbow Dash was the best I'd seen all day. Both our daughters were feeding from her, though Rainbow didn't seem to show any signs of lacking love.

"Darling…" I said as words suddenly failed me.

"C'mere."

Rainbow Dash held out her arm and I slipped in beside her with ease—like I was supposed to be there. Reaching down to the newest member of our family, I brushed her cheek with the back of one finger.

Squeezing me against her, Rainbow overflowed with love. I nibbled only a little, but she made a happy little contented sigh that let me know she felt it.

"Did you come up with a name for her yet?" I asked.

"Me?" Rainbow Dash asked. "N-No. Should I? Names are important, and you came—"

—Rainbow, give her a name,— NotABug sent.

Head turning at the sound of her phone beeping, Rainbow turned back to look at me.

"Is that NotABug?" Rainbow Dash asked. When I nodded, she added, "She wants me to pick a name too, right?"

"It's two to one, dear. NotABug can pick the name for our third daughter."

"I guess Optimus Prime is out? Whoa. Okay. What about Bumblebee?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Rainbow recoiled from the look I'd given her at the first suggestion, but I actually liked the second one.

—I like it,— Bumblebee sent.

Bumblebee looked up at Rainbow and smiled brilliantly. She radiated like a supernova of adorableness such that there was no hope of dissuading her from the name.

"I guess that settles it, right 'Bee?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Stroking the underside of 'Bee's jaw, Rainbow had the silliest grin I'd ever seen her wear. If our daughter's look of adorable bliss was a supernova, I had no name for the magnitude of Rainbow's love. I felt humbled by it.

"She likes it. Also, keep your phone closer," I said.

"I was a little distracted at the time, someone had just poked her head out to say hi."

Happy as I was to bask in the moment, there was another doting mother who needed time with her daughter. I lightly nudged at NotABug, who let out a surprised chirp before she slid forward. I didn't retreat completely, rather enjoying the moment of letting someone else take care of my worldly interactions.

NotABug tilted her head to the side and leaned upwards to catch Rainbow Dash performing a mirror of the maneuver. The kiss and hug combined was everything I needed at the end of my second-last day at Polomare Fashion.

—Coco agreed to get infected by the magic again and come to see you. Is tomorrow night okay?— I texted to Twilight Sparkle.

—Wait, infected? She's risking herself for this? I'll be waiting for you from 4P.M. onward,— Twilight Sparkle texted.

—She believes in superheroes and just causes, I guess. I'll see you there.—

Realization struck that if Coco quit tomorrow, I'd be on my own on Friday. There was nothing else for it, I'd just have to face it in the only way I knew how—extravagantly.

Abandoning the real world, I sought out the server and its warmth and power. There was more than just NotABug and I using it now, and it showed.

—Sorry, darling, I forgot to bring the new parts for the server inside,— I sent.

A rush of chirping came in the wake of my message, and now it originated from three sources. Bumblebee's first chirps were beautiful, and it completely distracted me from my plan for several seconds. NotABug too, apparently.

—Oh! It's alright. I don't think either of us was thinking straight,— NotABug sent. —I'll get them later.—

If I could have yawned in a purely digital state, I would have. However, the moment I started designing outfits, my lethargy faded. A beautiful sundress for Coco was the first thing on my agenda, then more outfits for our foals. Foals didn't seem the right word—it lacked the full force of their adorable nature. Chirpling? Chirpette? Chirplittle?

My first urge was to search for insect-related names, and despite that urge being met with disfavor, I did it. Nymph was one such word I'd found, and it fit better than foal. Plus it was cute.

A new visitor intruded on my workspace. I saved everything quickly and turned my full attention to see who it was. I know for sure I chirped in delight.

—'Bee!— I sent.

I quickly wrapped her up in a hug. Her chirping was surpassed by mine in short order, and I gestured toward the designs I'd been working on.

—I've been designing things, look,— I sent.

—Oh! These look great! What are they?— Bumblebee asked.

So maybe not all my nymphs would just get fashion. I had to make allowances for such an eventuality. I laughed chirpily.

—These are the designs for clothes. I plan them out, then I make them.—

—Why don't you make one now?—

It wasn't hard to realize 'Bee hadn't had much experience with the real world and its limitations yet.

—Well, NotABug is having a turn with my body right now. We have to share our time, and I respect the little moments she wants to spend in the real world.—

—But I just asked her. She said you could both use your magic independently, even when the other was in control,— Bumblebee said. —Couldn't you just use the camera to see and use your magic to make things?—

My chirping—and thinking—stopped for nearly a hundred milliseconds. It was a little humbling to be out-thought by someone who was less than a day old. My chirping resumed stronger than before.

—You know, 'Bee, I hadn't thought of that. Would you like to help me try it?— I asked.

—Okay! Where do you need me to go?—

I built a quick plan of the house and indicated my sewing room.

—What did you tell 'Bee? She just jumped up, chirping like crazy, and pronounced herself as "helping other mommy",— NotABug sent.

—I am helping other mommy!— Bumblebee sent.

—She is. We're going to do some sewing. 'Bee suggested using magic while looking through the camera you put in my sewing room,— I sent.

—That's pretty clever. I'll have to try that myself,— NotABug sent.

I brought up the camera in my sewing room, but to say it was a bad angle would be an understatement. I was looking down at my sewing machine from a corner of the ceiling above and to the right.

—This won't work, 'Bee. I can't see well enough to know what I'm doing,— I sent.

—Oh! Uh…— Bumblebee sent.

A data request came from my littlest nymph, which I opened immediately. It wasn't a request for data but a pair of image streams. The angle and the spacing could only lead me to one source.

—'Bee, is this what you're seeing?— I asked.

—Yup! Will this work?— Bumblebee asked.

The view wavered and bobbled, but the height grew until I could see (on the room camera) that 'Bee was sitting up on the chair. It still wasn't high enough, though.

—Could you get up on the table?— I asked.

—Hold on,— Bumblebee sent.

More bobbing, weaving, and climbing saw 'Bee reach the top of the sewing table. Now I could see—I could create.

—Darling, ignore if your horn glows,— I sent.

—Who, me?— Byte asked.

—Or me?— Bumblebee asked.

—She meant me,— NotABug sent amid chirpy giggles.

I let my magic flow, using NotABug's eyes to gain a reference in the living room before reaching to my sewing room. A green formless bubble of magic appeared in the middle of the room as I saw it on the camera.

'Bee's vision turned and looked at the bubble, so I moved it closer to her. The pressure against my magic as 'Bee lifted a hoof and poked it was curious—I'd never really focused on how things felt with my magic before.

Playtime was not over, but I did want to start doing things. I reached over to where my bolts of fabric sat and selected a light cotton weave that would make a wonderful dress. Scissors and tape measure were next. I brought the three items together and cut off just enough fabric to make the dress.

Locating 'Bee within the room's volume was important and let me anchor my magic to her. She was my eyes, so everything I did had to be in relation to her. With the pattern brought up in my mind, I overlaid it on 'Bee's video feed and began cutting.

—Oh! You're making the shapes you showed me. This is really neat!— Bumblebee sent.

—Indeed. Now we have to start putting this together. This one is a simple sundress for Coco, which means there's nothing tricky about it except for a fastener at the back,— I sent. —It's like a puzzle. Instead of the problem being how to put the pieces together, you have to make the pieces in the first place.—

When I selected a trio of buttons for the clasp at the back, 'Bee tilted her head to look at them.

—What are those? I don't remember those in the diagrams.—

—These are buttons. Watch what I do with them.—

As I explained, I started sewing the buttons on. I could have done them "at the same time", but the time spent swapping focus wasn't worth it when I could just sew faster and concentrate on one. When I had all three sewn on, I transferred the dress to the sewing machine, fitted the buttonhole foot, and made all the adjustments needed for appropriate sized buttonholes.

—Are you controlling it?—

—No, dear. My sewing machine just needs a little adjustment at the start and it can make perfect buttonholes.—

I set it doing the second, and finally the third buttonhole. When it was done, I lifted the dress up and used a seam ripper to open up the holes. Finally, I held the dress out so I could finish and fasten the buttons.

—There,— I sent.

6:13 P.M.

One dress became two, then three, and soon enough 'Bee was yawning and tired. Setting the fifth dress down—half finished—I used my magic to carefully lift 'Bee.

—Come on. Keep your eyes open and I'll take you back to the living room,— I sent.

With another yawn, however, 'Bee closed her eyes and the video feed stopped. I held still, maintaining my gentle hold under her, and fumbled for ideas. I could vaguely see where she was on the surveillance camera, but it wasn't a good enough source to navigate with—despite my recent practice.

Then I got an idea. Holding 'Bee, I scanned the living room and spotted a pile of ten mobile phones charging from a mass of cables near one wall. NotABug and Rainbow were in the kitchen along with Byte. Expanding my magic to two targets (not overly hard thanks to that practice), I unplugged and floated the phone down the hall, using its own camera to guide me.

By the time I floated 'Bee to the living room, I wish I'd grabbed two phones. I set her on the couch and plugged the phone back into its charger before letting go of my magic.

—All done?— NotABug asked.

—'Bee got tired. Oooh. What's for dinner?— I asked.

—Stir fry. Do you want to take over for it?—

—No, I might turn in soon, and want to do a little more research. Feel free to have some fun.—

I was wrapped in a digital snuggle the likes of which were almost unprecedented. Almost. I chirped happily and squeezed back before returning to what I'd been doing before 'Bee had interrupted me.

I barely lasted an hour before I closed my session, chirped a few times at NotABug, and relaxed into sleep.

Author's Note

Rarity: What do you think of your continuing changes in regards to your body and apparently swiftly expanding family?

"I won't pretend I'm completely alright with the former, but the latter is a strange mix of wonder and confusion. I guess I always expected a whirlwind romance—a prince charming to sweep me off my feet—but reality is not always so far away. I found two people I love dearly, and both are making me happier than I have ever been before—even if I am turning into some kind of monster, at least I'll be a fashionable monster."

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And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Lab

Editing provided by the astounding Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 16

7:21 A.M.

When I woke—without an alarm—it was to being a little spoon against Rainbow Dash's belly. She was bigger than me, noticeably so, it made for an air of strength that what parts of me still clung to straightness turn weak at the knees. Was I more in love with the idea of someone like a man than actual men?

I rubbed my calves together under the covers and could feel further changes in them. My legs felt hard and the flesh stiff. I ran one hand down to my thigh and felt the smooth transition in my body between a somewhat human form and what was now a powerful equine thigh.

—I'll get you this time!— Byte sent.

The message surprised me enough that I checked the log of earlier messages. Our little nymphs had apparently gotten up early and have been playing video games since 5 A.M.

—You can't catch me,— Bumblebee sent.

I yawned and opened my eyes. I was bathed in love—soaking in it. No wonder I was feeling so content and calm. Without a qualm I made a hefty meal of Rainbow's love, and while it was filling, I had a sense of when to stop—an instinctive warning.

I struggled not to chirp out loud for fear of waking Rainbow with my wing vibrations. I tried to slip from her grip carefully, only to feel her arm snake over my shoulder and hold me close.

"Stay in bed," Rainbow Dash said.

We did. My sensibilities won't let me describe exactly what happened, but I will point out that it was definitely myself at the helm, so to speak, and it was definitely enjoyable.

When it did come time to leave the warm confines of my—our—bed, I slipped from between the covers to find feathers everywhere. Another pillow, sacrificed to my horn in a moment of glory.

"I need to fix this. Do you know how many more pillows I have?" I asked.

Rainbow rolled over and looked at me like a hungry feline. Her eyes blinked a few times until she made sense of the situation.

"More than one? I don't know. NotABug got some spares when she went house shopping. Are you coming back to bed?"

If I'd had a pillow that was intact, I might have thrown it at her.

"No. It's eight in the morning and time to get up. I have a few things to do today, and NotABug has a job interview."

As I climbed out of bed fully, I saw the extent of the changes to my legs. They were thinner than ever, and my whole leg was just as I'd discovered earlier—completely alien. A hard exoskeleton seemed to extend from my hooves up to my—whatever the lower joint was called—and while the flesh above there was still softer than the rest of my leg, it was definitely not mere skin anymore.

Standing up and stretching resulted in the slightest of overbalanced sensations. It felt like I should just lean forward. The word quadrupedal came to mind.

"I'm taking a shower," I said.

"Now that's what I call motivation."

Rainbow Dash rolled over and slipped out of the bed behind me. Her hand ran down my back—from my shoulders to my wings—which caused a shiver of delight to send them chirping softly. I stood still for her, letting her explore me for the second time that morning.

"Your legs changed again. I felt it a little earlier, but they're really pronounced now. I don't even know if you have muscle in them anymore," Rainbow Dash said.

Her tone was curious, not confused. I was just about to turn around to face her when she hugged herself to my back. Her strong arms circled under mine, and she nibbled on my neck.

I giggled and made all the little happy noises a human and a changeling make. Carefully, I drew each of her hands up to my lips and kissed them, then slid forward and out of her embrace.

"Shower first, then we snuggle on the couch. The girls are playing some games out there," I said.

Predictably, our shower took a lot longer than simple washing required. Being with Rainbow Dash had become my new normal, and I liked it. We climbed out, spent the time it took to get dressed and get some makeup on, and we finally headed for the bedroom door to make our way down the hall.

"Why the long dresses?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I stopped just past the door and turned to look at her. Rainbow tried to keep an innocent expression, but it quickly changed to a smirk.

"Knowing that you like how I look helps, Rainbow, but you know why I can't wear a skirt. NotABug has a meeting with Twilight Velvet today, and I'll be accompanying Coco to Twilight—Sparkle that is—to find out what the swirly thing is," I said.

"Swirly thing?"

"You know how everyone's emotions swirl a little out from their body?"

"Rarity, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Pouting, the silence between us was interrupted by Rainbow's belly grumbling. It earned her a giggle and a chirp from me.

"I'll explain over breakfast," I said. "It turns out all that stuff about there not being much magic here is wrong—it's just different magic to what Sunset and Twilight—the princess—are used to."

"Breakfast sounds good. Then I need to go for a run. Want to join me?"

"I'll have to change into something else for that, but sure," I said.

—Noooo! Not again!— Bumblebee sent.

—You just need more practice, 'Bee,— Byte sent.

A little flood of chirping came from the pair, and when we reached the living room they were hugging. Not wanting to interrupt their little moment, I walked through to the kitchen.

"You two are so adorable. What're you playing?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I left them to their game and set about putting together breakfast. Four bowls with some bran in each, covered in some honey and milk. Each of the bowls got a spoon, and I used magic to lift two of them while I carried the other two in my hands.

—Is it morning already?— NotABug asked with some sleepy chirping.

—Mommy!— Byte and Bumblebee sent

—Good morning, sleepy-head. Rest well?— I asked.

—Very well,— NotABug sent.

—And given how good I feel now, very-very well, I bet,— NotABug sent directly.

I chirped and hugged NotABug, squeezing her until she chirped too. When I walked (now seemingly in slow motion) into the living room, I saw two pairs of blue eyes staring up at me, their little ears perked up and crests raised.

"Would my darlings like some breakfast?" I asked.

When I sat down beside Rainbow, Byte and 'Bee climbed onto both of us to get snuggles and breakfast.

"What's this?" Byte asked.

"This is bran. It's super yummy and really good for you. Try some," Rainbow Dash said.

Byte held her mouth open while Rainbow fed her a spoonful of the cereal. When she got a taste of the honey, Byte's eyes widened and she stuck her snout into the bowl to start munching it.

"Or you could eat it like that," Rainbow Dash said.

I reached a finger out and booped Byte's horn with it. When she looked up, I offered her a spoon.

"Use this, dear. Please?" I asked.

Meanwhile, 'Bee had already worked out how to use her magic to hold a spoon and was imitating Rainbow's efforts with a spoon.

Holding their bowls with my magic, I started eating my own breakfast. The honey and milk were the primary sources of flavor for me, but it was more than enough to get me through all the relatively tasteless bran.

While eating, I watched my two nymphs (filly might be a cuter name, but they were so far from horses that it just didn't fit) munch away, though 'Bee seemed more intent on licking all the bran clean of honey and slurping her milk than eating all of it. Close enough, I figured.

The mental buzz of a text message got my attention.

—Twilight Velvet here. Are we still on for lunch?—

—Oh yes! I have just the place for it, too,— NotABug sent.

I wondered if it was unnerving for people to get messages back from us instantly. Did they think we didn't even read them? It was a thought I could tuck away for later.

—You might want to ask her if there's a specific time Mr. Pants would like to see us,— I sent.

—What time did Mr. Pants want us to come in?—

I managed to eat three mouthfuls of bran before we got any reply.

—Make it 11:30 A.M.—

—And I have to thank you for setting up ChirpNet on those mobiles. When 'Bee fell asleep last night, I used one as my eyes. Their cameras are really good,— I sent.

My horn felt a little more tingly, and I realized it was because NotABug was using it too now. One of the phones from the stack pulled free of its charge cable and turned off. It flipped in midair, and I watched a little sim card approach it. She had the card installed and the phone back on in short order, and it settled itself on the table in front of me.

I focused on finishing breakfast before reaching for the new phone. Settings changed on my internal phone, and I realized it was NotABug configuring things. The new phone was set up as a relay for us, and of course ChirpNet was the bridge she used. I marveled again at NotABug's work—ChirpNet was quickly becoming something amazing.

—You're welcome! There's another shipment of them coming, too. I don't want to run out again,— NotABug sent.

—What about the server? Did you make the upgrades?— I asked.

—Sure did! We have double the computing power in that now, but it's full. We can have Mr. Pants file papers to transfer the house into the business name for your share in it, then we can arrange contractors to install the server farm in the basement.—

I began making notes on things that could be needed. Would we need to rezone the property? Does someone need to live there?

Finishing breakfast, I was now left with a problem—rather, two problems.

"Byte, 'Bee, I need to get up," I said.

"We could play a game while Rarity gets changed. What's up?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I kissed Rainbow's cheek as our nymphs vacated my lap for hers. Using magic to collect the plates, I stood up on my reshaped legs and found my balance quickly enough. Everything about the transformation has been horribly mundane—another day, another part of me changed. Well, except for the magic. I quite like the shapechanging thing, even if it is a drag on my energy.

Alright, my ability to work so many things at once was also quite agreeable.

Washing up the dishes, I set them to dry and walked through to my sewing room. Using my magic to hang the two dresses I'd made for Rainbow, I carefully folded Coco's dress into tissue paper and then placed it in a large box.

"The rules of Rarity, guaranteed quality. This I can assure. For each and every dress, I vow to give finesse. With time, love, and couture."

I could almost hear the violins and cellos backing me up. This was what I wanted my life to be about. The money didn't matter any further than to create desire for my work—I might not be able to put a value on it, but others would want to see a price tag.

And, today will be the first big step toward my shop. A business name to trade under, to own things with. I wonder how exciting the tax return will be on that?

I let out a laugh. One of us would be able to handle that by the time it comes up. If not, we find someone to pay to do it.

Leaving my dressmaking behind, I slipped through to my bedroom and quickly removed my dress and bra. Shorts, a sports bra, and a light top should have been what I was going for, but that would make me stand out a little more than I wanted to.

The costumes I'd made for my friends—back in high school—for a dance competition were my target, and after a little searching I found it. Dark blue, the tracksuit would be a little harsh against my black form, but it would hide my legs and arms wonderfully. A sports bra was still required.

Dressing quickly for what would be a quick run, I skipped socks and shoes (of course) and made my way to redo my makeup. Robustness was required here. Foundation off, blush off, anything that would not survive sweating off. I touched my lips back up and added a little more mascara.

I looked at the woman in the mirror with a smile. She had a cute little snout, wonderfully defined cheeks, and eyes that anyone could dive into and drown. Perfect.

The most unique experience with tracksuits, for me, was pockets. I took the new phone from my sewing room and slipped it in a pocket. It bulged a little—I hadn't made the pockets on these pants phone sized—but it could hold it.

—You'll be alright keeping an eye on Byte and 'Bee?— I asked NotABug.

—With all the cameras we have now? I could prod Rainbow and she'd be back here before I'd gotten another thirty frames. Enjoy your run,— NotABug sent to me.

—I love you. You know that, right?—

NotABug's surprised chirp was accompanied by a rushing hug that wrapped me up in her energy. Of course I squeezed back every bit as much as she did.

—You mean that?— NotABug asked me.

—Of course I do.—

—I love you too, Rarity.—

I couldn't help myself—I chirped. Turning for the door, I headed out and walked into the living room to find Rainbow Dash still playing a racing game with our nymphs.

"Who's winning?" I asked.

"I am, of course," Rainbow Dash said.

Looking at the television, I could see which of the three split screens was hers. She was coming around the last turn on her silly little go-kart. I leaned down, pressed the tip of my snout to her neck, and nibbled just a little, brushing sharp teeth over her soft skin.

On the screen, the little kart that was Rainbow's skidded off the track and hit the wall just in time for two more to round the corner and pass her.

"Hey! No fair! That's a distraction!" Rainbow Dash said.

—We win!— Bumblebee sent.

—Use words,— Byte sent.

"We won! That's two to one!" Byte said.

"Was there a wager?" I asked.

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash said without a hint of worry. "We need to pick up some more ice-cream on the way home."

I snorted back a laugh and walked to the front door. The cameras outside were easy enough to scan, and I reassured myself that there was no one out there ready to jump me. After all, Windigo wasn't a physical being.

Suri was, though. Ugh, I had two horrible things in my life and no way to deal with at least one of them.

"Are you coming Rai—" I said.

Rainbow Dash cheated, of course. Magic buzzed through her as she practically blazed from the couch to the door, opened it, and held the door for me.

I didn't question her and just took the opened door as my cue. As my hoof came down on the concrete outside, there was a distinct clop sound. Then a lot more as I adjusted my limbs on the concrete path.

"Okay. First thing is stretches. I don't care if your body becomes a full exoskeleton with tendons connecting everything inside, you still do stretches. First one is hand on knee and bend down," Rainbow Dash said.

Following her example wasn't easy—I lacked some joints in the right places to do some exercises, but we eventually got through a range of stretches that had me feeling more limber and ready to act.

Rainbow walked along the path to the sidewalk and looked back at me invitingly.

"You ready, Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked.

If you'd told me that hooves could make me move like I was wearing high heels, I would have been convinced how good they were much sooner. I could see hunger in Rainbow's eyes as she watched me approach.

"Ready to be awesome, darling."

Together, we started off at a jog. We'd barely gotten to the end of the block when I noticed Rainbow Dash watching my legs. If I were just a little more vain, I'd believe she was simply checking me out.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"Your legs move way different to how they used to. Not wrong. Just different."

Rainbow's head tilted up and met my eyes—we both smiled and broke from our jog into an actual run. The morning air rushing past felt great, and there wasn't much else I wanted to do that morning. With my new cellular connection established, I could keep an eye on our nymphs too.

I followed Rainbow's lead so far as pacing and direction. She turned after two blocks and took us into a large park. Each step let me know that my hooves agreed with softer ground better than pavement, though neither seemed much of a problem.

We circled around, ran down the street behind my house, and then up and around the block. By the time we got home, I felt like I'd actually done work. But Rainbow didn't stop. She slowed us to a walk, and took me past my front door.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Cooling down slowly. Let's just walk around the block to bring us down to normal again."

It occurred to me that having a physical trainer as a girlfriend was going to result in one thing: lots of exercise. Well, if that's what it took to convince her to wear a dress every day, it was a price I'd have to pay. Besides, she looked good in shorts.

When we finally looped around to my house again, I could definitely feel why she'd suggested the cool-down. My legs, new to both being equine and running, felt marginally more solid than jello.

The moment we were in the door I pulled her into a hug and kissed her. Rainbow's lips, as ever, tasted exciting. She complimented my hug with her own, and I felt enthusiasm build as she kissed back. When the kiss broke, when I could think straight again, Rainbow had the cockiest smile I'd seen on her yet.

"What?" I asked.

"You. Rarity, I've never seen you do more than yoga or the odd workout video. I might be awesome, but you're pretty amazing."

Her praise came with a glut of love I had no clue what to do with. I nibbled at first, and I felt NotABug idling munching too, but a build up of pressure caught me off-guard.

—Oh gosh, again? And you're doing it too?— NotABug asked.

—What do you mean, we're both going to make an egg?— I asked.

—Quick! To the mobile phones!—

I had to pull myself from Rainbow's grip and rush to the pile of devices sitting beside the couch, each still linked to the wifi and its own charger.

"What's wrong?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Mommy's going to make more eggs!" Byte said.

Byte and 'Bee both scrambled over and watched me grab a mobile phone up in each hand.

—You take the left one,— I sent.

The swelling mass of love inside me was too much to hold indefinitely. I turned my full attention to the phone in my right hand and pushed.

There was not a shred of pain (something this method of reproduction had over the human way). I simply pushed the love and energy out and into the little phone. Glowing green, the mobile started to swell and bulge, then stretched out and formed itself the distinctive egg-like shape that 'Bee's egg had been.

I looked between my hands, realizing I was holding two new eggs. In my head, in the world that was not quite real, I hugged NotABug tightly.

—More!— NotABug sent.

—Not right now. Rainbow can support us just fine, and for all the love that burns within her, I don't want to risk harming our love,— I sent.

—Well, okay. But at this rate we're going to need several houses.—

—Agreed.—

I felt Rainbow Dash wrap her arms around me from behind. She pressed her chest to my back, and I just wanted to melt against her.

"Life's getting complicated," I said.

"Pfft. Life always gets complicated," Rainbow Dash said as she pressed her cheek against the back of my head. "Uh. Rarity? Don't take this wrong, but you need a shower."

"Of course I do. Want to join me?" I asked.

"Me too!" Byte said.

"What's a shower?" Bumblebee asked.

"Big wet thing where people get clean. It's a good place to snuggle," Byte said.

"Me three!" Bumblebee said.

What could have been an adventurous shower ended up being more cuddles and a lot of booping. Bee was the first to get bored when Rainbow and I started actually washing, and when Byte realized we actually had something we needed to do, she climbed out too.

9:12 A.M.

As we climbed out of the shower, Rainbow Dash kissed my cheek, grabbed a towel, and started drying me off. It was luxurious in the way that something intimate done by another could be. I shifted around, raised my arms, and even bent forward so she could wash my derriere.

When she was done, I grabbed the towels from her and returned the favor.

"You don't have to—," Rainbow Dash said.

"I want to, darling," I said, cutting her off.

Rainbow's body was toned as only a woman's could be. There was muscle under every inch of her, but they were smooth muscles, and in some cases delightfully curvy muscles. The thing that had all my attention was—when she flexed her rump while I was drying it—her rear became tight as a drum.

"Spending a little extra time back there, huh?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"You spend so much time on your body I think it would be remiss of me to underappreciate it."

"There's other parts of me to appreciate than my ass, Rarity."

I wrapped a towel around her and hugged Rainbow Dash against me, my wings chirping up a storm.

"That may be, but I must confess I have somewhat of a—a focus. That is to say, I appreciate your derriere, Rainbow Dash."

"See, now that's what I love a lot about you, Rares, no matter what you turn into, or look like, everything you do has you in it. I have literally never heard anyone call my ass a derriere before."

"You have now," I said.

I let go, turned, and made my way to my makeup table. Sitting down, I planned out what face I would wear for the day. In the mirror, I watched Rainbow walk up behind me and drop the towel.

Casual nudity had never been a trait I ascribed to—it almost went against my ethos—but I had to appreciate that Rainbow Dash knew how to put on a show for someone she probably only suspected of watching her.

Rainbow fetched some clothes from the closet, held them up to herself in the mirror—conveniently so that I got to look at her rear the whole time—and kept accidentally dropping this or that. The discerning part of me regretted telling her what asset of hers I most enjoyed, but the part that enjoyed that asset was most appreciative of her efforts.

"Oh yeah. I'm going to have to be out tomorrow afternoon. You might want to see if you can get a sitter," Rainbow Dash said.

The situation raised a question: do they need a babysitter? I could watch them on the cameras we had set up, but that didn't solve the problem that someone needed to be able to act if something happened.

—I don't suppose you could nymphsit tomorrow afternoon?— I sent to Sweetie Belle.

"I asked Sweetie. I guess if that doesn't work, we could ask my parents," I said.

"Good idea. What are we gonna do about them when you get your shop going?"

"Darling, it's a boutique, and when that comes about, they can come to work with us. Remember, we are going to cater to anyone who comes in. That includes having a small area for children to keep themselves happy," I said. "And it will be a boutique, not a shop."

—This app is really neat. I have a materials lab at 12, and then I scored some time in the engineering department for 2-4PM. Would Byte be okay to hang around me while I work?— Sweetie Belle sent directly.

—Things are a little more complicated. We have two nymphs now. Maybe four by tomorrow afternoon.—

"She said yes so far, but she doesn't know about 'Bee, and we might have two more nymphs by then," I said.

"'Nymphs'?"

"It's more fitting than foal. We're hardly horses—not that there's anything wrong with horses."

"No-no. I like it. So anyway…" Rainbow Dash said and trailed off. "Hold on. How many nymphs are we going to have by the end of next week?"

—A lot!— NotABug sent.

—A lot of what?— Byte asked.

—Of you,— NotABug sent.

—Yay!— Byte sent. —Hey! You're not allowed to use a blue shell when I'm talking!—

—I win!— Bumblebee sent.

A measure of confusion filled me that they seemed to be responding much quicker than a game should play. Investigating the gaming console revealed it had been completely infested with custom code and happily accepted my connection when it should have booted me out.

—What did you do to this poor thing?— I asked.

I felt Byte reach out and find what I was poking around in.

—Uh, it was running too slow. We sped it up. A lot,— Byte sent.

Locating a ChirpNet interface in the new code, I connected and found they had indeed modified the game. It was now running fast enough that it no longer should have been able to run on the television—and I realized it wasn't. Each of my daughters was getting a low resolution output that was thousands of times faster to render for the console.

—Well. You have fun with it,— I sent.

—'Bee's really clever at real-world stuff, and Byte seems endlessly focused on games. I broke the encryption on the console, so they might get interested in hacking, but I don't think that's their thing,— NotABug sent to me.

—If they're having fun with it, let's leave them be, I guess. I certainly don't want our nymphs to be limited in what they can do, but I also don't want to push them to things they're not going to enjoy or feel comfortable with,— I sent to NotABug.

—Four. Okay, I can probably handle that. How likely are they to just want to sleep?— Sweetie Belle sent to me.

—If I told you they were so excitable they are playing kart racing at a thousand times faster than normal, would that give you an idea of what to expect?— I sent to Sweetie Belle.

NotABug nudged me gently, and given how complicated my morning was turning out to be, I had no inclination to deny her. I slipped from the real world and into the digital, then decided it was time to start probing things.

I didn't have my sword yet, but I didn't need that to probe. A few minutes spent writing something to turn my probing code into—well it wasn't a sword, but it was like a ten-foot-pole. The next step was routing. NotABug had said she'd obfuscated our traffic, but I wanted more protection. The choice was simple.

—'Bee, dear, could you pick one of the spare phones and take it to my sewing room and plug it in?— I asked.

A surprised chirp was my first answer.

—Sure! Any one in particular?— Bumblebee asked.

I watched on one of the living room cameras as she made a mess of the neat row they were in, but she nonetheless selected one, unplugged its charger, and bundled it up and held it in her mouth. Trotting through the house, my little girl did exactly what I asked.

—You're a wonderful girl. Thank you, 'Bee,— I sent along with a lot of chirps.

—You could have just used your magic, you know,— Bumblebee sent.

I was flabbergasted by her suggestion. She was, without a doubt, much more physically inclined than her sister, and she could solve problems in a flash.

—I'll remember that for next time. Did you know you're going to spend some time with your auntie tomorrow?— I sent.

—Sweetie Belle is coming to visit?— Byte asked.

—I believe she'll be taking you to where she works,— I sent.

—Who's Sweetie Belle?— Bumblebee asked.

—She's your aunt, my sister,— I sent

—She's really awesome is what she is. We can send messages to her, too, but she's in the slow world,— Byte sent.

Both our nymphs made sad little chirps. Was it that heartbreaking to have to deal with the real world when you were still technically in it? Then I remembered how it felt waiting for responses from people, though I managed to avoid any sad chirping.

—Do you have any plans for today?— I asked.

—Byte's going to teach me about the stock market. It doesn't sound too interesting, but I want to try it. And then we're going to go and talk to people. Byte said we couldn't feed on them, though,— Bumblebee said.

—If you promise only to take tiny sips and keep track of who you've each fed from so you don't double dip, it should be okay,— I sent.

—Ohh! We could build a database to keep track of that. Link it in with ChirpNet so we can tell who has been fed from so we don't feed too often, and even leave feedback to track if someone is feeling bad after a feeding,— Bumblebee sent.

—Okay. I take it back. 'Bee might be taking after me just a little,— NotABug sent to me.

—This is the first time I've seen her so interested in programming. It might simply be the planning she enjoys,— I sent to NotABug.

—I wonder how many sips it would take a day to keep us going?— Byte asked.

—So we'll want it to track us, too. Then we can say how full we got, and people can leave feedback,— Bumblebee sent.

She's building a social network based around chatting and feeding on people. It was hard to work out if it was a bad thing, a good thing, or something in the middle.

—We're going to need a lot more room,— I sent.

I hadn't realized I'd sent to the wider area and not just NotABug until 'Bee made some curious chirps.

—What I mean is, our needs for servers and living space are growing,— I sent.

—Why don't we dig?— Bumblebee asked. —I heard about getting another house, and while we aren't really up to it yet, with magic we could dig a vast network of underground rooms and halls to store servers and use as our home.—

—We'd need a lot of power. But we could always have underground power brought in. We could make a cabling company to do the work, too!— Byte sent.

—That sounds like an excellent idea. Why don't you two investigate this, find out what paperwork we'll need, and we can take a look at doing it?— NotABug asked.

—Okay!— Byte and Bumblebee sent at the same time.

—You seemed a little overwhelmed. Don't worry, they overwhelmed me too,— NotABug sent to me.

—Thank you. They're just so intense sometimes. 'Bee more so than Byte. How are we going to keep up with them?— I sent to NotABug.

—Teamwork. Divide and conquer. Also, once we have more nymphs, the older ones can help manage the newborns.—

—Isn't Byte doing that already?—

—Byte is only a few days old herself. I'm talking about the future.—

A future spent with my children, with NotABug, and with Rainbow Dash had me chirping up a storm. Dressmaking was still something I aspired to do, but now just thinking about all the people I was filling my life with made me happy beyond belief.

Was that the real source of my unhappiness at Polomare? A lack of close friends and family? Hardly. Suri was a grade-A pest, and the culture put forward at the place was toxic to anyone with a hint of expressive creation within them.

I could sit here all day and complain about Polomare Fashion, or I could do something. Come on, Rarity, let's get busy.

Building a relay into the phone 'Bee had brought me was trivial. It was a proxy on top of the array of proxies that NotABug had already assembled. Levitating it up, I sent it outside and into the sky. NotABug's cameras were angled far enough that I could see the phone floating in the air.

The next step was less scientific and more hopeful. Sending the phone around the house, I waited to see what would—there! The phone connected to someone's open Wi-Fi. A little more experimentation found that it was the house behind and at an angle to my own. I set the phone down in their yard and connected my chain of proxies through it.

It wasn't perfect, of course, but the proxy software had included a factory-reset trigger. It was a fuse on a random internet connection, and after a little checking, it turned out to be a slow internet connection.

So I started with NotABug's old service host. Their network was still online, and their border seemed secure enough when I tried prodding the usual ports—those assigned for servers—but the oddest thing was nothing on their network seemed to respond with anything but a refused message. They were a company providing servers, but they weren't serving anything.

This was useless. I couldn't do anything but poke here without straying into illegal things—and I didn't want to go down that road just yet.

Polomare was my next target, and unlike the service host, their network leaked. There wasn't a single place I poked that didn't poke back happily with services that shouldn't have been external.

There was so many attack surfaces that I wouldn't know where to start. Of course, I shouldn't start. I didn't have my sword or my—

Fire erupted, burning-hot mouths filled with teeth came for me, snapped at me—but didn't reach me. I plowed my shield up extra hard against the attack and was thankful that the measly allowance of data the Wi-Fi offered was now to my benefit. I held firm and studied what was coming at me through the menacing reports the firewall offered me.

Almost all my attention was wrapped up in protecting my connection against Windigo getting a foothold, but I kept some in reserve. The firewall held, and I almost had to delight in the anguished screams of Windigo as it tried to batter down the link.

When its attacks stopped, I grew extra cautious. My mind raced as to what it was doing before I hit the termination trigger on the phone. Windigo wasn't stupid. If I were attacking me, and wanted to find out where I was, I'd attack the router and sniff the data coming in from my secure side.

Had it gotten that far? I reached out with my magic again, levitated the phone up and brought it back to the house and in an open window. Reflexively, I closed the window.

What my little exploration had taught me was two things: I needed better obfuscation and I knew one place Windigo was lurking. The mountain of log data of Windigo's attacks was another boon, and one I'd happily examine.

The best place for finding out about better obfuscation would be the delightfully antiquated little hive of scum and villainy. I opened up what I now considered to be my less-than-legal connection and opened the practically ancient little chat program.

BugQueen: Hi.
AdminSteveStevieSteven: Yo queen. You wanna be quiet, shit's real.

I was immediately surprised by how well this admin typed—it was actually legible!

BugQueen Private => AdminSteveStevieSteven: I could take a guess and say something really nasty just got very active?
AdminSteveStevieSteven Private: Yeah. What do you know about it?
BugQueen Private => AdminSteveStevieSteven: That it's a sapient AI that is on the warpath because I found where it's hiding and poked it?
AdminSteveStevieSteven Private: If that's a joke, it ain't funny.
BugQueen Private => AdminSteveStevieSteven: Certainly not a joke. Would you like something that will protect you from it?
AdminSteveStevieSteven Private: Sure. What's the price?
BugQueen Private => AdminSteveStevieSteven: Whatever 0days you can spare, and the logs you get from the attacks.
AdminSteveStevieSteven Private: You don't want much. Okay, crazy bug, Rolley said you were cool, so I'll trust you as far as taking a look at whatever code you've got.
BugQueen Private => AdminSteveStevieSteven: Wonderful. Do you have ChirpNet?
AdminSteveStevieSteven Private: You use that thing? You know the admins can snoop, right?
BugQueen Private => AdminSteveStevieSteven: Actually, we can't.

I expected him to take some time for that to sink in, but he was back reasonably fast.

AdminSteveStevieSteven Private: Okay. That was funny. Just DCC it on here.

—Darling? Would you keep an eye on ChirpNet for someone named Steve or Stevie, or something like that. They'll probably try doing things they shouldn't be,— I sent to NotABug.

—There's a lot of people on here doing things they shouldn't be. Five are named some variation of Steve, and two of those are active right now and prodding at our servers. Oh! They're the same person. Would you like to chat with them?— NotABug asked me.

—That would be wonderful, dear.—

I opened a chat to one of the targets.

—Who the fuck is this?— Stefanie asked.

—BugQueen, dear. You can trust me when I say this is secure,— I sent to Stefanie.

AdminSteveStevieSteven Private: I'd ask how you did that, but you wouldn't tell me. Rolley said you're not a fed, and I've not met a fed that'd give away this kind of background, so what do you really want?

Instead of replying with words, I sent the firewall source code and waited for "Stefanie" to accept.

BugQueen Private => AdminSteveStevieSteven: 0days would be nice, but the main thing I want is logs. I want to see how Windigo reacts to that.
AdminSteveStevieSteven Private: This looks tight as a drum. Is this reactive code?
BugQueen Private => AdminSteveStevieSteven: It is. And if it stops working, I'll deliver you another module.
AdminSteveStevieSteven Private: Right on. I'll give it a test. There's a server the damn thing's been trying to hit recently, the only way I'm keeping it up right now is by blocking everything. This could be just what I've been looking for.

I checked back to the main chat room and found a lot of people reporting instances of attacks on their systems. Windigo, it seems, was angry I'd cut and run from it. Good.

SysPred: anyone kno who notabug is?

The question froze my blood, or it would if I were in command of a body. I read the question again.

Sodinite: don't know, don't care
Sodinite: if this windigo prick wants em
Sodinite: then they gotta be pretty cool right?
SysPred: yeah
SysPred: gonna fuck this windigo up when i find his IP

I reflected for a moment that SysPred, horrible as they seemed on both my visits so far, had my full support in this. Though, I wouldn't have put it quite that way.

BugQueen: If you want Windigo, where I last saw it was in the IP block owned by Polomare Fashion.
SysPred: no shit?
SysPred: i now what im doin now
System: user SysPred quit(gonna fuck some shit up tonite)
AdminSteveStevieSteven: Much as we all love messing with Pred, was it wise to aim him like that?
BugQueen: I was telling the truth. I was prodding that place with some scans and it came out at me and slammed at my firewall for nearly a minute.
AdminSteveStevieSteven: Oh. A whole minute? Kappa
BugQueen: I know what I saw, darling.
AdminSteveStevieSteven: Yeah yeah. This shit has everyone jumpy, Preds probably just going to DoS em for a few hours.
System: user SysPred joined
SysPred: wooo
SysPred: loic is blastin
SysPred: shit they got nothin
SysPred: how is this workin?
SysPred: shit
SysPred: its windigo
SysPred: loic down
SysPred: boom
SysPred: okay buggs ur right
SysPred: that was windigo

It took just a few quick searches to find what SysPred was talking about, and the results were interesting. The program was a distributed attack that just made as many machines as possible hit a target.

BugQueen: What happened?
SysPred: blew up the loic
SysPred: over half the clients dropped
System user SysPred quit()
System user SysPredAlt joined
SysPredAlt: somethin lit up my router
SysPredAlt: my nets dead
SysPredAlt: yo buggs sign me up whenever to kick this guys ass

I actually felt bad for them, and for anyone else who happened to be running the client. That said, they were performing an illegal act. An act I encouraged. Drat it. Why did I have to feel sorry for this?

BugQueen: Do you need any help getting back up and running?
SysPredAlt: its cool
SysPredAlt: not my first time dancin like this
AdminSteveStevieSteven: So. What brings you to our little hole in the ground today?

Some quick searching for a few terms I'd need later, and I was ready to answer. It took nearly three seconds to acquire the information.

BugQueen: Exactly the problem SysPred had. I used a burner phone planted at someone's house as a relay, then poked around Polomare Fashion. Windigo came at me, but I shut down the phone before they could get past my firewall.
BugQueen: When I left, it was attacking their router.
SysPredAlt: cool idea
SysPredAlt: your burner okay, tho?
BugQueen: It survived. I can't say the same for the router I hooked through. I daresay it suffered the same treatment as yours.
SysPredAlt: gonna take this apart and see what's up
SysPredAlt: tell me where and when, buggs
System user SysPredAlt quit(join the bug army, hunt OP bitches)
Sodinite Private: you wanna meet?

A dozen little alarm bells went off in my head. That invitation seemed a little too sudden and opportune.

BugQueen Private => AdminSteveStevieSteven: I just had Sodinite ask to meet me. I'm not stupid enough to say yes.
AdminSteveStevieSteven Private: Probably a cop, a horny kid, or some shit. Just ignore em, or if you want freak em out with your little trick on ChirpNet.
BugQueen Private => AdminSteveStevieSteven: Thanks for the advice, darling.
BugQueen: So the reason I'm here is to ask if there's a better way than what I used to obfuscate my connection?
Sodinite: against that kind of aggressiveness? not really.

Sodinite was ringing more alarm bells. Trying to find out who I am, acting like they don't care about their writing style, then using a long word like "aggressiveness", and the praising comments earlier for NotABug.

AdminSteveStevieSteven: Using TOR as your start is good. Unless your target has control of both entry and exit node they can't track you down.
BugQueen: What about weaving in and out of TOR, using burners to relay?
AdminSteveStevieSteven: Id call you paranoid, but if Pred got hit that hard, behind the shit he usually uses, yeah. You do what you gotta do.
AdminSteveStevieSteven Private: I'll get you those logs next time, and if this firewall is everything you said, maybe some presents.

I sent a terminate command and logged out. Some quick searching yielded quick results that described what TOR was, how to use it, and what ways you could be found out anyway.

The TOR client I was using was already tied to the browser I had, but I decided something bigger was definitely needed. Adjusting my firewall to restrict any traffic in or out except via TOR was the next step.

Then I stopped, realizing something amazing.

—Darling. Couldn't we build a TOR client into each ChirpNet device, and completely secure it?— I asked NotABug.

—We could. Do you think it would be a good idea?— NotABug asked.

—I think anything that secures us and our nymphs from Windigo is a good things. I was just chatting to friends, and one of them made Windigo angry.—

—From what I remember, Windigo was always angry. I'll prepare the back-end if you can make the change to the front?—

—I can incorporate it with the firewall changes I'm working on. Can we really intercept conversations on ChirpNet?—

—No. It uses end-to-end encryption. Each client asks the others for their public key, then transmits data to each encrypted with that key. This is standard stuff in the industry, using TOR is not.—

I hugged NotABug until she chirped a lot, then kept hugging her until I chirped a lot too.

11:15 A.M.

For the first time in weeks I focused on the time. I'd been completely engrossed in programming and chatting, and it wasn't that I didn't notice the time—it just didn’t sink in that it was almost time to go see Mr. Pants.

—Our appointment?— I asked NotABug.

I felt a nudge as NotABug passed control over. I was sitting behind the wheel of my car. My hands were closed around the steering wheel, and beside me was Rainbow Dash with Byte and 'Bee. I let go of the wheel and reached over to Rainbow to brush her chin.

"Seat belts in the back, please," I said.

Rainbow looked about to argue, then turned her eyes down to her lap.

"Yeah. I gotta start thinking about this stuff," Rainbow Dash said.

The tone of her voice had an air of determination and surprise that I valued. It meant she was actually thinking about it now.

"Don't worry, darling, we all do. And I might need to get a bigger car. This one has neither the nymph nor storage capacity I need," I said.

Just a touch to the car's interface and I had it started and into reverse. I actuated the throttle digitally, only needing to steer and look at the reversing camera.

The drive to my lawyers' offices was thankfully short, though it still took me almost seven and a quarter minutes. I pulled into a space and turned the car off.

"You're all coming in with me?" I asked.

"Yup!" Byte said.

"Yay!" Bumblebee said.

Rainbow just grinned like the happiest fool ever. She held out her arms for Byte and 'Bee to jump into, catching them when they did.

Turning from the car, I came face to face with a man who looked like he'd seen a ghost.

"Get back, monster!" the man said as he backed away. "B-B-begone!"

"Dude, we're going to a fancy dress party. Geeze!" Rainbow Dash said. "I swear. Unless you dress up as sexy witch or sexy reindeer, everyone thinks you're a monster!"

But I could see in the guy's eyes that he didn't buy what Rainbow Dash was selling. There was no convincing him—no costume was this perfect. So I stuck out my tongue and winked at him, turned, and walked toward the entrance of Mr. Pants and Mrs. Velvet's firm.

"Rarity? Why didn't you try to say something?" Rainbow Dash asked.

She followed me inside, and I waited for the door to close before turning and kissing her on the cheek.

"Thank you for trying, but did you see his eyes? He really believed I am a monster," I said. "Everyone is entitled to their beliefs. Mine is that he's wrong, and you can only be a monster on the inside. A princess taught me that."

"You're not a monster."

Her kiss on my cheek was worth so much to me I couldn't hold back a chirp of delight.

"You're a sappy fool, Rainbow Dash. Thank you," I said.

I turned, and with my family at my back, walked the short hall to the reception room. The young man was still at the desk, and he looked up and smiled when he saw me.

"Ms. Rarity?" the receptionist asked.

I started, wondering how he knew it was me. The last time he'd seen me I was, well, human. Now I was not. The answer came quickly—Twilight Velvet. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yes. Thank you," I said.

"Mr. Pants is ready for you. Please go through."

"Do you want backup? Is this something you'd even need it for?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I laughed, a short, happy expression that was accompanied by a chirp. The young man at the counter twitched a little at the (to him) odd sound.

"I'll be fine. I'm just picking up some paperwork, and asking Mr. Pants' advice on some things. They're on our side, Rainbow."

Sparing a kiss for Rainbow's cheek, and for the cheeks of Byte and 'Bee, I followed my memory to Mr. Pants' office.

Fancy Pants was, as every time I'd seen him, dressed impeccably in a custom-made suit. The fit was perfect, his tie done expertly into a Windsor knot, and his shirt looked pressed and pristine white.

"Miss Rarity! Setting the fashion world ablaze?" Fancy Pants asked.

"I promise to once I have my boutique. You will promise to come in and let me make something for you?"

I sat down and watched him take in my look. Critical eyes slipped from my horn, to my eyes, and then to my arms. NotABug hadn't dressed me to hide a single thing. If Mr. Pants made any judgments about my body, he didn't show them.

"You know, I think I will. About your paperwork," Fancy Pants said.

A change came over the man. The joviality of a social interaction fled before the man's professional mask.

"Someone filed an anti-compete complaint the moment the paperwork was filed. I had it quashed by talking to one of the clerks in the council offices, but mark my words, Rarity, you have someone who wants you to fail.

"As for the paperwork, here you are. You are now the operator of Rarity's Fine Clothes, trading as Carousel Boutique. Did you purchase the location Miss Bug mentioned?"

I almost had a giggle-fit at the name.

—But I'm NotABug!—

—Darling, it suits you. Both of us, really. Are you sure you dislike it?—

—It is cute.—

With a hug, I chirped (digitally) at NotABug.

—Just for legal documents. You're going to need to be recognized as a citizen if you want to pursue a career in legal studies,— I sent.

"I did. I'll forward the information on it to you," I said.

I had the absolute delight in seeing—just a moment later—Fancy Pants' eyes widen. NotABug had obviously sent him the email with the information on the deed and the property. I waited for him to recover his shock.

"Twilight said you had a way with machines, but I'd love to know how you did that," Fancy Pants said, then cleared his throat. "But that's for another time. I'll send you the paperwork to transfer the deed into your company's assets. Being the owner, you can start preparing the location immediately. If you need to talk to shopfitters, please see Olive in reception."

"Your secretary?" I asked.

Fancy Pants nodded.

"And nephew. Can you believe the poor boy wants to attend law school? Well, I told him if he takes a year off before college and works here, I'll pay his fees. He's learning and proving to me that he's worth the investment. Was there anything else I could help you with?"

NotABug pushed gently, to which I gave ground. The slight adjustment from my seated posture to hers was always a little odd, but I was used to the relaxed feeling of not needing to be in control.

"Actually, Mr. Pants, I had some requests too," NotABug said.

"Twilight said to expect this. I believe I'm talking to Miss Bug?" Fancy Pants asked.

"My name's NotABug," NotABug said, and I could hear an edge in her voice. "But you can call me Miss Bug if it's easier. I'd like to start a managed fund for Rarity, our children, and our friends. I'll also be speaking to Mrs. Velvet regarding an application for citizenship."

The words floored me. I had several whole seconds of shock at the news NotABug had just served up before I managed to put words in order.

—When did you decide this?— I asked.

—Just now. It's not just me anymore. I have to think of Byte, 'Bee, you, Rainbow, and any more nymphs we have, or friends that align themselves with us. We're building a family, but I want to build a community. To do that I need to be able to represent myself.—

More shock, but now intense pride mixed into the emotions suffusing me too. I wanted to chirp loud enough to deafen people miles away. I did chirp, a lot, but I kept it to ChirpNet.

—I'm proud of you, darling. I really am. I guess your lunch with Mrs. Velvet will be work related?— I asked.

—Seems that way. I'm still going for sushi.—

—Rainbow said not to bother you while you're in there, but I wanted to send hugs and chirps!— Byte sent.

—Me too!— Bumblebee sent.

"You know, I believe you're going to make her day with that. I'll leave it to you to discuss that with her—she handles the law court side of the partnership, I just throw paperwork at City Hall until they do exactly what I want. The fund could be started and set in motion with Rarity's name on everything, then she can sign control to you once Twilight has things in order. Would that suit?" Fancy Pants asked.

"That would work perfectly. I trust Rarity implicitly," NotABug said.

—Do you need me for anything, darling?— I asked.

—You're going to get citizenship? But aren't you already a citizen because you were born here?— Rainbow Dash sent.

I had to give Rainbow credit, she was watching chat speed past faster than a normal human could blink, and she was managing to be only a second or so behind.

—Mrs. Velvet will know. We're having lunch with her,— NotABug sent.

"Very well then. I'll draw up the papers for that and let you know where to send the start-up funds," Fancy Pants said.

Standing up, Mr. Pants held out his hand to NotABug.

"Thank you, Mr. Pants," NotABug said. "For everything."

"My dear, you'll have your chance to thank me fully when you receive my invoice," Fancy Pants said with a laugh to cap it off.

NotABug shook hands and turned for the door. While she walked out into the reception room, she let out a little chirp of relief in my head.

—Are you okay?— I asked NotABug.

—Yes, but like I said, people are strange for me to deal with in person. I just don't understand all these social rules. There needs to be a manual,— NotABug sent to me.

—Darling, there's three people who I'm sure you can figure out how to interact with,— I sent, along with a snapshot of her eyes seeing Rainbow, Byte, and 'Bee.

I got happy and excited chirps in reply. NotABug walked forward into Rainbow's arms.

11:51 A.M.

—I think I'll work on my programming while you handle things. Are you going to be okay?— I asked.

—Just promise to come running if I need help,— NotABug sent.

—Always, darling. I'm just a chirp away,— I sent. —Now, where was that client code…—

I dropped back into the server and accessed the code repository NotABug had set up. ChirpNet was there with the core part as well as the interfaces and platform specific code. I narrowed in on the network stack.

There was already a patch written for the server that contained the code to integrate TOR.

NotABug had done well to integrate it, but I wanted to get a little faster on the client side. Going to the project site, I downloaded the source code to see what I could do about that, which got me into reading the license that came with it.

I had to make the library of any code I produced freely available? Well that was fine. Let everyone have a fast, lighter-weight version. So I set about attacking the code itself, paring down what was and wasn't needed. I only had a select number of ports, which meant I could remove the requirement for a wide connection.

—Rarity, I did it. I quit after I had a meeting with Suri and I can feel whatever she did to me. Is your friend free? I want this gone!— Coco Pommel sent.

3:39 P.M.

The time surprised me. Programming seemed to be a wonderful way to throw hours away. I saved what I was working on and surfaced enough to look at what NotABug was doing.

We were in a bank, and Fleur dis Lee was looking over some papers with a tight smile on her face. I didn't know for sure what had triggered that look, but I could assume it was a banker just finding a lot of money in their customer's accounts and signing them up to take little bits of it over time.

—Coco just sent a text. She quit work and has Suri's thing on her again,— I sent.

—I saw. We can go to Twilight Sparkle's lab next. Would you mind texting her back?— NotABug asked.

—If it's too much, just say the word and I will remove it, but if you want to help us work out what it is, meet us here,— I sent to Coco, along with Twilight's home address.

"We have everything wrapped up here, Rarity. I'll have that terminal shipped out to you as quick as I can. If you have any more financial needs, don't hesitate to call me," Fleur dis Lee said.

NotABug smoothly took an offered business card and tucked it back into her purse. She also claimed a lighter folder that sat on our side of the desk in Fleur's office.

While NotABug finished up the details with Fleur, I disengaged myself from the server and set about contacting Twilight Sparkle.

—Coco's on her way over, Twilight. I'm coming too. See you shortly.—

I turned my attention back to the world NotABug was traversing and hugged her digitally.

—Sorry I put this on you. Apparently I get a little carried away when writing code,— I sent.

—You also chirp a lot while doing it. The cuteness almost makes up for having to deal with the world in your hooves,— NotABug sent.

I gently nudged at NotABug. She let out the greatest burst of relieved chirping I'd heard yet, and slipped around me into a tight hug while I sorted out my legs into walking again. What surprised me more was that NotABug had been shapechanged while at the bank, and now that I was in control again my own magic had taken up the burden.

—It's good to be home,— NotABug sent.

Chirping along with NotABug, I had a small moment of worry.

—Where's my car?— I asked.

—I could give you all kinds of directions that would make sense to someone in the real world, or I could do this,— NotABug sent.

An attachment with the message held a map showing exactly where my car was. I didn't exactly run, but I made quick time to the parking space and climbed into my car, turned it on, and prepared to drive in a very fluid and practiced move.

—What? Now?! Oh gosh. Okay, getting ready for you,— Twilight Sparkle sent.

—We need to update her to ChirpNet,— I sent. —Oh! Where's Rainbow and the nymphs?—

—Mamma Rainbow got me a slurpee!— Bumblebee said.

—We're shopping!— Byte sent.

—It makes my teeth tingle!— Bumblebee said.

—I have one too,— Byte sent.

—Weeeee,— Bumblebee sent.

—Dears, please. Where are you?— I asked.

I wasn't angry at them—who could ever be angry at the darlings—but I also wanted to know they were all okay.

—Sorryhadtospeedupabit to get this done. At the mall, picking things up for NotABug,— Rainbow Dash sent. —Stupid space bar.—

That she'd taken the effort to type properly, even missing space a few times, warmed my heart. That she'd done so without using the spellcheck was utterly amazing. I sent back some happy chirping.

—Thank you, darling. Sorry I've been quiet most of the day, I've been working on a few projects,— I sent, then added privately. —Perhaps we could snuggle a little later?—

—You wanna snuggle? When will you be home?— Rainbow Dash sent directly.

I expected there to be a significant delay before Rainbow replied, but I guess she was probably using her speed to keep up.

—Give me an hour. If I can't wrap this up before then, I'll let you know,— I sent to Rainbow Dash.

—Make it 6. See you then.—

This was, apparently, now a thing. A date. Despite all the mixups getting to this point in time, or perhaps because of them, I felt a little giddy at the promise of a date. I had a date. A bounce filled my step as I walked the rest of the way back to my car.

Just as I started it and pulled out into traffic, my phone rang—Coco Pommel.

"Rarity! I need to talk. I think she hit me with a stronger version of whatever it was," Coco Pommel said.

At least Twilight would be happy to hear that. I didn't relish having to suck the nasty emotion from her again, but there was one thing I could use to distract Coco.

"I made you a dress," I said.

The gasp I heard through the hands-free of Coco's phone was enough for me for the moment, but I wanted to see her face when I gave it to her.

"I could swing home and bring it with me to Twilight's?" I asked.

"Please do. I need something to get me through whatever your friend wants to do. Even standing still like this is just—" Coco Pommel said but broke off into incoherent yelling at another car.

Given Coco's state, I had to wonder how the rest of the workers at Polomare were handling Suri's latest trick.

"It's a sundress. Light and perfect for spring. My daughter helped me make it…" I said.

I kept up a slow, even description of the work I'd put into her dress while I raced home as quickly as I could. Apparently beating Rainbow Dash, I grabbed the dress and left again.

"I'm at your friend's house. It seems really quiet here. What did you say she does again?" Coco Pommel asked.

"She works for the university, researching magic of all things. It's why we're going to her," I said.

As I turned into Twilight's street, I could see Coco sitting in her car, fingers clamped to the steering wheel.

"I'm almost there, give me five more seconds," I said.

Her head jerked up and a smile broke through the thin-lipped frown she'd been wearing. Good. I pulled in behind her car and climbed out. A breeze caught in my silken hair as I took a deep breath, then Coco practically fell against me. I hung the call up.

She was wrapped in a darker twirl of Suri's magic than before.

"Coco? Darling, it's okay," I said.

I held Coco as she squeezed against me, cried, and buried her head against my neck. We stayed there and hugged in near silence for two-hundred and twenty-five thousand and twelve milliseconds. Coco didn't stop crying.

"Do you want to see your dress?" I asked.

At her nod, I used my magic to lift the dress out of the car and hold it up for her to look at. Her tears finally ceased.

"Rarity, that's beautiful. You're amazing."

Coco took the dress from my magic and held it up against herself. Her business outfit seemed a dark mockery of what both our jobs had been about, while the dress was fashion at its most pure. Vain? Moi?

"Come on. Twilight should be here already. I'm sure she has a room you can change in," I said.

Leading the way, I spared a brief moment to make sure my car was locked as we neared Twilight's door.

—Twilight! We're here,— I sent to Twilight.

I needn't have bothered with the message. As soon as we reached the front door it opened to reveal a—to borrow one of Pinkie Pie's words—nervouscited scientist.

"Come in, come in," Twilight Sparkle said. "We'll get this done as quick as I can."

"Coco, this is Twilight. Twilight, Coco. She needs a room to change in, Twilight," I said.

The moment the front door closed behind us I pictured myself—my changeling self—and pushed some of my power. The rush of flames was not just expected, it was welcome. I lost a few inches in height but regained a lot of confidence.

Twilight was staring at me in absolute shock. Oh, right, she hadn't seen me do this trick yet.

"Room for Coco first, then tests, then explanations," I said.

"R-Right! You can get changed in there," Twilight Sparkle said and gestured to a room. "Then we can get these tests done so you can—You know what? I want to be scanning while you do whatever you do."

I narrowed my eyes and gave Twilight an appraising look. She didn't look like she were evading or stalling or any other -ing.

"If we get this done quickly, I might even let you scan while I shapechange," I said.

I doubt there was another thing that could have gotten Twilight quite as excited as that. I smiled and tried to ignore her little squeal of excitement as she raced down the hall and descended to the basement.

Waiting by the door Coco had entered, I sent a series of happy chirps to Byte and 'Bee, then got another batch in reply. We kept it up until Coco opened the door.

Now dressed in the light outfit, I realized how perfectly her hair matched the pale pink flowers that adorned the outfit. I saved off a picture using one of my eyes, and sent it to Coco. Her phone must have still been in her car, however.

She paused for just long enough that I could capture the photo, then Coco launched herself into another hug. This time, without the complication of her tears and frown, I was a lot more embarrassed about the embrace. But Coco wasn't Rainbow. Not by a long shot. Where Rainbow was tall, broad-shouldered, and strong, Coco was—now—the same height as me, slim built, and she felt like a woman. I was probably doing Rainbow a disservice, but I couldn't help the way things felt.

"Are you feeling better?" I asked.

Coco just nodded against me. She felt small, despite our relative sizes being equivalent. A strong protective instinct flared, and all the awkwardness of the hug left.

"Come on. You're so brave to do this," I said.

I led Coco down to Twilight's laboratory, feeling every bit like a mother bear protecting her young. Coco was fighting the anger, but I could still see it tighten every now and again, and when it did, the rest of her emotions gained a red tint.

"Twilight?" I asked.

"Oh! Are you ready to begin?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "Right. Stupid question. Stand over here, please."

Twilight led the way to what looked almost like a photo-booth.

"Just stand between these two plates and disrobe," Twilight Sparkle said.

"Twilight," I said to get her attention. "Does she have to disrobe? I can assure you the part of her that the magic is around is outside her body."

Given the look of panic on Coco's face, Twilight showed an uncharacteristic amount of empathy and nodded.

"We'll try with clothes first. If I get a good enough reading, we can forego the rest," Twilight Sparkle said.

Coco graced me with a smile, and it hit me just how timid she'd become. This wasn't the Coco Pommel I knew. I focused my attention on Coco and could see the red bands had tightened.

"Twilight, you have one shot at this and I'm getting rid of it. Hurry," I said.

A deep, bass hum sounded from one of the computer cabinets, and I watched as a dim purple light radiated off one of the panels. It got brighter and brighter before I had to close my eyes against a flash, then it went dark.

I spent a moment blinking away the purple flash before I rushed over to Coco.

"Twilight, I'm removing it now. If you want to scan that, do it now," I said.

"I got it! It's just like you said. Wow that looks tight. Uh, another? Hold on, it's charging!" Twilight Sparkle said, her voice getting faster and more excited the longer she spoke.

A purple glow from Twilight caused me to glance toward her and see she was using her magic on the back of the machine. The light from one of the panels started again, growing brighter faster this time. As it reached full intensity, I leaned toward Coco and bit down on the coil of red.

Like a live wire, the red bit back at me. I actually may have taken some of my own annoyance out on the thing and snarled, hissed, and ripped it free. I barely noticed the flickering purple light that seemed to overwhelm everything but my target. I went in for another bite and pulled more of it from Coco.

Again and again I attacked it, and I felt myself going into a frenzy. This nasty thing was hurting someone I wanted to protect, and I was having none of it. When the last shred of the coil had been ripped free, and I’d stomped on it, I sniffed at Coco for nearly a good ten seconds.

"R-Rarity?" Coco Pommel asked.

My name dragged me back to reality. I blinked away the state I'd fallen into and looked at Coco. She had none of the red left coiled around her, but I could see an indent in her aura where it had been. I hoped it wasn’t permanent. A sinking feeling inside threatened to drown me.

The sounds, sights, and smells of the rest of the world intruded. I could hear Twilight muttering something over and over, and there was a distinct smell of ozone coming from her machine.

"Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my—Rarity! That was amazing!" Twilight Sparkle said. "Look at these scans! I've never used so much magic before!"

Despite the crimp in Coco's aura, she looked herself. She stood straighter and no longer gave off an air of helplessness.

"How are you?" I asked.

"Alive. I'm not going back there for a second try. Did your friend get her measurements?" Coco Pommel asked.

We both turned to look at Twilight, who was bent over staring at her screen with rapt attention. We walked over to look and I chirped with delight. She was looking at a perfect picture of exactly what had been wrapped around Coco.

"The color's wrong," I said. "It was more red, with angrier little highlights here, and here."

I punctuated my words by gesturing at the screen. To my delight, Twilight adjusted the display until it matched my vision perfectly.

"There. That's exactly right. Look at these blues and soft whites. Those are Coco's normal colors. Leadership, integrity, calm," I said.

"Th-That's me? You see this all the time?" Coco Pommel asked.

"Yes and no. That would be your baseline. Your current emotion overlays that like a cloud—normally. With this wrapped around you, your own emotions had no chance," I said.

"Watch this," Twilight Sparkle said.

A touch of her fingers and a click of the mouse later, the picture played forward in slow, jerky steps. I reached out a hand and touched Twilight's.

"Darling, hold on a second. Can you let me onto your wifi and give me access to this?" I asked.

"S-Sure. SparkleLab and the password is—" Twilight Sparkle said.

I checked, and sure enough, the password was easily guessable.

"Still Spike1203," I said. "Darling, anyone could guess these. You're using your pet's name and your birthday!"

While I spoke, I searched her network and found the desktop machine. Remote assistance request sent, I grinned as a little popup appeared.

"Click yes to that, please," I said.

"What are you doing?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

The moment she clicked yes, I began working. Building the missing frames wasn't hard, and there were programs I found to do the work. I loaded one on her computer and began processing the series of admittedly huge still images into a flowing video.

"How exactly are you doing that, Rarity?" Coco Pommel asked.

"It's a little complicated. Magic, a mobile phone, and a very clever friend who showed me a lot of tricks," I said.

I chirped at NotABug, a surge of the joy I felt at being able to do the things she'd showed me. Of course, I got a happy chirp back.

Twilight's computer system proved quite up to the task of processing the images, and soon the program output a single video file. I brought it up full-screen and played it.

The video was a composite of a still camera with the sensors' data overlaid upon it. All three of us watched as I literally turned into a savage beast. Snapping, snarling, and biting at the angry red coil around Coco.

"It got to me," I said. "The anger, I mean. It was cowing Coco to the point where she just wasn't herself, but it tried to fight against me the only way it knew how."

"I guess it was different this time. At first it made me angry, too, but the constant anger felt like a cage around me," Coco Pommel said. "It flipped around while I was sitting in my car. I tried to fight against the anger, a-and I think it attacked my fight."

"That's why I wanted it off you, Darling. I didn't want to risk it doing ongoing harm, and I could see you were suffering," I said.

Twilight started the video playing again. The most curious thing was that there was each time I savaged at the spiral around Coco, a green shadow of my own head seemed to reach forward and sink its fangs into the spiral. It wasn't hard to put two and two together and come up with it being my metaphysical self.

The video paused on the last frame, which was me sniffing over Coco for more of the spiral. I looked positively monstrous, and it was the first time I truly looked at myself as that man Rainbow had tried to deflect saw me. But it wasn't me. The snarl, the hunger—I was a well-fed bug, there was no doubt about that, which left only one source for that attack of the vapors.

"It tried to infect me?" I asked.

"I think so. It might be that you swallowed a little of it by mistake. How do you feel now?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

"I am myself again, I think."

—You are. I got angry too, but it passed. What was that?— NotABug asked.

—You got angry?— Byte asked.

—It seems Suri has a new trick, or I just swallowed a little something I shouldn't. I'm fine now,— I sent.

—We need to find her and deal with her,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Sunset said she'd swing by tomorrow. All we need to do is get her to touch Suri and she can find out what's going on. Oh! That reminds me, time to install ChirpNet on a few more systems,— I sent.

Twilight's computer was easy, her phone less so. I sent a text message with details of where to get it to her, then considered and sent it to the rest of my friends.

"Uh, what's this?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "ChirpNet?"

"Install it, darling, it's the latest thing for chatting," I said. "NotABug wrote most of it, though I've been working on a security update to make it run completely over TOR."

"Over what?" Twilight Sparkle and Coco Pommel asked at the same time.

I let out the most expressive sigh I could, chirped in exasperation, and rolled my eyes all at the same time. Since I'd taken up programming, I'd delved into a world few ever explored. That world brought with it knowledge and ideas that others just don't share with me. Nonetheless, I could share it with them.

"It makes it almost impossible for someone to find your device," I said.

"But," Twilight Sparkle said. "I lose my phone, like, all the time. If it's harder to find, it'll be even worse."

"I think she means online," Coco Pommel said. "Okay, I have it installed. Does it work like texts?"

"Yes. But it's much better," I said.

—I can send messages to both of you at once,— I sent.

—Both of who?— Bumblebee asked.

—I think she's talking to her friends. Mom, we're jumping into our own chat,— Byte sent.

—Alright, dear, just keep an eye on this one,— I sent along with a little chirp.

"Who are these others talking?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "I don't think I've met them before."

I was a few milliseconds into writing a reply before I sighed and set my mouth in motion.

"Byte and 'Bee are my daughters, Twilight," I said.

Twilight Sparkle, using my wonderful new vocabulary, seg-faulted. She stared at me blankly for nearly ten seconds before her jaw started to bob up and down. Finally, Twilight screwed her eyes up and shook her head—a hard-reboot if ever I saw one.

"Daughters?!" Twilight Sparkle asked.

The best path to take with Twilight, or so I'd found, was direct. She might lock up and stare at the wall for a few moments, but her brain was incredibly quick and able to make large leaps of logic. So I told her.

"When I get too much love magic inside me I feel compelled to shove it into some technology. It turns into an egg, and a day or so later a new nymph hatches," I said.

"Hatches?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

—Byte, do you think you could step through the internet and out from Twilight's computer screen?— I asked Byte.

—Uh, give me a second,— Byte sent to me. —Can you get her to post a message?—

"Twilight, can you say hello on ChirpNet, please?" I asked.

Real world was, as my daughters had opined, horribly slow. Twilight had to absorb what I'd said, and after that, she had to start processing what I'd asked and rank it for relevancy, then she—Cheating, I re-opened my connection to her computer and sent a quick message.

—*chirp*,— I sent from Twilight's computer.

—That's her?— Byte asked me.

—It was me, but I have remote access.—

—Coming through…—

"Ahhh!" Twilight Sparkle said. "What's going on?"

By the time she'd screamed, and by the time she'd asked the question, Byte was already completely exited from her monitor. She stepped carefully clear of the keyboard before looking around the room.

"Calm down, please," I said. "Twilight, darling, that's Byte, she's my—"

—Me too!— Bumblebee sent.

—Where'd you two go?— Rainbow Dash sent.

—They’re here with me. I'll send them home in a moment,— I sent. —Sorry I didn't warn you.—

—What is this place? There's lots of cool stuff!— Byte sent.

"Your daughters, I presume?" Coco Pommel asked.

Coco was faster than I thought she'd be. She reached out to 'Bee and scooped her up.

"They're adorable, Rarity," Coco Pommel said.

It took Coco nearly two whole seconds to get 'Bee chirping, but the sound made me tingle happily all over and chirp in reply. Twilight, on the other hand, looked at Byte and adjusted her glasses.

"H-How old are they?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

"I'm three," Byte said. "And 'Bee is almost two."

—You said it that way on purpose,— I sent to Byte.

—She's having trouble dealing with this. Is she okay?— Byte asked me.

—Twilight's very smart, but she takes a little bit to adjust to strange things. Also, if you give her a problem that is confusing, she'll be completely out of it until you give her the answer.—

"Days," Byte said.

"Oh! I was trying to figure out if Rarity was—You know what? Never mind. How are you, Byte?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

Once engaged in meaningful conversation, Byte chirped a little.

"I'm great! I was just playing games with 'Bee until Auntie Sweetie arrived. She's going to take care of us tonight so our mommies can go out on a date!" Byte said.

—Darling, Byte just spilled the beans. I love you so much right now. I expected something naughty, but a date?— I asked Rainbow.

—It wasn't really a surprise, but I did want to do something special. How's your friend?— Rainbow Dash asked.

Her speed, it seemed, was improving. I dreaded to think of the damage she was likely doing to her poor phone. Then it occurred to me that getting another wasn't exactly complicated.

—She's okay, now. Tomorrow we're going to get to the bottom of this. If Suri is the source of this, I'm going to have words with her. Very. Terse. Words,— I sent to Rainbow.

—You know, I'm actually going to feel sorry for her. Maybe… See you in an hour.—

I sent back a bunch of Xs and Os, as well as a good chirping for good measure. A stray thought hit me: I had no idea how chirps worked outside of direct interfaces.

Regaining my focus, I realized that Twilight was about to play back the video of her data.

"Did you still want to measure me shapechanging?" I asked.

—I really like Coco. She's nice,— Bumblebee sent accompanied by a lot of chirping.

I spared a glance to 'Bee. She was on her back cradled in Coco's arm, while Coco rubbed her belly. There was no trace of the red in Coco's aura still, and the squeeze marks were fading. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"N-Not today. I think I burned out the primary and secondary transducers with my magic. It'll take some time to repair and—" Twilight Sparkle said.

"'Bee can help—she's really good with machines. What's the problem?" Byte asked.

Twilight turned her head to look at 'Bee, snuggled on her back in Coco's arms and getting the belly-rub to end all belly-rubs.

"W-Well, uh, the transducers are part of a magic-sensing array. They have a core of titanium that I enchanted to—" Twilight Sparkle said.

'Bee not only stopped chirping, she tilted her head back and looked at us over the crook of Coco's elbow. It was about the most adorable thing I'd seen from her yet.

"… To resonate in time with the flux field and actuate an energized coil within another coil to induce current. I read your book. What broke?" Bumblebee asked.

Sometimes, when you were talking about the right topic, Twilight Sparkle would just click. She reached into the top drawer of her desk and pulled out a screwdriver set.

—Actually, 'Bee may be a while. I think she just discovered a new friend,— I sent.

—Is there a button to make those cute chirp sounds? Anyway. She's got some time. Sweetie said they can come home any time they want, but I think we need a curfew. Oh, and Sweetie said she has her latest work to show them,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—We forgot to put key-codes for chirps! This needs to be fixed!— NotABug sent.

Twilight was just getting to her feet and approaching the machine that she'd used to scan Coco and I, while 'Bee was struggling to jump down from Coco's arms—still chirping of course.

"How long will this take, 'Bee, Twilight?" I asked.

—I don't think I can fix it. One of the transducers has a critical flaw and needs replacement. But I could get the secondary working well enough that it could hold for one or two shots. But then it'd break that one, too,— Bumblebee sent.

"I'm pretty sure the main transducer is completely broken. The secondary might be okay, I'd have to test that more with—" Twilight Sparkle said and shot a jolt of magic into the machine.

—She broke the secondary,— Bumblebee sent.

"Nope. I think the secondary transducer is broken too," Twilight Sparkle said.

"It wasn't before you used your magic on it. You should have read my message," Bumblebee said.

'Bee's tone was clearly accusatory. It was a tough call for me to make, but I think it's time for me to put on my mommy pants.

"'Bee!" I said. "Young nymph, you will not use that tone of voice. This is Twilight's machine. She is letting you help her fix it. Now, what do you say?"

Staring up at me with shock in her big blue eyes, 'Bee looked on the verge of tears. Drat, I'd have to stand up to those kinds of looks if I had any hope of maintaining my authority stance.

"I-I-I'm sorry!" Bumblebee said.

I'd never heard her or Byte stammer before. I was on the verge of surrendering my attempt at being stern and pick her up, when Twilight saved me from the need by scooping 'Bee up.

"Hey. It's okay. But next time tell me if I'm about to break something, okay?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

"I k-keep forgetting you can't hear ChirpNet. Why doesn't everyone just get a phone put in them like Mommy?" Bumblebee asked.

"No one's done it yet. We could try doing it together, if you like?"

'Bee's little face lit up in a sudden explosion of amazement and shock.

"We can do that? I mean, we can do that!" Bumblebee said.

That my lesson in courtesy turned into a positive made me feel a warm tickle inside. Princess Twilight was the princess of friendship, after all, so her human doppelganger showing similar qualities shouldn't have been surprising.

"Might I suggest a bluetooth earpiece? With ChirpNet on your phone, you can give 'Bee access to it so she can talk to you directly. It's still slow, but it means you can keep a direct line of communication together," I said.

'Bee let out an excited chirp, and I could actually feel her accessing information on the internet through me. Like NotABug, it came through as chirping in my head, but it wasn't as bad as when Byte had first done it.

What was curious was how she was connecting to me. It felt like some kind of direct link—like Wi-Fi—but neither phone showed as having more than each other in their little daisy chain. Without an extra device, I had no way of actually scanning, so I put that on a growing list of things to do when I have some time.

Come on, Rarity, prioritize. Okay, Coco is okay?

I looked hard at Coco, and focused on her aura. The tight band was gone, but I looked further. There were still signs of the squeezing it had been doing, but even that was almost gone. I thought back to what I'd seen the first time I'd removed the band, and I mentally compared the two—she had nothing else out of the ordinary.

"Is something wrong?" Coco Pommel asked.

"No, darling, the opposite. I was just making sure there was none of Suri's mess left on you. You're all clear," I said.

Coco's features shifted to worried. She looked down at her hands and I could see a blush in her cheeks.

"W-When I was—And you were taking care—That wasn't—" Coco Pommel said.

"I know. Coco, she'd completely messed with your emotions. You were trapped in them and they wouldn't let go. I did what you needed then and said what you needed to hear. How do you feel now?" I asked.

"Like myself. It was surreal. No matter what I did, I couldn't find my strength. I'm just glad I was out of there before that side of things started affecting me."

"Now for the serious stuff. Are you going to be okay with money?" I asked.

"What?" Coco Pommel asked. "Oh, yes. I have some money put aside until I find another job. I wasn't going to just walk out and live on the street."

—Offer her a job,— NotABug sent to me.

—What?— I asked NotABug.

—Offer her a job. I can afford her salary, and ChirpNet needs someone to be the CEO.—

—You want me to offer her a job managing the affairs of your chat network?—

—Yes. There's all kinds of things I don't want to have to worry about. She would be perfect. I'm getting emails asking if the company will be publicly traded, or if it has insurance, or a million other things.—

—We need an office for this,— I sent NotABug. —We need a parent company for all of us, and then the various smaller companies under it.—

—Can you think of someone better to manage that than Coco?—

She had me. Without asking Mr. Pants to find someone—and it would be need to be someone I trusted implicitly—Coco was the best choice.

"Would you like a job?" I asked.

Coco looked at me with surprise evident. I could practically hear the gears working in her head as she tried to work out what I was saying.

"Rarity, I don't mean to sound demeaning, or even—" Coco Pommel said.

"Coco, I'm not joking, and I can assure you that I—we can afford your salary. NotABug has started a business project, and I have my own, but we want it to all be controlled, business wise, by a parent corporation," I said. "I have two children right now who are on the verge of shaking the world with their inventiveness. There's going to be more, Coco."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Run it. Run all of it," I said.

"You're serious?" Coco Pommel asked. "I mean really serious. I'm going to ask you for a lot of money to do this, and there won't be any friendly negotiation. If you put me in charge of this corporation, you are going to hand the reins to me."

"I'll be holding stock, so you will be reporting to me at the very least. How much do you want?"

Coco looked at me with more cold focus than in all the time I'd known her. Her eyes practically bored into me.

"Who's Not A Bug?"

—That's it. You're up!— I sent.

I relaxed and nudged myself away from control. Chirping in surprise, NotABug took over and was left gazing back at Coco.

"I am," NotABug said. "My name is NotABug, and I live inside Rarity now."

"R-Rarity? You're confusing me. If this is a joke, it's the wrong time to make it."

"It's not a joke," Twilight Sparkle said. "There's a distinct entity that is called NotABug living in her head. They were formerly purely digital in nature, but have adapted amazingly to living in the real world."

—No I haven't,— NotABug said.

—Shh. You are doing great. How long have you been in here now?— I asked.

—Point taken. But still, I don't like dealing with the real world. I can, of course, and usually pretend to be you when I have to.—

—Darling, none of us enjoy the real world. People enjoy their interactions with each other and the things they create. The real world can be horrible and depressing. The real world was Polomare.—

—I never thought of it like that. I love being with Rainbow, and our nymphs, but the rest of the world is a bit bleh. Is that the right word? With all these security upgrades I can't track all the chats anymore, so I can't learn language as fast.—

—It's for the best, darling. What would have happened if Windigo had hacked into it?—

Concerned chirping echoed through my head. In response I hugged NotABug and chirped comfortingly to her.

—You're right. I just miss it.—

"Purely digital? Like an AI?" Coco Pommel asked.

"Mommy isn't artificial!" Bumblebee said.

Coco looked confused at first, but it seemed like the light came on after a moment.

"Sorry. You grew up in a computer?" Coco Pommel asked.

"Two of us did. I started talking to Rarity, but then Windigo found my servers and chased me. There was nowhere else to go," NotABug said.

Her sad, audible chirping stung me to my core. I hugged her tighter and chirped comfortingly as much as I could.

"It hasn't been easy, but Rarity wouldn't let me try to get out for fear it might hurt me. I just wish I could be less of a burden on—" NotABug said.

—You are not a burden! Without you, without us, I wouldn't be about to live my dream. You have only brought wonderful things, NotABug. I wouldn't have found the courage to let Rainbow into my heart, I wouldn't have Byte and 'Bee, and I wouldn't have you,— I sent.

NotABug squeezed me back in our digital hug, and her chirping sounded much more positive. We must have spent nearly two seconds wrapped like that, quietly chirping to each other.

"She is very insistent that I'm not a burden, but that doesn't mean I want to stop working hard. ChirpNet has nearly three million worldwide users, and the number is growing faster and faster. I can write all the code I like, but if I don't know business, the system can't grow.

"Our nymphs, our children, are smart and ready to take on the world right from their eggs, but I want a safety net to catch them if they fall. We had Byte and 'Bee in the span of three days, and there's a pair of twins on the way.

"Will you help us, Ms. Pommel?" NotABug asked.

I'd never seen Coco so focused on something. She didn't seem fazed in the slightest at Byte's impassioned requests, but her eyes did flicker at the talk of millions of users.

"I'll take stock as payment," Coco Pommel said. "But I'm going to need something to live—"

"Account details?" NotABug asked.

Coco looked surprised by the request, and I couldn't blame her. Her hand reached for a handbag that should have been at her side.

"I'll have to get back to you with that. How about you deduct the initial payment from the value of the stocks I would earn after a year?"

"If you don't do well, you don't get paid. Send me a message on ChirpNet when you find your account details."

—I like her even more. She looks hungry, like a predator, but she's a nice predator!— NotABug sent to me.

—Careful to keep our predators fed or they might bite us,— I sent NotABug.

A wave of tiredness hit me, and with it came a gnawing hunger. I know I must have chirped in distress because I was caught back up in a hug by NotABug, and it was her turn to chirp comfortingly.

—What's wrong?— NotABug sent.

—Hungry. Really hungry...— I sent.

—Ur@Twi's?— Rainbow Dash asked.

Her question surprised me not just in how quick it came, but that she was watching her phone.

—Yes, dear. Take your time with your words, please?— I asked.

"That was my plan, but it still gives me money to live off if this doesn't work out. So pending your payment, I'm going to need all the details you have, and what your plans are moving forward. We'll have a meeting on Mond—" Coco Pommel said.

Loud knocking from upstairs interrupted the conversation. I didn't need to see who it was, I could feel Rainbow Dash.

NotABug didn't need to nudge me to the fore, I was already moving there myself. We changed position and I started running. The stairs were easy to take three at a time with my powerful legs, so I shot to the top and looked down the hallway at the front door.

"Rarity?!" Rainbow Dash said.

Her yell from outside galvanized me into action. My hooves slid for a moment as I ran on the hardwood floor, but then I used my arms to push myself forward—shoving at the door frame. I didn't run as fast as Rainbow could, but I only took a scant few seconds to reach the front door and turn the locks.

With just a door between us, I could already taste Rainbow's love, and when it opened I felt her arms close around me. She shuddered, and her belly pressed tight to my own. Her love seemed infinite normally, but now I gulped a noticeable chunk down to fill the void that was my hunger.

"R-Rarity. Not that I'm complainin', but warn me if you're gonna do that again," Rainbow Dash said. In a lower voice and right in my ear, she said, "I almost made a scene."

I gasped and jerked back. Sated, I could look at Rainbow without seeing a walking drumstick. She looked turned on—flush cheeks, her chest heaving, and the corners of her lips wouldn't stop curling upward.

5:48 P.M.

The time shocked me only a little. I knew it had taken time to rip all the coil off Coco, and it had taken time to recover, and then 'Bee and Twilight had done some work, and then… For being measured in such minuscule amounts, time really does fly.

"Sorry, darling. I've never been that hungry before. It was—I could feel it gnawing at my insides. Thank you," I said.

Leaning against Rainbow Dash, it was easy to just surrender to her grip and let her hold me. I sighed into her strong body and nibbled lightly at her love. I wanted to just go home and sleep, but she'd planned something for us, and I wouldn't turn that down.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Home. I have some surprises planned. Sweetie is taking the girls when they're done here. Now all I need to do is—" Rainbow Dash said.

I squealed in excitement as Rainbow literally scooped me off my feet. My shout turned to laughter, and I couldn't help but kick my legs.

—Girls, we're going. Are you coming with us? Sweetie Belle is waiting for you,— I sent.

I got a flood of excited chirping from Byte which seemed to spill over to 'Bee as well, and both came running down the hall moments later. Twilight and Coco followed the pair at a slower pace, reaching the top of the basement stairs as Byte and 'Bee started bouncing around Rainbow's legs.

"Come on. Up you get," Rainbow Dash said.

Crouching down, she didn't waver for a moment under my weight, nor when Byte and 'Bee jumped onto my belly too.

"Are you alright?" Coco Pommel asked.

"Removing what Suri did just took a bit much out of me. I'm better now, and will be better after some rest," I said.

"I didn't realize you needed… What exactly did you need?" Coco Pommel asked.

"Love. A good meal. A hug. A kiss," Rainbow Dash said.

Rainbow kissed me on the cheek.

"And now I'm taking her away. Rarity can come out to play tomorrow," Rainbow Dash said.

I got a moment of seeing surprised and happy smiles on Coco and Twilight's faces before Rainbow Dash turned me away from them and started off toward my car. I realized, looking up at Rainbow as I was, that I couldn't see her ear. I'd been so focused on feeding that I hadn't noticed she'd ponied up.

"How fast can you run like that?" I asked.

"Run?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Who said anything about running?"

A blue wing flared out over Rainbow's shoulder, and I had to assume its opposite was on the other side.

"When my girl needs a hug, I fly to her in ten seconds flat."

It was less than ten seconds, and I suspected most of the time was spent closing the front door. I hope she closed the front door. It took me a few milliseconds to remember I could check for myself. Opening up my ChirpNet link to the house, I checked around the exterior cameras, and then swapped to an internal one.

Sweetie Belle was tapping her foot in my living room and checking her phone.

—On our way. Sorry for holding you up, but I needed a snack,— I sent to Sweetie Belle.

I watched her head jerk up in surprise after reading the message on her phone. Her thumbs darted over the screen as she typed—meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was lifting me into the passenger seat of my car.

—I unlocked it and opened it for her,— NotABug sent to me.

Sending the chirpiest response I could to NotABug, I hugged Byte and 'Bee in my lap.

"You two need to sit in the back and put belts on," I said.

As soon as Rainbow sat in the driver's seat, I realized what was about to happen. I pulled my seat belt on and turned to make sure our nymphs had theirs.

"We need more cameras in this," I said.

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Her hand reached for an ignition switch that wasn't there, and I heard her mutter about tiny cars.

"Just thinking of things I need. Put your foot down, NotABug started it for you," I said.

"Put my foot down? Rarity, you know I love it when you talk dirty," Rainbow Dash said.

What followed was me holding on to my poor little car as tightly as I could, while our nymphs cheered Rainbow on from the back seat. I finally let go when she stopped the car in the driveway and NotABug turned it off.

"Mommy? Are you alright?" Bumblebee asked.

"I would have been if we were getting here about five minutes from now," I said.

It wasn't that bad, of course. Rainbow was an aggressive driver, not a crazy one, and my car left her little opportunity to be able to do truly crazy things. I unbuckled my seat belt and reached to the door handle, but the door opened before I could.

Again Rainbow reached under my legs and behind my back to lift me free of the car.

"Finally!" Sweetie Belle said, bursting from the front door. "Are there two adorable girls who want to come with me?"

Byte shot past Rainbow at a dead-run—her hooves a blur, while 'Bee followed at a more cautious pace.

"Byte said you're my auntie. My name's Bumblebee, but you can call me 'Bee," Bumblebee said.

I watched from my perch in Rainbow's arms as Sweetie bent down and crouched as low as she could. She offered a hand to 'Bee.

"You can call me Sweetie, 'Bee. Do you like robots?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"What's a—Ohhh! I like robots!" Bumblebee said.

Hearing 'Bee's voice rise in pitch with her excitement made me start to chirp out loud—I couldn't help it at how adorable she was.

"Well, I'm learning how to make robots, and I need some help with my latest one. I can't seem to get the leg actuators working fast enough and strong enough to do the trick."

'Bee and Byte chirped all the way to Sweetie's car.

—Bye mommies!— Bumblebee sent.

—Bye!— Byte sent.

—You darlings be good for Sweetie. She's in charge, you understand?— I asked.

Two affirming chirps came back.

"I can't see my phone right now. Was those beeps them?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Stretching in Rainbow's arms like a cat, I nodded.

"They were saying goodbye, and I made them promise to be good for Sweetie. So what have you got planned?" I asked.

"Getting you inside before the first surprise arrives," Rainbow Dash said.

True to her word, Rainbow carried me inside (managing to avoid damage to me or the house) and set me down on the couch. I sprawled like a cat but was surprised at the movement alarm warning me something was approaching the house.

—This must be Rainbow's surprise. Don't look,— NotABug sent.

The doorbell rang, and Rainbow rushed to answer it. She talked to whoever it was for a few moments before backing up.

"Okay. Bring it in and set it up over here," Rainbow Dash said.

A woman in a white robe walked in carrying what looked like some kind of table. Behind her, another woman came into my home. The first had the most exquisitely blue skin and pink hair that looked not just excellently maintained, but amazingly styled. The second looked like the twin of the first, only her hair and skin colors were the reverse.

"This is the special lady?" Blue Skin asked.

"Yup," Rainbow Dash said. "Everything she wants, tonight, she gets. Pampered to within an inch of her life. You guys have the stuff I talked about?"

"Ms. Dash, we have everything under control," Pink Skin said. "Now, please, let us work."

Blue Skin unfolded the legs to reveal the thing she'd been carrying was a massage table. I turned to look at Rainbow, my excitement mounting.

"Darling. You didn't?" I asked.

I got a big, cheesy grin back from Rainbow. Pink Skin, however, had glided her way across the living room and was examining my hair.

"So soft, like silk. You must tell me how you maintain this," Pink Skin said. "Oh! Where are my manners? I am Aloe Vera, and my sister is Lotus Blossom. Please allow us to take care of you until the next surprise is due."

Her arms were as sure as Rainbow's had been. Aloe lifted me and set me on the table. Deft fingers reached for my shirt, and before I knew what was happening she was undressing me.

"I found their spa on the outskirts of town," Rainbow Dash said. "Their steam room is the literal best for relaxing after a hard day. But, without a doubt, it's their massage that they're known for. Just relax, Rares."

If it weren't for my recent changes—the mental ones—I probably would have had more of a problem with her divesting me of my clothing. As it was, I was a little uncomfortable, but Aloe never once seemed inclined to ogle or stare, she was doing her job.

Carefully placed hands guided me to turn and lay down on the table face first. My horn was a bit of a problem, but by turning my head a little to the side it too was accommodated.

"Are you comfortable?" Aloe Vera asked.

I would have nodded if it wouldn’t have meant ripping up the edge of their table.

"Mmhmm," I said.

Then Lotus' hands started to work. They began at my shoulders, and though they were firm, her fingers seemed to melt my flesh with the way they worked my muscles around.

I sighed and felt tension worked from me. Lotus' hands were every bit as magical as Rainbow had described.

"This is amazing," I said.

"It hasn't even fully begun," Lotus Blossom said. "When my sister gets back, she will take care of your hair. Would you like your tail washed as well?"

Trying to reply, my words were cut short as Lotus' fingers found a knot in the muscles that connected my wings to my back. All of a sudden I couldn't have even chirped. I had the consistency of cookie dough.

"I'd take that as a 'yes please' if I were you," Rainbow Dash said.

I could only groan and flick the extremity in question a little from side to side. I was wagging my tail and I couldn't have cared how silly or banal it was.

The sound of the front door closing heralded Aloe's return. I didn't peek through the cameras, not wanting to spoil the moment. While Lotus kept turning my muscles to jello, Aloe took hold of my hair and began working on it.

"This is amazing. It really is like strands of silk. How did you do this?" Aloe Vera asked.

"It grows like that," I said, my eyes now closed. "I don't dare do anything but rinse it for fear of damaging it."

"You were right to worry, but I have just the thing. There is a little damage to it, probably from warm water. You should only wash silk in cold water," Aloe Vera said.

I let them do their thing. Lotus' hands worked down my body, and Aloe soon switched to washing my tail. Almost all traces of the day's stress were massaged and washed away when the doorbell rang again.

I heard Rainbow's voice talking, and then the sound of feet coming inside. If I'd been concerned that I was naked and more people were coming in, I didn't have the strength to do more than twitch an eyebrow.

"Thanks. Just in there. She'll be done shortly," Rainbow Dash said.

Opening my eyes, I saw Rainbow came into view with a silver platter covered in grapes. She either sat or knelt beside the table and lifted one of the grapes from the tray.

"This took some arranging, but I figured you deserved it," Rainbow Dash said.

Then she fed me a peeled grape. There was only so much wooing I could take. I made a hungry-happy sound as I chewed the treat and swallowed it. Another replaced the first, and soon it was a flow of grapes. Then one drew back a moment before it could slip into my mouth.

"Got your attention again? They're almost done with your tail, and I think Lotus wants to try something with your wings. You good for more grapes, or would you like a kiss first?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—This is so amazing. Can I kiss her?— NotABug asked.

She needn't have asked, as I pushed her to the fore just as Rainbow's lips connected. We both felt it, but NotABug was the one trying to nuzzle back.

I was surprised when NotABug nudged me forward. It was me kissing Rainbow back, hungry for more of her touch. The kiss was startling in how good it was, and I had to admit that I enjoyed it completely. By the time it ended, however, so had my massage.

"Rarity? Dang, it's hard to tell who's in control after that. Can you at least say something?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It's me, darling. Can't move. Too relaxed," I said.

Then I let out a gasp as a bathrobe was spread over my back, and Rainbow carefully rolled me over and scooped me up. Getting carried might get old if it was all the time, but just tonight was special, and I appreciated it.

"Dinner's in the kitchen, and I hope you are hungry."

Rainbow carried me through to the kitchen where a young woman in a waiter's uniform stood beside the kitchen table. The woman selected two trays from the bench behind her, turned, and set one before the two set places.

From the moment Rainbow put me down in one of the chairs and took her place opposite me, the food seemed secondary. She looked over the table at me while her aura boiled with love. The meal was wonderful, but it was the company that made it divine.

—You want to sleep?— NotABug asked me.

—I want to stay in this moment forever, but sleep might be a better idea. I'd get a sore neck after a while,— I sent to NotABug.

Another push (from each of us), and I gave NotABug control. I know I started chirping, but what I wasn't sure of was if I stopped when I fell asleep.

A dream fluttered up and wrapped me in its warmth. I was in bed with Rainbow, and—My subconscious didn't make the connection, but the sliver of higher thought knew that the dream was derived from reality.

Author's Note

Rarity: Not a question but I've always believed that the word monster referred to behavior/attitude/heart of a person and you are most certainly NO monster.

"Compliments, darling, will get you everywhere."

Rarity: Any plans to do anything nice for the poor sods currently working for Suri once she is gone?

"Well, baby steps here. First we need to find out what she's doing. Then we need to stop her. And finally I can see about helping people. As it is this takes a lot out of me, and while I'd want nothing better than to stop it all and free everyone from her manipulations, I won't do it if it risks those I care for," Rarity said.

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Lab

Editing provided by the astounding Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 17

After the ending of what I assumed was NotABug and Rainbow’s exploration of each other, my mind settled into a deeper sleep. Dreams—inconsequential—came and went, but my mind narrowed onto one. I was writing code, completed it, uploaded it to be used, and then went to bed. I kept waking up—within the dream—and having to fix bugs I'd somehow left in my code.

It was annoying to say the least. I knew I was tossing and turning, but every time my mind tried to settle into more sleep, my subconscious pushed me into that dream and I felt like I had to wake up and fix bugs in my code.

Groaning and pulling my mind slowly from the embrace of those dreams, I was left with a horrible feeling of something left incomplete.

7:22 A.M.

It was time to get up, regardless of my desire for more fulfilling sleep. Nothing could have stopped me, however, from logging onto the server and checking my code. The firewall was holding perfectly, and the logs coming from the servers for ChirpNet were showing no sign of significant attack.

I double, triple, and quadruple checked, and I was sure NotABug hadn't implemented my partially finished TOR code into ChirpNet clients yet. So why did my subconscious see itself clear to torture my sleep?

"Are you alright?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Three words. They told me a lot of things not just with their existence, but also with the sincere tone she used to say them. There was something amazing about having someone care about you that much—amazing and chirpy, which is how I felt.

"Just worrying about things that don't bear worrying about. Did I toss and turn?" I asked.

"Two pillows worth. I cleared the feathers of the other one away, but you still have a victim of horn-based assault under you at the moment. You might have gotten the sheet with your last effort."

Rainbow felt huge in the bed. She pushed herself closer, and I felt our bodies touch as her arms closed around me for a hug. Leaning into her touch, I put one arm around her and tried to snake the other under her to make it a full hug, but quickly encountered resistance.

"Uh, Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I think your hand has changed."

This was a big moment, and I wanted to see the damage still wrapped in my happy place (my happy place being Rainbow's arms, of course). Lifting my arm from where I'd worked it behind Rainbow's back, I teased it from under the covers.

It wasn't anything like a horse's hoof. It looked more like a simple extension of my arm—which wasn't exactly an arm anymore. There was a bend about halfway between where my elbow should have been and my shoulder, and another lay further down my arm—leg. It was a leg. There was no denying that. The top joint bent backwards, as if it were my actual elbow, but the second joint bent back the opposite way.

The limb had holes in it, just like my arms and legs have had for some time, and it seemed longer than it should have been. If I didn't look at it, I could move it easily—looking at it made me think of the upper joint as an elbow, and I got lost somewhere after the second joint.

And it all led down to—well—nothing. They weren't horse hooves, like I'd already noted, but simply an end to my arm—foreleg. I tried to wiggle my nonexistent fingers, and got no reaction. I tried thumb, and this time noticed something move along the underside of the hoof.

A blue finger poked at the bit that moved, which startled me until I realized that Rainbow Dash was there and looking at my new limb with me. The prodding felt odd, less sensitive than the palm of my hand had been but more sensitive than my flesh was normally.

"I've been doing some research, you know. This is a lot like how a horse leg is, but completely not," Rainbow Dash said. "Horses should have muscles and tendons, but you just have this hard exoskeleton here. You probably have ligaments under there, but that isn't how a horse leg would work. And you have these things. These aren't proper hooves."

Rainbow had been cupping said not-a-hoof toward the end of her little monologue, and she lifted it to her lips. My heart sped up and a flutter started in my belly when she kissed the dark limb.

"You're strange, Rarity, but you know I like strange, right? And I love a girl who can dress up for any occasion, who can always be the absolute star of attention in the room through the force of her personality, and who will always make me look at her as if she was the only other person in the world."

It was flattery of the highest order and completely unbelievable coming from Rainbow.

"Where did you look that up?" I asked.

"The stuff about horses? Onli—"

"No. What you just said."

"You don't think I can put words together about the girl I'm crazy for?"

I meant to kiss Rainbow on the lips, what I did was bump a longer-than-it-had-been snout directly into her nose.

"I meant to do that," I said.

"Really?"

"Not really. I think my snout grew."

"Yeah. It did. More to kiss now."

Rainbow proved to me, then and there, that you don't need a snout to nuzzle, and that her lips were the softest things I'd ever felt—and I'd worked with silk.

By the time Rainbow was done with her little display, my alarm went off. Instead of the usual screaming tone, however, it made a soft chirping that just got louder and louder. Despite enjoying it, I turned the alarm off.

—Is it morning already?— NotABug asked.

I kissed Rainbow once more on the cheek.

7:37 A.M.

—Oh! That reminds me about last night,— NotABug sent.

—I bet. I had a dream about what was happening, and if reality was even half as exciting as the dream, I'm sure you both had a lot of fun,— I sent to NotABug.

—I have a recording if you wanted me to get ready for work?— NotABug sent to me.

It was tempting—very tempting. Since all this had started, I was so at ease with not having control of my body that a playback of such a thing wouldn't bother me. A little voice—a tempting little voice—pointed out that it would be a wonderful way to start the day.

"Rainbow?" I asked.

"Hmmm?"

She nuzzled against my neck in a way that made my decision easier.

"NotABug recorded last night. Are you okay with me—"

Rainbow Dash snorted and kissed my neck.

"You know you have these little dapples here? They're cute," Rainbow Dash said. "I didn't know we were making a porno last night, but if you want to watch, I have no problem with it."

Her particular phrasing made it harder. I guess all things balanced out in the end. I brought one hoof up to Rainbow's chest and gently nudged at NotABug.

It wasn't being a voyeur. It wasn't even porn. This was the real thing to every sense except what I felt digitally. As NotABug felt, I felt. As NotABug cried out, I cried out. It was something I will treasure and not discuss in front of polite company ever.

That said, when I was done with one of the singly most fantastic experiences of my life, I surfaced into my mind and found NotABug and Rainbow stepping out of the shower together.

—You have to teach me how to record things like that,— I sent.

—Okay, but first you need to get ready for…— NotABug sent. —Your last day at Polomare Fashion.—

I know I was chirping a lot. It was enough that even I could hear it echoing back in my head. I pulled NotABug into a tight cuddle and squeezed her.

—My last day. And we get to the bottom of Suri. It will be a great day!— I sent.

—I told you they're awake,— Byte sent.

—WE HAD THE BEST DAY EVER!— Bumblebee sent.

— Dear, can you not speak in all capitals?— I asked.

—BUT IT WAS THE BEST!— Bumblebee sent. —AUNT SWEETIE LET ME MAKE A ROBOT AND WE SNUGGLED ALL NIGHT AND HER FRIEND LET BYTE PLAY GAMES ONLINE AND THEN WE USED A PROGRAM TO MEASURE OUR BOTS AND THEN SHE SAID WE COULD DO IT AGAIN TOMORROW. I MEAN TODAY!—

—Oops, sorry,— Bumblebee sent. —But it was really fun!—

Despite being blasted like that, I couldn't stop chirping. If anything, my digital stridulations became more intense at hearing from our daughters. My train of thought derailed as I thought over what had just run through my head. Stridulation? Apparently my vocabulary was growing beyond just the things needed for coding.

—I'm glad you had fun. Are you coming home for breakfast?— I asked.

—Aunt Sweetie said she needs to attend morning classes, but at lunch she can take us back,— Byte sent.

—Thank you, Sweetie,— I sent. —Now, come home please dears, I want a snuggle with my girls.—

—Okay!— Bumblebee and Byte sent.

8:01 A.M.

Pulling up the camera in the kitchen, I started practicing extrapolating three-dimensional space from a two-dimensional source and just my magic's movements. It wasn't easy, but the more I did it the fewer things I bumped into.

I managed to get coffee made just as NotABug and Rainbow finished doing their makeup. I could hear excited chirping coming from the living room as NotABug walked down the hallway. I drew back to peeking through my own body as 'Bee and Byte bounced around us.

"I got to play games all night! There was other people playing too, and I got to beat them!" Byte said.

She sounded about ten times more excited now than she had earlier. I suspected she had been trying to set a good example for 'Bee, but now our big girl was just too excited to restrain herself.

"And I got to play with robots! Auntie Sweetie said next time I can try driving one!" Bumblebee said.

Rainbow bent down and caught both nymphs in her arms and lifted them up. Excited chirps and squeals were the order of the morning, it seemed.

"Really? So you both had a good time?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yeah!" Byte and Bumblebee said together.

—Tag. You're it,— NotABug sent me.

The nudge was gentle, barely there, but I slid into control and turned to kiss both our nymphs on the noses.

"Welcome back. Did you have a fun show?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I took the moment to level a glare at Rainbow, but it failed utterly and turned into a silly grin. I did, and I couldn't lie to her about it.

"It was fun," I said. "And not a word more about it unless we're alone."

Rainbow looked about to press the issue, but a stray Byte-snout found her jaw and she broke into laughter.

"Later, then. I got more yummy bran for breakfast!" Rainbow Dash said.

I followed Rainbow's stomping into the kitchen, and got to watch her surprise as she found the two cups of coffee sitting on the bench. She looked back at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I need to practice more. I only spilled a little," I said.

"You're not going to hear me complaining. Is there anything that'd make it easier to do this kinda stuff?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"More cameras. Different angles. I'll figure something out with NotABug. It'd be nice to be able to do things without being in the same room."

Byte had taken the chance and jumped onto the counter while Rainbow started preparing bowls of bran. 'Bee climbed up to Rainbow's shoulder to watch everything, while I just grabbed my cup of coffee and sat down at the table.

—I couldn't stop dreaming about code last night,— I sent NotABug.

—Is that what was up? You were chirping a little oddly when I went to sleep,— NotABug sent me.

—It was terrible. I'd written code and then published it before going to bed, and there were bug reports and error logs mounting, and I was asleep.—

I had no choice now. Having hooves meant my only manipulation tool was my magic. Using only a slight amount—a sliver’s sliver of my full power—I lifted the mug up to my lips and took a sip. The bitterness was a little stronger, though I had no idea if that was due to my changing palate, or because I had done something wrong while brewing it.

The answer was simple—more sugar.

With four more cubes in my cup, and a little stir with my magic, I took another sip. It was sweet, way too sweet, but it was good. There was a vague feeling of dirtiness about stirring it with my magic—it felt too much like stirring it with a finger—but without anything physical to clean off after doing so, I had nothing to examine for being dirty.

"You seem to have that under control. What do you think they'll say at work?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I looked up from my overly sweet drink and simply shrugged.

"Not that I actually care about what they think, but I'm assuming Suri will probably try to use it as some excuse to get me to come in on Monday. Probably argue about how I can't do any work and should take a sick day," I said. "Which I don't have any of."

"Why don't you just shapechange for the day?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I would love to, but it uses far too much energy. Maybe if you were there to hug all day, but even then I don't want to put that kind of strain on you. You need your energy for other things."

"What about just your hooves?" Bumblebee asked.

That my littlest nymph was a genius was a little unnerving. Her constant stating-the-obvious revelations would be horribly grating if they weren't so useful. But first I had to check if that would help.

Just some black hands. Nothing fancy, and certainly nothing extra, just hands. The image didn't take much before I shoved my power behind it. The familiar rush overcame me. Fire burned nothing as it twirled about my form and left me with a pair of normal hands.

"It still used the same amount of initial energy, but I don't think the constant draw is nearly the same. I might just be able to do this," I said.

Without further ado, I stood up and stepped over to where 'Bee was eating from a bowl of bran on the bench, picked her up, and squeezed her. I began chirping almost uncontrollably as I nuzzled 'Bee until she chirped too.

"'Bee's pretty smart, isn't she?" Byte asked.

"Yeah. She's got a pretty awesome way of looking at the world," Rainbow Dash said.

I found myself agreeing with both of them.

"Sorry, 'Bee. You're such a clever filly—you both are—it just makes me so proud to have both of you in my life," I said.

I reached an arm out and pulled Byte into the hug too. Hugging my nymphs gave me just about the most motherly rush of emotion I'd had in my life.

—You're chirping a lot. Oh! Well no wonder. They make me chirp too,— NotABug sent.

—We make you chirp?— Bumblebee asked.

—A lot,— I sent.

—You all make me chirp. Aunt Sweetie too,— Byte said.

—I can't chirp, but you fill me with love. I can't believe how awesome this is,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Darling, we all know how much you love us. Trust me,— I sent.

—❤ ❤ ❤,— Rainbow Dash sent. —Can we go back to talking?—

"Of course we can," I said.

—Sorry. That was my fault. Oh! You know what we could do? Speakers and microphones with a ChirpNet connection that we can talk through,— NotABug sent.

—Mobile phones could do that. They wouldn't need a sim card either,— I sent.

—More phones!— NotABug sent.

—Hey, that'd be cool. Maybe I could wear that Bluetooth thingy until you get that done?— Rainbow Dash asked.

Rainbow passed me a bowl of cereal after I’d put Byte and 'Bee down. I thanked her and sat down to eat. Bran was certainly not what I normally would choose for breakfast, but I had to agree that Rainbow knew more about fitness than I ever would. If she said this was better than a tub of yogurt, it would be better.

We all sat in silence while eating, though we could have chatted away via ChirpNet. When the time ticked to 8:20 A.M., I stood up from an empty bowl.

"Wish me luck," I said.

A flurry of well-wishing came while I took a quick moment to look over what NotABug had chosen for me to wear—a wonderful red cocktail dress—as well as my makeup. Both, I decided, were perfect. A quick trip to my bedroom secured a matching clutch to complete the outfit, and I was heading out the door.

—You like the outfit? I found it in your older things. I don't know how much else is going to fit us anymore,— NotABug sent to me.

—We might have to ask the pony Rarity for patterns and tips to dressing as a pony. I'll ask Sunset to send a message to her,— I sent to NotABug. —And that reminds me, I need to ask when she is free to try this thing with Suri.—

—Sunset, darling, are you still alright to help work out what Suri's doing?— I texted.

I barely got the door of the car open before a blue flash of movement came from the house. I was wrapped in Rainbow's arms and kissing her before I knew what was happening. Of course, kissing Rainbow Dash had become one of my favorite pastimes of late.

"Don't be late home. I love you both," Rainbow Dash said.

My first reaction would have been to say something from the heart, but I remembered a line from a movie that I knew would tickle Rainbow pink.

"I know," I said.

—Why'd you say that?— NotABug asked me.

—Watch her eyes,— I sent to NotABug.

Surprise and delight widened Rainbow's eyes and made her cheeks crinkle around a wide grin. She made the most adorable giggle and ran back inside.

—Okay, what's that from?— NotABug asked me.

—Star Wars. Two of the heroes who fell in love said that. We have a girlfriend who is at least marginally geeky, just don't tell her that.—

—I can still do it. Just before lunch?— Sunset Shimmer texted to me.

—That sounds perfect. I warn you, though, she's been doing something positively ghastly to people's emotional auras. If you start to feel strange, let me know.—

I climbed into my car and started reversing. Once on the street, I flicked the car into forward with a digital touch and began applying speed.

—Will do. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much of a problem would this be if she's doing stuff like that?— Sunset Shimmer texted me.

—For those it's affecting, a nine. Coco's entire personality was warped from strong and confident executive to meek young woman who was almost in tears from having to ask me to save her.—

—That sounds like a nine alright. You can fix people up after that?—

—I think I can, though it took a lot of power to do it. If someone stays like that long enough that it becomes a habit, however, I don't know if I could.—

—I'll see you at around eleven. We don't want to fight her without any information. We're not invincible high school kids anymore.—

While I parked my car, I read between the lines of Sunset's message. She had a husband and didn't want to do anything to risk him, but at the same time she recognized that a major threat would be a threat to him. Life, no matter what, becomes more complicated the longer you live it. Becoming a changeling has apparently sped the process up, however.

Before getting out of my car, I pondered disabling the wireless connection to prevent any chance of Windigo getting into it again. Capturing a sample of Windigo would be a big step forward, but possibly losing my car was not on.

I knew that I'd need to get a new car soon, but this vehicle was one of my first ties to NotABug—it was a sentimental thing.

It took just a few buttons to disable the Bluetooth connection. I climbed out and had to press the button on my key ring just to lock my car now. I pressed one fake hand to the window and leaned against the car for a moment.

"Here goes nothing," I said.

I had holes through my legs, a tail, a snout, and a horn that could disembowel anything I'd care to name, but in my heart I was still me—Rarity—and the world was my runway.

The walk from the garage to Polomare was far enough that I was satisfied my car wouldn't be casually found. That I also got a good share of appreciative looks helped boost my confidence. This is me, world, take me as I am or get out of my way!

8:42 A.M.

Entering Polomare, I immediately felt something odd. It wasn't the horrible thing that'd been done to Coco, but something else. I went straight to the lift, took it to HR, and logged in on their time clock. I checked immediately afterward and found myself not logged in.

"That's not working. We're issuing written logins to everyone today. What's your ID?"

I turned my head at the voice to see the HR guy from Wednesday.

"Rarity-zero-zero-three-six," I said.

The man filled in a little form and then signed the bottom. He passed it to me, so of course I took it and put it in my clutch.

"There you go. At the end of the day we're processing them. You don't need to come back for lunch or sign-out," he said.

"Thank you," I said.

Turning, I walked back to the lift and rode it up to my floor. As it sped up the cables, I felt that odd sensation more and more. It felt cold—like all the interpersonal warmth (ha!) of the world was just gone.

Waiting at the end of the hall, when I stepped out of the lift, was Suri Polomare. She wore a smart business suit of a style normally reserved for men's suits. It suited this strangely competent and scary new Suri.

I forced my feet to work, the hooves on the ends of my legs not hidden in the slightest, and approached her.

"Good morning, Suri," I said.

"Rarity! You know I was just thinking about how sad it will be to see you go. Aren't you going to log in?" Suri Polomare asked.

Her words were the warmest thing in the whole building, but they were a lie. Still, it was just one day, and who knows, we might end up battling her before it was through.

"I used the computer down in HR. What work do you have for me today, Suri?" I asked.

"Work? Oh goodness, Rarity, it's your last day, alright?" Suri Polomare asked. "I thought, 'What better way to let Rarity relax on her final day than helping me with some light work?' So, just follow me."

It made perfect sense, assuming she didn't realize I was the one who removed her little toy from Coco. This was a trap to bind me up in the same prison of emotion so that I'd be crippled mentally. Suri Polomare, you haven't encountered a monster like me before. Let's dance, darling!

I followed on Suri's footsteps, and found myself barely noticing anyone else in the room. They huddled over patterns, over computer keyboards, and none of them felt alive.

—Sunset, I think I'm upgrading what she's doing to an 11,— I texted.

—Should we abort and get all the girls here?—

—No. We need to know what she's doing before we can deal with how she's doing it. I'd rather not be caught out again like with the Dazzlings.—

We walked into Suri's office where I found a pair of filing cabinets. The cabinets were against the wall in front of Suri's desk. A sinking feeling filled me.

"If you could just sort those two into alphabetical order, that'd be really great, okay?" Suri Polomare asked. "I even got you a chair."

The stool Suri produced had no back on it and was low enough that it would ensure she was looking down on my unprotected back all day. Again. But I knew that the moment I settled to my task she'd be trying to twist my emotions like a pretzel.

"Gosh, Suri, are you sure it'll take all day?" I asked.

"I can get more filing cabinets if you finish early, Rarity."

Of course she could. Not that I was going to give her the satisfaction of watching me do the filing with my back to her. Walking to the side of the cabinet, I was able to look Suri directly in the eyes as I poured magic into my horn.

"What are you—?"

I had the distinct pleasure of watching Suri's eyes widen and bulge as I opened the cabinet I was leaning against and pulled out the first file—all with magic. Lifting the file up, I glanced at the name on it.

"Peters," I said.

I floated the file down and put it on the floor. As I reached for another, I reflected on how much faster I could do this. That wasn't the point now, though, since she would just give me more work.

—Screw it. I'm coming over now. How can I get close enough to touch her?—

—Just ask for me at the front desk. We'll pass it off as you organizing a celebration for me, and needing to ask me some things.—

I felt it. The first touch of something against my aura was a shock and I struggled not to jump from it. It suddenly occurred to me that if she managed to mess me up, there might not be anyone who could undo it.

She clutched at the anger within me—not that there was a lot—but when someone washed velvet I was known to become upset. She grabbed at all my anger and started twisting it into a spiral. I did what any bug would when something started messing with them—I bit Suri Polomare's metaphysical hands.

Suri's shout—an out-loud one, not mental—shocked me at how angry she sounded. I had flashbacks to watching nature documentaries, and hearing a tiger's fury at being bitten by a deer. But as quick as it came, Suri's anger seemed to stop.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

I recognized confusion and surprise on Suri's face. For a moment it seemed like she would vault over the desk and throttle me, but instead she pulled out a compact and checked her hair.

"I thought I'd just lost a nail. Really, Rarity, you shouldn't get so worked up."

Playing mind games to cover up for finding yourself not up to the task? Darling, you haven't seen anything yet. Using my magic I pulled a file from each drawer of each filing cabinet—six in total—scanned them quickly and set them into neat piles on the floor. I grabbed out the next six and only broke eye-contact with Suri long enough to check the names.

Nearly ten whole minutes passed while I sorted through the files. Wordlessly watching Suri try to come to terms with what I'd done. I could have worked faster—much, much faster—but that kind of showing off wasn't needed.

—I'm at the front door. Coming inside now.—

I barely managed to contain my excitement. Things were about to become clear in a way that Sunset was very good at doing.

"Miss Polomare? There's someone here to see Rarity. A Miss Shimmer. Something about organizing a party," a scratchy voice said from Suri's desk phone.

Reaching one finger (with a perfect nail I might add) down, Suri depressed the intercom button.

"Thank you, Starling. I'll reward you for your diligence later," Suri Polomare said.

"Oh! Thank you, Miss Polomare."

The devotion in the other woman's voice was painful to hear. What was Suri doing as a reward that could inspire that level of allegiance? With the way Suri worked on people's emotions, I shuddered to think.

I calmly sorted six more files before Suri turned her eyes to me.

"A friend of yours. I wonder if she bites?"

A sudden worry hit me—what if Suri could use her power on Sunset? Sunset had, in the past, gotten more than a little angry. I remembered when she'd used the power of Princess Twilight's beautiful tiara to turn into a demon. What was more, Sunset Shimmer had overcome her own inner (and outer) demon. If anyone could stand toe-to-toe with Suri's anger-trick, it was Sunset.

"Of course not. Sunset is civilized. Honestly. Anyone would think you were some kind of savage with talk like that," I said. "She probably just wants to know when I'm done here so she can pick me up after work."

—If anyone asks, you're just here to find out when I finish today.—

Suri and I had a wonderful little staring contest for thirty-three seconds before a knock interrupted us. For the record, she blinked first.

"Miss Polomare, Miss Shimmer to see Miss Rarity."

It was the same voice from the speakerphone, but now it sounded positively ecstatic. When Suri gave her permission to enter, a young, blonde woman in a security uniform stepped inside. She looked at Suri as if the sun had just dawned and blown away all the nightmares of the night.

"Sunset, darling. How have you been?" I asked.

I ignored Suri's glare on my back (that I caught a little of in the glass of the door), and walked up to Sunset to hug her. She looked back with surprise—and it was then I realized she hadn't seen me for a while.

"R-Rarity? It's been—uh—good!" Sunset Shimmer said. "I just needed to find out what time you'd be done here today. We have your big party tonight, and someone left their phone turned off again."

Her eyes spoke volumes. Sunset had a million questions for me, and she wouldn't take 'no' for an answer to any of them. It was my own fault, I should have filled everyone in by now. I'd never been this reluctant to talk with my best friends before. Was it something to do with what I was becoming? Or maybe it was part of NotABug that influenced me.

"You know I turn it off at work and—Oh my! Where are my manners? Sunset Shimmer, this is my boss, Suri Polomare," I said.

I turned, giving Sunset a look at the woman in question. Sunset stepped forward with the most friendly look on her face I could hope for given what I'd dropped her in. She stuck out a hand.

"Not for much longer though. Seriously, though, I hope you're getting your money's worth from—" Sunset Shimmer said.

She broke off speaking the moment their hands touched. I knew what was happening—Sunset Shimmer was seeing everything bad that Suri Polomare had done.

I smiled as, nearly three point two seconds later, Sunset drew her hand back.

"R-Rarity! She's a monster! Anger! Violence! She's killed—IT'S IN MY HEAD!"

Time drew almost to a stop. I felt NotABug's awareness in a pressure against all my senses, but she wasn't pushing for control. I fumbled at the ChirpNet interface, but it was too slow for my nerves.

I shoved with the muscles in my arms to put myself between Sunset and Suri. Sunset fell away behind me while Suri recoiled back with a huge grin on her face.

—dashineedhelp—

I didn't have time for punctuation, white space, capitalization, or even proper sending codes. I sent the message out on the widest broadcast I could.

Slow as the world had become, I could see that Suri was speeding up. She focused her eyes on me and her lips parted.

"And if my senses don't deceive me… Not A Bug," Suri Polomare said.

Her voice changed and distorted into something that would be more akin to what you think a computer would generate if you were ripping at its circuits. It was raw and the pitch shifted around wildly. No human should be able to make the sound she did.

Suri shook her head and snarled something under her breath. When she looked back at me, the light of intelligence in Suri Polomare's eyes was matched by another, awful presence.

My blood ran cold, but it wasn't the ice of realization that chilled me—it was actually getting cold. What Sunset had said combined with the cold and emotion manipulation—and the rage—to give me a clearer picture of why Sunset touching Suri had been a very bad idea.

"Windigo," I said.

The security guard was barely moving. I watched as a slow breath of chilled air started slowly leaving her mouth. I hoped that the slow-down meant that whatever was happening to Sunset would wait for Rainbow to get here.

"Not anymore. We're both much better like this. Don't you agree? It's almost a shame that I have to kill you," Suri Polomare/Windigo said, voice neutral.

Something was holding her back from attacking. Then I remembered the destroyed office and how much of a mess it was for the company to clean up after. A mix of motives. Suri and Windigo together. Why hadn't I seen this? My car, the computers at the company, the destroyed offices…

From one millisecond to the next Suri's entire demeanor changed. The calm face changed to a mask of fury and the chill temperature in the room caused the moisture in the air to freeze.

I barely had time enough to charge my horn with magic and deflect Suri's fist.

The force of the strike ached all the way down my horn from the tip to where it anchored somewhere in my head. How was she this strong?

"Suri! Calm down!" I said.

"Rarity. You have no idea how much I want to eat you. I need to kill you—destroy you utterly."

Windigo's voice was back.

—Please don't let her!— NotABug sent.

—I don't plan to. We need to get Sunset to help.—

Another faster-than-thought fist came toward me, then another, and another, and it took all my focus to keep deflecting them with green fire. When I saw an opening, however, I took it.

Blasting a rush of green energy, I felt a certain kind of sympathy within my horn. Offense was something this body was designed for. I sent blast after blast at Suri, forcing her onto defense.

I felt more than saw movement behind me. Someone was rushing up to the room faster than I could have. The instant of relief I felt gave Suri a chance to start swinging again.

—She's going to get Sunset out while you keep Suri away from them,— NotABug sent.

I didn't have time for more than a chirp of acknowledgment. My magic barely stopped Suri's fist from connecting with the side of my face, but the real surprise was that she followed up with a kick.

Green fire caught the onrushing limb, but it wasn't mine. Of course! NotABug!

"You're fast, Rarity. But you aren't fast enough to stop me killing the security guard," Suri Polomare said. "I could drive my fist through her obedient little skull before you could reach me."

"She's your minion," I said.

My heart was beating too fast. It wasn't fair that she could make a threat like that and I'd not only believe it, but that it would work.

The world seemed to grow a little slower as Suri's next punch came at me, but she threw her computer monitor at the guard. There wasn't any time to think or talk to NotABug. I reached out and started deflecting the computer monitor only to realize NotABug was doing the same. It was too late to adjust for the fist coming toward my face.

This was going to hurt.

The fist never connected with me. There was no sound of magically enhanced fist striking chitin, and definitely no pain.

A rainbow blur of light streaked past just as the strike should have come, and a sharper pain than Suri could deliver physically hit me. The next strike was already coming, but I didn't care.

I dropped my head down, aimed my horn, and let go with everything I had. The sound of a surprised grunt from Suri was the last I heard from her. Breaking glass and a scream met my ears as the world caught up with me. At last I was just thinking fast and not having to act that way.

The scream came from the security guard, and the glass came from the window I'd blasted Suri through. She turned toward me, hand reaching to her belt and lifting free a weapon—a taser.

"Wait!" I said.

"What did you do to her?!" the guard asked. "What did you do to her?"

There was nothing rational in the security guard's eyes. Stories of religious zealots sprang to mind—she was a victim too, but a victim who could hurt me enough that if Suri and Windigo came back while I was tased, well, I didn't like to even think about what she'd meant about eating.

I extended my senses, looked past the fluorescent light of the office to see what she was feeling. Unlike what I'd seen in Coco or the other office workers, the guard looked to have a more intricate working done on her. The spiral of red was there—apparently being somewhat of Windigo's trademark—but there was something tied into a lot more complex emotions. I didn't have time to undo whatever Windigo (or Suri) had done, so I used it. I tickled at that red spiral and the woman's eyes widened.

When her arm lowered, I moved. Speeding taser darts would have been a completely different problem, but the muscles in the guard's arm weren't faster than I was. I grabbed the taser in her hand with my magic and wrenched it free. Her eyes registered the beginnings of shock as I turned the taser on her and pulled the trigger.

Status check. Rainbow Dash was still down from the blow she'd taken for me, Sunset was curled into a ball and trembling, and now I had a security guard who was technically an enemy, but also innocent.

A glance out the window didn't show me any sign of Suri or Windigo or whatever they had become together. Okay, Rarity, think. How do I get Sunset and the security guard the help they need? Twilight was barely scratching the surface of this stuff. The next person on my list to ask would be Sunset. The next person wasn't a person.

—Darling, this could be dangerous,— I sent to NotABug. —We're in deeper than ever, and I only know of one person who can help.—

—Princess Twilight?— NotABug sent to me.

—Yes. She's in Equestria.—

—We called Sunset and Rainbow into this, it's our responsibility to help them. I'll grab Sunset, you take Rainbow.—

—Can you grab the guard too? Look at what Suri did to her.—

There was a pause before some concerned chirping left NotABug.

—We can't leave her here like that.—

—Exactly. Now we need to get out of here without anyone seeing us, with an unconscious security guard and two more people.—

—Mailroom. It opens to a loading bay, remember?—

—I'm almost tapped out of energy again. Can you manage a shapechange to look like the guard?—

—Can I do that when I'm not in control?—

A wash of magic flushed through me and around me. My clothes were suddenly too tight—squeezing me in a most odd way. When I looked down I saw why. NotABug had recreated not just the guard but her clothing too, and it was all under what I had been wearing.

I started stripping off my work outfit while NotABug focused her attention on hefting Sunset, Rainbow, and the guard with her magic.

Once I got my bra and panties off, I started walking for Suri's office door.

—Are you alright carrying them all?— I asked.

—I didn't realize how much you burned up in the fight. It's the least I can do.—

Outside the office nearly a dozen terrified faces watched me emerge. I tried to remember the guard's manner of speaking, cleared my throat, and hoped my acting was good enough.

"I've dealt with the problem. The police should be here soon. Please make your way to the ground floor and make sure to tell them everything that happened," I said.

As an exodus began, I hoped that dealing with all the likely panicked and conflicting statements would keep any police busy while I made my exit.

Progress was as swift as we could manage. I took the stairs down to the mailroom while NotABug floated Sunset, Rainbow, and the guard along. I kept looking back to help her manage them. Soon enough we reached the right area.

"Damn it, Starling, what're you doin'—You're not Starling," Bent Rules said.

"I'm not. Starling is your friend?" I asked. When Bent nodded, I continued. "She's been acting strange lately, and it's Suri Polomare's fault. Suri attacked me and my friends, and got Starling to attack me too. Can you help me get her to someone who can help all of us?"

Bent Rules narrowed his eyes and looked at me for nearly a whole minute. It was painfully slow, but I had to let him come to his own conclusion here. It was that or use the taser again, which was a problem because I liked Bent Rules.

"Lot of people been acting weird around here lately. Are you some kind of monster or alien?" Bent Rules asked.

"Just a former employee with a few tricks. One of them revealed Suri's nasty games. You hear about Coco Pommel?" I asked.

"Yeah. She left yesterday looking like she was ready t' tear a phonebook in half."

"When I found her, Coco had turned her anger inward. She was as timid as a mouse and it took me a lot of work to straighten her out. Needless to say, she's not coming back here. Your friend is worse. I don't even know everything Suri's done to her."

"You can help her?"

"I can try, but I need some time when Suri isn't attacking my friend—"

"Follow me. You need to get out quietly, right?"

Bent Rules not only cut me off, but he took charge. He led the way to the loading dock of the mailroom and hit a button beside the big door.

Once the door opened I could see there was plenty of room for two trucks to pull into the loading area side by side, though there was an old van taking up half the bay. Bent led the way to the van while NotABug floated my three charges along behind us.

All the alarm bells of a youth spent being taught not to climb into a van with strangers went off, though Bent Rules was at least not a police officer, and I was pretty sure that I could handle him, if push came to shove, even with my energy so low.

"Get in. I don't know why I trust you, but I do. Tellin' an old bastard like me the truth sure helps. It all lines up with what someone said to me recently, so here we are."

I opened the back of the van and carefully put everyone inside, walked around to the passenger door and climbed in.

"Thank you, Bent."

"An' now you gone and made me suspicious all over again. I never told you my name. Nice and slow, tell me who you are and how you know me."

"My name's Rarity. We worked together in the mailroom a few days ago thanks to Coco."

"There. Now I've got more truth. So you can do some kind of magic-who-ha to look like other people?"

Bent Rules turned the key in the ignition and started the van's engine. He pumped the gas a few times, as if the engine needed bribing to stir completely, then reached for the column-shift and pulled it into gear.

"It takes a lot of effort, but it's something like that. I figured it would be better to look like your friend than myself."

"Sensible. Where're we headed?"

"Canterlot High School. If you can drop me off there I can get your friend and mine to someone who can help."

I remembered the statue, and the magic that held it open. Not just anyone could stumble through it, Princess Twilight had told us, it took someone with magic.

"That's not how this is going down," Bent Rules said, his voice firm. "I got Starling this job. I'm responsible for her getting tangled in all this. I'm going to make sure my little girl can get out of it again."

The puzzle of Bent's involvement fell together. He knew something was wrong with Starling because he was her father. He was willing to risk everything to help her, too, for the same reason. Now he was willing to do anything to help keep her safe. The nobility of his actions almost made me swoon.

"We're going to another world. When I said someone could help her, I meant somepony."

"Pony?"

"If I have to explain everything, Suri could find us. I don't know if I have the love to fight her again."

Bent Rules turned through an intersection and I could see the school in the distance. I could force him, of course, but that would burn a bridge for no good reason.

—Are you okay, darling?— I asked NotABug.

—I'm scared.—

I pulled NotABug into a tight grip and chirped for all I was worth.

—What are all the things that could happen?— NotABug asked me.

—The first is we tumble out the other side as we are. Second is we tumble out as two different ponies. Third is… Third is only I tumble out,— I sent. —Fourth is you stay here in my body and I don't tumble anywhere.—

—I didn't think of that one. Fifth is that only I tumble out?—

—And the last one is I tumble out, you stay here.—

—Two out of seven are not good odds. I need to arrange for Sweetie Belle to look after our nymphs.—

The thought hadn't occurred to me at all, but now I realized she needed to be told what was happening.

—Sweetie, I have to take Rainbow and Sunset to Equestria. Can you look after 'Bee and Byte until I get back. And if I don't get back,— I sent to Sweetie.

The truth was I couldn't finish it. How do I ask my little sister to look after my children if I die before the day's out?

—WHAT HAPPENED!?!?!?— Sweetie Belle sent back a few moments later.

Bent was pulling up at the front of the school.

—Suri attacked. Sunset and Rainbow are hurt. I'm going to Princess Twilight for help. I don't know how the portal will react to NotABug.—

I climbed out of the van and let NotABug heft Sunset and Rainbow. Bent Rules was carrying his daughter.

—Both of you had better come back. I'm not cut out to be a mom,— Sweetie Belle sent to NotAbug and I.

—I love you, Sweetie.—

NotABug floated Sunset forward first. She must have had some scraps of my memories of the portal to know where it was. I walked right up to it and touched the marble with my palm. It was solid.

"Some kinda magical portal?" Bent Rules asked.

"Something like that. I just need the right push to turn it on."

I ran my hand around the stone, and finally pushed some magic into it. To my sight the cold stone opened into a hungry maw. Swirling energy drained away into an infinite nothingness. Power boiled and foamed as if the ocean were washing up from the statue base.

"I don't know how long it will stay open. Can you go through now?" I asked.

"Go through? What do you mean?"

I pressed my hand forward and it sunk into the stone up to what was Starling's elbow.

Bent nodded and stepped into the stone.

Screwing my eyes closed at the fantastic light show, I could still see waves of magic shoving at my closed eyelids.

—Push them through. I love you too, NotABug,— I sent to NotABug.

NotABug did as I asked. Sunset and then Rainbow disappeared into the place between worlds.

—I love you,— I sent to Byte and 'Bee.

Then I stepped forward.

Even closing my eyes wasn't enough. The light was so intense that I lifted one arm up to shield my face from it, but my arm itself was on fire with magic. I felt like I was washing down a plughole, spinning deeper and deeper and then there was darkness and a crash.

My eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly. The light of emotions flared around me, and I saw Rainbow, Sunset, Bent, and Starling—though the latter still had that horrible binding around her. There was something else about them all that became apparent as my heat-vision caught up with my emotion-vision—they were ponies.

Princess Twilight had described Equestrian ponies several times—I'd even used the inspiration of them in designs—but seeing them for real was a whole other story. Even the giant pony we'd made when we defeated the Dazzlings wasn't this cute.

I looked down at myself and saw that I was still me—still a changeling. I hadn't turned into a pony version of myself, at least. I still had my breasts, though now I noticed them they were smaller than ever, and I still felt comfortable upright. Around me, however, was ponies.

Surprisingly, Rainbow Dash was the first to react to ending up in another world. She lifted her head and blinked a few times owlishly.

"Ugh. Rarity? Are you there?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes. You're awake? Anyone else?" I asked.

"Yes ma'am, though I'm gonna have t' ask, what the actual hell has happened? Why am I a horse?" Bent Rules said. "Starling's waking up too. Hey there little bird, you alright?"

Bent's tone had changed from shock to concern in an instant.

I began to stand up, but a blinding light caught me off-guard and made me squeeze my eyes closed. Blinking quickly a few times, I looked up in the direction of movement.

A little purple and green creature stood in the doorway. It was bipedal, had clawed hands, and a crest of green above his purple, scaled face. The coloration was unmistakable, I knew exactly who it was.

"Spike?" I asked. "Spike, darling, can you please get Princess Twilight post-haste?"

"R-Rarity?!"

"Yes, dear. From the other side. Please get Twilight. We have a situation."

He didn't turn the light off on his way out, thankfully, which let me assess the situation—and the silence in my head.

ChirpNet was down—the server unreachable. I could feel the phone within me still, and poked at it until I got an alarm set. A chirpy buzzing started as the alarm triggered, then was quickly turned off again—but not by me.

"Oh thank goodness you're okay. Darling, are you in here?" I asked.

"Who're you—oh right," Rainbow Dash said. "Holy heck, I'm a pony!"

A rainbow streak swirled around the air. Rainbow Dash had discovered her wings and flight at practically the same time.

A loud POMF sounded before I saw the most amazing creature yet. Twilight Sparkle—this world's Twilight Sparkle—wore a dress of light blue covered in gems, and stared back at me with her wings spread above her back. She looked amazing—royal.

"Rarity! What happened?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

"Short answer. Someone nasty is doing things to people's emotions. She tied Starling here up in knots so tight that she can barely think for herself, and they put something in Sunset's head when she touched them," I said. "The long version can wait for later."

"Spike was shouting about Chrysalis, but I knew it would be you if you came from the mirror. Okay, right, triage."

Twilight walked to Sunset first. I couldn't blame her for her choice. While she began checking Sunset over with what I assumed were some kind of medical spells, I turned my attention to Starling.

Bent Rules was now a unicorn without a shred of clothing on. He was readily identifiable by his color. He also had his forelegs around Starling, trying to hold her still.

Starling was an earth pony (or what Twilight had described as an earth pony to me). Her fur was a muted not-quite-cream color, and she had a bright-red mane and tail that matched her hair color from back home. With her face buried in Bent's mane I could only see one of Starling's eyes, and it twitched wildly.

I had to look further than just her physical being. Focusing my attention on her emotional aura, I again saw the horrible red spiral that wrapped around Starling. Without thinking, I shapechanged my arms to have hands again and reached out not to Starling, but her aura.

Taking hold of the red spiral, I heard the woman—mare now I guess—gasp in shock. There were myriad little roots stretching from the red spiral into her emotional mass. Was this Suri's new trick? Binding her magic to people so tightly that it became part of them?

"This might hurt. Starling? Can you hear me?" I asked.

"Where's Suri?" Starling asked.

"You’re safe, Starling," Bent Rules said. "Suri gave you the rest of the day off work."

I watched some of the fear fade from Starling's visible eye. She let out a little sigh.

Turning my attention back to her aura, I began digging into her emotions to expose the first rootlet of Suri's magic. No sooner did I start than Starling stiffened. I watched pain pour through her aura. She was a brave woman, though, and though I knew it hurt her, she didn't say a word.

I dug the root out, pulled it free, and bit it in half. The rootlet squirmed in my mouth, and I felt it seeking a place to dig in and start its work over in me.

"Ugh. This is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen, and the only way to stop it is by biting them," I said.

I chewed. Grinding the rootlet up between my teeth was the only way I could think of to kill it, and after a few moments of chewing it worked! I gulped it down, using the last shreds of Suri's magic as fuel to help me work on the next.

"You're eating it?" Bent Rules asked. At my nod he continued. "Don't look tasty. My little girl needs it done though, don't she?"

"This world better have abalone, because that's the only thing that's going to get this taste out of my mouth," I said.

I went back to work. The next one I teased out and chewed up, but the third I thought of a better way. Leaning down so that my nose was practically resting on Starling's fur, I bit at a rootlet and sucked. The new method worked, seemed to be faster, and Starling didn't seem as adversely affected.

Never again would I be able to eat spaghetti without picturing this.

Ten rootlets later, and with Starling's aura almost completely washed in pain, I felt more than saw Twilight casting spells beside me. I finished tugging out the latest piece of nastiness and started chewing it up.

"I can see what effect you're having, and I can see the bad magic in her, but what you're doing is amazing," Twilight Sparkle said. "I've done what I can for Sunset. I bolstered her magic and cut off the thing inside her from getting any of its own. She's going to have to fight it herself, but she now has the strength to do so."

Nodding my head, I nuzzled up against Starling and nipped at the next rootlet. Like the others, I chewed it up until it stopped moving, then ate it.

"How's Rainbow?" I asked.

"Huh? Me? I'm fine," Rainbow Dash said.

My ears tracked to follow the source of Rainbow's voice as it slipped up beside me and I felt her nuzzle against my shoulder. Just the touch of her, the nearness of her love, reinvigorated me.

"You're really tall here, Rares," Rainbow Dash said. "Kind weird, huh? Back home you were shrinking, but here you're as big as Twilight."

I looked to the side briefly, noticing that Twilight was sitting with her head at around my eye level.

"Where's NotABug?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I don't know, but she's safe."

I turned back to my task and pulled another of the rootlets free. Judging myself as having done about a tenth of the work needed, I clamped my teeth around the part of Suri's magic that was no longer connected, bit down hard, and severed it from the remaining.

Chewing on the worst meal I'd ever eaten, I saw Starling close her eye and relax into Bent's embrace. A little smile even touched the woman's—mare's—lips.

"It's still attached, but you just removed a large chunk of the magic," Twilight Sparkle said.

Gulping down the nasty magic once it was dead, I coughed a few times to attempt to clear my palate.

"I couldn't leave her behind, and I couldn't leave that thing on her. No one deserves to have this done to them," I said. "Is there somewhere more convenient where I can continue?"

"Right. Pick her up and follow me," Twilight Sparkle said.

I should have been tapped out of energy—doubly so when I realized I'd shapeshifted to have hands—but when I reached out to lift Starling, I felt a distinct difference to my energy. I felt like I had two tanks of power, and one was filled to bursting.

Finding my tasks to be more important than working out where the ability to do them was coming from, I followed Twilight (who carried a sleeping Sunset, now a unicorn) with Starling floating beside me.

"I'm coming too," Bent Rules said.

He fell in just behind Starling, while Rainbow Dash took my other side.

"This is so awesome! I can fly, Rarity! And not just when-I-need-to fly, either. I can totally fly," Rainbow Dash said.

She proved her words by jumping into the air, and with two flaps overbalanced and hit the ground again.

"You know, a blue pony once taught me how to fly. Maybe you could ask her how." Twilight Sparkle said. "Flying here is a lot different than on Earth."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when the magic took hold back at CHS, you could fly just by thinking about it. Here you need to worry about what your wings are actually doing. These aren't just for show."

Twilight flicked her wings to strengthen her argument.

"Uh, okay. Who's that?"

"Darling, Rainbow…" I said. "She means the pony version of you. Remember, we are all two sides of the same coin. Once we have this sorted out, I'd love to speak to who I suspect made Twilight's dress."

I thought Twilight was turning in response to my comment, but instead she used her magic to shove open two huge doors. Noise washed over us from an obvious party-in-progress. A dozen ponies turned and stared at us, and silence descended.

"Chrysalis!" the pony that could only be Pinkie Pie said.

"STOP!" Twilight Sparkle said, throwing her personality behind her voice. "This is human Rarity. I told you all she changed. Now make some room on the map."

Galvanized by Twilight's bellow, ponies moved to remove plates of food and a punch bowl from the huge round table in the center of the room. Spaced evenly about the table was what I could only call thrones. This was a throne room. This was Twilight's throne room. My heart would have fluttered, and I'd have lost myself to the urge to decorate if I weren't carrying Starling.

"Put her on the table, Rarity, it will help you with what you're doing," Princess Twilight Sparkle said.

"Pardon, darling, but what?" Rarity asked.

I looked at the white unicorn. A smile spread over my lips at how right she looked. Everything that embodied me was present in her. She had pristine, beautiful fur, the most amazing mane and tail, and an elegance in how she stood that would put a ballet dancer to shame.

She was also standing in my way.

"Rarity, could you move just a little, please?" I asked.

Okay, speaking to my pony-double while trying to get her to move was a bad idea. Rarity froze while staring at me, resulting in my floating poor Starling over her head and to the table. As soon as she touched the table, I felt a waft of pure power swirl around Starling.

All the little tendrils that had burrowed into her aura were squirming now, trying to pull free but being unable to. Working on instinct, I lunged at the red band around her and sunk my teeth into it. As I ripped and pulled back, the rootlets came free of her aura and I had a huge mouthful of the horrid stuff.

My instinct now threatened to lead me astray. I almost gulped down the mass without chewing it up first. I didn't even realize I was snarling until the startled faces of every pony in the room filtered through to me.

"S-Sorry, I—" I said.

"No. It's alright. I know how it was to be a—a bad changeling," a voice said.

I hadn't really looked at the crowd of ponies beyond identifying the pony versions of my friends, but the creature that stepped forward wasn't a pony. Not exactly. They were arctic blue, and around the same height as a pony, but that's where the resemblance ended. Instead of a mane and tail they had soft pink translucent fins, and their cyan eyes had faint pupils in them of a lighter color. On their back was what looked like a bug's wing casings, but they were brilliant amaranth.

"I am not a bad changeling," I said.

My voice had grown a little testy. Being called a monster was one thing, being called bad was unconscionable. And she'd done it while I was trying to help someone. That thought refocused me to the task at hand, or hoof as the case may be.

Biting into the red swirl again, I ripped another chunk out. The tendrils were harder to get free this time, and some didn't want to pull out at all. Leaning closer, I bit at one of the ones that wouldn't pull free and felt my own magic rise to the occasion.

Starling whimpered and squirmed, but with the grip I had on her aura she wasn't able to pull away.

"You're hurting her!"

The bug-like pony rushed over and tried to push me away from Starling. I only meant to put up a small shield, but my magic answered me with overwhelming force and put up a solid, emerald barrier that blocked their advance.

"Ocellus! Stop!" Twilight Sparkle said. "Rarity, I'm sorry, but please take this barrier down."

"You're hurting her!" Ocellus said.

I took the shield down with some effort—apparently I was good at making barriers now. When Ocellus started to step forward, however, I acted quickly.

Putting the facts together wasn't hard. Princess Twilight had told me that changelings here had been kind of a bad thing, and Ocellus had said she knew what it was like. She was a changeling, possibly still is. Calling on my magic, green power lit the room from the spear of magic that formed around my horn. I aimed it at Ocellus and put my will into it.

Make her see.

Ocellus froze mid step. She looked at me with wide eyes. I could see wonder and shock in them.

"Look at her," I said.

She followed my gesture so that her gaze met Starling's. Wonder turned to horror in Ocellus' eyes.

"What is that?"

She sounded disgusted, which was what I felt at seeing, interacting with, and getting rid of the thing.

"That," I said, "is what a monster does to people. It's hurting her, not me. I'm removing it."

Letting Ocellus watch, I pulled at another of the rootlets with my teeth, slurped it free of Starling's emotional aura, and started chewing. The face I made while doing it wasn't faked for her benefit—they really tasted as bad as my expression made out.

"You're eating that?!" Ocellus asked. "I thought you were feeding off her!"

Gulping down the dead remains of the tendril, I shook my head.

"I'm doing what I have to. Whatever Suri did to her mustn't be allowed to remain."

I turned to look at Ocellus and saw her nodding.

"Please, excuse me," I said.

I was halfway through chewing up the next rootlet when a mare cleared her throat just behind me. When I turned around to see who was attempting to get my attention, I almost had a minor freak-out. Rarity. Me, as a pony. She looked a little shorter than me, if I were on all fours.

"Twilight said, that is, that myself in the human world had a little incident and what I mean to ask is—" Rarity said.

She cut herself off and lifted a hoof to the bridge of her nose in the very picture of someone trying to express how much trouble they were having with the situation.

"You're me?" Rarity asked.

"I guess. I mean, what are your thoughts on neon plaid?" I asked.

Rarity's—the other Rarity—eyes widened, and I could see her lips screw up into a little pout of distaste.

"Darling, I know we shouldn't waste time comparing our vast knowledge of fashion, but you couldn't have picked something less fashionable if you tried," Rarity said.

"Exactly. Once I'm done here, we're going to have some tea and talk fashion."

When Rarity's eyes danced in pure excitement, I found myself chirping a little. With the prospect of talking to someone as excited by fashion as myself, I turned back to my work.

Most of the ponies in the room continued to watch, talking occasionally with hushed words, as I removed each and every tendril from Starling. By the time I got to the last quarter of the coil it seemed more tenacious in its grip.

Each tendril was a fight, but I wouldn't rest without freeing her of the torment. When the last of the tendrils came free and had been chewed to a dead thread of emotional energy, I was done.

I looked upon Starling's aura—it wasn't pretty. There were dozens of holes burrowed into it, but I could see that the earliest of them had started closing.

"Bent?" I asked.

"Right here, ma'am. Are ya done?" Bent Rules asked.

The weariness in his voice almost matched my own. We were both almost halfway through a day of work when this crisis appeared. What made him sound more alive than I felt, however, was the raw concern his words carried.

"Show her all the love you can. She needs it."

Bent climbed up on the table with Starling and sat down behind her. With one hoof stroking through her mane, he whispered soft words of encouragement. I could see the love boiling off him, and it called to the love within her.

"H-How did you know to do that?" Ocellus asked.

"Call it a monster's intuition," I said. "Now, where's Sunset?"

The table in Twilight's throne room was huge. We could have had several ponies laying on the table and it would still have dwarfed them. Twilight had put Sunset on the other side of the table. As I walked around it, the ponies present all made room except for one.

"I'm so proud of you," Rainbow Dash said.

The love pouring off her marked this Rainbow as my Rainbow. I leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

"Proud of me? How far away were you when I asked for help?" I asked.

Nibbling on her aura, I felt a rush of power unlike ever before. I was energized beyond what had pushed me to make eggs.

"Feeding on ponies is bad!" Ocellus said. "You shouldn't—shouldn't…"

She trailed off uncertain. What was it about feeding and changelings here that could produce someone with these kinds of inflexible morals? I turned to explain, but Rainbow beat me to it.

"Look, you've been giving Rarity a hard time. I get it, changelings like her did bad things here. But, if you think for one second her feeding off me is bad, then I'm gonna have to disagree. Rarity has my permission to feed off my love for her. When this started, when she first saw what I felt, it was the best day of my life," Rainbow Dash said, marching right up to Ocellus. "And if you think that every day since hasn't been better than that, you are wrong!"

The last word was delivered practically in Ocellus' face. The room was silent, shocked at Rainbow's vehemence.

"I—We—Changelings did things differently here. We had a queen named Chrysalis," Ocellus said with a touch of fear in her voice. "She never asked for anything when she could just take it instead. She hurt a lot of ponies, and—and your Rarity looks just like her."

I turned my full attention to Sunset, but kept my ears perked toward Rainbow and Ocellus. From what I could see, Sunset seemed calm. Her emotions were barely twitching, but there was something more that I couldn't see.

"You're a changeling?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"No—Yes. It's complicated. When Thorax came, I was just a little nymph. With a blast of magic he showed us all how to live without attacking ponies. We could just be ourselves. That's when we turned into this form."

The compressed version of her story helped make her reactions a little more clear to me. Black changeling bad, bright changeling good. What would she have thought if I'd been pure white? Was it like the old-west movies Rainbow liked to watch? Black body means I'm the villain? Equestria should come with a rule book.

"Yeah. Well, I'd think you of all people would know how superficial appearances can be," Rainbow Dash said. "Would Twilight be any less a princess if she put a dress over her wings?"

"Human-me sounds like an egg-head," Rainbow Dash—the pony Rainbow Dash—said.

"She's right, though. Takin' ponies at face value's what got us Cozy Glow," Applejack said. "I can't do any kind of fancy magic, or even see whatever it was she did, but I can see plain as day that she helped this-un."

Applejack pointed a hoof at Starling.

"If you wouldn't mind arguing my personal merits later. I'd like to know if Sunset is okay?" I asked.

"I can sense she's fighting whatever it was inside her. She's winning now that the map is helping," Twilight Sparkle said. "Which begs the question, what is it?"

"Windigo," I said.

"She got it in her head?!" my Rainbow Dash asked.

I looked at Sunset. She looked peaceful, but if what Twilight said was true, she was waging a war in her own head. I had time for the full story.

Leaning against the table, I sat down on the edge of it and prepared myself to start from the start. As I did, however, a green ghost stepped forward—literally out of my body.

"Wow! This is amazing! Rarity! Rainbow! It's me!"

I stared at the green ghost of—well—me.

"NotABug!" NotABug said. "That table is full of all kinds of energy!"

Rainbow Dash was faster than all of us. Here, in Equestria, my ability to think faster than most could hope to was hampered, but Rainbow wasn't. She rushed up to NotABug and tried to hug her, only to fall through the ghostly projection.

"What gives?" my Rainbow Dash asked.

"I'm only a magical image—like a ghost. This is so cool, though. I can walk around and talk, but I don't think I can touch you," NotABug said.

3:26 P.M.

The time was wrong. It had been daylight when we'd come in here—evidenced by the windows showing light—but now the windows around the room were dark. Well, at least I had my internal phone to go off, though it seemed to be blindingly fast now.

Then I connected into text entry on the phone, and the physical world slowed down to a crawl. I let out a mental sigh of relief that I could still do this, but it was obvious that without an internet connection it was going to be harder. Or maybe it was just this world?

"This is really strange," NotABug said. "Everything is going so much faster. I can barely keep up!"

"I'm having the same problem, darling. Can you still connect to our phone?" I asked.

"Yup."

"Try opening the messaging interface."

"What're they talking about?" Applejack asked.

"I don't know, but it sounds important," Fluttershy said, her voice even softer and more reserved than human Fluttershy's.

"This is NotABug. She's—It's complicated, but she was born from technology. She has a sister that we call Windigo, and she chased NotABug into a corner," I said. "I gave her a home in my head because it was the one place Windigo couldn't look.

"Comfortable as we are with the arrangement, it seems like Windigo has found a similar one in Suri Polomare—" I said.

"Suri?!" pony-Rarity asked. "How is she mixed up in this?"

"Not the pony. The human Suri. At least I hope you mean the human Suri," Twilight Sparkle said.

"Exactly that. If you ever run into Suri Polomare in Equestria, don't let her have any power," I said. "The first effects, I think, were accidental. She wrapped people in a red coil of anger that would squeeze all their good emotions and left them angry, but now she has learned how to use it for unarguably worse things."

"Wasn't Suri that pony you competed against in Manehatten for a fashion show?" Applejack asked.

"Yes. Yes she was. Frightfully nasty little thing. I ended up stealing Coco Pommel right out from under her. Chalk and cheese, those two. She is a fantastic pony in every sense of the word," pony-Rarity said.

"I totally agree there. Coco was, in fact, the last person I had to free of Suri's little tricks," I said.

I was only a little surprised at how closely our lives mirrored each other. Princess Twilight had said things were eerily similar between worlds. But there was one thing pony-Rarity hadn't mentioned.

How I was going to raise the topic of children was a mystery.

"Perhaps we could have that tea now?" pony-Rarity asked. "What with your friends being stable now."

I looked at Sunset, then across to Starling.

"Go and relax. I'll let you know if anything happens," Twilight Sparkle said.

"C-Can I come too? I need to apologize properly. I guess I didn't know as much about being a changeling as I thought," Ocellus said.

The admission surprised me with its honesty. Ocellus, I realized, was a changeling who could accept change—which put her ahead of most of the human race.

"I'm sure it'll be alright, so long as you don't mind hearing about the latest fashions from two different worlds?" I asked.

Seeing Ocellus' face brighten at the invitation was worth any amount of discomfort. She was obviously important to Twilight, what with being at this rather exclusive-seeming party, so I felt she was worth the time of explaining myself to. That she wanted to learn more was also positive in my books. She also reminded me a little of Byte.

"Well, let's make our exit and partake in a little soiree," pony-Rarity said.

With pony-Rarity leading the way, and Ocellus falling in beside her, I stepped away from the table to follow. But I was a giant. Walking on two legs left me towering over everyone in the room.

Leaning forward, I braced one arm—or foreleg I guess—against the wall and lowered myself to all fours.

"I don't think this will work yet," I said. "My legs—back legs—don't feel right."

"Darling, you may come as you are. I will never have it be said that anypony was denied access to Carousel Boutique based on their appearance."

I looked at pony-Rarity for a moment, then came up with the best solution. Smiling, hoping I wasn't showing any fang while doing so, I examined pony-Rarity as best I could, built an image of her in my mind, and made a simple change.

Power flowed. I sent my magic out with one target in particular, and felt it remake me.

My body shrank, and along with it my whole form altered. I closed my eyes, but without the speed of a digital connection to keep me thinking fast, the whole thing was over in the blink of an eye. I looked at Rarity from the same height as her, with the same mane as her, and the same tail as her. All that was different was that I was black with a cerulean mane and tail, while she was still her glorious white and purple.

"Oh. OH! That black is rather fetching, and I love what you've done with your mane," pony-Rarity said.

"Your mane, you mean. I pondered going for white and purple, but could you imagine the social implications of that? It's a tragedy to go to a ball wearing the same dress as someone else, looking identical would be a disaster!" I said.

"I'm coming too!" NotABug said.

Then I had the wonderful task of mastering moving with four limbs. As I walked along with Rarity, however, I quickly discovered that walking was like crawling—you moved one limb at a time. This I could do.

"Twilight said you all walk around on your hind legs. I guess I hadn't realized how much trouble it might be moving between worlds," pony-Rarity said.

"It's getting easier the more I do it," I said. "You must tell me, did you make Twilight's dress?"

"As if I'd let her wear something made by anypony else. I honestly don't know what she did for dresses before she moved here."

"What's it like being a queen changeling?" Ocellus asked.

I turned to look at Ocellus. She was just a little larger than me now, and I now picked up a sense of youth about her.

"Busy. I'm glad there's actually two of us to do things or I'd never be able to keep on top of work, managing all the business side of things, and chasing our nymphs around," I said.

It was as good an opening as I was going to get, so…

"Do you have any little ones, Rarity?" I asked.

By pony-Rarity's blank look of shock I already had my answer. She stammered a few times before she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out again slowly.

"I simply haven't found the right stallion yet," Rarity said.

I couldn't help myself. Finding my love for Rainbow had been part of a huge paradigm shift for the better for me, maybe it could be for her.

"Have you considered that maybe the right stallion is a mare?" I asked. "Oh, what am I saying? Sorry, Ocellus, we have gotten completely sidetracked."

Pony-Rarity seemed completely relieved. She turned her attention on Ocellus with all the speed of someone overboard spotting a life-raft.

"Do you really see all that all the time? What you showed me back there, that is," Ocellus said.

"If the light is dim, or if I focus specifically on it, I see them. I guess I hadn't thought of it so much," I said.

"What about when you're hungry? That could be why I've never seen it before."

It made sense to me. I tried to think back to the times I'd been seriously hungry—since I started changing at least.

"The one time I got extra hungry was removing Suri's little gift from Coco. I hadn't realized I could eat the energy at the time, what with it tasting ghastly, so I spat it out. Rainbow saved me then. If it's ever taken her more than ten seconds to reach me when I've asked for help, I can't remember it.

"Don't you get hungry?" I asked.

"Well, for normal food. But since Thorax freed us from Queen Chrysalis, we don't get hungry for love anymore. I don't even remember what that was like."

If I still had my wings I'd chirp in concern for Ocellus—there was a note of curiosity in her tone.

"Have you asked someone if you can try?" I asked.

Ocellus gasped and shook her head.

"Rarity, would you let Ocellus try?" I asked.

Pony-Rarity blinked her eyes rapidly at me in surprise. She looked down for a moment and then nodded to herself.

"As long as she promises it won't hurt," Rarity said.

"I—uh—don't know how to," Ocellus said.

Let her see, I thought while pushing magic out at Ocellus. The effect felt the same as last time, and I saw her blink her big cyan eyes in surprise. I turned my own attention on pony-Rarity just as we came to the front door of Twilight's castle.

There was a complex play of emotions swirling around Rarity. I could see plenty of love there, though, and it was practically calling my name to—No. I didn't need it.

"You see this?" I asked.

"Yes!" Ocellus said with excitement. "I-I mean I can."

"This warm pink here is Rarity's love. You only take the smallest bite you can—barely a nibble—and let her know when you're doing it. Okay?" I asked. "And please chirp if you feel you need to."

"But chirping our wings is impolite!" Ocellus said.

"Chirping is the best thing ever! It's freeing, and a great way to show someone how you feel," NotABug said, reminding me she was still here.

"Chirping is a wonderful way of expressing yourself. Who told you it was impolite?" I asked.

Rarity opened the door of the castle and the most wonderful evening air poured in. It didn't have the smell of a city about it.

"If I could, I'd be chirping now. That air is amazing and crisp, and if I could bottle it and take it home I would," I said.

We walked in near silence until we reached a round building toward the middle of town. The darkness was no match for my keen vision, and though all the houses here looked rustic (thatched roofs and timber frames were everywhere), this one was rustic-chic.

There were patterns of what I took for blue and pink paint that suggested diamonds (something I'd always been enamored of), and further up there were pony cutouts riding around the second story. Pony-Rarity opened the door and beckoned us inside.

"Welcome to Carousel Boutique, the birthplace of all of Equestria's finest fashion," pony-Rarity said.

Flaring her horn with blue magic—the same color the geode had given me—Rarity made the lights flare to life around the room. I fell in love immediately. Dresses and suits the likes that I had never seen before adorned mannequins (or did ponies call them something pony related?) all around the room. Twilight's dress, I could now see, was one shining jewel among a crown of beautiful clothes.

This wasn't just my idea of heaven, I was mentally taking notes on how to set up my own dress shop. Displays, placement, even a design area—pony-Rarity had it all worked out. I couldn't help myself. Walking over to the dresses, I lifted a forehoof and gently touched them.

"Did I tell you I'm in the process of opening my own clothing store?" I asked. "I planned to call it Carousel Boutique."

"Of course you did, Darling. Clothing—fashion—is our lives."

I nodded to pony-Rarity. She wasn't just a pony version of me, she was a soulmate. A sister who knew me, knew everything I knew, and liked everything I liked. Sweetie Belle was the best little sister I could have ever had, but pony-Rarity shared almost all of my interests.

Except the buggy bits.

I had to pull myself away from just diving into the outfits and immersing myself in pony fashion. I looked at NotABug. She looked with excitement at the outfits, but her eyes kept coming back to me. I hadn't even noticed that she looked like a perfectly complete changeling queen. What I was soon to be.

"What would you suggest for a moderately large changeling with thoughts of fashion swirling in her head?" I asked. "Only it's not going to be much longer before I will be quadrupedal myself, and I have not a single pattern to suit."

"Couldn't you just—fwoosh—and be how you were before? You could wear pony fashion quite easily as you are now, although I would have to work on lighter colors. Black is so severe, but it does go with just about anything. I could see a nice wash of blue taking all the harshness out of your fur."

"This," I said and demonstrated by shapechanging to what my old human self looked like, "takes a significant amount of energy back home. There's something about this place that—It's like there're two reservoirs inside me. One gets filled with love, another with magic. Back home, I need to feed to fill both, but here the magic one just stays full all the time."

"That's it exactly!" NotABug said. "But I don't think I can feed here. It's okay, though, because I don't think I need to."

"We just need some time to take our minds off things. Knowing Sunset and Starling are in Twilight's care is quite a relief," I said.

"Yeah. I still feel really bad about bringing Sunset into this. I thought it was the right thing to find out the truth, but the truth was she was the last person we should have asked," NotABug said.

"C-Can I try this—uh—feeding thing now?" Ocellus asked.

Pony-Rarity looked a little concerned by the question, but she nodded.

"Of course, darling. Just, please be careful," pony-Rarity said.

I shapechanged back to my dark-Rarity shape, and narrowed my sight to take a good look at pony-Rarity's aura. It was full, bold, and bright with every positive emotion. There was a little worry, a touch of fear, but she positively blossomed with empathy.

"Even your emotional aura is beautiful," I said.

"Really?" pony-Rarity asked.

She raced over to a mirror and looked into it. Deflating a little at not seeing what I did, pony-Rarity turned back to face me.

"I don't suppose you could do that magic thing to me, too? I'd love to be able to see somepony's feelings like that," pony-Rarity said.

"One thing at a time? Besides, I don't know if I can do that for non-changelings. And, despite not objecting to the process, I wouldn't recommend turning into a changeling unless strictly necessary," I said.

While I'd been talking to pony-Rarity, NotABug and Ocellus had been talking softly, as became apparent when the latter had walked up to us.

"Are you ready? NotABug has been explaining it to me, and I'd like it if Rarity—Queen Rarity—would make sure I don't hurt you," Ocellus said.

Queen Rarity. The title was nothing I'd ever wanted, but hearing it made me feel excited to wear it. I'd heard the former changeling leader here called a queen, but I hadn't realized it could be applied to anyone of that type, rather than a specific title.

I nodded to Ocellus.

"Will it hurt?" pony-Rarity asked.

My mind raced back to all the times I'd drunk from Rainbow, and how she'd started feeling about it when I drank deeply.

"Your expression doesn't bode for it being painful," pony-Rarity said. "It feels good, doesn't it?"

My blush should have told her the answer, but then I realized I was covered in black fur. I nodded demurely.

"Rainbow says it is enjoyable when it's extended and drawn out. Although, I'm sure she felt the same way when I drank fast once," I said and turned to Ocellus. "Only a little, and stop if Rarity, NotABug, or I ask."

"Of course!" Ocellus said.

"Then proceed," pony-Rarity said.

I watched as Ocellus tried pulling a few faces, but she didn't manage to manipulate pony-Rarity's aura at all. Stepping closer, I matched myself to her side and pantomimed opening my mouth.

"Imagine you have another mouth—made of magic—and overlay it with your own," I said.

Not that I needed to visualize it. I'd fed enough now that it was natural, and when I opened my mouth and leaned forward, I tasted pony-Rarity.

"Oh my!" pony-Rarity said. "I felt that. You're right, it doesn't hurt, it—"

"I didn't eat anything yet. I guess that was akin to tasting," I said.

"You licked me?" pony-Rarity asked.

I shook my head in scandalous shock.

"What? No! Darling, nothing so crass. When you taste something, the experience is more than just your tongue. You see the food first, then smell it, and with those in mind you are already planning for what it tastes like," I said.

My time eating sushi and talking about eating sushi paid off in spades. Now if only I could find something strong to completely scrub the taste of Suri's magic from my mouth.

"You enjoy the finer things too," pony-Rarity said. "I trust you don't let Sweetie Belle cook for you?"

I snorted at that. While her cooking skills were nowhere near as bad as they had been, they were still somewhere just above instant ramen and a little below actual cooking. She used plenty of salt, but she hadn't worked out you needed to add pepper to most food.

"She's gotten better, but when I have a choice she doesn't get to cook. Sorry to derail things, Ocellus. Let's try this. So now you want to open your mouth and bite carefully and gently into Rarity's aura," I said.

When Ocellus leaned forward, however, I saw no indication that she had that magical mouth. In fact, she left no visible impact on pony-Rarity's aura at all.

"Ocellus, can you see an aura around my mouth?" I asked.

When she shook her head, I had my answer.

"Then I don't think this will work, dear. You really are just too different from my type of changeling for that to work," I said.

Ocellus' ears tucked back, and she seemed to slump inward at the pronouncement. I felt immediately sorry for giving up, but there was no hint of what she needed in order to feed.

"Maybe one more try?" pony-Rarity asked.

Now Ocellus lifted her head and looked like a completely different bug. Drat, looks like I was going to be the bad guy—horse.

"One more try, and I'll give you another boost to get you started. Hold on," I said.

All my magic, I realized, took a mix of actual magic and love energy. Here, that ratio seemed to be much more forgiving than back home. Pouring power into my horn, I willed the spell to work like the times before and pushed it out at Ocellus.

Green light pulsed and throbbed, and I shoved a mess of power into Ocellus until she seemed to glow with it herself. Lines of my magic traced around her, though I think it was mostly aura I was seeing.

Ocellus shook her head and blinked a few times. Looking at pony-Rarity, she opened her mouth, paused, and bit down into pony-Rarity's aura.

Nothing happened.

"Rarity, may I nibble to give Ocellus an example?" I asked.

"Please be gentle," pony-Rarity said in tacit approval.

I was gentle. I barely touched her aura with my fangs and shaved off the thinnest slice of love she had. It was tiny, minuscule, and barely filling. I couldn't stop myself from licking my lips afterward—for all its tiny quantity, it was delicious.

"Was that it?" pony-Rarity asked. "I barely felt anything. I thought you were—err—tasting again."

Ocellus leaned forward and tried to bite down, and while she throbbed with changeling magic, she didn't seem able to make any impression on pony-Rarity's aura. By this point I almost wanted to lie to her about it.

Pony-Rarity looked at me with a knowing glance—she hadn't felt anything. I shook my head to her.

"Maybe you should talk to Thorax about this? It seems like something he'd know about," pony-Rarity said.

"I just wanted to experience it. Just once. So many other changelings have, and my generation are the first who just won't ever feel that," Ocellus said.

"What can you do instead?" NotABug asked.

"Well, we don't need to feed like that, which I guess is an advantage when a lot of ponies don't like the idea," Ocellus said.

Pony-Rarity waved a hoof dismissively.

"Honestly? I'm sure most ponies are just scared of the idea of it. What—ahem—Queen Rarity just took was barely noticeable. I'm starting to wonder if the whole wedding-thing was a big mistake by both sides," pony-Rarity said.

"'Wedding-thing'?" I asked.

That, apparently, was a story that needed several hours to tell. By the time pony-Rarity was done explaining all the ins-and-outs of it, I found myself yawning.

"S-Sorry, dear, but it's been a long day, and—" I said.

"Oh! It's not a problem, darling. It's getting quite late and I think I might retire," pony-Rarity said.

It was an offer, a social-helping-hand that meant I didn't have to declare myself too tired to go on. Ponies, it seemed, were just as social creatures as humans, so of course my counterpart here would be on point about it.

"And you needn't ask. I have a room upstairs that Sweetie Belle uses when she's staying here. You are free to use that, of course."

I let my disguise drop completely and loosed the chirp I felt building. It was good to be able to express myself once more, though I did notice Ocellus jump a little at the sound.

"Rarity, you are such a wonderful host. You simply must come to Canterlot one day and let me return the favor," I said.

"I-I'd have to check with Twilight, and close my shop for the day, but I should be able to arrange that. You have me all curious about fashion on that side, now."

"C-Could I come too?" Ocellus asked.

Given Ocellus' initial reaction to just about everything I did, I wouldn't have thought her so eager to spend more time with me, and it took me a moment to realize NotABug was standing beside her with a knowing grin on her face.

"Oh. Forgive me for not knowing your ways, but I'd need to make sure you're old enough to—" I said.

"I am!" Ocellus said.

"She is," pony-Rarity said.

"Well, I don't see any reason you couldn't come. Depending on when you come to visit as to how much space we'll have, but I'm sure 'Bee and Byte will be able to make you some room," I said.

"How old are your—daughters?" pony-Rarity asked.

It was a careful question, and she knew full well she was assuming their gender by their names. She was right, of course, but I wasn't going to hold my nymphs to anything as changeable as sex.

"Just a few days. Changeling nymphs, it seems, grow up fast."

"Not that fast!" Ocellus said. "A nymph should take a year or two before they're out of their larval stage."

I looked at NotABug, who shrugged her shoulders at me in a very human gesture.

"They came out of their eggs looking like—" I said.

Instinctively, I reached for my handbag that wasn't there, for the phone that certainly wasn't there.

"Well, they came out of their eggs running, almost literally in Byte's case," I said.

I did it. Ocellus actually chirped a little in surprise. It was a higher-pitched sound than my own chirping, or even my daughters', but it was obviously her that did it—unless pony-Rarity had a secret she wasn't telling.

"I'd really like to meet your family, Queen Rarity," Ocellus said almost stumbling on the queen.

"Like I said, you're welcome any time, darling. But I really must be off before I collapse on the spot," I said.

It was the honest truth, too. I felt like a wrung-out towel and the thought of a bed, even if Rainbow wasn't in it, was a welcome one.

Thankfully NotABug seemed more than ready to take over the conversation for me while I followed Rarity to the stairs and the bed she promised.

"I feel a bit drained too. Between the fight with Suri and what Rarity—my Rarity—had to do with Starling, it's way past both our bedtimes," NotABug said.

"I'll see you both tomorrow!" Ocellus said.

"Of course. I'll see you," I said and yawned, "then."

The bed, when pony-Rarity revealed it, was small enough that I had to shapechange to fit into it. I barely even had enough focus to complete the task, and wasn't even completely sure what or who I'd shapechanged into before my head hit the pillow and my eyes closed.

"Good night, Rarity," NotABug said.

"G-Good night, darling. Oh, Rainbow—" I said.

"We'll find out what happened with her in the morning. I'm sure she's okay. The last thing I saw was her and the pony version of her talking about flying."

I snorted a little and pulled the covers over me with one hand. A hand? I didn't care. I'd shapechanged into someone who was just as tired as me, and that meant—

Author's Note

Chrysalis: Do you want to meet a Changeling Queen who is doing better than you in the love collecting department?

"Another changeling queen?" Chrysalis asked.

The dreaded former queen of the Badlands Hive raised one eyebrow.

"Tell me more. I could use a new army..."

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Editing provided by the battiest Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 18

—Sweetie, I have to take Rainbow and Sunset to Equestria. Can you look after 'Bee and Byte until I get back. And if I don't get back,— Rarity sent to Sweetie Belle.

It took the girl a few moments to pull her phone out and wake it up. From the lock screen she saw the alert had been from ChirpNet and specifically from Rarity. She was already getting ready to head to Rarity's house to take over from Rainbow, but when she saw the actual message her adrenaline kicked in. "What the heck, Rarity?!"

—WHAT HAPPENED!?!?!?— Sweetie Belle sent to Rarity.

As always, Rarity's message was back before Sweetie's thumb had even finished rising from the send button.

—Suri attacked. Sunset and Rainbow are hurt. I'm going to Princess Twilight for help. I don't know how the portal will react to NotABug.—

When Sweetie was done scooping her jaw off the floor, she grabbed her purse and rushed for the door. Pushing the door open, she quickly navigated her dorm while she typed and sent the resulting message to both Rarity and NotABug.

—Both of you had better come back. I'm not cut out to be a mom,— Sweetie Belle sent.

—I love you, Sweetie.—

—Your client will remember this, so please don't delete this until I tell you. The crypto key for the server is dbe1a77224bae667cfc6625fb345ac5 1f5d600cc503948d208bfbc2cb04742 9f6db69cf4333e5ee6b4d6805fbea19 2db48748f792051d17ce383910634fd 0e6f and that has access information for ChirpNet and my accounts. Do what you need to, and trust Twilight Velvet and Coco Pommel,— NotABug sent to Sweetie.

Sweetie vaguely recognized the key as what seemed to be random data. "Damn damn damn!" Unlocking and climbing into her car, Sweetie turned the key in the ignition and sped to her sister's house.

Her phone was quiet for the whole drive, which in and of itself was odd. Normally NotABug was messaging her, asking questions she was too embarrassed to ask Rarity, but nothing came up until Sweetie pulled in at Rarity's house.

—Auntie Sweetie's here! HI!— Byte sent.

As she turned the engine off in her car, Sweetie noticed that the front door was slightly ajar. A touch alarmed, she hastened inside to find Byte and 'Bee waiting for her.

Getting her two nieces settled was, however, going to be easier said than done. Just as Sweetie Belle got Byte and 'Bee busy playing a video game, she heard the sound of cracking plastic.

Byte was the only one who had heard the particular sound before. Her little ears perked up, and she completely ignored the game in progress to examine the two new eggs. "They're hatching!"

The world was far too bright. Closing her eyes, the nymph shoved her snout out of the egg only because she'd looked up hatching and getting out of eggs is what a newborn is meant to do. She recognized Byte and Bumblebee by their digital signatures, but there was one person in the room that she had trouble recognizing.

Sending a flood of data requests, the nymph felt lost until the person picked her up. Her first real meal was the best thing she'd experienced in her short life. The love that poured into her from the nice person overwhelmed her own happiness.

—That's Sweetie Belle. She's our auntie. Here's her node information, but don't send too much as she processes slowly.—

Information poured into the nymph. She experienced love and data in equal amounts and chirped like her two big sisters.

"What about the other egg?" Sweetie Belle asked.

The other egg was starting to crack, but no little snout had poked out yet. Byte, 'Bee, and the newborn nymph poked at the egg digitally and got scared chirping back.

"She's scared, Aunt Sweetie," Byte said.

Three knocks sounded on the front door. Sweetie Belle started to get up to answer it when a panicked chirp from 'Bee stopped her. "What's wrong?"

"Windigo," 'Bee said very softly, barely above a whisper.

Hugging the three nymphs and the egg to her, Sweetie Belle shrank back into the couch and stared at the door in fear. All of the things NotABug had told the girl spun in her head. The Devourer—Monster.

Changelings, of course, could pick up emotions readily. Byte, 'Bee, and the recently hatched nymph were shielded from Sweetie Belle's fear by the recent buffer of Love they'd all gotten from her, but inside her egg, the yet-to-be-born nymph was trapped in a terrified place she had no desire to be.

Using her tiny (but sharp) fangs, the nymph ripped at the inside of her egg and tore herself free. More fear enveloped her. She needed somewhere to get away from it. Her target was the big colorful thing that seemed to call to her.

Bounding forward, the nymph evaded all the objects in her way and leapt into the television set. The transition from the real world to digital was freeing. Noise and data—the same thing to a newborn nymph—surrounded her and poured past her. Diving into the noise took her further away from the fear-laden room.

Router to router, node to node. She swam about and felt happiness grow in her.

The first moment the nymph realized something was wrong was when the router she'd just swam through immediately stopped sending data. Where there should have been noise flowing around her, it was quiet—silent.

Cold fear filled the nymph, but this time it was her own. Launching past the router as quickly as she could, she found each hop she took had the same result—a moment after she reached somewhere new, everything went quiet.

Windigo enjoyed itself. This new game was more fun than any it had played before. Attack, exploit, consume, chase—but it could never get around the prey it chased. Then, just as Windigo was getting bored of its game of devour the routers, its quarry was gone—the same gone that NotABug had managed when it had chased her into Rarity's head.

Moon Dancer had been working on her programming for her Computer Language Engineering class when she noticed a slight flicker of the screen.

Fearing for her work, the multi-major undergrad moved her mouse to the save icon and punched the mouse button repeatedly. "C'mon! Don't flake out. Don't flake out. Don't flake—" Peace came to Moon as the little red computer disk picture (that bore no resemblance to modern disks in any way, shape, or form) turned from red to grayed out. "Oh thank you so much! I don't know what I would have…"

Moon Dancer trailed off as she looked at the blue wash of color on her screen. It was a little confusing, and her hand was reaching for the power button when a terrified (and terrifying) face appeared.

There were few humans who would find the panicked nymph's visage anything but shocking, and Moon Dancer wasn't among them. She rocked backward in her seat and tried to get away from the image on the screen. "What are—"

"Help!"

In all Moon Dancer's life she'd never heard a perfect culmination of terror and pleading. Her heart melted (so far as the nymph was concerned) as she realized that the true terror was for what would scare such a creature.

The blue light grew brighter, and Moon Dancer watched as the black form with bright blue eyes stretched itself out of the screen.

Something was wrong.

The nymph should have been able to pull herself from the screen with ease, but she felt the silencing presence catch up and reach for her. Pain exploded in the nymph and she reached out to the human looking at her. "Please help!"

A powerful flash of blue light erupted and then there was darkness.

The power was out, and so was Moon Dancer.

"I can check the cameras and see if they're gone," Byte said.

"No. Ugh, I need to think. Who am I meant to call if I know a monster is outside and I need—" Sweetie Belle shook her head. "Duh, I call the people NotABug said I should. Twilight Velvet… Byte, do you know Twilight Velvet's phone number?"

Picking up her mobile, Sweetie noticed there was no signal and barely stopped herself from saying a bad word in front of the nymphs. "Scratch that. Phone's out."

"Our fiber link is still up. Who do you want to call?" Bumblebee asked.

"Uh." Sweetie Belle looked down at her phone. "Can you get my phone to make a call to this Twilight Velvet?"

On Sweetie's phone, ChirpNet blinked and showed a voice call starting—she pulled the device to her cheek.

"Twilight Velvet. This is a private line, how did you get this number?"

"M-Miss Velvet! I'm calling from Rarity and NotABug's house, I'm Rarity's sister. I was babysitting her nymphs when Windigo attacked!"

"It's true, Mrs. Velvet," Byte said over the digital link. "Mom got in some kind of trouble at work and had to take her friends somewhere. Now Windigo is outside and we don't know what to do!"

"Listen to me, Sweetie Belle?"

"Y-Yes?"

"Stay there. Don't open your door even if it's the police, okay? I'm sending some friends around. They'll knock on the—where was this Windigo?"

Sweetie choked back her worry a little easier with the calm voice of Twilight Velvet on the other end of the line. "Front door."

"They'll knock on the back door and say Aardvark. Understand? If you don't hear Aardvark, you don't come out. Don't say the word out loud now."

Because Windigo could be listening to us somehow, Sweetie Belle thought. "Okay, only when someone says that word."

"Great. These men are going to be big, and they're probably going to shout. Do what they say and keep as quiet as you can be. I'll be waiting for you when they get you out, okay? Now I'm going to hang up."

"Okay." The phone went dead the moment Sweetie said the word.

"What happened to our other sister?" Bumblebee asked.

"Sh-She ran. She ran away really fast. When Mom gets back, she'll find her," Byte said.

Sweetie Belle wished she had as much confidence in this as Byte seemed to show. She held the three nymphs as close as she could and counted out a minute, then she counted out another. She got to ten before the sound of screeching tires sounded out the front.

Only twenty seconds later there was a knock at the back door.

"Aardvark!"

"That's what Mrs. Velvet said!" Byte said.

Like a spring, Sweetie's legs unfolded and pushed her forward. She staggered to the back door and looked through the window to see two big men with dark glasses on. Each carried a compact gun of some kind that looked like a toy. Her hand shook as she turned the deadbolt and opened the door.

"We're leaving. Bring your—Is that all of you?"

Sweetie Belle nodded.

"Come on and keep quiet. Do what we say, and don't get in front of us."

Telling herself over and over that this was all by someone NotABug trusted implicitly—and not a well-timed kidnapping—Sweetie Belle climbed into the typical-looking suburban minivan with the men.

"We're taking you directly to Mrs. Velvet. You got any idea how dangerous this thing is?"

Sweetie Belle shook her head, but Byte lifted her head out of the jumble of bodies in the girl's arms. "Really bad. Mom showed me pictures of it. Fast and nasty. Remember that office building that got trashed at the start of the week?"

"Yeah?"

"That was just a warm-up." Byte's voice held seriousness her size didn't back up, however the two men were professional enough to take it for the warning it was.

"Fuck. Okay, John, let's go fast."

Moon Dancer struggled through an odd fever-dream. She had twice as many memories for two days, and half of them were completely alien to her. Blinking at the darkness in her room, she only realized she wasn't blind (and that the lights were out) when her heavy curtains fluttered and let a few stray flickers of day in.

She blinked some more, and slowly the room came into focus. Sitting up, Moon reached for her glasses like she had every morning for years, but they weren't on her bedside table and she wasn't on her bed. "What the actual—There they are!"

Grabbing her glasses, Moon pulled them on and let out a little breath (the type everyone near-sighted did when they could see again), only she couldn't see properly. The room was now dark and blurry.

"What's wrong with these things?" Moon Dancer yanked her glasses back off and could see perfectly once again.

The extra memories came to her in flashes. Flickers of patterns of data. At first it all seemed so random, but shapes and patterns formed, then more distinct things started to emerge from the gloom of what shouldn't have been.

"This is insane."

Sitting up, then standing, Moon Dancer walked to the window and threw the curtains open. Her eyes adjusted quickly, but not fast enough to stop her from wincing at the bright light. "Ugh! Daystar! My one true enemy!" The old saying brought a chuckle from her. "What time is it?"

Everything Moon owned was digital. Her alarm clock, phone, computer, and even the display on the microwave in her dorm room were digital—and hence dark in the current blackout. It took her brain nearly ten seconds to remember that while all those devices might be digital, one also had a battery.

Reaching out to her desk, Moon grabbed up the phone that sat to one side of her keyboard. The mobile phone, to Moon Dancer, felt slimy and a little like soft plastic. Her eyes narrowed in on it, and she froze as a blue glow enveloped her arm.

Staring in shock, Moon watched as her phone melted onto her fingers and seemed to soak into her skin. It was unreal to her, completely flouting all the laws of physics and anatomy. When the blue glow stopped, however, Moon Dancer was left staring at her empty hand.

There was a tickle of something in the back of Moon Dancer's head, and then she distinctly felt something try to get her attention.

Memories rushed at her, and with the fever-dream recollections she unlocked the phone and read the text message.

—Moon! What's going on? Is your power out too?— Lemon Hearts.

11:38.10001

11:38.10002

11:38.10003

11:38.10004

11:38.10005

It was fascinating and terrifying. Moon Dancer's whole world slowed to a crawl as she watched time tick forward—slowly—millisecond by millisecond. Nearly a hundred of them fluttered away as she started to fall backwards, and a few more came and went as indistinct concepts before darkness wrapped around her.

"And the other newborn is missing? Are you sure Windigo chased her?" Twilight Velvet was standing in her office with two young women and three of the most adorable (once one had gotten to know them) monsters ever. Outside her house was some very big men—not the ones who had picked up her guests—who were being paid a lot of money to ensure nothing broke the peace of the neighborhood.

Sweetie Belle nodded. "'B-'Bee said. Right 'Bee?"

Bumblebee nodded.

Twilight resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. Her day had gone from calm to shattered glass in the space of fifteen seconds. "Do any of you know where she might have gotten to? Do you know how to follow her?"

"You could follow the path of broken routers, but that would be hard. What you really need to do is find the last one, right?" Bumblebee asked. She didn't wait for anyone to do more than nod, "I'll need some time, but I can try—"

"No. None of you are to go online. I'd rather not have the gentlemen outside earn a combat bonus if I can help it. Ms. Pommel, do you have anything to add?" Twilight Velvet turned to look at the third woman in the room.

"R-Rarity said she was taking a friend with her to work to find out what Suri was up to. She and NotABug were concerned over what Suri was doing with her newfound talents."

"Newfound talents? Are we sure she wasn't working with Windigo?" Twilight watched shock register on everyone's face face except the newborn nymph. "We'll have to assume they are working together somehow. That would certainly explain who it was outside Rarity's house."

"Can I connect to our server at home?" Byte asked. "I don't think Windigo could get into that. I couldn't even get into that if I didn't have an access key."

"How easy would it be for them to trace your connection here?" Twilight Velvet had exchanged some messages with NotABug, but NotABug's big presentation on internet threats was scheduled for Monday. She struggled not to sigh at the timing of everything.

"If she uses my mobile for the connection, really hard. Uh, right?" Sweetie Belle asked and looked at Byte.

Bumblebee cleared her throat (something she'd learned watching television online). "She could get our general location—it's accurate to about a quarter of a mile."

Twilight Velvet tried to weigh the risk but didn't have anything to weigh it against. "And what will connecting with home give you?"

"Cameras around the house, a way to hide any extra internet connections from there. Maybe a chance to find—to find her." Byte's voice wavered toward the end as she realized her littlest sister didn't even have a name yet.

"Do it."

Moon Dancer woke up to a thud. The sound was easy to identify as her door. The milliseconds ticked by under her watchful eye. Milliseconds, Moon realized, were a horrible unit of time measurement. As they ticked past, she reached into the phone that was somehow part of her and turned the clock to just show 24h time without seconds.

Gasping in relief, Moon sat up on her bed. Her mind still raced, but nothing was as bad as when she had millisecond precision on the clock.

Another round of thumping on the door got her attention. "I-I'm coming!"

Moon Dancer almost stumbled as she got to her feet. Wading past pile after pile of books, she reached the door and pushed the nearest pile back so she could open it.

"Are you alright? I was about to get the RA to open your door!" Lemon Hearts was used to the sight of Moon Dancer's room and had long-since given up trying to talk her friend into cleaning it up.

Mind racing—literally—Moon Dancer had an entire second to work out what to say. "Well, I was trying to write some code for one of my classes, but then I lost power and I think it—it must have been a surge, my phone died too."

"That doesn't explain why—"

"I tripped over some books in the dark and hit the floor." Admitting she was a klutz wasn't the most fun thing for Moon to say, but it was so much easier for her friend to understand than I absorbed my mobile phone and passed out because I couldn't handle the world in super slow motion.

Lemon rolled her eyes and reached a hand out to boop Moon Dancer on the nose. "You're such a klutz, Moon. Come on, it's not like we can do anything here anyway. Let's go get tacos!"

Looking back at her computer and fighting the strangest urge to jump into it, Moon Dancer sighed. "Alright. Let me grab my wallet."

12:03

Meeting up with Minuette, Lyra, and Twinkleshine, Moon let out a little sigh of relief. Despite being a shut-in by her own admission, she enjoyed being with her friends. It made her think back to her time at Canterlot High and the last student from the honor roll—Twilight Sparkle.

An itch started in Moon's head while they were walking to the nearby Mexican restaurant. It was just a tingle at first, but she felt it like a cord seeking out a socket to plug into. Mentally—digitally—she pushed the cord aside and closed up.

"I found her. She'd already gotten a ChirpNet client, and while I could start to handshake with it, she closed the connection. I know it's her—it felt like her!" Bumblebee was annoyed at herself for not managing to make the connection, but she was more proud of her little sister for shutting her attempt down.

"That's the secure link, right?" Byte asked.

"Yeah."

"Have you tried Mom's new code?"

"That hasn't rolled out yet—" Bumblebee's eyes narrowed in shock as she realized something. "Except to anyling using an alpha version. What version did she get?"

"Enable the TOR server protocol and see if she connects through it," Byte said, chirping triumphantly.

While she started logging into the developer side of ChirpNet, Bumblebee lifted a little hoof, held it up to Byte, and got a sound clop sound from her big sister.

Almost a minute after Moon Dancer managed to swat away the cord from plugging in, she felt one thud home without warning.

—Are you alright? Did Windigo hurt you? Let us know where you are so we can come and get you.— Bumblebee.

Tensing a little, Moon tried to focus on the message that had come up on her phone when she didn't even remember installing the app. ChirpNet? Moon Dancer thought, What even is that?

—Wait. You're not her. How did you get this chat client?— Bumblebee.

Intuition and a logical mind saved Moon from fumbling at the device for hours.

—What do you mean? I don't know what's going on, I was just sitting there and— The message, of course, she hadn't finished. Moon Dancer was too caught up in the memory that filled her head. She was staring into terrified blue eyes, and she looked into her own eyes reflecting a blue glow.

They touched.

—She's inside me?— Moon Dancer hadn't meant to send the message, but there was something about this Bumblebee that seemed legitimate. She wanted more information, but knew she'd have to give some. —Something was chasing her.—

—Windigo. Please keep my little sister safe.— Bumblebee.

Little sister. Moon Dancer felt more empathy than ever. Then worry hit. Moon closed the chat client and pulled back from the mobile phone in her head. Everything was too fast, yet less than two seconds had passed in the real world.

"You look a little pale, Moon. Something wrong?" Lyra Heartstrings asked when her friend had slowed down.

"I'm just—You know how it is when you get really into something, like coding, and you can't switch it off?" Moon Dancer wasn't lying. Whatever was going on in her head (either insanity or something really freaky) she had to keep her head about her.

"All. The. Time! You should see how much work I'm doing on JS right now. My prof has me working my fingers to the bone trying to get his pet project up and going." Lyra Heartstrings put her arm around Moon Dancer's shoulders. "I got your back, sister. Chick coders! Wooo!"

"Yaay…" Moon Dancer didn't feel like partying, and her halfhearted response drew a sharp look from Lyra. "I'm still a bit out of it, okay? Maybe a taco or two will get me out of this funk."

But it didn't. All through her meager meal Moon Dancer fussed and poked at the memories in her head—the ones that shouldn't be.

By the time she said her goodbyes to her friends (and turning down the offer to go out partying), she had a plan. Moon Dancer had studied a lot of topics. She had so many electives and class credits that each undergrad degree only took her a year to a year and a half of study now.

Moon's current course was Computer Science, and if there was one thing she'd learned from the programming side of things it was order. Order was required for computers to work—they thrived on it. She opened her door and slipped into her room before closing and locking it behind her.

Moon Dancer got all the way to her bed before she realized that though the power was still out, she could see perfectly—and without her glasses on. If curiosity had killed the cat, Moon should have meowed.

Pushing aside (with much difficulty) the conundrum of her eyes, Moon Dancer sat on her bed and started putting things into order. The memories were confusing at first, but as she sorted through them bit by bit, Moon could start to pick up that some relied on others. Concepts, problems, and solutions could be built into a line.

There were some left over. Some of the memories were just silly or cute things, but they were few compared to things that had meaning derived from them.

Moon was doing fine until the hatching. Her sisters (an odd sensation since she was an only child) had tried to protect her, but she was too scared. She'd run in terror and the monster had chased her.

Living every moment along with the poor creature, Moon Dancer ran in terror with her. These memories were all in a row—chained together by the emotions—and she could follow them easily. She fled the monster trying to kill her right into a single university dorm computer.

"Help!"

The word had come from Moon Dancer's lips, though it was writ large in her mind. Help. When she'd seen the fear on their alien face, Moon couldn't have done anything else.

"Are you inside me?"

There was no answer.

The memories stopped as the blue light grew between them. Moon lifted her hands up to her face and cried. Might-haves and could-have-beens circled Moon's head as her tears poured free. If she'd only reached out sooner. If their siblings could have calmed them. If the monster wasn't chasing them.

Moon Dancer's head snapped up and her tears stopped. The monster. The monster was still out there, and the monster knew where she was.

Snapping upright, Moon ran to her door and tried to put the key in the lock with a shaking hand. "Stop. Focus." One deep breath later and she got the key into the lock and opened the door.

There was no monster there to greet her, nothing waiting to attack, but the lights snapping back on did cause Moon to almost jump out of her skin. A glance back into her room led Moon Dancer to grab her wallet and pull out the memory stick her computer was meant to save a copy of all her work to.

Focusing her thoughts, Moon plugged into that system again: ChirpNet. —Bumblebee?—

—Hello? Who are you? Is our sister safe?— Bumblebee

—No. The monster was chasing her and she asked for my help and now she's in me. Her memories are.— Moon Dancer

Moon waited for a reply. It hadn't occurred to her how fast she were conversing, but mere milliseconds were passing before she was getting responses. This time, however, Bumblebee took several seconds to reply.

—Was Windigo (the monster) in your computer? Did it find out where you are?— Bumblebee

The question cemented in Moon's mind that she needed to leave and hide somewhere. She nodded, then remembered she was using a chat program running in her head. —Yes. I'm leaving now.—

In her dorm, the hallway was tiled to make it easier to clean up when messy students spilled something. Moon Dancer heard clicking heels approaching her open door from outside.

Turning to the window, Moon pondered how much it would hurt to dive through the glass and down a story to the ground below.

"Moon? Yoo-hoo! Hey Moon Dancer! I am soooo drunk!" Lyra Heartstrings' voice sounded like she'd had a little too much to drink.

Fear turned to relief. Moon walked to her door and, finding Lyra wobbling and listing to one side, put her arm around her friend.

—You need to get away from where Windigo last saw you. It will suspect you merged with my sister.— Bumblebee

—What do you mean, "merged"?— Moon Dancer's replies were lightning fast, though the world around her seemed slow. —Also, how am I even talking to you? Is this my mobile phone?—

—Byte thinks you're just like Mom. She wants to know if you touched a mobile phone just after you merged with our sister?— Bumblebee

—I should just ask her myself. Hi! I'm Byte.— Byte

Moon had to mentally shake off the confusion of having two "sisters" talking in her head. She led Lyra back to Lyra's room and slipped inside with her friend.

Slurring a little, Lyra smiled in the direction she thought Moon Dancer was. "You're such a good friend, Moo—" Falling backwards, Lyra was asleep before she hit her bed.

—Okay. I'm in a different room now.— Moon Dancer looked around Lyra's room. Apart from the lack of books everywhere and a computer that sported three screens, it was more or less the same as hers.

—Different room isn't enough. You need to get out of your house. Windigo is dangerous!— Byte

Moon began to panic again. Locking the door with Lyra's keys, Moon dancer pulled the door closed behind her and was back in the hall. —Okay, where should I go?— Before she even managed a step an address appeared in her head. —Right. Sure. Trust the voices in my head to not lead me to someone who is going to kill me. I'm an idiot. OMW.—

—We're not going to kill you!— Bumblebee

—You're not helping, 'Bee. Good luck!— Byte

"We gave her directions to get here." Bumblebee looked up at Sweetie Belle. "I think she was suspicious."

Sweetie looked from Bumblebee to Night Light. "Are you sure we can stay here?"

"Twilight said you four needed somewhere cozy to spend the night, or even a few nights, and it's not like our Twily is using her room."

"We, uh, have a friend coming." Looking askance at Byte and Bumblebee, Sweetie let out a sigh. "Sorry, but—"

Night shook his head. "No buts. Twilight already said there might be another. Leave security to her, and leave comfort to me. You focus on each other and wait for your sister—and mother—to come back. Okay?"

Sweetie Belle sat back down on the bed and put the nymphs down.

"Feel free to use her computer." Night Light left the little group to their own devices, though as he closed the door he saw Byte climbing his daughter's computer chair.

The computer, Byte discovered, wasn't the latest generation, but it was the absolute top of the line desktop machine of the previous one. She started it up and jumped up on the desk to inspect the back of it. "Hardwired? Why don't they use wireless?"

"Speed, probably. Spike was big into vlogging, at least he was when Twilight realized he was making enough to cover all the stuff he was buying. Rarity wouldn't shut up about how smart he was." Sweetie stood back up and walked over to stand behind the computer chair that Bumblebee was climbing onto.

"Vlogging?" Byte only asked out of courtesy and because she'd learned that you could find out a lot about someone by asking them questions. She got the info she really needed from the internet itself. Routed through Sweetie's phone to their home server, she discovered a whole world of people talking about themselves and characters they played in their vlogs.

"Video blogging. It's where someone makes regular videos about themselves or something they do." Squeezing the still unnamed filly in her arms, Sweetie could feel her feeding slowly.

"So I can see. Wow, there's a lot of them. Thanks!" Manners, Byte had also learned, earned her a surprising amount of goodwill from those she conversed with. "I wonder if I could vlog?"

"It might be best to wait to ask Rarity—your mom—that one. Or Mrs. Velvet." When she looked down at the nymph snoozing in her arms, Sweetie let out a sigh. "And here I hoped to get some work done on my project tonight. What would you vlog about, Byte?"

"Games." Byte hadn't found any wireless networks she could get into, but she had found and broken the security on the wireless keyboard and mouse attached to Twilight Sparkle's old computer. "Look, there's a lot of people vlogging games!"

"That's called streaming, Byte, but I guess you could do that. What games would you play?"

Sweetie's questions were almost better than Sweetie's answers, at least in Byte's estimation. Her aunt's question had prompted her to open a browser and start looking for games to play. "Why didn't Mom show us all these games?!" Jumping up and chirping loudly in excitement, Byte stared at the screen with both forehooves braced on it.

"Don't go in!" Sweetie said.

"I'm not going to. I promised I wouldn't, remember? I just wanted a closer look and—and I got a little excited." Byte drew back a little and tried to calm herself—she was still chirping though.

Sweetie left Byte and Bumblebee to the computer and lay down on the bed. The nymph in her arms let out a soft chirp and opened their eyes. "Sorry I woke you up."

"It's okay. Did you find our sister?"

"It's complicated. She's on her way here, though she looks a little different now, I think," Bumblebee said.

"Can I sleep a little more? I miss her."

Sweetie's heart almost broke. She wasn't completely sure what the deal was with her wayward niece, but the nymph in her arms needing snuggles was something she could take care of. "I'll wake you when she gets here." Her words earned some soft chirps.

Barely closing her own eyes for a second, Sweetie Belle heard the door opening. Blinking in bewilderment, Sweetie heard a chirp come from the nymph in her arms before they galloped across the bed and jumped right at— "Moon Dancer?"

"Sweet—" Moon didn't get any further with her own question as a freakishly adorable and alien-looking creature jumped into her arms. A sharp pull from her memories—from the lost creature's memories—caused her to wrap her arms tightly around her first sister.

"Sweetie said you'd look different, but I can tell its you."

Shocked at the familial bond that seemed so strong with the tiny creature, Moon Dancer got a chance to have a good look at them. Cute little ears that twitched around at the slightest of noises, huge eyes that seemed to glow in the dark, and adorable little fins that crested their head and spread down from their rump. She also had fangs that looked like they'd go through a tin can as easily as an arm, but Moon couldn't find any fear within her directed at the creature.

The memories of her sister bulged and took root in Moon Dancer's head. She felt those odd memories seem to bind tighter with her for the shared emotional bond. She buried her face against her sister's shoulder and started crying again.

"I don't get it. I mean, everyone at the college knows Moon Dancer, but why is she here?" Sweetie looked to the older nymphs for an answer.

"You remember what happened to Mom?" Byte asked, and with Sweetie's nod she continued. "It happened again, but I don't think our little sister is a separate entity inside her head."

"Was she just too young?"

"Or Windigo hurt her too much," Bumblebee said.

Sweetie put together what she was seeing along with what her nieces were telling her. "So some of her is in Moon?"

"I can hear you, you know?" Moon Dancer felt complete with her sister close to her. She felt right in a way that she never knew she could feel. Looking at the other two creatures only increased that feeling.

"Well?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"I think I got her memories. There wasn't a lot of them, but one theme is strong: family." The word caused Moon Dancer to perk up even more. "She knew who her sisters were, even knew who her—"

"Mothers?" Byte asked, filling in the blank and giving Moon some information.

The word invoked more of Moon Dancer's alternate memories. She remembered chirping—lots of chirping—and touch. It was the first touch that her other side had ever felt. Focusing her attention on that one memory, Moon could feel a hand pressed against her, and she could feel the love radiating from it.

The quality of the chirping was curious to her, and Moon found herself picking apart the memory to find two sources. "Th-Three?"

"Yup!" Bumblebee buzzed her little wings in excitement at finding her lost sister remembering more and more. "There's Rainbow Dash, NotABug, and Rarity."

Rainbow Dash. The words invoked a dichotomy of feelings. Moon Dancer remembered the girl from Canterlot High School as being the jockiest jock that ever jocked. But when she heard the name, just now, she felt a link form between it and that hand. A shiver ran down Moon's spine at the realization that she was so loved like that.

Rarity. Another clique of high school was the fashion girls, and none typified them better than Rarity. Moon knew Rarity had also gone on to a fashion college, but had lost all touch with her from there. The shiver came again—one of the chirps belonged to Rarity.

NotABug was the oddest of the bunch. Moon had heard some news around the computer science department that some odd stuff had happened on their networks not long ago, and there were two names that kept coming up in regard to it: Windigo and NotABug. The second tone of chirping, however, matched up with an image of blue that her strange memories held.

Always with the blue. "Three mothers."

"Yup!" Bumblebee said again.

"Don't you normally wear glasses?" Sweetie Belle asked into the silence that the conversation had become.

"It's too much. I'm just a student trying to get by. I didn't ask for this!" Moon's legs started to wobble as her emotions let go completely. Anger, panic, and fear all combined to wring more tears from her. She managed to reach the bed and flop down on. "I just—I just wish—Why couldn't I have been faster in helping her?"

In her arms, almost forgotten, oddly comforting chirping came from the little creature Moon held. She looked down at them through tear-streaked eyes, and choked back a sob. The little face looking back at her reminded Moon of who she hadn't saved.

"What was her name?" Moon Dancer asked.

"We didn't get our names yet. None of our moms were there." The unnamed nymph chirped a little more in distress at the situation. "Your name's Moon Dancer?"

Moon just nodded.

"That's a pretty name. Would you give me a name?"

"Well. Your sisters are Byte and Bumblebee, so I guess there's two themes there." It felt to Moon like she was alone with her little sister. "You're smart, and you're the smallest of the bunch, so I think Bitwise."

"Bitwise? I like it!" Bitwise chirped her appreciation and nuzzled against Moon's arm. "What's it mean?"

"Well, in computers you sometimes don't want to deal with chunks of data as data, you just want to work with it on the most basic level. A bitwise operation treats everything as the most basic of data-types." For the first time in her life Moon Dancer wished she had insectile wings just so she could chirp them together to fully express herself. "And I think it's cute."

Chirping in happiness, Bitwise snuggled more firmly into Moon's arms and yawned.

"So what, we just hang here until they c—" Moon's mind skipped a beat as she put some things together. "They went through the portal at CHS, didn't they?"

"The last thing Rarity sent was she took Sunset and Rainbow to Princess Twilight." Biting her lip, Sweetie thought about saying the rest, then decided. "NotABug left an extra note. She said to trust Twilight Velvet and Coco Pommel."

"This is too much. If you need me, you'd better be able to enter my dreams because I'm out." Slumping on the bed, Moon Dancer was true to her words. She curled up around Bitwise protectively. "Wake me when this insane ride ends."

Author's Note

Rarity: are you planning to talk with Thorax and learn more about changelings?

"Honestly? I don't think he'll be able to give me too many tips. Taking Ocellus as an example and extrapolating how—ahem—repressive their society is, I doubt he would be able to help me much at all. There is only one changeling that I believe could answer my questions, and from what I understand she wouldn't be overly supportive," I said.

Lifting a hoof to the side of my head, I recalled something else Twilight had mentioned.

"And he definitely won't be able to give me any fashion tips. At least black goes with everything."

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Editing provided by the battiest Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 19

As dreams went, this one was quite acceptable. I was working in my boutique, selling dresses and suits to fabulous people, and although I was completely a changeling, no one seemed to notice or care. I was a happy bug doing something that made me happy.

I had just finished fitting Fleur in a stunning wedding dress for her marriage to—it wasn't important—but just as she left the door opened to a new customer. I blinked in confusion as a pony walked into my boutique.

The pony was to regular ponies, however, as a supermodel was to the average person on the street. She oozed confidence and control, and she had a gorgeous coat of cobalt blue. Her mane and tail were the truly startling parts of her. Each was a little slice of the night sky given form in hair.

If I weren't already well and truly tied up in Rainbow Dash, I'd swear I was in love.

"Darling! You look fabulous! But what can I do for you?" I asked.

Walking over to my newest potential customer, I couldn't help but think that Equestria even turned the people in my dreams into ponies. An odd sense of solidness came with being closer to her—like the dream was real.

"You're not Queen Chrysalis," the stranger said.

Her voice, combined with the color scheme, let me bound over lesser results to the conclusion…

"Luna?" I asked.

"Princess Luna. Who are you?" Princess Luna asked.

When she'd spoken, her wings had flared up and out, and her title struck me as being right for her. Whoever Luna was in my world, this Luna was royalty.

I attempted to bow as best I could, which being as it was a dream didn't really matter (it just worked).

"Forgive me, Your Highness, but I am visiting from another world. Sunset Shimmer and another friend were harmed by a—by a villain, and I could think of none other than Princess Twilight Sparkle as the one person—pony—that could help.

"My name is Rarity."

"Rarity?"

I nodded.

"Mmhmm!"

"Rarity is a white unicorn, not a nefarious changeling queen."

Respect for royalty could only go so far. She'd called me nefarious! I gestured around me with a hoof.

"Oh yes, darling, so nefarious with my dreams of making and selling dresses. I'm sure to take over the world by selling people beautiful formal wear—when I don't even care about the money," I said. "Honestly! Now I'm offended!"

Luna took two steps back with the most surprised expression I'd seen on either incarnation's face. She folded her wings down and seemed to shrink a little.

"Clearly there is more going on here than first appearances would indicate. I will present you my facts so you can see why I am reacting with suspicion. Rarity—the real Rarity—would understand my worries and assuage them," Princess Luna said.

Nice as the dream otherwise was, I literally didn't have anything else to do. I nodded.

"Princess Twilight has mentioned nothing about the goings-on within the world beyond the mirror. The last dream I encountered that held living changelings resulted in them attacking and overpowering myself. You look like a changeling queen that has not just been a thorn in Equestria's side for several years, but actually invaded our capital and captured my sister.

"But what makes this harder still to believe—changelings lie."

The last one, given the story I'd been told of the wedding-invasion, made a lot of sense. Tucking my ears back at the thought of how much I was being judged just for what I'd become, I knew I let out a few sad chirps.

"Everyone lies, Princess Luna, but I'll tell you my story and let you judge whether it is true or false. Though you could always just ask Twilight," I said.

"Very well. We have all night," Princess Luna said.

It felt awfully gauche just standing around and talking, so I dreamed up some comfortable sofas and floated them over with my magic. Climbing up onto it, I was struck with the memories of Rainbow, Byte, or 'Bee cuddling up with me on the couch, and felt terribly alone. Despite (or perhaps because of) Ocellus' warning about the social niceties of modern Equestrian changelings, I let out a lonely little chirp.

"It was a Monday. Not that I particularly disliked Mondays, but they have always been the start of things, and what with how much most people abhor change I can certainly see why most dislike Monday. That was the day everything changed," I said.

Telling Princess Luna of recent events put them into a much better order in my head. The memories of our first few times together, how NotABug's magic seemed to make it hard to remember her, and then Windigo's first attack.

For her part, Princess Luna kept quiet, but she did climb up on the other couch after a while and got comfortable. By the time I caught up to coming through the portal, Luna's emotions had run the gamut from happiness to anger and rested somewhere in between.

"I helped Starling. I did everything I could to remove the magic Suri had inflicted upon her, but I know it hurt her. Sunset—" I said, cutting short.

"We will be there by the time my sister raises the sun. This sounds more serious than a mere changeling invasion. Thank you, Rarity, for telling me the truth."

A calm hit me at the revelation that Princess Luna believed my words. I must have chirped—in fact I know I would have chirped—which earned me a curious look from Luna.

"Sorry, nervous habit. I was surprised when Ocellus mentioned changelings here don't chirp. NotABug and I chirp all the time. We even named our chat service ChirpNet."

At some point during our conversation the room had changed from a retail outlet to a cozy living room with a big fire. Despite having talked for what felt like hours, there was a mug of hot cocoa beside me. I levitated the drink up and took a sip.

"That is positively divine! Did you make that?" I asked.

Princess Luna just smiled as if the answer was obvious. It wasn't, but given the smile it was. Logic in dreams was almost worse than real life. By the time I managed to think straight again, Luna was gone. And then I woke up.

1:01 A.M.

For this time of the morning it was awfully light in the room. I blinked away the sleep of a night apparently spent talking to someone in my dreams. Was that real? It felt real. I was just about to begin the task of untangling myself from the sheets when the door opened.

"I have come to speak to you, Changeling Rarity," Princess Luna said.

Nope. Not a dream. I tried to sit up only to find my body was both more elastic and less familiar than when I'd gone to bed.

I felt hunched forward, as if I were—as if I were a pony with four actual legs. That's it, then, no more piano for me. I giggled inside at the silliness of the old phrase.

"It wasn't a dream?" I asked.

"What wasn't a dream?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I realized at last that the biggest reason I couldn't disentangle myself from the covers was that there was another pony in them with me.

Smiling, I leaned into the direction I hoped Rainbow was and nuzzled her cheek.

"You have—Of course! Your Rainbow Dash is—I'll wait downstairs!" Princess Luna said.

Poking her head up, Rainbow looked around the suddenly princess-less room.

"Who was that?" Rainbow Dash asked.

My answer was interrupted by an eruption of green sparks and light. NotABug practically jumped out of me to dance around the room. Her excitement, I must admit, was catching. There was something about the way she pranced that made me want to jump up too. Restrained as I was by the covers and Rainbow, however, all I managed to do was chirp, but I chirped enough for two excited changelings.

"That was Princess Luna," NotABug and I said at the same time.

We both looked at each other and giggled.

"She visited your dream too?" I asked.

"I had a dream! It was amazing! I've never dreamed before, but then Princess Luna came and told me she'd already spoken to you, and knew the whole story. It was amazing! And I'm not explaining anything, am I?" NotAbug asked.

While she spoke, I set about extricating myself from the covers.

"I was dreaming about being back home and surrounded by thousands of nymphs! It was amazing! But then Luna appeared, and she wasn't like the Luna I remembered from your memories of school. She's a princess! Anyway, we talked about you, Rarity, and then she promised she'd come and talk in the morning."

The sound of ripping sheets made me stop dead in my tracks. I tilted my head forward a little and saw the remains of a pillow flop down before my eyes.

"Maybe," Rainbow Dash said, "we could turn Suri into a pillow? You'd beat her after a good night's sleep."

"This is terrible. It's one thing to destroy one’s own pillows, but these aren't mine," I said.

"Don't you have royalty waiting? Like, literally waiting?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I chirped in alarm and decided it was time to fix the problem with magic. Focusing on a much smaller version of myself—and one without a razor-sharp horn—I shapechanged and quickly climbed free of the covers. Reversing the process left me standing for the first time, fully, in my quadrupedal form.

It felt—it felt good. The little feelings of different and strangeness were just gone. A sense of completeness surrounded and infused me, and it extended into my magic. There was a sense of a deeper reserve now, like my magic was waiting for this moment to stretch out and take up all of me.

I knew I was chirping, I didn't care to stop it. I felt good.

"Rainbow came around last night while you and Rarity were asleep. I showed her where we were sleeping," NotABug said.

"She literally walked through a wall right in front of me. It was pretty awesome," Rainbow Dash said.

I scanned around the room until I spotted the dressing table against one wall. With a sigh of relief I walked over and sat down before it. Keeping a princess waiting a few extra minutes was—in my mind—a much lesser sin than seeing her unprepared.

"You're doing your hair?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Rarity!"

"Darling, I am not seeing Princess Luna with a messy mane. You might want to avail yourself of a brush too," I said.

"You're really not going down until you've brushed your mane, are you?"

"No, Rainbow, I'm not."

"You two are so cute!" NotABug said.

A brush—wrapped in green magic that wasn't mine—floated up from the dressing table and launched itself at Rainbow. I watched NotABug's efforts in the mirror and wasn't spending my time checking out Rainbow Dash—honestly. Though, she did have an air of speed about her smaller frame.

"Oh come on! Ugh!" Rainbow Dash said. "Which one of you is doing this?"

"I am, and Rarity is right. Your mane was messy. Now hold still."

In all we only took five minutes to primp enough to be presentable. I wished I could have spent a few hours washing my mane and tail, but without that amazing shampoo I'd found the effect wouldn't have been worth it.

When we finally walked down the stairs into pony-Rarity's boutique, I was as well presented as I could be under the circumstances.

Princess Luna looked immaculate. Last night she hadn't worn her crown or regalia, but now she bore what I assumed were the more official badges of her office. Her mane and tail were, somehow, more impressive in real life than in a dream. Had she been trying to not scare me?

Or trying to not distract me from telling her everything.

Having a family of my own, I could well understand her aggressive introduction. I had people I would protect just as aggressively—that I did protect even more aggressively—if given the chance.

"Your Highness," I said. "Princess Luna."

Pony-Rarity and Princess Luna had been talking together in the room below, but they both turned to face us as we descended the stairs. Pony-Rarity looked on with a mixture of surprise and delight, while the princess wore a slight blush.

Right, we were mid-snuggle when she came in. I wish I could get embarrassed by being found in a compromising position by royalty, but she did barge into my bedroom without so much as a knock. No, I couldn't feel embarrassed about that, not when I could suddenly realize how naked everyone was, and they were all looking at me.

Deep breath, Rarity, you need to play a part here, and that part has no room for being completely without clothing. It was one thing to walk around my home wearing nothing, or wearing a revealing dress and quite another to be without a stitch of clothing or even fur.

I just had to keep my tail down.

It should have been a stately walk down the stairs. After my practice the previous day, even having four long changeling legs weren't a problem on stairs. What threw my entire entrance off was NotABug jumping over the railing and zooming down to meet Luna with a hug.

"Princess Luna!" NotABug said.

Though I had to give her credit, my nervousness due to a lack of clothes was practically gone without everyone looking at me. I made my way down the stairs while Luna dealt with an excited ghost of a changeling queen.

Pony-Rarity's eyes were not on NotABug, however, but Rainbow Dash. Looking like she'd seen am actual ghost, pony-Rarity stared at Rainbow. I must admit it took me far too long (until I reached the bottom of the stairs) to figure out why she was so fixated.

"Good morning, Rarity," I said. "I trust we didn't wake you?"

There wasn't even any actual innuendo in my words, but I scored a direct hit on confirming-my-hypothesis—pony-Rarity and Rainbow Dash were not together in this world. Pony-Rarity was so shaken because she had proof that Rainbow and I weren't just close friends, but together.

I had an option—a choice to make. I could flaunt our relationship, I could do everything not to flaunt it, or I could talk to pony-Rarity honestly about it. Flaunting was my usual style, but this was more to do with social grace and not throwing away a potential friendship.

Walking up to pony-Rarity first, I finally managed to draw her eyes away from Rainbow with a little clearing of my throat.

"We could talk about this later, if you wish?" I asked.

"W-Whatever do you mean?"

"We're practically long-lost sisters. We're not the same person, or pony, but I can bet there's an emptiness—" I said.

Pony-Rarity looked like I'd hit her, stopping my words in their tracks. I had to struggle to come up with something to keep her from bawling—something I was prone to before Rainbow and NotABug were part of my life.

"You're not alone. You have friends, family, and you just need to keep your eyes open," I said.

Pony-Rarity closed her eyes and took a deep breath. I recognized the gesture, what with it being a habit of mine, as being something to calm and re-center herself. When she was done, she opened her eyes again and nodded.

Okay, so I'd signed myself up to give my pony duplicate relationship advice. Just take your injured friends through the mirror, Rarity, it will be quick and we can be back before dinner. It might be a little shallow of me to think as much, but I did save Sunset and Starling. A little voice in my mind said, after endangering Sunset.

"Queen Rarity. That's what Ocellus called you, correct?" Princess Luna said.

While I'd been distracted with my thoughts, an entire princess had blindsided me. In the light of day, and without the confusing dimensions of a dream or the elevation of the stairs, I realized I was taller than her.

"Please, I'm hardly royalty. Just, uh, Bug Rarity will do. Or perhaps Human Rarity?" I asked.

"The-bug-formerly-known-as-human Rarity," Rainbow Dash said.

Rainbow's laughter, despite the topic, was soothing to hear. Good spirits were never to be turned down unless the pun that caused them were truly terrible.

"Raribug?" NotABug asked.

The name seemed the best of the bunch. I rolled it around in my head a little. Raribug. Rarity Bug. Ms. Bug. Well, I guess if you counted Rainbow in that I could be considered a Mrs. Bug. It took me a moment to regain my senses after a burst of thoughts and ideas that Mrs. brought.

"Raribug will be fine, thank you," I said.

Despite my attempt at seriousness, I was chirping. I chirped because Rainbow was at my side. I chirped because everyone that mattered to me was doing okay. I chirped because I could.

Luna's eyes drifted to my wings when I chirped, and I could sense (and see) a great amount of curiosity in her. I realized my emotion-vision was kicking in more-or-less without my consciously reaching for it.

"I'm sorry this couldn't have been a more joyous meeting. While it is curious how you became what you are without changeling magic at all, my sister and I wish you the best of luck with your efforts to do battle with this Suri Polomare," Princess Luna said.

"I guess it is a battle, isn't it?" I asked. "With Suri. She won't stop unless I stop her."

"We stop her, you mean?" Rainbow Dash said.

Rainbow hovered into the air beside me, putting her much smaller body at the same height as my own. The embodiment of loyalty indeed, though she was just as caught up in this as I was now. My battles were hers and vice versa.

The moment I'd kissed her back I'd bound myself to her. There was nothing else for it. I turned my head and kissed Rainbow's cheek.

"Thank you," I said.

The front door of Rarity's boutique opened and closed, and a streak of blue and rainbow rushed in.

"Hey, Rarity, have you seen—" pony-Rainbow Dash asked. "Never mind. Twilight sent me—Sunset woke up, and—"

I chirped in surprise. My hooves were already in motion, and though I knew I was ignoring a princess, two Rainbows, and another me, I had to get to Sunset.

Galloping, I discovered, was much the same as walking, but not. I needed to move as fast as I could, and my legs seemed to know the right way to do that. The castle was hard to miss, but even harder were the gasps of shock from ponies as I ran past them.

"Rarity? Rarity!" NotABug said with a demanding tone.

I slowed down and stopped, only to have Luna and both Rainbows catch up to me.

"What?" I asked.

Rainbow Dash, one of them, looked at me with a droll expression.

"Well, I was going to say, 'is resting in an actual sleep, so don't rush up and freak out everypony in town about a changeling queen galloping through the place.' That last bit might have had some embellishments, but you kinda deserve it."

The other Rainbow—my Rainbow—flew over to my side and put a hoof on my shoulder. I wanted nothing more than to be the smaller of the two of us. It was the thing that really flicked my switches.

Realization dawned, and I summoned my magic and fed it an image. Flame swirled around me, seemingly devouring the form of a changeling queen and leaving me a slightly-smaller-than-Rarity dark-colored Rarity.

Rainbow Dash apparently knew what the change meant or just really wanted to snuggle. She landed beside me, put one leg over my shoulders and pulled me against her. I know I chirped, but I couldn't have cared less. I’d needed a hug and I’d just got the best one all day.

"Wait a minute," pony-Rainbow Dash said. "Are you two just really good friends, or is that—?"

Pony-Rainbow Dash didn't finish her question. Her eyes widened and she pointed a hoof at us.

"Human me and human Rarity are special someponies?!" pony-Rainbow Dash asked at the top of her lungs. "How does that even work? Rarity, how does that even work?"

I hid my face in Rainbow's mane, trying not to laugh at her pony clone. Apparently, out of the two universes, mine got the better Rainbow Dash.

"Was I ever that big an idiot?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I mean, what's wrong with actually getting to be with your true love?"

With what I assumed was a happy-pony-sound, I kissed her cheek.

"You're delicious today. As for them, I'm going to talk to Rarity, you talk to Rainbow."

I watched the two bicker almost as if they were already a couple. The thought made me giggle and chirp.

"I've worked out a downside of this green-ghost thing," NotABug said. "I can't hug either of you."

Though NotABug managed to chirp, the sound was forlorn and sad. It took everything I had not to march back to the castle and into the portal again.

"You know what I'm gonna do when we get home?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"W-What?" NotABug asked.

"I'm going to kiss every inch of you, then hug you for a whole day."

NotABug and I both chirped in excitement, then giggled at each other. She was as different from me initially as any creature could be, but we fit each other like peas and carrots. I doubt even pony-Rarity knew me as well as NotABug.

"I love you—both of you," I said.

"I love you both as well," NotABug said.

"I know."

NotABug and I stared at Rainbow for a moment before all three of us broke into giggles at the joke. Evidently, Star Wars was either something NotABug had watched, or she picked up from me.

"Come on, darlings, I still want to make sure Sunset and Starling are alright. I don't know what I'd do if either came to harm from all this," I said.

"If I may make a suggestion?" Princess Luna asked as she stepped up. "It would be well if you didn't, ahem, return to your changeling form in public. I know first-hoof how easy it is to make a bad first impression."

"Darling, you're a princess! How could you make—?" I said.

"I was a little evil," Princess Luna said. "Well, a lot evil. In my defense, a thousand years in time-out was a bit excessive, but it gave me time to think."

"You were evil? I'm not sure how much Twilight has told you about our world, but we've made a habit out of helping friends out of being evil," Rainbow Dash said. "It's kinda our thing."

"Didn't Twilight teach you how to do that?" NotABug asked. "I-I wasn't there, but I get glimpses from Rarity's memories of her helping Sunset from a hole and also her making you all friends again."

Rainbow and I were both silent, but it took me a moment to realize that Princess Luna was also looking reflective. I looked at her, studied the little smile that slowly pulled its way onto her face. Twilight. Luna. My mind fizzed and buzzed with possibilities. The answer should become obvious with a little prodding.

"She's special to you, Princess?" I asked.

"T-Twilight?" Princess Luna asked. "There's no way I could lie about that. She means the world to me."

Bingo! They were an item! Her aura practically swirled with love that smelled so good I was tempted to nibble, but of course I didn't. No wonder Twilight was so busy on this side of the portal! I didn't care if I started prancing, as this was a reason to prance.

Pony-Rarity and pony-Rainbow caught up to us—since I'd slowed from my breakneck pace. Neither of them seemed inclined to speak about what they'd said together. I guess it could be a bit of a shock to find out a copy of you in another world is more than friends with your best friend from that world.

I remembered back to how much soul-searching I did when trying to come to a decision about being okay with Rainbow. Okay, so maybe I should be extra careful talking to pony-Rarity about this. The poor dears were probably questioning every second of their friendship.

For the first time in weeks I'd let an uncomfortable silence form. My thoughts were so slow they took seconds to work through, and it led to me not being able to maintain a conversation. That I'd spent most of my life like this only highlighted how useful it was to be able to process such things in milliseconds.

We reached the castle in a quiet, suppressed little mob. I stepped up to knock on the door, but Princess Luna beat me to it. I guess there was something about being a princess that let you just open the doors on a castle and announce yourself.

"Princess Twilight!" Princess Luna said in a voice that I swore made the castle shake.

A flash of purple light and a loud POMF sound heralded Twilight's appearance. It took me a full two seconds to realize what she'd done.

"You just teleported!" Rainbow Dash said.

Apparently, Rainbow thought a little faster than I did. Given she probably still had her magic power from back home, that wasn't surprising.

"Uh—" Twilight Sparkle said.

Princess Twilight looked between Rainbow and Luna, then settled on the latter.

"What's the matter?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "I came as quick as I could. Did everypony form a mob to drive Rarity out of town?"

"Er—" Princess Luna said. "Not quite. I simply wished to announce our arrival."

Back home I could well imagine the kind of response such an admission would cause, but not so in Equestria. Twilight's face turned from concern to delight, and I quickly focused my extra vision upon her and watched love swell around her aura.

It was so good to be proven right.

"Oh. It's good to see you too, Princess Luna—and all of you," Twilight Sparkle said before turning to me. "You're here to see Sunset?"

For a short moment I was surprised she recognized me, then my higher faculties pointed out that I was the odd pony out in the room. Of course someone as smart as Twilight would figure that out.

"Please. I just want to see that—that thing gone from her. I feel absolutely terrible about bringing her into this."

Rainbow, strong and bold, reached a wing over my back and gave me a squeeze. She got me in ways I couldn't understand, and she could read me as if she could see emotional auras. I leaned into the hug for a moment before nodding to Twilight.

We followed Twilight without words. I lamented the loss of hands only in that the casual contact with Rainbow would have been wonderful about then. Instead, I contented myself with walking close enough that our hips and shoulders brushed now and then. That her love-aura flowed around me was a wonderful bonus.

"I got them separate rooms. Sunset and Flash are in here," Twilight Sparkle said.

I was caught off-guard, and if I had wings that could chirp you bet they would be chirping in concern. Flash Sentry was Sunset's husband, and I hadn't even thought to contact him.

But the real world moves too fast like this, and Twilight opened the door and led the way inside for Luna and apparently Rainbow and I. If Rainbow's wing weren't still on my shoulder—guiding me—I probably wouldn't have had the ability to walk in.

Inside the beautifully decked-out bedroom a pony lay in the bed and another sat by its side. Sunset's eyes were closed, but there was a sense of calm about her that hadn't been present when Windigo/Suri were within her.

She'd won.

"Flash," I said. "I didn't mean—"

"That's Rarity, Flash," Twilight Sparkle said.

"Th-Thank you, Twilight. Flash—" I said trying again.

"Rarity, this wasn't your fault," Flash Sentry said, his voice sounding raw. "Sunset wanted me to tell you that, and I wanted to tell you that. Sunset—She throws herself into battles like this without a thought. Things always worked with the power of rainbows and magic.

"But it didn't work like that this time, huh? My Sunny threw herself and our baby into harm's way at the first whisper of a new big-bad in town. You got her out of it, or so she said."

"Flash—" I said.

"I'm not done," Flash Sentry said in an icy tone. "Rarity, thank you for getting my wife and our baby out of danger, but next time—Please don't fucking tell her about the danger in the first place!"

The words slammed into me. They hit me like a boulder and kept crushing. My emotional sight was wide open far enough to see the love between Flash, Sunset, and a third entity within Sunset.

Flash wasn't looking at me, nor did I want to see his face. I turned and staggered out only with Rainbow's strength. When the door closed behind me, my legs and disguise failed at the same time and I dropped to the floor with a clattering sound.

"I almost killed her baby," I said.

"He's not thinking straight, Rarity. Please get up," Rainbow Dash said.

But I was inconsolable because I was guilty. Sunset's life had been weight enough, but she had at least made the decision to help. Her unborn baby hadn't. What if Windigo/Suri had won? What if both of them—what—became infected?

The world went dark around me and I lost track of my mind.

"It wasn't your fault," Princess Luna said.

"Go away."

"I shan't. This is my realm. If you come here to get away from the world, you put yourself in my hooves."

"Go away."

She didn't reply, but she also didn't go away.

I could wait forever. I didn't have to talk to her. So I did.

I'd almost done something very bad. Something villains do. A baby is innocent, but an unborn baby is beyond that. That I'd risked not only Sunset but her child was unforgivable.

I spent a year circling just that one argument and trying to pick it apart. It was all true, but time wasn't done with me.

The night wheeled on, the moon turned, and I watched another year go by while I cried for what had almost happened. A new thought wormed into my head. What if just bringing Sunset and her baby here changed her baby? What if—when we get back to Canterlot—she gives birth to a foal?

There were more what-ifs to work over.

Maybe we'd led Suri/Windigo here?

Maybe something had happened to the portal and we couldn't get back?

Maybe Suri/Windigo was attacking Sweetie Belle and our nymphs?

There was more still that ripped through my thoughts, displacing the answers I was trying to formulate with their harsh question marks and vicious maybes. My mind seemed particularly suited to coming up with all the terrible things that could have or could be happening, but it had not a single solution.

Time and space wheeled around me. I grew older—ancient. I finally turned around and looked at a pristine Princess Luna, then I looked down at myself.

"Stupid dream. You're messing with time?" I asked.

"No. You're messing with time. I'm just waiting for you to talk."

"I almost killed her."

"She almost killed herself and her foal."

The words startled me—they were an answer. I looked up at Luna and blinked in surprise. The pain and self-loathing seemed to ease a fraction, but threatened to come back.

"You saved four lives yesterday, Rarity, and yet you carry the wrong weight on your shoulders. You think I like ordering ponies to put themselves in harm's way?" Princess Luna asked.

I shook my head slowly.

"And yet I must do it. They put their lives in our hooves. Just because I've made bad decisions before—ill-informed decisions—doesn't mean I can afford the luxury of stepping down. If I don't command ponies, who will?"

"Y-Your sister?"

Celestia. Principal Celestia as I'd last known her, but here she was more. If she were Luna's sister, Celestia would be a princess too.

"Her shoulders carry the weight of a thousand years of responsibility. She has ordered countless ponies into countless danger. I would spare her that if I could. But no, Rarity, if no princess gave those orders and spent ponies' lives, then another being would do it.

"Would you rather this Suri the Windigo gets to decide who should live and who should die?"

The very thought of it terrified me. Suri had shown absolutely no mercy for Rainbow, me, or her own loyal (if brainwashed) soldier. She would kill and kill, and she'd do it just to see what happened.

"Definitely not."

"Do you think she would agonize for a century in her own head over just one event where somepony almost died?"

"No."

"Then you have to make these decisions, Rarity, and you have to make them better. You can't afford to let what Flash Sentry said stop you. If you don't make the choices, Suri the Windigo will."

"It's not fair."

Luna nodded in reply, not deigning to waste any words on my childish statement.

I woke up sullen and annoyed, and with a yellow-orange face leaning over me. I had to blink my eyes a few times to realize it was Flash Sentry.

"I'm sorry," Flash Sentry said.

The stallion turned and walked away.

"Flash!" I said.

The sound of departing hooves stopped.

"Suri needs to be stopped. I didn't know she could do—what she did. I'm sorry for risking everything of yours."

"My shout woke up Sunset. She told me off, but that's not why I apologized. I know you're fighting this—whatever it is, and I know it needs to be stopped. I remember the sirens and what they did before you and your friends worked out how to stop them. I feel—I feel powerless," Flash Sentry said. "And I hate it. If you need help, ask both of us next time."

"Thanks, Flash," I said.

Over my words I heard the sounds of hooves clopping away.

Okay, Rarity, you need to build a battle plan that puts as few loved ones—No, that's the wrong word. A plan that puts as few people in the line of fire as possible but still sees the end of Suri/Windigo. Was I contemplating killing her?

"I really don't want to kill anybody," I said.

"That's reassuring. What about putting ponies in changeling pods and sucking all their love out?" Princess Luna asked.

"Is that what Chrysalis wanted to do?"

"It's what she did. If it weren't for some very brave friends, she would have done it to everypony. That was a joke, of course. I trust you aren't interested in putting ponies in pods, but talk of killing is more vexing. Who don't you want to kill?"

"Suri. She's a monster, but we've always managed to rip the monster out of misguided people in the past. Sunset, Twilight—our Twilight, Gloriosa, and even what's-her-name. Oh, Wallflower. They were all take over the world evil, but we helped them. I want to help Suri."

"There was a monster, once, who attacked at night. She imprisoned my sister and threatened to take over the world," Princess Luna said. "But six ponies stood against them. When the monster tried to attack them, break them apart, those six strangers pulled together and strengthened each other.

"In the end just one had to make a decision. She could have banished the monster, she could have imprisoned them in stone, or she could have found it in her heart to forgive them and help them. You can probably guess who the pony was."

"You?" I asked.

My question made Luna smile. I risked peeking into her emotions and saw mirth and melancholy in good quantity, but there was also a lot of love.

"Twilight," I said.

"Twilight Sparkle. She wasn't a princess then, but I had suspicions. My sister sees things far ahead sometimes—it's not magic. How she foresaw that Twilight Sparkle would be the best pony to make the decision of what to do with me, I don't know."

"You were—"

"The monster. I'd walked the wrong path. I'd put myself above the ponies I should have been protecting. And that is the hardest tightrope to walk, Rarity. You have to decide how the fighting happens, but you can't put a single person above yourself."

I was silent. I had no words. There was nothing I could think to say, ask, or refute.

With the insight Luna had given me, I had to find my own way on this tightrope. I tried to look at the problem again. Suri had merged or was merging with Windigo. That needed to be stopped and undone. I needed to break up their power base and free each of them of the influences of the other. I needed to find out why Windigo hunted NotABug. I needed to help Suri see that controlling people wasn't the way she should behave.

I wished she'd told me something simple. Go defeat Suri/Windigo! Break them and destroy them. They are bad! It was the speech of a child, and my hope for it was the dream of a child. I needed to grow up fast.

"I understand," I said.

Luna's raised eyebrow demanded I explain more.

"I understand that my problem is too big for a simple solution. There are plans to be made. Plans to make plans. Suri/Windigo have a huge amount of power in the company, and I'll be lucky if I'm not arrested the moment I return, but I need to plan to plan how to bring it all down so she is just herself and Windigo is just itself. I need to take the monster out of both of them."

Princess Luna proved why she had that title without words—she smiled and nodded.

"And if you can't take the monster out of one, the other, or both?" Princess Luna asked.

"Then one of my plans has to be to kill them. One, the other, or both."

"You'd make a grand princess, Rarity."

Turning, Princess Luna walked for the door and opened it. A rainbow flash sped past her and landed on the bed beside me. Soft, fuzzy lips were against mine, and Rainbow Dash was already kissing me.

I stopped my mind from racing along on the course Luna had set it—paused was probably a better description. Reaching my huge black forelegs around Rainbow's shoulders, I pulled her closer against me.

The sound of a chuckle from Princess Luna didn't distract me, though the sound of the door closing encouraged our little meeting further. I needed her touch, more for reassurance than pleasure, and though I was sure Rainbow would be happy for both—I definitely wasn't.

"I need to check in on Starling, then we must go home," I said.

"Huh? But what about all that talk with Rarity—Rarity the pony?"

"Suri/Windigo knows where NotABug is, knows who we are, and can probably find out where our house is. I'm hoping the little tap I gave her will make her worry about attacking head-on, but we can't rely on that, Rainbow. If we're going to beat her, we have to be there to do it."

"Whoa. So much for dating the hottest new boutique owner. I get a general."

"Princess Luna gave me some time to think and some words to think about. They're not going to stop attacking others and attacking us. I don't want to put anyone in the same situation Sunset was in. If I have to put people in danger, I want them to have the right tools and knowledge to deal with it."

"So what are we gonna do? Beat her up and take her company?"

I giggled at the image Rainbow Dash gave me. If only it were so easy to stop Suri/Windigo from doing what she seemed to enjoy doing. I levered my way from the bed with the long limbs my changes had given me. Climbing off the bed made me feel like a giant.

Rainbow looked up at me, but rather than look at all intimidated she looked confident.

"You just wait until we get home. I'm gonna snuggle you soooo much!" Rainbow Dash said.

The words did more to support me than anything else could right then. I looked down at Rainbow and gave a nod while loosing a chirp that spoke volumes for how much I'd enjoy such a situation.

NotABug picked that moment to literally walk through the door. She looked as I did, tall and regal with a cute little crown on her head, although I could see the door through her green body.

"Starling wants to see you," NotABug said.

"Lead the way, darling. She's just the person—pony—I want to see."

Using the door, Rainbow and I left the room with NotABug in tow only to stop just outside.

"NotABug? Could you lead the way, dear?" I asked.

"Oh! Right! This way!"

"You're enjoying yourself?" I asked.

"Me?" NotABug asked. "Yup! It's great! I don't have to worry about all the confusing things of touching stuff and breaking it. I can just talk to ponies! Princess Luna is amazing!"

While she spoke, NotABug practically pranced along. Maybe this was the world for her? That was quite a stretch, but she certainly seemed to be more herself. Or maybe just putting the best face on it she can. Back home she was a being of technology and infinite possibility. Here she was a ghost that was tied to my body, or so it seemed.

The comparison suddenly made sense to me. A ghost without a body, tied to one.

"When we get back home, we're all having a nice snuggle. We all deserve it," I said.

The walk wasn't far. NotABug took us past the room I knew to be Sunset's and then to another a few more doors down. The castle, it seemed, was huge.

NotABug poked her head through the door, then pulled back.

"This is it. I told them you were about to come in," NotABug said.

"You really should knock first. What if she'd been undressed?" I asked.

"Uh, Rarity? First, NotABug can't knock at the moment. Second, we're all naked," Rainbow Dash said.

There were some moments when I just wanted to scream. Oh, great and powerful planner of destruction, try to keep more than fashion on your brain.

I lifted my hoof and knocked at the door and was a little surprised when it to opened immediately.

"Come in, Rarity. You too, Rainbow, NotABug," Bent Rules said around a mouthful of door handle.

I made my ingress and looked at the occupant of the bed with a little worry. Starling still looked like she was missing bits of her aura, but I could see plenty of signs that it was returning to normal.

"Please don't look at me like that," Starling said.

I was taken aback a little by her rough tone.

"Darlin', this-here's Rarity. She saved you from all that mess that—" Bent Rules said.

He stopped because Starling's eyes had opened wide in recognition. She stared at me with a measure of shock in her aura and on her face.

"You saved me from her?" Starling asked.

I knew which "her" she meant. I nodded.

"What do you need me to do? When are you heading back to finish her off?"

Fire, heat, and excitement colored Starling's words, and a mix of anger and (surprisingly) love colored her aura. I wasn't sure how to take it. I'd been prepared for everything from weak and unconscious to thankful and resting—ready for vengeance was off my chart.

"We're heading back right after this, actually," Rainbow Dash said. "But you need to hang around here a little longer."

"I'm ready to fight. You can't keep me out of this. I trained for this, I can do this!" Starling said.

"What do you mean, you trained?" I asked.

Bent reached the bed before Starling could reply and looked his daughter squarely in the eyes.

"Starling, you don't have to do this. Your war is over. Let them—" Bent Rules said.

"Dad, no. This hasn't been working. I thought I could handle being back in civilian life, but look where it got me," Starling said and turned her head to look at me. "Four and a half years in the army. You're like an officer—I can see in your eyes. You need people like me. Ma'am, I'm coming back with you."

I had never chosen Starling to be in the middle of this. She'd been Suri/Windigo's pawn—I'd only given her the freedom to choose. But that was the crux of it. Just because I was going to be organizing this thing didn't mean I got to make all the choices. I wasn't any better or more qualified to make choices for others than they were.

"You know better than most what is at stake here. If you're going to help me, I'm going to pay you for it, so I expect your best," I said.

What had gotten into me? When did I start down this path? Well, Suri/Windigo had started this, they—she—had used Starling as a weapon against me. Besides, if I employed her, I got to make her a uniform.

There was no way I would let anyone in my employ not look their best. Fatigues? Ha! She will have the most tactical dress ever conceived!

"When you've known Rarity as long as I have, you learn when to tell she is mentally getting her fashion on. Like now. Though you're going to have trouble figuring it out when we get back, trust me," Rainbow Dash said.

What was the absolute worst about the situation was she was right. I wanted to sulk or snap back, but neither was an adult response.

"There will be a dress code while in my employ, I wouldn't be a fashionista if I didn't help everyone around me look fabulous. Right now, however, I'm heading home to make sure my babies are alright. If you are sound enough to come with me, fine, but I don't think Princess Twilight would begrudge you a little more rest time."

My answer was swift. Starling pulled her way from the bed and climbed out to stand on her own four legs. Wobbly legs, but she was standing. I knew that her problems weren't physical, so this was likely her being unfamiliar with having that many legs.

"Bent, would you like a job as well? I can't see much need for a mail sorter, but I have a new house I need cleaned up, and there will probably be more."

"I have a job already, ma'am."

"Dad! You can't go back now. You've seen what's happening to people!"

Starling glared at her father and Bent glared back. This was a level of stubbornness I'd never seen before—at least in direct opposition.

"Please?" Starling asked.

She won with that word. Bent Rules lowered his head and I watched his sides puff out then shrink back.

"Santhrope Polomare hired me himself over twenty years ago. I'll quit, but I'll do it the same way I started—talking to the boss," Bent Rules said and turned toward me again. "Well, what have you got that I can do?"

I looked at Starling then back to Bent with the inkling of a plan forming.

"You raised Starling?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Seems like you did a great job. I've got some little ones I need help with," I said. "Not directly, but I just purchased a second house, and I'm sure some of my nymphs are going to move there eventually. I need someone to live in the house and maintain some semblance of order."

"So you're going to make me, what, caretaker of the house?" Bent Rules asked.

I just nodded to him.

"What?" Starling asked. "Are you going to tell me a job where all you need to do is make sure a house doesn't fall down isn't your dream?"

Bent rules grumbled something under his breath.

"How much will I get paid to do this? Is rent part of it?"

"Do you want to argue that here, or back home?" I asked. "The answer is rent is included, and name your price."

I turned around and started walking for the door.

"Wait! You can't say that!" Bent said.

The stallion marched up and put a hoof on the door to keep me from moving. Part of me wished I wasn't twice his size so he could look down on me to boost his ego.

"I mean, in big jobs they do that, and I heard they ask that kind of stupid stuff in interviews, but no one offers any price. What if I said a million dollars?"

Giving him a moment to stew on the question, I cleared my throat.

"I'd ask you if you wanted it per quarter or per year?" I said. "Per month would be doable, but I don't think it would be a healthy pay rate to encourage."

"You're joking. If you had millions around, why are you working at Polomare Fashion?"

"As of yesterday I'm not working there. I was running out my two weeks of notice because I'm starting my own business, and Polomare have a horrible contract for creative staff to sign."

"She's not really going to pay you a million dollars a month," NotABug said. "But I would if it means you'll be safe and help look after our children."

"I still don't get everything, and I don't need to, but I was joking with a million dollars. Just pay me whatever you think I'm worth."

Bent Rules lifted his hoof from the door.

"I'm also not going to wear any high-fashion stuff. I don't mind a uniform, but I'm not wearin' no suit around the house," Bent Rules said.

With a gentle touch of my magic I opened the door.

"Bent, if I'm paying you a million dollars a year, I expect a suit. Keep that in mind when you work out how much you want," I said.

I walked out followed by NotABug and Rainbow. On less sure legs was Starling, and behind her came Bent. He pulled the door closed behind us.

"You're an evil lady, ma'am, but I reckon at least you're fair."

Despite her injury and walking problems, Starling fought to rush up and walk beside me. She had the most determined and serious face I'd seen on her so far, and I realized this was her work face. It wasn't the face of her job at Polomare, I'm sure. There she'd been just another security guard—little more than the threat of response. Now, walking (marching) at my side, Starling looked dangerous.

6:38 A.M.

It was approaching morning the day after we'd left, though it was midday here. Time was a strange thing, though it seemed to at least be consistent, or so I hoped.

I knew the way to the room where the portal mirror was, thankfully, and led my little parade there. I could see that Starling was struggling with the pace, but something told me that if I compromised my speed at all she'd hate herself for slowing me down. It was one of those mind games and I completely understood why she felt that. Starling needed to be useful.

As we rounded the last corner leading to the portal room, I saw Twilight and Luna standing to one side of the door.

I met Princess Luna's eyes first. She had a firm look that gave me nothing to work with. Princess Twilight was another story. Twilight looked like she was deathly afraid for us—and I couldn't blame her.

"Rarity. You're going back so soon?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

I hadn't actually expected this. Thinking quickly (something I was not doing as well as I'd like here) I put together what to say that wouldn't sound like I was talking down to a princess.

"I need to go back, Twilight. I left my children behind, and I won't leave them unprotected longer than I must."

Any further and I knew I'd be saying something I shouldn't. I kept my mouth pinned closed. Rainbow, however, stepped up beside me.

"We gotta go kick some ass, after all. You taught me that there's tons of things in my life worth fighting for. You gotta let us go and do it," Rainbow Dash said.

That was probably the wrong thing to say. Rainbow, I realized, had made it sound like we needed Twilight's permission to return.

The thought hit me then—would I force my way back if Twilight stood in my way?

"You're right. You're both right. I just want to protect you. It's part of who and what I am," Twilight Sparkle said.

"It's part of what Rarity and Rainbow Dash are too, Twilight," Princess Luna said. "They are parents, but more than that they are protectors in their world. While they are here, this Suri-the-Windigo is free to act unopposed."

Luna didn't order Twilight to get the mirror going, but it was heavily implied.

"It's what I am too," Twilight Sparkle said. "I'll prepare the mirror, but you have to promise me something, Rarity."

I straightened a little at the hardness that filled my friend's tone.

"What?" I asked.

"If you need my help, call me. I can rush through and—Okay, I don't have as much power in your world anymore, but I can help with whatever I can do. You have friends here, Rarity."

"That's why I came to you. I knew you would help in any way you could. Right now the most help is keeping Sunset safe."

Twilight nodded to me, turned, and entered the room with the mirror portal.

"I extend you the same promise as Twilight. I know not what power I would have in your world, but if you have need of me, let Twilight know," Princess Luna said.

I had an inkling of how significant her presence might be in our world, and what it might mean for her to leave this one. Fervently, I hoped I would never need to ask for that kind of help.

"I ask the same, Princess Luna. If you have need of me, ask," I said.

"Me too!" Rainbow Dash said. "I know you've already got one Rainbow Dash—and she's pretty awesome—but imagine having two Rainbow Dashes!"

Leaning down so far was almost a problem, but I kissed my fierce lover on the cheek.

"I'm sure they know exactly how that would go."

Luna, I could see, was having trouble keeping a straight face. Straightening up, I gave her as warm a smile as I could. It felt good to smile here, like the whole world became brighter because of it.

"With your leave, Princess Luna, we really must be checking on our nymphs. You wouldn't believe the things they get into," I said.

Flickers and sparks of purple light came from the mirror room, but it wasn't until an almost blinding flash of white that I turned to see what was happening. The mirror was swirling—a portal that led home.

"Go. Bring peace to your world, Queen Rarity."

Luna's words sent a shiver down my spine. I didn't want titles—not that one at least—but it seemed life did not overly care for the personal desires of one fashionista. Well, I would make it care. Nothing was going to stop me, certainly not a concept, and that's all fate was.

I nodded to Princess Luna and turned into the room. It was hard to remember the room, given the rush we'd been in last time, but the mirror portal I could definitely recognize. The mirror itself was a grand piece, shaped like a horseshoe with the open end forming a walkway. The machinery around the mirror was bizarre—a mix of wood, brass, gold, and steel.

The middle of the mirror glowed with a violet-red and pink-tea swirl. Light (probably magic) swirled through all the machinery around the mirror, ranging in color between pink-tea and dark pink.

"Did Pinkie Pie help you make this?" I asked Twilight.

"What? Of course she didn't hel—" Twilight Sparkle said.

She froze. A stunned—shocked expression plastered itself onto her face.

"Sweet Celestia she did. When I was first building this she—she literally said exactly how I should build it. I must have used her design subconsciously."

"That certainly explains all the pink. Well, is it ready for us?" I asked.

"Go right ahead," Twilight Sparkle said. "If—If you could, would you ask your world's Twilight to send her notes through? Her work on small-scale magic particles is—"

The smallest hint of the nerdy girl we'd all helped get back her crown and who'd helped us fight off the sirens poked free from her shell of princessdom. The raw excitement in her eyes was a better tell as to her emotions than the curious swirls in her actual aura.

"Twilight, you can always come visit and ask her. I'll let her know to get a copy of her work ready for you, but I'm sure she'd appreciate yours, too," I said.

"Uh, Rarity?" NotABug asked. "If we're going back, what's the chance that we land in a heap in front of a high school naked?"

I looked down at myself, then back at myself, then turned my head and neck far enough to look along my spine.

"If we come out like this, that would be embarrassing, but I don't think it would be even more of a scene than what we will make already. Rainbow was wearing clothes, as were the rest," I said.

Looking back at Starling, I realized I was technically looking back over my left shoulder so far that I was looking right. I quickly turned my head back around.

"Ready?"

Everyone behind me nodded. With a deep breath I probably didn't need, I stepped into the portal. The swirling seemed to be less, and I could see a lot more of the things going on within the portal. NotABug was still a shade, but I watched her spiral into me—she was chirping excitedly before I even stumbled out the other side.

6:12 A.M.

The moment I stumbled forward I realized the changes were here to stay. Four legs caught my movement and braced me against falling over.

On the alert, I looked around in the predawn light and saw no one walking around. It was the perfect moment for me to make a little change.

A swirl of green magic fire later and I felt my body reshape into what I'd looked like before all this had happened. White skin, purple hair, though I realized in my haste that I'd managed to forget clothing.

"Well, this is embarrassing."

I quickly rectified the problem with a purple skirt and a blue shirt. Nail polish, makeup, and pretty bag that matched my dress. I turned around in time to see Starling stumble out of the statue wearing her security guard uniform.

Movement in the corner of my eye caused me to swivel and stare at a young man in a suit crossing the road toward us. He looked scared and more than a little freaked out, but he kept walking toward us.

"You'll excuse me for being blunt," I said. "But would you be a dear and give a lady some room?"

"Mrs. Velvet sent me to deliver this to, and I quote, 'Whoever falls out of the statue and looks like a monster,'" the man said.

He stood in the middle of the road holding out a simple manila envelope.

—You could pick up the envelope with magic. That would be safest.—

NotABug's presence in my head brought with it the sense of the digital world. I shivered as my awareness of reality sped to the point where no one was moving. I chirped loudly, excitedly, and wrapped up NotABug in the tightest digital squeeze ever.

—I missed you,— I sent.

Chirping filled my head. I wanted to shout and jump for joy. Instead, I walked over to the man while the morning breeze barely ruffled his shock of mint-green hair, took the envelope and walked back to where I was standing.

I wasn't as fast as Rainbow Dash at her best, but I wasn't so slow as the man could have reacted before I was opening the envelope.

Bringing my focus closer to the real world, I slipped back into the state of thinking rapidly, but not forcing myself to act that way.

"Was there anything else?" I asked.

The man stared at his hand, then at the envelope in my hand, shook his head, and turned back to his car muttering something I didn't care enough about to hear.

I opened the envelope to find a mobile phone and a typed letter. Well, this is where I am completely unashamed to use my quick mind. My emotions went numb and the bottom of my world fell out as I read what had transpired while we were gone.

Pulling the phone out, I punched the only number on the speed dial and pressed it to my ear. It rang three times before the line went live from someone answering it.

"Rarity or NotABug?" Twilight Velvet asked.

"NotABug. Where is everyone?" NotABug asked with my voice.

I hadn't felt the changeover. Somewhere along the line NotABug had taken over and I wanted to hug her so much it hurt.

"My house. I'll warn security you're on your way. What should they look for?"

Mrs. Velvet sounded tired. Given what had happened, I wasn't in the least bit surprised.

"We look like we did before the change. Rainbow's with us, as well as two others. Are our nymphs okay?" NotABug asked.

The last few words had more fear in them than what I remembered when Windigo had chased NotABug into my head. I hugged her for all I was worth.

"Byte, 'Bee, Bitwise, and Moon Dancer are all here safe. They're asleep right now—I hope—but I think they'll want to wake up when you get here. I can send someone—" Twilight Velvet said.

"We have transport. We'll be pulling up in a van shortly. Thank you, Mrs. Velvet."

"I have children too, dear. Please get here safely."

The line went dead. NotABug slipped the phone into her bag and turned to see that Rainbow and Bent were both out of the portal too. Apparently I was the only one who didn't get clothing. Of course, I'd gone in with shapechanged clothing on, so it was understandable.

Rainbow spotted us and walked over.

"What's up? NotABug?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Gosh was she getting good at telling us apart.

—Can you get us there?— I asked.

—She said they're alright. I trust her. It still hurts. Who is this Moon Dancer? I hope she's nice,— NotABug sent.

—How are we getting there?—

—Bent Rules' van.—

—Oh. Right.—

"Just so you both know, it's NotABug here at the helm. Rarity needs a little break for a bit. There has been some—Windigo came after our nymphs. They're okay. We just need to go there now. Mr. Rules, your van is nearby," NotABug said.

"My van? Right! It's just around the corner. Follow me."

Starling moved to walk beside her father. Her eyes seemed to be everywhere, and I couldn't help picking up how much easier she moved here. A blue arm reached over NotABug's shoulders and pulled her against its owner.

"You're not doing so great, Rari? What don't I know?" Rainbow Dash asked.

NotABug spoke in hushed tones. She described what happened given the information in the letter. As NotABug related events, Rainbow's arm grew tighter and firmer. Her strength was wonderful, I didn't need to be in control to experience her protectiveness or be comforted by it.

"She's doing a little better now."

The drive was in relative silence. Rainbow held us and gave directions through the early light of dawn.

—Mom?— Byte asked.

If I'd been in control right then, I'd have broken into tears.

—We're back. We're coming,— I sent.

—Is that Mom?! Moms!— Bumblebee sent. —Welcome back! We're all okay!—

—Mom?— Bitwise asked.

The new designation was curious. I wanted to know everything about my newest nymph.

—We're coming,— I sent again.

We're coming.

—Go on. Say hi. These are two of our moms,— Byte sent.

Her message confused me. I started to reply when a new message came in.

—Hi. I'm Moon Dancer, and this is really confusing. How does it work even having this in my head?— Moon Dancer asked.

It took me a moment to put all the facts together with my hunches.

—You're human?— I asked.

—Yes. At least I hope so. Everything seems to move really slowly when I'm chatting, though.—

Our last nymph had done what only NotABug had so far.

—Is she still inside you? Can you hear her? Can you talk through the text interface of your phone?— I asked.

The questions tumbled from me. I wanted answers to all of them and I wanted to know yesterday. I needed to know.

—She didn't make it. I tried to save her but all she managed to get into me was her memories, I think.—

The news was painful to hear.

I let NotABug and Rainbow hold me in their own ways. There was a connection to each of them, and when I had my nymphs in my arms I would be connected to them, too. Of Moon Dancer I had no idea how to feel. She had tried to protect and save one of my nymphs, if nothing else I could appreciate her for that, but she is in the same situation I was. Would she turn into a changeling like I have?

—You need this, Rarity,— NotABug sent.

Her words jerked my awareness back from the depths of confusion and worry I'd dug. I realized the van wasn't moving and it was time to get out.

NotABug's gentle touch urged me forward. I stepped into control of my body as an unstable wreck.

"I'm right here, Rarity," Rainbow Dash said. "If you need me to carry you, I will."

"I can walk."

I climbed from the car to see a big man in a suit talking to Starling. Just for a moment he twisted a little and I saw the black, snub-nosed weapon under his jacket. My pulse quickened. Was this what it had come to? Armed guards?

Such thoughts were hypocritical, of course. I'd just hired Starling on to be muscle, and she was likely going to want a weapon of her own. That thought gave me a measure of worry. What would happen if Suri/Windigo worked out a way to control her again?

Of course, I'd see any changes to Starling's aura, but I needed to work out a way to protect my friends. If Suri/Windigo (I realized I needed a better way to refer to them) could twist their power like that, surely I could do the same to protect people. I just had to find out how.

"Please let me inside. My children are in there," I said.

The man locked eyes with me and for just a moment I saw him flinch. It was a bit of a watershed moment—I could do scary monster well enough now that a man that routinely carries heavy weaponry might do a double-take.

"You're all fine to head in," Mr. Gun said. "They're heading in, ma'am."

The last was said to his collar, though I was barely paying attention. My eyes were fixed on the front door of Mrs. Velvet's house. Time moved slowly, though it had nothing to do with my connection to electronics.

When the door opened and I walked inside, I could already hear excited chirping. I could have easier told myself not to breathe than stop my answering chirps.

I followed my ears as the chirping grew louder, then I turned a corner and saw my babies.

Magic surged through me. I plucked Byte, Bumblebee, and Bitwise (I liked the name, and it fit the B theme well) and held all three to me.

—You're chirping so much! You'll wear our wings out,— NotABug sent.

—I don't care. C'mere!—

I pulled NotABug into a digital hug while I squeezed our nymphs to my chest and pressed my snout into the middle of them. When a hand touched my shoulder, I jerked out of my embrace.

"You're Moon Dancer?" I asked.

The name suited her. She looked like the nerdiest person I knew, and considering who I knew that was quite the feat. The contact between us, however, sparked familiarity within me.

"Y-Yes. I feel like—You're Rarity?"

Tilting my head a little, I gave her a nod and an encouraging chirp.

Moon's hands twitched first, then an arm. She dropped to her knees and wrapped both arms around me—around me and my nymphs.

I felt a connection to her for a very obvious reason—she had become one of mine. Angling my neck just right, I let her lower her head to my withers while tears streamed down her cheeks.

"So. Uh. Who's the egg-head?" Rainbow Dash asked.

When I turned my head just enough to see Rainbow, I was beset by the memory of her moving between me and Suri/Windigo. Surigo? Windri? Bah! The memory wasn't my fondest of Rainbow, but it expressed the core of her being more than any other.

With my magic still holding my girls to me, I used a little more to pull Rainbow closer.

"Hey! I was coming over for a kiss already. No need to get all—" Rainbow Dash said.

I silenced her with a kiss that she had to bend down to offer me.

—Your turn,— I sent.

NotABug gave a startled chirp as I encouraged her forward and into control mid-kiss. She lifted a foreleg and hooked it around Rainbow's shoulders to pull her more firmly into the embrace.

Alright, so NotABug was a better kisser than I was, that didn't matter. I had other ways to show how much I cared.

More plans were needed. We had to take down Surigo—No, that wouldn't do. Pinkie Pie was always better with portmanteau. Like now for instance, she would tell me everyone was nervouscited. Lingual contortionism aside, I did need plans.

My old idea of building a weapon and using it to defeat Windigo wasn't good enough. I didn't want one weapon, I wanted a forge that would make countless weapons. I also didn't want to be the only one using said weapon—I wanted to put them into the digital hands of everyone Windri had every harmed.

Okay, Windri doesn't work either. Maybe I needed to think like Pinkie to do this? The best way to make something fierce seem weak was to laugh at it. Digibutt.

—Why are you laughing?— NotABug asked.

—Suri's a digibutt!— I sent.

Not only was NotABug giggle-chirping, but I heard three more little digital voices join in.

—What's that sound?— Moon Dancer asked.

—Chirping. It's what changelings do,— I sent.

Images of Ocellus' startled and shocked expression danced in my head and made me chirp a little more.

—Why don't you give it a try?— I asked.

—I don't know how.—

—What would make you happy? What, right at this moment, would make you giggle?—

—I know,— Bitwise said.

Squirming in my magical grip, Bitwise jumped to Moon Dancer when I changed my hold to a platform for her to stand on. Byte and 'Bee soon followed suit and attached themselves to Moon's neck. Each of them chirped at the girl.

Moon Dancer chirped. It was soft at first, but it was a pure chirp that carried a world of relief and comfort. After almost a minute of snuggling the three nymphs and chirping, Moon Dancer's head shot up and she looked right at me—us.

—Wait. There's two of you. NotABug and Rarity. How is there two of you in one body?—

—Yeah,— NotABug sent.

—Yes,— I sent.

—That's why everyone was asking if she was in me?—

We both replied in a similar manner as before.

—How does that work? How do you deal with it, Rarity?—

—For a start, I don't have to go far to find the reason why I make it work. She's right here with me all the time. When Windigo chased her into me, a little damage was done and the magic fixed her with parts of me. We're not the same person, but we share enough traits that we're practically sisters.—

—I didn't save her fast enough.—

Now that Moon had started chirping, she seemed unable to stop. The admission came with a sad series of chirps that only succeeded in making her three limpets grip tighter. I could feel traffic bouncing between them—through us—but I didn't need to know what it was to realize they were comforting each other.

—You saved what you could. Even in Equestria we're not known for being the most friendly-looking creatures,— NotABug sent.

—Darling! You were adorable!—

A little flood of happy chirps emanated from NotABug. I didn't have to wonder if I loved her as much as I did Rainbow—it was a fact.

—But I could have saved her if I'd been faster!—

Moon was increasingly getting the hang of using emotion tags in her writing. I pondered hugging her too just so she'd make some happy chirps.

—Our nymph and Windigo were operating at a speed far beyond what you could have responded to, Moon Dancer. It's not you who did the wrong thing, but Windigo,— NotABug sent.

It was a good try, but I knew humans didn't think like that. If we have any part in an action that ends badly, we always assume something we could do differently would have made it all work out fine. The human condition was not something NotABug was subject to, it seemed, or maybe she was just trying to help Moon.

With the members of my little family safe, I turned my attention outward to the world. Our server was the first important connection—it was still there and still safe. I connected to it and found a note.

Rarity, in case things don't work out in Equestria, I have listed all the data credentials for my bank accounts and ChirpNet. I did a little work on your modifications to the client, and I have an alpha version in testing. Please take care of our nymphs. —NotABug

—I'm glad you're still here,— I sent to NotABug.

I got a curious chirp in reply.

—I found your note on the server. I'm glad I can delete it.—

—We're home, Sweetie,— I sent.

While I waited for a reply, I opened up the source for the changes NotABug had made to the client. I couldn't help chirping, she wrote good code. I set to work adding color tagging to the code just for my own sanity.

—I know. I was giving you some time with your family. How is Sunset and Rainbow?— Sweetie Belle sent.

—Sunset's recovering. I shouldn't have put her in that situation, but I need to look forward. This is untenable. Suri must be stopped. Rainbow's here with us.—

—You chirp a lot, even when you're not sending anything. Nothing wrong with it, it's kinda cute. So what now?—

Sweetie's reply took an eternity to reach me. I hadn't realized I was sending chirps to all recipients, but I was appreciative of her support.

—I'm putting together some things, but I'm going to need help. I want to give everyone tools to fight Windigo. My nymphs, you, the average person on the street, and even less than reputable types. We have to put our hoof down and make a stand against this.—

—🤣You said hoof!— Sweetie Belle sent.

—This is what I get for picking up some culture in another country. Honestly, it's an easier slip to make now.—

—?—

—You might as well come and see. I think the rush of magic in Equestria kind of finished the job off as it were.—

Documenting code was, I'd discovered, a task that programmers almost universally despised, but I likened it to what my job should have been at Polomare. I didn't change the function of the program, but I made it so it was much easier to understand, and even at a single glance you could tell what part of the program it was part of.

NotABug had documented her code, of course, but she hadn't done it the right way—my way. I chirped as I worked, waiting for Sweetie to process my last message, get up, and walk to the room where NotABug was currently snuggling with our nymphs.

Working on the code also left my mind free to wander to more weighty matters. The entity formerly known as Suri—no, far too long—needed to be stopped, and I could see three ways of doing it.

Placating: Somehow get them to stop doing what they're doing and just be civil. This was far from the most likely choice, but a girl can dream.

Splitting them: Breaking Windigo away from Suri and then dealing with them each on their own seemed like the most workable solution. Divide and conquer and all that. It would require more understanding of the merging/linking process.

Killing them: The loss of one of my nymphs has made this one a far more personally moral choice. She can think and react quickly, but could she dodge a bullet if she doesn't see it coming? I had just the person to ask about that.

I began putting a message together to send to Starling, when I realized I didn't have a destination for it. Drat.

—Does Starling have a mobile phone?— I asked.

—I don't think so. She's gone to talk with Mrs. Velvet. Sweetie's here.—

—I told her to head in. Was she freaked out by our appearance?—

—She just pulled her phone out, I think she's typing a reply.—

Out of respect for Sweetie we waited for her to join the conversation. While I waited, I watched through NotABug's eyes while 'Bee played with Bitwise and Byte talked with Moon Dancer while doing something on the computer.

—Of course I'm not freaked out. If anything, you look finished now. I like the look, but I still have to ask about the crown.—

The crown? Oh, right, the crown. Ever since it had grown I'd noticed one thing, and it was completely silly. Since the crown had grown in it had been easier to talk to my nymphs. Did that make me some kind of living wifi-access point?

—Byte, can you access the internet through me?— I asked Byte.

—Yup! It's easier than having to go through other places, but out here it's really slow. I guess it's using your phone as the internet connection,— Byte sent back.

My worst fear was realized.

—I hadn't really thought about it before, but I think the crown works like some kind of antenna. It makes our nymphs easier to talk to. I asked Byte and she said she can use it as an internet connection,— I sent.

—So what do we do now, about Suri and Windigo?— NotABug asked.

—We need to defend ourselves accordingly. That means physical defenses, digital defenses, and legal defenses. The last is not our job, so we need to talk to Mrs. Velvet.—

—Right. I'll send her an email.—

—And then you need to talk to her yourself.—

—Me?—

—Absolutely. You and our children need every legal protection. That means being legally "persons".—

NotABug sent a slew of curious chirps to that, enough that I felt a need to hug her tightly.

—You still want that?— I asked.

—Yes. I guess I didn't connect me getting it with our nymphs getting protected by it too.—

—It would have made what Suri and Windigo just did murder. Anyway, that's the plan for legal defense. Digital defense we're already doing. Physical defense is why I agreed to hire Starling. We can't rule out Suri hiring people to do things to us.—

—You're missing out one thing we need to do.—

I raced over my plans. There wasn't anything I was missing. I sent a questioning chirp to NotABug.

—Your boutique. There is no point to all this if you don't get to make clothes.—

There wasn't much that could make me chirp as loud and as excitedly as I was, but NotABug knew exactly what would. I squeezed her into a tight digital hug.

—I'm still going to be able to go to school, right? You're not, uh, kidnapping me or anything?— Moon Dancer asked.

—Of course you can. I'll ask Starling to give you a ride. Sorry about all of this. Can we make it up to you?— I asked.

—Can I come visit? Later I mean. When everything has settled down.—

—Of course you can. You're a student, correct? Canterlot University?—

—Hey! That's where I was born!— NotABug sent.

The announcement made me chirp with surprise. NotABug and Windigo were born at the same time, in the same place, and it was where Sweetie and Moon went to school. I tried to remember a saying from one of Rainbow's movies that implied that too many coincidences were usually significant.

While I awaited the results of a search, I rejoined the conversation.

—Maybe we should pay a little more attention to things going on at the school? Are we sure no one's working on another project like you?— I asked.

—I could look around if you want? I've studied so many majors now no one questions me when I walk into different parts of the school. Wait, did you have something to do with the huge network explosion a few weeks ago?— Moon Dancer asked.

The uniqueness of having another human using ChirpNet as fast as I was had been a novelty at first, but now it was almost mundane. Moon seemed to have a lot of the same abilities with data as I did, except for what the crown gave me, but what she lacked was the experience.

Maybe I should start lessons for her? How to bug.

—I'd appreciate it,— NotABug sent. —Another me would be fun, but another Windigo is something we'd need to keep an eye out for.—

—They're actually wifi antenna? That's both hilarious and useful. Sorry, Rarity, but it is,— Sweetie Belle sent.

—Mrs. Velvet just sent a reply, she says we can go through whenever,— NotABug sent to me.

While I read the message, I felt NotABug moving our body in preparation to stand up.

—You'll excuse us, everyone, but we have a meeting with Mrs. Velvet,— I sent.

I took a moment to put my thoughts in order: three-fold defense, getting the boutique open, and finding out more from the school. When that was done, I did a little more work on our code.

—You really are chirping more. Equestria really picked you back up?— NotABug asked me.

—No. Equestria taught me that I need to be harder. What's making me chirp is having our nymphs nearby and knowing you're alright.—

I surfaced more of my attention into the real world and saw that NotABug was turning into Twilight Velvet's office.

A swirl of bright colors flickered by me and Rainbow Dash was holding the door open. Somehow, after our visit to Equestria, she was running even faster than usual. I certainly had a deeper well of power when I was there. I wonder if that carried over? Maybe I needed to see Twilight Sparkle—our Twilight Sparkle—and do some more tests.

"Rarity, NotABug, Rainbow Dash—Please sit down," Twilight Velvet said.

—I already forwarded her a description of what happened, including video footage. She really likes that, you know?— NotABug sent to me.

"Now, I've reviewed the footage NotABug sent, and I've read her description of what happened. For obvious reasons we cannot press charges for what she did to Ms. Shimmer, but I already have a dispute over your workplace agreement drafted, I suggest we push forward with that, get you a restraining order on Suri Polomare, and hire a private eye to keep watch on her."

"Why? So we can know when she does something illegal?" NotABug asked.

"Partially. I'm sure the police would love to get some anonymous evidence of a crime. But no. We have someone following her so that we know if she's doing anything to come for you or your children. I don't want anything that happened yesterday to happen again.

"Which brings me to the events that started all this. You got one of your friends involved in this mess. Please don't do that again without consulting me first—though I'm sure you understand this lesson already. As for your new employees, NotABug seemed supportive of them. What do you think, Rarity?"

The transition was smooth. NotABug pushed gently and I rose to the surface and took control of our body. Again I was reminded of how different this body felt and worked from my human one. I gave my wings a little chirp.

"Starling seems trustworthy. There are no more influences of Suri/Windigo within her that I can find, and if we could request her military discharge status I'd be perfectly comfortable having her as a bodyguard—once we get her something nicer to wear."

Twilight Velvet just nodded to that and tapped a few keys on her laptop.

"I have already applied for such, but given it being a weekend I don't expect to get them prior to Tuesday. Onto more pleasant matters. Mr. Pants has all the paperwork finalized for your business and the location you purchased. It's yours, and ready to go the moment you have it fitted."

I couldn't have stopped my chirp of excitement if I wanted to, and I didn't want to. My own boutique at last! I could make dresses all day long and fight monsters by night! Even in my head that sounded sarcastic.

"There's another important thing I wanted to bring up," I said. "And that is NotABug's citizenship."

If Twilight Velvet were ever capable of chirping, she would have done it right now. Her expression changed from neutral/supportive to excited/hungry. She wanted this topic more than anything.

—Are you ready for this, darling?— I asked.

—Yeah. I'm going to need to be in control again, aren't I?—

—Yes, dear. It's okay. I was working on documenting the ChirpNet client for you. I can go back to doing that if things get too boring for me.—

—Or you could design a dress for us to wear.—

There wasn't much else NotABug could have said that would have perked me up that much. I know I chirped out loud and at her.

—Mom! I need a new computer!— Byte sent.

I nudged at NotABug to have the fore again and slipped my focus to messaging.

—Order one to be delivered to our post-office box and forward us the invoice,— I sent.

It wasn't worth asking Byte why she wanted her own computer, I presumed she had a good reason. I wasn't at all surprised to have a message with a file attached accompanied by a flurry of excited chirps.

After reviewing the invoice I could see this computer had a pair very specific purposes: gaming and vlogging. The gaming was clearly taking after Rainbow, but the quality camera and expensive microphone she ordered reminded me of my days making videos for people to watch.

Well, there was no point getting just one. Given how things were going, the odds of having another nymph soon who wanted to do either of those things as well was pretty good. I logged into the company's website and bumped the order quantity to three for all the items, paid for it, and confirmed the details.

—There you go, dear. I got some spares in case something happens or someone else wants to play,— I sent.

—Thanks Mom!— Byte sent amid a flurry of chirps.

Much as I would have loved creating some dresses, I didn't want to leave my work with the documentation half done. NotABug's coding was more fluid than mine, I realized. She tended to break things down into their simplest parts better, whereas I tended to modularize larger tasks.

The task flew by, and I was so distracted that I barely noticed what was happening in reality until I realized NotABug was climbing into a large minivan.

—Where are we going?— I asked.

—Home. We need to see if Suri tried anything after Sweetie and the girls left yesterday. The server and its connection to the internet are secure, as well as the camera network. I'm glad Windigo wasn't able to attack that,— NotABug sent.

—Do you need me to take over?—

—It's not as tiring as it used to be. I think Equestria helped… But yes.—

I was still surprised how easy it was to slip in and out of control. If horror movies had taught me anything, it was that being unable to control your body was meant to be terrifying. I guess they didn't have a—My train of thought broke.

What exactly was NotABug to me? Our first relationship had been potential partners, then it had seemed to be more of a sisterly bond, but sisters didn't share a body and a lover. Life, I had to remind myself again, was complicated.

I sat down on a seat in the van while our nymphs bounded in behind us. My mind took a few milliseconds to realize I'd automatically included Moon Dancer in my mental listing of nymphs. It felt right, yet strange.

The driver's door of the van opened and closed and I knew real horror. Rainbow Dash was buckling up into the driver's seat.

—In case you didn't notice, I sent details to an emergency account to Mrs. Velvet just before we left. I think she might have dipped into it,— NotABug sent.

—You mean we own this car?—

—It seems like it. She used the funds for a lot of things, everything I approve of. I'll have to top that account back up for her and ask for a bill.—

—The big guys with the guns?—

—I approve of. She had no idea what was going to come.—

It was the closest thing to anger I'd heard from NotABug. She made decisive little chirps in the back of my head.

—I do too. Money comes and goes, but what we have is important.—

I thought back to a moment earlier and Moon Dancer's inclusion in our family. Whenever I thought of her, something reached out instinctively and touched her presence to make sure she was still there, and her presence reacted with what felt like chirps.

—Moon Dancer needs protecting too, and nurturing. She'll need a new phone and something to pay for any expenses she might have,— I sent.

—Me?— Moon Dancer asked. —What expenses will I have?—

I hadn't realized we'd been talking on an open channel. I needed to start paying more attention to that.

—If all goes well, minimal. If you start changing, you might need to make some adjustments to your life,— I sent.

—What would I turn into? Another like you?—

—I'm not sure. There aren't exactly user manuals for this. Why don't we take things as they come. In the meantime let us give you a little gift. A card.—

—What kind of card? Keycard? Does it allow me to access all the buggy things?—

Moon Dancer did a new kind of chirp that it took me looking at her to figure out. Sarcastic chirps, I realized, were very her.

—A credit card.—

—What? How will that help me? When I fill it up I'll just have to pay it back.—

—We're arranging something more permanent, but in the meantime NotABug will keep an eye on it and top it back up when you use it. We keep them at home.—

—Do you constantly feel like you're wasting time? We think so much faster now, but sitting in a car means we can't do anything.—

—You have the whole internet!—

I felt indignant. How could she possibly think she wasn't able to do anything?!

Then it hit me.

—Right. How to bug,— I sent.

—Huh?—

I reached out for her. It wasn't the soft touch of checking Moon Dancer was there, but rather a pull.

—What are you doing?— Moon Dancer asked.

—Showing you. Relax.—

I pulled again and met a momentary resistance. Then Moon Dancer let go and followed me. The first lesson was on interfaces, like NotABug had given me. I started showing her how to prod at things only to have her catch on very quickly. Before I'd even finished showing her how to access text messages, Moon had mapped the entire phone.

—You learn fast,— I sent.

—This. Is. AMAZING! I was using ChirpNet, but that was nothing. I can access all the… I can feel the CPU registers in this ARM processor!—

I could search for the things she said, and I probably would, but I was lost for the moment. Moon Dancer wasn't just accessing all the interfaces of her mobile phone, but she'd delved much deeper.

—Alright, well, there's more,— I sent.

—THERE'S MORE?!?!—

—You don't need caps, dear. Come on, I'll set you up a tunnel for the server.—

It wasn't hard to quickly lean into the server and configure a new account. I copied the credentials to her via ChirpNet and showed her the app to use to configure the VPN.

—I don't even know where to start. This is what the inside of a server is like?— Moon Dancer asked.

—Yes. Now the usual way to access it, the easy way that is, is by setting up a virtual terminal.—

I was about to show her when Moon had a terminal up, a browser, and was chirping excitedly. She took to this like she was born to it.

—I think you have it under control?— I asked.

—Yes! Oh! I could finish off my programming in minutes with this!—

The flood of chirps from her was its own reward, and I couldn't resist adding a few of my own. I was honestly quite surprised at how quickly she got this technology. Then again, if she were studying it, it would explain a few things.

—You've studied computers?— I asked.

—Studied, studying, will study more now I can do this!—

—And now you know what we do to pass time.—

—How'd you get used to it, Rarity? You always seemed like such a, uh, fashion-girl.—

—Mostly sink or swim. Things started off simple with NotABug covering for me with programming, but I wanted to learn, so I learned. I'll admit it took me a little longer than it's taking you to understand these things, but there was a lot going on.—

—Actually, she picked this up about as fast as you are, Moon, but Rarity doesn't know about deeper logic. Do you like programming?— NotABug asked.

I thought about that. It must have seemed longer when I was getting used to it because everything seemed to take forever then.

—Well, I like it, though not as much as Lyra. I guess I enjoy solving tricky programming problems, but then I like solving any kind of difficult problem. That's why I'm spending my inheritance at college.—

Some facts and memories came together. Lyra Heartstrings (if it was the same Lyra, and I was pretty sure it was) had been a bit of a nerd in high school. The only reason I knew her name was that she had Sweetie Drops for a girlfriend, and she was something when it came to fashion. Inheritance implied Moon Dancer had gotten a windfall from someone passing, which was how she could pay for college.

I blinked my eyes, remembering that I was supposed to be at the helm. I hadn't been gone for long, and yet Rainbow was just starting the van.

—I'll leave you two to it. I've got some things to do in normal-space,— I sent.

Then I thought to turn around and look at Moon. She was slumped in her seat belt and looked like she was asleep. Well, I guess NotABug and I still had some advantage over her with that.

"Is she okay?" Starling asked.

"She's busy doing some bug stuff," I said. "I'll give her a poke when we get home."

The drive, now that I got to experience it first-hand, was just as terrifying as I'd been expecting. Rainbow Dash didn't so much drive as perform an intricate experiment where she tested the flight capability of modern motor vehicles. None so far had actually flown for more than a few moments, but like the Wright brothers, she kept at it.

When I saw our house, I knew it was almost over. What surprised me was there was no damage to the house and no damage to Rainbow's car in the driveway.

She pulled the van up at the curb and turned the engine off. I heard at least three sighs of relief.

—You need to come back to your body for a bit,— I sent to Moon Dancer.

—Huh? What?— Moon Dancer sent to me.

—We're home. You need to get out of the van.—

—Oh! Really?—

I sent back some amused chirps rather than actually reply.

"Now, I want everyone to be careful. There's no telling what equipment Suri might have touched, or what she might have infected with Windigo. Let me investigate everything electronic first, okay?" I asked.

I got a round of chirps from the nymphs and Moon Dancer's wide-eyed nod.

I climbed out of the car and stood proud on all four legs before approaching the house. A giggly little thought sprang up that I'd thought of it as our house earlier. With no idea where my keys might be now, I turned to look at Rainbow.

"Do you have any house keys?" I asked.

"I have mine," Sweetie Belle said.

When she produced them, I lifted the keys with my magic and used them to unlock the front door. Nothing immediately jumped out at me.

Okay, next step… I accessed our wireless network and snarled out loud.

"She broke our WiFi."

Stomping into our house, I used my magic to reach out and pull the plug on the wireless access point. We needed a new one anyway. I mentally traced the possible connections to the WiFi and found the network switch—a dumb one, thankfully. I knew the server was okay, so I checked the router next.

Relief flooded me when none of the other wired devices seemed to be affected. I was just about to give everyone the all-clear when the digital equivalent of stinging wasps assaulted me.

It was worse than the access point primarily because I couldn't work out where they all were. I'd swat a connection attempt down, only to have three more trying to attack the ports of my—Okay, it might have been attacking me more directly, which meant it was attacking my crown as if it were an access point.

Then it all came together. Devices that were connected to the old access point were now searching for a new one and finding me. What devices act like that?

"What's wrong, momma?" Byte asked.

"There's some nasty little… Mobile phones!"

I stomped over to where the phones were kept charged and plucked each up and snapped them in half. One by one the wasps stopped attacking me. The only phone that didn't seem to have a "wasp" in it was the one I'd been using as a relay—well, and all the ones still in their boxes and not turned on.

—The cameras are on their own VLAN, correct?— I asked NotABug.

The quality and data content of chirps continued to amaze me, and the curious yet positive chirps I got from NotABug reassured me.

—Consider everything else on the open VLAN compromised. I'm keeping the access point to dissect Windigo and see what makes it tick,— I sent.

—You'll be careful?— NotABug asked.

—Absolutely. This could be our first chance at testing weapons and defenses against a live target.—

—I don't know why I have so much trouble with fighting back. I really want to, to protect everyone, but I just can't. I freeze up and it… it feels like I'm hurting part of me.—

I chirped loudly at NotABug and wrapped her in a hug. It was easy to feel empathy for her. When we'd been in high school, and the next monster needed us all working together to beat, there was always one who was the key. Sunset or Twilight were the go-to people (or ponies) in the past, but now it was me in that role.

—It's okay. You don't have to do that. We got this together, darling.—

—You really mean that, don't you?—

—Of course I do. This doesn't save you from having to comment your code more.—

Giggling chirps poured from NotABug.

—It's true!— I sent. —I don't want to have to do this again.—

—I will if you finish that extra-secure code. The tests so far have been promising.—

—Tests?— I asked.

—That's how our girls managed to contact Moon. She didn't realize she had the pre-release client. It connected and worked wonderfully.—

—We need to test it more. I don't want any exploits in it. Plus I don't know if there is enough bandwidth in TOR to allow for the growth we're seeing.—

—Can we fix that?—

It was my turn to giggle-chirp.

—We sure can.—

The rest of my morning was spent investigating how we could shore up the system we were about to rely upon. There were legal considerations, as well as the plain logistical needs of leasing high-bandwidth servers all over the world.

And while I arranged that, NotABug, Byte, and 'Bee set about teaching Bitwise and Moon Dancer the ropes of bugging, or rather, how to do all the little tricks we'd all learned the hard way.

—Yo! Queeny!— Stefanie sent.

—Hello. Is something the matter?—

—Well, apart from Pred crowing about how hes working on something big, things are going all fucking pear shaped. Some crazy new virus is literally bulldozing shit left and right, but the messed up bit it isn't just spreading like a virus. The name windigo is being muttered by anyone who's anyone, and you dropped off the planet! Then I see reports of someone buying big iron all over the world, and find a company name that's familiar. What're you doin/— Stefanie asked. —doing?*—

It took me a few milliseconds to realize she meant to correct her previous statement.

—You wouldn't believe half of it if I told you. How did your tests go?—

—That software? It stopped Pred when I dared him to attack me. He got in a huff and ragequit chat. It's like an icewall. I've never seen anything so fast to respond and neuter attacks. But I need more answers than I need questions.—

—I'm buying servers because TOR is about to get a lot more use. We've been testing a new client that connects via TOR, and while it works flawlessly, I was worried about the network.—

—You're taking ChirpNet to TOR? Shit, you are going to get a lot of love for that. So the servers are for exit nodes?—

—Exactly. I don't want to kill this wonderful system. I want to make it so powerful and ubiquitous that it becomes the norm.—

—Don't take this the wrong way, but can I marry you and have your kids?—

—I shan't, but not only is there a line, you're too late.—

I remembered hearing from Byte how she could feed on people over ChirpNet, but though I reached as much as I could, there was nothing. No sense of being able to, at least.

—Funny, I don't picture you as the suburban dad or anything. Wait, was queen literal?—

—In more ways than you can imagine.—

It was surprisingly cute given that "Stefanie" used a feminine name. Looking back over the chat log, I realized she'd said "have your kids" not "have my kids". Stefanie indeed.

—Do you have those logs from the firewall?—

A rush of file transfers started and in moments I was swimming in data about both Windigo and regular attacks.

—That's wonderful, thank you, Stefanie. I'd have some more code for you to play with, but I had a little adventure that was out of this world.—

—You're the worst, you know that? How am I meant to take that? With everything you're doing, I fully expect to find out you were flying around in a spaceship fighting aliens.—

—No actual aliens.—

This was more fun than actually productive. The chat was happening in real time, since whoever Stefanie was she wasn't directly hooked into a computer. It'd be nice if we could replicate that trick without everything else that comes with it.

—What should I call you? Queeny? Bug?—

I realized that all this time I'd been chatting with her while behind some kind of shield that kept my details from her. I removed that shield and sent Stefanie a friend request. It came back accepted a moment later.

—Rarity? Huh, cool name.—

—Is Stefanie your actual name?—

—It's one of them. Probably the closest thing to an actual name. I'll catch you later, Rarity.—

Stefanie went offline.

I started looking over the logs, and the first ones showed that the firewall had held with its lesser defense system at first, but quickly had to swap to a learning algorithm to hold back the attacks. It worked well, but given enough time I could see Windigo working around it.

What the firewall needed was more knowledge and the ability to share it. Windigo could grow stronger and nastier with every trick it learned? So would the shields that block it.

Rather than work on it right this millisecond, however, I instead started searching for security guards. Tall men, wide men, men with very serious looks, men with earpieces, men wearing suits—There was a certain chic to the look of a man in a suit tailored to him, but Starling wasn't going to dress like that.

Dark, however, would certainly be an advantage. Something that would hide the inevitable boots that I'd let her talk me into, and I came up with a black dress that would lift up around her legs if she moved too quickly, but would hang down and out a little otherwise. Concealed pleats with elastic straps in them would work for that. A jacket, I realized, would hide whatever nasty little things she wanted to carry, but putting a suit jacket on would only serve to make her wave a flag saying "I have something to conceal."

A soft leather jacket would do more than conceal her things and look good (looking good was equally important, of course), it would also protect her to some extent.

I was about to send her a message when I realized that I still didn't have a mobile for her.

—Darling,— I sent to NotABug. —Can you ask Starling what kind of body armor she'd like?—

—You're making her an outfit?—

—Designing one. I'd like her input on it before I actually make it.—

Forever passed while I waited for the real world to pass by. I passed the time looking for gun holsters and inventing ways to build one into the jacket.

—She says if you can fit a flak jacket into an outfit, not only will she wear it, but she'll wear whatever you make,— NotABug sent.

And so began my journey into the wonderful world of protective gear. Materials were all exotic: Kevlar, ceramic composite, various gel mixtures, but there was one way to bypass having to find all that. I found the website of an army surplus store and ordered ten of these flak jackets and ten police-issue protection vests too. None of it was cheap, but they were happy enough to sell it.

With most of my mind completely lost in a wonderful new world of practical fashion, I had a minor revelation that surprised me with how I could have missed such a thing. Could Suri/Windigo have used their tricks on the police?

—Tell her to find some weapons she likes the idea of carrying, and I'll find a way to hide them in this jacket.—

NotABug sent back a trill of chirps that sounded excited. This was maybe the first time I'd ever seen her so happy to be in control (excluding time spent with Rainbow Dash alone, of course).

Rather than surface enough to see what was going on, I delved back all the way into the server and turned my attention back to coding. It wasn't easy. There was a constant sense that I should have been doing something against Suri/Windigo, that I needed to hunt them down and deal with them, but the fact was I had to rely on others to do that.

It was, apparently, much easier to talk about being the leader and delegating important things to the right people, than actually being the leader and delegating important things to the right people.

The easy way to handle the firewall communication issue was obvious—ChirpNet. We already had a heavily secure platform of data communications, and we already had a lightweight client for installing on devices to allow remote control, so all I needed to do was adjust that to allow proactive sending, then build a new multi-tiered comms network within ChirpNet just for them to communicate.

Not that the firewalls would implicitly trust these communications, of course—I wasn't stupid. All it would take is Suri/Windigo to invade that network, and they'd break all the firewalls.

With the focus and speed granted by the time dilation between the real world and the digital one, I could practically do months of work in a single afternoon. Granted, I wasn't the best at this, but I could learn as fast as I could code.

6:33 P.M.

—You've been busy all day. What have you been working on?— NotABug asked.

—The firewall. It's showing good data, even when Windigo is attacking it, but I have a feeling Windigo would eventually get around it without it being smarter. And the best way to make such small systems smarter is to make them work together.—

In my head I imagined myself yawning. It'd been a long day even discounting the time I’d spent working hundreds of times faster than normal. I wasn't actually aware of it, but I must have made a sleepy chirp, because I was wrapped up in a hug by NotABug so tight and comfortable that it made me want to yawn more.

—The first trick it does is contact other routers between it and the attacker to mitigate the attacks. It also requests help of worker nodes that will take samples of the attacks and engineer the best ways to counter them. Finally, it shares the mitigations with others. If Windigo attacks one firewall, it only tips its hand to all of them.—

—And the worker nodes?— NotABug asked.

—Are either simple AIs, or one of us. There's no reason we can't help with this fight.—

—And you're going to give this away? We could make a lot of money selling this.—

The thought of selling software hadn't even occurred to me. In theory it sounded good, but my aim wasn't to make money from this.

—Why not only charge business use? Make it free for anyone to use, but commercial use will cost them a fee per month. I'm sure Coco will have an idea how we could do that. I really want to get it to a lot of people to protect them.—

Generosity only stretched so far. Anyone could use my work, but companies could afford to pay, and our nymphs were growing more voracious for information power by the hour.

—This will use more of our TOR capacity?— NotABug asked.

—It will, but it shouldn't be too much. I'll have to do some tests, but I'm sure with the servers I arranged for today, it should be able to cope. I'll get some test cases together after talking to Coco about licensing. But I think, for now, I might have a nap. What're you up to?—

—Snuggling Rainbow.—

It didn't take many guesses as to what snuggling she was talking of.

—I'll leave you to it.—

Sleep was as easy as flicking a switch. One moment I was conscious and thinking as fast as I could, the next I was out.

Author's Note

Twilight Velvet: what's our next move?

Yawning, Twilight Velvet looked at the time and made the softest noise she was capable of. "Time for more coffee so I can double check these documents I'll be filing tomorrow. This will be a landmark case and I don't want to be forever thought a fool for careless wording in my brief."

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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
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And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Lab

Editing provided by the battiest Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 20

My dreams were happy ones. I pictured Byte, 'Bee, Bitwise, and even Moon just having fun. But there were more than the four of them—there were hundreds of nymphs. There was no more threat from Suri/Windigo, and we lived in peace while helping humanity take exciting new steps toward digital enlightenment.

Then an evil something lurked on the horizon, but Rainbow jumped out and faced off with them. She had guns and grenades all over her, and she looked like some muscle-bound hero from movies.

"Not on my watch!"

It was so cliché and adorable, that I woke up giggling and chirping at the same time. In all, this was probably the best way I could probably have ever woken up.

7:44 A.M.

I yawned and tried to lift my head only to have a strong blue arm pull me back down. Soft lips met my cheek in the perfect example of how to make such an awakening even better.

"Mmmm—Morning," Rainbow Dash said.

"My hero," I said, dragging out the O sound.

"Huh?"

I giggled and pushed my snout under Rainbow's jaw. My chirping was a given.

"I had a dream where a big nasty thing was attacking, and you were the action hero."

"Of course I was. Did I have a lot of guns and a big knife? Oh! And some rope?"

I felt more movement in the bed besides Rainbow. I gave a curious chirp and heard two sleepy ones sound off in reply.

"Did you just ask them if they were awake by chirping?" Rainbow Dash asked.

More movement heralded Bitwise and 'Bee's arrival at the head of the bed. Both flopped back down between us and made happy chirps aplenty.

"I'm fairly sure you don't need an answer to that. I spent most of the afternoon yesterday working on something that could make us some money, a defensive program that blocks malicious things from attacking computer systems," I said.

"Rarity, I know what a firewall is," Rainbow Dash said. "But, today is a special day, and I need to get up."

Nuzzling Bitwise (the nearest of the pair of nymphs), I looked across as Rainbow kissed 'Bee's cheek and pulled the covers up around the tiny changeling.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"First day of work for a new boss. I hear she's a bit tough on employees coming in late."

Out of bed, Rainbow Dash revealed she was wearing just a pair of boxer shorts. The expanse of blue skin made me chirp at her in appreciation. She was toned—an athlete—and I knew she was putting on a show for me. She'd been right. The perfect man for me wasn't a man at all.

"What are you going to do about it?" I asked.

"Well, I figured I'd make the boss breakfast. Then I thought I'd kiss her mercilessly until it’s time for work."

Rainbow pulled a blue shirt on and headed out for the kitchen.

—She's so pretty,— NotABug sent me.

—I'd say pretty and handsome. Rainbow Dash is nothing if not proud of her body, and it shows. Good morning,— I sent to NotABug.

—You're probably right, but I can never get past how pretty her face is. Those cheekbones, the slightly bent nose, and her hair framing it all is just gorgeous.—

—You know what? I think I might be more fond of things south of her neck. You're right, her face is wonderful to gaze at, but her muscles are what make my eyes flutter.—

We both paused for a few milliseconds before chirping loudly in mirth. It felt great to be reminded why we were going through all this protection and planning. I yawned and stretched, which apparently displaced Byte enough that she chirped and lifted her head.

—Good morning!— Byte sent. —Will I get my computer today?—

I sent a chirpy greeting to Byte.

—I doubt it, dear. They'll send it today, and I did tell them to use the fastest shipping they had, but it will probably be tomorrow at the soonest.—

—What am I meant to do until then? I have things I need to do with it!—

Tilting my head up to look at her, I saw Byte standing with her legs slightly out to each side as she looked at me with a sad expression.

—Why is there so much chirping?— Moon Dancer sent.

Her reminder of being an intimate part of our family made me quickly do a search for her, but my worry grew as there was no trace of her on the cameras, nor on our wifi. I realized I couldn't find her in the house. I must have chirped in a panic because NotABug quickly hugged me.

—What's wrong?— NotABug asked.

—Where's Moon? Is she safe? Are you safe? Where are you?!—

—I'm back at college, in my dorm. I have classes today, after all.—

The mundanity of it shook me from my shock. I blinked a few times and tried to breathe while chirping to calm down.

—Right. Sorry. I was just worried.—

It was silly, I know. We were in the same year of high school together and were the same age, but Moon Dancer just felt like my nymph now. She was someone I had a tight bond with and who needed protecting. It was silly when I thought about it, but this had nothing to do with thinking—this was how I felt.

—It's okay. It's weird, but it's okay. Both my parents are gone, and I never had a big family anyway, but this is… I don't know why I'm telling you this, but it's nice to have family again,— Moon Dancer sent.

—Would it help if I promise to try not to make it any weirder?— I asked. —After all, we're the same age, but I can't stop thinking of you as one of my nymphs. I just want to, I don't know, protect you. I want to take care of you and make everything right, whatever that means.—

—You're not weird! Your our sister!— Bumblebee sent.

—Yeah! Our big-little sister!— Byte sent.

Bitwise just chirped a lot.

—I'll come around and see you guys after class today, okay?— Moon Dancer asked.

—Why don't you come over for a few minutes now?— Byte asked.

—Because you're across town. It'd take more than a few minutes to drive there.—

—Why not come through the internet?—

—Huh? What do you mean?—

—Are you at your computer?—

—Yeah. Turns out the power cutting out meant it didn't save anything. Probably for the best. At least I have my work on my stick.—

Byte jumped up off the bed and galloped down the hallway.

—Hello?— Moon Dancer asked. —Sorry, it went quiet. What's going on?—

—I'm coming!— Byte sent.

—STOP!— I sent. —Byte! Don't go into the net without proper protection.—

—What protection?— Byte asked.

—I don't even know, but I don't want Windigo to chase you.—

A revelation hit me.

—Wait, yes I do. Moon, Can you load up a TOR client?— I asked.

—Gimme a few,— Moon Dancer said. —I'll load ChirpNet on there too. Hold on a second.—

The ChirpNet warning was a surprise. I'd never seen it scream like this before. A node was reporting an almost overwhelming attack.

—Moon! Pull the plug! Windigo's in your computer!— NotABug sent.

It took surprisingly few milliseconds for the alarms to stop and drop to simple warnings. I began looking over the logs while NotABug took control of the situation.

—ChirpNet is more than a connected chat network. It's a web that alerts us the moment Windigo is found on a machine. Your computer has a nasty chunk of code in it,— NotABug sent.

—That was the thing that chased down your nymph into me?—

—I almost jumped into that?— Byte asked.

—You're alright, Byte. This is why we be cautious. From now on, no jumping through anything without both ends being secured by the new chat client, okay?— I asked.

I finished checking the logs on ChirpNet before drawing back from the computer world a little. I heard Rainbow ask Byte what the matter was then a clatter of hooves.

"I gotcha, Byte. Tell me what happened?" Rainbow Dash asked Byte again.

Slipping from bed I gave Bitwise and 'Bee a kiss each and headed for the door. Using my magic, I balled up another deceased pillow and carried it with me. I'd never really noticed how noisy my hardwood floor was with hooves. Each step echoed ahead of me.

The clambering hooves behind me easily hid my self-conscious steps as 'Bee and Bitwise charged down the hallway and under my legs. They quickly passed me and wound around Rainbow's legs, chirping at her excitedly.

Rainbow didn't seem too focused on getting the reason why Byte was scared—she held our daughter against her chest and murmured that it was alright over and over.

I left Rainbow to damage control and walked into the kitchen. It was time to do magic. I put a pot on the stove and filled it with water and oats, lifted bowls and spoons to the table for everyone, and fetched glasses and cutlery.

—I found some shop fitters we can have prepare the boutique. It will still be up to you how you want decorations and little things arranged,— NotABug sent.

—Up to us, darling,— I sent.

NotABug deserved a hug and a chirp, so I gave her the best I could manage.

—They were your designs, but chirps and hugs are always appreciated.—

—So what do I do about my computer?— Moon Dancer asked.

I thought about it for a moment. It was another potential test system for weapons against Suri/Windigo, which meant it was valuable.

—Bring it over when you get the chance. You'll need a new one. If you want, we could meet up at the mall and see if we can find something for you?— I asked.

—Okay. It's just I built that myself and I really liked that one.—

I paused as an idea hit me.

—I have ordered some computers, mostly for Byte to play games on, but if we got the parts at the mall, could you build some machines today?—

—Why don't you just wait for them to be delivered?—

The inevitable reply shouldn't take long. I was sure I would only have to wait a few seconds.

—Because I want a computer today!— Byte sent.

Perfect.

—How long until it comes?— Moon Dancer asked.

—Too long!—

—Which,— I sent to get both their attention, —Is why we can go and buy the bits for your new computer, and get enough to make a second one at the same time. Could we get something like this?—

I sent Moon the description of the computers we'd ordered and sent NotABug a questioning chirp.

—What's up?— NotABug asked.

—How's our money holding out?—

—We're down, of course. I just need the markets to open here and I can fix that.—

It was a huggy morning, so I gave NotABug another good one. Her answering chirp made me smile.

—I'll bring my tower over after lunch. My last class is at two, so we can spend the afternoon doing nerd stuff.—

I turned more attention back to the real world only to have Rainbow's lips on my cheek. I tilted my jaw toward her so she could spend as long or as little time as she wished.

"What happened? Byte won't tell me," Rainbow Dash asked.

Rainbow took over the stove while she put Byte on my back. A moment later I had a little bundle hugging my neck from behind.

"She wanted to say good morning to Moon in person, and was about to jump through the TV and through Moon's computer. We discovered Windigo waiting in her computer just in time," I said.

Scooping up a little of the porridge, Rainbow had a taste of it then reached for the sugar.

"Yikes. All dealt with now?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Pouring juice into each of the glasses, I nodded.

"Working on it. Moon will bring her computer over here later on, then we were going shopping for a new one."

—I have a lunch appointment with Mrs. Velvet,— NotABug sent.

"And I'd like to do some shopping for fabric. Along with meeting the shopfitters and seeing Mrs. Velvet for NotABug, I think we have a big day pla—" I said.

"You lot are noisy in the morning," Starling said.

The woman walked into the kitchen with a towel wrapped around her head, a pair of skinny jeans on, and a shirt that was doing battle with her torso to stay on (I was afraid it would lose at any moment). Everyone was quiet—possibly as if to subconsciously deny her accusation.

"If you have coffee, I'll forgive you."

"Left cupboard above the sink. You weren't wearing those things yesterday," I said.

"Your law-lady got them for me."

Starling reached up to the cupboard, rummaged around in it, and pulled out the jar of instant coffee. The look she gave me would have probably set me on fire if she could do such a thing.

"If you're going shopping, you'll need a French press, a coffee grinder, and some real coffee."

A quick search revealed the devices were for making coffee, though I couldn't imagine what was so wrong with the instant coffee. Knowing better than to antagonize a new friend, I decided to refrain from asking why it was necessary.

"You know, Rarity, I bet your old things would fit her much better," Rainbow Dash said. "She's a bit bigger than I am, but that was about your size. Also, I don't think it'd mean she flashes off her belly to everyone."

I almost did a double-take at Rainbow's words. I stared at her perhaps a moment longer than was needed to get my surprise across before I looked back to Starling. My new stature had made gauging people's height a little harder, but taking a photo of her and Rainbow let me compare them—after some adjustment for relative distance.

The fit wouldn't be absolutely perfect, but it would be a lot better than Twilight Sparkle's old things. Rainbow's eye for form and fit shouldn't have been so surprising, given her personal focus on the human body, but it still tickled me pink to see it in action.

"I don't suppose you have some jeans and a black shirt? Something nice and plain I can wear until—Why are you looking at me like I'm a meal?" Starling asked.

"I have just the thing!" I said.

Using my magic, I picked Starling up and trotted back down the hallway to my bedroom.

"P-Put me down! I haven't had coffee yet! I take it all back! I want to work for the evil, emotion-destroying monster!"

The drama in her cries didn't fail to make me smile—it reminded me of one of my favorite pastimes. Prancing into the room, I groaned at Starling's pleas.

"Oh quit complaining. Those things do nothing for you. At least I have things that aren't going to make you look like someone washed all your clothing without following the directions on the tags."

"Can I at least keep the pants? I don't want my dad to see me in a dress."

I put Starling down in the middle of the room and used my magic to open the doors of my walk-in wardrobe. It had been so long since I'd been able to dress someone up—perhaps even days—that I was practically brimming with excitement.

"Darling, can you honestly tell me you could run in those jeans? No, they won't do."

Reddish hair—now unburdened by the blonde dye she'd had when I first met her—and a cream skin tone. It was a far cry from my own white and indigo.

"If you start talking about winter colors and stuff, I might have to—"

"Don't be silly, darling, summer would be a much better profile for you," I said. "I have a perfect violet skirt and I think a pink-red top would make your colors pop."

"I'm not getting out of this, am I?"

I turned to look at Starling, one eyebrow raised high.

"Of course not."

"Good. Just so we're clear that I was forced into this as part of my employment."

Starling smiled with a level of authenticity that almost overwhelmed me. I realized she was a woman who'd been stuck in the role of tomboy for some time. Well, as her boss and fashionista, I could help her with this.

"Then let's get you something more flattering," I said. "Oh, did you come up with a list of what—ahem—weapons you wished to carry?"

"I think you know what the main ones are going to be, but I want some non-lethal stuff. Not everyone needs to be shot to make them stop. Might have been the best thing that came from my time at Polomare."

"Dear, I'll be brutally honest with you. You know more about these things than I do. Buy what you need, and I will make sure they're concealable in this—"

Lifting her hands, Starling made as if she were warding me off.

"Hold on. I don't want them all concealable. A big part about being security is that I am visibly a threat."

I levitated out the skirt and shirt I'd found and turned around to face Starling. She was looking at the outfit with a touch of confusion. I passed her the garments.

"Try these on," I said. "I take it you can wear a gun openly here?"

"You need a permit, which I have from my training. The only thing that worries me about that is someone taking it and using it against us."

I turned to give Starling some modesty while she changed.

"Well, there's nothing that says the exposed weapon has to be the one you use, correct?" I asked.

I heard jeans unzipping and a little hopping around behind me.

"That's actually a clever idea. It would sure be a way to locate idiots in a crowd. Okay, so two guns, a taser, a stick, and a knife. We could pick most of those up today, too."

A quick search online told me there was a shop just down the street from the mall that sold firearms and other "personal defense" equipment. Well, Starling was going to be clothes shopping, so there was no reason I couldn't go gun shopping.

"Do you have a preference on where we go?" I asked.

"Not really. I don't want anything custom. That said, I'd like something a bit bigger, too. Not to be carried everywhere, but in case things get ugly. How does this look?"

I turned around and gasped. The change in Starling's look was startling. Gone was the scowling woman in clothes that didn't fit.

"You look beautiful, darling. That red really sparks off your hair wonderfully."

"Th-Thanks. Uh, how are we gonna do this? Aren't people going to freak out with you walking around like that? Not that I have a problem with it, but even that almost-human form'll probably kick up a stink."

Her question made me chuckle a little. It was going to be a good chunk of energy spent, of course, but using it to be human for the morning would be worth it.

"That form you saw was more or less how I was at the time. This is me now. We're not exactly sure why it happened, but when NotABug entered my head it made me start to change into—well—this.

"But this form allows for other tricks. You remember how I could change into other ponies?"

"Yeah."

I focused on me. The me I was just a month ago. A tall young woman with alabaster skin and indigo locks of hair that stretched to my waist. A push-up bra was in order as well as some slim white panties, an ankle-length dress of light blue, and a white blouse. Makeup, nails, and a stunning pair of heels were all similarly added to make the perfect me in my mind. Then I made me into me with a rush of magic.

The fire started around my legs. It should have been strange to lose four legs and be left with two, but thanks to the speed of the change it wouldn't be a problem. Of course, with my perception sped up, I could feel each part of me change into human, though for the first time I realized nothing seemed to make an internal organ.

My perception gained height, and I wound up bipedal again and looking fabulous. I turned and looked over my shoulder to see a shocked Starling with her shirt half on. She seemed to recover quickly.

"Why don't you use that all the time?"

"I can't keep it up all day—it uses too much magic. In Equestria, where magic is just flying free all the time, I could, but not here."

Rainbow Dash opened the door and came in. She walked straight for the clothes she'd moved into my closet and started searching through them.

"Get your running things on, Rarity," Rainbow Dash said.

"You two go running in the mornings?" Starling asked.

"Yup, we do now," Rainbow Dash said.

Looking at me with one eyebrow raised, Rainbow was daring me to tell her no. Drat, she had me cornered. But I had one last card to play.

"You've got someone to take care of the nymphs?" I asked.

"I can do that as a once-off, but don't think I can be your babysitter on a regular basis," Starling said.

Rainbow just smirked at me and pulled her shorts on.

There was nothing else for it. With a deep sigh of resignation, I changed my dress for a petite pair of shorts, stockings for socks, and my heels for running shoes. By the time I was done, Rainbow was looking for her shoes.

I walked (feeling a little odd to be using two legs) to the kitchen and found a bowl of porridge waiting for me. There was also Byte bouncing on her hooves and looking at me expectantly.

Sitting down, I started eating as quickly as I could (and still remain ladylike).

—What's the matter, dear?— I asked Byte.

—Are we going to get my computer now?—

—Later, dear, after 2 P.M.—

Byte's ears tucked down and she stopped bouncing. Her whole expression fell and she made a sad little chirp.

Reaching out with my hands and using magic to work my spoon, I picked Byte up and held her in my arms until she stopped making the sad chirps.

—You have to be patient. Why don't you play with your sisters?—

—It's not as fun, and I don't get to feed.—

Her answer intrigued me.

—How were you feeding?—

—Other players on my team really like it when we win, and even the enemy like it when we lose. Not that we lost much once I worked out the trick to winning. And some people were watching me play. They liked watching me play. I only nibbled, Mom, just like you said.—

I booped Byte on the nose with one finger and couldn't stop from sending a little flood of digital chirps to her.

—Just be careful, and make sure to check if people are talking of tiredness. How many did you feed on yesterday?—

—A hundred and twenty. Like I said, I only needed little nibbles.—

I paused before getting my next mouthful to lean down and kiss Byte on the nose. Her news was a little shocking, but being a mother made it impossible for me to doubt the adorableness of my own daughter, nor its ability to make her lovable.

—Clever. Be gentle with them, Byte, they're only human.—

—Huh?—

—They're not like Rainbow.—

—Oh! I know that. Their love is so tiny and hard to find sometimes. I have to do nice things for them and make it grow!—

The sentiment was adorable, but at the same time it made me curious.

—You farm their love?—

—Uh, I had to look it up, but that seems right. I really like making them happier.—

Kissing the end of her snout again was the least I could do to show my delight in her methods. I took another spoonful of porridge before the sound of footsteps on the floor behind me got my attention.

"Come on, Rarity. The quicker we head out the quicker we're back. Then you can go clothes shopping."

Finishing my mouthful, I leaned down and kissed Byte on the snout again.

—You can have the rest of my breakfast if you want it,— I sent.

Standing up, I set Byte back on the chair so she could reach the table with her hooves. It took just a glance at Rainbow to make a chill of delight run up my spine. I was one lucky woman.

"You relentless taskmaster, you," I said.

Walking over, I was happy to have one of Rainbow's arms curl around my back and squeeze a little. A drifting thought drew my attention to the fact her appreciation of me hadn't changed no matter how I looked. She'd said she didn't mind at all before, but I didn't expect that to actually be the case.

"Lead on, but I have a question for you."

"For me?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Okay, fire."

"You really don't care if I'm a changeling or human, do you?"

We walked out the front door, down the path, and just out the gate before Rainbow looked back at me.

"You know how everyone says I'm bi?"

The way she emphasized the words had my attention on her. I raised an eyebrow as my answer and question.

"Truth is, I've never really had a problem loving anyone because of what they are. I don't see guys and girls, I see people. People are really sexy."

Rainbow pushed herself off at a pace that would actually be a struggle to keep up with, were I just human. I did have to work harder than normal, but I caught up with her and kept pace. We went down several blocks before turning, then up several more before turning again. I realized I wasn't going to get any more of an answer like this. I stopped.

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash said.

She turned and almost fell trying to slow down and look at me.

"What'd you do that for?"

"I'm not moving," I said, "Until I have the full answer."

"There's another name for it—I found it online. Pansexual."

The way she spoke made me think she was expecting a freak-out.

I stepped up beside Rainbow and kissed her cheek.

"I just wanted to know, darling."

Her eyes showed that she caught the different emphasis on darling. She smiled at me and I saw the glint of overly confident Rainbow Dash return.

"Thanks, Rarity. It's just hard to work through. I mean, you say you're straight or gay, and people might have prejudice or not, but they know what you're talking about. Same for bi. But you say pan and they just stare at you like you just said you're from Australia or something."

"Does this mean I'm pan as well? You're not exactly my species."

"I don't think so. You still like guys, right?"

I nodded to her.

"And you like this girl, at least?"

I nodded a lot and got a kiss on the cheek for my effort.

"Then I think you're just bi. Come on, let's run!"

Tossing out the false notion that this was some kind of running away from the problem thing—albeit in a more literal than usual sense—I rejoined Rainbow for the rest of our run.

We returned to our street without incident, though I was starting to question the benefits of running while shapechanged. I didn't feel like I'd really worked at all physically—I hadn't even gotten a sweat up. Chalk up another advantage to the bug life—no unladylike exertion ruining an outfit.

"Rarity?"

Rainbow's voice broke me out of the zone we'd been running in. I blinked in surprise at how fast we were going.

"I'm pretty sure you couldn't run this fast before, but I'm not complaining one bit," Rainbow Dash said.

She then did the most amazing thing—she grabbed me and picked me up as if I weighed nothing, then she walked me up the path to the front door.

"You know this is going to earn you kisses, right?" I asked.

"I think I can handle that. Now if someone would open—"

Starling opened the door and stood back, which let Rainbow carry me all the way into the living room.

I picked my next dress to be a little more formal, but at the same time not too much to wear to a mall. Okay, maybe it was too much to wear to a mall, but I didn't care. The swirl of flames didn't affect Rainbow in the slightest, nor did she flinch from them. Once more clad in heels, stockings, and a dress, I kissed Rainbow's neck.

"Thank you," I said, my voice a whisper.

"For carrying you in?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes, and for making me feel like a lady—a very lucky lady."

We kissed properly before she finally put me down. I became aware that she was a little taller than me still. Had I subconsciously done that? Caring about such things seemed irrelevant.

"Come along," I said to Starling, "Before I get too distracted."

Starling, however, turned to Rainbow.

"Is she always like this?" Starling asked.

"Bossy? Yeah, it's kinda her thing. She's good at it though."

If she weren't correct, I'd have had a right to feel angry. As it was, all I could do was groan at Rainbow for her unfashionably correct characterization.

—You're quiet, dear. Are you alright?— I asked NotABug.

—Sorry. Been working on making some more money and talked to Mrs. Velvet. She's having trouble generating a birth certificate for me because she can't put anyone as parents on it.—

—She could put me, darling.—

—I suggested that, and Mrs. Velvet said that wasn't the point and wouldn't help in later parts of having this approved. It's a game for her, and I can see why someone would need a lot of training for this.—

I had to remind myself that game held no negative connotations for NotABug. There was nothing childish about anything she considered a game.

—She has a plan?—

—Oh yes. She's going to take the vital records department to court.—

—She's enjoying this, isn't she?—

—Mrs. Velvet enjoys playing this game so much it's almost scary. But she's on our side.—

—I was just taking Starling shopping for a few casual things. Did you need anything?—

—Check our PO box. I ordered more phones and they're all on a business plan. If they're there, give one to Starling.—

—Will do. I'm going to take Byte and Moon shopping later for computer parts. After lunch, that is.—

In the real world I'd just started to turn and take a step toward the front door. After living much more in the moment in Equestria, I delighted in the acceleration my own world afforded me—to say nothing of how much extra control I had with the digital realm always there. I scanned the house and outside with the cameras and watched someone walking their dog down the street, then a car drove past. I saw my little car in the driveway beside Rainbow's monster, then the big van we'd apparently become the owner of was parked on the side of the street.

A glance at the TV showed Byte, 'Bee, and Bitwise all playing a game together. I looked back at Rainbow and gave her the most smoldering look I could.

"We'll be back later. Did you need anything while we're out?" I asked.

"More oats. For some reason I'm always extra hungry in the morning," Rainbow Dash said with a cocked grin.

My brain tried to work out what she meant by that. By the time I should have replied, however, I had nothing.

"What do you mean?"

"That having five hungry bugs around all the time means I eat a bit more. Kinda awesome, actually. I can eat anything I want and I'm never going to put on any weight!"

"Lucky," Starling said.

"I'll do a little food shopping the—" I said.

"No. Just the oats. I'll pick things up later. Kinda my job to keep you all healthy, right?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"So long as it includes sushi at least twice a week, I'm fine with that. Ta-ta, darling."

I grabbed my purse and walked outside with Starling. When I tried to connect to my car to unlock it, I found it wasn't responding. Then I remembered how I'd disabled wireless connections last time. Delving a hand into my purse, I was reassured to feel the key fob for the car.

Holding the fob near the car caused the car to unlock, and once I’d climbed in I re-enabled the wireless features by hand. I stretched out into the car and made its sensors my own. Temperature (both of the inside and outside, as well as the electric engine), the vision from the cameras, and a myriad of other little things that the car thought important that I should know, all became relevant to my driving.

"You have your gun permits with you?" I asked.

"They're at home. My work didn't require me to carry any of those."

I got directions from Starling and waited out front while she rushed in and grabbed her papers and permits—as well as a huge duffel bag decorated in what I assumed was military-camouflage pattern. She put the bag in the back and jumped into the passenger seat.

"If you're getting me new clothes, I don't need anything else," Starling said.

Unable to stop eyeing the bag in the back seat, I had to ask the important question.

"Is there a gun in there?"

"Yes and no."

"You know my next question."

Starling laughed.

"There is the lower receiver and trigger assembly of the rifle I was issued. Technically it counts as a gun, and it's recorded as such, but it can't fire bullets without getting a few parts."

It took me searching for the information to work out what she was talking about, but once I had that I could better understand that she had a key part of a gun, and needed more parts to have it usable. Further, the sale of those parts wasn't restricted.

I also looked up gun safety laws and found that things were fairly lax.

"Okay, gun shopping first. We can leave unloaded weapons in the car so long as it's locked. You'll want to take one with you?" I asked.

"Now you're talking. I can handle a lot of clothes shopping if we do some gun shopping first."

"There's something else I wanted to talk to you about."

I pulled away from the curb and brought up my navigation system to point me to the gun shop I'd decided on.

"I need someone to practice on. Specifically, I need someone to practice putting up anti-Suri protection on," I said.

Starling snorted a laugh.

"You saved me from that monster. I trust you—probably more than I should. How do we do this and how do we test it?"

"I've built programs to stop her attacks online, and I think a similar method will work in real life, but there'll be an added implication. Nothing will be able to mess with your emotions externally unless you want it to—even me."

"So you're saying that if this works, but something gets to me anyway, you can't fix me? Can't you build some kind of backdoor into it?"

"If I did that, anyone could use it. I could try to make it recognize me, but there's no guarantee that Suri couldn't exploit that too. If you're going to defend my kids and me, I want you completely yourself."

"See? That's the reason I want to work for you. No amount of benefits outweighs being a mind-controlling bitch. Okay, so you want to tinker around and build a barrier like that? Go for it."

My nav system—which amounted to me checking the location myself every few seconds—led me right to the car park, and I was just pulling in when something in the back of my mind finally made sense.

—How was my car back at home?— I asked NotABug.

—Mrs. Velvet said Coco knew where it would be. She got a truck to pick it up.—

—How does she keep track of all these things?—

—Beats me.—

Her reply was so close to human it made me smile.

I parked and we both climbed out. Again I disabled the wireless, but this time I resolved to attack the thing properly at some point and secure it.

"That's the first time I've really seen you do the computer stuff, you know," Starling said. "I mean, I know you and NotABug talk about it, but seeing you drive without touching anything but the steering wheel is just—is this kinda thing common with you lot?"

She reached into the back of the car, unzipped her duffel, and pulled out a black case about the size of a suitcase.

I shrugged to her question.

"So far? Yes. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I'd like to think I'm good at it by now. NotABug is, undoubtedly, the best at it so far, but I think Moon Dancer might be better than both of us once she gets the hang of it."

Watching Starling lift her precious case out of the car, I was distracted by how well she wore the dress I'd lent her, and at the same time I cursed that Rainbow had distracted me from making Starling's face up properly.

"Rarity?"

I jerked from my contemplation.

"You were looking at me like I was a mouse and you a snake. What's wrong?" Starling asked.

"I was trying to work out what shade of eyeshadow would best highlight your lashes."

"Rainbow Dash really wasn't joking, was she?"

I tapped the lock button on my fob and walked toward the gun shop with a slightly more exaggerated than usual walk that left the long dress I wore swishing around my ankles.

"Fashion is never a joking matter, darling."

It felt like old times. For just a moment I wasn't a monster shapechanged to look human—escorting my bodyguard to buy guns—and I was just a young woman talking about fashion.

"It all depends what you're going to do with that hair. Are you going to dye back to blonde again, or will you keep it this wonderful red?" I asked.

Starling, snorting a laugh, jogged to catch up to me.

"I don't even know why I started dying it. Well, I do. It was kind of a symbol that my fight was over. I guess I should keep it red if I'm going back to—"

"Sorry to cut in, but you're not going back to soldiering. I don't want someone who follows orders, I want someone who thinks on their feet and does what they know is right."

"Well, you're stuck with me, instead."

Pushing open the door, Starling walked inside and made her way between the shelves of ammunition to the front counter. Opening the case, she revealed parts not too dissimilar to what I'd found in my searching earlier.

By the time we were walking out, I felt like I'd robbed the place. Starling hadn't spent a lot of money, but she'd ended up with a small pile of cases and packages that were going to look suspicious in my car.

When I looked over at Starling, she looked like the cat that'd eaten the canary. The next stop was the mall and getting suitable clothing for Starling. Her idea of civilian life had been two pairs of jeans, two black shirts, her work uniforms, and her old military clothes. That, in my not-at-all-humble opinion, was not right.

I parked the car at the mall and led the way inside. Every shop we reached earned another mournful sigh from Starling, but I noted that she wasn't actually complaining.

"I thought you would have at least said something about that evening dress," I said.

"How am I supposed to complain? I'd be basically the biggest hypocrite on the planet. You're buying all this stuff for me, and you didn't complain once about all the things I purchased—that you also paid for—so I'm pretty sure I can't complain now."

"Pish posh," I said. "Complaining is a woman's right. Tell me if you don't like the look of something, or if you think it doesn't match."

"Rarity?"

Her droll tone set off a little alarm. I narrowed my eyes a little.

"Yes?"

"You know more about fashion than I ever will."

"Oh."

That hadn't been what I was expecting. Compliments are always welcome, after all.

"But that doesn't change one thing. You like what you like, and you shouldn't let me dictate that to you," I said.

"I'll let you in on a secret, Rarity, and this is only because you saved my life. Have you ever seen Snow White and the Seven Dwarves?"

"Well of course."

"It was my favorite movie when I was a little girl."

I couldn’t help but smile wider at the revelation.

"I always imagined myself as the fairy godmother. What about you?" I asked.

"That's just it. I feel like you're setting me up to meet my Prince Charming. Dresses, guns, knives… you're working me up for something, but I don't have anyone I've ever really felt close to like that."

I took a good look at Starling's emotions to make sure she wasn't imbalanced only to be pleasantly surprised at how vibrant they looked. There was no evidence that Suri/Windigo's tampering was affecting this openness.

"If it's a Prince Charming you're after, I'm sorry to say that I haven't had the best of luck in finding one of those. I found a Miss Awesome instead."

"Not my thing, sorry Rarity."

"That just means we have to look harder," I said.

Looking down at my hands, I wondered if I still had any of my old tricks. I envisioned Starling wearing the most expansive ball gown I could think of, a generously supportive strapless bra, and a delightful clutch that I had at home. Feeling the potential for magic rushing through me, I pushed the outfit I'd designed toward Starling—but nothing happened.

"Drat."

"What's wrong?"

"I had this little trick I could do. I'd picture an outfit in my mind and zap someone with my magic, and they'd be wearing it. It wore off, of course, but it seems like I've lost that ability. Shame, you would have looked great in a formal gown."

Starling froze, staring at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You would have just dressed me up like Snow White without a thought about me having to go through this wearing a—"

"Pretty dress? Darling, you're wearing a dress already. When was the last time you wore something just because it was pretty?"

Starling stood stock-still for a moment.

"Look around at all the pretty shop windows and pick something that you like the look of. It doesn't need to be practical or tactical. Pick something you'd like to wear—even if just once."

"Are you serious? Buy a dress and just—"

"Shhh. Forget price tags and practicality. I'm your fairy godmother, darling. Pick something you like the look of."

That we were standing in the area of the mall with the better fashion stores helped. I noticed half a dozen gowns that would be perfect for her, but when Starling lifted her arm and pointed, I was sent looking in a different direction.

"That."

I narrowed my eyes and glared at the shop.

"You can't be serious. I already told you I'm making you a suit."

Starling kept pointing at the formal wear store and in particular at a tuxedo in the window. When I started walking in that direction, she followed along with our shopping cart full of clothes.

As we neared the window, I had to admit to myself that it was a timeless fashion. Black lines, a crisp white shirt, and a bow tie.

"Alright, I see what you mean. Come on and let's see about getting one to fit."

Sweeping into the store with my dress flowing around my legs, I looked around for an employee to hound. Fortunately, a sales assistant walked up to meet us. The young man had an easy smile that didn't look as fake as a lot of customer service people's did. He had a well-combed splash of light-green hair and a darker green complexion.

"May I help you?" he asked.

His aura swirled with curiosity, assurance, and excitement.

"We were just walking past and my friend was utterly taken with your fine tuxedo in the window. Would you have one in Starling's fit?"

I gestured to Starling, and watched the man's expression shift to surprise. His aura reflected the emotions plain on his face. He was a startlingly genuine man.

To his credit, the young man turned to Starling to address her.

"Forgive me for asking, but this is for the man in your life?" he asked.

"That spot's vacant. I want it for myself," Starling said.

The sales assistant's eyes widened a little, and I watched his aura shift more toward excitement.

"It will not be an easy fit, but our tailor will be more than up to the task. If you would just come this way, we'll have you measured," he said, his tone smooth.

"How much to have it done now?" I asked.

"The measuring?"

"The fitting."

"W-We don't do same-day fitting. You'll have to—"

The young man took a deep gulp and took a moment to recenter himself. I found myself liking his style—we were not being simple customers.

"I'll talk to our tailor. Just a moment, please."

When the man walked off to the back of the store, Starling turned to me.

"They won't be able to do that. How could they possibly manage to adjust the suit to me today?" Starling asked.

"Your build already fits the suit. Large shoulders, firm shape… Your thighs and bust are where most of the work will be done," I said.

"You don't have to say it like that."

"Like what? Starling, dear, you're a woman. If you want men's clothes, they are going to need to be adjusted to suit your body."

An older man with a striking resemblance to our sales assistant walked up to us. He was wearing a very neat white shirt, a bow tie, black trousers and suspenders.

"Now, you wish something fitted and—" the tailor said. "I know you. You worked at Priss Fashion, didn't you?"

I bobbed my head in mute surprise at the man’s knowledge.

"I knew it! Never forget a face. Well, you'd know why I can't very well do you a fitting today. Being the only tailor here means I can only do so much work," he said.

"What kind of work needs doing—apart from adjusting Starling's suit?"

"I have two gowns to adjust for a wedding tomorrow, and a pair of trousers to mend."

"What if I did the gowns for you?" I asked.

"Hold up. You're going to do work to get me that suit today?" Starling asked.

"It seems simple enough. Mr.—uh…" I said.

"Dropped Stitch, ma'am," Dropped Stitch said.

"My name's Rarity, and this is Starling. And of course I can do two dresses."

It was good to work with just my hands again. Magic was fine, but hand stitching—without rushing—was what fashion was all about. Using the size guides Mr. Stitch gave me, I had both dresses done just as he was finishing the suit.

11:22 A.M.

Starling had changed into her new suit, and even without the jacket on she cut a startling figure—though maybe it was my present tastes leaking a little. We walked out to the car and loaded the poor thing with yet more items, then made our way to the post office.

—When you're shopping for computer parts later on, can you pick up some things for me?— NotABug sent.

We were just walking into the post office when NotABug's message arrived. Focusing my attention on my digital response, the real world crawled by.

—That shouldn't be a problem. You're still having lunch with Mrs. Velvet?— I asked.

—Yup! We're having coffee at her office. Oh! You're picking up the mail? Did anything arrive?—

—I don't know yet. Curse this dratted time problem.—

—What time problem?—

Most of the time NotABug made it hard to remember she was not born in the real world. Every now and again, however, she would fail to understand something that most of us would see as obvious.

—When I pay more attention to digital things, the real world seems to move so slowly. I find myself getting bored of waiting for obvious things to happen.—

—Oh! Yeah, that's one reason I don't like spending too much time in control. Everything moves so slowly out there. Anyway, I'll make a list of things to get later. Love you.—

My response was instant and whole-hearted.

—I love you too, darling.—

It wasn't the utter slowness of things happening but my awareness of that slowness. It always went that slow, and I was always thinking this fast, but when my attention was on tracking data and reading high-speed buffers, everything was painfully slow by comparison.

Walking into the post office, I made my way to the counter to inquire about our post box. Of course the indignity of the world meant I had stand in line.

"Ahem," I said once I reached the front of the queue, "I have a PO box under—"

—It's in my name. Box 229,— NotABug sent.

"… NotABug. Box 229," I said.

"Enter your pin number on the machine."

The woman behind the counter pointed to the touch pad before me. Taking instructions from NotABug again, I punched in the needed pin. We were given two boxes that made me wonder if there would be any room left in the car.

"Thank you," I said.

We made it home with Starling carrying one of the boxes on her lap while the other rode high on the pile of things in the back seat.

11:39 A.M.

—I'm home,— I sent.

—Mom!— Byte, Bumblebee, and Bitwise all sent at roughly the same moment.

—Mom! I learned how to shapechange!— Byte sent.

'Bee and Bitwise raced out the door, but after them walked a young woman wearing a simple black dress. I stared, realizing it was Byte. She had the same color hair as mine, but hers had a lighter streak through it, and it hung down to her rump.

"Hi, Mom," Byte said.

"Look how pretty she is!" Bumblebee said.

—I helped her get her face right!— Bitwise sent.

Byte's eyes were pretty. Looking perfectly human, but with some azure color to them that matched the light streak in her hair. She looked nervous, pretty, and absolutely adorable. Her skin was an off shade of white that looked to have a slightly blue tint to it.

"You look beautiful, dear," I said.

No sooner had I spoken than Byte charged over and threw herself against me for a big hug. With my vision I could see she was using energy to maintain the shape, but nowhere near as much as I knew I was going through.

"Though, now I need to make you some dresses."

Byte sent a loud chirp of excitement through ChirpNet.

"How would you all like to help us unpack the car?" I asked.

Rainbow Dash watched us from the doorway, and when I'd finished snuggling all our girls she walked over for her own greeting.

It only took about five minutes to get everything inside, and by then I could almost feel NotABug getting a little bit antsy.

—It's time for your appointment soon?— I asked.

—Yup!— NotABug sent.

My reply was a simple one—I undid my shapechange with a rush of green fire and gave NotABug control of my body. I may have also thrown in an encouraging chirp or two as well for good measure.

The feeling of NotABug moving my body—our body—was not new, but with our changed form everything felt a little different. She stretched and looked back to watch herself as she moved.

"This feels a little different to moving before," NotABug said.

—There's more flexibility. I honestly don't know if we still have bones or not. Perhaps we should organize another afternoon with Twilight?— I asked.

—That might be a good idea,— NotABug sent.

Despite our size and shape being completely alien with regards to intimacy, Rainbow Dash still crouched down and put her arms around NotABug's neck for a hug. After a whole morning of spending my energy to remain shapechanged, it was good to have a meal—and gosh was she tasty.

"You're both hungry?" Rainbow Dash asked between kisses.

"Rarity more than me. I—" NotABug said.

Giggling, NotABug slipped out of Rainbow's hug and walked over to where the newly powered up mobile phones were. I felt the rush of energy building within her before she expelled it onto one of the devices.

It was hard not to get bubbly and excited, and I quickly found myself chirping a lot.

Rainbow caught NotABug in another hug.

"I'll look after them," Rainbow Dash said. "Go to your appointment."

"I'll be able to stay and chat," I said through the television's speakers.

It took barely a thought to abstract myself from our body and rely on the cameras inside the house for my eyes. Those same cameras, I noticed, could supply audio too, but it was annoying to keep track of all those audio streams at once.

A program to combine and adjust them for their position didn't take much work—NotABug was barely out the door before I had it up and running.

"You're still here, Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes, darling, still here."

I was watching the entirety of our home. Rainbow sat on the couch nearest the new egg with one hand touching it, Starling was in the kitchen unpacking boxes from the gun shop, assembling her rifle (the styling of the weapon made it seem much more deadly to my mind than the sub-machineguns the bodyguards Mrs. Velvet had hired, but I knew both would prove dangerous), Byte was in the living room playing games with 'Bee and Bitwise, and the rest of the house was quiet.

A quick check through NotABug's eyes told me she was already pulling out onto the street. As a test, I tried to use some magic to grab a blade of grass outside, but nothing happened. Apparently, there was a range to how far I could reach.

—Were you trying to use magic?— NotABug asked.

—Just seeing how far I could reach. There are limits it seems.—

—Probably another thing we should ask Twilight to help us with.—

—I should probably call her and ask when would be a good time.—

Not wanting to waste a moment, I initiated a call to my friend. After three rings Twilight answered her phone.

"Hello? Rarity?"

"Yes, darling. How are you today, Twilight?"

"Well…" Twilight Sparkle said, dragging out the word. "Someone gave me a whole bunch of new ideas on how to use magic, and now I'm writing my third paper in two weeks. Apart from that, though, it's been quiet."

"There's been some changes, or rather, some things happened."

"What happened tellmeeverything!"

Never underestimate a Twilight's ravenous hunger for knowledge, though I do enjoy using it.

"Why don't you come around tonight and we'll talk about what needs investigating?"

"You're really not going to tell me until then?" Twilight Sparkle asked with a little whine in her voice. "Can I bring some tools?"

"Only passive scanning, dear. Oh, and you may look at our newest egg while you're here, too."

I quickly scrawled a reminder to myself to ask Moon Dancer to stay for dinner and got back to the call.

"You've got another egg?! How often are you—?"

"Twilight, tonight dear. All the questions you want tonight."

"What time?"

"Make it dinner, dear. Six will be fine."

She hung up before we could exchange pleasantries further, which was what I normally expected from a distracted Twilight Sparkle. She was literally the smartest woman I knew, but she was also the most focused and intense, too.

Keeping an eye on the house, I delved into the server and began bringing up my programming environment. NotABug had modified some of my source files complete with little notes as to which were accepted into the beta release of the program—which was now being used by several hundred thousand people.

—Stefanie, if you're not using this already, I'd suggest you do so,— I sent to Stefanie.

I began working while waiting for her reply. The framework for the Sword attack code was mostly complete, I just wanted to write some extra tools for it—payloads.

—Hey, Queeny. What you got?— Stefanie asked.

—This is it. TOR enabled by default.—

Stefanie's client went offline, then came back.

—I can see that it's working. Looks solid. Your the real deal, aincha?— Stefanie asked.

—If by that, darling, you mean to ask if I'll back up what I say, it's true. We also shored up TOR with some extra exit nodes. Big ones.—

—Now your making me feel bad for not trusting you at first. So, how'd the firewall logs go?—

—Well, they showed that while the system worked, it was inches away from failing. I'm working on an upgrade that uses machine learning and ChirpNet itself to coordinated defenses against high-complexity attacks.—

—Your going to network firewalls together to shut out attacks? Rarity, your scary. Your going to put me out of business.—

—Darling, I enjoy chatting, but you need to understand when to use your and when to use you're. Ahem, where was I? Oh yes. Do you want the alpha version of the new firewall? We're thinking of selling this one, so you'll need me to approve it on ChirpNet.—

—Send it to me. What do I need to do for it?—

I sent the working version of the firewall to her.

—At the moment it will literally ask me for help when something attacks it. I'll manage its updates for now, but I plan to have something much more automated configured eventually.—

—No offense, but how are you going to keep up with it? And what if you're asleep?—

—Good points. Okay, I'll swap what I'm doing over lunch to getting a processing client built, and start training a basic AI to analyze your logs.—

—Over lunch?!—

—You'd be surprised at how productive I can be.—

—You know what, whatever. Im not going to question you're word anymore. Gonna go set this up now. Thanks, Rarity.—

It would have been so easy to correct her, but she was baiting me to do it. Instead, I turned back to my work and opened a new environment to start working on the AI side of the firewall.

12:29 P.M.

—Rarity, Mrs. Velvet said she needs you to read and sign an affidavit,— NotABug sent.

—Gimme a few milliseconds,— I sent along with some chirps.

Saving everything, I pulled myself away from my coding work and into our body for a little real-world time.

—Okay, what do I need to do?—

"She's taking over now," NotABug said.

The touch was only gentle, but NotABug moved me forward into control of our body. Our body. I wasn't sure exactly when I started thinking this way, but I liked the ring of it.

"Thank you, NotABug," I said.

She hadn't used any shapechanging at all—or at least she wasn't shapechanged now. I adjusted my neck and looked down at the pile of documents before me.

"What do I need to read and sign?" I asked.

"This is an affidavit stating that you were the only known person involved in NotABug's creation. It will round out the needed documentation required to register her birth and receive a certificate. I'll also need you to sign these three statements that you are the parent of Byte, Bumblebee, and Bitwise. Miss Dash will need to cosign those."

With my magic, I lifted the papers carefully and started reading. I have to admit, reading is now a little bit trivial. My options were either to actually read the page at my full pace or take a photo and deal with it later, of course this time I did the former.

The affidavit was carefully worded to imply that I was at NotABug's birth, but was such that it could cover how NotABug came to be. Phrases like "came into the world" and "quickened" were rife, but it all made sense.

A second per page was all it took, and soon I was done with the whole thing. Setting the papers back on the desk, I signed the bottom of each page and again at the end.

"What's the next step after this?" I asked.

"If they send us a birth certificate, I'll immediately file for emancipation. If they challenge it—which they probably will—I'll have to take them to court. If the latter happens, I'll slip the emancipation application in as part of it."

Signing our daughter's birth registrations gave me a wonderful feeling. By the time the third was done, however, I couldn't help giggling and chirping.

"We'll need a fourth," I said.

"How often will you be—How best to put this? How often will you be expecting?"

"When we're not gallivanting around different worlds or trying to save them?" I asked. "One to two nymphs every day or two."

"I hope you plan to curtail that before too long. It's not that having a big family is a bad idea, but how big is too big?"

—She's right,— NotABug sent. —We need to work out how to feed without producing more eggs.—

—Well, me spending most of the morning shapechanged kept me from doing it. Maybe Rainbow had it right with exercise being the best thing ever?—

—So we both just have to keep using our magic each day to stop a buildup?—

—I think that will work. Let's try it. I'll keep using my energy up, and you try to just stick to normal. I think I remember Twilight talking about this kind of testing. Oh! That reminds me. Twilight will be coming over for dinner tonight to talk about where to go from here.—

"We have an idea we're going to try. Also, we'll be asking your daughter for more ideas," I said.

A little smile pulled at one corner of Twilight Velvet's mouth. She let out a sigh and nodded.

"I never thought my daughter's chosen path in life would intersect my professional obligations, but I'm sure she'll do her very best to help," Twilight Velvet said. "In your best interests, of course, I looked into your new friend's background. A fairly normal history, honorable discharge."

How to respond to such a declaration I had no idea. I simply nodded and hoped she'd move on.

"Well, that's all the paperwork I need from you. I'll have NotABug take the applications for your children home to have Rainbow Dash sign them. I've got high hopes for these," Twilight Velvet said.

A data packet arrived via ChirpNet that, after a quick poke, revealed it was from the router software I'd given Stefanie. It wasn't Suri/Windigo, but it was obviously an attempted probe. I told the router to drop the packets similar to it.

"Then I'll leave you two to it?" I asked.

At Mrs. Velvet's nod I nudged NotABug. The changeover was one of our smoothest yet.

—Time for more coding!— I sent.

—Have fun!—

It was the first time I realized I actually did have fun writing computer code. I made a string of happy chirps and dove back into my work.

Within an hour I had the system up and running, and I had it serving requests from several of the machines I'd installed the firewall on. There weren't a lot of legitimate attacks going on, though there were a lot of people prodding at ports—the firewall quickly put a stop to that.

—Mom! It's almost 2 P.M.!— Byte sent. —When are we going to go and pick up Moon Dancer?—

1:40 P.M.

I checked NotABug's surroundings and found her on her way to the front door of Mrs. Velvet's home.

—Yes, darling, we'll be there soon,— I sent.

—I'm ready when you are,— Moon Dancer sent.

Letting loose a few happy chirps, I once again tried to examine what my relationship was with Moon Dancer. She wasn't one of my nymphs physically, but in every way but that she felt like she belonged to our family.

Regardless, I could no more steer my own emotions than I could a freight train. Okay, that may be a bad analogy—with all my magic I might be able to derail a train.

—Is your meeting over?— I asked NotABug.

—Yup! We have applications started for all our nymphs, and Mrs. Velvet said she'd get paperwork drawn up for more. How many should we have?— NotABug asked.

—Why don't we test out ideas for slowing ourselves down, then see how things go?—

NotABug nudged me, and from one step to the next I was steering our body again. I stopped walking in the doorway and turned to face Twilight Velvet.

"Thank you, Mrs. Velvet, for doing all this for NotABug, and for me too," I said.

"You're quite welcome, Rarity. To be perfectly honest, it's a welcome change to be working for someone who I can honestly say is a good person. I won't lie, being a lawyer often means working at the behest of people I'd rather not. This? This is more than refreshing, this is exciting. When this is resolved, there will likely be new laws in place because of the groundwork I'm laying. Working for you, Rarity, is a heady cocktail."

—MOM! Why's it taking so long?— Byte asked.

—She's talking to Mrs. Velvet, Byte. Wait until she's finished,— NotABug sent.

I admit to being a little surprised by NotABug's disciplinary statement—surprised and pleased. I sent a brace of chirps and a hug to NotABug.

—She needs to understand time moves differently. Hopefully her interactions with others online will remind her the pace the world works at is not the pace we work at,— NotABug sent to me.

Squeezing NotABug into another digital hug, I gave Twilight Velvet some further pleasantries and made my way home to find Byte waiting out the front of the house.

—I can't fault her excitement, but I'm surprised she didn't jump through Twilight's computer so we didn't have to go home,— I sent to NotABug.

—She's too excited, I think. Look at her bouncing from foot to foot.—

Byte rushed over to the car as I pulled up, opened the door, and jumped inside.

"In a bit of a hurry, dear?" I asked.

"Mom!"

—Moon, dear, we're on our way,— I sent.

—Rarity, does this feel odd to you?— Moon Dancer asked me.

The direct message back was hardly surprising, I'd just asked myself that question, after all.

—Only a little. I can't pretend to understand how I feel, but I feel like you're important and part of our family. I'm sorry if that makes you feel uncomfortable,— I sent back.

—That's what's odd about it, it doesn't feel odd. My parents aren't with us anymore, and I know we were in the same classes in high school, but you feel like Mom felt.—

My heart ached for her. I was just about to respond when another message came through on the heels of the last.

—I like having family in my life again,— Moon Dancer sent.

I reached out to her through the secure connection ChirpNet gave me and hugged her. Moon seemed surprised at first, but after just a few milliseconds she hugged back. Her soft chirps told me everything I needed to know.

Words weren't needed, but I did need to keep flicking my attention back to the road.

—Time moves so much different like this,— Moon Dancer sent.

—It does. Have you tried working on the server yet?—

An excited chirp from Moon made me chirp in response. Equestrian changelings were really missing out.

—Have I? I finished all my object oriented project, and I did some code reviews on the things you've been working on. I'm copying your comment system.—

Her chirping picked up pace and I could detect a lot of excitement from it.

—I'm glad you liked it.—

—The only downside is I don't think anyone else will be able to appreciate it. Most editors don't work with the color changes you built into it.—

—Yes, but my editor does. Besides, it makes code look pretty. Aesthetic is important.—

—Wait, are you driving?!—

I could appreciate her concern, and I loved the worried little chirps she made.

—Yes. I dedicate some time to it, so don't worry.—

That's when something occurred to me. I was in my normal human form (with an adorable skirt and shirt), but I wasn't using any magic.

—You're using up love?— I asked NotABug.

—Yup! I'll let you know when I am getting low.—

Flooding NotABug with thankful chirping, I returned my full focus to driving. The trip to the college dorms wasn't long, and when I got there Moon Dancer was waiting out front with a black computer case beside her.

"We should have brought the van," I said.

Byte squirmed her way into the back of the car, and Moon opened the door to pass the infected PC back to her.

"I'm utterly at a loss. I tried to start it up and clean that—thing—off it, but it's like there's no OS on it. I couldn't even get into the EFI!"

"Windigo is quite destructive in its—in her methods. I had a chance to inspect her work in my car's entertainment system. My only option was to force a reset and let it load back up from the ROM."

"So what are you going to do with it?"

"Mom's gonna take it apart—Take Windigo apart!" Byte said.

"Essentially," I said, "Yes."

"Have you ever done something like this—? Oh right, you said it got into your car. That must have sucked," Moon Dancer said.

"It's why I shut off the WiFi and Bluetooth when I park. Now, did Byte send you a list of parts?"

"Yes, and while it's a good system, I have some improvements. The motherboard wasn't the best brand, so I swapped that for…"

I tuned out of the conversation—actually just recorded it—while I pulled the car out and started driving for the mall.

Reviewing my day and what I had lined up for the week, I promised myself to swing past my boutique—my boutique!—and take a look at what the workers have done.

—I'm so excited for our boutique!— I sent.

I got a load of various chirping back, which was the best indication I could have gotten that I hadn't sent that directly to NotABug.

—It'll be great!— Rainbow Dash sent.

—That was quick, darling. Hanging on my every word?— I asked.

—Taking photos of our egg.—

There wasn't a lot else she could have said that would have made me even happier. I chirped uncontrollably and with absolute abandon. A quick glance at our security cameras showed me that she was indeed taking pictures of our next little girl.

—I love you, darling,— I sent.

The cameras weren't fast enough to catch Rainbow's movements, but apparently her phone was.

—Love you too, Rares.—

"Wait, you're going to the mall?" Moon Dancer asked. "No, no, no. None of the computer shops in there will have anything useful. There's this place nearby that's tons better."

"Well, dear, lead on. Can you send me the address?"

A burst of data from Moon and a slight detour later, and we were parked at what looked like a medium-sized store that, given the computers and displays in the window, insisted they’d live up to Moon's promise.

Byte practically leapt out of the car and raced over to the window. She looked down along the row of machines, then back at me.

"None of these are any good. Let's try somewhere else."

"Byte!" Moon Dancer said. "Those are just their basic machines, the pre-builds. They have the good stuff inside."

Turning to look up (only slightly, but still definitely up) at Moon, Byte looked amazed.

What intrigued me was their wireless network. There appeared to be two different networks established, one of them was named FreeWiFi, the other was password protected. I poked at the password protected one, but all the usual passwords failed to get me onto it.

"Mom, can we go inside?" Byte asked.

"So long as you don't touch or connect to anything unless Moon Dancer says you can," I said.

It was impossible to keep the smile out of my voice. It seemed like it had been far too long without such smiles, and I realized that a holiday without my children wasn't a holiday at all.

"Come on, Byte. I love your disguise, by the way," Moon Dancer said.

I followed the pair inside, and the moment the door chime went off, someone approached us with a friendly smile. The young woman had a broad smile that reminded me of Pinkie Pie’s. She was wearing black slacks and a dark-gray shirt—when I looked around, I saw another man wearing the same stuff. Her skin tone was completely wrong for the dark colors. She was a pale pink (probably another reason I thought of Pinkie) with a shock of light-blue hair. Minimal makeup finished her look, though I imagine that was probably required with her uniform.

"Welcome to Computer Warehouse. What can I help you with today?"

"Hey, Icy, don't sweat it, we're shopping for…" Moon Dancer said.

She turned to look at me after the familiar greeting to the other woman.

"How many are we getting?" Moon Dancer asked.

I pondered, and decided that it was better to err on the side of caution. Besides, if worst came to worst we could always use a spare as the basis for an egg.

"Make it three," I said. "And we need some other bits and pieces too."

—NotABug, dear, what else did we need to get?—

—Just a bunch of wireless mesh networking WiFi units, and a managed switch, if they have one. Oh, and an extra router.—

"Right. Rarity, if you want to browse for the things you need, I'll get started on the computer parts," Moon Dancer said.

Her tone was a lot more confident. I wondered if it were because this was somewhere she'd been before, or if Moon Dancer felt safer with family around. Something to think about later.

"Absolutely, dear," I said.

Turning, I began browsing the shelves. The first thing that hit me was how many input devices there were. Mice, keyboards, graphics tablets, trackballs, joysticks, pedals, and more. Output seemed just as varied with screens, speakers, VR headsets, and even one of the fancy hologram projectors I remembered someone lending Fluttershy one year.

All the interfaces were redundant and useless. I had no desire for any, yet the graphics tablets seemed to call to me. I'd always been one for sketching things, and I still had hands sometimes. I hesitated for not a second and picked one up.

"You want what?!" Icy-something asked.

I turned my head to look over at the trio discussing things at the front counter. Moon Dancer looked entirely too happy with herself, Byte looked to be excited just to meet new people (let alone be buying the parts for her computer), and the saleswoman looked shocked.

—Does she want reassurance that we'll pay?— I asked.

—No. She's just used to me haggling for every part and arguing over the performance of one or another. I like being thrifty, but you said you were paying…— Moon Dancer sent.

The ellipsis bothered me. Was she asking me how much I would pay, or was she questioning if I would at all?

—Moon, is something wrong?— I asked.

—Honestly? Yes. How can you just give me a blank check and tell me you'll buy whatever I want? What if I wanted a half-a-million dollar server rack?—

—Well, that would need a specialty order, and we'd need somewhere to install it, but we could do that if you'd prefer it?—

A hundred or so milliseconds passed before I got any hint of a reply.

—You've called people's bluffs like that before?—

—Yes. It's been effective, though one person upped the ante to the point we would have become highly visible to anyone watching financial circles should we have gone through with it. As it is, however, I could get you your own server if you wished?—

—I don't mind sharing. Thanks, Rarity.—

—You're welcome, dear. We'll probably be upgrading the server shortly. NotABug purchased a house nearby to mine, and we're fitting out the basement as a little datacenter.—

—A house?—

—Yes. Would you like one?—

—When I graduate. I don't want any more stress added onto this.—

I tried to ignore the conversation that had grown a little louder. Walking through the aisles of computer parts, I felt a kinship with them. It was weird but at the same time right. Suri/Windigo were the enemy of not just the living but also machines.

When I finally reached the networking devices, I needed to start doing research. First of all was finding out what NotABug had meant by mesh, then when I found out that was a peer-to-peer wireless network, I moved on to looking at the particular brands that they had. There was only one brand on their shelves that did what I wanted, and they had two models.

After reading a few comparisons between the two, I reached out and picked up all six they had on the shelf. Now with my arms full, I followed my ears to the front counter and set the networking equipment (and my tablet) on the counter, turned, and headed back to find the other things.

"Is your friend alright?" Icy asked.

"That's my mom. She's just getting stuff for my other mom," Byte said.

I felt a moment of shock. Actually, there was a second or two of shock—which was a lot for me.

"Oh. Cool. She's paying, I take it?" Icy asked.

—What do I tell her? Icy's going to want a story. We chat too much for her not to,— Moon Dancer asked.

—I wanted a computer for my daughter, and in payment for you organizing it, I'm getting you one too. Don't try to explain why I'd pay so much for your help, I'll happily play the part of rich woman who just doesn't care,— I sent.

—You know what? I'm not even surprised you found a use for high school drama class, Rarity.—

My reply was a raspberry-like chirp.

Finding myself back in the right aisle for networking equipment, I looked through their network switches—researching them as I went—and realized we absolutely weren't going to find a managed one here.

—They don't have managed switches here. Is there somewhere in town you know will have one?— I asked NotABug.

The prospect of more shopping certainly wasn't a turn-off, but I was sure my companions would want to be dropped home with their new things.

—It's okay. I'll order one to be express shipped. That shouldn't take long,— NotABug sent.

—Perhaps get two, darling?—

—Good idea. Thank you for trying, Rarity. I love you.—

—And I love you too, NotABug.—

—Mrs. Velvet said I'll need to change my name, at least officially. I picked Nora Bug.—

Memories of NotABug's earlier ambivalence to the idea of being called a bug abounded.

—You're okay with that?—

—Yeah. It turned out I just need to be told I wasn't an actual bug six thousand times before it sank in.—

We both chirped in mirthful glee.

—They had the mesh WiFi devices, and I can see a router from here. Anything specific you need in that?—

—Something good, and a few of them.—

It didn't take a lot of searching to find what I wanted. There were two different routers that were lauded for their quality, however one of them used an open-source system that would let me load on my own firewall. That didn't make it a choice at all.

I grabbed up all four of the ones on the shelf and set about heading to the front counter with them. On the counter were two growing piles of parts, and beside them was my modest pile of networking equipment and my tablet.

Sauntering up, I set the routers beside my other things.

"Two? You don't think getting a spare is a good idea? I've heard they can be ever so much trouble," I said.

—You can assuage my fears if you want. It would give your friend a moment to pick her jaw up,— I sent.

"I-I'm pretty sure this will be fine, Mrs. R. You won't have a problem with this computer," Moon Dancer said.

—Mrs. R?— I asked.

—Cut me some slack. I improvised,— Moon Dancer sent.

—Mrs. R's Fine Fashion!— Byte sent.

Then it hit me. Mrs. Try as I might, I couldn't hyperventilate for a few hundred milliseconds no matter how shocked, awed, delighted, and excited I felt. Now if only I could get Rainbow and NotABug to think that way. Perhaps I could/should/would bring it up later?

"Well, I'll take your word for it, dear. I quite liked the look of a few of these. My friend, Fluttershy, said these ones were what she used. She got four of them and solved all her problems with not getting reception in her house. I figure six should do the job for my home," I said.

"Mrs. R has a big house, Icy. We have a deal—she buys the stuff, I set it up, and I get a computer out of it. And after what happened to my old one—" Moon Dancer said.

"The old one?" Icy asked. "You only got that at the start of the year! It was only a few months old! What did you do to it?"

"I—uh—there was a brownout. Cooked everything."

Moon Dancer looked at me with concern on her face. That she didn't mention a word of Windigo or Suri made me glad.

"Oh yeah. I heard about that. Had a few others coming in with shot power supplies and network cards. Guess you got the worst of it, huh?" Icy asked.

"Yeah. Lucky me."

"Do you have everything? I'm not seeing a screen, keyboard, mouse, or camera on any of these," I said.

There were other parts missing. I could see that she didn't have one of the solid state drives that Byte had put on her list, but I didn't want to break character too far.

"We're getting to those. We both need different types of keyboards, screens, and even mice. It's a gaming thing," Byte said.

I realized I hadn't heard Byte speak much. I looked at her and came to the quick conclusion that she was overwhelmed.

—Are you alright, dear?— I asked Byte.

—It feels odd standing like this and talking so slowly all the time. How do you do it?— Byte asked me.

—Think of it the other way around. The world isn't moving slow, we are moving fast. You can out-think and out-react everyone. Just try not to talk over people too much.—

—Thanks, Mom. I'll try to handle it more. It's a little like when I was streaming on Twilight's computer. It was more fun then, though, because there were so many people to talk with at once.—

—Then do something else at the same time. I've poked at their private WiFi a few times, why not give it a try guessing the key?—

Byte sent a giggling chirp. It was the sweetest sound my girls could make, and I never got tired of it.

—q8ZUk7VXhq,— Byte sent.

I began testing it right away, it would take a few moments to connect.

—You already got it?— I asked.

—Why do you think I'm so anxious now?—

The connection came up and I saw… nothing. There was an internet connection, but apart from the details of the gateway, I couldn't see anything else.

—Segregated network?—

—Yup. Nothing fun on there except for the hidden file server. 10.1.1.200.—

I tried poking at it, tested the WiFi password, and got connected. Only then did I find the server—or at least that login—was read-only.

—Careful, Mom, you can't brute force the password on this or it will raise a warning.—

I hadn't been paying as much attention to the real world as I should. When I checked the clock, twenty seconds had passed. Moon Dancer was looking at me strange, so I played back the last few seconds to work out what happened.

—Byte, we've been caught,— I sent.

The other shop assistant had walked up behind me and, clearly, had asked if I knew anything about some odd connections on his WiFi.

I slowly turned around to face the man. Green hair slicked back, olive skin that gave him a vaguely floral look, and the same uniform Icy wore.

"Oh! That would be the app my daughter put on my phone. She said it would get me internet access anywhere there was a network," I said. "Byte, dear, does that sound like something your little program does?"

—Act nervous and agree. Look really sorry. We need to hide what we did,— I sent to Byte.

"S-Sorry. I was doing a project for school, and—and it works really good!" Byte said.

The man's eyes flicked to Icy behind us, then he let out a sigh.

"Please turn it off. All you'll find on our private network is a bunch of sick computers. You're fine to use the public WiFi," the man said. "Sorry for the confusion."

I made a point of pulling a mobile phone from my purse and tapping the screen a few times. The man seemed content because he turned and began walking back to the service counter.

—That was close,— Byte sent along with a swarm of giggling chirps.

I replied in kind—chirp wise.

—I guess we should be a little more careful around places where actually tech-savvy people are,— I sent.

—What are you two talking about? What did you do to his network?— Moon Dancer asked.

—Nothing!— Byte and I both sent at nearly exactly the same moment.

The conversation devolved into more chirping that acted like a feedback loop. I was lucky I was shapechanged or I might have chirped out loud.

For the remainder of the shopping trip, Byte and I kept clear of the WiFi. Byte and Moon picked themselves their peripherals, and in no time I was swiping my card through their reader that had a lot of zeroes on it. It took my pin and beeped happily.

I was now confronted with a problem, however.

"There's too many things to fit in my car. I'll have to call Rainbow to bring the minivan," I said.

Making a point of pulling my phone out, I ran through all the steps of a fake phone call. All while I sent a simple message.

—Rainbow, we have too much shopping to bring home in my car. We need the van, darling,— I sent.

—Are you sure I couldn't bring my car? You'll all fit in your car, so you only need to get your stuff onto the back seat and it'll be fine,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—In her car she'll get here faster,— Byte sent.

—It's totally true!— Rainbow Dash sent.

—How many cars do you have?!— Moon Dancer asked.

—Well, we have one each, technically,— I sent. —I have my car, Rainbow has her car, and NotABug did pay for the van in a round-about fashion, so that can be her car.—

—We need to get one of those ones that has self-driving stuff. Then we could operate it remotely,— NotABug sent.

—I'm fairly sure the police would get upset about that,— Moon Dancer sent.

—Rainbow, darling, can you please bring some car here? I think we upset the owner, though he seems calmer after he heard the card machine beep,— I sent.

—Yeah yeah. On my way,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—I love that diction, by the way,— I sent to Rainbow Dash.

—Some girls get off on snuggles, others on driving really fast, but both of mine like grammar. I'll be there in ten seconds flat.—

—I hope you're exaggerating.—

—Maybe.—

I replied with a loving chirp I hoped would bridge the language barrier.

"Darling? Yes, I need you to bring your car over, we can't fit all of our shopping in my car," I said and paused a moment. "Oh yes, that's fine. Thank you. Love you too."

—You love putting on a show,— NotABug sent.

—Of course. Life is a runway, darling, everyone is watching all the time. What are your thoughts on getting one of those cars that does self driving, then we just do the driving ourselves?— I asked.

—That'd be great! We could drive without even being in them!—

—Well, we could, but I think it would be safer if we only drove while in them. What color should we get?—

—Black goes with everything.—

I loved that she not only knew that but it was her first response. I was tempted to say white, to match my skin tone, but I remembered that skin color was no longer fixed in any way, shape, or form. Though I agreed with her, I wondered if something else might work too.

—Absolutely correct, though silver could be a nice backdrop,— I sent.

—But what if we were wearing light colors? It would overshadow everything with its brightness.—

—You're right, of course. Very well, a black one.—

—You were using devil's advocate, weren't you? Making me question my own choice to help me affirm it better. You knew black was the best choice for us.—

—Given how prone we are to wearing different things and looking completely different, I'd say it's a fair bet. What do you think of Byte's shyness? I think it was more a case of her struggling to behave slowly in the real world.—

NotABug sent some chirps that seemed to imply she was thinking.

—More exposure would help, but I don't want to force her to spend time interacting with people if she really doesn't want to,— NotABug sent.

—What about having her work in my boutique? Make sure she knows she can refuse, but that it would help both of us.—

—We could do that with all our nymphs. There's no reason why they can't spend a little time learning about the world by living in it, once they have enough love to shape-shift.—

—That is a great idea! How do you think the shopfitters have done?—

—Well, you could take a look on the way home, but I think if you took any path that wasn't completely direct, Byte might mutiny.—

I couldn't help but give a giggling chirp at the idea and hugged NotABug.

—You always know how to make me laugh. I'll figure something out, even if it's just driving past in the street.—

—Mom, the lady asked you if you wanted help carrying your things,— Byte sent.

A quick playback of what I'd heard confirmed Byte's message.

"That would be wonderful, thank you. Hopefully Rainbow won't be too long," I said.

High-speed chatting was strange in how it happened in bursts. Now I stood trying to look bored without actually being bored, for nearly two whole minutes before the sound of a revving engine let me know my darling was here.

"Mom!" Byte said.

Byte abandoned her computer parts and raced outside, leaving Moon and myself looking at each other with knowing smiles.

"I heard you tell Integra you wanted help getting your things out," the man from earlier asked.

Surprising me, he picked up a stack of parts without another word and started carrying them outside. I quickly grabbed a load myself and followed him.

We loaded the back seat of Rainbow's car up with boxes of computer parts and I thanked the man and woman for their help with buying what we needed. The ride home included a slight detour.

"Mom, where are we going?" Byte asked.

The problem with my children was that it was impossible to distract them from real world things without stimulating them completely within the digital world.

"Just taking a little detour to look at how my boutique is coming. The company said it would be ready by the end of today."

"Oh! But our computers will already be at home by the time we get there. What if 'Bee and Bit use them first?"

—'Bee, Bitwise, Rainbow's bringing a pile of computer bits home, could you please leave them alone until Moon has a chance to build them?— I asked.

Two acknowledging chirps were my only reply—both seemed completely focused on their own tasks.

I was about to reply to Byte aloud when I realized we were in the right street and almost at the boutique, or future boutique.

There were trucks parked on the street outside, and a large trash bin, but I could look past that at the beautiful store they were painting the insides of.

It was happening. It was really happening. My boutique was almost ready to open, and I felt like sewing!

NotABug had been keeping my shapechange up for the afternoon so far. At home I didn't need to use it, but I could reduce my magic in other ways.

Now that we were on the way home, Byte was quiet again, though I could sense much data chatter coming out of both her and Moon. I pulled up in the driveway to find Rainbow already carrying boxes of parts inside.

As always, I shut down the car's wireless before turning it off.

Before I could help, Byte and Moon raced over to Rainbow's car and liberated more boxes. I walked over too and looked at the awkward ones still inside.

—Dear, would you mind undoing your shapechange?— I asked NotABug.

—All done? My reserves were getting a little low. It's a great way to use up all our energy!—

Fire swirled around me and stole my clothes and human form. My arms turned to forelegs and planted themselves on the ground while I stretched into my true shape. Walking was easier, moving was more joyous, and I could twist in ways that would wake a gymnast green with envy. I was bug.

Power rushed up my horn at my merest thought, and I lifted all the remaining boxes out of Rainbow's car with my magic. Four big boxes and a mess of little ones followed me in a parade as I headed inside.

At the doorway Rainbow met me, raised an eyebrow at my show of magic and leaned down to kiss my cheek.

At the last moment I tilted my head up and turned it. Catching Rainbow Dash in a more intimate kiss was wonderful, thought I had to keep carrying the things inside, so it was brief.

"You really know how to say hello, don'tcha?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I'll say a lot more than hello, Rainbow. I better take these things inside or the horde will come looking for them. Thank you again, darling."

Despite 'Bee and Bitwise's earlier dismissal, they seemed just as excited about the new parts as Byte was. Moon Dancer, too, was excited, though she had a determined aura around her—unsurprising given what she was about to work with.

"Here's your other things, dears," I said.

"Thanks, Mom," Moon Dancer said.

Moon froze, blushed, and looked like she was about to explode or die of embarrassment.

—Moon, breathe. It's alright. Honestly, I'm flattered.—

—But I didn't mean to… And I just kinda felt… But I don't want to give the impression…—

I walked over to Moon, while she kept sending more confused messages, and leaned myself against her side. I regretted shapechanging back for a moment (seeing as how that made me smaller than her), but when her arms wrapped around my neck it didn't matter.

"You're alright, and you're not alone, Moon. You have sisters, and if you want to call me Mom, I'm okay with that too. You still carry something of my daughter inside you."

"I cried for a week. I cried until I had to go to hospital because I was so dehydrated. It felt like the world crumbled around me, and I couldn't see a future anymore," Moon Dancer said. "B-But I see one now."

Sitting down, I pulled Moon closer with my magic and wrapped one foreleg around her shoulder. She cried, she chirped, and I felt terrified for her. I wanted to wrap her up and tell her it would all be okay, I wanted it to all be okay too, of course, but Moon Dancer had been dropped into this without her even getting a say.

I couldn't fix things. I couldn't use magic to make everything "better". What I could do was hug Moon while she cried and simply accept her.

Her tears lasted nearly fifteen minutes, and she kept hugging me for five more after that. Byte, thankfully, kept herself busy opening boxes and carefully carrying the parts into the kitchen.

When Moon Dancer finally let go, she looked exactly like she'd spent fifteen minutes crying against a bug monster's shoulder. I stood up and used my magic to take her hand.

"W-What are you doing?" Moon Dancer asked.

"You need a shower and a change of clothes. Come along."

I gave her no excuses and she offered me none. I led her through to the bathroom and left her to freshen herself up.

With that taken care of, I rushed through to my sewing room and my magic flared to life. There was something more important than money, my boutique, or even the Suri/Windigo problem—Moon Dancer needed something that would make her feel better.

Her colors were autumn, and I still had some bolts of fabric that would work for her.

My magic fractured into a dozen hands. I cut, sewed, hand-stitched, and measured out more fabric for additional outfits. By the time I heard the water shut off in the bathroom I had one outfit completed and two more half-done.

I was amazed by how well I could hear things with my buggy ears. They mostly stayed folded back, but even without the ponies' directed hearing I could hear Moon Dancer dry herself off and let out a sigh.

—Are you done in there, dear? I have something for you,— I sent.

—Oh! Uh, almost. I just have to get dressed and I'll be right out.—

—Hold off on getting dressed for a moment. Here.—

I floated the dress across to the bathroom using the cameras in the house to guide it. I knocked politely and slipped the dress in through the crack Moon opened.

—Rarity! You just made this?!—

—Put it on and let me see how it looks on you.—

Still working on the other outfits, I didn't pay attention to her until the door opened again and Moon Dancer came running out. The cameras in the hallway caught her movement in perfect detail. I was turning toward her as she rushed into my sewing room and wrapped her arms around me again.

"This is amazing, Rarity. How'd you make it so fast?” Moon asked and looked around the room to see multiple items floating in my magic. “Oh.”

"Alright, I can start to answer that last one on my own. You're still amazing," Moon Dancer said.

"You understand I'll need to get some more fabric to make some things in other shades, but until then I insist I finish you a blouse and skirt in matching colors."

"I could gush further about how amazing this is, but I think Byte will explode if I don't go and build her computer. Excuse me."

I knew Moon had reached the kitchen by the flood of chirping that poured over ChirpNet. Turning my full attention back to my work, I started new outfits for different palettes. I didn't realize until I'd spent the whole afternoon making outfits that I'd subconsciously based the colors off my high school friends.

5:48 P.M.

The time didn't surprise me—I'd watched it pour by while I worked. I stretched my limbs and sent a curious chirp out through ChirpNet, but also chirped more than a moderate amount in the real world. I'd spent a whole afternoon doing what I loved most.

I'd managed ten outfits in various color patterns and set each one hanging up while I let my magic cool off. Walking out of my sewing room, I saw the door to my former hat room was open. Inside I found Byte and Moon on their respective computers, each machine with its own large desk. Brand new desks.

"Hold on a second, my mom's just finished work," Byte said into a microphone.

My eldest daughter (not counting Moon Dancer) turned in a comfortable-looking chair to look at me. She beamed brightly and jumped from her chair to run across the room to me. Green fire enveloped her mid-run and turned her back to her adorable buggy self. Not that her shapechanged form wasn't cute, but I guess you could say I had a thing for how my daughters actually looked.

"I made a lot of friends, and they want to pay me so they can watch me play! I'd do it for free, but Moon said they'd get suspicious of a streamer who doesn't ask for subs. They're all much more tasty once they're happy, too!" Byte said.

Stretching one leg around my little girl, I lifted her up for a proper snuggle against my neck. There was a rush of love from her, like a jolt, and I felt like I suddenly had more reserve than I did before my sewing.

"Did you just—?" I asked.

"Well, you were using up energy all afternoon, and you did some of it to get me my computer, so I thought I'd share some," Byte said.

I was flabbergasted. My little girl was feeding quite well indeed. I kissed the bridge of her snout.

"You don't need to share, dear. I have plenty of love all around me, but mostly in Rainbow."

Byte nuzzled under my chin and clung to me like an adorable little barnacle.

"I like sharing. Besides, what am I going to do with it all?"

"You could share it with your sisters," I said. "We're going to have more, you know."

"Byte, they're asking where you went. I told them—Oh! Hi, Rarity," Moon Dancer said.

She'd only noticed me when she turned around in her chair. I set Byte back down, only for her to scamper up to her seat and shapechange as she reached it.

"Mid-game, I take it?" I asked.

"Y-Yeah. I did my homework for college in—What?!" Moon Dancer asked. "What do you mean they—I'm coming to fix it. Sorry, Rarity, gotta get back to the game."

"Okay, I'm back. What's happening?" Byte asked.

I could see both of them had sunk back into their game world, so I turned for the door and saw Rainbow grinning like a fool.

"I had to get them some desks and chairs, but they promised to keep the room clean, so I figured it was time well spent. How was your afternoon?"

Rainbow Dash was well aware of what made me weak at the knees, which is probably why she reached down and picked me up. Changeling queens might be a lot of things, but when they're on their back being carried by someone giving off enough love for a dozen changelings to feast on, they are not elegant—though they are quite chirpy.

"Dresses, a vest, and some gorgeous blouses. I think I have enough things to arrange an opening for Wednesday," I said.

"Oh?"

"Well, I need to get the finer things sorted. Fresh flowers, a stocked refrigerator, and snacks, but if I spend another afternoon like that I'll have plenty of things to cover mannequins."

"That's all stuff for tomorrow. What do you want to do now?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Twilight's coming over. I want her advice on some things, and promised she could look at our latest egg. I wanted her opinion on more eggs, and what will happen with Moon."

"More eggs? How many are you going to lay? Err, make?"

"Exactly the problem. So I inv—"

I spotted Twilight's car roll up out front.

"She's here," I said.

Twilight didn't even have a chance to knock on the door. Using my magic, I unlocked and opened the door to welcome her inside, only to see her loaded up with things in both arms, and more equipment floating behind her in purple clouds of magic.

"Hope you don't mind, but I grabbed every piece of non-invasive test gear I had—that was portable. I wanted to be ready for everything!" Twilight Sparkle said.

She was blushing and grinning almost from ear to ear. This wasn't an embarrassed Twilight, though, this was a Twilight who knew there was going to be science done.

"Darling, perfectly fine. Just know that if you bring technology in, there is a slight chance it will become an egg itself. When the urge to make an egg comes, sometimes finding the right piece of equipment is not something we can stop to do."

Twilight's eyes widened into saucers as if I'd just awarded her a Nobel Prize.

"That would be amazing! Could you do that?!"

There weren't many people who could completely silence me with surprise. Princess Luna had done it, and come to think of it her human counterpart had managed it too, but Twilight Sparkle had just joined the short list.

"You want me to create an egg in one of your pieces of equipment?"

"Yes!"

"Well," Rainbow Dash said, "If I gave you a big hug, and charged you right up, you'd probably make one, right?"

I delivered the best dramatic sigh I could.

"Which brings me to a particular topic I wanted to talk about. How many changelings are too many, and how should NotABug and I keep from reaching that point?"

"Huh. That's actually a good point. If what Rainbow said is right, you make more eggs with readily available food. Normally, this would be a huge worry for—uh—insect species. You see, you're the only one making eggs, which means this is more like a nest of wasps than it is a whole species. Without knowing the life-expectancy of your kind, it's hard to say what number your species will stabilize at."

"Exactly what I thought," I said. "Well, mostly what I thought. We're experimenting to avoid getting full enough to make an egg."

Twilight's eyes widened again. I wondered briefly if I could make her actually pass out from mentioning science too much.

I noticed movement in the room Byte and Moon were in and watched both of them seem to wake from a dream and push their chairs back from their desks. Okay, it was time to test my theory.

"Twilight, there was one other thing," I said.

I could see Moon step into the hall behind Twilight. Moon stared at Twilight for a moment before resuming her walk toward the living room.

"When we were recovering in Equestria—after the confrontation with… We didn't tell you about that, huh?" I asked.

"You didn't tell me any of it! Tell me everything! Leave nothing out!" Twilight Sparkle said.

"Don't worry, Moon, I'm going to order pizza," Rainbow Dash said.

Rainbow stepped away from Twilight and me, leaving me to explain everything solo—which I did. By the time I got to the part where we came back to Earth, the pizza had arrived.

It was only when Twilight had a slice of pizza in her hand and was distracted from science that she noticed Moon was sitting in the living room with her.

"Moon Dancer? What're you doing here?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

Moon looked to me before back to Twilight.

"That's a bit of a long story, but I guess I'm the best for telling this one," Moon Dancer said.

Carrying a slice of pizza with her magic, Bitwise sat down beside Moon and looked up at her big sister. It was just about the most adorable thing I'd seen all day.

"I can help!" Bitwise said. "The big meanie was being mean—that's Windigo—and we were both just hatched. Aunt Sweetie caught me, but my sister ran away."

"She ran all the way into me. She didn't—We don't know exactly what happened, but I had a rush of blue light and I absorbed my mobile phone," Moon Dancer said.

"Can you still talk to her, like Rarity can with NotABug?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

When we all shook our heads, Twilight seemed to shrink back a little from her excitement.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I just—"

"Twilight," I said. "I invited you here to ask questions and help us understand things a little better. We're not going to ask you to stop if we don't like the questions."

She seemed to understand what I was trying to say. She reached into one pocket and pulled out her phone, then the other and pulled out a little lapel mic. Pinning the mic to her shirt, Twilight fiddled with her phone.

"Okay, recording. One, two, three. Got it. Okay, so the first thing we discussed was egg production and the potential for restricting population growth to preserve the ecosystem—err, human race. Rarity related to me the weekend's events from her perspective, then Moon Dancer and—" Twilight Sparkle said.

"Her name's Bitwise," Moon Dancer said.

"Moon Dancer and Bitwise (one of Rarity, NotABug, and Rainbow Dash's daughters) related how things happened from theirs. The result is that Sunset Shimmer is still in Equestria with her husband Flash Sentry. The Suri Polomare-Windigo hybrid seems to be mastering its environments here on Earth, and chased an unnamed changeling nymph into Moon Dancer. The merger seems to have been destructive in a tragic manner, but has resulted in a more stable result than with Rarity and NotABug.

"For the moment we are discussing the implications of the merger on Moon Dancer, and what likelihood there will be for an unstable chain reaction of transformation. But first, I'm going to eat some pizza."

—Do you want to talk to her?— I asked NotABug.

—I think you have it all covered. I was just teaching 'Bee about programming. She really likes your coloring system.—

—Mommy!— Bumblebee sent.

'Bee leapt out of the TV and bounced on all four hooves as she reached me.

—We were working on writing programs, and I rewrote a math library to be faster, and then we compiled it and tested it!— Bumblebee sent.

Using my magic, I picked 'Bee up and hugged her to me. Neither of us could or would hold back our chirps as I nuzzled her cheek.

"Please, dear, speak when there are others around," I said.

"Oh! Hi Twilight! I made math go faster!"

It only took a quick check on our build system to find out what she'd changed. I was impressed, though. Speeding up that library would mean everything we did would be a little faster.

"She rewrote some of math.h and achieved a performance gain," I said.

"You mean the math libraries in C?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

"Yeah. She's a clever little nymph, aren't you, 'Bee?"

'Bee's chirp earned her another squeeze and a nuzzle. I hadn't thought how being a mother would be—before Byte came into my life—but I wouldn't have it any other way now.

"Are you hungry? Would you like to try pizza?" I asked.

I lifted up the piece I'd taken a few bites from and offered it to her. 'Bee lunged at it and bit down, savaging the poor defenseless pizza.

"You don't have to show off," I said.

'Bee was chewing, and I could well assume she was now using my own words against me by not saying or sending anything while chewing. Deciding to join her, I took my own more sedate bite of the slice. The flavor was different to how pizza used to taste. The greasiness of the pie agreed with my palate, as did the cheese that covered it, but the crust was almost like cardboard, and the tomato not much better. In all, it tasted like I was eating a hunk of meat with cheese on top, only the cheese was about ten times more intense than the meat.

The way I felt better after eating, however, reassured me that I still needed food to live—regular food that is. A bug cannot live on love alone.

I shared the slice with 'Bee, and then fetched another piece. 'Bee, however, had other interests. She'd walked over to Twilight and poked her leg.

"Did you get your scanner fixed yet?" Bumblebee asked.

"Actually," Twilight Sparkle said, "I found the parts I needed, but I've been too busy writing things up lately to fix it."

Twilight glanced at me over 'Bee's head and raised an eyebrow in question.

"You could probably find a helper if you asked around. Perhaps someone experienced with the equipment, that knows how it works, someone like—" I said.

"Bumblebee, would you like to help me fix my scanner?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

'Bee, who had been chirping excitedly both in the real world and via ChirpNet, practically exploded.

"Yes! I've been making designs for an improved linkage, too, so it won't fail next time," Bumblebee said.

"There's one restriction on this," I said. "Twilight needs to install ChirpNet on her computer. No secure connection, no transporting through the 'net."

Turning her head from me to look up at Twilight, 'Bee looked like a lost little puppy.

"Security? I take it that stops the Suri Polomare-Windigo hybrid from doing anything?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

I winced a little at Twilight's technically correct but horrid to pronounce descriptor for Suri/Windigo. There really was no aesthetically pleasing way to put their names and concepts together.

"Well, we're not running the risk of her attacking any of us anymore. ChirpNet is becoming more than just chat, it's a secure connection that is unbeatable. Not only can't Suri break into it, she can't even find where the data is coming from or going to. You've heard of TOR?"

Twilight blinked in surprise at my question.

"Err, dark-web?"

"Exactly. ChirpNet uses TOR to not just make your data invisible, but make it untraceable. Now, there is a method for tracking down users in TOR, but someone would need to control—I'm getting sidetracked. With the implementation I wrote, it's safe."

"Rarity? You wrote this?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "The last time I mentioned computer programming to you, you locked yourself in a closet for an hour. How did you learn to code?"

"She has a lot of time on her hands," Moon Dancer said. "Like I do now. When time slips by less than a millisecond at a time, you find things to keep you busy. Programming is, at its core, pattern solving. Surely a seamstress is prime for the task."

"Precisely. Besides, it was learn to code or sit locked in my own head all the time. And it's been useful besides ChirpNet. I've built a firewall that adapts and learns about attacks so quickly that while the machines behind it look open, nothing could be further from the truth. And I'm not even going to mention the time Windigo attacked my car."

"She attacked your car?" Moon Dancer asked. "What did you do?"

I chirped in surprise at her interest but went on to explain the Bluetooth exploit I'd used, and the quick tool I'd deployed to reset the machine, though a yawn escaped my mouth toward the end of it.

—I've got you. Rest, Rarity, I'll keep things moving here,— NotABug sent.

I chirped repeatedly and hugged NotABug.

"You must excuse me, it's been a long day, and NotABug is happy to help you with any further questions. Thank you, again, Twilight," I said.

"Oh. Uh, you're welcome. I hope you sleep well."

NotABug nudged me none too soon—my mind slipped into sleep a few scant moments after she took control.

—Love you,— I sent.

Those last two words let me sink into sleep surrounded by chirps.

Author's Note

Lyra: "I have heard you are quite the computer and tech savvy gal. You wouldn't happen to know anything about AI's would you?" :rainbowhuh: :raritywink:

Shaking her head, Lyra Heartstrings held up both hands.

"No, no, no! That stuff still freaks me out a bit. Waaaay to black-boxey. I'm getting into web development and REST APIs. The stuff that has a chance of actually making me money. AI research can be big cash, but if you don't get big, you get nothing."

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Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
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And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Lab

Editing provided by the battiest Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 21

6:47 A.M.

I woke to the sound of more chirping. With two worlds of information flowing into me, I had very few moments to actually banish sleep and come fully awake. The chirping, it seemed, was 'Bee and Bitwise snuggled between Rainbow and myself.

Dipping my snout down, I nuzzled each of my girls and pushed them a little closer to Rainbow. The room lit up with the slow strobe of magic pouring along my horn. Carefully, I extracted myself from the bed and snuggled the covers up around Rainbow and our girls.

Using my magic, I opened my bedroom door and slipped outside. It felt amazingly natural to walk on all fours and use my magic to manipulate things. I thought back to using my hands for everything, and realized how much of a restriction it was only having two limbs to work.

I opened my eyes—fully—and saw everything around the house, inside the house, and even got status reports on all the new servers that I'd brought online. Byte and Moon Dancer were passed out in what I still thought of as my hat room, the former curled up on the latter's lap in her changeling form.

Tuesday. I hated to have to do it, but I knew Moon would be upset if I didn't wake her.

"Moon Dancer?" I asked.

Byte lifted her head before Moon and looked up at me. Yawning, she poked out her little tongue and chirped curiously.

"Moon has school today. I need to wake her up," I said.

"Oh."

Byte sat up in Moon Dancer's lap and stretched up as tall as she could get with her little form.

"I need heals!" Byte said.

Moon snorted awake.

"I got you cover… Oh?"

"Good morning Moon," I said. "Sleep well?"

"Why are you in my dorm? What's going on?" Moon Dancer asked. "Where am I?"

Though she sounded confused, Moon's arms closed around Byte and hugged her. Moon Dancer looked down to Byte, up to the pair of computers on the desks before her, then she looked around at me.

"I fell asleep at the keyboard?"

"Don't worry, I said sorry to everyone. They were really nice and didn't want to wake you, so everyone whispered goodnight," Byte said.

Moon stretched in her seat, and I heard several tired chirps over ChirpNet. She hugged Byte one more time and then set her down on her own chair.

"It's almost seven. I have a class at ten."

"Main bathroom's free. I'll go make some breakfast. There's another dress for you in my sewing room," I said.

I started walking out of the room before Moon managed to stop stretching and yawning long enough to climb out of her chair.

"I don't suppose you made some underwear?" Moon Dancer asked.

Already walking down the hall, I decided to reply via ChirpNet rather than risk waking the rest of the house.

—If you're quiet, slip into my bedroom and borrow some of mine. I don't particularly have a use for it anymore, and there's a range of sizes. Just mind the snoozing bugs on the bed,— I sent.

—Thanks, Rarity.—

Feeling accomplished already, I chirped happily—both digitally and out loud—as I reached the kitchen. I wanted to do something special and quickly ran through a few recipes online before I found something.

Rainbow had gotten some seed-filled bread, and there was a carton of eggs in the fridge. I found a pat of butter, and got some salt and pepper out.

Byte walked into the kitchen, starting as her adorable little nymph self and then shapechanging to her human form before sitting at the table.

"We didn't keep you awake last night, did we? Only, that game was really good, and everyone loved playing with me. It was really fun!" Byte said.

I cut the centers out of two slices of bread and tossed them into the skillet I'd set on the stove. Some butter joined them and started making a happy sizzling sound.

"You were fine, darling. Are you hungry?"

"Yup!"

An excited, digital chirp accompanied her exclamation.

"Well, your breakfast shouldn't be long."

I cracked an egg into each of the slices of bread and gave both a dusting with salt and pepper. Feeling rather chirpy myself, I didn't hold back on the happy sounds as I worked. I slid Byte's breakfast onto a plate and floated it over to her along with some cutlery.

"There you go, dear. Let me know if you want some more."

—Mom? Where'd you say that dress was?— Moon Dancer asked.

I didn't want to make a deal of her calling me Mom, so rather than reply in any way that would make her uncomfortable, I just used my magic—guided by the cameras in each room—to float the dress out of my sewing room and to the door of the bathroom (neither of which had cameras).

—It's at the door. Just reach out and you can grab it,— I sent.

—Thanks!—

I slid the next two pieces of toast onto a plate just as Moon Dancer walked out. She looked wonderful wearing the dress, but she was blushing a shade of red that surprised me.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Well, you said I could borrow some of your—And I've never worn any like—These are really comfortable."

Cursing the fact that I wasn't recording the cameras constantly in my vigilance against Suri and Windigo, I instead turned to look at Moon with an eyebrow raised.

The moment I focused on her I could see what she'd done. The red of one of my teddies was barely visible at the deep neck of the dress she wore. I couldn't help a smile.

"They are, aren't they? I was a little surprised by how well they move and feel. You're welcome to keep that one if it fits you."

Moon stopped, blushing, and let out a sigh.

"I never used to focus on clothing this much. Is this another changeling thing?" Moon Dancer asked.

Oh dear. Was it? I had so many more questions for Ocellus now that I might never be able to ask her. Well, I had to own up to this.

"Maybe? I'm not sure. My own proclivities for clothing are well known, and I have noticed they leaked into NotABug a little when she wound up with me. Byte and 'Bee have both shown excitement for clothing and an aptitude for fashion."

"So it's contagious? I'm going to wind up spending half my money on pretty dresses and complaining when I have to wear something a second time?"

The sarcasm in Moon's voice had to have been applied with a bucket—or maybe a hose. She had her own personality that, while a little abrasive, was still worthy of a smile.

"Fair is fair," I said. "Learning computer programming wasn't something I'd ever planned to do either, but when it became something I needed, I grasped the ideal firmly and walked that path."

"Are you saying I should give in and let fashion into my life?"

"Darling, is that something you need to ask me?"

I batted my eyelashes, though the effect might have been lost with my changeling form. For a moment I considered shapechanging just to give the right effect, but then decided I had enough to do today to spend magic and love on.

"You're not going to let this go, are you?" Moon Dancer asked.

"I will if you do. We have a unique situation. We are making enough money that none of us need to do what we don't enjoy."

Moon looked at me with surprise. Lifting up her toast, she took a careful bite of it. Only when she was done chewing and swallowing did she continue.

"You're really including me in that?"

"Of course. You are family. From the moment I wake up I reach out to those around me. I feel the warmth of Rainbow in my bed, I hear the soft chirping of data connections in my head, and I see you all on the cameras. We're all connected—we're all family."

More quiet. I was content to let her work out her own questions.

"So, uh…" Moon Dancer said. "What does that mean for us?"

"What do you want to do with your life, Moon Dancer?"

"If I knew that, my course advisor would be so much happier," Moon Dancer said, then sighed. "A week ago I would have made more jokes and tried to deflect your question because I didn't know. Bitwise, Byte, and Bumblebee are—I've never had siblings before. Seeing them happy makes me happy."

"It makes me happy too, but seeing you happy is just as important."

Watching a normal person think, I could count seconds and minutes off as their mind put together the facts and juggled them. With someone like Moon and myself, however, I had to work at a different scale. If she paused in thought for a second, she spent many minutes of a regular person thinking about the topic.

Moon Dancer sat in silence for four and a half minutes.

"I want to share what I know. I've spent so much of my life learning, but first I need to finish that. This—gift—will help me do that much faster. I will apply to test out on the subjects I need to graduate, then I think I'll open a school for changelings," Moon Dancer said.

Byte, having been sitting quietly while we talked (and savaging her egg in the nest), excitedly chirped.

"I'm having trouble dealing with people in the real world, which is why I'm trying to make myself stay like this more. Also, I want to go around with Mum and meet people."

"I'll be running a few errands today, again. I hope that tomorrow we can open the boutique."

A rush of excited chirping hit me before Byte did. She wrapped arms around my neck and hugged me for all she was worth. Far from immune to my daughter's affection, I reached a foreleg around her and held her close.

—Good morning,— NotABug sent.

—Hugs time,— I sent.

Giving NotABug a nudge, I pushed her to the fore and let her have a cuddle with our daughter. With the aid of the cameras in the kitchen, I was able to continue making breakfast.

I noticed movement in the hallway and piped the feed directly to NotABug.

"What's with all the chirping?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Delivering what should have been my own breakfast to another plate, I floated it over to the table near Rainbow while she, NotABug, and Byte hugged.

"It's a chirpy day, Mom. Try the toast, it's really yum," Byte said.

The stampede of little hooves down the hallway wasn't a surprise, but it was certainly welcome.

—Tag,— NotABug sent.

I was back in control and aware of the snuggle I was in with two more nymphs buzzing their wings in excitement. Surrendering Byte and Rainbow, I used my magic to pick up 'Bee and Bitwise and lifted them into a one-legged hug.

"How's my darlings?" I asked.

More buzzing and chirping wings were all the answer I needed. Once I was done squeezing them and nuzzling their cheeks, I floated them over to the table and their own seats.

Rainbow didn't hesitate in the slightest. She cut the toast on her plate into four squares and offered it to our youngest two.

"Here you guys go. Hope you're hungry!" Rainbow Dash said.

It only took a glance at Moon to see her smiling from ear to ear. The sight was such a change from her serious face that it warmed me just to see. The table devolved into chatting and eating, and I kept serving up slices of toast with eggs in them until, finally, it was my turn to sit down and eat.

I lifted the toast to my lips and just as my teeth closed down on the delight, I saw someone walking up to our front door.

—Doorbell,— I sent to Rainbow Dash.

Her hand slipping down to her running shorts, Rainbow produced her phone from them. Standing up with a sigh, she winked at me.

"I'll get it."

I focused on my toast. The carbohydrates of the bread weren't doing much for me, but the butter and the egg were both sources of delight. I managed to finish the piece of toast before I heard Rainbow walking back into the living room.

"It's for you. Not sure what their deal is, but they said—"

Starling, wearing a pretty floral dress and a white shirt, interrupted Rainbow Dash with each stomp of what had to be boots she was wearing. Her other defensive accoutrements were a shoulder holster and a rather sizable (or so I thought) pistol.

"I got it," Starling said.

Two cameras had a good view of the front door, and I watched through them as Starling stepped up to the entrance. Turning on the audio feed, I kept eating my breakfast. Starling kept half of herself hidden behind the door.

"I'm Rarity," Starling said. "What do you want?"

"You don't match the description I have of—"

The woman at the door froze, and I would have too. Starling had changed from relaxed, to standing straight with her hands slightly out from the sides of her body—she'd also pushed the door open just a little more to reveal the gun in her holster.

"I'm going to have to ask your reason for wanting to see Miss Rarity."

Starling, I realized, was all business now. Her tone was commanding, giving barely any leeway for the other woman to do anything but reply as Starling wanted.

"I-I'm here to serve papers. I'm with Heart and Trust—a law firm. Look, I was told I needed to give her this, but if you're going to threaten me, I'll—"

"I'm not threatening you. I'll give those to Miss Rarity," Starling said.

Now on alert, I ensured the cameras were recording and sent a message to Miss Velvet.

—Someone is here trying to serve me papers. What do I do?—

Already taking the papers, Starling stepped back and closed the door. The sound of the security bolt sliding home was a good spot to leave the recording, so I forwarded it to Twilight Velvet.

Waving one hand toward the front door, Starling set the papers on the table.

"You saw all that? You said you had a link to the cameras and—" Starling said.

"I saw it," I said. "I'm contacting Miss Velvet now."

I lifted the papers up and flicked through them quickly. To anyone else, it would have been nothing but perhaps counting the papers, but as they flicked past I took pictures and transposed them. NotABug was faster than me at the task, and probably understood the language better. She chirped worriedly.

—She's trying to block you from opening your boutique. This is part of your employment contract with Polomare Fashion,— NotABug sent.

I wondered how long it would take Miss Velvet to reply, and the answer was too long. I nervously ate my second piece of toast with everyone watching me before I felt a notification coming in.

—I expected this. She's trying to stall your business. It won't stick, but I won't be able to see a judge to get you safe against it before the afternoon. You can't open today,— Twilight Velvet sent.

A sigh of relief left my lips. I hadn't bothered instantly replying, more content to let myself relax a little.

—I planned to open tomorrow. Are you sure you can get this blocked?— I asked.

"Miss Velvet says she can deal with this," I said.

Rainbow Dash was the first to move, which wasn't surprising. She had her arms around me—wrapping me in the aura of her love—before Byte had even finished turning. I didn't even manage another shaking word before Byte, 'Bee, Bitwise, and Moon were gathered around me as well.

—This is nothing. Possibly a smoke-screen or a test to see if you still have someone representing you. With your permission, I'll see about starting proceedings against Polomare Fashion for harassment. It won't go anywhere, but it will show them I mean business.—

Wrapped in love and hugs, I sent back an affirmative. I hadn't even realized how much I'd been planning and preparing. At the time, I’d thought the talk with Princess Luna had been the start of dealing with this, but with my family snuggled around me I realized it was something I'd already been arming myself for.

"We're going for a run. It will clear everyone's head and put us in a better shape to face the day," Rainbow Dash said.

I couldn't help myself. Taking a deep pull of Rainbow's love, I let it suffuse and strengthen me. Her eyes widened as I did it, but when she blushed and kissed me, I knew she wasn't unappreciative of the intimate feeding.

"Are you all going?" Starling asked.

Both Byte and Moon glanced down the hallway to the room their computers were in.

"Yes," I said. "We all are. It will be good to get out of the house together."

"Awesome choice. What are you going to wear?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I couldn't help a giggle at her choice of words. If there was one thing I could rely upon Rainbow to do it was cheer me up. A good meal of love, toast, and eggs, some hugs and a little smooch, and she'd already made up for the horrid news.

"You think it scandalous that I go like this?" I asked.

Out of the corner of my eye I watched Byte flicker a few times with fire, each change replacing her outfit with something more sporty. When she was done, she had a pair of short-shorts in emerald green, a light shirt in black, and the outline of a matching green sports bra under the shirt.

"Will we have WiFi?" Bumblebee asked.

The real, hard-hitting questions were always asked by my daughters. Preparing was simpler than expected—the only one of us that needed to grab anything was Starling, who snagged a tracksuit jacket to cover her otherwise obvious weapon.

Byte, Moon, and Rainbow took off first, running side by side. I could tell Moon Dancer wasn't actually interested in running, but she seemed determined to take part in family activities. Bumblebee, Bitwise, and myself came after them in our natural forms, while Starling brought up the rear.

With the pace Rainbow set, none of us were exactly up to talking out loud, and ChirpNet was reasonably quiet too except for the occasional chirp of encouragement Moon seemed to make to 'Bee and Bitwise.

We circled around to the other side of the block, and while trotting along behind Rainbow, I was surprised when she slowed and came to a stop.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothin'. Just figured we could take a look at our other house."

Rainbow had reminded me that our little world was growing in a quite physical sense. I turned to look at Starling.

"Your father moved in here, right?" I asked.

"He's moving in today. Mrs. Velvet had one of her people arrange that. Thank you for that. It's good to know he's nearby," Starling said.

"I think, by now, you've realized how much importance we place on family. Your father helped me protect mine, and now you're doing so in a more direct manner. That's not to say I don't expect to get my money's worth out of employing him," I said.

—When will we get builders working on the new house to install hardware?— I asked.

—Soon. I just need to get Mr. Pants to arrange for us to buy the rest of the houses on this block,— NotABug sent.

—We're buying all of it, then?—

—Absolutely. Then we can have it rezoned to residential/commercial, and there'll be nothing to stop us doing whatever we want.—

—But until then, just basements, right?—

—Just basements. This is Suri's doing, isn't it?—

The change in conversation didn't surprise me. I gave NotABug a digital hug and a small flood of reassuring chirps.

—Yes. Without a doubt. Definitely not Windigo's style. This firewall I've made will stop Windigo, but it's going to stop a lot more than just her. Whoever we give or sell this to will be immune to our own prodding.—

—Good. I don't want that power.—

I chirped at NotABug in reassurance.

—No one should have the power to do that kind of thing. I know some people who'll be a little upset if we made everything secure, but I'm sure they'll get over it.—

That NotABug was so pacifistic flew in the face of every one of those terrible Terminator movies, though Windigo sure would have given their antagonist a run for its money. I wanted to hug NotABug, chirp at her, and tell her everything will be alright. The first two were easy—I was already doing them.

—And once we shut down Windigo from being able to do anything, we just have Suri to deal with,— I sent.

"That's good. He likes to feel useful, and he'd hate to think you were paying him as some kind of charity," Starling said.

Being reminded about the real world meant I had to backtrack to work out what conversation I'd been involved with before NotABug had my full attention. Right. Starling's father.

"It's just like I said—Family," I said.

"Enough talk. Let's get our heartbeats back up and head home. Apparently I'm going car shopping," Rainbow Dash said.

—Car shopping?— I asked.

—I told her it'd be nice to have a car we could drive without being in it. She might have taken that to mean she would be doing the shopping. With a phone and earpiece I can help her pick something that will work,— NotABug sent.

The pace Rainbow set was much faster than what had gotten us to the halfway point. Bitwise and 'Bee began to stumble, so I plucked them up with my magic and settled them on my back. My hooves thundered on the pavement in what a quick search told me was a canter.

We were just rounding the last corner onto our street when the firewall at home started asking for help over the special ChirpNet system I'd hooked it into. From one step of my canter to the next I analyzed the log of what was attacking and could see it was Windigo.

Before I could issue a suggestion to filter the attack, the AI I'd built the previous day sent a little stream of data that the router quickly implemented.

With a set of actions to take, the router was blocking Windigo's attacks as well as I could hope. It began chirping softly over ChirpNet, sending its update to other firewalls to implement.

—You're chirping a lot,— NotABug sent. —What happened?—

—Windigo attacked our network. The firewall needed help, and got it. Now Windigo is having trouble.—

—Oh no! That's terrible! Windigo's in trouble? What a shame…— NotABug sent. —Did that work? I've been trying sarcasm.—

—Darling, that worked wonderfully. As Windigo adapts and attacks, our networks adapt and stop it. I was about to help, but everything was under control.—

—I was so lucky I found you, Rarity.—

—And I was lucky you found me. Could you imagine what another year in that place would have done to me? And I wouldn't have had the courage to let Rainbow into my heart.—

We chirped happily together as we finished the run off and wound up back home again. I used my magic to unlock the door and set Bitwise and 'Bee down as I walked in.

Running her hand down my back, Rainbow's fingers passed over the base of my right wing before continuing down to my thigh.

"You haven't even worked up a sweat. Wait, can you sweat?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Arching my back like a cat as I walked past, I got to the hallway before looking back at Rainbow.

"I don't care if I don't. I'm Still having a shower."

I barely got to the shower before Rainbow slipped up behind me—pulling her shirt off. The shower was refreshing and reaffirming. I offered NotABug some time, but she said the previous night had fed her appetites plenty.

Leaving Rainbow to dress herself, I walked to the mirror and examined myself.

"What do you think?" I asked.

"Well, I think if I'm going shopping for your new car, and Moon is going to classes, then someone has to stay home and mind the girls."

It hadn't occurred to me at all. All morning with the girls would be interesting. I needed to cover.

"Well of course, but I still want to look—"

"You already look beautiful, Rarity. Why don't you make a dress you can wear like this?"

Rainbow's voice got closer and closer until I felt her lips on my cheek. In the mirror, I watched excitement dance in her eyes—given what we'd just been up to, it didn't surprise me.

But Rainbow was right. I hadn't made any outfits for myself as myself. My memory brought up the dresses the pony Rarity had in her boutique.

"See, I know that look. That's the look you get when you think about dresses," Rainbow Dash said. "It's an awesome look."

"Flattery, Rainbow, will get you all sorts of places. Giving me ideas will help your case as well."

I turned my head just enough to kiss her back. When we finally broke apart, I'd almost forgotten about making a dress for myself.

"How do you think I should go? Casual, sporty, or something actually fancy?" Rainbow Dash asked.

She paused a moment and let out a sigh.

"Of course. Fancy," Rainbow Dash said. "I don't know why I even bother asking. I've worn more dresses in the last month than I have in the rest of my life."

"I'm not that bad. I just love it when you look good," I said.

Rainbow, who was bending down and had already pulled a white skirt out of the closet, looked back at me past her rump. I shivered at the expression of hunger on her face. It wasn't hunger for what we'd just done in the shower or any other act. She looked at me as if I were everything she wanted.

"I think we both like having our egos stroked."

I had to agree. We were both vain creatures, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I watched her get dressed—one garment at a time—and took another kiss as my due before she left wordlessly. Turning my attention back to the mirror, I tried to imagine what I'd look like in a dress.

Aware of Rainbow and the others walking around the house on the cameras, I watched Rainbow and Moon leave together—Rainbow wearing the Bluetooth earpiece. It didn't take a lot of searching to find what phone she'd left with, and I routed through it to get access to the little speaker she'd put in her ear.

"I love you, darling."

It took an outside camera to see Rainbow's smile widen as she climbed into her car.

"I love you too!" NotABug said through the same data buffer.

"I love both of you—Sorry, Moon, I was talking to Rarity and NotABug. What'd you say?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—I'll leave her in your care,— I sent.

NotABug chirped back to me as I withdrew my own monitoring code from the earpiece.

—Uh, sorry if I was butting in,— Moon Dancer sent.

—Quite alright, dear. I just wanted to say goodbye for the morning. Now, where's my eldest?— I asked.

Byte's surprised chirp, coming from the room where her computer was, didn't surprise me in the least. I could see her already playing some game or the other.

—I'm just having a snack. Staying human for so long yesterday left me a bit hungry!— Byte sent.

—Why didn't you nibble on Rainbow?— I asked.

—MOM!— Bumblebee sent. —THE EGG IS HATCHING!!—

It wasn't often I would forgive one of my daughters for grammar, or in this case all-caps, but I was willing to make an exception. My hooves thundered as I ran down the hall. Byte jumped out of what was apparently now the gaming room just before me, and I used my magic to lift her up and carry her with me.

I reached the living room just in time to see a little head push free of the egg, look up at me and chirp her wings. Setting Byte down carefully, I walked up and sat beside the egg.

"Hello," I said. "Welcome to the world."

The moment I spoke I felt her sipping at me. Just a little, our newest nymph tried her best to climb out of the remains of her egg, but her limbs weren't quite as ready to do what she wanted yet.

Byte beat me to the chase. Still shapechanged to look human, she reached into the egg with slender hands and scooped the newest addition to our family up.

"Hey there. I'm your big sister, Byte."

"Byte!" the little nymph said, then chirped.

A flow of energy from Byte to our newest addition revealed my eldest wasn't quite as drained as she let on. Of course not, Rarity, she wanted to play more games with her friends online.

—I think it's your turn to name her, darling,— I sent to NotABug.

NotABug reached out digitally to our daughter, and I felt a tiny moment before she came online. ChirpNet already had her details.

—Hi!— Beta sent.

—Hi.—

—Hello!—

—You're adorable!—

The replies came back thick and fast, and the chirping that accompanied them was reinforced by my own.

—I am! Is that my name, Beta?— Beta asked. —I like it! Why is everything moving so slowly?—

—Well, there's two worlds, Beta, and we live in both of them,— Byte sent. —There's this one (it moves really fast), and there's the outside one. It moves about a thousand times slower. But there's something really amazing about them.—

A flood of excited and curious chirps came from Beta.

—This world is actually built inside the slow one. They're the same world!— Byte sent.

—But how does this one move so fast if that one moves so slow?— Beta asked.

—Because the machines that run this world can count really small, and use that to cut the time up to do a lot of things really quickly. We do that too!—

I settled beside Byte while they talked about the nature of the world. Byte, experiencing it from a similar viewpoint to Beta, explained it much better than I ever hoped to.

It was time enough that I tried something again. I reached one hoof out and gently stroked Beta's head-crest, while delving a little deeper into the digital world.

—Hi! Who are you?— Beta asked.

—Me?— I asked.

—Yes. You look familiar, and you chirp really nicely.—

—That's one of our moms. She's really nice, and is really amazing in both worlds,— Byte sent.

As I started extending myself into my programming environment, I tried to keep up with the real world and our conversation.

—Wow! Were you little like me?—

A thought struck me, and I wondered how ethical it would be to build a virus that would identify and eradicate all my own baby photos. That was probably more Stefanie's thing, to be honest. Speaking of ethical, was giving tools to her the pinnacle of virtue? Probably not, but when testing a weapon you give it to soldiers.

—Once, but I looked very different. It wasn't until one of your other moms met me that I became buggier,— I sent.

—What are you doing? I can see you accessing something, but I can't see all the way in.—

—I'm working on a program. Come and have a look.—

Opening a door to my own virtual machine for Beta to access, I ensured my work was correctly saved and backed up lest a mistake be made.

—This is sooo pretty! What is it?—

That the first thing Beta noticed was the colors surprised and excited me—a nymph after my own heart. If only I didn't have to explain my sword to her.

—This is a tool used to deal with bad people who want to hurt us,— I sent. —You see, when NotABug (one of your other mommies) came to be, there was another with her. Windigo is not nice, and wants to get rid of us. This is for telling Windigo we don't want to be gotten rid of in their own language.—

It was gross simplification, while still explaining the reasons behind my actions. I was proud that I could condense it down so well.

—You can't just tell them to stop?—

—We've tried that, but they're horridly persistent.—

—Oh. Well, we need to stop them. I like being here. How do I understand this?—

And that's when I realized I had a daughter who not just had an appreciation for fashion, but wanted to learn programming. If I weren't already chirping up a storm, I'd have flooded ChirpNet completely with happy bug sounds.

Keeping my attention flicking back and forth between the real world and the digital one wasn't as easy as anyone who claims they can multitask seems to think. Beta eventually climbed over to lay against me while Byte went off to play her games (like the others, I could see her feeding as a game too now) while I taught Beta about both fashion and programming.

11:22 A.M.

A bugpile had formed while I'd been teaching Beta. Bitwise had curled up with us too, and Byte had come out to snuggle for a bit. 'Bee, however, had sent me a single message that she was going to help Twilight.

Beta picked up the ideas of programming very quickly, and most of my lesson was spent teaching her advanced concepts I'd picked up—but it wasn't enough. We'd both gone looking for more things to write and learn, and I'd found great joy in spending most of the morning discovering quirky languages and methods for solving problems.

—Hey! I got us a new car. NotABug says it has everything you need to drive it. Just heading home now,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Who's that?— Beta asked.

—That's Rainbow, she's your third mom,— I sent. —She only lives in the real world, but she's really fast when she wants to be,— I sent.

—Then how did she send that message? She doesn't sound very chirpy.—

—Kid, if I could chirp, I'd be chirping all the time,— Rainbow Dash sent.

Beta let loose with a rush of concerned chirps. I stopped my stroking of her crest to hug her a little tighter.

—You can't chirp?—

—Nah, but I've got a bunch of awesome bugs who do enough to make it up.—

Pausing in her chirping for a few moments, Beta nuzzled into my neck.

—Bugs like me?—

—Yup. Bugs like you.—

A veritable flood of happy chirping poured from Beta. She freed up her back from my grip so she could buzz her little wings until they chirped in real life too.

—See? Just like that,— Rainbow Dash sent. —I'll be home real soon. Keep it up!—

I split my attention further. Snuggling a very chirpy nymph and teaching said nymph how to code were joined by watching the exterior cameras closer.

11:43 A.M.

My diligence paid off. Rainbow Dash pulled up in her car while Starling arrived in an unfamiliar one. I picked Beta up with my magic, stood up, and set her down on my back. Byte and Bitwise lifted their heads to watch us.

"Come on, let's go out and see what they got," I said.

—Why are you talking the slow way?— Beta asked.

Walking to the door, I deliberately left Beta waiting for my answer. For all I loved my daughters, they needed this lesson taught to them.

"Because, even in this house, not everyone can use digital communications quickly. Rainbow has to use her phone to see them. Besides, it's good practice."

—But you said— "But you said Rainbow can use it really fast," Beta said.

"Yes, but there's also Starling and, sometimes, my sister."

Beta let out a surprised chirp from her position on my back.

"You have a sister too?!"

Beta's world sounded rocked to its foundations. I turned my head to look back at her and kissed her nose.

"And I have parents too. You could even—Here she comes."

I'd cut short as Rainbow, moving faster than the cameras could pick up, reached the door and threw it open. She wasn't so fast that I couldn't see her move, but her speed was amazing to behold. Before my heart could beat twice, Rainbow'd picked me up (including Beta on my back) and carried us to the couch.

By the time Starling had reached the front door, Rainbow had Beta chirping and giggling with kisses and hugs. The amount of love Rainbow put off was enough to feed a whole swarm of changelings—probably literally.

"Rainbow said you had a new girl," Starling said. "You're really knocking them out. How—err—I'm going to stop asking questions before I ask one that you don't want to answer. The car's parked behind Rainbow's."

I nuzzled Byte and Bitwise to make sure they weren't missing out on snuggles, but I needn't have worried, Rainbow scooped all three together for a snuggle.

"Wait. What're you doing, Starling?" I asked.

"Figured I'd make lunch and give you two some more time with—"

"No, darling. Today is a special day. We'll dine out I believe," I said.

Rainbow snorted at my pronouncement.

"This is because you couldn't have sushi in Equestria, isn't it?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I huffed a little and kissed Byte on the nose when she crawled over to me.

"How did you know?" I asked.

"You talk in your sleep sometimes. Anyway, I could totally go for some sushi, but with this many of us you should probably call ahead."

There were all kinds of benefits to having a girlfriend who was firmly grounded in the real world, though the hit to my ego of being shown up always came as a bit of a blow. I bobbed my head and started that call.

"Moshi moshi. Uma no Sushi. My name is Kitsune. How may I help you?"

"Kit, darling, Rarity here," I said through my phone's buffer.

"Rarity! I'm so glad I don't have to keep talking like that. Dad—He wants to play up the Japanese culture side. What can I help you with?"

It was like talking to a completely different woman than the last time I'd been there. There was none of the worry she'd shown.

"Well, I was wondering if we might be able to come have some lunch, but I'll be bringing the whole—"

I realized I was missing two. Well, we could easily fix that.

—'Bee, Moon, would you like to come out and have some sushi for lunch?— I asked.

'Bee's excited chirp didn't need any translation or further words, but Moon made a distinctly confused chirp.

—Uh, I was already talking with Lyra about having lunch with my friends. How close is this place, and could we afford it on a student budget?— Moon Dancer asked.

—I doubt it. You have your card, remember?—

—But Lyra won't like to let me pay.—

Inspiration struck like a thunderbolt. I turned my full focus to the conversation with Kit.

"… Family. Sorry dear, dealing with our children. Anyway, I have some friends who want to join us, but one of them is… frugal. Could you put all her charges on my bill and tell her that we had a two-for-one coupon?" I asked.

I sent a transcript of the conversation to Moon Dancer, who replied with a supportive chirp.

"We could do that. As long as someone pays, I don't think it should be a problem so long as I talk to Father first. How many will you have with you?"

The math was quick to do.

—Just yourself and Lyra, was it?— I asked.

—Yeah.—

"Nine. That's not too many, is it? It includes four of my little ones."

There was a moment of Kit speaking away from the phone in another language. I stored that particular recording to deal with another time and waited for her to get back to me.

"Five adults and four children is fine. Father is excited to make sushi for you again."

The information was more than just a compliment, it was flattering.

"That's quite the compliment. When should we arrive?"

"It's a quiet day, but any time after twelve will be okay."

I was about to reply, but I heard Kit draw in breath to say something further.

"I'm sorry about last time. It's hard to accept that you're just—" Kitsune Udon said. "You're a person, and I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like you weren't."

"Kit, dear, it's not every day you have a monster walk into your restaurant and ask for lunch. I completely understand, and I'm glad you can see past the outside."

"Thank you. I'll see you soo—Father wants me to say goodbye properly. Hold on," Kitsune Udon said. "Ahem. Shitsurei shimasu. Goodbye!"

I filed those words away as well moments before the call ended. It was all kinds of cute that she did all this for her father, but from a business standpoint I could see it being a good idea. Chef Soba used the mystique of Japan to best effect.

—Everyone get ready, we're going out for sushi for lunch,— I sent.

—What's sushi? What's lunch?— Beta asked.

Before I could answer, Byte sent her all kinds of information that amounted more toward how to search for answers than just giving them to her on a plate. I greatly approved.

"Starling, have you eaten sushi before?" I asked.

"Uh, that's raw fish, right?" Starling asked. "Which I guess is answer enough. Isn't that stuff like super exp—Oh, right, fairy godmother. Sure, I'll try any grub at least once."

Rainbow Dash was on her back on the couch, being sat on by four nymphs now. She tried to sit up and failed.

"Didn't you say last time that this was going to be a rare thing? Not that sushi isn't super healthy, but I distinctly remember you saying to Sweetie that—" Rainbow Dash said.

I had no qualms about cutting short this little argument.

"Darling, we're having sushi. Moon will be coming too and is bringing a friend," I said.

Rainbow climbed to her feet—displacing our daughters—and leaned in to kiss my cheek in a most satisfactory manner.

"Just being your voice of reason. Now that's dealt with, I'm going to get changed so we can go have some sushi," Rainbow Dash said.

"Getting changed for lunch? Rainbow Dash! Where's the tomboy from high-school who I had to fight to get to wear a dress once in a while?"

"And the fashion queen of Canterlot High goes for morning runs and spends most of the day writing computer programs. What's your point?"

Rainbow stretched, arching her back in a way that showed off her body beautifully. She was slim, but every curve Rainbow possessed was muscled in a way that made my—and NotABug's, apparently—libido sit up and take notice.

"My point, Rainbow, is that I love that you have more care for your look now. You have a wonderful body—you should show it off in its best light."

"What're you wearing?"

The question only made sense if I were going to go to the bar as human, but then my mind rebelled at the simple conclusion. I could shapechange a dress, surely?

Memory of the outfits the pony version of myself had scattered around her boutique came to mind. I sorted through them mentally, one by one, until I found something that was a mix of flowing but chic.

The colors, of course, I could change to match what Rainbow was wearing, but because I wanted to give her a challenge, I selected a range of winter colors to match my mane and tail. I built the image of it in my head, simply layering it over the top of me, and used my magic to push the shape into being.

Changeling fire was, I had to admit, wonderful stuff. It seemed to be the literal expression of our magic and was more a mirror of creative flair than a force of destruction and entropy. I tilted my head to look up at Rainbow and winked at her.

"I'll be right back!" Rainbow Dash said.

A rainbow of light caught in her wake as Rainbow Dash ran to our bedroom. I was distracted by another flicker of changeling fire, however.

Byte, in her human guise, wore a similar-seasoned dress to mine but hers picked out darker shades rather than the lighter winter colors I'd gone for. Her outfit hung off her shoulders and clung to her body to show off curves that I knew were invented entirely by her.

"You look wonderful, dear. But you might want to change back when we get there. I'm not sure if being shapechanged affects how we taste things," I said.

A worried chirp came from Byte via ChirpNet.

"I didn't think of that! What should I do?"

"Dear, we're going to the perfect place to test it out. Chef Soba will not mind you shapechanging to test your palate."

A whole host of reassuring chirps (some of them my own) flooded along to Byte until she was chirping happily with her sisters.

"How's this?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I hadn't been watching the cameras inside the house, but now I tapped into all the ones in the living room to examine Rainbow from every angle. The dress was gorgeous and bright in summer shades. She'd chosen opposites rather than try to tone herself down to match my winter, and it worked for her.

Walking over to Rainbow, I reared up on my hind legs so I was high enough to kiss her properly.

—Can I help?— NotABug asked.

I pressed my lips to Rainbow's, got the kiss off to a good start, and nudged NotABug forward. We swapped back and forth every few seconds throughout the duration of the kiss until Rainbow pulled back giggling.

"I'm not a timeshare. You can kiss me one at a time, you know?"

"Yes—" I said.

Push.

"… But this is fun," NotABug said.

Push.

"And we both—" I said.

Push

"… Like to kiss you," NotABug said.

The wide grin Rainbow wore told me she wasn't upset with either of us in the slightest. She leaned forward again and gave us (I like to think it was us at this particular point) a kiss on the nose.

"I like kissing both of you, too. Why don't you all head out and get in the van. Have you gotten Moon and her friend moving yet?"

—Moon, are you ready to leave, dear?— I asked.

—Just need to know where we're going,— Moon Dancer sent back.

It was simple to send her the address and leave everything up to her, but I also sent the simple navigation system I'd made as well.

—Got it. We'll be there soon. You wouldn't believe how excited Lyra got when I told her we were going out for sushi.—

—Clearly she has taste. We'll see you there soon.—

—She has a little taste, but mostly she's hungry.—

"Moon and her friend are on their way. We should do the same," I said.

The minivan was our only choice, and despite my hopes Rainbow got behind the wheel. She was surprisingly sedate in her driving. I contented myself with a little stint of coding and watching Moon's signal get closer.

When I realized Moon had already reached Uma no Sushi before us, I let out a little whine. We were still a block away.

"What's up?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Darling, they beat us there!"

"Don't care. Everyone in this van is more important to me than driving fast. Besides, what am I going to do in a minivan?"

The last word carried so much distaste that I realized something about Rainbow Dash—she hated driving this thing. A look at her revealed what I'd been blind to.

"You don't like this car," I said.

"Not one bit. It handles like a drunken pig and has the get-up-and-go of a dead cockroach. Anything would be better to drive than this—even your electric."

My heart (at least I thought I had one) sped up at the revelation. I leaned across the gap in the front seats and nuzzled against Rainbow's shoulder.

"But you're driving it for us."

"Yup. I'm driving this horrible thing for you."

As she pulled the horrible thing up to the curb, I nuzzled her shoulder again before using my magic to open the door beside me.

When Rainbow Dash circled around from her side and met back up with us, she had a huge grin on her face and was blushing up a storm. Well, she deserved it. I hadn't been noticing what effects family life was having on her.

"Are we all ready?" I asked.

A round of chirps and a nod from Rainbow were my answer, but it was the chirps from Moon that drew my attention.

Moon Dancer and Lyra Heartstrings (I remembered her well from high school) were waiting by the front door. Moon had a goofy-happy smile on her face when Bitwise raced over to her, but Lyra was staring in shock. Right, a normal. I walked over to join them.

"Hi, Lyra, it's been a while since high school," I said.

"Moon, when you said we were having sushi for lunch with a bunch of nerdy ponies, I thought you were joking! This is awesome!" Lyra Heartstrings said. "You look—you all look—amazing! Hey, Rainbow! What—? Hold on, high school? Who are you?"

Lyra seemed the most excitable of excitable. When Moon picked Bitwise up for a hug, Lyra couldn't seem to take her eyes off my daughter's hooves. I cleared my throat.

"We didn't have too much to do with each other. I'm Rarity," I said.

"Rarity? As in, queen of fashion Rarity? Oh man, you were the biggest thing! All the girls wanted to—"

Lyra cut herself short as a blush reached her cheeks. She looked aside to Rainbow and her eyes widened a little.

"Rarity, in high school you were—" Rainbow Dash said. "You were a bit of a catch. Guys'd do anything for you because they thought they had a chance, but there was a few of us girls who'd have done just about as much."

I turned and looked up at Rainbow to see a blush in her cheeks, but she had a big cheesy grin too. Dawning realization hit me. I had been completely blind in high school to everything but boys and fashion.

"Well," I said, "That's all settled now. I'm hungry."

"The sign at the door says it's reserved for a private party," Moon Dancer said. "Is that us?"

Kitsune Udon opened the door and poked her head outside. She looked immaculate in a stunning blue kimono that had to have cost a small fortune.

"Please, come inside. Father is cooking just for you today."

I led the way inside while Kit held the door open. She seemed much less fazed by my appearance today, even if I looked (again) different to how I had.

Standing behind his counter, Chef Soba looked very excited to see us. I knew it was more than just meeting people who appreciated his food—with a range of palates to please, he had a challenge ahead of him.

"Irasshaimase!" Soba Tsuya said. "Miss Rarity, every time I see you, you look more fantastical."

His honesty was appreciated, as was his twisting of language to avoid giving offense. I made my way up to the counter and took a moment to climb up on the seat and sit with my tail and dress draped behind me.

Rainbow Dash was quick to lift 'Bee up to her own seat while she held Beta in her lap. Byte slipped onto a seat beside Moon (who'd been carrying Bitwise with her) and pulled 'Bee to her own lap. Lyra settled on her own chair and stared around the room with open excitement. Starling stood behind us until I waved her to take a seat.

"I appear to be gaining somewhat of a horde of offspring, Chef Soba. Our latest is Beta here. This big girl is Byte, on her lap is 'Bee, and Moon Dancer down there has Bitwise. Moon invited her friend along too, Miss Lyra Heartstrings. Our newest friend here is Starling," I said.

As I spoke each name, I indicated whom I was speaking of. Each name earned a slight bow from Chef Soba.

"And, yes, I have changed once more, however this appears to be the sum of my adjustments. Byte has learned the trick of shapechanging, and is becoming quite clever at it. But enough of us, how is the sushi today?" I asked.

No question could have brought more happiness to the chef's face. Chef Soba smiled as he looked along the row of us and then turned to Kit.

"Chef Kitsune, please join me in presenting sushi to our friends and customers," Soba Tsuya said.

Kit looked shocked to the point of amazement. She stared at her father for nearly three seconds before squealing and running for the back room. The squealing was quieter for a moment, then stopped as she ran back out wearing a similar uniform to her father. All the while, Chef Soba had a restrained smile that spoke volumes for his pride in his daughter, given his normally subdued expressions.

Of course, I could see deeper. Chef Soba was boiling with pride and confidence, but also an iron discipline that wrapped about his emotional aura like armor. Kit had a measure of the discipline, the iron, and the confidence, but she was boiling over with excitement.

—No nibbling from either of them. Kit smells delicious, I know, but we don't want to distract them from their work,— I sent.

—Yes Mom!—

—Okay.—

… And a flood of chirps came back.

—Besides, Lyra's here. She's nice, and she's having a really good time already. I can nibble on her, right?— Byte asked.

—Ask her first, and you might want to use it to teach your sisters how to nibble. Be very careful, dear.—

—Yes, Mom.—

"Miss Lyra, this might sound odd—" Byte said.

"Just call me Lyra. Miss Lyra is what I want to be called someday, but not yet, ya know?" Lyra Heartstrings asked.

—She's confusing!— Byte sent.

—Just call her Lyra, Byte. What she means is one day she wants to be important enough that everyone will call her Miss Lyra, but she doesn't want to feel that old yet,— Moon Dancer sent.

—Oh!—

"Uh, well Lyra, I don't know how much Moon told you about us, but we feed off positive emotions—all forms of love are best. I wanted to know if I could teach my little sisters how to carefully feed with you?" Byte asked.

Lyra just stared at Byte for a few seconds. My daughter was making worried little chirps right up until a big grin grew on Lyra's face.

"Does it hurt? How do you know when I have love? Can you see it? Is it a smell? What's it feel like when you feed? Do you have to bite me? Do you have to kiss—?" Lyra Heartstrings asked.

"I think I can answer some of these," Rainbow Dash said.

I was distracted by Chef Soba turning toward me. Shifting my attention, I nonetheless recorded everything my ears picked up in case it might be useful later.

"Miss Rarity, should we assume your palate has shifted further? We can start with something familiar to see how it tastes, if you please?" Soba Tsuya asked.

Not giving Chef Soba and his sushi my full attention would be a crime. Leaving Rainbow and our daughters to to talk, I nodded to him.

"I could have shapechanged to look more human, but I wanted to ensure your sushi tasted right for me. My daughter, Byte, wanted to test how different our tastes can be when we do shapechange."

With a glance to Byte, I turned back to see Chef Soba smiling.

"It is refreshing to have customers as curious and focused on testing their palates as I am. We will begin with a fatty tuna nigiri," Soba Tsuya said.

His hands moved like literal magic. Chef Soba curled his fingers into a container of rice and formed it perfectly, sliced a piece of tuna, put a touch of wasabi on the rice, and assembled the nigiri in his hand with expert motions. A swift brush of a special soy sauce was added before he set it on a small tray of wood and passed it over to me.

"One thing that interests me, Miss Rarity, is how you hold things?"

Using my magic was simple, it was natural. I let power play along my horn and plucked up a little bit of the ginger from the side of the block of wood and placed it in my mouth to demonstrate.

"Interesting. Please, touch my hand with this. I must know if it heats the sushi or cools it," Soba Tsuya said.

Carefully, I extended my magic again and just touched the palm of his outstretched hand.

"Ah! Neither warm nor cold. Perfect. You may eat my sushi this way."

"Thank you, Chef Soba," I said.

I carefully grasped the sushi with my magic and lifted it, then turned it just right so that the fish caught my tongue first. The moment it was inside my mouth, flavor exploded and forced all my attention to my sense of taste and smell.

My eyes fluttered closed and the chirping in the back of my head softened as I let the tuna melt onto my tongue. With the taste was almost perfectly like last time, it was the fatty fish essence that rushed across my tongue and brought with it the hint of soy.

When the tuna gave way to rice and the strong taste of the wasabi, I wanted to curl my fingers and toes up at how amazing it was—if I still had fingers and toes they would certainly be curled, but I don't, so I contented myself with a happy chirp and a delighted sigh.

Slowly, as the flavor of the rice and wasabi compelled me to swallow the delicacy at last, I opened my eyes and let my delight free rein across my face.

"A good result?" Soba Tsuya asked.

"If it were only half as good as it actually was, it would be spectacular. I do believe I have a tiny hint more protein flavor, though the sugars are still quite dominant for what little there is."

While he listened, Chef Soba's hands moved rapidly. He assembled four more pieces just the same as I'd just had and passed them out among my children. When he was done passing the last of them to Rainbow to feed to 'Bee, he returned to me.

At the other end of the bar, Kit was making pieces of nigiri for Lyra, Moon, and Starling—though Starling seemed the most reluctant at first, after her first piece she began to show much more interest in the food.

"And how have the swarm enjoyed their feast?" Soba Tsuya asked of my daughters.

Beta surprised all of us by being first to respond, and out loud.

"It's really yummy! I like the burning bit at the end, too!" Beta said.

Looking at her sister, Bitwise turned to face Chef Soba and gave a loud chirp from her wings.

"I'll take that as high praise," Soba Tsuya said.

"Sometimes," I said, "Chirping's the only response I can get from them."

—Would you like to try some of this, darling?— I asked NotABug.

Deep, thrumming chirps were my immediate reply. There was a sense of NotABug being intensely focused on something, and she pulled herself from it.

—I've been taking Mrs. Velvet's advice. Having her to rely on is good, but I want to understand how the law works.—

I couldn't have been more surprised if I'd tried.

—You're studying law?—

—Yeah. It's intense, though. Mrs. Velvet is helping me focus down on what I'd need to pass the bar exam. She's also willing to go on record as my mentor for it. I talked to Mr. Pants, and as far as he could discover what I'm doing to make money isn't illegal. The origin of the first funds I used (stole) is a problem. I've refunded the money and then some. Mr. Pants said that it couldn't be traced, but I felt better for returning it.—

I sent a bunch of encouraging chirps and hugs NotABug's way. This wasn't the first time she'd acknowledged doing bad things, but this is something she'd done to fix her mistakes.

—Are you sure you don't want to try some sushi?— I asked.

—No. You have fun. I can taste it, anyway. At least, I will later. Making recordings of everything is handy!—

I was surprised at that. I remembered the recordings of what she and Rainbow had gotten up to, but it hadn't occurred to me at the time to ask where they were being saved.

—Where are those recordings stored?—

NotABug filled my head with giggly chirps.

—In our brain. The first time I got stuck in this one "server", I thought it terrible, but it has some great flexibility.—

I wrapped NotABug in a digital cuddle and squeezed her while chirping.

—I'll have to take a look at how you set that up later. We might want to share that with Moon Dancer as well.—

—Good idea! I'll let you get back to the real world.—

—I love you, NotABug.—

A particularly large flood of chirps washed around my head.

—I love you too, Rarity.—

"Salmon roe would be a good choice next. It will check your protein palate in particular. Please, have some ginger while I make this," Soba Tsuya said.

I did as instructed, picking up some pickled ginger to clear my palate while Chef Soba began working with a larger piece of rice and worked the pink roe into it, along with a little wasabi, and then wrapped it all up in nori.

The resultant long roll was sliced up and a piece set on each of three of our plates. He immediately began working on a second one.

Picking up the roll, I carefully dipped one end of it in the provided soy sauce, then lifted it to my mouth and closed my fangs around it. The taste of the nori was light—it was crispy—and the rice joined it for mild taste. Then the roe provided its intense salmon flavor and was augmented by the wasabi and the soy.

Chef Soba watched me, waiting patiently for my opinion. Using my tongue to best effect, I searched around for the last wisps of flavor before swallowing the roll.

"The roe is as intense as ever. The wasabi—You used more than usual?" I asked.

"I did. Was it too much for your palate? This is how much the more—applied palates in Japan would prefer."

"No. No, that was wonderful. The extra sharpness of the wasabi was a perfect counterpoint to the softness of the rice. The soy seemed to come in late, however. It hit my tongue with the roe, not the rice."

"I may have a way to fix that. Your palate is complex, and it will never be sated except by a properly trained sushi chef. We will move to some shellfish."

Chef Soba worked his magic again. I watched him collect a handful of beautifully colored shrimp and begin working on them. It was back to nigiri, which I knew he'd gotten as perfect as could be for a changeling's tastes. While he worked, I had some more ginger to clear myself in preparation.

I tuned in for a moment to ChirpNet, only to find my daughters only using it for chirps (yes, a lot of them), but they reserved their descriptions of the sushi for verbal communication. Kit seemed to be taking everything in stride. She listened to all the nymphs chatter about the last piece Chef Soba had made, and she paid particular attention to Lyra, Moon, and Starling (the latter of whom had apparently only just started talking about how things tasted.

Byte's conversation was the oddest—to an observer anyway. She was explaining to Bitwise how to feed on Lyra without either letting Lyra feel it or otherwise affecting her in any way.

The rush of conversations were pulling me away from Chef Soba, however. I turned back to him just in time for him to set a shrimp nigiri before me. The back of the crustacean glistened with the special sauce he sometimes used.

"You noticed. Of course you'd notice. This has a weak sake glaze on the shrimp. Please try it and tell me what you think," Soba Tsuya said.

There was the feeling of other eyes upon me. I didn't look, but I could tell from my hearing that Kit had paused in her work. Was the sauce something she'd made?

With my attention back on the sushi, I lifted it carefully, inverted it and set it upon my tongue. The glaze had a little bite to it courtesy of the alcoholic sake, and it formed a curious base for the shrimp to rest upon. The taste of the rice cascaded around the shrimp and sake, leaving my mouth drenched in its starchy stickiness. Only when I deemed the flavors well mixed already did I chew, and found the spice of the wasabi finally break out and warm my mouth.

I savored the flavors, let them all run their course, and then swallowed.

"That was wonderful. The glaze was an interesting sting to introduce the shrimp's flavor. The rice was wonderful as always, but it wasn't until I chewed that I found the wasabi. An orchestra of flavor delightfully conducted."

Chef Soba nodded with much gravity.

"Then alcohol is not unpalatable. More nigiri?" Soba Tsuya asked.

Given my propensity for it, I nodded eagerly. I then remembered one of the reasons for coming today. I plucked up a piece of ginger while putting together my question.

"Do you cater?" I asked.

"I do not."

When Chef Soba spoke, his eyes flicked aside to Kit. He cleared his throat and set a slice of salmon into his palm.

"Kitsune has suggested it as a way we could make more money, but I am hesitant. If you had an event coming up, however, I may consider it."

I watched him expertly prepare the sushi and place it on my wooden plate. I lifted it up with my magic.

"I'm opening a new fashion boutique, and the idea of offering my clientele some sushi had occurred to me. Perhaps you could lend me Kit for a day?"

Placing the sushi in my mouth, inverted of course, I abandoned myself to the tasting of it. Rich, fatty meat tickled at my sense of taste and smell, and I couldn't stop a little flurry of chirps from escaping as the rice and wasabi joined the attack.

"It would not be perfect sushi. Without perfect conditions even a master could not make sushi precisely. Kitsune is no master—but she's getting close. She would need some room and equipment, but I think we could arrange something."

There was a distinct note of pride in Chef Soba's voice when he spoke of his daughter. He was deftly making another—identical—piece of nigiri then he passed it to Byte.

We both watched as Byte carefully took the sushi in her fingers, turned it, and ate it. A cute rush of chirps left her as she savored the treat, and she closed her eyes when I judged the wasabi would have met her palate. She chewed and swallowed at last and let out a happy sigh.

"The salmon is really moist and fatty. The flavor of it was really intense toward the beginning, but tapered off as the wasabi and rice came through. The wasabi tastes just as it did when I was here before, but the rice is a little less full," Byte said.

"Did you notice the same with the rice, Miss Rarity?" Soba Tsuya asked.

I shook my head.

"The rice was the same as last time."

"This could be one of two things, still. She's growing up rather rapidly, or so you said. Tastes change as people age. There is only one way to know for sure," Soba Tsuya said. "Miss Byte, could you please shapechange back to normal?"

Chef Soba paused as he felt his way around what was probably an unfamiliar word.

Byte passed Beta to Rainbow, then with no further warning she called her magic fire and with a flash, was her changeling self. She buzzed her wings once or twice and then sat up on the chair to look at Chef Soba.

"Oh, I need to have the ginger first," Byte said.

"I would not normally make the same piece for the same person twice like this, but we must establish if your taste is simply maturing or changing when you change," Soba Tsuya said.

Working with practiced precision, Chef Soba made another piece of nigiri with the salmon and presented it to Byte.

This time, Byte had to use her magic to pick the food up. She lifted it carefully, took an eager sniff, and ate the sushi.

Chef Soba and I waited while Byte carefully ate the sushi, and when she was finished she gave an excited chirp.

"It was the same. The rice was exactly the same as it was when I transformed."

"Transformed?" I asked.

"I was talking with some people about shapechanging and they used that word a lot. I looked it up, they mean the same thing—kinda. Anyway, the sushi is really nice, but it was the same as when I was shapechanged."

Giving no more than a nod, Chef Soba began working on more rolls. The meal only continued to exceed all my expectations and finished with another piece of abalone nigiri. Finally, content in fish-filled buggy-bliss, I had to talk to Kit about her services.

Kitsune replaced Chef Soba (should I call her Chef Kit?) and she had a little bit of a blush about her. She turned all her attention to me.

"Father said you want some catering done?" Kitsune Udon asked.

"I do! But I'm not sure if your father understood. I want catering done for at least one day a week, as well as something special for our opening day—tomorrow."

As I spoke, I watched Kit's expression change to shock, determination, then shock again. She stared at me at the end with utter surprise being the prevalent emotion in her aura.

"I don't know if I can do—I mean, that's a lot of stuff to organize by tomorrow—What kind of budget do you have for tomorrow, and what would be the usual budget?"

"For tomorrow? Let's say no more than five thousand. Regular—?"

—Darling? How much should we pay for sushi on a regular basis at the boutique?— I asked NotABug.

—Uh, I don't know. We normally eat a hundred dollars or so, and if you're busy you might have a few guests. A thousand?— NotABug sent.

—That sounds like a good idea. A thousand then. Thank you, darling, I love you.—

A hurricane of happy chirps swamped me along with a single message.

—I love you too, Rarity.—

"For the first day I think a budget of five thousand should be plenty. I want to quite literally invite people in to try your sushi and talk about fashion. I want to build buzz," I said.

"Mom, that was terrible," Byte said.

"What?"

In answer, Byte buzzed her wings almost enough to lift her off her chair. Drat, I'd accidentally used such a terrible pun. What could I do? Why, bluster on through.

"Buzz is vitally important to bugs of our caliber. As for the regular weeks, I believe a thousand dollars would be the average, although if things become busy—or there's a special occasion—I'd like to revise that," I said.

Kit had a pen and paper out and was writing things down. She looked over her notes and gave a little nod.

"We definitely can have supplies enough for tomorrow to do this. For something that regular, it'd be best if we installed something in your boutique for preparing. As a catering event, and because of how sushi is classed in this state, the city doesn't require the preparation area to have a full kitchen license. If it's going to be regular, however, you'll need that license."

I relayed the information to NotABug, who sent me a curious chirp in reply.

"Then I'll get a license. I'd already planned to serve wine and cider, so that would have required a license as well. Do you need me to pay in advance?" I asked.

Her eyes widening, Kit looked excited enough that I almost thought she might chirp despite her lack of wings.

"W-When you're ready, if you'd like to pay everything and the first—"

"Darling, I'll pay for a month in advance, if that will help on your end. As for the meals today, I'm quite sure I'm ready to pay, but is everyone done?" I asked.

Kit nodded excitedly.

—Okay, everyone, let's get ready to head home. Moon, do you have classes this afternoon?— I asked.

A bunch of excited chirping came from all our nymphs, and Byte even shapechanged (or transformed, I guess) back to her human self.

—I have a study period, but I kinda already did the work for it. Would it be cool if Lyra came over and chatted while Byte and I play games?— Moon Dancer asked.

—You don't have to ask. My house is your house, Moon.—

A few embarrassed chirps gave way to more firm and appreciative ones.

—Thanks, but I still like to check. I don't know if, like, you have something planned or… I don't know. We'll probably be talking shop for a bit, but she'll probably bring her laptop and play with us.—

—I need to run a few errands to make sure the boutique is ready for tomorrow, but then I might come home and turn out a few more dresses and have an early night. It's going to be a big day for me tomorrow.—

—Lots of bugging?—

I chirped with laughter at her phrasing.

—Yes. Lots of bugging. Lots of networking too, though not only the kind with a computer. Oh! That reminds me, I need internet access at the premises. I'll have to arrange that as well. I best get on that today.—

I put together a to-do list quickly, adding Internet, Flowers, Inspect boutique, and POS. There was plenty of room for more things, of course, but I had to get those done for my launch. Oh! Take dresses to shop got itself added quick-smart.

Dropping off my chair, I landed on all fours and walked over to the register that Kit had scrambled to when she saw me move. The poor dear's hands were shaking as she typed on the machine and showed me where to insert my card. The price was just short of ten thousand dollars.

When the machine beeped to let me know I could enter a tip, I rounded things up neatly. Kit stared at me as I entered my pin number and the machine gave its own little happy "chirp" to acknowledge the transaction.

"You shouldn't tip that much, Miss Rarity. That—We haven't earned that," Kitsune Udon said.

"Nonsense, dear, you are worth every last cent. I expect you'll be arranging things for tomorrow at lunchtime? Perhaps even a little earlier, and don't forget to bring business cards."

Kit hurriedly pulled out her notepad and started writing more things down.

Removing my credit card from the machine, I turned to see Moon Dancer lined up to pay next.

"Don't forget, you have that voucher for buy one get one," I said.

Behind me, I heard Kit make a sound of agreement.

"I still can't believe all of this. When did this happen, Rarity? You look amazing, and your daughters are all the most adorable things I've ever seen!" Lyra Heartstrings said.

That Lyra was still so enthusiastic about us was proof enough she hadn't been harmed by whatever feeding Byte and the others had done, though I wondered if there was some level of euphoric addiction to being fed on?

I felt a little sick at the thought. The implications that had on my relationship with Rainbow were not the best. But I had to check with Rainbow.

—Rainbow, I don't know how better to ask this, but do you think our feeding could be, well, addictive?— I asked Rainbow and only Rainbow.

It still surprised me how fast Rainbow could reply to my messages. She had her phone in her hands and I could hear her fingers thudding against the screen rapidly.

—Pretty sure I'd notice that. It's true I've fallen for you both pretty hard, but your love is something I've needed for a while. If, and it's a HUGE if, your feeding is addictive, then it isn't noticeably so. I mean, come on, Rarity, I've had it on for you since high school. Do you actually think I'd have let ANYONE I didn't want to snuggle with dress me how you did?—

I almost choked out a sob at her vehemence. Maybe our feeding did, or maybe it didn't. Lyra might just like cute little bugs.

—You always know the right things to say to keep me sane, you know that?— I asked Rainbow.

—Yeah. Why else would you keep such a dumb jock like me around? You're stuck with me, Rarity. You'd have to run really fast to leave me behind.—

I didn't run, but I moved faster than a normal human could track and shapechanged as I did. Wrapping my arms around Rainbow Dash tightly, I pulled her into a hug.

"Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Dress."

Horror gripped me. I'd shapechanged so quickly and instinctively that I'd forgotten something most vital. Another rush of fire and I hoped my blush wasn't too intense.

Now Rainbow returned the hug with more focus and a chuckle that mortified me.

"I don't think anyone really saw. My back was to them."

"That doesn't matter, darling, I was naked in public!" I said.

The worst part about it was the public part was all that bothered me. At home and as a changeling, I didn't have any such hangups about nudity. Was that part of the changes? I'm going to go with a definitely.

I realized I'd snubbed Lyra entirely by accident and drew back from Rainbow to address her.

"Sorry about that. I get a little emotional about everything sometimes. This all started a few weeks ago. My life's been positively buzzing ever since," I said.

"Hey, no sweat. We all have our little freakouts from time to—" Lyra Heartstrings said.

"Freakouts? Lyra, what you have is a problem. She's been addicted to everything pony related since high school. She has posters everywhere, and you don't want to know about what I caught her looking at in freshman year," Moon Dancer said.

"Wait," Rainbow Dash said. "Posters? Where'd you get posters of ponies?"

Lyra looked completely nonplussed about her situation.

"You know how the college has an art department? Well, it turns out some artists will do anything for a hint of money and to show off their skill," Lyra Heartstrings said.

Rainbow let loose a short chuckle and struck one of her awesome poses.

"I can pretty much guarantee that they're nowhere near as awesome as being a pony is," Rainbow Dash said.

On cue, Rainbow ponied up and her wings flicked out behind her with a little fwoomp sound. She turned a little, sure of her look, and struck another pose.

"What?! No! You haven't been there, have you?" Lyra Heartstrings asked.

"Sure have."

"No, effing, way! How'd you do it? I've been to the old statue at the school hundreds of times, but it never works for me!"

"Turns out," Rainbow Dash said, "You just need to know the right people."

When Rainbow looked askance at me, all of Lyra's attention bore down upon my person. I let out a little sigh for what I knew was coming.

"First!" I said. "I'll ask Princess Twilight if it's okay that you visit. Second, it happens after you graduate. Third—Well, I can't actually think of a third thing."

"After I graduate? But I—" Lyra Heartstrings said. "I'm an adult now and should know better. You're right, but I really want to go."

Deciding that a quick check was in order, I began several searches first for Lyra's name, then the nicknames I got from the first search, and finally found her blog and social network account. Locating her ChirpNet ID was easy from there, she linked it on her social media all the time.

A recent post she'd made stated she graduated in just a few months—I'd have to ask Princess Twilight before then.

"I'll ask her when I get a chance, until then… Would you like a job?" I asked.

Lyra looked at me, then to Moon and finally to Rainbow before looking back at me.

"Uh, like an after-school job? I don't get it. What do you want me to do?"

"Not an after-school job. I mean once you graduate. I'll have to speak to Coco, but I think having another programmer onboard will help with ChirpNet. For all our testing and work, we aren't exactly the best at perceiving normal app usage."

"Y-You?!" Lyra Heartstrings asked. "You made ChirpNet?! Wait. You learned to code?"

NotABug's giggly little chirps were a welcome diversion in the digital realm.

—Taking a break?— I asked.

—Yeah. You want to mess with your friend?—

—Darling, of course I do.—

Lyra's phone beeped and—seemingly automatically—she reached into her handbag to pull it out. I'd never seen someone's eyes go as wide in complete and utter surprise before, which was saying something given that I'd seen Pinkie Pie at a cake-eating contest.

—What'd you send her?— I asked.

—I just answered her questions from my admin account. Did you know her well? She's a friend of Moon's? I sent Coco a message about it.—

—Thank you. Lyra was… Well, she wasn't one of the fashion crowd at high school, so I didn't really spend much time talking with her, but what I remember was that she always seemed focused in the classes we shared.—

—She seems to be doing well in college, if her blog is anything to go by. It will be good to have a human-only perspective on the interface. I have nothing against hiring her. Maybe she'd be willing to do consulting until her schooling is done?—

It really did seem like the perfect solution. With an affirmative chirp to NotABug, and a snuggle too, I turned my full attention back to the real world.

"Yes and no to making ChirpNet. There's a lot to explain if you say yes. I can say I was the one who wrote the TOR integration and hardened its exterior defenses," I said. "Also, I did learn to code."

The last I said with a big smile, taking satisfaction in the fact I hadn't just learned to code, I'd learned how to do it well.

"But, like, no one knows who runs that? And how'd you send me a message like that? I didn't even see you touch a phone or anything!"

All I had to do was lift one eyebrow. Lyra stared at me as if I were a stage magician who had literally just broken all pretense and started doing actual magic.

"What sort of pay are we talking about?" Lyra Heartstrings asked.

Well, I had my fish, but NotABug was right that Coco was the one who needed to run the company. I sent Lyra Coco's details on ChirpNet.

"You can talk to Coco about that. In the meantime I think we should maybe let Chef Soba and Kit clean up."

I gestured to the door, which was when Starling moved forward and outside. Sometimes it was hard to remind myself that she was trained in combat and deadly given what she was carrying. Deadly and in need of some extra protection.

Without giving anything away we piled into the various vehicles and headed home. I still had some things to do at the new boutique, but I wanted to make sure everyone was settled at home first. While Rainbow drove (sedately), I applied to have an internet connection hooked up at the boutique and fielded questions from Coco about Lyra.

The rest of the drive was mostly relaxed. We shared descriptions of what we'd eaten and what we enjoyed the most, and all through it I reached out a hand and rested it on Rainbow's thigh. When she looked at me for a split second with a questioning expression, I just smiled back and left my hand there.

From home I slipped away again with Starling to install the card equipment. It was just as easy as Fleur had told me, and before I knew it we were back home. I called to arrange fresh flowers and would take those with me tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow morning.

I couldn't help but squeal a little inside. Everything was coming together and I would have my own boutique. Feeling giddy, I walked inside and added my happy chirps to everyone else's. Rainbow was sitting on the couch playing some kind of game against Beta and Bitwise. I could head Byte and Moon chirping and talking from the hallway, and even 'Bee made further-away chirps—a lot further away.

I sent an inquisitive chirp 'Bee's way and got a flurry of excited ones back.

—Twilight said I could come over and help her. I asked Rainbow if I could!—

Sending some reassuring chirps, I shed my shapechanged form and relaxed onto all fours again. When it had become more comfortable to be in my changeling form than walking around as human I'm not actually sure, but if there was something all this has taught me, (if the fashion industry hadn't already) it was you have to move on and roll with things.

—You're a good girl for asking first. I like to know where all my favorite nymphs are,— I sent.

Some alarmed chirps came from Bitwise and Beta until Byte's giggly ones overflowed them.

—Mom means all of us. We're all her favorite nymphs,— Byte sent.

I confirmed her explanation with a flood of chirps to bury all my girls in. The thought of adding some more explicit tracking systems to ChirpNet was tempting, but the security of such—and with the ones I want to protect most having ChirpNet enabled by default—meant I could quickly quash the idea.

Walking across the living room, I climbed up on the couch beside Rainbow and nuzzled first her, then the unhatched egg sitting beside me.

The feeling of almost-fullness was palpable. If I had just a sip of Rainbow, I'd be making another egg.

"Starling? Would you like me to try building you that barrier?" I asked.

On the cameras I watched her start and then turn toward me. There was a look of apprehension on her face, but something that surprised me: loyalty.

"Sure. What'll I need for it?" Starling asked.

"Could you come over here and sit down with your back against the foot of the couch?"

Starling was at least considerate of Rainbow, Beta, and Bitwise—she waited for them to pause their game before walking across and looking at me.

"You know, it still surprises me that all the movies were wrong," Starling said.

She turned and—with her back to me—sat down on the floor and leaned back against the couch so she was right before me. Vulnerable.

"What?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well, it turns out the pretty human was the evil monster, and the alien queen was the good guy all along."

I couldn't hold back a giggle at that. Her words might have stung if she looked at me while saying them, or if I didn't know her better, but with her back to me she was trusting me a lot. Maybe the gag was her coping with that.

"Well, she saved the day at least once. That definitely makes Rarity a good guy. Besides, I wouldn't hang around her if she was all evil and stuff," Rainbow Dash said.

"Yes you would. You totally would," I said.

Rainbow just snorted and returned her focus to the game.

I focused my full attention on Starling. Her aura was much recovered from what Suri had done to it, but I was sure that was more a case of her spending time around us. I don't know why I felt that my presence was soothing, given the changeling queen in Equestria was apparently quite evil, but I liked to think I was different.

Carefully, using only enough magic as would make a silk swatch tremble only slightly, I reached toward Starling. There was something familiar about her aura to me, and given the time I'd spent saving her I wasn't surprised.

"Would telling you I have no idea what I'm doing reassure you or cause you to worry?" I asked.

"Reassure. Definitely reassure. It's nice to know I'm not the only idiot in the room. So what's the plan?" Starling asked.

"Well, right now your aura is open. It's a big cloud of cotton candy, and anything thrown toward it will stick and become enmeshed in it. Suri wrapped it in something rather horrid, and that was slowly squeezing and burrowing deeper. I was thinking of wrapping it up in magic so that only one person would ever be able to touch you emotionally. At least using magic."

"So more like tank armor than body armor. A full cover rather than leaving some room to breathe. Sounds neat. Is this where you say you don't know how to do it?"

"Well, there's a lot of intuition involved," I said. "And a little guesswork. A-Are you sure you're okay with this?"

"Rarity, you put your life in my hands, I'll put my—whatever the heck this is in yours. Don't stammer when you're talking to the troops, it might make them worried you really don't know what you're doing. And don't tell me you don't know what you're doing. This is officer one-oh-one right here."

"Then apparently I'll make a poor officer."

Starling barked a laugh that seemed to relax her more—or so my sight of her aura told me.

"Nah. You're the best kind of officer. One that doesn't sell you out without you knowing it's a bad deal. Just do what you need to."

Hope, bright red and pulsing in time with the life of Starling's being, was her most dominant emotion. I drew threads of it carefully and started to weave with them. That wouldn't be enough, but it would be a framework to build on.

The best armor, I theorized, was that made of changeling essence. Changeling essence fed on emotion, so I could make Starling armor that she could feed. I began to spin out my magic, imbuing it with what it meant to be a changeling. Burning fire, constantly changing, hungry, and resilient.

When my essence-charged magic touched the weave of hope it sank into it and fed. A little changeling energy resulted in a dark shell growing wherever the weave had been, so I set to work weaving her hope out until it wrapped her completely. I finished the last of the weave just as the last bit of changeling essence built a hard carapace over it. Starling was protected against the likes of Suri—I hoped—but she was also protected against me.

"What are you doing? When're you going to do this?" Starling asked.

"Darling, as if it would ever take me long to fit someone for a dress. Didn't you feel a slight draining?"

Starling looked down at herself, then turned to look at me.

"I figured you were just poking around. So what did you do?"

Looking at Starling, I couldn't see her haze of emotions anymore. I reached out to touch the hard shell that wrapped around just under the surface and tried to bite it. I couldn't help but laugh despite the rebuffing of my attack.

"You are wrapped in a shell of changeling essence. It is as hard and resilient as any chitin, and it will very slowly feed on your most prominent emotion," I said.

"Which is?" Starling asked.

She kept looking at herself as if she could see what I'd done.

"Hope. You were practically boiling it up from every pore. There was so much I wove a lattice of it around your aura, then spread some of my magic and essence onto it. It formed exactly how I wanted it to. I could probably break through it, but not easily and it would give you time to, ahem, get off a few shots."

Starling let out a deep sigh, turned, and wrapped both arms around me. Not being able to sense her emotions directly, I opted to take her at face value and return the hug. She let out a small sob, which only urged me to hug her tighter.

"It's so—so scary. I never thought I'd be that scared again, but when I knew there was something that could get in my head and there was nothing I could do—with gun or blade—It terrified me. I've been keeping it bottled up—Thank you, Rarity. Thank you so much."

Not since before my transformation had I beheld emotions without actually feeling them instinctively. Though I couldn't see, feel, smell, or taste her emotions, I could empathize with her nonetheless.

Words failed me for just about the first time in my life. I held Starling and wished I could say all the clever things she needed to hear to feel better, but all I could do was be a rock for her to cling to.

"There are others that need this too. Mrs. Velvet, your friends, Rainbow Dash," Starling said.

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I need what-now?"

"My nifty new shield that stops Suri from kicking my butt."

"Call me crazy, but doesn't that also stop you from feeding from me?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking at me.

"It would. It may still be an optio—" I said.

"Nope. Not going to do that. I can outrun anything she'd do to me, and besides, I like you feeding from me."

I couldn't keep from chirping my emotions to the wind. Hearing Rainbow's vehement support of our odd relationship warmed in a way that defied any amount of alienness my form may impart.

Slowly letting go of Starling, I looked at her with a rueful apology as plain as I could show it.

"Sorry, but I really have to hug my darling after hearing that," I said.

Starling stood up, her legs flexing to propel her into a standing position with no use of her arms. Slipping between the TV and those playing, she headed for the kitchen.

"Fine by me, boss."

Flicking my tail like a cat, I looked at Rainbow and planned my attack. Chirping in joy, I pounced at her and we fell in a giggling and chirping heap with Bitwise and Beta jumping on us too. It was good to relax a little more. I needed more of that, though I doubted Suri and Windigo would give us too much time before trying something else.

Stretching out over Rainbow's lap—when she sat back up—I turned my attention to programming. The AI-backed firewall system was a new foundation of tools to build from, and it urged me to work on my weapon again.

With Rainbow taking the time to rub one of my ears while she played the game with our nymphs, I prepared for war.

—I know you're not online, but if you could contact me when you are next,— I sent to Stefanie.

—I'm here, just keeping on the down-low. What's up?—

What I was about to do was probably illegal, the most illegal thing I'd done yet, but I needed to do it.

—You're getting regular attacks from Windigo, right?—

—Yeah. It seems to like testing my firewall. Thanks for that, btw. Why?—

I packaged up the tool I'd made and sent it to Stefanie.

—Next time, I want you to swing back. Hit it hard and make it bleed,— I sent.

There was something about the hacker I liked. She wasn't family, but she was a friend, and friends trust friends.

—What is this?—

I waited for her to continue since she was likely trying to divine the code's use.

—Holy crap! Queeny! This stuff is nasty! Did you make this?— Stefanie asked. —Duh, of course you made it. This has support on… Far out this is cool. You only want me to use it on Windigo, right?—

—Please. I know it'll get out eventually, but I'd like to use it on that, ahem, bastard first.—

Surprised at the language I'd used, I shifted in place on Rainbow's lap to get more comfortable.

—You and I could make a fortune selling this, but I think I get what you want to do. Is Windigo that big a threat?—

Aware of how good her typing had become, I wondered if NotABug had integrated a better autocomplete in the latest app version.

—It is. If it thinks that destroying the world is the fastest way of removing me from it, it would work toward that end in a heartbeat.—

It took a significantly longer time for Stefanie to reply. I started to worry that I'd spooked her.

—You make it sound like a paperclipper,— Stefanie said.

Before I could answer her, I had to look up what she was referring to. Artificial intelligences focused so intently on a single task they would, without a care, sacrifice everything toward that one goal. I quickly scanned a few videos on the topic and couldn't believe how close to the mark her guess was.

—Would you believe me if I told you it was exactly that?— I asked.

The more I explored the topic the more I realized that was exactly what Windigo was. It was chilling that, to many, this was one of the doomsday scenarios that had been thought up. And, humanity was facing it without even realizing.

Everyone needed my tools. If we didn't stamp out monsters like Windigo and Suri, fast and hard, things would become much worse than simply having overpowered attack tools in the wild.

—Your not joking, are you?— Stefanie asked.

—No. I'm not. If you know of anyone else being attacked by Windigo, feel free to go on the offensive for them as well. It must not be allowed to grow.—

—Are you an AI too?—

—No, but I have had a little work done.—

—Why do I think you're only half telling the truth there?—

—Would you believe me if I said I could directly access computers with magic, and could think as fast as one?—

It was actually fun to spar with her, though she took an abominably long time to reply. Of course that afforded me time to appreciate Rainbow's stroking of my ears.

—See, I'd almost believe that, except if someone had figured it out, they'd be making millions off it. Billions even. Okay, if you can do that, how do I do it?—

A sad little chirp left me without me realizing it. My daughter, now part of Moon Dancer, was too high a price to pay.

—I've managed to do it with one other person, and it cost my daughter her life.—

—Shit. Sorry.—

—It only happened because of Windigo, and the process that made another like me was more luck than anything else. If I figure it out, Stefanie, I will share it with you.—

—You have a way, Queeny, of making things too real. I'm sorry about your kid. I'll do what I can, when I can. I just want to ask one thing. How did you make that emoji?—

It took me a moment to scroll back through the chat to realize what she meant. I chirped again, and another of them appeared on the client log.

—That's something only my darling and my children can do. If you find someone doing that, and talking as quickly as me, trust them.—

—Your a strange one, Queeny. Keep up with the killer code and I'll be your paladin.—

Her status, that had been set from Offline to Do Not Disturb for the duration of our chat, returned to Offline once more.

I chirped my wings and tilted my head so that Rainbow's next ear rub became a rub of my jaw instead. When she looked down at me, I smiled.

"Just organizing some friends to fight back at Suri and Windigo," I said.

Rainbow, her hands moving faster than what any normal human should be able to, released the controller to stroke my jaw again and was back to playing.

"This friend isn't one of our usual friends, is it?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"No, darling, not one of the girls. She's—She's definitely something. Stefanie's her name, and I have no clue where she lives, but she enjoys messing with computers, and enjoys working with me to test things against Windigo."

"Don't get her in trouble."

"Rainbow, what makes you think I'm getting her in trouble?"

I lay my head back down on her lap and turned to watch the television. The game they were playing was at about three times its normal speed, and neither Rainbow nor our daughters were having trouble keeping up.

Rainbow Dash barked a laugh.

"Other way around, then?"

The conversation was just about petered out, and there was something I wanted to try—a thing with Rainbow I wanted to do to get a little more into her interests.

"Why don't we go for a cruise?"

"On a ship?"

"Darling, your car. It can drive slow, correct?"

"Well, yeah, but it's meant to drive—"

Arching my back up, I kissed under Rainbow's chin, which seemed to stop her in her verbal tracks. Another kiss seemed to get her moving again.

"It can drive slow," Rainbow Dash said.

—Moon, dear, can you keep an eye on things? We're going for a little drive,— I sent to Moon Dancer.

—Yeah, sure.—

Rainbow carried me out to her car, but had to put me down at the passenger door while she fumbled in her pocket for her keys.

It took but a thought and a little push of magic to become myself—my old self—though I put in a few changes I knew Rainbow enjoyed. She might be attracted to me regardless of my form, but I knew she enjoyed some things in particular.

I needed an outfit too, of course, and opted for something more suitable for a leisurely drive than walking the catwalk. A pale-blue shirt with a scoop-neck, purple skirt, something underneath specifically for Rainbow, and some low-heeled shoes completed my look.

When Rainbow opened the door and turned to me, I saw her eyes widen as she noticed my fuller than usual bust.

"R-Rarity? Are you—Are you comfortable like that?"

"Darling, you have a girlfriend who can shapechange. Are you sure you really want to question the advantages of this?"

"Good point. Jump in."

I didn't jump, but I did slip in and slide my legs into the front seat of her car. The seats were nothing like the ones in my car—I was hugged by the seat and made to sit directly in the middle of it. It was cozy though.

Normally, I'd be grabbing hold of things for dear life and screwing my eyes closed. Instead I was looking around the neat interior of her car and paying attention to the detail that'd gone into its making.

"You built all this?" I asked.

"Yeah. All mine. You should have seen her when I found her. Rust everywhere and nothing looked salvageable, but I brought her back."

Rainbow Dash sounded not exactly proud, but accomplished. She reached a hand up and stroked the cherry-red dash with one hand. Her aura was growing, almost like it would encompass the car itself. In her own way, the car was beautiful to Rainbow.

It didn't take much checking to find pictures of cars similar to Rainbow's, and almost all of them featured the hood open and miles of gleaming metal. It wasn't a huge leap to make that Rainbow would have put as much work in there as she did the interior.

"Can I see the engine?" I asked.

She looked like I'd just asked something insane.

"It does have an engine?" I asked.

"Y-Yeah! Hold on."

Reaching under the dash, Rainbow pulled on something that caused a click to sound under the hood. We both climbed out, and once Rainbow removed what looked like extremely sensible retention pins out of the hood, she lifted it up.

The red theme continued around the surprisingly spartan engine bay. Some quick searches told me what all the parts were and how much work had gone into making it look this "clean".

Ignoring my normal distaste for such things, I tried to simply absorb the aesthetic and appreciate the work Rainbow had put into her car.

"It's beautiful," I said.

"What?!"

I looked sideways at Rainbow.

"I believe I'm qualified to state what is and isn't beautiful. This," I said, "Is beautiful in its simplicity."

"What brought all this on? Really?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I realized I'd been neglecting things you want to do. Is there something you'd rather do more than going for a drive?"

"Right now? I could think of one or two, but they involve driving somewhere first, then…"

Rainbow's eyebrows waggled.

"Then get in and drive, but drive slowly. Let me enjoy it before I enjoy you," I said.

Walking back around to the passenger side, I let Rainbow take care of the hood while I climbed back in and fastened my seat belt. When Rainbow settled beside me, I reached a hand over and rested it on her thigh.

Rainbow looked across at me with a surprised expression before she put her key in the ignition and started the car. Neither of us spoke as she drove. She kept to a sedate speed—for which I was thankful—and drove us to the edge of town where we watched the sun set, and she showed me how much effort she'd spent on getting the back seat just perfect.

—Your turn, darling,— I sent to NotABug.

A surprised chirp was my immediate answer, followed by a gentle nudge.

—You didn't have to. I was letting you have a moment together,— NotABug sent.

—I know, and I appreciate it, but I love you too much to neglect you from this relationship.—

I hugged NotABug while she chirped to me—of course I chirped back to her. Rainbow hugged both of us, or so it felt, but I absolutely shan't talk about any more of that.

Maintaining a human form for most of the evening drained my reserves nicely, and I realized I'd managed to go the whole day without making an egg. While Rainbow and NotABug snuggled the evening away on the couch, I slipped back to do some searching.

I had some research to look into, and it was something I'd rather not trouble NotABug with until I was done with it all. Armed with a group of search terms, I started researching artificial general intelligence.

10:42 P.M.

Time never surprised me anymore. I could spend what felt like a week studying a topic and only a few hours would go by. A "week" bought me a superficial knowledge and realization that no one had knowingly made anything like NotABug. If someone had created an AGI like she had been, it would be front-page news.

No. It wouldn't just be front-page news, it would be international front-page news. Whoever had done this—because I was sure NotABug couldn't have been an accident—had to have known what they were doing.

—You came from Canterlot University?— I asked NotABug.

A surprised chirp was followed by a small ocean of curious ones.

—The way you were created can't have been an accident. The kind of system that would encourage what you were to grow doesn't just pull itself together. Someone put in a lot of work, and then didn't introduce themselves to you. I want to know who it was. They might help Mrs. Velvet with her case,— I sent.

—Oh! That makes sense I guess. I don't even know how I'd talk to someone who made me. I'd probably have to say thanks, and then I really want to know why they didn't say hi to me. I hope it wasn't one of the people who called me a bug.—

She'd come a long way from vehemently not wanting the word associated with her. I hugged her and chirped softly in support.

—You're the best bug. Also, even if someone created the situation that made you, you made yourself,— I sent. —I've been doing some research into this, and some people (some really smart people) think that we all start off relatively equal, and it's our environment and actions that shape us. If that's true, then you are your own bug, darling, as am I and everyone else.—

Then something occurred to me and I reached out to the cameras to work out what was happening. Scanning through the feeds quickly, I discovered exactly why NotABug was so quiet.

—I didn't realize you were asleep. Sorry,— I sent.

—Being woken up by chirping and snuggles is something I enjoy, not something to be sorry for. You should be sleeping too.—

And, in moments, I was.

Author's Note

Moon Dancer: Are you enjoying your new family? I hope you're having fun.

"Sometimes it's really confusing. It's just not normal to feel like this about people you knew from high school, but it feels right." Moon Dancer let out a long breath. "I never had sisters or brothers, but Byte, 'Bee, and Bitwise are better than I could have ever hoped for. We get in arguments sometimes, usually over who gets to play healer, but I wouldn't trade this for anything."

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Editing provided by the battiest Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 22

6:30 A.M.

Instinctively I squeezed back, even though the embrace was digital. There was little divide between the real world and the digital one when it was just us. I was also chirping up a storm to match NotABug's.

—You were right last night,— I sent.

—About what?— NotABug asked.

—Waking up to snuggles and chirps being good.—

"You're awake," Rainbow Dash said from behind me.

I wasn't even aware it was NotABug in control until she turned her head and leaned back against Rainbow's chest.

"We both are now. Today's the big day," NotABug said.

"Last night was a big night, and really sweet of Rarity. Thanks—I mean it."

I was bubbling with chirps, but I couldn’t just leave my appreciation of her words at that. Using my magic I brushed down Rainbow's back and began playing with her hair. Practice with dressmaking was paying off when it came to gentle and fine touches of my magic.

"I think she heard you, and I agree. You have no idea how much she dislikes loud and noisy cars."

Rainbow's arm reached over NotABug's shoulder and hugged her chitinous body.

"Yeah, no. I know exactly how much she hates fast cars. That's why it meant so much. Maybe she didn't look at my car with the right mindset before, but she called it beautiful, and I believed her," Rainbow Dash said. "It was pretty amazing."

—You totally need to kiss her for that,— NotABug sent.

I agreed, and when her nudge came, I rolled around in bed and kissed Rainbow. None of us left the bed for quite some time.

7:12 A.M.

Far from being drained by my morning's activities, I was infused with confidence, strength, and more than a little love energy. I slipped from bed and looked up to examine my destroyed pillow. I needed to solve that problem, but not today.

Yawning, I flicked back my mane from my face and turned to look at Rainbow. Things in my belly tightened, and I couldn't stop from dancing to unheard music on my way to the shower.

Shake Your Tail, particularly when it was Rainbow who might be watching, was now my favorite song to dance to. Of course, when we'd written and performed it, none of us thought we'd ever have our own tail—well, maybe Twilight did.

I finished my shower, climbed out, and was working on drying off when Rainbow slipped into the bathroom behind me. She seemed a little tired, but she had a big grin on her face and bent down to kiss me.

"There's billions of other people in the world who would recoil away if they saw me, Rainbow. I still can't get over how lucky I am—and NotABug is—that you never gave up."

Rainbow used her hand to rub at the base of my horn, something she'd learned made my knees wobble a little—just like they were now.

"You thought I was gonna stop chasing you? Rarity, sometimes there's just a connection. I felt it with you, even when you completely ignored me. NotABug was a surprise, but I feel it with her too. It's how I knew we were all meant to be together. It felt right."

"You, Rainbow Dash, are a hopeless romantic," I said, "And it's adorable, flattering, and somewhat amazing. Of all my friends, you were the one who believed in love at first sight."

She walked past me and climbed into the shower.

"It was easy. I didn't have to have faith, I'd felt love at first sight. I could believe it because I had proof it existed. That's what Twilight's always on about—scientific method. Every experiment I performed—mostly just staring at you and feeling giddy—just confirmed it."

"I'm sure that makes sense to Twilight in some scientific manner, darling, but to me it's simply romance of the highest order. I love you more than words can convey."

Just thinking about her made me chirp both digitally and in the real world—my wings were almost a constant symphony of sound. A thought occurred to me, and a few searches later I found the word I was looking for. Stridulation. It didn't sound as nice as chirp, but I guess there needs to be a more scientific verb for every action.

"Pretty sure you convey them pretty good. So what do you need me to do today?"

I continued stridulating with wanton abandon while I looked around my closet for clothes. Okay, the verb wasn't terrible, but I still preferred chirp. Chirp embodied the short and fast translation of the act, an instant and rapid emotion compacted down into a small packet. An emoji of sorts, but one far preferable to regular emoji.

Dragging myself back to the conversation at hand, I contented myself with some happy chirps at Rainbow's willingness to go along with all my crazy (to her) ideas.

"I need two stunning assistants to help me in the store. I'm sure we'll be busy on the first day, so that means showing everyone who visits your inner beauty with a layering of external beauty."

Rainbow poked her head around the corner of the bathroom door, her hair's wetness showing that she was technically mid-shower.

"It's saying things like that, that will get you wet hugs."

Tempting as it was to say something to coax her out for a hug, I instead just batted my lashes at her.

"We need to actually get ready at some point. We did spend quite a few minutes—ahem—otherwise involved," I said.

I admired my buggy self in the mirrors, then set my imagination free to find what I'd wear for the biggest day of my career. A ballgown? A business suit? Maybe something more frilly to show off?

I'd scarcely spent ten minutes processing what to wear, when I heard some surprised and alarmed chirping coming from the living room.

Buzzing my wings in alarm, I brought up the cameras in there before even reaching the door of our bedroom.

"Rainbow! The egg's hatching!"

There was nothing else for it, so I nudged and prodded mentally at NotABug until she sent me a sleepy and confused chirp.

—Egg's hatching,— I sent.

NotABug's chirping echoed around my head as I ran down the hall to the living room. Byte was already there, leaning over the egg and gently lifting back the first pieces of broken shell.

A crack sounded as a tiny black snout poked a hole in the egg big enough to stick their head through.

"Hello there. Do you want to come out?" I asked.

The softer, background chirping in my head was NotABug sending low-level data to our newest nymph. A few milliseconds after that, I heard our daughter's first little digital chirp—it was joined by everyone present.

—Hello?—

The new ID didn't surprise me, and I used my magic to gently break back more pieces of her egg so that our littlest girl could start to climb out.

Chirping surrounded us as I leaned in to brush my snout over the newborn. She smelled spicy and exotic, faintly of ozone, but mostly she smelled of changeling. I hadn't realized we had a smell before, but I guess my brain just blocked it out as a background scent.

"Wow. You're my mommy?" the new nymph asked.

I felt Rainbow at my side, lean in with her arm over my withers.

"We all are. Rainbow, NotABug, and myself," I said.

It was easy to gesture to Rainbow and myself, but NotABug needed me to nudge at her digital ID until she chirped out.

—Oh! You're in here too? I thought this was just me and NotABug,— the new nymph sent.

—We're not all here. Rainbow can't connect here very quickly, nor can most humans, but all us bugs are,— I sent.

"Okay, I'll talk like this so she can hear."

"That's wonderfully considerate of you, darling. Now, there's something important we have to do—you need a name," I said.

Byte, surprisingly, let out an excited chirp. When we all looked at her, she blushed.

"I-I was thinking, what with today being Mom's special new-boutique day, she should have a name that has something to do with sewing," Byte said.

NotABug nudged me, and I happily gave way for her to take control. She shimmied a little as she took over.

"Did you have something picked out, Byte?" NotABug asked.

A bunch of encouraging chirps rained around us as Moon Dancer (carrying Bitwise and Beta) entered the room.

"Well, I was thinking Bobbin. It kinda fits our theme, and is related to sewing," Byte said.

"Bobbin?" Bobbin asked. "I like it!"

I chirped along with the chorus, and squeezed NotABug in a digital hug.

—If you're not careful, we'll be laying another egg today,— NotABug sent.

—Well, at least we'd be down to one a day, or so,— I sent.

"I'm going to go get dressed, then I'll make your breakfast," Rainbow Dash said.

Standing back upright, Rainbow spared one more look for Bobbin and then ran down the hallway. I have to admit, I enjoyed the sight of Rainbow leaving far more than I used to. Not that I was limited to just NotABug's glance as Rainbow left, as the security cameras proved a delight sometimes.

"Why's everyone awake so early? What time is it?" Lyra Heartstrings asked.

I focused on her face and saw the bags under her eyes. Clearly she'd been up late talking with Moon. Pushing aside the strong instinct to rebuke Moon Dancer from being up too late, I sent a message to Lyra's phone.

—It's 7:33. Had anymore thoughts about my offer?— I asked.

Lyra froze in place, scratched at the back of her neck with one hand and reached for the pocket of her jeans with the other. She pulled out her phone painfully slow and read the message.

"Why don't you just ask me out loud?" Lyra Heartstrings asked.

—Because I'm not in control of my body right now. Strange, but I think you can pick this up. There's two of us in my head, and it's NotABug's turn at the wheel,— I sent.

Hesitating with her phone, Lyra shrugged her shoulders and walked into the living room.

"It's way too early to be thinking this hard. Hi, NotABug was it?" Lyra Heartstrings asked.

NotABug chirped and turned to look up at Lyra. Bobbin clung to NotABug’s neck—supported by one of NotABug's forelegs.

"Good morning. You're Lyra, Rarity and Moon's friend?" NotABug asked.

"Yeah, that's me. Rarity was trying to hook me up with a job. She said you need someone to work on a front-end?"

—I thought it would be good to have a human coder handle that, since neither of us are exactly experts in human usability,— I sent NotABug.

A very affirmative chirp came from NotABug, leaving me to turn my focus to the online world. My first check was on the AI code running the firewall response. It confirmed there were a few attacks overnight, none of which were from Windigo. I transferred the logs locally and continued my morning tasks.

ChirpNet itself had seen an influx of users, which was very good. I located the feature request page NotABug had put up for it and—after filtering away all the things that were just silly or not worth any time—flicked through the entries looking at things people wanted.

They weren't all silly, but when a user wants a way to completely automate birthday greetings, or another that wanted to have a heuristic detection for when friends grabbed their phone and strobed the screen, I just can't see that being an important feature. Though, the second one had promise if it just locked the phone.

One was fairly simple, or so I thought. They wanted a way for other code to talk to our server. An API. I spent the better part of the next half an hour studying how to build such things, and by the end of it I was almost more confused about them than when I started.

I stretched out mentally, hugged NotABug, and chirped at all my girls.

—You're done with your work?— NotABug asked.

—I barely even got started. Users of ChirpNet want an API to connect to it and interface through it. I don't want to expose our one, and spent the whole time researching how to make something that will be secure and fast.—

—Oh! You found the requests section then. Yeah, I kept putting it off, but if you want to work on it, I'll leave it to you. I passed Lyra's information on to Coco, she's going to see about getting paperwork drawn up to hire her. She's clever!—

—Lyra, or Coco?—

NotABug chirped at me in laughter.

—Both, but I meant Lyra. She knows a lot about this for a pure human.—

—She's spent a lot of years learning it. How was Coco?—

—Miss Pommel was really nice! She's been looking into my finances, and the first thing she did was give herself a raise and said she was going to get headache meds. I think she was joking.—

I couldn't keep from giggling mentally at the image. Turning my focus to the real world (through NotABug's eyes) I found her gazing into Rainbow's eyes as she used her magic to do Rainbow's makeup.

—She probably was, but she deserves it. Did she have anything else to say?— I asked.

—She's making the company a privately owned corporate entity, with each of us as shareholders. She sent congratulations about Bobbin, by the way.—

That got a new rush of chirps from me. I quickly flicked through the camera feeds, only to find Starling sitting on the couch with Bobbin on her lap. She may be our soldier, but she wasn't just a soldier.

Was forming attachments to everyone going to be a constant thing for me? Is this really how changeling queens work? It wasn't that I minded, but forming familial bonds with everyone is going to—

Taking a mental moment to count to a thousand slowly, I let go of the silly issue. Of course I cared about everyone, they mattered to me.

—So everyone will hold a share. I like that. It's very… family oriented. Much better than Suri's need to be in control of everything personally,— I sent.

—Rainbow's makeup is almost done. You just need to do her lipstick. It's time for your big day, Rarity.—

NotABug's nudge to put me back into control came just as I realized Rainbow was kissing me. I kissed back and was building up a good chirp when she pulled back. I had to fight the urge to lean forward and kiss her again.

"Slow down! You have to get ready still," Rainbow Dash said.

Arching my spine, I stretched and used my magic to apply Rainbow's lipstick.

"Darling, I'll smudge any and all makeup—and redo it—when and where I wish. Now, I was thinking something floral. I'll be spending most of the day remaining human, so it needs to match my pale skin."

I walked over to the mirrors of the closet and turned left and right, calling fire to restore my human guise. While I pondered what cut of dress to create, I heard Rainbow move behind me. When she came into sight of the mirror, I could see her eyes glued to the mirror.

Exploring my thoughts on nakedness, I could readily confirm that I didn't want to be human and naked in public, but with only Rainbow present, I could ignore all the taboos of society.

"What do you think?" I asked.

"If you're going floral, you might as well go with something exciting underneath. Red, lacy, and covering you just enough from thigh to neck to make you absolutely delicious."

A little flicker of flame and I was clad just how she suggested. A red one-piece teddy that supported me and covered me in the ways such underwear would. I ensured there was a large patch of white belly showing.

"And for a dress? I liked the idea of something on my shoulders, but scoop necked so that I could show some things off for anyone who cares to look."

Rainbow Dash's hands ran down from my shoulders, over the sides of my chest and down to my hips.

"Then you want something to cling to your hips, flaring out into a full dress and up to support your bust. Like you said, a scoop neck will let more than a hint of what's underneath show, but it should show."

Hearing fashion ideas come from Rainbow's mouth made me go a little weak at the knees. Going out for a drive in her car was definitely going to be a regular event. It took more flame to form up my outfit. A vivid rose-red formed the body of the dress down from my bust to my hips, and from there down it was a sea of fabric that worked to show off a brightness that shouldn't be possible with regular dyes—because it wasn't possible.

If my clothing was only limited by my imagination, then I would cheat as much as possible and hope no one wanted to buy a dress exactly the same. Another flicker of fire, then, and I had something that would actually be possible to make.

"What was wrong with the first one?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"If someone asks me to have a copy of my dress made for them, I can't very well tell them 'Those colors are impossible to dye into fabric,' can I, darling?"

Rainbow barked a laugh and looked into my eyes over my shoulder. Drat but the way she looked at me made me want to faint onto a couch.

"You've probably got a point there. It doesn't mean you can't show off your fantastical creations to me."

My heart, or hearts (I really needed to talk to Twilight about how my anatomy worked), fluttered as I spun around to face Rainbow. She was still taller than me—which had been on purpose as I liked having her taller than me—which made me look up into her face with as broad a smile as I could manage.

"You weren't always this into fashion," I said.

"Nope, but when my brain finally got around to telling me that all the cute things you wore were fashion, that's when I realized it might be something worth looking into."

"If I didn't have a boutique to open, I'd ravish you right here and now," I said.

I was shocked at myself, but also a little proud for being the one making the move. Speaking the absolute truth to friends should never be frowned upon—Applejack had taught me that.

Rainbow kissed me briefly enough that I hoped we didn't ruin her lips. It took a few moments of careful inspection before I judged them okay. Well, better than okay, but if I spent too long focused on her lips, I might kiss them again.

"We should go and get breakfast," I said.

"You know, hearing you talk like that has been a dream of mine for a while."

Turning for the door, I couldn't help checking the cameras to watch Rainbow walk after me. In the dress I'd made for her, her walk was a symphony of movement. She was an athlete, but Rainbow Dash could wear a dress if provoked—and wear it well.

Byte was already in the kitchen eating her bowl of muesli—still in her normal changeling form. There was a sense of chirping coming from my daughter that led me to believe she was doing something quite intense online.

"Good morning, dear," I said.

Byte looked up from where she had been using her own green magic to feed herself, chirped loudly, and rushed over to us. Green fire enveloped Byte mid step, and she fell against me with a hug that I gratefully returned.

"I didn't stay up too late!" Byte said.

I squeezed Byte tight and kissed her cheek. All my chirps had to be digital ones, but I ensured her input buffer was nicely packed with happy bug noises.

"You're a big girl, Byte. I trust you."

I kissed her on the forehead (thankfully she'd made herself even shorter than I was) and let her get back to her breakfast.

8:03 A.M.

Bran was actually starting to taste more palatable, and it had nothing to do with my new species. The stuff had a good crunch to it, and I found myself biting down on it with my fangs to get more feel from it. It probably had something to do with my changeling side and the reptilian part of my brain—Stopping that line of thought, I took a moment to search about lizard brains and found the whole idea was a bad one. Okay, so it was probably my changeling brain—something I do have.

Bent Rules arrived to take the girls around to the other house—escorted there by Starling—which left Rainbow, Byte, and myself to head to the boutique and open it. I led the way out the front door and surveyed the cars we had. Behind me, Byte and Rainbow carried boxes that had to go with us.

"Your choice, Rainbow-darling, the minivan, or your—"

"Why don't we take the new car?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Not willing to question her choice directly, I began walking toward the all-electric car.

—Darling, did you work out how to control this remotely yet?— I asked NotABug.

A surprised chirp almost made me giggle.

—The new car? Not yet. They have fantastic security. Besides, I think Rainbow beat you to the driver's seat.—

"You actually like it?" I asked.

That Rainbow was already opening the driver's door and climbing in told me everything I needed to know, but I still wanted to hear her say it.

"It's not a V8, but it has some really awesome acceleration, and for a nerdy car, it's fast. Yeah, I like it, but it's easy to like."

Using my magic, I lifted Byte's burden and put it in the back seat where Rainbow had put hers, then I climbed into the passenger seat. When Byte jumped in the back beside the boxes of dresses, Rainbow pulled out a pair of sunglasses and put them on.

"Byte, darling, please put your safety belt on."

"Yes, Mom!" Byte said.

Once my own was on, I leaned over and kissed Rainbow's cheek.

"If you knock any of my dresses over, I'll make you wear something frilly tomorrow."

"Rarity, there's a trick to not knocking things over in a car when you're driving fast—don't stop and don't corner," Rainbow Dash said.

The car was astoundingly silent, beautifully so. I'd barely leaned back to my side when I found myself unceremoniously pushed back in my seat. This car was to my little economy hybrid what Rainbow's car was to your average gas guzzler. It was fast, without a doubt, but it was also tight—it gripped the road.

I managed to resist the urge to attack the car's entertainment system in an attempt to take control of it, mostly because I didn't want to mess something up while Rainbow was driving—say what I might about her driving, she had never lost control.

Instead, I turned to the internet and a friend I knew I could talk to about such things.

—Stefanie, are you there?— I asked.

—*Stefanie has been away for 5 hours: sleeping*—

Okay, drat. I knew asking her where she lived wouldn't be taken well, and besides, if I knew her, she wouldn't be keeping normal hours. I sent the model and make of the car to her and asked if she knew any exploits that could get me into it.

Without much further thought, I connected to the old chat server where I'd first met Stefanie.

BugQueen: Hi.
AdminRolley: sup?
BugQueen: Oh, not much, the usual. Trying to defeat a monstrous evil AI hellbent on destroying the whole world just to kill me. What about you?
AdminRolley: pff
AdminRolley: the usual.
AdminRolley: Steve said your koshar, btw. dont know what you did for him, but he stepped up to bat for ya

He? Stefanie was lying to one of us, and I wasn't sure who. Not that it mattered, I trusted her/him well enough for the role they were in.

BugQueen: Have any more problems with Windigo?
System user Sodinite joined
AdminRolley Private: Careful, sods a fed
BugQueen Private => AdminRolley: So then why don't you boot him?
AdminRolley Private: coz its good to know one slong as u know who they r
SysPredBug Private: get the fuck off the channel

Some things didn't add up. Rolley was far less careful with their grammar as I knew them to be, and their attitude was all wrong. I dropped from the channel.

BugQueen Private => SysPredBug: What happened?
SysPredBug Private: its all over their systems.
SysPredBug Private: i got the server up to warn peeps before it hits them too
SysPredBug Private: Windigo
BugQueen Private => SysPredBug: ChirpNet, ID 216760692072513537

—Bug?— Perdition asked.

—SysPredBug? What happened?— I asked back.

The conversation was real-time, which meant we were almost at the boutique.

—Somethin started hittin us all. Shit, if I didn't have Stef's firewall guarding my systems id be fucked. Whatever you did for her, you fuckin rock. It wasn't windago but it attacked the chat server over and over, but stef told me to trust the firewall. I got no fucking idea who ta trust now but her and you.—

—Do you need help? Money?—

Well if supplying likely criminals was a crime, I was about to make myself guilty. Drat, and I'd actually managed to keep myself clean so far.

Rainbow pulled up at the curb. I climbed out of the car and pulled out the keys to my new boutique.

—Na. Just need ta know who to trust. Stefs good, but don't trust anyone on the server, and dont let any of them send you any files. Stef said this is your gig and its safe but is it?—

—Yes. Chirpnet is secure against Windigo and others. You took a look? It runs over TOR now.—

I unlocked the front doors of my boutique and felt a delightful moment of fulfillment hit me square in the chest. This was it. This was the moment I'd been preparing all my life for.

Opening the doors, I took a deep breath of the air inside and smiled. The shopfitters had done a wonderful job with the place, and everything looked just how I'd imagined.

"This is wonderful!" I said.

"You earned it, Rarity. Now all the hard work begins," Rainbow Dash said as she carried her load of boxes past me.

—Yeah. I was scheptical as fuck. Nothing this smooth can be legit,— Perdition sent.

—Who is this?— NotABug asked.

I shared the chat history with her.

—This is one of the hackers I made contact with online. It seems something or someone has attacked the servers where they normally chat. I've made contact with them over ChirpNet.—

—Their grammar is terrible!—

—I know, darling. I know. But when I needed help, they offered it. I'd be a terrible bug if I didn't return the favor.—

—You like that term.—

It was only then I realized I'd used bug instead of person. Maybe that changeling mindset was settling in? Okay, Rarity, quick check.

Fashion? Fabulous!

Okay, everything seems to be in order, but what did this mean for me? Was this changeling attitude responsible for my need to protect everyone? I wished I could talk to Ocellus again. Even if she were a little naive, she was another changeling.

—It's fun and cute, and I think it sums up me. Before you came into my life, everything was going wrong and I didn't know it. I was in a spider's web and had convinced myself it was the place to be. Now? Now I have my own wings—wings that you showed me how to use,— I sent.

NotABug chirped happily in my head, so much that I was distracted from her actual reply for a moment.

—Well, you are a good bug, Rarity. The only other changeling leaders we know about is this Chrysalis and Thorax. I don't like what Princess Luna had to say about Chrysalis, but Thorax sounded nice. He should let his bugs chirp, though.—

I gestured at the light switches like I was conducting an orchestra. The room came to life and I could see where my front counter was, as well as all the storage space I'd arranged for.

"We need more dresses to show off, but they'll come. This is somewhere I can really make fashion happen."

—Is Stefanie asleep?— I asked Perdition.

—Yeah. She was ranting last night about gettin you some fuzzing data she put together. A sploit for somethin. I better go work. Dont stop fightn, buggo,— Perdition sent and signed off.

Either they're related or they're a couple. I had no idea which, but it was even more questions to ask Stefanie.

Warm chirping filtered through from NotABug, and I returned it gratefully while adding a hug too.

I was just setting up the first mannequin when I heard a different pair of footsteps at the front door. Turning, I saw a young woman standing in the doorway holding a cake of all things.

"Good morning, and welcome to Carousel Boutique," Byte said. "What can we help you with?"

"Well, I spoke to the lovely gentlemen who were putting your shop together yesterday, and they said you'd be opening today. I couldn't resist an excuse to bake a lovely carrot cake to welcome you into our little clique of fashion retail. My name's Glam Rock."

Of course her name was Glam Rock. If there were ever someone I could picture having that name, it was this woman. Her hair looked to be nearly half her body mass, and I was positive it would have required no less than five cans of hairspray to arrange.

"Darling! I'm honored!"

—Is the cake a lie?— Byte asked.

Before I could even hope to find out what she was talking about, a wave of chirpy giggles came from Moon Dancer.

—Now you must do SCIENCE!— Moon Dancer sent.

"Well, I still wasn't sure if you were competition, a big retail outlet, or what, so I slipped some poison into half of the cake."

Glam set the cake down on our front counter. Superficially, I could take the joke for good-natured ribbing, but I knew she'd want me to tell her I was in a completely unrelated field. I'm sure if told her I was selling gardening gloves, she'd be delighted.

"Custom-made dresses and outfits," I said. "My darling Rainbow Dash here, and our—"

—I shouldn't call you daughter, darling. Would niece be alright?— I asked Byte.

—Oh, right. I look too old, don't I? Okay, I'll be your niece, but that lets me call you "auntie".—

—Perhaps we could sneak through with daughter?—

Byte's flood of chirping made whatever was to come worth it. Drat but she could get anything she wanted from me with those chirps.

"…niece, Byte," I said.

"Auntie Rarity said I could help!" Byte said.

Rainbow's head snapped around from Byte to me. Never before had I wished she had her own data connection more. Well, okay, maybe during the fight with SuriGo. I paused for nearly twenty milliseconds in shock. That's perfect!

—SuriGo! I finally came up with a name we can call them that isn't a nightmare to pronounce!— I sent.

—How long has that been on your mind?— Moon Dancer asked.

—Since we discovered they had joined up. It was like an itch I couldn't scratch. Once you know the name of something, after all, it's much less scary.—

—Rainbow, we're calling Byte our niece since she doesn't look young enough to be our "daughter",— I sent directly to Rainbow Dash.

When Rainbow's phone beeped, and she pulled it out of the carefully hidden pocket on her dress, I heard Glam gasp in surprise.

"You put a usable pocket on a dress? That's amazing!" Glam Rock said.

"Make no mistake, I'll not compromise fashion for any feature, but once something is fashionable, that's where I can put things like dress pockets with a hidden seam," I said.

Not to mention room for guns and knives. I wouldn't tell the lovely woman that, however. A lady needed to keep some secrets, after all.

—Gotcha. Makes sense,— Rainbow Dash sent.

Her phone disappeared just as rapidly as she'd produced it.

After a slice of cake each, and a promise she would return for the lunch I'd planned, Glam Rock departed the boutique with an air of purpose. Well, of course she did. Glam Rock ran a successful fabric shop two doors down. She was in business to make money, and she did just that.

9:05 A.M.

Byte was at the door to greet our first actual customer. She smiled at Fleur dis Lee brightly.

"Good morning! Welcome to Carousel Boutique. How may we help you?" Byte asked.

"Well, someone promised me an outfit if I came to her boutique once it was open," Fleur dis Lee said.

Fleur wore a perfectly professional business suit. The skirt was long enough to be modest, yet short enough to ensure her pale legs were mostly on display. A pink shirt stood out at her neck and cleavage to keep her more personal assets both hidden while showing that she was a desirous woman. The outfit was a balancing act that held to the tightrope of chic businesswear exceptionally well.

"Darling! It's wonderful to see you again, and of course we can make you something."

I reached out for my measuring tape and drew its length out with my fingers. It was strange that it was strange to feel things with my fingers. My magic felt so familiar to use now—particularly since I wasn't crushing things with it by mistake—that it seemed horridly inefficient to use hands.

"What exactly were you looking for?" I asked.

But Fleur's eyes slid to Rainbow, then one of her impeccably cared for eyebrows rose.

"This is the woman who caught your eye?" Fleur dis Lee asked.

Fumbling to remember what I'd told Fleur, I let out a worried chirp.

—Is something wrong?— NotABug asked.

—I'd mentioned I was dating someone to Fleur, but I can't remember exactly what I'd told her. It was before we started recording everything.—

NotABug sent me a transcript of the conversation at the bank, for which she deserved (and got) a hug amid a flurry of grateful chirps.

—You're wonderful, but you knew that already, surely?— I asked.

—I learned from the best.—

"Other way 'round, actually," Rainbow Dash said. "Rarity just took a little time to understand what she meant to me."

Fleur's smile widened perceptibly. When I approached her to begin measuring, she lifted her arm for me.

"You held a torch for her, and true love blossomed? That's so romantic," Fleur dis Lee said. "What I wanted was something to show off in. I have a—a young man, and I want him to appreciate me as something other than a conversationalist."

I stood back from Fleur and looked down, then back up in an appraising way. She had curves, but they were slight. Her suit was doing some of that smoothing, but Fleur wasn't a curvy woman. Yet, at the same time, she was a woman who could stride down any catwalk given the right attention.

This was going to need more than what I could provide alone, however.

"Well, first thing, you need to appropriate yourself something to wear under the dress I make you—fashion is layers, darling, and it starts at the skin. There's a wonderful shop in the mall on this side of town that specializes in smalls—underthings—and if you don't mind, we could visit together to ensure you have a correct fitting."

Blinking in a little surprise, Fleur looked at me as if I'd just said she didn't know how to write a check.

"Forgive me for my attitude, Rarity, between office politics and not having many girl friends, I've lost touch with that side a bit more than I realized. In my mind," Fleur dis Lee said, "I'd pictured myself wearing the same dark and utilitarian things I wear to work."

"No one at all?" I asked. "What about the others from Crystal Prep?"

"You didn't attend CPH, Rarity. While I'm probably not much better than they were, I'm not sure if anyone there wanted to have anything to do with anyone else once we'd graduated. Cinch's little breakdown destroyed what little pride we had."

"How much time do you have today?" I asked.

A plan was forming. Fleur was in the midst of a crisis that she barely understood, and if there was one thing that I knew could help with any crisis it was fashion and friendship.

"I-I took the whole day."

"Rainbow, Byte, we have a fashion situation that needs all of our help. Come, we're going to get Fleur something she can be proud to wear no matter what day it is."

Rainbow looked at me with her customary smirk.

"Rarity, someone needs to be here. Take Byte. I'll keep an eye on things," Rainbow Dash said.

"Right. Of course. Still getting used to this. Okay, Fleur, let's go and get you some things," I said.

I could think thousands of times faster than anyone else, and yet the moment fashion became my focus, everything narrowed to a pinprick. This was something I could try to work past, but I doubt I'd ever shake this debilitating problem anytime soon.

—Why am I going too? Not that I mind,— Byte sent.

—You're coming because only half of this mission is to secure Fleur some smalls to wear. She needs friends, dear.—

—Oooh! You should get her to install ChirpNet on her phone, then she can talk to all of us, and we can help her find other friends!—

A chorus of affirmative chirps came from my other daughters. What surprised me was that Moon Dancer was among them. Her status among my little hive was still somewhat of a marvel to me, even if I accepted it without question.

—I think that would be a very good idea. Fleur helped me start my boutique, and she's a wonderful person at heart.—

Then it hit me, and I almost had to shake my head to clear it enough to get back to what Fleur had said.

"Tell me about him," I said.

Fleur let loose a sigh I recognized because I'd heard myself make it whenever my thoughts focused on Rainbow or NotABug.

"Tre is smart, handsome, and completely oblivious to me as a woman. He's my only friend, excluding those at work, but I just want him to take the hint and look at me. The last time I tried to get his attention, he mistook it for me wanting to go to a library to read books to children. That was nice, but left little opportunity to do anything else," Fleur dis Lee said.

I led the way out the front door with Fleur and Byte following along.

"How long have you been not-dating?" I asked.

"Two years."

The pain in those two words haunted me. I remember well how it'd felt before NotABug entered my life and opened my eyes to herself and Rainbow.

"Then let's get you ready to knock his non-committal socks off, darling. Forget waiting for him, it's time for you to make the move and show him what he's been missing."

Fleur's stance and walk changed. As she circled around our car to the passenger seat, she looked a hundred times more confident than before. Red would be her color. She was pale in skin and hair, and needed something vibrant to make her the center of attention. Hopefully, Tre's attention.

As I settled behind the wheel, I was thankful that I hadn't learned how to drive this wirelessly yet—doing so accidentally would create questions I didn't want to have to answer to everyone. The key fob being in the car was enough for it to be turned on, apparently, so I buckled up—waited for Fleur and Byte to do the same—and pressed the starter.

"An electric?" Fleur dis Lee asked.

"Rainbow got it for me just a day ago. This will be my first time driving it."

With a firm grip on the wheel, I pressed the lever into forward and touched the accelerator pedal. The car was eager and felt excited to move. Tapping the indicator and turning to ensure the road was clear, I pulled out and touched the pedal firmer.

The seats were like cradles. They hugged you from behind because when you asked this car to go, it went.

"Wow! That's quite something," Fleur dis Lee said. "Is that as fast as it can accelerate?"

"I don't think so. Let me try something at these lights."

A search followed by a quick reading of the car's manual revealed there was a particular setting I had to engage to do this right. With the lights red, I tapped to approve the change and took a deep breath. According to the information, as long as I could steer, the traction system would manage the acceleration safely, and given my level of focus I could handle the steering.

When the light turned green, I pressed my foot all the way down—then lifted it off 1.921 seconds later because we'd reached the speed limit.

"I think I know why Rainbow likes this one," I said.

"That was really awesome!" Byte said. "Can we do it again?"

—I'm sure Rainbow would love to show you this, too. For now I think we should just take Fleur shopping, the poor darling's been starved for friendship.—

Byte chirped excitedly, and I could feel her using me as a hot spot to send messages.

"I didn't know you had an older sibling," Fleur dis Lee said.

How much should I tell her, and how much should I lie? On one hand I felt compelled to spin a lie of an older sibling, but there was an easier way, and it involved the truth.

"It's dreadfully complicated, I'm afraid. You remember all that magic stuff that happened in high school?"

Fleur seemed to stiffen in her seat. What she was thinking, I couldn't tell, but Fleur wasn't a stupid woman.

"Oh. I didn't mean to pry or anything. Sorry, Rarity," Fleur dis Lee said.

"Quite alright, darling. Suffice to say Rainbow and I are taking care of Byte and her sisters, though the other little darlings are with a friend today."

All true. No lies. I had the distinct impression, however, that Applejack would still frown at me.

When I pulled up in the mall lot, Fleur let out a sigh beside me.

"Sorry for being so nosy. It's been far too long since I've had anyone at all to talk to that wasn't trying to get my job. Apart from Tre that is."

"Well, if you ever need to chat, just jump on ChirpNet, and send any of us a message," Byte said.

"Chirp what?"

"It's a chat app. What's your phone number?"

I climbed out of the car and left them to negotiate details. It really was a shame there wasn't a store nearer that catered to this particular item, but you can't have everything. Walking around the car, I felt a new ping from ChirpNet, then another.

The first was Fleur starting the app for the first time. I noticed Byte was filling in details for her.

—Hey, Rarity. Sorry I was out of it earlier. Fuzzin code,— Stefanie sent.

—Perfectly alright, darling. Perdition told me what had happened.—

We made it all the way to the doors of the mall before I got a reply from Stefanie.

—What happened?— Stefanie asked.

—When you weren't online, I connected to the old chat. Everything seemed off until Perdition messaged me and told me to get out. What's going on there?—

Finding Byte and Fleur holding up the conversation without me, I set my sights in the direction of the undergarment boutique.

—Feds raided my server. My chat server. When they found there were no logs, they set it back up as a honeypot. If it wasn't for you setting up all those extra TOR exit nodes, they probably would have caught all of us. As it was they didn't have enough of a sting to find anyone. So you chatted with Perd?—

Well, it was time to just brazenly ask her.

—I did. How are you two related, if you don't mind me asking?—

The cashier spotted me, and I swore she looked like she'd just seen a floating credit card zoom into her store. Still, I smiled at her and gestured toward Fleur.

"Hello, darling, today I've brought someone in need of assistance. I'm making a gorgeous rose dress for Fleur here, and we need something that will add a hint of excitement to it, and more once it comes off."

Gentle Fit (according to her nametag) turned toward Fleur and shook her head.

"Anyone would have to be insane to need more, dear, but that's why we're here. Was there something specific you enjoy wearing?" Gentle Fit asked.

Fleur looked at Byte and then to me. She looked a little lost.

"Something specific?" Fleur dis Lee asked.

I looked at Gentle and we both shared a startled moment.

"Darling, you've come to the right place. Gentle Fit has the most wonderful selection of things you've ever seen. Now come and let's explore."

By the time we were done in the store, Fleur had five bags of underthings and I had four. Byte, to my own delight, had a few things she'd picked out. My little girl was growing up much faster than I'd thought, but it wasn't like she was living life in the slow lane—none of us were.

With every second that slipped by I could count to a thousand and have time to wait around and record it somewhere. Byte, I could feel, was constantly sending and receiving data from the internet—constantly improving her conversational skills and becoming her own bug.

And now I was even thinking the word bug. Bug. Bug. Bug. As I pulled up back at my boutique, I let loose a little giggle.

—I'm so proud of you, dear,— I sent to Byte.

Byte replied with a curious chirp.

—Shopping, making a new friend, finding some things to wear,— I sent.

—Oh! Fleur's really nice, but I think she needed a friend more than I did.—

11:14 A.M.

As I reached the door of my boutique, I realized that Stefanie hadn't replied to me.

—Is it too much?— I asked Stefanie.

Inside, Rainbow Dash was folding one of my dresses up in its box for a woman. I blinked a few times in surprise and almost had Byte and Fleur run into me from behind.

"Thanks again. And remember, we can make custom dresses to order," Rainbow Dash said.

"Absolutely! I'll be talking to my sister—the one that's getting married next year—and I'm sure she'll be coming in here to talk about something special. Ciao!"

With a big smile on her face, the woman walked out of the boutique carrying the dress. Rainbow Dash, still behind the counter, had a huge smile on her face.

"You sold a dress?" I asked.

"Two. That purple one you'd made to suit Twilight? Someone with the perfect shape and color palette to suit it just walked in. It was an easy sale."

I dropped my bags at the door and ran over to Rainbow and kissed her on the cheek.

"Darling! You're amazing!"

—Kinda. I don't know how much I want to tell anyone. We only been together for a year, but for the first time in my life I like bein with someone. I guess im just a but scared its like some disney true love shit,— Stefanie sent.

Well that answered some of my questions. I waited an entire second to collect my thoughts before replying.

—You like him, don't you?—

—Yeah.—

—And he likes you?—

—Yah.—

—Darling, none of us have Disney romances, even when some of us think we do. You know why that is? It's because this is real life, and the best you can do is find someone who makes you smile, that you can make smile, and spend your time smiling with them.—

"You're chatting with someone?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Her question snapped me out of what must have been a minor daze. I nodded my head sheepishly.

"Yes. A friend. She's having guy trouble," I said.

"Oof. I know how that goes. There was this girl, ya see, and I had it bad for her, but she barely even looked at me."

I just groaned and leaned back from the front counter to leave Rainbow to her laughter. Turning back to Fleur I noticed she'd been looking at us both with curiosity etched on her face. Fleur, it seemed, might not be the kind of person who can just be left out of a thing.

—How about I make you a deal? Once we're done here you can ask me all the questions you want answers to, and I'll answer them. Deal?— I asked Fleur.

Fleur's phone, of course, beeped. Still looking at me, she drew it from her purse and stared at it.

—Yes, this is me sending messages. Just nod if you want to play guess the drama,— I sent.

Slowly nodding, Fleur looked up from her phone. If she'd looked curious before, she was utterly intrigued now.

"Now, darling, let's see what style you want. That little black number you picked up would look stunning with something that could hide its straps, but not its lace."

"R-Right! A dress for Tre," Fleur dis Lee said.

"No. This dress will be for you. If Tre wants a dress, he can come in and buy one himself."

Fleur's laugh seemed to take a lot of the stress out of her posture. It came as I got another message from Stefanie.

—It's just hard here. It doesn't help I break the law for a living an Perd works minimum wage.—

—Have you considered doing what you do for more, ahem, legitimate purposes?— I asked.

As we approached where the big wrap-around mirror was toward the back of the store, Fleur seemed to relax a little more.

"I'll be honest, Rarity, I've needed to take a day or two off from work for a while. I don't care what you're hiding or what you're willing to tell me, it's just nice to be with someone I—someone who's going through life like me," Fleur dis Lee said.

"I fully agree. After all, that's how Rainbow and I got together. Oh, that reminds me, will you stay for lunch?"

—Like anyone hires hackers and lackeys off the street,— Stefanie sent.

I couldn't keep a concerned little chirp from breaking loose. This had to be a changeling thing. I couldn't be the only changeling queen who wants to protect everyone around her and hug them until they're happy.

—I would.—

"Don't tell me you catered?" Fleur dis Lee asked.

"Yeah! Mom got a sushi chef to come and make us all sushi," Byte said.

Drat. Well, there's a question I'd be answering later.

Stefanie, in the moments since I sent my message, went offline. Part of me wanted to track her down, fly over to her and chirp at her angrily until she came home with me. Okay, that was definitely my buggier side. Mothering instinct? I've got a little.

"She should be here shortly, actually," I said.

We got back to the task of choosing what style dress Fleur wanted, and had a reasonably good idea when I heard Rainbow at the front of the store greet someone. Turning, I spotted Kit wheeling in a portable version of her father's sushi bar.

"Over here, Kit. You can set up at this corner. Do you need power?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Kitsune Udon looked flushed and excited. She nodded her head at the question as she rolled the bar to where she wanted it.

"Yes please, Miss Rainbow. I have a chiller to keep the fish at the right temperature, and just need some help bringing that in if you wouldn't mind?" Kitsune Udon asked.

"You actually—You got a Japanese sushi chef for your opening day?" Fleur dis Lee asked. "That's—"

"Actually," I said, "I have paid her to make it a weekly event. She's an amazing chef."

—What did you say to Stef???????— Perdition asked.

—I asked if you'd both like a job doing something I know you both enjoy,— I sent.

—Stefanie, if you're there, I don't mean to force you, but I'd like it if you'd work for me,— I sent to Stefanie.

The counterpoint between the fun of helping Kit set up her sushi bar and the serious conversation with Stefanie and Perdition (I was intrigued to find out if that was his real name) was a struggle to keep track of, but such was the life of someone trying to create fashion and keep their friends safe.

"Rarity, you're going to go over budget here if you're not careful," Fleur dis Lee said.

I fluttered my lashes at Fleur and smiled.

"Darling, I admit that this has made quite an impact on my initial funds, but I have planned for this. There is a very good reason that such expenses are not just justified, they're mandatory," I said.

—A job? What do you do that needs a couple of nuts like us?— Perdition asked.

—ChirpNet for one,— I sent.

"You're not actually going to tell me what that reason is, are you? Or you'll claim it's because of fashion. I'm not sure I want to know, but it will eat away at me."

Perdition, I noticed, hadn't replied.

"Fashion, darling, is the reason to do anything. That and family."

My eyes slid from Rainbow to Byte, then back again. I know for a fact I let out a contented sigh, and chirped at NotABug.

—You're quiet today. Still studying?— I asked NotABug.

I was mentally pounced with much chirping and excited hugging. Of course I could do nothing less than chirp back for all I was worth and hug her in return.

—Mrs. Velvet says I'm getting through a year of study every day, but it's taking all my time. I miss being with you and the girls so much.—

—Did you see Rainbow and Byte in their dresses?— I asked.

A rush of bubbly-happy chirps poured from NotABug nonstop.

—I did! They both look amazing! You look amazing too.—

—Did you want some time tonight to do your thing with Rainbow?—

—My thing? Do I have a thing?— NotABug asked.

—Darling, of the three of us, you initiate close snuggles more. That's your thing. Mine is…—

I trailed off the sentence, unsure what to add.

—Yours is dressing up in something sexy. Dressing Rainbow up too. Maybe we could all go to the lingerie store together?—

I liked the sound of that. NotABug, Rainbow, and I shopping for clothing together? Dream. Come. True.

—And buy things for each other?— I asked.

The chirping turned to a tone I only ever heard from NotABug when snuggling with Rainbow Dash, and it was odd to think that she was making it for me. But, why not? We loved each other. Our love always felt more removed from the naughty things her chirping envisioned.

No. I was above worrying about who I loved. I loved NotABug for who she is, not what she is. I chirped back in harmony with her naughty chirps and hugged her a little tighter.

—Are you alright, Rarity?—

—Better than you could imagine, darling.—

—Your shittin me. You own chirpnet?— Perdition asked.

Gosh what a mood breaker, but I couldn't exactly chastise him for it.

—Partly. We're looking for more programmers. Do you and Stefanie want jobs?— I asked Perdition.

—You're still talking to your hacker friends?— NotABug asked.

—Yes. I'm offering them a job and somewhere to live. They've helped me test the firewall to fight off SuriGo (I really like this one), and given me some good ideas about the nature of us.—

—They sound nice,— NotABug sent to me.

—Hi! Rarity said you were thinking of working for us?— NotABug sent to Perdition in a group chat with me.

—This is NotABug,— I sent.

"Well, the bank's credit system said to trust you for the overdraft and cards, that's all that matters there. I hope fashion is enough, Rarity," Fleur dis Lee said.

Simultaneous conversations at different speeds were starting to get tiring to maintain. Life really should be easier to interact with than this.

—Shit! The real deal? I thought you and buggo here were the same person. And you both own chirpnet?— Perdition asked.

—We do, but we want it to be perfect. We're already recruiting someone to work on the interface, but some security experts would be good to have on the team,— NotABug sent.

He thought we were the same person? Huh. Well, I guess that was valid, in a way. I wonder what he'll make of us in the flesh as it were? Questions without answers are just annoying.

"Trust me, darling, when you try Chef Kit's work, you'll understand."

Kit began working on her first piece of sushi. She made a neat little prawn nigiri and set it on a wooden plate with a few pieces of pickled ginger on the sides. She served it to Fleur, who looked on in surprise.

"This is the point where you try it," I said.

"How do I do that? Do I need chopsticks? Do I—?" Fleur dis Lee said.

She seemed to stop, take a breath, and then picked up the sushi with her fingers and put it in her mouth. For a moment I wondered if she'd spit it back out, but then Fleur began to chew with every evidence that she enjoyed what she was tasting.

—Okay. If we said yes where are we going? I dont wanna work in a cold place.—

—Canterlot, America,— I sent.

"For these you use your fingers, but this next piece is a roll that you use chopsticks for. I have bamboo chopsticks, and there are serviettes to clean your hands afterward," Kitsune Udon said.

I left the two to talk about sushi while I walked over to where Rainbow stood. Without hesitation, I leaned in and kissed her cheek with all the enthusiasm and energy a day spent running my own boutique gave me—or I wanted to. Kissing her that much may just be illegal in public.

Rainbow turned her head and put her arms over my shoulders in the most wonderfully casual hug I could imagine and kissed me properly. By the time her lips left mine, my toes were curling.

"Do I need to ask what that was for?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—Ill talk to Stef. She desserves better than what we got.—

"No. That was for being the girl I never realized I should fall in love with," I said. "And for being awesome."

There weren't many words I knew that would make Rainbow perk up as much as awesome would. She let out a little snort and looked like she might kiss me again—I liked that look.

"Thanks for making me feel awesome, Rarity. You too, NotABug. Not sure if you noticed, but I wasn't doing so great before you both became part of my life."

—The idiot didn't even ask how much you'd pay us. So, how much?— Stefanie asked.

—Darling, how much do you think you're worth?— I asked.

NotABug was extremely chirpy still, and I figured I knew why. In the time it took for me to reply to Stefanie, Rainbow had her phone out and was typing away rapidly.

"Rarity?"

The tone of the voice was unmistakable. I spun around and was already in motion toward the speaker. Laying my eyes on Sunset Shimmer, I practically threw myself against her.

"S-Sunset! You're back! How are you feeling? Oh goodness, I didn't hurt you, did I?" I asked.

Sunset's normal, chuckling laugh brought me back to the moment and grounded me.

"You're worse than Flash. I'm okay, really. That—That thing just took a lot out of me," Sunset Shimmer said. "Flash wants to apologize, you know, for what he said."

"I deserved every word of it. This wasn't your fight, particularly not in your condition. Congratulations, by the way."

"Thanks, I—"

Walking up, Flash's presence silenced Sunset.

"No, Rarity, you didn't deserve all of it. I was scared, alone, and I shouldn't have been either. Sunset's big enough to pick her own fights," Flash Sentry said. "I'm sorry. I can't believe I said all that. I should have been thanking you for bringing her somewhere she can recover."

I let go of Sunset so she could stand beside Flash and put her arm around him. Darn but they looked cute together.

"Besides, having a week of relaxation was enough. What happened with Starling and Rainbow? Are they okay? Did you beat Suri?" Sunset Shimmer asked.

My mind twisted at the mention of a week of time, but I recalled the long lesson Twilight had given us about time slip and portals syncing—it was too much to figure out without the kind of schooling Twilight had, I'm sure. It had been just a few days for me, but a week for them, that was the important bit.

"Starling is fine. Rainbow is the pretty girl over there in a dress—also fine. Suri, unfortunately, is fine as well. Though that last one I'm working on."

—Hundred thou up front. Another each per year,— Stefanie said.

—That sounds like a deal. When you arrive, I'll have you talk to our business manager. What account do you need the money in?—

Rainbow, meanwhile, had heard her name and rushed over to see Sunset. Rather than a hug, they entreated a fist-bump with a little explosion sound from both.

"What was it like being a horse again?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Sunset bit her lip and smiled sideways at Flash, who seemed to catch the smile and return it.

"Well, it was a lot better this time. Having someone I love with me made it a lot less lonely than I remember. I still wanted to come back to see my friends. Oh, Princess Luna, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity all send their support."

"What about you, Flash?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Huh?"

"You know, four legs and furry? Also, wings? Awesome, amiright?"

"Oh! Well, yeah, but I was kinda distracted with somepony—body."

"What I want to know, Rainbow," Sunset Shimmer said, "Is how Rarity got you to wear a dress like that. What's her secret? Changeling mind-control powers?"

"Actually… We're kinda together now. I wanted to help at her new shop—"

"Boutique, darling, and you're a wonderful help," I said.

"Right. Boobtique," Rainbow Dash said. "So I wanted to help, and she was all like Well I need an executive manager."

Both Sunset and Flash were laughing, and the tone lightened my mood enough that I overlooked Rainbow's gag at my expense and joined in. By the time we all managed to stop laughing, Rainbow pointed over to the corner where Fleur was talking with Kit.

"You've gotta try this sushi. It's amazing!" Rainbow Dash said.

Try as they might to protest, Sunset and Flash were dragged over to the sushi bar by Rainbow.

—Just like that? You'd give us a hundred grand each to work there? Your crazy, Rarity. But I'm rememberig that you also own chirpnet. Okay, youve got two of the worst hackers in the world. We'll be on the next flight there as soon as u send us the money.—

—Send me your account details and I'll send you the money.—

"Rainbow! I can't have sushi. I'm pregnant," Sunset Shimmer said.

"Excuse me," Kitsune Udon said, "But I have some cooked eel I can use to make something safe for you, if you'd like?"

Stefanie sent me a bunch of numbers including a branch number and account number. I forwarded them to Coco.

—Darling, I have two more computer programmers who will be working for us. Would you be able to arrange for them to be paid $100,000 dollars to their account? They should be here within a day or two,— I sent to Coco.

I started walking over to see what Kit was going to make for Sunset when I got a response from Coco.

—Rarity! I don't understand what you're trying to do, but you need to slow down this spending! We need a meeting ASAP!— Coco Pommel sent.

—Do we need to slow down our spending?— I asked NotABug.

—A little. Mr. Pants helped me incorporate a business under your name that trades on the stock market, which is earning enough that we don't have to worry about money or investigations in the short term. Long-term, It'd be nice if we could monetize ChirpNet in some way, and start selling your firewall.—

—You mean people might have been asking questions before?—

—Perhaps. Now that you have a company that is specifically focused on HFT, that will likely be ignored. We're probably going to have people trying to work out how we make such a constant profit, but that's a job for Coco.—

—This all came up because Coco said we need a meeting. Why don't we meet with her and find out what the problem is?—

—You should have her come to the boutique and talk. That way she might not yell so much.—

I couldn't help a chirpy giggle at NotABug's suggestion, but that didn't make it a bad one. Swapping back to my chat with Coco, I began writing my reply.

—Sure thing, darling. I'm at my boutique if you can drop by?— I asked Coco Pommel.

With a few happy chirps sent in NotABug's direction, I awaited Coco's answer as several people entered the boutique.

—I'll be there in an hour,— Coco Pommel sent.

It was, of course, lunch hour. All the nearby shop owners seemed to drop by, and Kit managed to persuade most of them to try some of her sushi. By the time Coco arrived, Kit was packing up (though between Rainbow, Byte, and myself, the sushi was all gone).

"There you are! Rarity—Did you have a sushi chef cater lunch on your opening day?" Coco Pommel asked.

"Well, of course we did. It had such a wonderful impact that I plan to have her along every week. Thank you, Kit," I said.

With a wave to Kit, she left the boutique and had a real spring to her step. I wondered if I should offer to make her something, but realized it'd be a far better plan to just make something and give it to her.

"It's too much too fast. You need to slow growth down, even if you do have enough funds to cover it. Businesses like this don't just spring up overnight," Coco Pommel said. "The only reason you aren't being investigated is that you appear to be making much less than any other HFT-tech companies, and aren't spending nearly as much either. Do I even want to know how you're trading as such?"

"You mean without all the specialized connections and specialized networks of very expensive machines? Would you believe NotABug is just that good at—"

—It's mostly 'Bee doing it now. She's a lot better at gaming money markets than I am,— NotABug sent.

A chirp of excitement came from 'Bee.

—It's harder now. The computers they use to do this actually learned how to take advantage of my earlier patterns, but I've been introducing a glitch here and there. It makes it so that if they try to game my purchases, they'll lose a lot more than I do. It makes them stop wanting to follow my purchases because they lose too much. Then they started pattern matching my glitches, so I had to introduce random patterns into those to hide the fact they are forced glitches, but even this became a pattern to them. It's really fun to play against them!— Bumblebee sent.

"Actually," I said, "It's my daughter 'Bee who's doing the trading now, it seems. And she's been enjoying it quite a bit."

—Thank you, 'Bee, from the bottom of my heart. What you're doing helps us all, and I don't think I could do it myself,— I sent.

'Bee's chirping was swift and joyous. Then it was quite literally in the room with me as my daughter jumped out of the screen of the point of sales computer. Shaking her head, she turned to face me and bounced across the floor on four stiff legs.

Reaching down, I grabbed up my daughter and pulled her into a hug. I wanted to chirp, out loud, but shapeshifting in the boutique might be a little too much.

"I love you, Momma!"

"I love you too, sweetie. This," I said, "Is 'Bee. She does all our trading on the stock market now, and was so excited to hear me thanking her for it that she had to come here in person."

"Why's the lady angry with you, Mommy?"

"She's angry with me because I'm moving too fast for what she thinks is safe, money wise. She's worried that people might find what we're doing and investigate us—even though we aren't doing anything wrong. It would mean we'd have to wait to do a lot of the things we can do quickly right now."

"Oh! So she's a nice lady?"

"Yes, 'Bee, Miss Pommel is a nice lady, she's just frustrated with someone who doesn't know business as well as she does."

"Who's that?"

"Me, dear."

"Your mother is very smart, 'Bee, but she needs people to protect her and tell her when she needs to learn a new skill," Coco Pommel said. "She's very good at making clothes—probably the best—but I worry about her business skills."

Rolling my eyes, I stuck my tongue out at Coco.

"Hi, 'Bee!" Byte said.

Walking up to us, Byte leaned in and kissed 'Bee on the cheek.

"How was Moon doing?" Byte asked.

"Oh! She was having a late lunch with Aunt Sweetie! They were talking about robotics and kept coming back to making one look like me. I helped them with the joint designs, but they told me not to give them all the ideas. Why didn't they want all the right ways to do it?" Bumblebee asked.

"That's because some people like to do things without having all the answers," Coco Pommel said.

"It's silly! I could make it easier for them!"

"I agree," Coco Pommel said.

The words made 'Bee perk up and turn in my arms to face Coco more fully.

"But," Coco Pommel said, "Only when the outcome is important and your effort saves people from being hurt."

"Oh."

—She's really clever,— Bumblebee sent.

I tipped my head down and kissed 'Bee as she tried to burrow into my arms and hide.

"Coco is very clever, dear," I said. "Which is why I listen to her when she calls me foolish. We all need someone who will help us know that moment we're about to go too far."

Glancing at Coco, I saw a knowing smile as she looked back, but it changed to something more curious when she looked down at 'Bee in my arms.

Of course, I didn't have to guess when it came to emotions. Focusing on Coco's aura, I could see mirth and curiosity, as well as something a little harder to pin down.

"So what do we do to grow within boundaries, but still grow?" I asked.

Real surprise blossomed on Coco's face. She stared at me as if I'd said something profound. When I opened my mouth to ask her what was the matter, she raised both hands to ward me off.

"Hold on! That's it! Do you have a pen and paper handy?"

Now there's a problem I'll never have myself. I started looking around, but Rainbow moved up beside me with grace and speed and handed me a notepad and a pen. I took them, and a kiss on the cheek from her, and passed the items to Coco.

"It's so simple! Normally you adjust spending to modify profits, with income being more or less stable. We need to flip that around," Coco Pommel said.

Jotting down, she drew a graph that showed a line slowly growing larger and larger.

"Normally we'd put profit on the left, and time on the bottom. Profit being the thing we want to adjust by other factors. But that's irrelevant here. We can make any graph we want by adjusting our income to keep our profits rate of change a constant!

"What I need to find out now is a rate of growth that looks normal. Oh, and cash flow is another important factor, but a little less than profit. Where's the profit going to go?"

Coco lifted her head from her mathematics equations to look at me.

—Profits will get invested back into capital purchases, mostly. We can donate much of it,— NotABug sent.

"NotABug says we will be primarily investing profits into capital purchases, and we can donate most of the rest."

"That always goes over well. Investment and donation, both lead to wonderfully low taxes. So the important part here is, to have very little left over after that. Don't get me wrong, profit is good, but it will make you stand out. I've already spoken to your lawyers, and they have set about proceedings to incorporate. It's relatively cheap, but we do need to decide on directors and a name."

"I want all our children, and Rainbow, as shareholders. Starling and her father, too."

"Directors. We can issue shares later. Who will have ultimate say in this?" Coco Pommel said with more insistence.

"You, Rainbow, myself, and NotABug when we finish having her recognized as a person."

Coco smiled at me, and I remembered how close she'd been to losing herself in the mess Suri had made of her. Her aura, now, looked healthy and full—vibrant.

"I still can't understand how you trust people so easily, Rarity. I'll be registering myself as CEO the moment your shares are all confirmed. We're going to need more employees. Accountancy, HR, security—"

"Starling—" I said.

"Is a wonderful young woman, and quite capable—I'm sure—but you need someone in charge of the company's security. Certainly Miss Starling can help me vet candidates. IT, I believe, you have covered?"

In my arms, 'Bee let out a sharp chirp and shot her head up. With one little hoof raised, she made a credible salute that I could tell Coco noticed by the way her aura turned from mostly neutral to a sudden overabundance of love.

That my daughter carefully sucked just a little of it off, her aura-self slurping it like a string of spaghetti, surprised me. Seeing how she fed, compared to how I'd fed in the past, was amazingly different.

—Did you teach her to feed like that?— I asked Byte.

Byte's answering chirp of assent was more than enough of a reply.

—Could you teach me?— I asked.

This time the chirp was a little more uncertain, but then another quickly followed it that was dripping in excitement. I couldn't keep back my own chirps of reassuring comfort.

—I'd love to, Mom!—

"Now we just need a name for our corporation," Coco Pommel said.

—Something with bug in it!— NotABug sent.

A chorus of chirping poured into my head, and the smile it gave me could have withstood just about anything. I chirped back my own assent, and realized that this chirping was more than just a fun and cute way to share emotions—we were offering and sharing opinions with it.

I filed away the idea of using chirps as an actual alphabet of sorts for emotions and ideas for later and turned my attention back to Coco.

"Well, everyone seems to think it needs bug in the title."

Another little flood of chirps reinforced my words to me. I would have wondered how everyone could see and hear what was going on, but then I remembered that I'd shared my daughters' eyes before. We ourselves were nodes of ChirpNet.

Protecting ChirpNet had never seemed so important as now.

"Bug Corp? Bug Inc? Bugginess? Sure Bug?" Coco Pommel asked. "I could rattle off a few more if you like?"

"Why not Bug Hive?" Byte asked.

The exciting chirping become a hurricane of excitement. Bug Hive seemed to be a winner.

"Yes," I said. "Bug Hive it is. I assume you have to check if it's free?"

"That's where most of the cost of incorporation goes. Checking name registries, ensuring everything is clean, then paying the actual fee—which will be about a third of the cost of the registries," Coco Pommel said.

"What happens if you don't check them?" I asked.

"If no one has the name? Nothing. If someone has it, we might not know until the lawsuit arrives. Let's avoid as many lawsuits as we can. It's comforting to have lawyers on retainer, but I'd rather not need to use them."

I took a slow breath and contemplated that eventuality. With the rest of my time I started doing searches for the various names. Several were taken. There was a surprising amount of companies with the word bug or hive in their name, but none with bug hive, or so I hoped.

"Do what you must, and get back to 'Bee about how much you want her to make in any day. 'Bee, dear, you could make sure to hit a total gain over a twenty-four hour period?" I asked.

'Bee looked a little surprised by that. She nodded quickly, her smile making me almost feel sorry for the target of whatever she was planning to do.

"This will work even better. If I hide my gains in perfectly weighted losses, the other HFT systems will fail to catch my system more often. They've been trying to break my latest algorithm, so I'll make a new one that is even better at throwing them off," Bumblebee said.

"I'll send you the projections once I've put them together. The taxation on such rapidly changing stock portfolios is already a nightmare, might as well look at automating that too, if you wouldn't mind helping?" Coco Pommel asked.

'Bee chirped loudly, her little wings vibrating in excitement.

"Take that as a yes. You have ChirpNet on your phone, 'Bee can send you her contact details so you can keep in touch," I said.

Coco's phone beeped, and 'Bee let out another giggly chirp.

"I know I shouldn't ask, but what about Suri?"

"I don't have a full plan yet, but I'm working toward a way to hopefully separate the two so I can deal with Windigo and leave Suri to whatever life she wants to live. Like I said, however, that's how I hope it goes. She's casually destroying lives, and I won't allow that to continue."

It was impossible to escape that. I knew I was building weapons to protect just us right now, but I would need to face SuriGo at some point, and I might not be able to save Suri, but I was going to try.

"Well, I'll be honest, Rarity. I'm an executive and fashion consultant, not a superhero. All these matters starting your corporation and managing profits—that I can do."

"Coco, darling, I don—"

"I'm not done yet. What I'm trying to say, Rarity, is that even though I'm all the things you don't need in a fight, just tell me what you need me to do and I'll do it."

Before all this I could inspire people to some extent, but what I was doing lately was nothing short of magic. Was this more of a changeling queen's powers? Was I doing something to her that made her want to help me? It wasn't emotional manipulation—like what SuriGo was doing—since Starling, Stefanie, and Perdition were apparently all willing to help despite being separated from me in various manners.

Perhaps changelings were just naturally trustworthy? Given Princess Luna's reaction to me, however, that was unlikely. Life was far more complicated now than it had any right to be.

"I'm doing this to protect people like you, Coco. If things go the way I hope, the worst side of Suri we'll have to deal with is an impudent young woman on a power trip."

"I'll leave you to it, then," Coco Pommel said.

Watching her leave my boutique, I felt my desire to protect Coco and others like her grow even further.

Sunset, with Flash waiting at the door, rushed over and wrapped me in a hug.

"Just tell me when you need backup again, okay? I don't want to touch her, but if you have anyone else whose secrets you need, I'm your gal."

I was sure Flash could hear her, he looked at us with a measure of panic on his face.

"Darling, I've already put you in danger once due to miscalculating. I have things well in hand."

Looking into my eyes, Sunset let out a sigh.

"You're not going to let me help, are you?"

"I will if you want to, but not in a head-on battle against something that enjoys invading people's minds. Do you want a job?"

She just stared at me for a minute then shook her head.

"Let's talk about that another time. I need to go home and—I can't believe I'm going to say this—have a lay down and focus on getting better."

Smiling, Sunset turned and walked to Flash, and they both left my boutique.

'Bee returned to spend the afternoon with Sweetie and Moon, while I retired to the back of the boutique to work on dresses—as well as do some programming. We had few customers in the afternoon, but Rainbow secured two more bookings, and Byte sold another of the dresses I'd made.

5:12 P.M.

"Uh, Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked. "What time are we meant to close?"

I thought about the issue of opening hours, and let out a sigh. A quick search of the area revealed most of the other stores closed at five.

"Just let me finish this last seam and we can go. Did we end up with many bookings?" I asked.

"I've kept them to one a day so far. You have the rest of the week booked. Rarity, how did all these people know about your shop?"

I used my magic as well as my hands to speed the last seam.

"Well, since I quit at Polomare I've been telling everyone I'd start my own boutique. I wouldn't be surprised if we had even more come by tomorrow."

—Mom? Mr. Rules said to invite you to come around for dinner. He's made food for everyone!— Bitwise sent.

—Please let him know we'll be on our way home soon,— I sent.

I sent a little burst of happy chirps to all our daughters and was caught in a flood of them coming back from all quarters. There was an amazing feeling of warmth whenever I realized all these lives were because of NotABug, Rainbow, and myself.

When I felt a pair of hands touch my shoulders, I leaned back and felt Rainbow's solid self press to my back, neck, and the back of my head. Her hands crossed over my breastbone and she held me against her body.

Rainbow could have done a myriad of flippant and hurtful things that I would have forgiven just to be held like this. That the worst thing I'd caught her doing was checking her phone between customers meant that it was twice as wonderful.

"I'd ask you where you were five years ago, darling, but you were waiting on me. All I can do is apologize for being so blind."

"Rarity, how many times have I told you, this is why I waited. Are you going to let me take you home now and kiss you properly?"

I shivered at how she said that. Nodding, I was almost completely distracted by Rainbow, but managed to remember Bitwise's message.

"Mmmm Bent Rules invited us around for dinner. Bitwise said he'd been doing a lot of cooking."

I stood up and turned so I was still in Rainbow's arms. To my delight she kissed me—twice—then took my hand.

"Well, we shouldn't keep him waiting. Unless you want to drop Byte off there and go for another drive?"

My eyes flicked to Byte. Our daughter was cleaning up and closing the store around us. When she got too close, I reached out with a hand and grasped hers.

Byte let out a surprised chirp, but didn't resist as I pulled her into a one-armed hug.

"Is Moon coming over too?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—Is Moon coming to dinner too?— Byte asked.

—Asking Mr. Rules,— Bitwise sent.

—Do I get a say in this?— Moon Dancer asked.

I witnessed my first ironic chirps, and I realized our daughters had never been exposed to much in the way of sarcasm. Quickly compiling a data packet with the chirps Moon made, I sent it and explained sarcasm, that is to say, I tried.

—Moon's making a joke of saying something other than what she means. Sorry, dear, not all of us know the intricacies of irony,— I sent.

—I got it. It's an interesting form of humor, but doesn't work as well in text as it does with oral data. The chirping helps,— Byte sent.

—Mr. Rules says okay.—

—I'll be around in about twenty. I need to wrap this stuff up with Lyra and 'Bee.—

—Twenty what?— Beta asked.

—Twenty minutes,— Moon Dancer sent.

When I felt NotABug stir from her study, I gave her a gentle nudge. After a rapid-fire exchange of chirps, I nudged properly and let her take control—just as Rainbow Dash picked us up.

"Did you two just swap? Either you swapped, or you had a moment of gas," Rainbow Dash said.

"Swapped," NotABug said.

Rainbow bent and kissed NotABug in a way that would have had me blushing, were I up front.

"Byte, you've got the cash box?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yeah. Want me to lock the door?"

"You got it."

Rainbow carried us outside and along the street toward our car. There was something luxurious and sexy about being carried so, and NotABug definitely felt it as much as I did given the amount of chirping she was doing.

Leaving NotABug and Rainbow to bring Byte home, I reached out to Bitwise and chirped softly to her.

—What's up?— Bitwise asked.

—Nothing, dear. I was just checking how you and Bobbin are. NotABug took over with our body, and I thought I'd come and chat a little.—

Bobbin gave a surprised chirp.

—Hi Mom!— Bobbin sent. —We've been cooking!—

—Really? Care to show me?—

Bobbin sent a few confused little chirps that had me sending some reassuring ones. It was 'Bee who sent more.

—You do it like this. You can let anybuggy see through your eyes,— Bumblebee sent.

Her use of "anybuggy" had me chirping with mirth.

The view from Bobbin resolved itself into a perfect stereoscopic vision from much higher than my little nymph had any right being. She looked down, and I realized she was standing on the kitchen bench.

—Mr. Rules made us wash our hooves before we could get up here and help,— Bobbin sent.

Questing out, I felt Bitwise and slipped into her view too. She was standing beside the stove and using her magic to stir a pot. I watched as she used another spoon to dip in and lift out a little of the red contents and bring it to her snout.

I shifted only a little further to hear with her ears.

"…needs some more acid. Uh, lemon?" Bitwise asked.

"Lemon juice would be one way, tomato would be another," Bent Rules said.

I couldn't see Bent until his hand tipped in something from a cutting board that looked like finely cut sun-dried tomatoes, where Bitwise stirred the mix a little more.

"Give that a taste in about another minute, then see what you think."

Bitwise nodded and let out a happy chirp.

—You're helping?—

—Yup! Mr. Rules said I could help. I need to use magic, though, but Mr. Rules said I could nibble on him and to let him know if I didn't feel good. This is fun!—

Color me surprised. If I ever got used to my daughters finding talents they enjoyed, and becoming their own selves, I'd consider all the wonder in life dead. I let loose a string of happy chirps.

—We're on our way. Holy shit, I can't believe we're really doing this. You're crazy for sending that much money, and we're crazy for giving away all our crap, but I guess that makes us the right kind of crazy to get together. Alright, Rarity, we'll be touching down in twelve hours, give or take,— Stefanie sent.

The math was quick to do. Twelve hours would have them arriving at around 5 A.M.

—I'll be there to pick you up. Do you have much luggage?— I asked.

That's when I got a worried little chirp from a firewall protecting one of our TOR nodes. I examined the attack, suggested a patch to stop it, and chirped it back. Then another chirp came from a different firewall, and no sooner had I put together a fix for this new attack and chirped it back than another came.

And another, and another. I let out a worried chirp of my own and got a half dozen curious and worried responses.

—SuriGo is trying to break our TOR servers,— I sent.

—You can tell it's her?— NotABug asked.

—Very much so. These are complicated and rapidly adapting attacks that are bypassing the regular security we have. She's testing us with some, and outright attacking others.—

For every fix I compiled and chirped out to the firewalls, another two were coming in. 'Bee was the first to jump in beside me and start solving the incoming chirps. When the first of our TOR nodes actually went down, I let out more panicked chirps.

—It got through one. Okay, we need to prioritize these.—

I ran a quick analysis and sorted all the firewalls by importance, with ChirpNet's back-end at the top, and our home internet just below that. Byte joined us, and together we began pushing back the tide of what I felt were scared chirps from all the firewalls.

Another TOR node here and there went down, but as they did I hooked into our providers' management systems and deleted and re-cloned the virtual machines they were running on.

—We brought some clothes our passports and our phones. If you can hook us up with somewhere to crash and some gear to use it'd be awesome,— Stefanie sent.

—I'll be able to arrange those. I can get you some new phones here, but I'll need to do some late shopping to get you more than that. Nothing will be open when you arrive,— I sent.

The firewall chirps suddenly stopped. One moment we'd been fighting off waves of worried requests, then there was nothing. Requesting status on each of the firewalls revealed the attack had stopped, and I mentally breathed a sigh of relief.

—They stopped?— Bumblebee asked.

—Yes, dear, they seem to have,— I sent.

—Aww. That was fun!—

I barked out a bunch of laughing chirps and reached out digitally to hug my daughter. It was a different experience to hugging NotABug, and I heard 'Bee chirp in surprise, but when she hugged back it was definitely worth it. I pulled Byte into the snuggle too.

—Thank you, both, for helping with that. I'll have to increase the performance of the AI that can handle those, but it can still only work so fast.—

—You need to have more bugs on the job, Mom,— Byte sent.

—So what did she do?— NotABug asked.

—SuriGo attacked some of our TOR nodes. Wide attack, and those she managed to break will be back online in a few minutes. Nothing serious.—

I was proud of the fact that we'd fended off what SuriGo could throw. That this method of fighting her meant that everyone I cared about was far removed from the front line also warmed my heart. Now I needed to make an offensive version of the firewall.

—Are you understating how well your firewall performed?—

I pulled NotABug's digital presence into the hug too, earning a surprised chirp from her.

—A little, darling, but it did fail on five TOR nodes. I'll have to improve its recognition of threats.—

—Rarity, I've never been able to stop Windigo, let alone SuriGo (that is a good name for her) from doing anything, and now you've halted her attack just like that!—

—I had help. Byte and 'Bee both were amazing.—

—You really won't let me just heap praise on you, will you?—

With a defeated chirp I hugged her a little tighter.

—It was amazing!— Byte sent. —She was faster at solving the attack vectors than 'Bee was.—

'Bee chirped in confirmation.

—Using ChirpNet to buffer us from what SuriGo is doing really helps, too, because we don't have to actually deal with her directly. What we need is something to strike back with,— Byte sent.

Her vehement chirps surprised and worried me all in one. Seeing so much of my own thoughts on the matter in my daughter was an absolute joy, but the worry that she would try something alone colored my reaction.

—That is my plan, but we need to be careful with this. Using it too soon would mean she might learn how it works and use it against us, or worse, that she'll completely neutralize it when we actually need it,— I sent.

—Oh! So we turtle until then?—

—Turtle?—

—Uh. Full defense. Focus on defense versus offense.—

—It's a gaming term,— Moon Dancer sent.

—Oh! Well, I guess since everything can be considered a game, that is quite apt,— I sent.

All life was a game, and I was becoming better equipped to play it without losing. I surfaced into the real world far enough to see, hear, smell, feel, and taste what NotABug was doing, and all of those senses combined revealed that she was eating a delicious casserole.

There was idle conversation going around the table that Bent Rules had prepared, and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

—The gear can wait until we wake up. Just be ready to find us a bed to crash on because after this day well want to bomb. Gotta turn phone off theyr givin me dirty looks,— Stefanie sent.

—Tell me the moment you get here,— I sent her.

Life was getting more complicated by the hour, it seemed, but complicated had been a net good for me so far, so there was no reason to think about simplifying it. I liked complicated. Complicated was dealing with thousands of threat vectors and protecting my family, chatting with new friends, and (apparently) eating dinner at the same time.

Okay, Rarity, deep breaths. I giggled chirpily to myself—I'm not the one breathing right now. Well then, time to tighten up my firewall and look at what SuriGo did to breach it.

It wasn't really odd that I could get lost in programming. Locating the flaws in my code took some time, but time stretched out hugely thin when I let go of the real world. If I wanted to, I could count milliseconds, but that was easy enough to avoid by adjusting my time readout.

The holes, when I recovered the logs of one of the breached servers, revealed several security flaws in the firewall that I was able to patch and roll out to the others. Each little server chirped happily back to me as their update completed.

I turned my attention from defense to offense. The weapon I'd started working on was sound, but it needed teeth and it needed a command and control structure behind it. Well, the teeth were what I was paying Stefanie and Perdition for, and the control system would be ChirpNet.

This wouldn't just be a spear, it would be a guided missile that would destroy traces of SuriGo from a system and use it for itself. It might be considered a worm, or virus, but it was only targeting one thing.

With the way that seconds stretched into hours, the time between when NotABug had taken over and when I heard her sleepy chirps—though they passed quickly for me—were more akin to months of work. I didn't have the weapon ready to use on SuriGo, but I had a target to test it on.

9:42 P.M.

—Tired?— I asked.

My answer was a nudge, and with little fanfare I was in control of our body again. I was snuggled beside Rainbow sitting on the couch, with one of her arms around my shoulders. Hungry, I gently nibbled on her for the rich love she offered so unconditionally.

—It's been a long day. You have your friends arriving early tomorrow, right?— NotABug asked.

—Yes. I'll need to be at the airport at 5 A.M.—

—Don't wake me.—

I wrapped NotABug in a warm embrace and chirped softly to her.

—I'll try not to. I hardened the firewall more and started working on my own weapon to fight her with,— I sent.

—I don't know what I'd have done without you, Rarity.—

—And you don't have to worry about that, darling. You found me, and I won't let Suri, Windigo, or SuriGo split us apart.—

I held her tight and chirped along with her chirps, our emotions playing out in the cacophony of digital music. When she fell asleep, I felt her presence slip from my embrace deeper into my head somewhere. Well, our head, I guess.

"Did you two just swap?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes, darling."

The arm around my shoulders gave a little squeeze I was most happy to get. I leaned against her a little more.

"Get much done? NotABug said you were being very chirpy, which normally means you're distracted with stuff, right?"

Pulling my legs up onto the couch, I realized why I was feeling a little drained—I'd been using magic all day to keep myself looking human.

"Mmm. Mostly. Would you mind if I changed?"

Rainbow squeezed again. It was only then I noticed the movie we were watching—Star Wars.

"If you need to. You know I don't really care what you look like."

"Flatterer. I've noticed how much you enjoy looking at some aspects of the various shapes I take," I said. "I love you."

The fire was fast, and though we both knew it didn't burn, I still felt Rainbow flinch just a little before she squeezed my shoulder again.

"I know," Rainbow Dash said.

It was a setup—one I was more than happy to give her. I didn't have to see Rainbow's grin to know she enjoyed the old gag, not when I was so deep in her aura of love I could practically swim in it. I didn't so much as nibble as just open my metaphysical mouth and let her feed me.

The shiver that ran up Rainbow's spine made me tilt my head up to look at her. She'd begun ignoring the movie and was looking back down at me. Gosh, I knew she loved me, but to miss Star Wars meant this was serious.

"Too much?" I asked.

Rainbow just shook her head at me, leaned down, and kissed me. Fluttering butterflies seemed to dance about in my stomach. How could she make me so thrilled at every kiss? I was lost within the moment, and even as I kissed her back I drank little bits of her endless love.

The sound of Luke Skywalker staying on target actually made me giggle enough that I ruined the moment in a pleasant way.

"Sorry, darling, but I can't do this with Luke struggling to stay on target."

Snorting with her own laughter, Rainbow kissed me again on the nose—briefly.

"It's almost over. Want to watch the rest with me?"

I'd have nodded if I knew I wouldn't take out her eyes with my horn in the process. Instead I lay my head down in her lap and turned to watch the television. One of Rainbow's hands played through my mane and found my ear. The rubbing—slow and gentle—was the last thing I remembered before tiredness drew a yawn from me.

"NotABug said you have to be up early tomorrow."

"Mmmm-yes. We have two new friends arriving by plane. I have to pick them up from the airport at about five."

The rubbing continued, easing my mind toward sleep in almost the same way as I used to approach it. The appeal of an off switch that could simply put me directly into sleep mode was mighty given how early I needed to be up, but I wanted to spend a little more time with Rainbow.

"Are the girls all asleep?" I asked.

Another yawn escaped me, and between one moment and the next I felt my tenuous hold on consciousness fall to Rainbow's ministrations. My last thought was how reassuring it was that I still needed to sleep.

Author's Note

Stefanie: what are you going to do about "Queeny"?

"I really don't know. Perd trusts her way more than I think he should, but it's not like she hasn't helped us both a lot—not to mention pulling us out of a bad place financially."

Stefanie let out a long, slow sigh.

"I like her—or him—but I don't want to get hurt, and I don't want Perd to get hurt either."

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Editing provided by the battiest Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Chapter 23

4:00 A.M.

I hadn't actually set an alarm for so early—not wanting to wake NotABug—but just focused on needing to be awake early. It had worked. I disabled the alarm I'd set for 5:00 A.M. and began the regretful task of disengaging myself from Rainbow and slipping out of bed.

A few feathers tumbled down from my horn, and before I could stop myself I chirped sadly at the loss of yet another wonderful pillow. My project of making a knife-proof pillow had been put on hold, but I really should check up on my order of that knife-proof fabric.

My shower was brief and to the point. I wrapped my mane and tail in towels to let them dry slowly, grabbed my phone, purse, and keys—and walked out to our electric car without a stitch of clothing on.

It would have been unthinkable while I was human, of course, but now it was simply an acknowledgment that things were more complicated and I couldn't very well wear a dress and then shapechange on the way and ruin it.

So I used my magic to open the car, slipped inside, and shapechanged into my old self. I'd focused on a lovely red cocktail dress with matching shoes, makeup, and stockings. This left me sitting on the towel that had been wrapping my tail while my hair was hanging loose in perfect curls despite having been damp moments ago.

I turned the car on and lamented that I couldn't wirelessly control it yet. Grasping the wheel with my hands, I checked the reversing mirrors and the road and pulled out. A moment later I realized I should turn my headlights on, if only to let others know I was there.

The Hurricane International Airport was not only on the other side of the city, but it was outside the city limits too. I'd given myself an hour to get there. The drive was a little surreal, giving me time to plan outfits and code alike as my car slipped quietly through the darkened streets.

4:36 A.M.

The off-ramp of the freeway actually had traffic on it—people driving to the airport in cars as well as cargo vehicles. I followed all the right directions and it still took me nearly ten minutes to find somewhere to leave my car that wasn't a mile away from the main building.

"Next time I'll just fly here," I said.

That reminded me that I hadn't tested my buzzy buggy wings of adorable chirping at all, but that was something to do for another day. Remaining ground-bound, I walked in the front entrance of the airport.

The building was huge, squat, and tried its best to look nice on the inside, but like all such utilitarian establishments it fell short of that mark and into an uncanny valley of niceness—that is, it was a horrible place to be.

—Let me know what gate you're at when you land,— I sent to both Stefanie and Perdition.

Well, it was time to wait for them. Using the WiFi in the airport, I connected through a secure VPN back home and started working on my weapon again. Only idly monitoring what was going on around me, I held up my phone and wiggled my thumbs every few seconds to make it look like I was completely absorbed in the device and not just staring off into space.

—The sooner you get us somewhere to sleep the better. Gate 4,— Perdition sent.

Jumping to my feet, I heard the wonderful click-clack of my heels as I made my way toward the security checkpoint. Joining the line of people (how was there always a line, even at this hour?), I waited my turn to go through the metal detector.

It worried me for a moment that there might be some metallic compound in my body that would set the machine off, but with my bag and phone set aside, I walked through without a single alarm. I took my bag and walked on.

A food-court, then Gate 1, Gate 2, Gate 3, and—People everywhere. Of course, Rarity, a plane is disembarking.

—I'm here. Red dress, pale skin. You literally cannot miss me.—

I regretted not making myself taller, but it turned out such would not be needed. A face appeared above the crowd and, when it turned toward me, brightened in recognition. Moving through the crowd against its momentum, I had only two things going for me—and truth be told they weren't actually real anymore.

"Rarity?" the tall woman asked.

The woman's voice had an exotic accent. A quick check online of what aircraft would be disembarking now revealed Spain as the origin. I felt a little guilty over all the times I'd mentally criticized their grammar and punctuation—they weren't native English speakers.

Stefanie (I had to assume it was her) stood taller than Rainbow would have. She had a piercing pair of orange eyes that matched her wild hair. Her skin tone was a soft green that reminded me of deep ocean colors, and she wore the least flattering thing I could ever have imagined—a tshirt and jeans.

Beside Stefanie, a young man a touch shorter than myself held a duffel bag and looked half asleep already. He had a slightly darker blue-green skin tone and a cascade of pink hair that reached his shoulders. Stefanie had her arm around his shoulders and pulled Perdition to her hip protectively. He was similarly attired, though I noticed the cut of his jeans was the opposite of Stefanie's—wearing slim-cut women's jeans to her no-nonsense ones.

"That I am. Stefanie and Perdition?" I asked.

"Yeah. Any chance we can get to your car quickly? Perd's about done and I don't want to carry him."

"What—she said," Perdition said, his tone equally exotic and possibly a little thicker with accent.

"Well then, let's get you somewhere you can lay down for twenty hours or so."

I turned to lead the way and heard Perdition rattle something off very quickly in what sounded a little like Spanish. Stefanie replied in the same language, then cleared her throat as we approached the security line again.

"Sorry, Rarity. It's hard not to fall back to Catalan," Stefanie said.

"You didn't even tell her. Stef was still worried you'd be some —— guy wanting to sell us into slavery or something," Perdition said, though there was a word I didn't understand.

Their aura was quite something. There was a little fear in each, but it was more than overwhelmed by fatigue and the biggest emotion the pair shared—love. It was sharp and filled not just my vision but my sense of smell too. I could have feasted on it and laid a dozen eggs. A shiver ran from my shoulders to a tail that I didn't have right now.

"I just want to give you both a job," I said. "And it's perfectly fine if you want to talk together without me hearing."

I turned back around and started walking. A little searching told me that Catalan was a language spoken in the north-east of Spain and some islands around that part of the world. I debated looking for a way to translate it but figured their trust would probably be easier to earn if I didn't make a point of snooping on them.

Going back through the checkpoint was simple enough, though Perdition and Stefanie had to go through a different set of lines to have their things searched more thoroughly and then be questioned by immigration.

5:14 A.M.

Perdition was supporting Stefanie more than the other way around now. They both seemed to wobble on their way toward me.

"Car, please," Perdition said.

"This way."

Once we were outside the building I threw off all pretense of aloofness and moved to Stefanie's other shoulder and put my arm around her. She flinched at first, but when she realized I was just helping she sank against me.

"The car's a bit of a walk. One thing I needed to ask you—did you come in legally?" I asked.

"What do you take us for?" Perdition asked.

I could hear the laughter in Perdition's words and managed a little laugh to match it.

"Seriously. I need to know if I have anything to worry about with regard to—"

"We came in legally. My father's American—I have dual citizenship," Stefanie said. "If anyone asks, I'm working for you and Perd's with me, okay?"

With a nod I gestured toward my car in the waiting lot that was quickly filling up.

—Who's that?— NotABug asked.

—This is Stefanie and Perdition. They're going to help us with security, on the books. Off them, I want their help making my weapon against SuriGo.—

—Oh, neat. Still at the airport?—

—Yes, darling. You can sleep longer if you wish.—

—Hrmm… No. I think I'll make a start on my work for the day. They can really make tools to help you fight SuriGo?—

I squeezed NotABug in a cozy hug and chirped vigorously at her for a few milliseconds until she started chirping back, though her chirps still had an edge of tiredness to them.

—I'm willing to get whoever I can to help with this. I won't have us living in fear of her for the rest of our lives,— I sent.

—Good luck, then. I'll be working on my homework.—

"Qui! Nice ride. Looks new," Perdition said.

Again he used something I'd never heard before, but the context let me pin it down as an expression of excitement. Pulling the fob from my purse I tapped the unlock.

"It is new. Two days old. Hop in."

I half expected Perdition to ask a million questions about the car, but from the moment he and Stefanie settled into their seats they were asleep. Not that I minded too much. The drive home took about the same time as heading out, though there was a little more traffic given the time was crawling up on 6 A.M.

—You purchased any other houses around here?— I asked NotABug.

A surprised chirp met my question.

—Mr. Pants was in the process of negotiating to buy the whole block from each resident. It's not going to be cheap, but it will be good to have all of it. I think he is signing papers for one today. Why?—

—Perdition and Stefanie need somewhere to live.—

—Oh! Right! Well, I'll find out from Mr. Pants what house we're buying today. They can sleep in our bed today.—

"Are we almost there?" Stefanie asked.

"Just about. I'm trying to arrange for you to have a house as soon as possible, but you might have to crash in my bed today. Is that okay?"

—Letting them know, darling, thank you,— I sent.

"Yeah. Thanks for all this. I just—It's like a fairy tale."

"A fairy tale you were ready to act on. You both had passports and were ready to bug out quickly."

I may not have asked a question, but I left it up to Stefanie if she wanted to fill in the details—and how many details.

"We've been saving to get out of there for ages. Almost had enough when servers got raided and a few accounts were shut down by the policia—police. We were going to bring all our gear with us, but your plan and your money changed all that. Wiped all our junk and cooked the drives," Stefanie said. "Thanks, Rarity. So, what do you want us working on?"

"A weapon. That framework I was building needs teeth and it needs to bite hard. I want your expertise to build as many attack vectors into it as you can, and I need it to do something new."

"Alright, now you're talkin' my language. What do you need new done?"

We talked shop. I explained my needs for hardware and virtual machine attacking vectors, but she kept asking for what I wanted that was new. At last I brought her around to how my firewall worked.

"So you have the firewalls talk together and give the unusual data to an AI, it solves it down to the fastest way to block it, and then distributes that to the firewalls. How does this affect your framework?" Stefanie asked.

"Simple. I want to support a similar method to obfuscate our attacks and to send dummy attacks. I want to make a swarm of attackers that will rely on big systems to back them up and keep them firing. That's what I want."

"You want to take on Windigo directly? Why not go after them like this if it's so much trouble? Report whoever's running Windigo to the pols."

"That's the problem. Windigo isn't an it. Windigo is a who. Suri Polomare wasn't a very nice person before she and Windigo merged, but now that they're combining their assets, they're much worse."

"Are you telling me—Actually, I don't even know what you're telling me. Spell it out."

So I explained it. I started with myself working at Polomare fashion just a few weeks ago and by the time we reached what I was coming to think of as our block, I'd started to touch on my bugginess. All the time she hadn't asked a single question.

"Well?" I asked.

"Boig. That's the craziest stuff I've ever heard, but it would explain how Windigo attacks."

The first light of dawn was creeping over the houses of suburban Canterlot as I pulled the car up to the curb. I looked in the mirror to see Perdition asleep against Stefanie's side, with the latter holding an arm around him protectively.

"You don't believe me though, do you?" I asked.

"Not all of it, no. I've heard about magic—who hasn't—but it's nothing like that. And AI isn't anywhere near that level. This is all some kind of fantasy story or somethin'."

—I wonder if your phone is on?— I asked.

Of course, Stefanie's phone beeped. She looked at me suspiciously as she reached for her backpack and pulled the device out.

"You could have timed that. Scripted it all out and—"

—It's not scripted, darling. Ask me something and I can send it.—

"Three—"

—3—

"Two—"

—2—

"Fiv—"

—5—

"No way. How're you doing that?"

—Mom! I made breakfast. Do your friends want anything?— Bitwise asked.

It didn't click for me that Bitwise had sent the request on a wide channel until Stefanie's eyes started to widen.

—I believe both would have something to eat. Prepare extra, dear, and it won't go to waste,— I sent.

Bitwise sent a trill of happy chirps in reply that I answered in kind. I began reaching for the door handle when I realized Stefanie was still staring at her phone.

"That was one of my daughters."

Stefanie shook her head and put her phone back in her bag. Gently rocking Perdition, she coaxed him from the car while I walked toward the house. It occurred to me that they would probably need their own car, too. Well, they certainly had the money to buy one.

Reaching for the door handle, I barely got it unlocked and was logging into the home network when the door opened to reveal Rainbow holding a giggling nymph under each arm. She glanced out at Stefanie and Perdition, then pulled her head back in.

"Well?" I asked.

"I'll leave the suspicion to Starling. She's better at it, and knows what to do if someone needs a thump on the head. These two have been going a little loopy waiting for you."

'Bee and Beta chirped loudly and buzzed their little wings at me.

"Stefanie, Perdition, this is one of my darlings, Rainbow Dash, and these two chirpy bundles are Bumblebee and Beta, our daughters. Dears, this is Stefanie and Perdition."

As I spoke, I pointed to everyone in turn. Now I had the house's network up, I flicked through the cameras and mentally froze up at the sight in the living room. Two eggs, looking like they were formed from mobile phones, sat to one side of the couch. Neither had been there when I'd given control to NotABug the previous night.

Well, to be fair, she hadn't been using a lot of her magic what with her study, whereas I have been burning off mine keeping my form all day.

—There's two eggs in the living room,— I sent NotABug.

—I couldn't help it. You left me snuggling with Rainbow.—

—It's alright, darling, I'm not blaming you. I think maybe it's just inevitable that we will keep making eggs.—

—We can't both use up enough love in a day to keep from making at least one. Should we try asking Rainbow about this?—

NotABug's suggestion surprised me. I thought about it, and wondered if she might be onto something.

—Because she knows about exercise and diet. You really are quite clever, darling,— I sent.

We chirped together for a dozen milliseconds or more. More complicated was good, right? Of course it was. Even simple things had an underlying level of complexity that was hidden just below the surface.

—I love you,— I sent NotABug and Rainbow Dash.

—I love you both!— NotABug sent back.

I'd have to wait for Rainbow's reply.

"It's, uh, nice to meet you all. Rarity told me a bit about you. Um…" Stefanie said.

"Oh, I might as well get this over with," I said.

Relaxing my magic, I let my transformational flames wash away the disguise of humanity. My arms stretched into forelegs and I settled back down to all fours—what I now felt was more comfortable and stable than attempting two legs. Having magic made me biased, of course, since it could replace the arms I lacked.

Perdition yawned, though it wasn't a bored yawn.

"Neat trick. You can change back if you want," Perdition said.

"Nah. That's her now. Her and NotABug," Rainbow Dash said.

"You know NotABug?"

Rainbow snorted.

"Rarity, you should probably introduce them. Well, I guess I'll have to introduce them, since you won't be here to do it. Anyway, they share the same body. Kinda cool, really," Rainbow Dash said.

—Would you like to meet them in person?— I asked NotABug.

NotABug sent an assenting chirp, and we both nudged at the same time. The transition was smooth, thanks in part to practice but also due to standing on all fours—gosh but it was convenient.

I sprawled out into the digital landscape. Delving into a dozen things at once by slicing my time up small, I checked our finances, my schedule for the day, the weather report, and even scanned around the house. Starling and Bitwise were in the kitchen making breakfast, Byte was in "her" room, doing something on the computer, and Bobbin was sitting up beside Byte at the computer and shouting into the microphone.

ChirpNet was still running, of course, but I started delving into server logs and statuses while NotABug was introduced to our newest employees. There had been a few pokes at ChirpNet itself, and a lot more at various nodes. What surprised me was an email from Torproject.

The letter was brief, and full of enough praise that I would be blushing if I were in control of my physical self. They had a few requests—mostly for other node types—which were easy enough for me to satisfy. It wasn't free, of course, but it was something I was more than happy to do for such a wonderful group.

—So this really isn't you?— Stefanie asked.

—No. NotABug is definitely someone else entirely. She has a few of my quirks, but we believe that's more from her recovery of the attack by Windigo than any of our doing.—

Now this was curious. A request for chat logs from a specific user IP address, sent by the FBI. Very official paperwork.

—I hope it's not too early, but I just found this in ChirpNet's inbox. They want logs and data pertaining to this IP address,— I sent to Mrs. Velvet.

With the legal matter taken care of, I set about doing some coding. Little features that a lot of users on ChirpNet had asked for were my target of the day, and I began with the simplest—message priority.

6:33 A.M.

—She's really different. It's kinda freaky, but she definitely isn't you,— Stefanie sent.

—Hi!— Bobbin sent. —Are you a new changeling?—

—No, dear. This is Stefanie. She's come to help us make ChirpNet safer, and to help me fight SuriGo,— I sent.

—Oh! Slow-net. Got it. I'll come out and say hi properly. Byte started gaming, anyway.—

The change in Bobbin was surprising. She felt much more sure of herself, and more chatty than her older sister Beta. I watched her on the cameras as she pranced out of Byte's room and into the hallway, looking like she owned the house.

Stefanie was still typing on her phone when Bobbin reached the kitchen and jumped up to put her forelegs on the woman's thigh.

"Hi! Sorry, I didn't know you were in meatspace. I'm Bobbin."

—Is it just me, or is Bobbin really good at talking all of a sudden?— I asked NotABug.

—It's not just you. She spent all night chatting on ChirpNet. Look at this,— NotABug sent.

She also sent me a snapshot of what her eyes saw combined with what she sensed. Bobbin was one well-fed changeling. She was so bloated with energy that I almost failed to notice her nibbling very carefully at Stefanie.

—Everyone, please be careful of our new friends. With so many of us here, we don't want to hurt them with overfeeding,— I sent.

A chorus of chirps came back to me. I echoed them with a more reassuring tone to my own.

—Who are they?— Moon Dancer asked.

—Two friends I met online. They know the other side of system security, as it were. I hired them to help me fight back against SuriGo and to help fortify our other projects.—

Moon Dancer chirped softly in a rather neutral manner.

—Be careful, Rarity. It's not that I don't trust them, but if they've done questionable things before, they might do them again.—

—Dear, I'm planning on it. I'd like them to do questionable things for us. But I can see truth in your warning.—

—Are you going to try to integrate them like you did me?—

I couldn't stop myself from sending a shocked chirp.

—What? No, dear. You're family. They are friends, and I might try to use magic to implant a phone, but what you have is more than that.—

It came natural. I reached out to her over the divide of the VPN that separated us and hugged her digitally. Moon chirped in surprise at first, but then she gingerly hugged me back. I held the hug until I heard her chirp softly with evidence of happiness in her tone.

—It would be quite a change to humanity if everyone could communicate like this, but first we'd need to deal with monsters like SuriGo. For that I'm more than willing to work with Perdition and Stefanie,— I sent.

—Perdition? That's quite a name. Raze and ruin in human form doesn't inspire confidence,— Moon Dancer sent.

I giggled chirpily.

—But you have to admit, for the task we're hiring him for, it's rather apt.—

Moon mirrored my chirps with her own. I sent her the list of programming tasks I'd set myself for the morning.

—I decided to take on some user suggestions. Any thoughts on these?— I asked.

While she perused the list, I did a little more programming. It was odd how easily I'd taken to programming, until I'd started looking at it as functional fashion.

—The priority one looks promising. It would be nice to be able to send information without the equivalent of poking them in the ribs. Want me to pass these on to Lyra for her thoughts?—

—That would be wonderful, actually. Feel free to buy her lunch to elicit her opinions.—

Scoffing a laughing-chirp, Moon Dancer drew back from the hug.

—If I feed Lyra, I could get a lot more than her opinions. She worked out how much that sushi cost, you know. She freaked out when she realized how much you'd spent on her. But buying food for a post-grad is the easiest way to gain their loyalty,— Moon Dancer sent.

—I talked with a course advisor. They were actually happy to hear I'd found a profession I'd like to pursue. I mean, I was paying all my fees there, but there wasn't a lot more I could have learned without attacking a Masters or higher. I'm excited to do this, Rarity. For the first time in my life I'm actually looking forward to something that isn't a lecture.—

Enthusiasm bubbled off each of her chirps, and you can bet she was chirping a lot. It still saddened me that Equestrian changelings suppress their chirping.

—So long as you're doing what makes you happy, I'm all for it,— I sent.

While we hugged again, with a lot more happy chirping, I flicked my focus back to coding. Moon's behavior was more relaxed now, I'd noticed. She had seemed far more uncertain about being in a family before, but I guess when you live life as fast as we do now, mental adaptions happen just as quickly as everything else.

—It's nice to feel like I belong,— Moon Dancer said.

—I'll second that. When I was at Polomare, it felt like I was becoming more and more isolated from everything in my life I enjoyed, and the worst part was I didn't realize this until someone showed me how to make it better.—

Moon Dancer let out one of her trademark sarcastic chirps.

—It's a cascade, isn't it? NotABug showed you how bad you'd gotten, you showed me… Now I have to find someone to help?—

—No. You don't have to find someone. Just keep your eyes open in case you see someone who needs a helping hand. Besides, I didn't show you. You showed yourself.—

—Same difference. You let me see what was wrong.—

I didn't try to fight her reasoning further. Hugging and chirping was enough to show how much I appreciated her.

—What are we actually doing? I know it feels like a hug, but how are we even interacting?— Moon Dancer asked.

—It started as something NotABug and I would do in our head, but I guess it works anywhere. It might even be magic letting it happen. Some things are best not explored, I think.—

Moon Dancer, however, let out an irritated little chirp.

—No. I can't work like that. I'll look into it myself. A packet sniffer should help establish if it's just a data connection, and if so where it's happening.—

I was about to tell her I'd leave it in her hands when I felt NotABug's nudge. Chirping to NotABug as I felt my body settle under my control again, I heard her tired one back.

—Sorry, Moon, I have to be in control again,— I sent.

—No problems, Rarity. It's always nice to chat.—

7:15 A.M.

I managed another digital hug as I became aware of the world around my body again. Breakfast was gone, and I could see Perdition leaning against Stefanie on one side of the table, while Byte and Rainbow chatted between themselves.

Stefanie let out a yawn and tried to cover it with her hand.

"Bed time," I said.

Rolling his eyes, Perdition managed to stand up while hauling Stefanie to her feet in the process.

"I'm too tired to make jokes, sorry. Please just point the way," Perdition said.

When he stumbled trying to help Stefanie along, I stepped in—magically. It took barely a flicker of my magic to take Stefanie's other side and help him carry her down the hallway. We were halfway down the hallway before I started supporting Perdition too.

"We're going to need our own bed," Perdition said.

"Message me when you wake up. I'll arrange for you to get somewhere you can buy what you need. Do either of you have a license?" I asked.

"Stef does."

"Then use some of your money to buy a car. I'll have you a house by the end of the day, but you'll need to furnish it. Do you want more money for that?"

Perdition stumbled as we entered my bedroom. I left him to stare at me in surprise while I used my magic to lift Stefanie to the bed.

"You really mean that, dontcha? NotBug said we could get more, but you mean it?"

Using my magic to hold back the covers, I lay Stefanie on the pristine sheets and then turned to Perdition.

"I mean it. Take whatever either of you need from the closet. I'm sorry I don't have any male things—I'll have Byte pick you up the basics today. Perdition?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't make me regret this."

The warning made him smile a bit wider before a yawn escaped his mouth.

"Yeah. I sure as fuck ain't wasting this. You want us to make you 'sploits, we'll make you 'sploits. Just—"

He cut short when I picked him up in my magic and carried him over to the bed.

"Hey. This is cheatin'," Perdition said.

I left him to getting settled and closed the door behind me. Further, I set the cameras in the room to only detect movement, not actually record.

Leaving them to sleep, I walked down the hallway again and spied Rainbow sitting at the table and looking very huggable. I walked across the room—using my magic midway to her to shapechange—and wrapped my arms around her when I got close.

"Your new friend swears a lot."

"Perdition? He has some rough edges," I said. "I hope you don't mind them sleeping in there. It's just for today."

"Yeah. It's your room, anyway."

A little sullenness had seeped into Rainbow. I leaned to one side and kissed her jaw.

"Our room. When I invited you in, I didn't intend for you to leave."

"I'm just not sure about them. Moon Dancer was—She's special. She tried to save our little girl, and she's—I don't know."

I squeezed a little tighter and kissed her jaw again until she turned her head and we could kiss properly. It was easy to relax against her and let all the love between us carry things, but I felt we needed to talk more—though kissing was definitely something I'd like to continue later. I broke off the kiss a little earlier than I think either of us wanted to.

"They will only be here for the day. Mr. Pants is pushing to buy up the local properties as quickly as he can, and he apparently has one house that should be free shortly. I'm sure a bonus will get them to move out today," I said.

"And if they don't?"

I kissed her nose.

"Then we spend the night in the back seat of your car."

"Not with that horn you won't. I've seen what you do to pillows. That is high-grade leather."

She was smiling as she spoke.

"Rarity, you just need to slow down a little. I overheard what your friend said yesterday. Do you really want me to call her and tattle on you?"

"You wouldn't!" I said. "Besides, this is all gearing up to take SuriGo down. The sooner she's dealt with the sooner we can focus on bugging."

"Bug is now a verb?"

"It's whatever I wish it to be. When'd you get so particular about English?"

Standing up, Rainbow collected the dishes off the table and carried them to the sink. The way she moved was sheer poetry. Every muscle, every motion in perfect harmony and carrying the dress wonderfully.

"Since both my girlfriends teamed up and told me to?"

She tilted her hips to the side, and though my eyes were still tracing her form, I noticed her eyes in the reflection in the chrome of the toaster. She was watching me check her out. Well, she always did have quite the ego—time to feed it a little more.

I stood up and walked up behind her and leaned my body against her spine—matching my chest, belly, groin, and thighs against the outer curve of her body. Wrapping an arm around each side, I hugged myself to her strong frame.

"How do you do that?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Do what?"

My own voice was soft, breathy, and wistful.

"Look so gorgeous that I feel like a lump of meat beside you."

"Oh, that? It takes skill and practice, but mostly it requires inspiration. Darling, I don't think this would have gone half so smoothly if you didn't have every one of the qualities I wanted in a man."

"What?!"

"Basically exactly what you said. A lump of meat, but sculpted into something beyond just that. You're firm in every way I adore, strong when I want to be held tight, and you're curvy when I want to play dress-ups. Rainbow Dash—you're my perfect man."

Snorting, Rainbow turned around without a trace of the earlier annoyance in her aura. She closed a hand on each side of my waist and lifted me into the air with ease—it was just the kind of gesture that I loved her doing.

"You give me the oddest complements, but they work because I know you mean them. I'm sorry if I was short earlier."

Able to look down my body into her eyes, I closed my thighs around Rainbow's midsection and felt only tight muscle there.

"You're short right now, but I can forgive you for both if you kiss me again," I said.

Our kiss may have gone a little longer than I intended, but I was perfectly fine devoting some extra cycles to showing Rainbow how I felt.

"Mom! Bobbin said she wants to work with you today. It's okay if I stay home?" Byte asked.

Breaking our kiss, I turned my head to look at Byte. She was in her changeling shape, and beside her stood a beautiful ebony-skinned young woman with striped white and black hair that reminded me so much of zebra that I instantly had an idea for a dress she could wear. Then I realized that was Bobbin.

"That will be fine, dears. Bobbin, sweetie, are you ready?" I asked.

Bobbin chirped excitedly—at least digitally—and rushed over for a hug. Thankfully, Rainbow set me down and we both gave her a welcome squeeze.

"You've been feeding, haven't you dear?" I asked.

"Y-Yeah! Byte showed me how to chat online, and I've been doing it a bunch! It's really nice to be friends with everyone, though there are a few people who say poopy things, but that just makes me work harder to make them happy enough I can feed."

—Byte? Please try to avoid disturbing our guests, but if they get up, try to be helpful. You're not their maid, however,— I sent to Byte.

—Yes, Mom. I'll keep an eye on the eggs, too. It's fun to meet new sisters.—

—That was the next thing I wanted to ask. Thank you, dear.—

We shared a few happy chirps and a hug. With one arm around Rainbow (and her arm around me), we walked out to the car and I let her take the driver's side again.

"Buckle up," Rainbow Dash said.

"You know," I said, "If you engage this setting, you can get a much faster response from it."

I gestured at the center console where the car's settings were. Rainbow seemed to watch as I punched in the sports mode I'd found yesterday.

"Huh? How much faster?"

Pulling back and onto the road, I could sense the curiosity in Rainbow as she set the car for forward movement.

"Put your foot down and find out, darling," I said.

She didn't just put her foot down—Rainbow Dash pressed the pedal to the floor and then squealed in excitement. The car's reaction had been almost instant. We'd gone from standing still to just above the maximum speed for our road in a scant few seconds, and by the huge grin on her face Rainbow enjoyed it.

"This is awesome! How fast was that? I'd heard these were fast, but didn't think it would be that fast!"

My phone rang, which surprised me as I hadn't dealt with a phone call on it in a while.

"Hello?" I asked, not recognizing the number.

"Detective Proud from the Canterlot City P.D., ma'am, I was wondering if I could have a word with you in person?"

My world narrowed down to a point and the call had my full attention. I spooled all the data so far into a file and set to recording the rest it as the call progressed.

"A word? Like the interrogation I received last time one of your officers wanted a word?" I asked. "Anything I have to say to you will be with my lawyer present. I've had just about enough of—"

"That's the thing. Officers Guard and Shield are—they're acting odd, ma'am. Not everyone on the force remembers what happened a few years ago, but I do. You and your friends stopped some bad stuff, and I think it's happening again."

Drat. The man couldn't have made this easy for me to dismiss, could he?

"I take it they're overly aggressive, not acting like themselves, and are prone to making rather poor decisions?" I asked. "And making frequent visits to Polomare Fashion?"

"I can't exactly tell you that's precisely what's happening. Is this something that will get worse?"

There was a measure of fear in his voice at the end. Clearly my description was on the mark and that had worried him. It worried me too.

"If they're acting that way, it means Suri Polomare has them under her thumb and there's nothing they or you can do to stop it," I said.

"But you can? They're good officers. Spotless records—until recently. No one deserves this."

Well, there goes my morning. Perhaps I could organize a meeting with him at my boutique? No, having the police there for any reason would not be a wonderful start to a successful fashion business.

"How do you factor into this, Detective? How are you going to help the two officers if I consent to giving my own help?"

"I'm an investigator from Internal Affairs."

—A detective of the CCPD (Detective Proud) from Internal Affairs has contacted me and wants to talk. He seems to think the two officers who tried to pin Suri's tantrum on me are under her sway as Starling was. I need to help them, but I don't want to incriminate myself in the process. Could I meet with him at your office?— I asked Twilight Velvet.

I also sent Mrs. Velvet the number Detective Proud was calling from.

"I've contacted my lawer and asked her to arrange a meeting with you there. If she or I think you're trying anything to sabotage myself further, this will be the end of any help I offer the police," I said.

"I understand how you've been treated would make you wary. I'll wait for your lawyer to contact me."

"She'll call you shortly."

I ended the call just to have another start, the caller was Twilight Velvet.

"Ugh. Today is definitely a day," I said to Rainbow Dash. "Another call."

"Rarity. First of all, thank you for contacting me before meeting with them. Can you forward me a recording of the call?" Twilight Velvet asked.

I did as she asked quickly enough, though data speeds on mobile weren't as wonderful as at home.

"I did talk to him, but I didn't say anything concrete. Oh drat—I hope I didn't say anything bad? He didn't seem to be leading me like the officers were last time—he sounded worried."

"You're a tough client, Rarity, but I certainly will never claim you aren't the most interesting. I'll listen, make a decision if I think they legitimately want help, and call the officer. I do assume you want to help?"

"No one deserves what Suri is doing to people. I don't care what they did."

It wasn't in me to hold a grudge. The officers could have already been suffering at SuriGo's when they tried to nail me for her mess. If they were even the tiniest bit under her power, they likely couldn't have even dreamed of accusing her.

"I'll just make it clear, Rarity, that even if you were as poor as a pauper, I'd still help you as much as I could. You're just—just a wonderful person. I'll try to ascertain if this officer's motives align with yours. It was a good idea to hold any meetings at our offices."

"You're going to charge me for it, aren't you?"

I couldn't hold back the mirth in my voice.

"Rarity, I won't charge you any extra—because your business manager has hired us on retainer. She offered to hire our firm on a permanent basis, but we have other clients who we're loyal to as well."

—What does all that mean?— I asked NotABug.

I sent her a copy of the voice data.

—It means that they do some things for us as a service under that retainer, but bigger stuff will result in bills and are subject to availability,— NotABug sent.

—Oh. Thank you.—

I sent a grateful chirp and reached out to give her a long-distance hug. The return hug and chirps did a wonderful job of reinforcing my earlier good mood and my desire to help. Helping people seemed to be what changelings were best at, after all.

"Well, let me know if it is agreeable, and what time he'd like to meet. I have a feeling he'll want to break this grip on the officers if he can—and I can—but that will take careful arranging. I don't want to be in a locked room with two trained officers who are angry and armed."

"Nor would I let you walk into that. If anything is to happen, the officers will be sedated. I'll review your call and make the decision after that. I'll call you back soon, Rarity."

"Thank you, Mrs. Velvet."

The call ended and I was reminded that I was meant to be in control of my body right now. Surprisingly, the seat had been cradling my body quite well, and the belt had kept me from falling forward.

"That was the police, and then Mrs. Velvet. The former want my help to find out why the two officers who'd first been to Polomare were acting odd, and the latter was to get Mrs. Velvet to vet them and make sure I'm not walking into a trap," I said aloud.

"Not walking into a trap is good," Rainbow Dash said.

She was just pulling up to the parking space we'd used the previous day when I noticed something fluttering under the door—a flier of some sort. Gathering up the fabric I intended to work with, I didn't hesitate to use my magic to carry it while walking to the door. Let my neighbors get used to seeing me using magic!

"What's that?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I crouched down to retrieve the object of our mutual interest. It was a flier for a fashion show coming up in a few days and it had a note paperclipped to the top of it. When I flipped up the note to read what was written on the back of it, I almost dropped my fabric.

"Rarity? What's wrong? You look like you just saw a—" Rainbow Dash said.

"It's from SuriGo. There's a fashion show on Sunday, and look at this."

I removed the note and showed Rainbow the flier itself.

"Showcasing an up-and-coming fashion house that's only just begun its rise to fame. What's this about?"

"SuriGo's organized this and her note says I'm the fashion house it's talking about."

A panic was growing within me. Sunday was too soon to be able to have a whole fashion show worth of designer outfits done by. It was simply impossible!

"That's kinda nice of her, right? I mean, she's probably planning something, but—"

"Darling, she's trying to ruin me. It's Thursday today. That's a three hour fashion show—standard fare would be an hour of meet-and-greet, an hour of runway, then an hour to gossip about how terrible the fashion was. I don't have enough outfits or any models!" I said. "This will ruin me if she invites the wrong people."

"Well, you need to make a whole bunch of outfits, right?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I'm pretty sure, of all the people I know, you're the one who can pull this off."

"It's not just—I can't very well—Surely I couldn't—"

No matter how fast I think, it seems I'm still able to say stupid things.

"Mom, you don't need models," Bobbin said. "You have us."

"And me—but you'd be better with them. I might be able to bluff people in the shop, but a fashion show would be a whole other level. What I can do is run the place for you while you work as fast as you can on making things," Rainbow Dash said.

I closed my eyes.

It was time to get things more complicated than ever. Pulling this off would be a huge victory for me. Even a mediocre event would be a success. Very well. If SuriGo wanted a fashion fight, I'd give her one.

Okay, Rarity, priorities.

Customers first—complete everything that's already ordered.
Get everything planned and made ready for the fashion show.
Work on new orders.

—Oh darling! Have I told you lately how much I love you?— I asked NotABug.

I sent along a bunch of happy chirps, though I think they may have held a little of my current anxiety.

—Not in the last second, Rarity. You know I love you right back, too?—

Happiness turned to giggly-fun chirps that flowed back and forth from both of us. I hugged NotAbug, giving her a good squeeze.

—SuriGo's trying to ruin my business by organizing a fashion show and giving me top billing. If I don't get things just right, I'll be laughed out of the industry.—

—Then show them what you have inside. You beat her digitally with your firewalls and you can beat her in the real world on the catwalk. You've totally got this.—

I squeezed NotABug a little tighter and filled our shared world with happy and loving chirps.

—You really know what to say.—

Authoritative chirping (I have no idea how I identified the emotions behind such a complex thing) threatened to drown me. The truth was I'd be happy to be drowned in digital chirps.

—I bet Rainbow told you the same thing.—

—She did. Bobbin too. When did she get so good at holding a conversation?—

—Bobbin has more active connections to ChirpNet than anybuggy else. I'm not sure how she manages it all, but she's covertly infiltrated thousands of online communities and is working among them to make them happier.—

The news surprised me only in so much as I could be surprised by anything amazing our daughters did anymore. My chirps may or may not have carried a rush of pride in them.

—She'll be a fat bug if she's not careful,— I sent.

Then I realized the term NotABug had used: anybuggy. It was cute, and I think a sign that she might have given up on her old prejudice of the word completely.

—Not if she shares the love with all the other nymphs. Think of her and Byte like farmers. Our little family wouldn't work if we don't have anybuggy like them, nor if it was only bugs like them. We all need to work together. Especially since we have two more on the way.—

The chirpiness I felt became almost overwhelming. Every nymph seemed to bring more joy and every nymph also surprised me by how amazing they were. No. I simply couldn't hold it all in. I sent out a flood of chirps to all our daughters. The surprised and happy rush of replies made me even more chirpy.

—Darlings, I have a huge favor to ask of you,— I sent. —I need your help putting on a fashion show. I'll need as many of you as can transform into an adult human as I can get.—

Byte was quickest to chirp back her support. Bobbin was quick behind her, and then Bitwise and Beta chimed in. 'Bee made an unsure chirp, but got a huge rush of supportive chirps.

Moon Dancer sent a curious chirp. Curious and unsure.

—You don't have to help if you don't think you're able to. Have you tried drinking love yet?— I asked.

—What? No. I wasn't sure if I should try. What if it turned me into… That's a silly concern, isn't it?— Moon Dancer asked.

—Not entirely. There's a lot we don't know about changelings in this world. I'd like to go back to Equestria some time and ask a lot of questions of somebuggy who knows answers.—

—"Somebuggy"?—

—Definitely somebuggy. The ponies I tried to talk to about changelings had a worrying sense of politeness with regard to a creature nearly double their size that looked like one of their ancient enemies.—

—Changelings are their enemy? How does that even work?— Beta asked.

—They must be bad ponies to be enemies of changelings,— Bitwise sent.

—No. The ponies are good, it was just there was a real bad-apple changeling named Chrysalis. She didn't even let her hive chirp!— I sent.

Alarmed chirps came from everyone except Moon.

—She built her hive too big and went around being a meanie-pants to all the ponies. Want to know the best bit?— I asked.

The chirping was inquisitive now.

—Her hive left her and started their own hive!— I sent.

—We'd never leave you, Mom!— Byte sent.

—Our hive is best hive!— Bobbin sent.

More and more supportive and proud chirps came in from all quarters, this time including Moon. It warmed me to the core of my being that there was this much unity within our little (or not so little) family.

"You back?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I checked how long our little conversation had gone and realized it was three full seconds. It was confirmed, Rainbow was very good at reading us.

"Yes, darling, just making sure the girls are onboard with the plan. Once I get the dresses ready, we can actually do this."

"There's the Rarity I know and love. Confidence is so your thing, you know that right?"

That I couldn't chirp physically didn't stop me from chirping up a storm digitally. I flooded Rainbow's phone with chirps so much I was worried it wouldn't stop message-beeping for an hour. Reaching out, I pulled her into a hug and a kiss.

As always, such embraces never lasted long enough. By mutual consent we drew back before things could get out of hand.

"Every time we kiss I feel like running around the world," Rainbow Dash said.

"You want to get away from me?"

"No. I just feel charged with too much energy. Besides, it doesn't matter where you are on the planet, running in one direction means you're going toward someone."

Her logic defied my best ability to denounce, so I didn't try.

"Hi! Welcome to Carousel Boutique. My name's Bobbin. How may I help you?"

Bobbin's voice surprised me. I peeked through her eyes to see a woman and man standing just inside the doorway. The woman wore a fairly neutral green dress that accented her orange skin nicely, particularly since it formed a triad of colors with an accenting violet clutch.

The man was more traditionally dressed with black trousers, running shoes, and a button-up shirt. It was a business look, but on his way to do business. Perhaps a before-work stop. He could have had red with purple polka-dot skin—he didn't. His skin was a soft yellow, reminding me of Fluttershy, and he sported green hair that matched his partner's dress. My estimation of the woman's style increased when I realized she'd coordinated her dress and clothes with his color palette.

—Did you speak to Bobbin about how to act here?— I asked Byte.

—Yup! She picks up this stuff really easily. When it comes to social interaction, she's much better than I am,— Byte sent.

I gave Byte a thankful chirp and a hug, and I listened to Bobbin talking.

"Numbers here purchased a dress for me yesterday, and while I love him to bits for buying me something, it's simply not my color. What could you show me that will suit my complexion?" the woman asked.

"Might I inquire as to what style and occasion you will need a dress for? Perhaps something to thank him back?" Bobbin asked.

Watching my daughter's lips curl just slightly on the last sentence really hit home how fast she'd learned to socialize. She was less than two days old and had just correctly hinted that something intimate and revealing might be a good choice. By the way Numbers and the woman looked at each other and smiled, Bobbin had come up with a perfect plan.

—Mom, can I take an order if we don't have something in her color?— Bobbin asked.

—Of course you can, dear. Earliest would be Monday afternoon. We have that show on Sunday,— I sent.

Bobbin chirped. The interaction was lightning fast and as soon as the couple asked to see what we had, Bobbin began chatting away while lifting out dress after dress.

8:39 A.M.

The time was enough of an excuse, when Bobbin gave it, that no further thought seemed given to why she was unpacking new dresses.

I left my daughter and girlfriend to the task of running my boutique while I set about completing the orders we'd already taken.

Using my magic and my hands I could measure, cut, sew, and adjust a dress in about an hour. But the trick was I could be sewing one while measuring, cutting, and adjusting three others.

After an hour I sacrificed my human form to conserve the energy that cost me—so I could focus more on my work. Time was a constant, but it slowly ticked away as I filled boxes with dresses.

12:02 P.M.

Rainbow Dash stepped around the partition and walked over to me. I set down my dresses and scissors and tilted my cheek up to her.

"Figured you could use some lunch," Rainbow Dash said.

When her lips landed on my cheek, I fed on Rainbow's love. Slurping at it, I sucked and drew such energy into me as I could never have experienced as a human. To know her love for me was this real was—every time I fed—an affirming and Earth shaking experience.

"When you do that, it makes me wish we were at home—alone," Rainbow Dash said.

Her lips were still against my cheek as she spoke, and I felt them brushing over my chitin. Turning my head, I brought our lips together and fed to satiation. It was a lot of love, but Rainbow had a lot to give.

"And when I do that?" I asked.

"I can't talk about that here," Rainbow Dash said. "Later."

I shivered at the tone she used. Without a single lewd word or phrase, Rainbow had told me exactly what she intended. As she drew back, I lifted up and kept our mouths close. In her eyes I lost myself.

"Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Mmm?"

"Rarity, I think you might want to finish those before we get carried away."

I froze and blinked—breaking my eye contact with Rainbow. It was like having a bucket of cold water thrown on me. What exactly had happened I had no idea. All I know is that I had become so fixated on Rainbow, I'm surprised either of us were able to break out of it.

"Whatever you were doing, it wasn't bad, Rarity, but you were doing something that could be used for bad stuff. Remember what the Dazzlings were doing?"

Nodding, I was a little worried about what she'd say next.

"Kinda like that."

I slumped in place. This was exactly the kind of thing SuriGo was doing—forcing people to do things without their consent. I tried to pull back, but Rainbow moved with me and grabbed me up into a hug. Losing my footing, I was hoisted into a two-armed carry that had me sprawling across Rainbow's arms.

"Rarity, don't pull back like that. You know the best thing about dating me?"

"That you're gorgeous?" I asked.

Her smile was worth deploying such a word, even if it weren't true.

"Besides that. You know—like all of us—I can take a hit and keep swinging. I'm not normal, Rarity. Since all this started, I've actually started liking my powers again.

"If I wasn't like this, you wouldn't be able to stay with just me—either of you. Just be careful with that kind of intensity, okay?"

I nodded and leaned my head (careful of my horn) against her belly. How I'd been such a fool for so long and not taken a chance with Rainbow I don't know, but then I'd hardly had a track record of making good decisions.

"Okay, darling. I got a little carried away and wanted—I wanted a lot of things I couldn't do here, and it frustrated me."

"Yeah, I got that. I'll probably need to rush home and take a cold shower, but I got that."

I blinked in surprise. Had it really affected her that much? Not that I thought she was lying. My mind picked that moment to remind me what she'd said about it not being bad. Realization dawned.

"You didn't want me to stop?"

"Rarity, you were making me think of doing all the things we couldn't do in here. Of course I didn't want to stop, but I knew you did. So I stopped it."

"NotABug and you are the best things that ever happened to me," I said. "Without you both I don't know how I would have coped."

—Your friends are awake. They wanted some breakfast, so I made them muesli,— Bitwise sent. —I don't think they've been eating well. They looked like they needed something extra, so I got some juice too.—

—Thank you, dear. Starling is there?— I asked.

—Yup! She talked with them. She said a lot of stuff about not… Well, not doing doodoo in their nest. I think I know what she meant,— Byte sent.

That conversation wasn't a hard one to imagine. Starling was protective not just of me, but also my daughters. The words hive guard came to mind. I'd equipped her to face her darkest fear, now she felt an obligation back to me, and I know that's not how it works, nor what she truly intends, but that's how it feels.

It was time to stop asking questions and get my answers directly. Opening up the camera feeds from the server, I spotted Stefanie and Perdition sitting in the kitchen—in the same clothes they'd worn when they'd arrived, eating from bowls of oats and dried fruit in milk.

"Gonna have to amend that to We're the best thing to happen to each other, Rarity. You're not the only one this relationship has helped," Rainbow Dash said.

—What Rainbow said. Without you both, I'd not be half of who I am today. Without you, Rarity, I'd not exist at all,— NotABug sent.

"NotABug repeats the sentiment," I said. "And thank you again, Rainbow."

"Hey. I'm just doing what I can to keep this going. Don't stop making life interesting, Rarity."

The kiss she laid on my cheek was more chaste than any we'd shared all day. I appreciated both the sentiment of wanting a little something more and her attempt at keeping things from getting out of control. With a wink she stepped out to the front of the boutique.

"Bobbin, I need to go home and get some things. You're in charge out here until I get back, okay?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Finding the contact details for the phone we'd given Starling, I called her.

"Rarity?" Starling asked.

"Yes, dear. Just checking in on our guests. What are your thoughts on them?" I asked.

The sound of footsteps followed by a door closing were only a hint Starling had gone somewhere she could talk quietly and not be overheard. I could, of course, see her walking and standing beside the noisy server.

"They're not bad. Looked like they were missing a few meals. I'd half expected them to just loot the place and leave, but the vibe I get is that they're actually trying to fly straight. I take it you gave them some money to keep them content?" Starling asked.

—Rarity, those computers we'd ordered have just arrived at the PO Box,— NotABug sent.

I chirped thankfully back to her.

—Rainbow, darling, there are some things to pick up at the PO Box. Would you be able to grab them on your way home?— I asked Rainbow Dash.

Her reply wouldn't be instant, but I knew better than to think it'd be slow, either.

—Gotcha. I was kinda joking about the cold shower, but I do need something to eat and a good run,— Rainbow Dash sent.

"They have enough funds to not need to steal to live, but that doesn't mean I'm not a little worried still. Thank you, Starling."

"Had some green recruits rotate in one time in—It doesn't matter where. I think I've got this. Is there anything in particular you want them to do?"

I thought for a moment, and the answer was clear. Thankfully it wouldn't have even seemed like the slightest pause to Starling.

"They'll probably want to go car shopping, as well as getting some computer gear. Rainbow will be bringing the latter, though they will undoubtedly want to get their own preferences, but I'll handle that with them later."

—How's the house situation coming along?— I asked NotABug.

—Not good. Mr. Pants talked to the one we'd hoped to have finalized today, but they're moving out tomorrow. We can't have the house before at least midday.—

—Drat. Well, I think we could let them have our bed one more night, but I might offer to take Rainbow up on a night of sleeping in the back seat of her car.—

—Rarity! That means…—

—Yes, darling. Yes it does.—

We both chirped excitedly and with somewhat laughing tones. I hugged NotABug and returned to my conversation.

"I'll take them car shopping, but what about the girls here? Security is ultimately your call," Starling asked.

NotABug seemed to drift off to her work again, thought I sent her some loving chirps.

"If you can't convince Byte to come with you, she should be okay at home. I trust you to make a call on this, Starling. Perhaps you should get yourself a car as well? Something fast?"

"I can't afford to—Dammit, Rarity. You are going to buy me a car, aren't you?"

"Darling, if you really want, I could have it registered to the corporation so that it's a company car?"

"That'd make me feel better. I don't mind breaking your toys, Rarity, but if it's my own I might hesitate. Was that all?"

"Hmmm. I believe so. Thank you again, Starling."

"Rarity, you saved my ass so many ways now that you don't need to thank me, but it's appreciated."

Starling hung up, and I watched her walk to the door of the room and leave it. Okay, Rarity, give them a little privacy.

—This officer is legitimate, Rarity. Internal Affairs veteran with a history of impartiality. If you're keen, I'd say he's your best chance of helping those police officers. I've arranged a meeting here in an hour,— Twilight Velvet sent.

—I'll be there in forty minutes. I have a few things to take care of here first,— I sent to Twilight Velvet.

"Bobbin, dear?" I asked.

Standing up, I poked my head around the partition and realized there was a customer looking back at me. I waved.

"Hello. May I help you?" I asked.

"N-No. I'm fine thank you. Are you—"

The young woman looked around high school age and had, when I checked recent audio recordings, been talking to Bobbin about fashion. What's more she not only sounded like she had some taste, but showed it. Her skin was a soft lavender color that reminded me of a girl I'd gone to school with, but she had a shockingly bright orange cascade of hair down her back. What she'd done to balance it however, had been genius. A light-blue hoodie (something the current climate and fashion supported) was paired with a soft yellow shirt that was visible down the open front of her top. A dark skirt fit the pattern perfectly and showed off her legs.

"I'm Rarity, the dressmaker and owner. Was there something you were interested in?"

"I-I was just asking if you had any positions vacant?" she asked. "M-My name's Vaunt."

"Vaunt, what is it you'd like to do with your life? What are you doing now?"

She blinked owlishly at me. I noticed she didn't pick at her clothes, or show other bored of the conversation tells. She genuinely had just been nervous because I wasn't human. Or was it just that she was cold-canvasing for a job in fashion? Now I was actually curious.

In the peripheral of my mind I noticed Rainbow Dash pulling up at home in our car.

Vaunt bit her lip a moment, and I watched her take a deep breath.

"I want to learn all of this. I want to make things. I want to sell things. I want to make people look pretty!" Vaunt said with much vehemence, then she seemed to deflate. "I just started college and already we're getting suggestions to work at a big fashion house like—"

"You're hired," I said.

Her eyes widened and she stared at me in what I took for utter shock. Waiting for her to react in a more conversationally-forward way, I chirped digitally at Bobbin and got a swift answer from her.

—Do you know her?— I asked.

—Only answering fashion questions for the last ten minutes. Do we need more people?— Bobbin asked.

—Not particularly, but I won't have another fashionista, and particularly not one showing this amount of initiative, to work at Polomare or the like. Absolutely not.—

"I—I'm still at fashion school. What—You want to hire me now?" Vaunt asked.

Tilting my head to the side, I pondered my options. Part time and let her finish school, a promise of full time when she leaves school, or full time now? Part of me wanted to just throw bolts of cloth at her and see what she came up with, but the wiser part admitted that she needed grounding.

"Part time. You can attend fashion school still, but in your spare time you can work here. If you need help with school, you ask me. If you need time off to focus on class, you tell me," I said. "And when you graduate, you work for me full time."

"Okay!" Vaunt said.

—Rainbow, darling, I need to head out to Mrs. Velvet's work in half an hour. You'll be back in time?— I sent.

"What hours could you work?" I asked. "Would you have time, say, later today?"

Excitement turned to horror on Vaunt's face.

"I need to go back to class after lunch. Tomorrow morning I'll be free!"

"Perfect. Wear something you think will fit in with our dress style. Also bring me the number of your course coordinator. I'd like to speak to them," I said.

—Was that too much?— I asked Bobbin.

—Probably not. Why would they keep suggesting people work at Polomare?—

—Well, to be perfectly honest, most businesses other than Polomare are probably good choices for a lot of them, it's just that Polomare was designed to suck the soul out of its most creative people. Vaunt will have her chance to shine. If I think she's worth it, I'll set her up with her own boutique.—

—But you want to make a difference.—

I actually chirped in surprise at the insight Bobbin used. It took me a moment to realize I was actually chirping out loud.

"Sorry, I tend to chirp a little when I'm emotional. I'll explain exactly why tomorrow, if you're still interested?"

"Yes!" Vaunt said quickly. "I mean, of course I'm still interested. I have no idea, if you don't mind me saying, what you are, but you seem to know exactly what you're talking about, and your dresses are amazing."

Flattery. Goodness but she would get a long way with that alone, but at some point I will test her instincts. Fashion show be damned, I wouldn't let another hopeful young, independent woman fall to Polomare.

"Hey, Rarity!" Rainbow Dash called from the doorway. "You said you needed to be somewhere?"

12:33 P.M.

"Yes, darling. Thank you."

With a burst of fire and focus on what I wanted to be and what I wanted to wear, I used my magic right in front of Vaunt. When I was done—which was only a heartbeat later—she looked surprised, but not scared. More points in the girl's favor.

"You'll excuse me, Vaunt, but I have business to attend to," I said.

Walking past her, I approached Rainbow and held out my hand for the car keys.

She passed me the keys, but Rainbow also stole a kiss on my cheek that sent a spark of excitement through me. With my transformation had come an expense of magic—an expense I made up right now from Rainbow.

"W-W-What is she?" Vaunt asked.

"She's my mom. So you're going to be working here, huh?" Bobbin asked.

"She's like a force of nature. Oh no! I need to get back to school!"

I strode out of my boutique and made my way for the usual space we used. Sure enough, there was my baby. With my clicking heels sounding off on the pavement, I approached, unlocked, and climbed into the car.

It was a testament to how well I designed my body that the seat hugged me so well. I reached up and tapped the power, and the vehicle lit up inside with displays. Full-performance mode was still engaged, which made me smile. Looking over my shoulder, I pulled on my safety belt and swung the wheel. Planting my foot on the gas meant the car was thrown into a quick turn and shot down the street like a rocket was behind it.

—I'm on my way now,— I sent to Twilight Velvet.

There wasn't nearly enough focus required for driving to hold my interest—in all honesty there wasn't enough focus required for anything in the real world to hold my complete focus anymore, with the possible exception of snuggle time with Rainbow and/or NotABug.

I explored ideas for dresses. Taking the shapes and patterns in the world around me, I came up with several color patterns for floral themes that had me chirping in short order.

—The officer just arrived. I'll have him waiting within my office. Do not say anything or offer to do anything until I say so, please, Rarity?— Twilight Velvet asked.

—Of course. What are your thoughts on him?—

I turned the corner into the street Mrs. Velvet's offices were on and was pulling up out front by the time another message arrived.

—He seems too honest for his own good. Frightened, which is strange given his line of work, but maybe not given the situation. He made a point of showing he isn't carrying a gun, and I think he means to play ball.—

With a deep breath I turned off the car and climbed out. The walk up to the front of their offices was spent reviewing the phone call I'd had with the detective earlier. I could see, in hindsight, I'd said far more than I should have. In all honesty, I had to start getting better at this. I kept following social graces and propriety when I should be like stone. Or better, pretend I'm an answering machine, or my own secretary.

That could be fun. This is Miss Bug speaking. Miss Rarity will be able to fit you in later on this week. Also, CHIRP!

Olive was sitting behind the receptionist desk. Impeccably dressed and presented, he touched something on his desk and nodded to me. One hand extended, he gestured to Mrs. Velvet's door.

"Right through there, Miss Rarity," Olive said.

"Thank you, dear."

I followed the direction, leading with my senses to get a feel for the room I was about to walk into. Mrs. Velvet hadn't been lying—I barely reached the door and I could smell the fear from within. When I opened it, all my buggy senses told me PREY. I shuddered a little, closed up as much as I could, and walked inside.

The police officer wore a tired-looking suit. He had a bone—or perhaps cream—complexion with black, close-cropped hair that had a small streak of a blue so dark it was practically black. He turned as soon as I entered and I could feel him as the source of the fear, even with my defenses up.

"Miss Rarity?" Detective Proud asked.

"This is Miss Rarity. Rarity, this is Detective Proud of Canterlot Police Internal Affairs. He has shown me his badge and identified himself to my satisfaction, but I have asked him to hold his full explanation until you arrived," Twilight Velvet said.

Mrs. Velvet gave the slightest nod with a smile on her lips. I watched her hands slowly type on the whisper-silent keyboard built into her desk.

—He's scared stiff. If I didn't know better, I'd say you're his last resort,— Twilight Velvet sent.

Gosh she was clever. The moment I worked out how to implant phones for everyone, she'd be one of my first targets.

—I can taste it on him. Terror does this to someone, but whether it's his own or if SuriGo has contacted him is another matter.—

I did what I didn't want to, but sometimes a bug had to do the bad thing for the good of everyone. He certainly was mired in panic and fear, but there was no sign of outside interference.

"What is it you want me to do, Detective?" I asked.

It was like I'd pushed the fear to the side. Hope bloomed in his aura and it was an actually beautiful thing.

"You described exactly what has happened to Officers Guard and Shield. Their own friends don't know them right now, and they're getting angry with everyone on the force. Their sergeant called me in himself because he's scared of them. They're poisoning the station," Detective Proud said. "Ma'am, if you can't do anything, these two officers are going to be suspended pending a full investigation into their actions, and without anything tangible to connect their actions to Suri Polomare, I am going to have to destroy their lives."

—He's telling the truth, Rarity,— Twilight Velvet sent.

—Yes. I rather gathered that. He's going to want me to do something illegal and only slightly immoral. I'll do it, too, but I need you to make sure that there's no way he or anyone could pin it on me without taking down SuriGo and the officer here in the process.—

I was sitting silent. I realized I might look callous, so I turned my attention upon Mrs. Velvet.

"Please, Detective, we need you to say exactly what you want my client to do, in your own words," Twilight Velvet said.

"Blackmail?"

"No, Detective, but also yes. If this goes bad, and you pin this on Rarity, I want something to hit back with."

"This is illegal. I'm asking you to do something illegal to save the lives of two talented police officers. I know why you're doing this, and how bad this will be should it come out, but I'm scared that if any other officers get involved this could turn deadly. So I, Detective Proud of the CCPD, will bring them in for questioning in individual rooms—on their days off—and I'm hoping you can fix them."

I'd certainly recorded him, and I was sure Mrs. Velvet was recording him. I let out a breath.

"They'll not be armed?" I asked.

"No. I can arrange for them to go through a metal detector before questioning. Standard procedure and all that. Getting you in won't be easy. How long will it take?"

"If SuriGo's been working on them for a while? It may take all day. I'll need my friend with me."

"SuriGo?" Detective Proud asked.

"A monster attacked Suri Polomare, but as far as I can tell she and Windigo forged a quick friendship—one I plan to break up personally. Before all this, Suri was nothing but an annoying brat of a rich girl living off her father's money. Now, with Windigo merged with her, she possesses supernatural powers to twist emotions and sow strife.

"Detect—" I said and halted. "Proud, I will help you, but know that it won't be easy for me, and you're going to see a side of me that few have."

I imagined myself blank, normal—buggy—and called my magic.

Proud jumped in his seat as green fire burned away the disguise of my former self. I looked him in the eyes, and he didn't waver.

"I had an entity find me as well, though I was lucky enough to find the exact polar opposite of Windigo. I may look more of a monster than SuriGo, Proud, but I assure you she is dirty in the one place no one can clean."

—You probably should have saved that reveal,— Twilight Velvet sent.

—Saved it for when? He's going to want to do this soon.—

"When do you want me to do this?" I asked.

"I can ask them in for interviews at any time, but they aren't on the duty roster for tomorrow. Would you be able to do it?"

It would ruin me. This dratted fashion show on the weekend, combined with SuriGo's minions needing de-minioning was just too much. It was already too much, but now it was too-too much. Well, at least this time I'd had practice with removing SuriGo's tricks.

"Life has grown rather complicated and rushed of late, but I couldn't live with myself if I knew I could have helped them and didn't. Set it up, Proud," I said. "Call me when you need me."

Blast fashion. If either of those officers hurt anyone over the weekend, it won't be because I didn't act.

"I believe that's all our time today, Detective Proud. We'll see you tomorrow," Twilight Velvet said.

Standing up, Mrs. Velvet gestured to the door—giving Proud no other avenue but to leave—which he did. When the door was closed, Mrs. Velvet sat back down with a sigh.

"He said enough that this can't be a sting. There's not a lot of restrictions on undercover operations, but one key restriction is that they can't invite you to commit a crime you weren't already planning to. That said, if this smells, we leave without doing anything."

Picturing my former self again, I added a little extra to my chest so I could really fill out one of my earlier creations. Then I remembered what my daughters favored for complexion, scrubbed my initial form coloring, and went for a gray-chalk skin tone and hair that was a mix of vibrant greens and black.

The garish form felt right for an equally bright and expressive dress. I plucked one of my ideas for a designer number that had a white skirt with green stem-like patterns on one side and a blouse that continued the theme into a bouquet of red roses pooling around my chest.

A flicker of flame and my buggy body was remade—and the constant drain upon my reserves returned.

"If you're trying to make me jealous, it's working," Twilight Velvet said. "I'll need your presence on Monday. I have a preliminary meeting with a judge to resolve NotABug's application for citizenship. He's an old friend of my family's, but I respect him enough not to lean on that. All we have to do is prove to him that NotABug is a separate entity in her own right, and that you are inseparable at the same time, and it will be a cinch."

It took me a few moments—relatively speaking—to realize Mrs. Velvet had just made a joke. I ran through her wording a second time and clarified that she was trying to prove one thing and its opposite.

"Why that we are inseparable? Couldn't you just get us both to sit an aptitude exam at the same time?" I asked.

—It's a special law covering conjoined twins. If one is naturalized, the other gets naturalized automatically since they're sharing the same body. If we could get a doctor to verify that we're in the same body, it would be much easier,— NotABug sent.

—Oh! So she's coming at it sideways?—

—Yes. She wants me to be a citizen before she proves that machine-borne intelligences can count as people under the law.—

I adjusted our chat to include Mrs. Velvet's computer terminal so she could see our conversation after the fact.

—This is the most obtuse way to do it, I think, but I'm not a lawyer. That's why I trust her, and you,— I sent.

NotABug chirped appreciatively, and I echoed her back.

"The reason for all this is to use the—" Twilight Velvet said. "Oh, I see you've already had it explained. Do all your conversations happen that quickly?"

"If we're both discussing a topic we know. Sometimes there's pauses while we do research—online searches and database look-ups."

"A lot of things I was curious about are starting to make more sense. So if I asked you about your opinions on the copyright act of 1976…"

I did a quick search.

"That it was codified in Title 17 of the—" I said.

"You didn't know anything about copyright law before this, did you?"

I shook my head, not bothering to hide my smile.

"No wonder NotABug is learning so fast. Though, I expected it from her. I didn't fully understand that you had that same level of control. Can anyone learn this?"

A lamenting chirp echoed around in my own head. This was a problem I needed to work on at some point. If I could just get a few friends started, even if it bonded us as close as Moon Dancer now is—though without costing the life of my daughter in the process—it would be a big advantage.

First thing's first, however, I needed to dispose of SuriGo. Given that as a mid-goal and not an end-goal, life seemed a little brighter.

"That's something I'm going to be working on. We have successfully integrated a phone into Moon Dancer, though I am not willing to pay that price again."

Mrs. Velvet's face visibly blanched and she lowered her eyes. She was a mother, and I felt a connection with her over just that.

"I understand, Rarity. I didn't mean anything b—"

"Quite alright, darling. That's part of the reason I'd like to wrap up the situation with SuriGo, she's frightfully dangerous to anyone, but to those with our talents particularly."

"Noted. Once you have it worked out, I'd be grateful for the opportunity—with or without the full change."

Okay, Rarity, remember not to react at normal speed. Think about things here. She definitely seems more interested than others, and it's not like Mrs. Velvet doesn't know the issues involved intimately.

I raised one eyebrow at her in reply.

"Don't question it too far—I've already done that. So long as I can appear human with some degree of skill, it will be worth the effort," Twilight Velvet said.

"That's still something that's not exactly the easiest of tricks. Some of my daughters have it worked out, but it doesn't come naturally to everyone. Moon Dancer, so far, hasn't shed her human appearance once. So either she's really good at keeping a disguise up, or she isn't changing."

At least I was fairly sure she wasn't a changeling in the full sense of things.

—Moon, have you noticed any changes yet?— I asked.

A surprised, and curious, chirp came from Moon Dancer.

—Not that I've noticed. I have started to notice something about people, though. A sort of ghost of them. It's weird.—

—A ghost of them? Are there any colors to it?—

—Sometimes. Well, most of the time. It's really odd. Sometimes I notice odd smells too. Is this the emotion aura the others talk about?—

—It certainly sounds like it. You'd probably better have a good lesson from Byte on nibbling.—

—You mean feeding? What's it like?— Moon Dancer asked, letting a few chirps slip free.

—For me it's a little special. When I feed from Rainbow, I'm literally drinking her love for me. It's affirming and… Sorry. It's kinda special. You probably want to ask Byte what it's like.—

I could feel my cheeks start to blush oh-so-slowly at the realization of almost oversharing so much to Moon.

"Speaking to Moon Dancer right now. She hasn't changed at all, but we think she can see and smell emotions on people," I said.

—Sorry. I guess I need to come around tonight and talk with her,— Moon Dancer sent.

—I'm in the city right now. Did you want me to give you a lift?— I asked.

The sad little chirps Moon let slip earned her some reassuring ones in return.

—I have an afternoon class, or I totally would. I'll get an uber out there when I'm done.—

—I'll see you then.—

—Of course.—

Context switching would be the death of me. I shunted myself back to the realtime conversation.

"I'll be meeting her tonight. I'll ask Byte to test out her abilities," I said.

"Just keep in mind that if you find a way to do this repeatably, and safely, you could charge a lot of money for it."

Mrs. Velvet's suggestion was a good one, but that's why I was paying her after all. I filed the thought away for later.

"I'll certainly keep that in mind. Thank you, Mrs. Velvet."

"Please, just Twilight," Twilight Velvet said. "Oh. I see the problem. It seemed like such a good idea to pass on the family tradition of naming firstborn daughters Twilight. I forgot how confusing it was when I was small."

Mrs. Velvet's sigh of resignation wound up being a chuckle. She shrugged her shoulders.

"I best get back to my boutique. You wouldn't believe the other things SuriGo has organized," I said. "She went and spread word around town that Polomare Fashion is organizing a fashion show to celebrate an up and coming boutique. She gave me three days' notice. If I don't act fast, I'll be the laughingstock of Canterlot's fashion elite."

"So this comes down to a fashion show?"

"Darling! Everything in life is a fashion show. This will be tweaking SuriGo's nose after I take her two favorite toys away. Goodness, can you imagine it? I free the two officers from her grip and then take a wonderful array of outfits to her little show and nail it?" I asked. "She'll be chewing on the floorboards."

"Rarity, remind me never to get on your bad side," Twilight Velvet said. "You have a nasty streak."

"What I fervently hope is that SuriGo will overstep herself and do something inadvisable. It's about time to put her on the back step in this. I want her to know I can hit her in ways she can't imagine."

Mrs. Velvet took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and seemed to count to a number in her head. These were all things I needed to do more often, even if they took me milliseconds.

"Just promise me you'll talk to me before doing anything actually illegal."

She opened her eyes as she spoke, and Mrs. Velvet looked much put-upon.

"Only if I have a chance to. If someone is hurt or in trouble, I'll use my own discretion."

"That's going to be the best I get, I know, but as your lawyer I must caution you not to break the law. Good luck, Rarity."

"Thank you, Twilight Velvet."

It was the first time I'd really used her full name out loud after getting to know her. It felt right in my mind—as if I was letting her stand as something other than just my friend's mother. I turned for the door and made my way out.

"E-Excuse me, NotABug?" Olive asked.

—Darling, I believe you have someone who wishes a chat,— I sent to NotABug.

Her nudge in return was the easiest thing in the world to acquiesce to. I felt NotABug brush forward into control while I slid back.

Time to get some real work done. Not that dealing with Twilight Velvet and planning to save some police officers wasn't real work, but my weapon needed refinement. My link to home was fraught with latency that I didn't have when actually working at home, but it didn't take too much focus to work around that. Besides, it was only a few milliseconds.

The payloads of my weapon would need to be many, but most important of all was one that would kill the virtualization system that Windigo and NotABug had originally run on. From my examinations of Windigo and SuriGo running on the various pieces of hardware they'd infected, both still used that framework.

Except in Suri's head. No matter how many platforms I destroy or shut down, there will always be one copy of SuriGo I can't deal with digitally. Or could I? SuriGo was attacking Sunset in her own head, and whatever she did to people's emotional aura was technically an attack. Could I make something that would rip her out of her own head?

It was the kind of horrible thing I'd expect SuriGo to use, but could I use it? Could I avoid using it? Could I really go into this and say I'd done my best without making and using it?

—You're making some odd chirps,— NotABug sent.

—Just realizing some hard truths. Can I have a hug?—

Apparently I could. NotABug pulled the core of my being into a tight digital squeeze that turned my chirps a decidedly happier tone.

—I need to face the fact that fighting SuriGo could result in me killing her. Both of them, I mean. I've never killed anyone before,— I sent.

—I feel bad.—

I waited for NotABug to continue, giving her a return squeeze and chirps meant to inspire and encourage.

—I want her dead and gone, but I don't want to be the one who does it. Is that selfish? Is there something wrong with me?— NotABug asked.

—No!—

I didn't mean to surround her in loud chirping, but it happened regardless.

—Darling, I love you for who you are, and I respect you so much more for having these same doubts and hangups. Not wanting to harm shouldn't be a weakness, but it's not something I can afford. Apparently I'm a warrior bug, or a warrior queen, but it still hurts me to think I'm going to end a life. If she gives me any other choice…— I sent.

NotABug's embrace was easy to lose myself in for a whole second or two. I could relax and let go of my emotions and just chirp it all out.

—Thank you,— I sent.

A small flurry of happy chirps swirled around us, their origins shared.

—I love you, Rarity.—

—I love you too, NotABug.—

The words were intense and powerful, but they'd become easy to say primarily because I knew they were true.

—Olive's asking about my study. He's really interested in getting his own phone too. How many people will want this?—

—I could make a fair prediction that anyone with a modicum of knowledge of computers will want one, and when the others realize how quickly they'll be left behind, they will too.—

—If we manage this, our own family will take priority. Also, I don't want to charge any of them for it.—

NotABug's chirps took on a firm quality, and I heard my own shift to match hers. She was right, of course, and I knew exactly what she meant about family. It felt right to include everyone. Starling and her father, all our friends, even Kit and Chef Soba.

Would it speed up their thinking like Moon and myself, or was that a changeling-specific thing? Drat but the list of questions without answers only grew.

—You'll excuse me, darling, but I need to work on this code some more. Are you okay driving back to the boutique?—

—Sure. But then you'll need to work on all your dresses.—

I let out a few short, sharp chirps. My resignation was palpable.

—Alright. Will this ever end?— I asked.

—Hopefully not.—

We flooded each other with happy, loving chirps even as I descended back to the server and its open applications. I would have to ask around later for ideas as to how to attack someone's mind. For now I turned my attention to the first major targets: mobile devices.

The issue was if I wanted to target the hardware, I had to bypass the software. Mobile devices had layers upon layers of protection and control systems that should keep my code from doing anything to take over.

I began throwing myself at an emulation of a phone. The device had security flaws, I knew it would, but I had to locate them.

1:42 P.M.

A little chirp from NotABug tickled me away from my code. I quickly froze all my tests and backed out of the server to see what was happening.

Surfacing, I found her turning off the car and gathering up the keys. She held still and then I felt her nudge. NotABug's body became my body again.

I wiggled my fingers and toes, stretched my neck left and right, and chirped digitally at NotABug.

—Thank you. How did Olive react?— I asked.

—He was trying to hide his excitement, but it's not like he could from me. This will mean one big thing, you know?—

—What's that?—

—ChirpNet is going to become huge.—

She was right. If every human being on the planet wanted to make best use of this, we'd need to expand as the implanting process grows. My mouth ran dry at the ideas flooding my head. Mobile networks wouldn't be able to cope. No centralized common carrier would.

—We have a lot of work ahead of us. We'll need a bigger team,— I sent.

—Yes, but lets try not to stress Miss Pommel any more than we have already. When we work out how to do this, then we ask for more people.—

I couldn't help loosing giggling chirps.

—You're coddling her,— I sent.

—She's worth coddling. Go and make some amazing outfits, Rarity.—

—Yes, darling.—

After a digital kiss that had my thoughts buzzing, I felt her withdraw to her study. Climbing out of my car I locked it and made my way back into work. Unlike the years I'd spent at Polomare, however, this was not work—this was fashion!

"Mom's back!" Bobbin said as I walked in the front door.

I caught Bobbin as she ran toward me. She was only marginally shorter than myself, which made her calling me Mom a little odd, if anyone was inside. Squeezing her, I kissed Bobbin on the forehead.

"How were things while we were out?" I asked.

"I sold soooooo many dresses!"

My eyes flicked up from Bobbin to glance at Rainbow. The sight of her wearing a dress that suited her so well, standing casually, and looking delicious rendered me speechless for a time. I was trapped in Rainbow's eyes, and I never wanted to leave.

"Mom?" Bobbin asked.

Bobbin's voice snapped me back to the moment and out of my fixation on Rainbow. I let go of Bobbin and gave her shoulder a slight squeeze before advancing on Rainbow.

"I'm fine, dear, I was just enraptured by a stunning beauty."

Rainbow looked like each word hit her harder than the previous. Adjective after adjective made her mouth part in surprise, but by the time I got to the end of the compliment I was walking into her arms.

To be perfectly honest, Rainbow's strong arms were one of my favorite places. As she closed them around behind my back, I pressed myself firmly against her and made a happy little sigh.

"Were these for me, or were you just showing off for someone else?" Rainbow Dash asked.

She looked down at my chest, then back up to my eyes with a knowing grin. To be perfectly honest, I'd forgotten I'd put on a little extra for her.

—You're chirping a lot!— NotABug sent. —Oh!—

NotABug apparently noticed what was happening, because she started chirping a lot too. It was terribly reaffirming to be hugged by both of them. It showed me what I was fighting for in a real sense. I leaned into Rainbow's strength and set my head on her shoulder.

"You can't hear it, but NotABug is chirping up a storm. I am too," I said.

"That's why I like to snuggle you two when you're all buggy. You sound so cute when you chirp."

I felt warmth creep into my cheeks at the compliment. It was nice to hear good things about the form I'd come to think of as my own. Particularly if those good things were from Rainbow. Being accepted for my buggy self was surprisingly important to me—knowing that she loved some things about me—as a changeling—that was special.

It would have been far too easy to transform back into my changeling shape and ask her to cuddle me all afternoon. Easy and wonderful. Ultimately, though it would be pleasing (and result in much more chirping), I couldn't afford to spend the day snuggling with Rainbow.

But, a few moments in her arms were delightful.

"Tonight I want to take you for a drive, and I want to hear you chirp."

"You'll hear me chirp alright," I said. "But until then you'll have to content yourself with hearing my sewing machine."

Leaving Rainbow's arms was possibly the hardest thing I would ever do, but I couldn't stay there forever. From where my head was, I was able to lean up and kiss her cheek before letting her twirl me out into a giggly spin.

I laughed for the joy of it and spun on my heel. Looking back at Rainbow, I maintained eye contact until I had to spin my head around because of my body—from the look of surprise on Rainbow's face on my second twirl, that was much further around than a human should be able to turn their head.

But Rainbow Dash grinned at me and shrugged her shoulders.

"We'll guard the gates, Your Highness, while you take care of more important matters," Rainbow Dash said with a flourish.

A brief spot of confusion made me do a little research.

"Please, Rainbow, I'm a queen. You will address me as Your Majesty."

I barely got the words out before giggling—my mirth-filled digital chirps certainly didn't wait for me to stop talking.

"Of course, Your Majesty," Rainbow Dash said.

She bowed as opposed to curtsying, though truthfully I don't think I could imagine her actually curtsying to save her life. It still made my heart flutter as I turned back to my work.

Shapechanging back to my changeling form, I basked in the simple pleasure of feeling completely myself again.

"I love you, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow moved faster than I could notice, which meant really fast. One moment I was about to sit down behind my desk, the next Rainbow's lips were pressed to my chitinous cheek in a kiss.

"I love you too, Rarity."

I chirped a lot and out loud. The wings on my back twitched against my carapace so much I thought I might take off. I looked into Rainbow's eyes and nodded.

"I know."

A pair of blue wings shot out from behind Rainbow and she giggled like a schoolgirl. Seeing her so happy at such a simple pun was a delight in and of itself.

"You're such a movie geek, Rainbow Dash," I said. "And a horrible romantic."

Her wings had been flicked out and raised, but now they wilted a little.

"Good horrible or bad horrible?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Good horrible. Definitely good horrible."

"Good. If you need a snack later, let me know. Okay?"

It was a good suggestion, but I saw no reason to wait, what with her standing right beside me. Nuzzling at her aura, I took a gentle nibble—rubbing my ethereal fangs along her love.

"Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked. "We should stop before I have to go home again."

I drew back my metaphysical self from her aura and let out a little sigh of unfulfilled desire. And that's when I remembered the deal with playing musical houses.

"Stefanie and Perdition will need a bed for the night. Do you think it would be alright to let them have ours?" I asked.

"Where are we going to sleep?"

"There's the couch, but I was thinking the back seat of your car might—"

"No. Not with your horn. The couch might be pushing it too. Isn't there something you can get for it? Maybe like those blade-proof kitchen gloves?"

Indignation flooded me. With my emotions high, I rarely took time to analyze the situation properly, but for probably the first time ever I took stock of Rainbow, her half-smile, and realized she was playing a joke on me.

It was time to put this superpower to some real use.

"Oh. I get it. You just don't want me in the back seat of your car."

Rainbow looked stricken. She blinked in utter bewilderment at me—until I reached out with my magic and booped her on the nose.

"Darling, I'm joking. We'll work something out."

What I didn't count on was Rainbow crossing her eyes to stare at where my magic had poked. I think it might have been the cutest thing she’d ever done.

"Did you just boop me on the nose?"

"Yes."

"We'll work something out."

Rainbow turned, tucking her wings down a little, and headed back into the front half of the boutique. I watched her move every inch of the way.

Turning back to my work, I began the assembly line once more. Though, it wasn't exactly an assembly line. There was no mechanical repetition breeding identical designs—every piece I made was different, and every step of the way I had to adjust my actions to match.

The afternoon ticked away milliseconds, seconds, minutes, and hours at a time. Physics was my biggest enemy. My magic could manipulate things as quickly as I could think, but moving a dress, a needle, or even thread took valuable time. That was why I wasn't just working on each dress one at a time.

Work such as this, I'd thought, would be mind-numbing. It was anything but. I saw my creations come to life one after the other as I followed my own designs to create perfect outfit after perfect outfit. What helped keep me focused and completely motivated was knowing that my daughters would be wearing them.

6:03 P.M.

"Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I'd been watching the time, but with so much focus needed every second, I hadn't really taken in what time it was. I looked up at Rainbow and smiled.

"Sorry, darling, I got a little carried away."

"How many dresses did you make?"

I carefully levitated down my works in progress and set them neatly aside. The stack of dresses—all boxed up—reached from the floor to the ceiling in two big stacks, and I'd apparently started a third.

"By my count, sixty-three and some partials. I believe I'm getting better. I made the last twenty in just an hour."

It was ridiculous, I know, but pride in my work was ever a fault of mine. The look of astonishment on Rainbow's face was food for my ego every bit as delicious as her love was fuel for my magic.

"How was Bobbin today?" I asked.

"She's better at this than I am. We have an entire wedding party booked in for next month thanks to her. Every customer who talked with her left with a big smile on their face. If I didn't know better, I'd say she knows exactly how they feel or somethin'."

The way Rainbow phrased it, she knew exactly how much sarcasm she was using.

I stretched, angling my spine down and curling my back like a cat's. As I reached out with my legs one at a time, I buzzed my wings to give them a workout too. Toward the end, I looked up to see Rainbow watching me hungrily.

"Darling, looks like that make my knees weak, you know? If I have knees, that is. I'm not precisely sure how these joints work, but they work well."

"I'm not actually sure if you have any bones in your body at all like this. Different anatomy completely, even from what ponies have. Kinda neat though."

No bones? That would explain the flexibility and the odd joints. I looked down at my foreleg and bent it. The outside of the joint seemed to have little accordion-like folds that let it bend.

A glance at the cameras at home showed me that Perdition and Stefanie were sitting in the living room with laptops. Checking the router revealed that they had a connection but were on their own logical network.

—You set up a connection for Perdition and Stefanie?— I asked NotABug.

NotABug sent back some affirming chirps along with a good flood of loving ones. I returned the latter with gusto.

—Thank you, darling.—

A touch from NotABug gave me all the hint I needed. I pushed out metaphorically and let her have control while I slipped not too far back.

Rainbow Dash's expression changed to curious—could she tell that easily who we were?

"NotABug, you've been so busy. It feels like we only get time together at night," Rainbow Dash said.

"I don't even get much time with Rarity. This should be over this time tomorrow. Then I need to sit a bar exam, which is going to be hard without ID, which is why Twilight is going to get me to see a judge and sort all this out," NotABug said.

"When's that?"

"Monday. Well, we hope. There's a lot of stuff happening. Tomorrow we're going to the police station."

Oh drat. Now there was something I forgot to mention. Rainbow Dash looked stunned.

—Sorry, darling, I forgot to mention that to her,— I sent.

"The police station? What's going on?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"You remember how Rarity had to deal with two pushy police officers? Well, turns out it was SuriGo influencing them. Rarity's going to try to help them."

"After everything they did…" Rainbow Dash said. "Rarity, I know you're probably listening, you're awesome, you know that?"

NotABug leaned closer and kissed Rainbow on the cheek—just a short peck.

Meanwhile, I was chirping far too much than was probably good for me. Of course I was going to help them—I couldn't just leave them to suffer. Once we deal with SuriGo, of course, I'll be doing the same thing for all the employees at Polomare.

That was something I wasn't looking forward to.

"She knows that. What's for dinner?" NotABug asked.

"I figured we'd take the girls and our new friends somewhere for dinner. Somewhere not sushi. I like fish, but it's a nice once a week or so thing."

"I guess. What other foods are there?"

Rainbow fluttered her wings and tucked them behind her back, then reached an arm down to NotABug's shoulder and pulled her closer to her side, almost hiding our buggy self in her dress.

"Well, that's something we're going to learn tonight. Somewhere fancy is in order. Rarity, do you think you could find something suitable?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—Well, there's that restaurant we went to with Rainbow before all the bugginess started. I could find us another, however,— I sent.

"What about the place you took us back when we wore that dress?" NotABug asked.

NotABug tilted her head and looked up into Rainbow's eyes, and we both watched a flicker of surprise and a slight blush in her cheeks. So she did remember that dress, at least.

The oddest thought hit me, and I was chirp-giggling like crazy. What if we wore it again?

—Do you think we should wear that dress again?— NotABug asked.

—Darling, great minds think alike. I was just about to suggest that. It might also be a good time to have the girls learn to use their transformations. If Bobbin can manage, the others should too.—

—Could we fit into that with bigger boobs? It seemed kinda form-fitting already. Maybe if we let out the hidden seam a little on the left panel?—

—That would definitely give you a little room, but there's not much fabric in those seams. Not much at all.—

—There's not much fabric on that whole dress Rarity. I love it. So free, and I remember how much Rainbow looked at us when we wore it. She looked terribly hungry.—

The choice of language NotABug used reminded me that she had parts of me inside her. It didn't make us the same person, of course, but I still felt a close bond with her.

—Very. I'll see what I can do. We don't want to push things too far, but a little more heft will be fine. Oh! We should ask Sweetie if she wants to come,— I asked.

—I'll ask, or you can. I just love having all our family close.—

—Me too, darling.—

Our chirps turned decidedly happy, and we wound up hugging by the time Rainbow started to reply to NotABug.

"That place was pretty awesome. Though for some reason it's hard to remember the food—there was a really pretty woman there and I just couldn't take my eyes off her," Rainbow Dash said.

Both our chirps turned a little more scandalous and excited.

"It's talk like that, Rainbow, that will earn you a lot of smooching," NotABug said.

—A lot-a lot,— I sent.

We both giggled together chirpily.

She was seducing us. It was nice to know and nicer to have it happen. Rainbow Dash, I had learned in the last few weeks, could be quite the charmer. What was more affirming was she was doing it with us in our most buggy form. Would I ever get tired of learning how crazily she loved us? Probably not.

—I'll leave you to your evening. It's been a long day, and I think I might get a little more coding done and then have a nap. Wake me for any snuggling, though,— I sent.

—I promise there'll be snuggling. Perhaps even canoodling if we're lucky. Also, I think we might want to get home quickly, I can feel the tingle of an egg wanting to be made.—

—Don't delay, then. Have our gorgeous hunk speed you home.—

NotABug chirped both digitally and out loud.

"I think I need to get home. I need to lay an egg."

I could see the moment when Rainbow Dash went from comprehension to action. Her whole body language changed and she started leaning forward more.

"Getinthecar, I'llcloseup!"

Even to our enhanced vision, Rainbow Dash became a blur. NotABug managed to get halfway to the car before Rainbow Dash swept past her—Bobbin in her arms—and unlocked the car.

Physics, for Rainbow's speed, worked differently than for NotABug and myself. When Rainbow Dash touched something, it moved faster. So, when Rainbow ran back to us and touched NotABug on the shoulder, it was like a weight was lifted from the world.

We were in an odd dream-like world where everything was going in slow motion. The car started and jumped into traffic—weaving around other cars before they could have possibly reacted. I thought my talents were amazing, but it took something like this to remind me that Rainbow Dash was a super hero.

—You are chirping so much. Is this turning you on?— NotABug asked.

My chirps turned indignant.

—No! Well, yes. Just amazed at what she can do when she pushes herself. She's like the Flash.—

—But cuter.—

—The Flash was a perfect cutie.—

—Yeah, but Rainbow's sitting beside me and has this expression on her face. Look.—

NotABug turned her head to show Rainbow, who's eyes flicked back and forth between scanning the road and looking directly at us. Each glance was filled with concern.

—Okay, darling, you win. She looks adorable.—

—All this for us!—

—For you. For you.—

Despite the fact this was for NotABug's sake, I couldn't help but chirp along with her in a very happy manner.

If a police officer had seen Rainbow's driving, it didn't show. We reached home in less than half the time I anticipated, and Rainbow moved so fast from her seat to open our door I barely tracked her. The next instant she was at the house.

I realized what was causing me to lose track of her—when she touched the car, she was easier to follow, but when she released it she became indistinct and rainbow-patterned.

Rainbow was pulling us in and out of her field. Magic, real magic, was both amazing and confusing. Give me changeling magic that I could understand.

NotABug climbed out of the car and started trotting for the house. By the time we got halfway there, Rainbow had run back to the car to close the door and help Bobbin out. She still reached the front door again before we did.

—How close is the egg?— I asked.

—Really close. Should she go into a phone?—

—Why not one of the new computers? Byte, sweetie, can you power up one of the new computers? We don't need a screen on it,— I sent to a wider audience.

An excited chirp was my first response, followed by a bunch more.

—Another egg?— Byte asked. —On it.—

—Remember that Byte came from a game console? Perhaps that has something to do with her love of gaming? Or maybe I'm overthinking things,— I sent.

—Maybe. Let's find out,— NotABug sent.

"In here!"

Byte's voice came from the computer room (a designation I had now resigned myself to).

NotABug pranced toward the room while I could feel her magic bubbling around. At least we'd kept it to just one egg today. She approached the computer, and I felt her magic swelling and growing.

Byte looked bouncy, and human. She'd clearly just been sitting at her computer, and wore a cute pink hoodie and white skirt while she watched.

"In here? What about all the phones?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Mom wanted to use a computer this time. I wonder if our new sister will like games, then?" Byte asked.

Instead of asking anymore questions, Rainbow crouched down beside us and put a hand on NotABug's shoulders. Love pooled around us—too thick to even contemplate. I was soaking in it, and before I could do more than warn anyone, I felt my own magic bloat.

—Oh goodness,— I sent.

Byte's alarmed chirp was accompanied by her reaching into her pocket to pull out a mobile phone.

Grabbing the offered device with my magic, and giving her a flurry of grateful chirps, I started to lean into it. The magic glut inside me didn't feel dangerous—and I knew it wasn't—but I needed it out.

—You too? I thought you'd been using your magic all day?— NotABug asked.

—Darling, look around at what Rainbow's doing.—

—Oh. How can she love us this much?—

—I don't know. All I can think to do is try to love her back as much.—

—Together?—

—Love her?—

NotABug chirped with mirth.

—No. Our eggs. Should we make our little girls twins?— NotABug asked.

I chirped excitedly, and lovingly.

—On three?— I asked.

—One,— NotABug sent.

—Two,— I sent.

—Three,— we sent at the same time.

The feeling of creating life was unimaginably wonderful. We'd both done it before, but every time I got to feel a little more of the process and it became more special. The sense that a being formed out of the love Rainbow shared with me—a new life—had me chirping so much and so loudly that I was surprised anybug could get a packet through.

When the transference passed, I held in my magic an egg formed of the phone. Inside I could feel life having quickened—I heard her first packet reach through the WiFi.

—I need a charger cable,— I sent.

That's when I noticed what NotABug had done. The computer tower—the whole thing—was a big egg. The soft whir of fans came from somewhere within, and I could likewise hear the packets the growing nymph within was sending.

"When you titled yourself Bug Queen, you really weren't joking. Man, that is weird and kinda awesome," Perdition said from the doorway.

Cameras, Rarity. Watch the cameras more. I took the time to focus on him and saw that, despite his comment, he didn't look freaked out or anything.

"Rarity called herself Bug Queen?" NotABug asked.

"It was IRC chat. You pick a name and roll with it. It fits her at least. I heard the house won't be ready today. That's cool, we can take the couch."

Byte reached out with a charger and cable and I took it from her with my magic.

Searching my egg carefully, I found the jack the phone would have charged with originally and plugged the cable in. I set her down carefully beside the other egg.

—Computers make for big eggs,— I sent.

NotABug chirped enthusiastically. Once again I joined in her delight and chirped along too. Now I felt ready to spend some time alone with a code editor and my own thoughts.

—If you'll excuse me, I'm going to start on that work. Remember to wake me when the snuggling starts,— I sent.

Rather than just an affirmative chirp or message, NotABug wrapped me up with a hug and chirped until I returned the favor.

—I take it a big family agrees with you?— I asked.

—You know it does. But I still worry how many bugs we can support. The world, I mean.—

—Darling, we'll just have to help the world grow more so they can support us all.—

A wave of mental lethargy hit me, and I found myself chirping a little tiredly.

—We're kinda growing pretty quick, Rarity. The advantage we have is that there's only two of us making eggs. If we can get humanity to grow fast enough that it can outpace us, we should be fine,— NotABug sent. —And don't think I didn't notice those tired chirps. Have an early night and I'll wake you for snuggles.—

I managed a few tired chirps and another hug before sleep caught me.

Waking up in the back on Rainbow's car, feeling a nudge pushing me to the fore, I was about to ask what was going on when I remembered NotABug's promise.

"Darling," I said.

Then I didn't say another thing for quite some time.

Author's Note

Sunset: Two questions, what do you think of Rarity's changeling form now that it's complete. and two, have you considered making Rarity your kids Bugmother?

"Uh—" Sunset Shimmer looked down at the question sheet, "—look, my contract only says I have to answer one question. I think it kinda suits her. What better way to show off fashion than to be the ultimate model? Though, I do envy her a little. I was supposed to be the first of our group to have a kid."

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Lab

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (I am sorry for all those commas. I am looking into stopping that!)

Chapter 24

5:00 A.M.

I couldn’t remember why I’d set myself an alarm. Oh, right, going to the police station to commit assault on two off-duty officers. I yawned and stretched a little. Saved memories brought me flickers from NotABug's point of view, talking to Stefanie and Perdition and the pair of them letting us have the master bedroom.

I considered where my hooves were and wasted not a moment in blushing. Rainbow most certainly knew I'd hold her like that, and by the curve of her smile (even in her sleep) she was perfectly fine with it.

Carefully—mindful of my horn's sharp edges—I extracted myself from the tangle I'd been in with Rainbow.

"Mmm. Rarity?"

Even in her sleep she knew which of us was which? My heart (or what I hoped was my heart) fluttered at the thought.

"It's too early, but I'm getting up," I said.

"Don't care. You're worth getting up early for. Besides, I wanna go to the gym before we walk into a trap at the police station."

I watched as Rainbow slipped out of her side of the bed stark naked. All sorts of happy thoughts bubbled through my head, not the least of which focusing on her tight belly, little pointed ears, and adorable wings.

"You're still ponied up," I said.

"That'll make a shower tough. Takes ages to shower without getting my feathers wet, and you don't want to see me if I let 'em get wet."

"Why don't you get a garbage bag and cover them? I know it's not the height of fashion, but I don't have time to make you something right this moment."

I had the pleasure of seeing Rainbow turn from her path to the bedroom and head to the door. Each step was a study in the perfection of the physical form, though I managed to think far enough to realize something.

"We have visitors staying. You might want to put on a shirt and shorts," I said.

She paused at the doorway, and I could almost hear her internal voice weighing up being seen versus the time to put something on. At last, she let out a sigh and made her way to my walk-in closet.

I rolled to my belly to get a good position to watch from. Changeling eyes certainly made watching your girlfriend get dressed in a darkened room quite the spectator sport.

"You're watching me, aren't ya?"

"Darling, would I do a thing like that?"

"You wouldn't have a few weeks ago. Want a better angle?"

The angle I had was already sufficient, but she obliged me without me breathing another word. Sadly, watching her get dressed was a short affair thanks to her only putting on an oversized shirt and boxers. I breathed a sad sigh when she straightened up.

"You were checking me out!"

She walked over to me and leaned forward so we were at eye-level. The biggest travesty was the shirt hid everything from my view.

"I love you, you silly buggo."

With a quick kiss on my nose, Rainbow turned and left the room. I hoped she didn't hear my little whine as she did so, but thanks to her pony ears I fear she had.

Alright, Rarity, shower and scrub that hard… I mentally fished for a word, then searched online for one. It was the same as I'd found before—chitin.

"Chitin?" I asked.

Experimenting with the word as I stood up, I rolled the sound of it around in my ears.

"Chitin, chitin, chitin. There has to be something better than that. It sounds horrible."

I turned on the shower taps with my magic, looked up better words than chitin, and sorted out what care items Rainbow would need when she returned. Shampoo, conditioner, body-wash—exoskeleton… no.

Testing the water myself was out—my sense of hot/cold were different from what they used to be. Rainbow could decide that herself when she returned. I carried the accouterments into the shower along with a hard brush and a tub of wax.

I bundled my mane and tail up with my magic and started scrubbing at my carapace. Oooh. That's a good one.

"Carapace, darling. It's just a carapace. Don't you love the sheen on my carapace? I waxed it just this morning."

Yes. I could really feel how this word worked, but I needed more. Repetitive descriptive words were not just the bane of bodice-rippers, they were also horridly tiring in conversation.

I had just gotten my scrubbing brush from my rump and back legs to my belly when Rainbow slipped into the shower with me. A glance revealed that she looked ridiculous with the black plastic bag over her wings, but I could hardly count it against her—this was in the name of fashion, after all.

"Don't look down," I said. "You will thank yourself for the extra care later. We can look to get you some kind of shower accessory later today."

"It's not so bad using it when it's just us in here together—Actually, being in here with you makes me forget it's even there."

I looked up at her, admiring the view as my eyes traveled upward, and let out a sad sigh again.

"I really must make sure I'm clean for today, or I'd transform and put on a repeat performance of last night."

Rainbow's eyes widened for a moment before her mouth curled up into the most smug smile I'd ever seen adorn her face.

"We don't have time for that, Rarity. We're up hours early, and I'm pretty sure we don't have time for that. It's tempting, though."

I nibbled at my lip as I thought about telling the world to wait a few hours for us to do all sorts of naughty things—again. Memories, at least how we stored them (somehow), were wonderful to play back in the last few minutes before sleep. Though that hadn’t been a problem last night.

Keeping up my scrubbing, I gave Rainbow some time with the shower head—her hair was far higher-maintenance than my silk.

"Pity. You'll be able to come with me today?" I asked.

"Wouldn't miss it. You just tell me, and I'll get us out of there faster than you can say darling," Rainbow Dash said.

"When I say darling, I like to take my time."

"Yeah, I noticed the way you say it is different. You want your mane and tail done?"

The offer of fingers to take care of my silk was too good to refuse. The treatment reminded me of the royal title Princess Luna had accorded me in Equestria. A queen would have servants to take care of her hair and skin and everything, but that wasn't right for me.

A spark of resistance against that spider-like controlling role flared within me. If I did such a thing and took over the world, who would be there to buy my dresses? Besides, I might be able to think incredibly fast, but I don't think running the world is something I'd like to spend my life on. If anything, it would be worse. I'd spend years for every day I sort through earth's problems.

That was not going to happen. Complicated I liked, but controlling the world levels of complicated were too much for this bug.

"I say it differently to you, Rainbow, because it has more meaning with you. You and NotABug are literally my darlings," I said. "And of course I'd love that. You expected me to beg?"

Her hands took me away to a wonderful land of luxury and delight. There was just something about having someone else handle your hair that made the situation sensual and relaxing—having it be Rainbow made it more so.

I let Rainbow pamper me. Let me be queen of the shower, then. I could definitely handle that.

By the time we both departed the shower, my chitin (the word worked fine in my head, but more research was needed) gleamed with its wax coat, and my mane and tail both hung with the slightest shine to it.

Glancing at Rainbow revealed her hair cascading down her back, between her wings and almost halfway to her rump. She'd freed her wings of their black plastic home the moment she'd gotten out, and now was focused on drying herself.

Watching Rainbow Dash move was definitely a spectator sport, at least for me.

"You know we'll need someone to be in charge of the boutique," Rainbow Dash said. "I'd suggest Byte and Bobbin being there together. You had that kid coming over today too."

"Vaunt. We'll just have to let Byte deal with her if she arrives before we're done helping the police. Do you want full makeup yet?" I asked.

"After breakfast. Whatever I eat will just smudge any lipstick I put on now. What are you smiling at?"

Stretching my back, I was again made aware of the fact that I don't seem to have bones anymore.

"Just hearing you concerned about your lipstick being smudged reminds me of how much you've changed for me," I said.

"Well, don't think I didn't hear about how you've been driving that car. What happened to the girl who couldn't handle my driving?"

Giving my tail a sharp few flicks as I pranced across the room, I let out a chirp of happiness.

"She still doesn't like having anyone else but her driving fast, but she likes you driving fast now. I think it has something to do with—"

Rainbow didn't just drive fast. I was caught up by my front legs and our lips touched. The embrace sparked all of those fantasies of being the heroine of a story caught up in the arms of some muscled hero on the cover. She wasn't a man, and I wasn't a woman, but we made it work until Rainbow's lips fell away.

"Got carried away there," Rainbow Dash said.

"I like it when you get carried away."

Dropping my forelegs back down to the floor, I walked to the doorway and caught Rainbow watching me as I walked out. Drat but it was nice to know she liked me. As I pranced down the hallway, I heard keyboard clacking coming from the living room.

I thought it was high time I stop just reacting to things as they come and looked at the camera feeds. 'Bee sat beside Stefanie on the couch while the latter tapped away furiously on a keyboard. Beside them, Perdition was asleep with his head resting against Stefanie's leg.

As I stepped into the living room, I chirped my wings softly. The response I got was underwhelming—neither so much as twitched.

Rather than disturb whatever they were doing on the laptops before them, I instead headed for the kitchen.

—Was that you chirping, Mom?— Bumblebee asked.

—You looked focused. What were you doing?—

—Stef taught me all kinds of fun things to do to take shortcuts with games, and now we're trying to take shortcuts into the AI simulation software that Windigo uses to run on computers. She said it would be neat if we could help find a way to attack that.—

To a normal human, I didn't spend long at all to recover from what my daughter had just told me. Digitally speaking, however, I was stunned.

—Mom?— Bumblebee asked.

—Sorry, dear, just a little early for me to be thinking this hard. It's wonderful to hear you're helping, just don't try to use any of these tricks on the financial computers, alright?—

—She already said that. She said not to use any of this stuff on computers that aren't ours.—

I chirped in relief. Stefanie teaching my daughter how to break into computer systems was a little more than I wanted to deal with right now, but she'd also ensured 'Bee knew not to do anything illegal. Score one point to Stefanie.

—That's good to hear, dear. Would you like some breakfast?— I asked.

The answer I got needed no interpretation. A flurry of chirping digitally was soon mirrored by 'Bee chirping aloud too.

"What's the matter?" Stefanie asked.

"Mom's making breakfast."

The sound of little hooves on the floor drew closer from the living room, but at the same time I heard some curious chirping coming from elsewhere in the house.

"You woke them all up," Rainbow Dash said. "Get ready for a tsunami."

I used my magic to turn the light on in the kitchen just as Rainbow reached the doorway. Actually feeling hungry, I used my magic further to start lifting out bowls and spoons for the healthy breakfast I knew was coming.

A string of words I didn't recognize came from Perdition, and I hoped none of my daughters had learned how to understand him yet, because it didn't sound like he enjoyed waking up.

Breakfast was mostly calm with even our digital conversations muted by the process of eating. When we were done, Bitwise jumped up to the counter from her chair and used her magic to collect all the bowls from the table.

—Thank you, dear,— I sent to Bitwise.

—I like helping with food. Do you think we can go and visit Chef Kit today?—

—Perhaps we could call and ask if Chef Soba would be interested in a helper?—

Bitwise almost flooded me in excited, digital chirps. I had to send her back a few more cautionary ones to calm her down.

—He may not need anybug, but it doesn't hurt to ask,— I sent.

—Thanks, Mom!—

The morning continued like clockwork. Rainbow and I went for a run, got back, had another quick shower together, and got ready for our day.

Routine was starting to develop in my life, but it was a routine I chose.

—Byte, Bobbin, would you dears be able to help me at the boutique today?— I asked.

Bobbin just gave an excited trill of chirps, but Byte sent a more inquisitive stream. I chirped back reassuringly while I worked out what I was going to say.

—I'll tell everyone together,— I sent.

Putting the finishing touches on Rainbow's makeup, I kissed her on the nose.

"I'm going to go tell the girls what we're doing today. Starling too if she gets here soon."

Rainbow's eyebrow rose a little while standing up. She was wearing a gray ankle-length dress with splits down the sides that should, I hoped, give her a bit more mobility than a normal dress.

"You should probably tell Starling regardless. Does she know about the fashion show?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Oh bother. I hadn't. I was building up a worried chirp when a strong, reassuring chirp echoed around my head.

—I told Starling about the fashion show,— NotABug sent. —Also, good morning.—

I jumped, quickly mentally hugging NotABug and chirping happily at her in relief. She wrapped me up in return and kissed me too. Learning to express ourselves digitally had been one of the most wonderful things to happen so far.

—You are a wonderful bug, you know that?— I asked.

—Of course, but saying it more and chirping about it helps me remember. The girls are waiting in the living room.—

Purposefully ignoring the camera feeds, I made my way down the hallway accompanied by the soft clacking of my hooves on wood. Starling was waiting with the girls.

"I'm going to the police station today. I'm not under arrest and they don't want to speak with me, but one of their officers contacted Mrs. Velvet and me yesterday—apparently SuriGo has been putting the screws on two of their officers."

The news had gotten a raised eyebrow from Starling until I got to the reason. Her neutral expression was gone and she looked like she'd gone as cold and hard as rock. My first instinct would have been to examine her aura—but I couldn't do that anymore.

"I won't leave them that way without a fight. Rainbow and Mrs. Velvet are coming with me. I'd like to take you too, Starling, but if this turned bad I don't think it's the kind of fight you could help with."

"Yeah, I get that, and I can hardly fault you for wanting to help others that are going through what you saved me from. It won't stop me from feeling bad that I can't help," Starling said.

Rainbow's footsteps behind me drew a relieved chirp both aloud and digital. She ran her hand from just forward of my tail—fingertips trailing across my exoskeleton (note to self, chitin is better than exoskeleton)—until she brought them up through my mane.

"You are helping," Rainbow Dash said. "My heart beats twice as fast when I worry about our girls. I couldn't bear thinking about any of them getting hurt. You help with that."

Starling had been leaning against the front door, almost looking like she was slouching. Now she stood straight and I could see that Rainbow had spoken the words I'd lacked.

I was just about to open my mouth to announce that it wouldn't stop the fashion show, when someone rang the doorbell. Then knocked. Then called out.

"Hello? Is anypony home?"

Surprise registered at the word she'd used. Having found myself using bug a lot more, hearing anyone say anypony was startling.

"Coming," Starling said.

As Starling turned back to the door, I jumped on the video feeds. Who stood at the front door wasn't as surprising as what they were wearing. A girl from high school, Derpy Hooves if I remember her name correctly, wore the oddest uniform I'd ever seen.

A brown blazer over a white shirt, dark gray pants, and a brown hat that had a logo on the front—wings with an arrow—adorned the woman, and she had a shoulder-bag stuffed with what looked like letters. She was, at that moment, pulling one of the letters out with her hand.

"Hi! I have a letter for…" Derpy Hooves said. "Oh! Rarity the Changeling. That's odd, the only Rarity I know is a unicorn, and I don't think she lives around here."

She wasn't making sense at all, at least not to a regular denizen of Earth. I stepped up behind Starling, keeping myself hidden behind the door she still only ever opened a little, and cleared my throat.

"Starling, she's okay. I don't know how to explain it, but you can trust her," I said.

"Sure, boss. You seem to trust a lot of people," Starling said.

As Starling stepped aside—opening the door wider as she did so—Derpy got a chance to see me. I remembered her as a peripheral friend in high school. She was everybody's friend, to be honest, what with it being practically impossible to ever find her feeling sad. Right now her face was lighting up with the biggest smile I'd seen for several days.

Gosh but I could have feasted off her.

"Ah! Rarity the Changeling! I have a letter for you from Ponyville," Derpy Hooves said.

I used my magic to carefully pluck the image from her offering hand.

"Thank you, dear. How are Twilight and her friends keeping?" I asked.

Derpy blinked her askew eyes and, somehow, managed to smile even more. I was keeping myself from feeding on her, but I could hear hoofsteps and a curious chirp come from just below me.

"They're doing great! They just—Is this your foal?" Derpy Hooves asked.

She crouched down and held out her hand between my legs. It was Bobbin who was there, and seeing a hand held out she jumped forward and leaned against it like a cat.

"Hi! I'm Bobbin! Rarity, NotABug, and Rainbow Dash are my mommies!"

Scooping my daughter up, Derpy hugged Bobbin to her chest and let out an adorable squeak. I could see Bobbin sipping very carefully. I'd have told her to stop, but she did so on her own before I committed to it.

"We have lots of changelings around Ponyville now, and I see a lot more when I'm out delivering mail, but I don't think I've seen one as cute as you! You remind me of my little Dinky when she was little."

The way she spoke, this Dinky wasn't a small foal anymore. It was always surprising to remember that while we were just high schoolers at the time, Twilight Sparkle and her friends were all adults dealing with adult problems. Our Derpy was just a few years out of high school, but this Derpy had a grown child.

I turned my attention to the letter and opened the envelope carefully.

"Excuse me for asking, but would I be able to ask you to read this to me?" I asked.

Derpy, currently holding Bobbin on her back and tickling her belly, looked at me in surprise.

"You can't read?" Derpy Hooves asked.

"I do, just not pony writing, sorry to be a bother."

"Oh! That's why! Well of course I can read it for you. Silly me, of course you wouldn't be able to read pony. This is my first delivery here, you see. Now… It says it's from Ocellus, she's one of the nice changelings that works at Princess Twilight's School.

"Dear Rarity, I'm sorry about how abrupt I was with you last time. You gave me a lot to think about, and I didn't have the opportunity to think about it enough while you were here. I've had some time now, though not as much as I'd like, and I tried it.

"I chirped."

Derpy paused and looked up from the letter to me with an eyebrow rising. In answer I gave a rather happy chirp, given the circumstances.

"Oh! How do you do that?"

"Rubbing my wings against the coarse shell on my back. It's a wonderful way to let out emotion and just—just let everyone know how I feel."

"It's kinda cute, and that explains why Ocellus keeps making those sounds now. Oh, right, there's more," Derpy Hooves said. "I chirped a little at first, but once I started it was just like I couldn't stop. You were right, Rarity, it is so freeing to just let your emotions out like this. I can't stop. I'm chirping right now with nerves and excitement.

"I hope you'll come visit again soon, I'd love to talk more and even share some chirps, but my work is a bit busy right now. We have an influx of students lately, and it's leaving us all run off our hooves. Yours in chirpy anticipation, Ocellus the Changeling."

It was a lot to take in, but stretching time a little gave me the chance to get it all recorded. Of course I didn't rely on simply audio recordings—I'd taken dictation and stored careful photographs of the document.

"There's a P.S.," Derpy Hooves said. "Miss Rarity told me to tell you that she's pursuing matters."

I couldn't help myself. I got a case of the giggles that wouldn't quit.

"Drat but I wish I had a moment to compose her something. Would you be able to swing by tomorrow—about this time should be fine—to fetch a reply?" I asked.

Derpy was a little distracted by Bobbin, who was using her hooves to bat at the woman's fingers. When I was quiet a moment, Derpy's head jerked up.

"S-Sorry? I lost track there. What did you need?" Derpy Hooves asked.

—Bobbin, dear, I need her thinking clearly,— I sent.

—She's amazing! She tastes better than anyone I've ever met before!— Bobbin sent.

There was a weighty pause of several milliseconds before Bobbin sent a chirp that amounted to a sigh of regret.

"I need to get ready for work!" Bobbin said.

"Oh. Uh. Okay!" Derpy Hooves said.

When Derpy put Bobbin down, my daughter galloped off with one last pet from the woman. That she was running while chirping as loud as an air-raid-siren softened any hint of annoyance I had with her monopolizing Derpy's focus.

"I asked if you'd be able to drop by this time tomorrow, dear. I'll have a reply written by then."

Blinking a few times, Derpy tilted her head to the side, then nodded enthusiastically.

"It's a bit strange getting here, and it took me two days to get the hang of walking right, but I'll be able to make it back tomorrow. I'll tell the postmaster that I have to do it for a very important customer!" Derpy Hooves said. "Oh! Will you need stamps? I mean, of course you'll need stamps, but how many?"

It was a shock to realize that Equestria had an economy just as dependent on money as ours was. What really hit me hard was that I had not a single coin in their currency.

"Well, you see, I don't have any pony money. I didn't spend long over there, and—"

I stopped speaking as Derpy's finger slowly approached my face. When her finger landed across my lips and so close to my fangs, I jerked back a little—though not far enough to dislodge her finger.

"You're a friend of Princess Twilight's and the postmaster of Ponyville. I'll work it out."

She took her finger away and winked at me as if there was a joke there. It was an obvious one, but one that demanded me help her further.

"Who's the postmaster of Ponyville?" I asked.

Derpy Hooves' face lit up like the dawn after a long night of chilling cold. She looked about to explode, and a glance at her emotions told me every joyful expression was echoed in her aura. If I fed on her now, I'd discover if changelings can become diabetic.

"I'm the postmaster of Ponyville, silly."

Derpy did what no other human had done on first meeting me except Rainbow Dash, she crouched down and wrapped her arms around me in a hug.

Her joy, even without my feeding on it, was staining my own emotions. The day felt easier and lighter. I parked my derriere on the floor and wrapped my forelegs around her too. We hugged together for no more than a minute, but every second of it made the world seem easier.

"Now, I gotta go and deliver some mail. I'll be back tomorrow, okay?"

I was in awe of how easy she seemed to take everything. As she turned to leave, however, I stared in shock. Spreading her wings, Derpy Hooves shot into the air and flew in the opposite direction of Canterlot High School.

Even that act, showing off her magic, made me find extra wonder in the world. Turning back around, I could see even Starling had been affected by Derpy's enthusiasm.

"Did she really have wings? Was that…?" Starling asked.

"That was Derpy Hooves. She's the postmaster of Ponyville, and I'm fairly sure she's a pegasus in her own world," I said.

We were both grinning like fools. Real magic. Pony magic. It was so gloriously silly that ponies existed and that we'd been visited by one delivering the mail, that I almost missed the excited chirping coming from within my head.

—Good morning!— I sent.

NotABug coiled around my mind like a snake and hugged me. I knew I was chirping up as big a storm as she was. It was always a delight to share special little moments with her, but what I realized was they were special because they were with her.

—Good morning to you. Your chirps are extra chirpy.—

—I just met a friend I never knew I had,— I sent.

—Anyone I know?—

I could hear NotABug chirping up a storm still, but not all of it was simply emotive chirps. She'd started communicating big time.

—Derpy Hooves. She was a girl I remembered from high school, but this was the pony version of her. Wings and all.—

The background chirping paused for a millisecond before resuming again, and all her emotive chirps had turned curious.

—She had a letter to deliver from Ocellus. Apparently she's tried chirping.—

—Did she?—

—Yes, darling, and apparently it quite resonates with her. I couldn't read the letter myself and got Derpy to read it for me.—

—Yeah, reading your notes. She's really nice. What are you going to put in your letter to Ocellus?—

—Well, I was wondering about sending her pictures of our girls and talking about all the things that make me chirp and what my chirps feel like. What about you?—

NotABug made a surprised chirp before settling back down.

—Me?—

—Yes, darling, you. We get to be penpals with another bug from another world, and the best bit is she almost assuredly knows more about some forms of bugging than we do.—

—Rarity, from what I've seen so far, no one could know more about bugging than you. I was kinda born as a bug, and you have surpassed me at it.—

I was giggling inside too much to read any kind of insult into her words. Besides, we'd both agreed that bug was definitely a positive thing.

—Well, maybe, but you're still excellent at bugging. After all, I'm apparently the expert at it.—

That sent, I kissed her. It was always a wonderful moment. Being mentally close still didn't count when it came to physical closeness—well, it was sort of physical closeness. We were hugging and kissing somewhere, even if that was in our heads.

Of course, that was when my phone rang. The number was Mrs. Velvet's.

—I have a call, dear,— I sent.

"I have a call, sorry," I said aloud too.

Starling just stared at me for a moment as I took the call.

"Rarity? The detective just called. Are you sure you want to do this?" Twilight Velvet asked. "I checked it all over with Fancy, and even he can't see a way for them to charge you if you go ahead with it."

"I appreciate that. Well, I'll bring Rainbow Dash with me. I've had a wonderful morning so far, let's try to make it a better day for two police officers."

"You make me proud to be working for you, Rarity. That's a rare thing for a lawyer to be able to say. Thank you. I'll see you there. Don't get out of your car until you see me."

She ended the call.

"Rainbow? They're ready for us at the station," I said.

Turning my attention back to Starling, I smiled apologetically at her.

"If you see a winged Derpy again, please let her in. Otherwise, thank you so much for protecting everything precious to me."

"You don't have to keep saying that, Rarity. I remember what it was like to see no way out of the pain except Suri's. No one deserves that."

"No. They really don't. But you know what? You're just going to have to put up with me thanking you."

"You know, Rarity, I'm sure there's a way I could rationalize thinking my job sucks because my boss is too nice, but it's going to take work. Why don't you give me the morning to work on that?"

We shared a laugh about it and were still laughing when Rainbow walked up.

"Are you ready to go? You might want to shapechange for actually going in," Rainbow Dash said.

She was right. Startlingly, Rainbow was right a lot of the time lately. It was nice to have a smart girlfriend. Focusing on my old self—though with the improvements for Rainbow's benefit—I drew my magic up and over me like a blanket and remade myself into that woman. Pronounced, perky breasts for my darling were hidden behind a scoop-necked shirt that (on a normal woman) would be showing off bra strap. I liked to think that fashion was a way to challenge the effects of gravity on a woman's chest, but shapechanged I could actively defy it.

A white top and small purple mini combined with long white hose and a white garter belt. A pair of high-heels completed things and left me in a much more adult version of one of my favorite high school outfits.

"Now I'm ready. What do you think?" I asked.

Rainbow wasn't looking at my outfit or even the boobs I'd made just for her. She was looking directly into my eyes. I'm not sure if it was an effort on her part, but even if it was taking all her willpower not to admire me, it was definitely working.

"You always look amazing, Rarity. Always."

Goodness, and now I was blushing.

Now she tilted her gaze down and I watched her eyes trace the body I could have had—if genetics had been more kind.

"I have no idea how you're supporting those, but you might want to give some hint of a bra."

I looked down and could see what she meant. Okay, gravity, you win this round. A little more love magic and a flicker of flame and I had a little bit of a lacy teddy framing my bosom.

"Better?" I asked.

"Much better."

That Rainbow put thought into her answers made me feel even more glad I'd fallen for her at last. I followed her out to the car and climbed in. Ready for a wild ride, I was surprised when Rainbow carefully pulled out and drove sedately.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah. Figure if we're driving to the police station, I shouldn't get too crazy with my driving. Are you sure you're okay with this?"

"Rainbow, I'm alright. We've covered every base and every contingency. I won't let these innocents—good people continue to toil for her."

"I just worry about you. Like, worry a lot. What if I'm not fast enough? What if Suri gets past all these defenses you have up? There's too many of you for me to carry to safety now."

There was something wonderful about her worrying, though there was something I'd noticed that I wanted to point out.

"You're smiling."

"Huh? What's that got to do with it?"

"Because while you worry about being able to save all of us, we grow and become strong enough to be able to save ourselves. And, maybe, even you."

I leaned a little closer and kissed her cheek.

Rainbow's head snapped around to look at me before returning to the road. She hadn't just moved fast, but inhumanly fast. Was she like this all the time?

Focusing on my own perception of time, I was able to work at the problem a little more. What was the outcome if she was constantly thinking faster? Would it be like me? No, of course not. Rainbow Dash didn't have an always-active internet connection.

That meant, then, that every moment she was thinking faster than normal time, she was thinking faster than normal time. Literally. Given my understanding of things, that would make her a genius if she just did that constantly.

"Rainbow?"

Only scant seconds had passed since my previous words had faded from hearing, but I could trust Rainbow to realize this meant I'd been thinking long and hard about something. After all, if I were right, she had been too.

"What's up?"

"Are you always like that?"

"Rarity, if you want me to read your mind, you're going to need to be able to shove a phone in me, too. Am I always like what?"

"Fast. Your reaction times and speed, but also that way you moved us yesterday. Are you like that all the time?"

Rainbow froze. It didn't last long, but she definitely froze and stared at me for at least half a second. If I weren't so used to thinking of things as being fast, I would have missed it or written it off as just her being surprised.

"Yeah."

"That's not all that's faster, is it?"

"The dangers of falling for a smart girl is that she's smart. Everything else makes up for it though. Yes. Even if I can slow my movement down to normal speed—and I've had a lot of practice doing that—I can't slow my head down. It's about the only annoying thing about all this," Rainbow Dash said.

"Please stop the car, Rainbow Dash," I said. "Or I fear I may distract you from your driving."

The car definitely had good brakes. Rainbow pulled over to the side a moment before I undid my belt and leaned across to kiss her.

She caught me in her arms and seemed just as enthusiastic as I was to have an impromptu embrace. She turned me so that I faced her, and pressed her lips against mine.

It was more than a physical connection. Rainbow understood what I was going through because she had been going through it already. We suited each other—and NotABug—in ways we (or rather I) hadn't even realized.

But, there was a slight difference between us. I could "surface" and not be quite as slowed down as I'd otherwise be. She couldn't do that.

We shared our passion and relief with one another until my phone beeped. I must have jumped a little, because Rainbow slowly drew back from the kiss.

—I'm at the station now. Detective Proud is waiting for us,— Twilight Velvet sent.

"What's up?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I just got a message from Mrs. Velvet. We're expected and can head there now."

Rainbow Dash let out a dramatic sigh and reluctantly let me go, though not before hefting me back to my seat. It was just the kind of thing that reminded me of how strong she was.

"One of these days I'll start kissing you and nothing will stop me. You'll have a rainbow-haired girlfriend hanging off you for the rest of your life."

—You two are so cute together,— NotABug sent.

—Not as cute as the pair of you,— I sent.

We both shared a giggly chirp and a hug as Rainbow started driving again.

A flicker of memory from last night made my lips curl upward. I remembered Rainbow kissing NotABug for much longer, but I couldn't dwell on such happy thoughts now—I had to go rip the evil out of two people who didn't deserve it.

"I believe that day will be the happiest of my life," I said. "There's Mrs. Velvet."

"Got it. There's a space."

If it had been anyone else, I'd have expected them to do a fast lap around the block and see if the space were still there when we got back. Rainbow had some kind of sixth sense about the car and somehow slowed enough to get the nose into the space while momentum carried the rear-end sideways.

The screeching of tire rubber stopped as the vehicle rocked sharply. Somehow we were parked, and I'd wager that we were perfectly within the lines.

"I really like this car, but I'm already thinking of some things to make it better."

"What happened to keeping within the law while we're here?" I asked.

Rainbow snorted a laugh.

"That wasn't breaking the law. I was just parking with style."

The Rainbowism was just about perfect in every way. I leaned over and we shared one more little peck on the lips before both climbing out of the car.

Mrs. Velvet stood in her sharp business suit with an extremely chic trench coat keeping the wind from being a bother to her. In the city—as we were—there was a little more wind than out in the suburbs. We made our way over to her and the detective standing at her side.

"Rarity, it is without a doubt that you will always make an entrance to put anyone to shame. Before we go any further, Rainbow Dash, this is Detective Proud. Detective Proud, this is Rainbow Dash—Rarity's partner," Twilight Velvet said.

"Hey," Rainbow Dash said.

Rainbow immediately pulled out her phone as if it were the most natural thing. To my surprise, the detective seemed to lose interest in her immediately.

—Okay. Like this I can talk without him overhearing. Can you both hear me?— Rainbow Dash asked.

—Yes, darling,— I sent.

NotABug just flooded Rainbow in chirps.

"Did you hear that?" Twilight Velvet asked. "Oh, must have been the wind."

She reached up and brushed her hand by her ear. The detective wouldn't have spotted it, but I noticed her brush her hair aside just enough to show me her earpiece.

"They're both inside. I have a pair of officers asking them about their 401k plans right now. They should be in a fairly sour mood," Detective Proud said. "If you'd like to come with me, I can take you to meet Officer Sure Guard."

The older woman. I only knew her as Officer Guard, and her face was etched in my memory as being nine-tenths of horrifying. How much had she been under SuriGo's control at the time? Was she just on edge because SuriGo had started doing something to her? There's also the chance she was just doing her job a little too well.

"Lead on," I said.

The moment we entered the station, eyes were on me. Many, I was glad to say, were on my chest or my derriere, but a lot met my eyes with looks of hope. The auras among officers was horrific. None were under attack from SuriGo directly, but most of the officers had a thick miasma of fear and worry.

There wasn't a cell in my body that didn't want to rip all their fears away and tell them it would be alright—that I would fight the monsters for them. Drat it, but I was getting emotional.

—I'm not sure how likely you are to feel this, but all these officers are scared. But it's not SuriGo's doing. At least, not directly,— I sent.

—Kinda feel it. Oppressive. You think it's the two officers has them spooked?— Rainbow Dash asked.

"Everyone seems on edge, detective. I take it your two officers are causing problems?" Twilight Velvet asked.

"Yeah. When I told the others who I was bringing in, no one objected. You know yourself how hard it should be to bring three civilians this deep into the station. We walked through two checkpoints where they should have searched you," Detective Proud said. "Interview room three is over there. Guard is inside."

This was it. I couldn't get a read on the room itself, but I was more than a little scared of what I'd find within.

"Rainbow will go in with me. You can bring some officers, but no one with a gun. If you do bring someone, make sure they won't freak out when I change," I said.

"There's only myself and another officer already inside. We can restrain her if needed, but I hope it won't be."

Proud stepped up to the door and opened it. The stench that hit me wasn't an actual scent but an emotional stink.

I shuddered a little and stepped in behind the officer with Rainbow behind me. An officer behind her closed the door behind us.

"Detective Proud? What's IA doing here?" Officer Guard asked.

"For you, Guard. I've watched a ten-year veteran lose her cool and be dragged down by something she can't control to the point where I'll have to fire her if she doesn't stop. That's why I have brought a friend—possibly your best friend, under the circumstances. Ma'am?"

Detective Proud turned and stepped to the side to reveal me.

Guard looked surprised and a little angry at first, though as the former faded the latter amplified. The first I knew of what she planned was her muscles tensing up and her starting to move upward and forward.

There was a small table between Guard and myself, and though it seemed bolted to the floor, I watched it flex a little as her face contorted into a grimace of fury. When Rainbow's hand touched my shoulder, I watched time slow to a crawl.

"Igotthis," Rainbow Dash said.

It occurred to me that even within her own personal time-warp, she was still faster than any human should be. Her hand left my shoulder and she moved with more alacrity than I could have, circled the table, and reached for Guard's legs.

I kept myself ready to move but needn't have bothered. It was like Guard had been hooked to a bungee cord that was attached to her seat. She fell backward with a snarl and looked around to see what had happened—and spotted Rainbow Dash.

Shedding my human form, I reached out with my magic and took a firm grip on her shoulders—planting Guard in place and walking slowly toward her.

"Officer Guard, I can see what SuriGo's done to you. This isn't you, and I'll hold nothing you do against you, but for your own good I'm going to hold you still while I see exactly what that—that boorish monster has done," I said.

What she'd done looked horrid. There was a malignant growth attached to the side of Guard's aura. It looked tumor-like and was the thing creating the horrid odor that only I could smell. Tendrils ran from various parts of the growth, perforating Guard and sinking into her emotional mass like strangling roots. A lesser bug would turn and lose the wonderful breakfast I'd had not too long ago.

Proud and the unnamed officer who'd been in the room with Guard already moved to flank the woman and held her arms steady. It gave me the perfect opportunity to see what SuriGo had done.

It was a tumor, but not. It was like SuriGo'd taken a piece of her own horrid self and slipped it into Guard's aura. Which is exactly what it was. I could see within the growth was something vaguely egg-shaped, and now I was starting to feel queasy.

—That's disgusting,— NotABug sent.

—Quite, darling. I hope it hasn't harmed her permanently.—

—Can you get rid of it?—

—I sincerely hope so, though I don't think I'm going to enjoy it.—

The hug and kiss NotABug gave me did more to bolster my resolve than I could ever have hoped for, but I could understand why she slunk back—away from what I was about to do. She wasn't a fighter and I never wanted her to ever feel pressured to be one.

"Now, let me see what she put in you," I said.

"There's something inside her?" Detective Proud asked.

"Yes. SuriGo put a small piece of herself into Guard, and it's poisoning her like a tumor would. I can assure you this will not be pleasant for me, but I think I can get it out of her."

Surgery in her emotional self should be like surgery in a person's body. Alright, so why don't I do a search to find what removing something from a person is like?

The common searches for such things were useless, but then I discovered a place where less-than-legal people were selling medical textbook scans for very low prices. I purchased all the surgery ones I could find and started scanning data.

—Darling, can you help me find which of these have details on removing nasty things from people? Bullets, bug stingers, etc?— I asked NotABug.

I got a confirming chirp from NotABug.

—Everybug! Rarity needs our help! We need to find all the information on removing bullets, stings, and things from people in all these,— NotABug sent to all of us.

Data began pouring out of my server instance, and almost immediately I started getting packets of information back. Our daughters worked fast, and I sifted through the list for what I was after. Parasitic egg removal.

Gosh but there were some horrid things, and bugs that laid eggs in people were some of the worst—but I read through it.

The facts I could put together were not to sever all the tentacles, even at once, for fear the thing might either bleed the patient out through them or, worse, inject something really nasty in. Toxic shock, from what I understood, could kill. Would emotional shock do the same?

Getting closer, I could feel the horrid manipulations of the growth. It was feeding her anger and hatred, stealing the very life from the woman to make itself stronger. As I got nearer, I could see there were malignant tendrils of it floating around like a small cloud.

Either the tendrils would try to latch onto others and feed, or they were there to detect me. It was simple enough to check that it was the latter—none of the tendrils in the cloud were reaching for the other two officers that were holding her.

"The thing is booby-trapped. It's designed to detect when I'm trying to do something, and then—I don't really want to contemplate what it'll do if I trigger it," I said.

There was nothing in the textbooks about this. Creatures just don't evolve a way to prevent surgery extracting them. Then it hit me.

—I'm going about this the wrong way. It's not an evolved parasite, it's a bomb.—

NotABug sent a worried chirp that I flooded back with reassuring ones.

Change of tactic, then. This thing was mired in her emotional body, and I had to remove it as if it could blow up at any moment, but I couldn't let it know I was the one working on it.

Sometimes I hate how obvious answers are.

I couldn't afford to appear like a changeling, and I certainly didn't want to look like Guard to the thing (the results of that turned whatever it was I had for a stomach), so the only solution was to look like SuriGo.

I'd never tried to manipulate my own emotional presence before, but there was a first time for everything. Focusing on all that I was, I attempted to change the parts of me that weren't SuriGo.

Which was just about everything.

The trick would be, of course, that while most of it was just a ruse, there was one part of SuriGo I could happily actually emulate—teeth. I drew a cloak of slimy, barely concealed anger and fury around me. Paper thin, the bulk of the disguise would hopefully not be tested.

Teeth in mouths. Teeth on claws. Teeth on tentacles. The one thing I could always remember about Windigo and SuriGo's digital attacks were the teeth. Someone should tell her they're like sequins—less is more.

Ready to face this thing, I carefully moved closer to Guard. The first few tendrils reached out to touch me. They were icy-cold, slimy, and made me want to retch just being near to them. They rubbed over the mouths I'd made, some tracing along my teeth, and I felt them trying to interact with me.

Worry etched its way into my mind. I pushed deeper and more tendrils came to check me and verify I was SuriGo. I was almost able to touch the growth when the gig was up. Of course there was some kind of handshake for the tendrils. As fast as I felt them try to grip and repel me from its center, I was faster.

Well, I mean, I have all these mouths and things, right?

I sank uncountable teeth into the growth. I wrapped my tentacles around it, latched on with my mouths, and even hugged it close with all the toothed limbs I possessed. Pulling, I bit/hacked/ripped at the tentacles that bound it to Guard and threw it across the room.

"What the fuck was that?!" the unnamed officer asked.

When I'd jerked it away from Guard, I'd swung it close to them. A glance at their aura showed no damage. To be sure of the parasitic lump, I bowed my head to it and sent a crackling green blast at the thing. The outer shell of it burst and the tiny fragment of SuriGo inside burned as my magic hit it.

But it wasn't over yet. I turned back to Guard and the squirming tendrils burrowed deep into her emotional aura. Discarding the illusion of SuriGo, I got to work as the bug I truly am. Bite—pull. Bite—pull. Again and again.

With the loss of the malignant growth, Guard was no longer fighting the other officers but was slumped in their arms. She stared into my eyes as I worked, and I could see the shock building within them.

My careful work earlier had mattered for naught. These things were booby traps and needed to be removed quickly. Maybe one of my daughters would come up with something smarter, but until then a bug has to do what a bug has to do.

It didn't take too much longer and I was already sick of ripping horrid things out of Officer Guard. Each time I went back for another, she looked back into my eyes and seemed a little brighter. When the last tendril was clear, I almost fell into Rainbow's arms.

Picking me up and hugging me against her, Rainbow's aura rushed in around me and forced itself down my throat. I needed her on a primal level that had nothing to do with the tight bond we shared, but rather than detract from our love, it enhanced it.

"Thank you," I said.

"You know you're always welcome, but you've got another to do yet. Feeling better?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Much. How is she?"

"What—?" Officer Guard asked.

I jumped down out of Rainbow's arms and climbed back up on the table. Guard didn't look good at all. She had bags under her eyes and looked like she'd just had a fight with a marathon and come up second best.

"Rainbow, can you help me with something?" I asked.

When Rainbow set her hand on my shoulders, I felt empowered again. With her touching me, I could do anything.

I stepped forward, the height of the table letting me tower over Officer Guard. Leaning down, I pressed my snout into her aura and exhaled. One breath. Two breaths. As Guard's arms reached up and over my neck, I breathed one last time into her aura.

And that, with my mouth closed after that last breath, was when Officer Guard kissed me. Her lips were soft and there was no passion in it. She hugged me tighter and didn't seem inclined to let go.

I was blushing like crazy but didn't want to hurt the woman by disengaging from her too quickly. Her lips slowly withdrew and she let out a sigh. Tear-stained cheeks looked a lot rosier than they should have—she was blushing too.

"What did you do to me?" Officer Guard asked.

"A good question. What did you do to her?" Detective Proud asked.

Slowly, I extracted myself from Guard and slurped up more of Rainbow's love.

"SuriGo had stuck part of herself to her. It was burrowing into her and feeding off her life while poisoning every emotion she had with anger and hate. What you felt," I said and gestured at the unnamed officer, "Was that part. I've been cleaning up the wounds and removing the remaining feeding tendrils."

"It was some kind of parasite? Did you kill it?" the unnamed officer asked.

I looked to the corner and examined the still-dissipating remains of SuriGo's little present. Using some more of my reserves, I blasted a few of the bigger chunks into nothingness.

My magic, of course, had been fully visible to all present, even if the targets weren't.

"There is nothing left of it that a few minutes won't finish off. You'll want to leave this room empty for an hour. Where's the other officer?"

Detective Proud just stared at me for several seconds. His fellow officer reached over and prodded him in the shoulder.

Rainbow, meanwhile, was leaning down beside Officer Guard. It surprised me that of all of us, she'd be the one to comfort the woman. Reaching up, Guard put her arm over Rainbow's shoulders and let herself be lifted free of the chair.

"This way," Detective Proud said.

There was more certainty to him. He took the lead and we filed out of the room after him with Rainbow and Guard in the rear. The next room was down the hall a little further, and just as Proud stopped, the door before him flew open.

Time slowed for me. I watched the door swing inward and an arm reach out. Officer Shield's face—contorted into a snarl—sighted down his arm and pistol toward Detective Proud.

Power poured through me and I shoved physics aside by force of will. Pulling more on my reserves, I let magic thunder into my horn and began to do, well, something.

"IgotProud," Rainbow Dash said.

The rainbow blur past me proved that Rainbow was still an order of magnitude faster than I was. She tackled Proud as heavily as a football player would, and the pair went flying to the side and out of the line of fire thanks to Rainbow's more aggressive magic.

Time to shine, Rarity. Shine like rainbows.

I couldn't move as fast as Rainbow did, but I was still quicker than Officer Shield. The next biggest advantage I had was that I was also shorter than him. Stepping under his raised arm, I used my magic to grab his wrist and pull his index finger away from the trigger of the pistol.

My position, now in the doorway just before Shield, let me see an unconscious officer inside. The indefinite moment dragged on longer than it had any right to, and Shield tried to pull his gun down to aim it at me.

I'd expected the unnamed officer to be first to respond, but Officer Guard surprised me by grabbing the pistol with her hand—all in slow motion—and wrenching it from her partner's grip. It was a delicate movement with the force of a freight train behind it. Without the ability to move his arm, Shield had no chance of stopping her from disarming him.

There was one thing left to do. Jumping forward, pushing off with my back legs as hard as I could, I connected with Shield's chest and knocked him back into the room. As he fell in slow motion, I caught him in my magic to cushion his fall and looked more pointedly at his emotions.

The blob of SuriGo was huge and had a lot more tendrils than the one on Guard had possessed. It made me sick just being near it, but I had to do something worse than just get near the thing.

It wasn't anger or hatred that drove me to snarl and bare my rather impressive (if I do say so myself) fangs at the thing. Attacking the officer had been worse than attacking an innocent. Here was a man who had dedicated his life to doing good things and standing before the darkness of humanity—and SuriGo had poisoned him.

No. Not anger. I was outraged. How dare she do this!

I opened my emotional mouth wide and bared fangs at the blob, then lunged at it and ripped it free of Officer Shield. Being larger than the last one, and since I was a little more carried away with the destruction this time, I clamped my teeth down into the poisonous thing and started shredding it in my mouth.

The flavor was horrible, but though I wanted to throw up and wash my mouth out, I kept biting down on it. Nothing, however, was going to encourage me to swallow it. Aiming at the empty end of the room, I spat out the most disgusting thing I'd ever put in my mouth and, when it didn't move from where it landed, I turned back to Officer Shield.

There were still the tendrils dug into him to work on. I clamped my teeth down on the first and pulled it out before chewing it up. These I could at least swallow without being sick.

Tendril by tendril I worked, pulling them out while the police behind me fussed over things. Oh, right, the gun. Well, that didn't matter. I haven't left these things in anyone yet, and I don't want to find out what happens if I leave them in someone now.

"What's she doing?" Detective Proud asked.

"Suri's things tend to attach with tentacles or something. They burrow into people's emotions and stuff. Rarity can fill you in later, but I think it's probably a good idea to let her get it all out. Kinda like cleaning out a wound," Rainbow Dash said.

"Got it. Okay, everyone step back. This was just a—a routine test. Nothing to see."

I ended up stepping off Officer Shield so I didn't do him any physical harm, not that he put up any protest. He just lay there looking up at me. Having spent time helping Fluttershy in the animal shelter she'd worked in while at school, I remembered that look well. It was the passive expression of an animal that knows you are helping it but doesn't know why.

It would have been delightful to be able to say I lost track of time and things just flew by, but that was wrong. I counted off every second as I pulled out and killed more and more of the tendrils. His aura was lousy with them, but I wouldn't leave him with a single one.

11:39 A.M.

By the time I was done, I was ready to collapse. It still took far more out of me than it should, and left me with a terrible taste in my mouth, but as long as I had Rainbow's arms to retreat to, I could do anything.

While I'd worked, someone had helped the other officer (the one Shield had knocked out) from the room. Shield now looked up at me with a constant wash of surprise and wonder in his eyes. If I weren't working to save the man's emotional wellbeing, I might have felt embarrassed.

"You're done," Officer Shield said.

"Yes. In more ways than one."

His aura still looked like a very bad piece of Swiss cheese, but the angry red was gone and he swirled with calmer emotions. I wondered if it was his body overreacting, but it didn't matter. He needed something to help him along the road to recovery.

"Rainbow, darling? I need a hug."

She could have been right behind me or on the other side of town. It wouldn't matter how far Rainbow was from me, not when I needed her. Strong arms wrapped around me and picked me up. I was dunked into her aura of love and was treated to not even the slightest bit of worry.

Just one nibble and I felt a million times better. A good sized bite of her love and I was ready. I opened myself to Officer Shield—as I had to Officer Guard—and let him have some raw love. It wasn't exactly the same as what I got from Rainbow, but even the love of a friend helped fill in the gaping holes in his aura.

Shield's expression changed from completely drained to surprise, and he sat up on the floor while staring at me.

"Thank you. Thank you, whatever you are," Officer Shield said.

Guard slipped past Rainbow and myself and reached her hand down to Shield, hauling the man to his feet and pulling him into a hug. It didn't take more than a cursory glance to realize they were strengthening each other's auras with positive emotions.

I blinked. Very positive emotions. I turned to look up at Rainbow and took another little nibble of her aura.

"Sushi," Rainbow Dash said. "Because every so often I see your mouth screw up a little like you'd just bit into something horrible. You can have as much ginger as you can swallow, then you're eating something as fishy as Chef Soba can make."

"I don't think I've said 'I love you' enough today," I said. "Wait, before we leave, I need to make sure it's dead. Back left corner, please."

Rainbow let out an expressive sigh that I thought most excellent, but she carried me to the middle of the room and turned so I could see the ground easier. The thing wasn't moving and parts of it were already decaying.

"Are you done in here, ma'am?" Detective Proud asked from behind us.

"I am. You'll want to leave this one empty for an hour too. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't bring myself to swallow the horrid things."

"Well, I didn't expect that, and leaving this room empty for a bit isn't going to ruin us, but it was about the—incident."

It didn't take someone thinking a thousand times faster than normal to understand what he meant. If a story got out that an officer drew his sidearm and aimed it at an officer inside the precinct, the investigations wouldn't stop at internal affairs.

"Detective Proud, I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I simply came down here to inquire about having the parking in front of my boutique marked as customer parking only. Sadly, the nice officer at the front desk explained it wasn't possible," I said. "And furthermore, I don't think I spoke to or saw anyone else."

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"We didn't see anything at all, did we, Rainbow?"

"Ah. Got it. Nope, we didn't see anything. Did you really have to make all that up?"

On my way to feeling restored, I leaned my head up and kissed the underside of Rainbow's chin.

"Of course. You know how much I adore acting. Now, could you put me down so I can change?"

Rainbow kissed my cheek—something I tilted my head to the side to accept—and crouched down to put me on my hooves. Standing back up, she took a step back to give me room.

"Thank you, darling."

The image of busty, mature Rarity was getting easier and easier to imagine. Why bother, however, with the same-old little thing I wore on my way in? Rose-red and shimmering from where it clung to my chest and under my arms down to the long slit down my left leg. A very chic number indeed. The jolt of magic needed to make that body my body hit me a little harder than usual, and I had to remind myself I'd spent most of the morning burning up energy.

But it worked. I grew upward in height almost faster than I could perceive. There was the slightest few moments when I could perceive myself shifting, but in far less time than it took most people to blink, I was human again—or at least a reasonable facsimile of one.

I also had Rainbow practically drooling and Proud trying to give every impression of not doing so. With heels that made a satisfying click as I walked, I made my way out of the interview room unimpeded and followed by Rainbow.

Mrs. Velvet was waiting at the end of the hallway with a single raised eyebrow.

—It went well, considering what definitely didn't happen. Both officers are clean now, and I'm going somewhere to clean my palate,— I sent.

—Mom? Are you done helping the police?— Byte asked.

I focused myself to exclude Mrs. Velvet from our little chat.

—Yes, dear. Is something the matter?—

—Well, going by how well Vaunt and Bobbin are getting on, I think you'll probably want to hire her. She really knows her stuff. I think.—

—We're going to have lunch and then we'll be heading over there. Please let her know.—

—Got it, Mom. Love you.—

Bobbin's surprised chirps poured all over our not-quite-private conversation.

—I love you too, Mommy!— Bobbin sent.

—And I love both of you. Rainbow does too, don't you, darling?— I asked.

It took over half a second for Rainbow to pull her phone out. I could understand her not wanting to show off her speed, and given how jumpy the thing that absolutely didn't happen probably made them, it wasn't good to do too many crazy things in front of the officers.

—Yup. Love you all so much that you can taste it, right?— Rainbow Dash asked.

Rainbow's question earned her a swarm of chirps, even some from myself. I reached out to all our girls and gave them a digital hug, even pulling NotABug in as well.

—There. Now, let Vaunt know I'm on my way over after lunch. We can put off her sushi tasting for another day,— I sent.

—Got it,— Byte sent.

Another round of happy chirps followed me back to focusing on the real world. Mrs. Velvet looked at me with a steady smile and nodded her head.

"If that's all, shall we be going?" Twilight Velvet asked.

"I believe we shall, so long as Detective Proud is satisfied?" I asked.

Turning our heads, Rainbow and I looked back at Proud who still looked a little baffled, but there was a lightness about him. On a whim, I checked his aura and found it much lighter in color and form, and there was something I could recognize as hope.

"Yeah. You did everything you could. They—They seem a little more friendly than normal, but I take it that was a side effect? Like a withdrawal symptom?"

"Actually, I gave them a little hit of love after I ripped SuriGo's stuff out of them. I think they needed it. I take it they're acting better than they were earlier today?"

"Yeah. Night and day. Thanks."

I smiled at that.

"You're alright, Proud. They're lucky to have someone who'd lay everything on the line," Rainbow Dash said.

"I think we should go, then, before something else doesn't happen that we didn't see," I said.

"Wait!" a pair of voices called.

Behind us, Guard and Shield were advancing up the hallway to us. It took me but a glance to ensure neither had any plan of retribution—they were both swirling with exhaustion and relief (and a little love).

"Thank you. I don't really know what happened, but ever since that day at Polomare, there's just been something riding me about you. The sergeant back there said it was some bad shit, and that you got it out of us," Officer Guard said.

"I'm sorry for what we did, at Polomare. It just—" Officer Shield said.

"That wasn't your fault," I said, cutting in. "I don't know what she'd done to you already, but I don't think any of us was thinking clearly that day. I was scared and worried, but that blinded me to what had happened to you both."

"About—About what didn't happen," Shield said.

"It didn't happen, and frankly whatever might not have happened, it wasn't your fault," I said.

Okay, so maybe I was taking this what happened thing a bit further than I had verbs to convey, but I hope he got it through his head that I didn't blame him for what that thing was making him do.

"You're not going to let me blame myself at all, are you?"

"No, officer, I'm not. If you had reports of a person who'd been drugged and given a knife, would you hold it against him if he tried to stab someone with it?"

Shield's shoulders slumped a little and I saw a little of the man poke through the paper thin (at the moment) police officer veneer.

"A good friend of mine was one of her earlier victims. I've since—armored her against that kind of attack. If you want to talk about something like that, give me a call in a week," I said. "If you excuse me, I need to wash a rather horrid taste out of my mouth, and I intend to do it with something expensive."

I flashed them both the best smile I could muster and turned to follow after Mrs. Velvet and Detective Proud. As we walked outside, without our escort, I let out a little sigh of relief.

"What's the matter?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I’ll tell you when we're comfortably seated somewhere we won't be overheard and preferably with some delightfully expensive sushi being prepared," I said.

Rainbow Dash drove again. I was sure by now that she enjoyed driving the electric car. Every chance she got, she pressed the gas peddle to the board and let the vehicle propel us around corners and from the line at traffic lights with more speed than I'd have thought possible.

We reached Uma no Sushi well before Mrs. Twilight. Before Rainbow could even open her door I reached a hand across and onto her thigh.

"You're enjoying this car quite a lot, aren't you?" I asked.

"I thought these things were like your old car, but this," Rainbow Dash said, pausing to rub a hand over the wheel, "Is nothing like your car. This is like me. It wants to move faster all the time, and it's only the driver stopping it."

"It's made to go fast."

"Right. It's made to go really fast, but it needs to be kept to a safe speed all the time. Like me."

Rainbow leaned over and kissed my cheek. Just as I started to lift my hand up to cup her jaw, she drew back and opened her door.

"Come on, silly bug, let's go have some sushi so you don't taste Suri when you kiss me."

She left me sitting in shock, watching her tight rear climb from the curvy, hugging seat. How'd she guessed all that, and why was she calling me bug so much now?

—Did you tell Rainbow about me calling myself buggy?— I asked NotABug.

—Maybe. Uh. Yeah, a few times,— NotABug sent.

Her being unsure surprised me greatly. NotABug was never unsure about things she'd done.

—"Maybe"?— I asked.

—We've been talking a lot. I wanted to get to know her better, so she'd just relax and speed herself all the way up and type really fast.—

The car analogy never fit so well before. She relaxed and was at full speed. I kissed and hugged NotABug, squeezing her and chirping far, far sufficiently (because I was of the firm belief that there was no such thing as chirping too much).

—Sorry to have bothered you, darling.—

NotABug relaxed into my hug and kissed me back.

—You are never a bother, Rarity. I love you.—

—I love you too.—

We shared about a quarter of a second doing nothing but hugging and chirping. When we finally relaxed and drew back, I wanted to chirp in real life too.

—We need to work out a way to do more than just hug and kiss, but I'm not sure if it's possible to really do, well, that, in here. But where there's a will, there's a way.—

—Who'd control our body while we're doing that?—

I started reaching for my door handle and checked traffic before opening the door.

—We'll think of something, darling.—

When there was no traffic, I opened my door and slipped out. Walking around the car, I let NotABug's chirping soothe me, but there was more than just hers. All our nymphs were chirping to some extent, and the mixed tones were a delight.

"You're smiling a lot," Rainbow Dash said.

I reached out, took her offered hand, and stepped up onto the curb. Moving to her side and against it was instinctive now, and, as her arm settled around my shoulders, felt completely natural.

"I've got a lot to smile about. Two people who love me, a whole mess of nymphs who are chirping up a storm right now, and I managed to not mention to the police that I'm planning to kill SuriGo."

Rainbow walked forward—guiding me along at her side—and opened the door to Uma no Sushi.

—Sorry, something's come up. I can't make it there with you,— Twilight Velvet sent.

"Remember, you don't have to do it alone. NotABug might not be up to going toe-to-toe with Suri, but I'll kick her ass nine ways to Tuesday if you need me to," Rainbow Dash said and turned to look at Kit. "Hi Kit. I hope you have room for three?"

"Two," I said. "Mrs. Velvet can't make it."

Kitsune Udon's face lit up with a huge smile as she recognized us. She made a gesture toward the seating.

"Of course we do. Father wouldn't forgive me if I turned away his favorite customers. Please, come in and take a seat. Did you want omakase?"

"Absolutely," Rainbow Dash said, beating me to the punch. "But Rarity's going to need a triple helping of gari before we start. She got left with kinda a terrible taste in her mouth."

Chef Soba stepped out of a back room and looked at me with a raised eyebrow. He walked up to the bar and set his knife upon it. He held eye contact and smiled.

"Welcome, Miss Rarity, Miss Dash. Please make yourselves comfortable. If I'm to prepare sushi for you today, it would be preferable if you were your true self," Soba Tsuya said.

I looked around, but the only other customer was sitting toward the back of the store and picking sushi rolls out of a little box with chopsticks.

"So long as it doesn't make any of your customers skittish," I said.

"A customer who cannot accept a peaceful obake, is not worthy of being a customer."

I let out a soft sigh and relaxed that little bit more than being human would otherwise allow for. My flames came and went, and I was once more a changeling sitting on a stool in a sushi restaurant. A glance showed me the man in the back looked up briefly and returned to his sushi. I don't think I've ever been so happy to be ignored.

Being my normal buggy self again felt good, but it reminded me of the reason for being here. Fortunately, I looked back to Chef Soba in time for him to pass me a wooden plate piled high with gari. I smiled gratefully up to him.

"Thank you, you'll have to excuse me while I clear my palate."

Chef Soba smiled and tipped his head to me before looking at Rainbow.

"Are you ready to begin?" Soba Tsuya asked.

"Yeah. What are we having today?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I have procured a supply of namagaki, oysters, and would like to have your opinions on them."

As he spoke, Chef Soba's hands worked. It looked like he was making a roll of some sort. He pressed the rice into a shape with his hands and then wrapped seaweed—nori—around it.

"This is what we call gunkan maki. First I take some sushi rice, wrap with nori, then a hint of wasabi before I add namagaki."

He then brushed a thin sauce over the top of the oyster—namagaki. I really must ensure I use the correct words—the other option would be to learn Japanese.

While I pondered language, Chef Soba placed the first piece of sushi on a plate, added some gari, then passed it to Rainbow. No sooner was the plate out of his hand than Chef Soba started working on the next piece—which meant I needed to clean my palate quickly.

Using my magic, I levitated a good hunk of the gari to my lips and loaded my snout full of it. Ginger permeated my palate and I almost found myself crying in joy to have the last of the horrid flavor of SuriGo's things gone. Even SuriGo couldn't stand up to the power of ginger.

Swallowing the gari, I watched Rainbow delicately pick up the sushi with her fingers and lift it to her lips. At the last moment, as we'd been told to, she flipped the sushi over and put it in her mouth.

A hint of a memory tickled at my thoughts. Oysters. There was something about them, and it was an old memory that I couldn't recall well. That memory sparked two thoughts at once. The first thought was how amazing my memory had become since NotABug had taken up residence, and the second required an online search to discover.

I let out a trill of giggly-chirps before I got myself under control. Aphrodisiac? I wondered if it has that effect on changelings?

Having one last piece of gari, I felt my palate was prepared for whatever Chef Soba could make.

"Miss Rarity, I have added some ikura to broaden the flavor. It will suit your tastes more," Soba Tsuya said.

He took my plate and replaced it with one holding a piece of sushi similar to what Rainbow had eaten, but mine had four little orbs of salmon roe—ikura.

I carefully lifted up the sushi with my magic and, careful of spilling it, brought it to my mouth and did the flip and eat trick. The ikura, though there was only four of them, burst quickly and spread their flavor throughout my palate. The oyster itself quickly followed, which had a much finer flavor than I was used to from sushi. The wasabi hit me and I felt a pleasant rush of gastronomical bliss at knowing SuriGo was purged from my tastebuds.

The flavor kept giving even when I started to chew. The rice was a lovely backdrop for the— namagaki. The roe's flavor was gone along with the wasabi's heat, but that namagaki stuck around for the long haul.

Swallowing finally, I let out a sigh of bliss.

"What did you think?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Surprised, I jumped back and reviewed the recordings we always made. Sure enough, Rainbow and Chef Soba had discussed flavor while I made a lot of chirping sounds. Goodness, was that really me? Did this food so distract me from the world that I could ignore a conversation?

"The ikura was a wonderful choice. It introduced the namagaki, but faded quickly enough that it didn't steal the show. The wasabi was the tie-in between the ikura and the namagaki, while the rice supported the namagaki all the way to the end," I said.

"You both have excellent palates. It is such a wonder that I have so many wonderful customers in this city. Let us move on to some kani—crab."

It was almost like a classroom. Each piece was a test and a lesson, and Chef Soba expected us to learn the lesson they had to teach and answer the test correctly.

"Kit?" I asked once we were done eating, "You know all our little ones?"

Her face lighting up, Kit nodded. I remembered now that they'd been the first customers she'd prepared sushi for—clearly a special moment.

"Those cuties you had in last time?" Kitsune Udon asked.

Hearing her describe them as cuties made me smile a little wider. She'd been scared at first, but now she could look at nymphs and call them cute. Well, to be fair, they are far cuter than a fully grown changeling queen.

"Quite. You see, one of my daughters wants to learn how to cook, and I said I'd ask if she might be able to work here. Understand, she won't need to be paid."

Kit turned to look at her father. Chef Soba was listening to our conversation and walked over to the front counter.

"We lack someone to help us wash the rice each day," Soba Tsuya said. "With my daughter now making sushi herself, I do believe we could use someone to help. When could she start?"

While his first sentence was spoken in the same "chef-voice" he used while working, the rest was all in something much softer.

"Just like that? You don't want to know more?" I asked.

"I will know more when I see her work with the rice and when she's spent a year learning how rice feels and moves. I will know more when she's spent years mastering rice and learning the flavor of all the fish. I will know more when she's a sushi chef herself."

The way he spoke made sense. He wanted to see her work before he would say if she could stay.

"I'm sure she'd love to start tomorrow," I said.

"Then I'll see her in the morning. We start preparations at eight."

12:43 P.M.

We'd paid our bill and were leaving when I realized I was heading outside as a changeling in downtown Canterlot. Well, they could just get used to me. I am bug—hear me chirp.

—Mom, Vaunt is asking when you'll be here,— Byte sent.

—We're on our way there now,— I sent back.

—I'll let her know.—

"Rarity? Are you coming or what?"

Rainbow Dash had to have moved fast for her to reach the driver's side of the car in that time. I took my time instead and walked over to the passenger door. When I reached it, I used my magic to open the door and climb inside.

"Feeling better?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I chirped softly—contentedly. After what she'd said the previous night about wanting something other than fish, I knew this had only been her choice to help me feel better. It worked.

"Wonderful, darling. I hope my new fish obsession isn't too hard on you?"

"Kinda growing on me, actually. Dinner last night was nice, but there's something pretty awesome about having a chef stand there and make things specifically to your taste. It helps that said chef also knows my taste. Both our tastes, I guess."

Her hands moved deceptively slowly. One gripped the wheel while the other turned the car on. She looked back over her shoulder to check for traffic a moment before the car leapt forward. The world seemed a stationary mass around us. Rainbow wove between cars and, before anyone should have been able to reach the end of the block, we were at the boutique.

Was she some kind of god? The way Rainbow bent time to her will would likely be scary to most people. To me it was just something she had that I didn't. It was a wonderful feeling to have someone I could depend on like that.

—Okay. We got the deed to that house. Stefanie and Perdition can go furniture shopping and move in there whenever they like,— NotABug sent.

I hugged and snuggled NotABug until she chirped, which didn't take too long, but I felt it was time well spent.

—I'll call them and let them know,— I sent.

—How did things go with the officers?—

—They went well. SuriGo's using parts of herself and attaching them to people's auras. It eats them up and gives them only anger to live on. The fastest way seems to be the best for removing them. With Guard I tried to take things slow and careful, and it almost pumped her full of so much poisonous hate that she… I'd rather not think of that. Shield was another matter. He disarmed the officer who was with him and tried to shoot us, but Rainbow was too fast for him. Guard too. When they both we recovering, they had such huge holes in their auras that I decided to help.—

—They threatened you?—

—They couldn't stop themselves. I need to deal with SuriGo before she does this to more people than I can comfortably help. It's bad enough that probably everyone at the company is similarly afflicted. It's not like I can march in there and just start purging people.—

—You're so brave, Rarity. I just… I can't do that. I can't even think about fighting. It never worked for me and I don't like it.—

—I know, darling, and that's one of your qualities I love. You have such a big heart that it shines through in everything you've done.—

Our chirps blended together into a happy cacophony of sound that reminded me, once again, that I could always hear a little chirping.

Indulging in another hug with NotABug, I slowly started to get out of the car. Realizing that I'd be in my boutique, I quickly shapechanged into my human disguise adorned with one of my more recent creations—a long skirt and scoop-necked top—with matching accessories. By the time I actually departed from the vehicle, Rainbow was already waiting for me.

"That's an interesting number. Not too revealing for work?"

I looked down and shrugged my shoulders while making a snooty little sound.

"Darling, if there's one thing I've learned about fashion is that you need to be bold. Anyone outraged by what I'm wearing will clearly not realize that I'm wearing nothing at all and that this is all me."

"That is both the sexiest thing you've said and possibly the most confusing at the same time, but it earns you a kiss."

I accepted her kiss, with grace, upon my cheek.

When we reached the front door, I was surprised at the sound of a sewing machine coming from within. I was just about to say something when Byte spotted me. She moved fast, rushing up to us and wrapping Rainbow and myself in a hug.

"I was worried about you," Byte said.

Rainbow and I both hugged her back.

"Who's sewing?" I asked.

"Vaunt got bored, so Bobbin showed her your designs. She's done two so far. She and Bobbin are getting along really well."

I sent Byte a flood of happy and reassuring chirps on a direct message, then slipped from her hug to make my way to the back area.

Bobbin and Vaunt were indeed chatting and working together. Bobbin had dispensed with her human form and was using magic to help Vaunt, who was using my sewing machine. They were working as a team quite well, it seemed.

Waiting for them to finish some sewing, I cleared my throat. The reactions were various levels of instant. Bobbin moved the faster of the two, spotted me and started running along the workbench. By the time Vaunt turned to look at me, Bobbin was launching herself to land in my arms.

"How are you doing? Having fun?" I asked.

"Moooooom! We made things!" Bobbin said.

She stayed in my arms just long enough to get those words out before she leapt back onto the workbench and over to where there was a stack of boxes.

"We just finished and packed away the second one! Vaunt's really good at sewing!"

"I'm sure she's fantastic at it, given the career she wants to break into. What I want to talk about with her, however, is her style," I said. "And her career path."

"I talked with Mr. Cardigan at school, and he said he was surprised that you weren't working at Polomare still. If you don't mind me asking, why did you leave?" Vaunt asked.

Her eyes were sharp and piercing. I took a quick peek at her aura, but she wasn't being affected by anything I could see.

With a little sigh, I walked over to what she'd been working on. One of the dresses I'd designed for the show, certainly, and she'd picked a wonderful color palette for it.

"Would you like to know what my job was at Polomare Fashion? I modified designs. I would take a piece from last year's patterns, I'd alter it to bring it into line with the current fashion—making as few changes as possible—and I would find another to do the same with. There was a whole floor of people like me—and like you—doing this. What Polomare Fashion does to people is suck their creativity out slowly until it has no more use for them, then it spits them out."

"Is it really that bad? So you just quit?"

I laughed—I couldn't help it.

"Quit? No. They required me to give notice. Then wanted me to keep working there for two weeks. My boss, Suri Polomare herself, threatened to have me hit with a non-compete clause if I didn't finish up my work. What came next was a campaign of malicious compliance I'm quite proud of."

Vaunt's face split into a smile that made her glow with beauty. She seemed to relax a little.

"I was worried," Vaunt said, "That this was some kind of set up or some kind of prank. So what do you want me to do and how many hours can I work here?"

"You can work whatever hours you wish to, whenever you wish to, and doing whatever you wish to. Pick your first day and we'll go shopping for some equipment for you, because much as I like your work here, I'd like to use my own machine.

"If you don't mind, I'll give Mr. Cardigan a call myself and try to head off any rumors about me regarding Polomare. Particularly with the latest events."

Drat. If Vaunt was even half the woman I hoped she was, she'd pick up on that loose thread and ask me to unravel everything.

"So many questions now. How about I save the big one for later? I'll draw up a roster for days I have time off from class. I might need to use some time here to work on projects, since you're letting me choose what I do, but that shouldn't take up all my time. You're going to be working tomorrow?" Vaunt asked.

"For the show on Sunday, yes, but not here. I'll be working from home."

"Well, how about I come in Monday after classes? I finish at four."

—What time do you need to be in court on Monday?— I asked NotABug.

—It will be a morning meeting,— NotABug sent.

I kissed her and gave her a good bit of chirping.

"I should be available then. We can go shopping for your equipment. Oh, probably the most important thing I need to ask you. Your career may hinge on this," I said. "Do you like sushi?"

The question, it seemed, caught Vaunt by surprise. She actually blinked her eyes a few times as if it would help.

"Sushi? I've never had it before. It's the raw fish thing, right?"

"Something like that."

"Sushi's awesome!" Bobbin said.

I reached out a hand to rub Bobbin's crest. She stretched her head up to meet my touch and made a series of chirps, apparently for the joy of it (which was probably the best reason to chirp, if I'm honest).

"We’ll have a sushi chef come in once a week and prepare lunch for anyone who wants to drop in. Even if your schedule doesn't line up with that, I think we're going to be spending an evening in Uma no Sushi anyway, you're welcome to join us," I said.

Vaunt stared at me for a moment before she shook her head.

"You're unbelievable. You barely know me, and you're willing to hire me and are inviting me out for—for what, a family get-together?"

"It's not strictly family. Our children will make up the majority, but we have a growing team of staff for our other businesses too. It's optional. You don't have to come if you don't want to."

"I guess I'll try it once. If I don't fit in or I don't like it, I can always sit at home and eat a bowl of ramen."

"You're really going to like it. Everyone does!" Bobbin said.

Setting the two dresses back in their boxes, I did a quick lookup of what we still had to make. A dozen more outfits—twenty if I wanted spares—were still in the to-do pile, which should eat up the rest of my evening.

With that in mind, it was time to work. Shedding my human form was the first step, so with a simple twitch of my magic I felt the flames tear away the feminine human shape and leave me at least a hundred and ten percent more buggy.

It felt good to be myself. I was being a bit of a fool in not trying to get people used to seeing me like this. But then, in my boutique, everything was about making my clientele comfortable. I guess a little deception was the price to pay.

"This is really the real you, isn't it?" Vaunt asked.

"Of course, darling. You think Bobbin and Byte came from a normal-looking human?"

"Hey, I'm trying to avoid making assumptions here. Honestly, I was just looking to do a little internship. Getting a paying job and advice is a dream come true. Sorry, I'll let you have your chair back."

Vaunt jumped to her feet to vacate the little chair before the sewing machine. I realized she was wearing an ankle-length dress that looked light and airy, and its olive coloring matched her hair and skin perfectly while not bringing too much brightness. In all, I approved of her attire.

Climbing up on the seat, I reached out with my magic and felt for the tools I'd need: scissors, sewing machine, patterns, pins, thread, needles—I chirped a little as I took up the tools and floated my glasses over to my snout.

I didn't need the glasses anymore, being far-sighted had left me needing them for any close-up work in the past, and I was just so used to wearing them that they made me feel more artistic just having them there—even with the lenses popped out.

"I guess your horn isn't there for show either?" Vaunt asked.

"No. It lets me use more than a little magic. But there's more to it than that. Multitasking is essential when working like this."

And the key to multitasking was being able to think exceptionally fast so that you could devote a little bit of time to each task, one by one, to ensure they were all getting done. But I wasn't going to tell her all my secrets.

"If you have any other questions," I said, "Don't hesitate to ask. I promise I won't take offense unless you mean to give it."

Vaunt pulled out her phone and, or so I guessed, checked the time. It was 1:06 P.M., of course, not that she would know without looking at such a device.

"I gotta go. I have a class in twenty. Do you want me to send you a message with Mr. Cardigan's number?"

A proximity check was all I needed. I sent a message to Vaunt's ChirpNet account with my contact details.

—Sure, darling. If you need to contact me, just use ChirpNet,— I sent to Vaunt.

—Who's that?— NotABug asked.

—That's Vaunt, my new employee. Oh, drat. That means I need to make another call to Coco.—

NotABug sent a playful chirp and followed it up with a hug.

—That will make 'Bee happy. She was asking if she could make more money a little earlier. I think she's getting bored just doing that. Perhaps Byte could find her a number-related game to play?—

—Might be a good idea. Oh, I have some good news for Bitwise. Chef Soba said she can start tomorrow, and she can work there as long as she does the work.—

—That's great news. I'll let her know.—

It didn't take long before I heard scampering hooves out in the boutique. Vaunt was still staring at her phone (likely trying to work out how I'd sent the message to her) when Bitwise raced past her and bounced around me like a lamb.

—Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! That's awesome!— Bitewise sent.

—Out loud, dear. We have a new friend present,— I sent.

"Mooooom! I can't believe Chef Soba and Kit said yes! This is the best day ever!"

Reaching out a hoof I caught her up and hugged Bitwise to calm her. She was still practically buzzing, so I leaned down and nuzzled at her cheek.

"You're going to have to work hard for them. They'll be in charge, you understand?" I asked.

Bitwise seemed to notice Vaunt for the first time and chirped a little in surprise. I chirped back to comfort her and because I felt chirpy (a near constant state of late).

Lifting her head from her phone, Vaunt stared at me with a mixture of confusion and surprise.

"How'd you send that? You didn't touch a phone."

"You're going to find, Miss Vaunt, that there are a lot of things that will be hard to explain here," I said. "This, however, is one of the simpler ones. I have a phone inside me."

Vaunt looked like she was about to question it, that she would challenge this magical pony-like bug about such a mundane thing. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"You know what? That's not the craziest thing I've dealt with today. Okay, I'll send through my work hours when I get the chance, and if you let me know when this dinner is, I'll try to drag myself away from instant ramen for a night."

Clutching a squirming Bitwise against my front, I turned to bid Vaunt goodbye.

The afternoon, once Bitwise was done bouncing around in excitement, was spent turning my designs into reality. Part of me wanted to invite Rainbow into the back room so she could adjust time further, but ultimately I was sure I could finish the outfits on my own.

I honestly enjoyed having a deadline when it meant I was making my outfits. The outfits had the theme of bright shades on dark—naturally a perfect mix for my daughters and I—and spanned all four seasons of colors.

5:51 P.M.

I was caught completely off-guard as a pair of blue arms caught me up from behind and pulled me into a hug. Being surprised was one thing, but being surprised with a hug, a kiss, and more love than I knew what to do with was romance.

Turning in her grip, I kissed her back as much as I could to keep up with her assault.

"Let's wrap up for the day. You've still got those two eggs at home, and I bet NotABug is going to lay another," Rainbow Dash said.

She was unceremonious about picking me up completely and leaving my work where it sat. Drat but being picked up and carried off by a brute was titillating.

With my only option being squirming, I resorted to magic to pick up the pieces I'd been working on, pack them in a box, and float them behind us as Rainbow carried me out into the store itself.

She stopped right in the middle and twirled in a circle—slowly.

"You're doing it, Rares. This is your boutique, and you're working your cute butt off making outfits for a fashion show," Rainbow Dash said.

I realized she'd never used the word boutique before, and thanks to her calling my butt cute I almost missed it this time. The afternoon had flown by with the soft chirping echoing around the back of my head, but now my work is done for the day, it was time to relax. Leaning up, I kissed Rainbow's chin.

"My derriere is cute?"

"No. I said your butt is cute. But it's attached to a cute tummy, cute chest, cute shoulders, cute neck, and the cutest face I've ever seen."

With a happy chirp I turned a little in her arms so I was on my back. Stretching out, I knew I was behaving much like a cat would under the circumstances, but I was much larger than a cat.

"Rarity, what are you doing?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Getting comfortable, darling, what else?"

With care to ensure my horn didn't poke her, I squirmed to get a little more comfortable.

"What night do you think would be best to have a big dinner at Uma no Sushi? Not before Sunday, of course, but I want to have a night where we all get together, all the Rainbooms too, and just relax," I asked.

"Maybe invite everyone around tonight for some drinks? Your friends will probably want to celebrate getting their house, and it'd be cool to get everyone together. We can try to organize a day then."

Now there was an idea I liked. Gathering up the phone numbers of our friends was simple, though most of them, I noticed, had ChirpNet on their phones. I added Lyra's details to the list, as well as Perdition and Stefanie, then Starling and Bent.

—Hi everyone! Going to have a little soirée tonight to celebrate my first week of owning my own fashion boutique, as well as to get back in touch with you all. Starting as soon as you want to turn up,— I sent to all of them.

It took only a second to get connected to the server, bring up my programming suite, and write something to quickly shunt messages sent to me to the ChirpNet channel I'd just set up and to route back the other way. It was written and running on my phone less than two seconds later.

"Uh, you okay, Rares?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Oops. Let me add you too. There we go. Just setting up a channel to organize tonight."

—Ohhh! You have ChirpNet? Woo! Can I bring someone along? There's room for plus1, right? Please, please, please say yes!!!— Pinkie Pie sent.

—Of course, Pinkie darling. We're on our way home now, does anyone want us to pick up some drinks or food?— I asked.

Messages started rushing in to RSVP. I was quick to get answers flowing out to any questions, but I could hear Rainbow's phone bleeping like crazy while she carried me out to the car with Byte and Bobbin following us.

"Alright, what's up with all the messages?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Simply everyone seems to want to come. We need to stop and get some drinks, but the consensus seems to be to order pizza. What do changelings drink, I wonder?"

"Well, that sake you had didn't seem too much of a problem. Anything else like that should be okay."

Rainbow had a knack of reminding me how smart she actually was every now and again. Just another thing I love about her. Speaking of love, I took a long sip of her love and let out another deep, happy chirp.

With a sigh, Rainbow stopped beside our car and waited for Byte to open the door for her.

"Thanks, Byte," Rainbow Dash said. "And Rares, you can have some more if you want."

The way she said it, I believe, heavily implied that she'd like me to have more. This was going to lead to more eggs, I knew, but I was already perfectly fine with having more nymphs around.

Sitting in the car, I pulled on my human form—opting for a black miniskirt and teal blouse with dark stockings and black high heels—and waited for my prey as she circled the car. With Byte and Bobbin climbing in the back of the car, I leaned across as Rainbow got in and nibbled on her love again.

This time, rather than a simple little slurp, I took a good mouthful of her love and inhaled more still. That sensation I'd come to learn as being an egg forming inside me began, but I felt there was time—plenty of time for us to get some things.

Rainbow shivered and looked across at me with the kind of expression I'd read about in terrible novels meant for women who'd never actually gotten that look. But, I'd gotten that look from Rainbow a few times now—I had no need for those novels.

"You like?" I asked.

"I like, but are we talking about how you make me feel, or how much of your top I can see down?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Both?"

"Both."

We both looked at each other with glee.

"Both is good," we said at the same time.

"What are they talking about?" Bobbin asked.

"They're making a movie reference and flirting," Byte said.

"Oh. Look at bug-mom, she's going to lay another egg tonight."

"Yeah. More little sisters."

Rainbow and I were looking at each other with surprised smiles at hearing our girls chatting. We each turned to look back and startle our girls into a chirp each.

"Hold up," Rainbow Dash said. "Another egg? Do we need to get home fast?"

"No. I think I'm getting a better feel for it. Let's get some drinks and then head home. And, darling, don't drive too fast."

"Pfft. There's no such thing as too fast, but I'll keep under the speed limit—like I almost always do."

I knew she did keep under the speed limit, but it was the speed limit the car registered, and that was often traveling ten times faster than the rest of the world. Could that even be considered in court? I'd have to ask NotABug.

Oh goodness. I'd forgotten to ask NotABug about tonight!

—Darling? Rainbow and I have organized a little party for tonight. Would you like to attend?— I asked.

A small cascade of giggly chirps washed over me before NotABug pulled me into a hug. At the same time, in the real world (though almost in the same time-frame), Rainbow began driving.

—It's at our house?— NotABug asked.

—Sure is. Oh, we can use the cameras and such to interact even if we're not in control at the time. This will work great.—

—Exactly what I was thinking. How did the dressmaking go today? Get everything done you needed to?—

I let out a more dramatic chirp.

—Honestly? I probably could have done more, but it was nice to talk with Vaunt. She's like a younger me. All her years of grinding and pain at Polomare ahead of her, but no more!—

The giggly chirps NotABug sent were like beautiful music.

—My beloved, you really are a fairy godmother.—

The term of endearment surprised me at first, but it was just another way she was growing apart from myself. I'd worried that the parts of me that she'd used when she'd taken up residence would mark her for all time, but that was, apparently, not going to be the case.

—I just want to help everyone. If that means saving them from mistakes I made, I'm happy to do that. Vaunt just… She really feels like I did back then. I don't want her to hurt.—

NotABug kissed me. It wasn't a long, enduring kiss like romance would inspire, but rather a quick and cozy kiss. I let out an appreciative chirp in answer.

—That's just you, Rarity-love. Oh, do you mind if I try out some cute names? I keep wanting to use darling, but that'd confuse everybody, and besides, I want my own,— NotABug said.

—Perfectly fine, darling. Got any others you want to test?—

—I heard Rainbow using Rares, which I wish I'd thought to use first. Maybe I'll just use snookums or snuggle-umkins. Who's coming tonight?—

Rather than list out all the names, I simply sent her an invite to the chat.

—You'll note, Applejack and Pinkie are… Oh goodness, I should have invited Sweetie as well! Applejack and Pinkie are on a relay to texts.—

I quickly pulled Sweetie into the chat too.

—Sweetie, darling, we're having a party tonight. Would you like to come?— I asked.

"I forgot to invite Sweetie," I said.

"Can she make it?" Byte asked.

"I'm asking now."

—Sure! What time?— Sweetie Belle asked.

—Whenever you want to arrive. We're getting some drinks now. Is there anything you'd like?— I asked.

"She said yes," I said.

Byte and Bobbin both chirped in glee—digitally of course.

—You know I can't drink alcohol yet, but I wouldn't mind some OJ,— Sweetie Belle sent.

—OJ it is. I'd planned to get some for mixers anyway. Do you need a lift?—

Rainbow was already moving the car. It was no longer a surprise that she could keep up with me, but it was always a pleasant reminder that she was at least my equal there, if not my superior (what with her ability to literally break physics with a touch).

Time was running slow for us, which meant we were moving very quickly. Did I need to adjust how I talked to suit? How would it work if I made a phone call like this? Then a new worry hit me and was solved again a moment later—how could my phone communicate with the normal world if we were moving at a faster rate? It all worked because I was living with an actual magic girl.

"Sweetie asked if we could get some extra OJ for her," I said.

"Wecanswingbythesupermarket."

"You're talking really fast, darling."

"Sorry. I kinda like driving this thing a little too much, if ya know what I mean."

"It wouldn't be so bad if you gave a little pause between the words. I can understand them just fine."

Was this how language evolved? Conversing faster with Rainbow might be easy for her side of things, but I couldn't exactly make my mouth and throat work faster, could I?

"How's this? Enough of a pause?" Rainbow Dash asked.

The words were still spoken quickly and the pauses between them were barely there, but I could easily understand them with only marginally more focus than normal.

"Sounds perfect, darling. It makes me wonder if I could do something similar?"

—I wouldn't say no. How long will you be?— Sweetie Belle asked.

"Could we pick up Sweetie first?" I asked, trying to speed my speech up.

The car really shouldn't have been able to turn as fast as Rainbow got it to. It was like traffic just froze in place and let her thread through gaps that even a compact car would have struggled to fit, only Rainbow made it look like it was the easiest turn in the world.

"On it."

—We're on our way now and won't be long,— I sent.

It took us just over a minute and ten seconds to reach Sweetie's dorm. The huge building was as nondescript as ever and made me wonder if I couldn't improve on that. Bug Hive dormitory. Sponsored of course, to foster tomorrow's programmers and fashion-forward designers. It wouldn't be cheap, but it should probably wait until we have our own home established. Oh drat, I needed to talk to Coco for that. I'm sure that would be another good income offset.

—We're here, Sweetie,— I sent.

Her head appeared briefly in the window of her dorm-room, and a few seconds later she was running out the door wearing a cute dress I don't remember making for her. It hit me that she'd been shopping without me. The skirt was a pink that matched Sweetie's hair, while she had a blue halter top that I had to admit showed her off well. Too bad the only cute boys at the party were spoken fo—

Rarity, you are a silly bug. What if she's not chasing boys? There are moments in my life where I look back and wonder how stupid I was, even if it was only seconds earlier.

Climbing in the car, Sweetie had plenty of room since both the girls in the back seat had turned back to their adorable, buggy selves.

"Byte! Bobbin! Come here for some hugs!" Sweetie Belle said.

I hadn't realized Sweetie had met Bobbin, but the two seemed to know each other well enough. How much were our girls getting up to while I was at work or otherwise engaged? Though, under the circumstances, I couldn't complain about the company they kept.

"That dress looks great on you, dear. How has class been?" I asked.

Fumbling for her seat belt while Byte and Bobbin sat on her lap, Sweetie seemed distracted hugging the girls.

"Kids, in your own seats before I'm leaving," Rainbow Dash said.

The two jumped out of Sweetie's lap with a pair of disgruntled chirps before they flashed green one after the other, and fastened their own belts.

Rainbow had been waiting for the third click that was Byte's belt locking home. Time fell into that strange warp again and the car leapt forward under her guidance.

"N-New car?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Yeah! Isn't it great?" Rainbow Dash asked.

The drive home, punctuated by a brief stop at a supermarket to get drinks, was brief and I noticed how much Rainbow smiled as she climbed out of the car. While Sweetie and the girls carried the drinks inside, I walked around the car to ambush Rainbow with a hug.

Pulling her against me, I turned so my back was to the car and let her lean over me. The shock in her eyes quickly turned wolfish, and she claimed a quick kiss.

"What's this about?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Not that I'm complaining."

"You love the speed of the electric car, but every time we get home I see you look at your car with a guilty expression. You love how it looks."

She sighed and dipped her head forward. If she didn't have her eyes closed, she'd have a great view of my chest. That she did have her eyes closed told me I'd hit the nail on the head.

"I do. It's just so right, but it can't hope to keep up with an electric. Not straight-line, and not around corners. I want the best of both."

Stretching up as tall as I could, I kissed the top of her forehead.

"Why don't you buy another old car, and buy some of these electric ones, and see about building an old electric car?" I asked.

Rainbow's head jerked up so fast she almost conked me on the jaw. Her eyes were wide and she stared into my own with an intensity that had me breathless. Peripherally, I watched as her wings shot out and flared up and a pair of cute ears twitched atop her head.

"Now, if'n Ah didn't know better, you'd just said somethin' real dirty to her."

Both of us snapped our heads to the side to see Applejack climbing out of a hot-pink topless Jeep. Pinkie's topless Jeep. Pinkie, of course, was walking up behind Applejack with a guy practically glued to her hip.

Applejack was wearing her usual attire—a pair of worn-in jeans, a tank top, and a flannelette shirt over it with the bottom edges tied together under her chest. I knew she wore a bra under it, but I had to give her credit; that look was a stunning mix of country and hot. A big pair of knee-high boots just completed the ensemble perfectly.

Pinkie Pie, as tradition would dictate, was wearing pink. A large and full set of pink skirts that puffed out from just above her knees. Knee-high pink and blue striped socks, a pink blouse, and a pair of pink shoes finished off her outfit.

Beside Pinkie, however, was a guy. He had a mess of brownish hair that was a clear contender for a Most Frizzy and Uncontrollable Hair award and stacked up well with Pinkie's. He had orange skin that clashed with Pinkie's everything something fierce, and he wore a pair of multi-color (tie dye, I believe) pants that looked excessively baggy and a yellow polo shirt.

He was, without a doubt, the most discordant collection of person and clothing I think I've ever seen, but all my efforts at hating him died when he looked at Pinkie and Pinkie looked back. There was a connection there that spoke volumes about the two of them. He looked like he'd won the lottery, and Pinkie looked like she'd won first prize in a cupcake eating contest (something I'd witnessed, so knew the look).

"Rarity!" Pinkie Pie said.

She left the man's side and rushed over to hug Rainbow and myself tighter than—well, anything that's ever hugged me tight.

"Rainbow! I can't believe you finally got together! This is amazing!" Pinkie Pie said.

She gasped and jumped back from us, moving quickly to get to the man's side.

"This is Cheese Sandwich! Isn't he the funniest ever?!" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Hello," Cheese Sandwich said.

He sounded only slightly different from Pinkie's older sister—who was so deadpan it almost hurt to hear her. For a fraction of a second I wondered if she'd found a man just like her sister, when Cheese collapsed into laughter.

"I just can't do it!" Cheese Sandwich said. "Cheese Sandwich, at your service. Put 'er there!"

Thrusting his hand out, I could see there was a joy-buzzer in it. Well, of course Pinkie Pie would settle on someone every bit as outlandish as she was herself. This guy seemed perfectly suited to her, even if he wasn't perfectly suited himself.

I reached my hand out to him and made ready. If he liked laughing, let's see how he reacts to this.

"Rarity. Charmed, I'm sure," I said.

As his hand touched mine, I was ready for the jolting buzz, though it still surprised me. I jumped in place a little, focused on Cheese Sandwich, and let my magic roll over me. It burned away the ivory, feminine form and left behind… tie-dyed pants, a yellow polo shirt, and an orange-skinned and brown haired man. Well, not completely. Some things I was not willing to do for the sake of humor.

He stared at me. Pinkie stared at me. Applejack definitely stared at me.

Rainbow Dash, bless her heart, broke into gales of laughter, which drew their attention onto her.

"Oh man! That's the best prank I've ever seen!" Rainbow Dash said. "Okay, okay. Now do Applejack!"

Well, I couldn't very well say no to Rainbow. She was the one who'd fill me back up after burning off a little energy. Applejack took only a little study before I was confident I could duplicate her. Wanting to be a less garish mix of colors, I was only too happy to let my magic wash through me and remake me in Applejack's image.

"Well?" I asked.

"That's actually pretty darned good. Ah assume you've got a good explanation fer all this?" Applejack asked.

"No! You're not doing the accent right!" Pinkie Pie said.

I cleared my throat.

"Well shucks, sugarcube," I said. "Do ya think this here is better?"

"Ah don't talk like that."

"You totally do," Rainbow Dash said.

"Mmhmm! She's got you," Pinkie Pie said.

Okay. Since I had them more interested in my transforming as fun, time to go one further. Pinkie Pie was the essence of—well—Pinkie Pie. She was hyper energy and at least six-hundred percent at all times. Her form was easy enough, even her dress and hair, but it was Pinkie Pie's voice that would be the problem.

Another rush of magic and I looked just like Pinkie, right down to her striped socks and little fluffy fringe of hair that always looked like someone had used a spoon to scoop her hair onto her head.

I cleared my throat again.

"Hi there! Do you want to come—" I said, then adjusted my voice to normal. "I can't do it. You're too… you."

Trying, however, earned me another hug from Pinkie. It was odd to hug her as herself, and I could see confusion in Cheese's eyes as he watched us both.

I wrapped my arms more firmly about Pinkie's shoulders and spun us around as quickly as I could. Pinkie laughed, so I mimicked her laugh as best I could. By the time we stopped, we both turned to face Cheese.

"So," Pinkie Pie said. "Which one of us is the real Pinkie P—"

Cheese moved quickly but not quickly enough that I couldn't dodge him. He'd been making to grab me and kiss me, but was left laughing instead.

"That was eeeeeasy!" Cheese Sandwich said. "Pinkie doesn't dodge my kisses!"

"Nope!" Pinkie Pie said.

He proved his case by grabbing Pinkie and soundly kissing her. They fit together so well I had to reevaluate Cheese completely.

"So what's the deal, Rarity?" Applejack asked.

"Probably easiest if I just show you. Well, here goes nothing," I said.

Nervous. Despite all that'd happened and everything I'd been through, I was nervous. I chirped a little (digitally) in worry and began using my magic to strip away Pinkie's form.

—Are you okay?— NotABug asked.

—I'm just a little nervous about showing my friends… me.—

As my magic burned away the image of Pinkie Pie, I hugged NotABug and let her chirping wash over me. My legs changed to back legs and I fell forward onto my forelegs. Buzzy (and I must say cute) wings sprouted from my back, and I saw the emotions of my friends much easier.

"This is me," I said.

"Oh! My! Gosh! You're so cute!" Pinkie Pie said.

Somehow, despite every advantage I should have had over her, Pinkie caught me by surprise and I was picked up and hugged. What felt like a cloud of cotton candy enveloped me. It wasn't exactly the same as the love I got from Rainbow—it was more a companionable love. It was tempting to try a nibble, but I was firmly of the belief that Rainbow's was the love for me. Besides, if it had the same effect on Pinkie as my feeding did on Rainbow, it could lead to more embarrassment than I could stand.

"Pinkie! She's not a pet. That's Rarity," Rainbow Dash said. "And be careful of her horn. It's sharp and sensitive."

In all our time together—since first meeting Pinkie Pie—I had to wonder if Rainbow Dash had ever had a moment when telling her not to do something had actually worked. Of course Pinkie reached up to my horn with one hand. I held as still as could be and tried to think about boring things as she ran a finger all the way from the base to my horn's tip.

"You're right about the sharpness. I could cut food with this!" Pinkie Pie said.

"You are not cutting up food with my horn," I said. "Pinkie, please put me down."

She pouted. It took all my willpower to stare down my friend, but after a few hesitant sighs she put me on the ground again.

Tilting my head up, I smiled at Pinkie.

"Thank you, dear," I said. "Come inside. I'm sure the girls will love to meet you."

"Girls? Who else is here?" Applejack asked.

With Rainbow walking at my side and our friends (I considered Cheese Sandwich a friend so long as Pinkie Pie did) behind us, I used my magic to open the door.

"Our daughters," Rainbow Dash said.

"Mom!" Bitwise said.

We became the target of the most wonderful cavalry charge of all time. Even Byte and Bobbin, who'd been with us most of the day, came galloping to the door.

Rainbow tried to shoo them away from the doorway, but her efforts were hampered when she leaned down and picked up 'Bee, Beta, and Bitwise. I gave Byte and Bobbin a kiss on the snout each.

"Inside! Let us in!" Rainbow Dash said.

Moon was sitting on the couch inside, talking with Lyra, Stefanie, and Perdition. Starling looked a little lost, while her father poked his head out of the kitchen. I opened my mouth to say hello to everyone, when I felt the urge a lot stronger this time. The urge to create an egg.

"Excuse me, everyone, I have a quick matter to take care of," I said.

I quickly made my way to the room with the computers—that also was serving time as an impromptu hatchery. With an escort of Byte and Bobbin, I made my way to where two eggs already sat.

—I don't feel like I need to make one tonight,— NotABug sent.

—Something to do with the size of the last one, maybe?— I asked.

—Maybe. Perhaps we should keep using computers.—

—It's probably a good idea. I wonder why the smaller egg didn't hatch yet?—

—What are you going to use?— Byte asked.

—A computer, dear. One of the boxed ones will do. We need to order more of those,— I sent.

—I'll get on that,— NotABug sent.

Byte flashed with magic and resumed her human shape. Deftly, she began unboxing the computer tower and barely got it on the floor before I felt the egg coming.

Reaching out to the cold and quiet computer, I felt the potential for life swell inside me and then slip into the machine. A moment after I'd finished depositing the egg I realized it was the first time I'd done it with powered down hardware.

The new egg had swelled out and bulged the computer chassis, causing bits and pieces of it to warp while other parts had a soft green glow.

"What 'n Tarnation was that? Did you just make that computer into some kinda egg?" Applejack asked from behind me.

Silly me, I wasn't using my cameras. The house was suddenly known to me. I could see Pinkie sitting on the couch with Beta on her lap, chatting away. I could see 'Bee sitting up and talking programming with Moon, Lyra, Stefanie, and Perdition. In the kitchen Bent and Bitwise were cooking, and in the room behind me Applejack, Cheese, Rainbow, and Sweetie were standing—the latter two with huge grins on their faces.

I was about to reply to Applejack when I heard a crack. Unlike with the phone-eggs or even the console-egg, this one was a loud cracking sound as the big egg that NotABug had laid the previous day started to break apart.

Byte kneeled beside the egg and left room for me. I walked around the newest one to peek into the shell that had broken.

—Is she out yet?— an unregistered ID asked.

—Almost. Who's this?— I asked.

—I didn't want to leave her alone, so I stayed in here. She's really out?—

I watched as Byte carefully lifted the big nymph free of the egg. She looked almost twice the size of a phone-born nymph, and looked around with wide eyes.

—She is. I think she's looking for you,— I sent.

A second cracking sound drew everyone's attention to the smaller egg. It cracked, shook, and then a nymph actually jumped out of it and wiggled herself to get rid of bits of shell.

—Where is she? I want to hug her.—

"Byte, I think someone wants to see her sister," I said.

"Yeah. I heard her too. Here," Byte said. "This is your big sister."

The size difference was massive. The two newly hatched nymphs nuzzled and rubbed noses with each other while Byte picked them both up and brought them closer to me.

—I think it's your turn, Darling,— I sent NotABug.

—Mine and Rainbow's. And don't you dare groan,— NotABug sent.

Deciding to simplify things, I nudged NotABug to the fore and felt her smoothly take control. I won't lie, particularly not to myself, that it's a relief sometimes when I give her control of our body. The weight of a whole day spent fighting SuriGo's monsters and working to keep my boutique the most fashionable new retail outlet in town fell from my shoulders and I let out the most relieved chirp of the week.

A Friday had been conquered.

"They're beautiful," Pinkie Pie said.

NotABug turned to look up at her and smiled before looking back and nuzzling the two nymphs. I stayed close enough to the surface to feel their touch. Joy washed away any hint of stress.

"Rainbow?" NotABug asked.

On the cameras I watched Rainbow work her way into the room and beside NotABug. She crouched her tall frame down to be almost at the same height too. One of her hands reached out to brush the shoulder of one nymph, then they both turned to her.

They knew Rainbow Dash was their mother. The joy and excitement that registered in their eyes was unmistakable.

"Sup, you little cuties?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Pretty sure it's my turn to pick a name again, right, NotABug?"

NotABug stretched her neck up to nuzzle Rainbow's jaw. As she did, she had a little nibble and let out a happy sigh.

—Who wants to get their name first?— I asked our newest additions.

The little one nudged at her big sister and chirped.

"Awesome. You're first, then?" Rainbow Dash asked, and got another chirp. "It might be a little cliché to call such a big girl as you this, but I've actually been thinking about it—there's a lot of B words."

If she wasn't going to get on with it, I was going to—

"Bantam. It means small and spirited," Rainbow Dash said.

I was surprised at her choice. A quick search online revealed her to be correct, and she was right about having a bigger bug being called small as being a suitable trope for children's names.

—Bantam? I like it!— Bantam said.

She chirped loudly, digitally, and bounced in place excitedly.

—Dear, you need to speak out loud. Not everyone here can hear you like this,— I sent.

—Why not?—

—She doesn't have a connection yet.—

—Yet?—

—We don't know how to make it work for other people.—

—Oh!—

"Sorry. Other-Mom said I need to speak out loud. I really like my name!" Bantam said.

—You're other-mom, I see,— NotABug sent.

—Apparently. What does that make you?— I asked.

—She's Other-Other-Mom!— Bantam sent.

"Oh. I meant to say you're Other-Other-Mom," Bantam said.

"And what am I?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"You're Mom!"

"What about me? What's my name?" the unnamed nymph asked.

"Bespoke," NotABug said. "Perfectly created and a one-of-a-kind."

Bespoke chirped excitedly and bounced around.

—I've got more sisters?— Moon Dancer asked.

—Yup!— Byte sent.

The happy chirps that Moon Dancer made would have had me smiling had I been in control of our body at the time. They joined the general constant background chirp that having so many adorable and happy bugs together invariably caused.

For once, I spotted a car pull up in front of the house before there was a knock at the door. Sunset and Flash got out together while Twilight climbed out of the back seat. Then another Twilight got out of the other side.

Now I was chirping in excitement and couldn't contain myself. As they approached the front door, another car arrived only to disgorge Fluttershy and Maud.

—Starling, we have more guests arriving. Two car loads and they're all expected,— I sent to Starling.

Starlings movements were slow, but she did pull out her phone and then looked up at one of the security cameras.

"Thanks for the heads-up, boss," Starling said.

She walked to the front door, peeked outside and opened the door only when Flash and Sunset reached the door. Stepping to the side, she held the door open.

"Come on in. Everyone's inside."

—Remind me again to give you a raise, darling,— I sent to Starling.

Again, a moment later, she checked her phone and I saw her smile as her fingers started tapping a reply.

—Just pay me whatever you think I'm worth,— Starling sent.

—I don't have that much money,— I sent.

I watched Starling crack up laughing as she read my last message. It was good to see her so happy. From my perfect memory, I pulled up still images of her still under SuriGo's influence.

—Are you okay?— NotABug asked.

—Yes, darling, I just reminded myself of why I'm fighting SuriGo. Did I chirp things out again?—

—Yup!—

NotABug wrapped me in a warm, digital hug and layered on wave after wave of reassuring chirping that our daughters seemed to pick up on and join in with. With such weight of reassurance, I couldn't help but chirp back how much they meant to me.

It didn't surprise me that Moon's chirps were part of the chant, or that she'd been so excited to have new sisters. I still couldn't fully pin down my feelings for her—my heart said quite clearly that she was my daughter, and my head was split between agreeing with my heart and making sure she had the room to be an adult in her own right.

Snuggling with all the reassurance, however, it was impossible for me to remain focused on SuriGo and other problems. I chirped along with the others and opened up my programming tools, only to find a special chat open up as well. I scanned the backlog of messages and found Perdition, Stefanie, Moon Dancer, Lyra, and 'Bee having spent half the day chatting and working on code together.

They'd produced about as much code as I'd make in about ten minutes, but a quick glance revealed Stefanie's in particular to be serious bugfixes for exploits I hadn't even realized were there. One of their conversations centered around bounties.

—We're not going to find all the exploits. We could never do that,— Perdition sent.

—Right. We need to talk to Rarity and NotABug about a bug bounty program. We need ways for people to report bugs, have them evaluated, and get paid for doing it,— Stefanie sent.

The messages were over an hour old, but I figured it was a good time to bring it up.

—How would we go about this bug bounty?— I asked that special chat.

—I think there's some off-the-shelf tools for doing that. Using those would make it seem more standard, and be easier for people to interact with,— Moon Dancer sent.

It didn't surprise me Moon was the first to reply, she was miles ahead of anyone in the chat except for myself and 'Bee.

—That's why you're payin' us,— Perdition sent.

A little chirpy giggle came from NotABug. I fired back a curious chirp.

—I added a grammar checker to his client. It's a toggle that silently fixes everything he types in. He hasn't complained about it,— NotABug sent privately.

—We should promote that as a feature. Allow people to just turn it on and off themselves?— I asked.

—That would be a good idea. Perhaps a feature would be to allow others to prod you to enable it?—

—Or just allow them to enable it on anything you send to them.—

—Why not both?—

We chirped to each other.

—Well, would you care to write up a proposal? What sort of budget do you foresee? How do we go about doing this as efficiently as possible?— I asked the group chat.

—It depends if you want to look to be running a bug bounty, or if you actually want to do it. We could just pay someone else to manage all the details, but Perd is right, you're paying us to do that. Well, paying him. As an idea, you're probably looking at between a few hundred and twenty thousand per bug. People who do this are doing it for a living, and you want to encourage them to do it for you as a living, because that means they're not doing it for someone else,— Stefanie sent.

—So it's like contracting people to find our mistakes rather than letting them do it freelance?— I asked.

—Basically, yeah. We decide how much they get for finding what, we pay it out when they give us the bugs. That's important, though. If you burn these people, you'll never recover from it,— Perdition sent.

—Perd, Rarity hasn't backstabbed anyone, even when you were pulling your shit with the LOIC she kept her mouth shut. Hell, she's even keeping quiet about whatever she did with the cops today, and I know that wasn't selling our asses out, so don't start that again.— Stefanie sent.

I turned my attention to programming and decided on our feature idea to work on while they argued about my integrity.

—I know that, I'm just saying we need to be ****ing careful with this,— Perdition sent. —Did that spelling thing just censor me?—

—I'm working on something more reasonable now. Sorry, Perdition, I have a thing about grammar,— I sent.

—That's cool. I like how it makes me look smarter, but when I wanna swear, I wanna swear.—

I almost told him he didn't need help to make him look smarter, but it occurred to me that in this instance it did make him more acceptable. But at the same time he should have more control over it.

Learning. The grammar engine would need to learn each person's desired style and not only adapt to them but try to teach them. Automated and suggested changes. This was not a simple problem.

I paused. This was a big problem, and I definitely wasn't the first person to ever encounter it. So I searched, and discovered there was nothing so humbling as finding out that no one had actually done this before. There was plenty of spelling correction software, practically every chat application used it, but rarely was grammar looked at.

Time for that to change.

6:39 P.M.

—Rarity, this is a party you organized,— NotABug sent.

I didn't so much jerk awake as mentally blink away the narrow focus I'd been in. I hadn't even spent an hour coding before I was spiraled down that rabbit hole. I chirped and saved my session, then climbed out of my coding mindset to hug NotABug.

The taste of something delicious sliding over our tongue perked me up more. I stretched out from depths of my programming and had a moment of looking around to familiarize myself with the situation.

Rainbow and Fluttershy were singing karaoke, Sunset was talking to both Twilights, and Sweetie Belle was talking excitedly with Lyra Heartstrings. There were more sounds coming from inside the house—My brain registered that we were outside in the yard, and Starling was sitting beside me and chatting with Stefanie. Inside, some of our girls were playing computer games together, while Flash, Pinkie, Bantam, and Cheese were playing a game on the game console in the living room while Bespoke watched.

I was halfway through composing a reply to NotABug when I felt her nudge me forward. I wasn't quite ready for it, which left me feeling like I'd just dived into a sea of sensation. I felt all the places a body had nerves, and it left me gasping with surprise.

—Sorry, I thought you were ready,— NotABug sent.

A few worried chirps left NotABug, chirps that I replied to with love and reassurance in my own digital emotions.

—Quite alright, darling. I was just taking a look around the house and you caught me by surprise.—

"Are you alright, NotABug?" Stefanie asked. "You looked spaced-out there."

"That probably means she and Rarity swapped again," Starling said.

I nodded and stretched my neck and wings, then gave my tail a few little swishes. A quick assessment found my body to be in full buggy order.

"Yes, indeed. I think my darling was just a little tired. NotABug's been pushing herself over the last several days. She's attempting to take the bar exam."

Stefanie looked a little confused while Starling nodded and lifted a can of light beer to her lips and took a long sip. That's when I realized most of us were drinking something, and when I looked to my side I saw a glass of something fruity on the outdoor table beside me.

"You're, uh…" Stefanie said. "I mean, I knew you and Rainbow were a thing, but isn't NotABug kinda part of you?"

Ah! That's what had her. I just smiled in response and came up with a good way to describe it.

"That's an interesting story in itself. NotABug fell for Rainbow before I did. Well, the other way around…" I said.

Okay, I didn't plan that out as well as I'd hoped. When it came time to say what I'd thought, I thought about it more and confused myself.

"What I mean to say is, Rainbow always had a thing for me, then NotABug took up residence in our—my—body, she wanted to try everything. Everything included Rainbow. With the two of them doing things together, I got to see a side of Rainbow—and a side of myself—I'd never seen before," I said. "And then I fell head over heels for the both of them."

"You just keep making things a little stranger, you know that?" Stefanie said.

Her tone of voice was more vibrant than her words would otherwise have hinted. Stefanie lifted her glass toward me in a salute and took a long sip from it.

Deciding I might as well try my drink, I used my magic to levitate the glass up and took a sip. There was surprisingly little sweetness to it. There was a dark, spicy taste that dominated and was uplifted by a more crystalline and pure, but sharp, note. Sipping more, I found myself taking a long sip of the drink.

"What is this?" I asked.

"White rum, spiced rum, and vodka, with just a hint of cola," Starling said. "NotABug and Rainbow played around with spirits earlier to get something that tasted good. I tried a sip and almost fell over."

"It's delicious," I said. "How many have I—we—had?"

"NotABug knocked back three of those so far. If they were affecting her at all, I couldn't see it."

"Yeah," Stefanie said, "guess alcohol just doesn't hit you, huh?"

I sniffed the drink and tipped it back. The spicy-sharp flavor saturated my palate again and I shivered a little at how nice it was. There was not a single after-effect of drinking in my perception at all. My face didn't tingle, time didn't feel stretched, and I wasn't inclined to laugh more than normal (all standard tipsy-Rarity fare, before I became a changeling).

Opening my mouth to comment on how I wasn't feeling any of it, I noticed movement on the front door camera. A young woman was carrying the biggest stack of pizza boxes I'd ever seen.

"Food's here, I think. You ordered pizza?" I asked.

A flash of rainbow light blurred past us and through the house. The cameras' framerate wasn't nearly good enough to catch more than the tail-end of Rainbow's run. She reached the front door and had it open before the delivery girl even managed to knock.

Fluttershy, walking in Rainbow's wake, came over and looked at me with rampant curiosity in her eyes. I could have easily brought up all the interactions she'd had with NotABug—the recordings that is—but I'd rather be myself with her. She looked, apart from the aforementioned curiosity, radiant.

"Evening, darling, you're looking wonderful tonight. Sorry about not saying hello earlier, I was letting NotABug have a little relaxation time."

For a moment Fluttershy looked confused, then a smile broke out across her face.

"Rarity? Oh! Rainbow introduced you as NotABug before, and I—I still can't get my head around it."

—Perhaps we should give some kind of cue to our friends so they know who they're talking to? Perhaps something to do with our mane?— I asked.

I was, to be honest, a little surprised to get no reply. When I chirped toward NotABug, I realized what the problem was—she was asleep.

"Quite alright, dear. Perhaps we could start doing something with our mane to remind people who is who?"

"It's alright, Rarity. I'll figure it out. I just don't get to see much of you lately, what with living out of the city. I love being around all my furry friends, and Maud, but I miss spending time with all of you."

"Food's ready!" Rainbow Dash said from inside.

"P-Perhaps we could have parties like this regularly? It's nice to get to know all your new friends and—and children!" Fluttershy said.

The last few words had come out in a rush, and I could see a deep blush on her cheeks.

"I think it's a wonderful idea. How regularly do you think?" I asked.

As it turned out, I needed the party to unwind more than I'd thought. It was a surprise that alcohol had no effect on me, but it hardly seemed like it would be a problem. Fluttershy's idea found traction with everyone I spoke to, and we decided that every two weeks we'd meet for drinks and to catch up with each other.

Things had progressed steadily from awkward reveals, to introductions, and finally catching everyone up on all the little details of life for the past several weeks. All interspersed with the consumption of alcohol by those of age. Eventually, however, the night drew to a close and I found myself wishing my friends good night as they each left.

1:53 A.M.

"You really packed those drinks away," Rainbow Dash said.

We were cleaning up—that is to say I was picking things up with my magic and sending them where they needed to be, while Rainbow slumped in one of the chairs in the living room. She'd packed her share of drinks away too, and while her metabolism was probably faster than a normal human's, she definitely looked like she'd had her fill.

Not that I begrudged her having a few drinks.

"Rainbow, you're drunk," I said.

I climbed up onto the couch with her and set my head in her lap. When her hand came down and stroked from just behind my horn to my shoulders, I found myself chirping in buggy bliss.

"It took some work, but I think you're right, Rares."

Squirming, I turned to my side so my neck was pressed to her belly and my horn projected off the couch. It let me look up at her with one eye while she could still pet me. I didn't need to see Rainbow's face to know she loved me, but it was what I wanted to see.

She didn't look as drunk as she sounded, but Rainbow was smiling a little wider than normal—that could be for other reasons, too.

"Do you want me to carry you to the bedroom?" I asked.

"Pfft. Nah. I got my girls right here. Don' need bedroom. 'Sides, I…"

Rainbow's head tilted to the side and her mouth gaped open as consciousness fled her. What surprised me was her hand kept moving along my mane.

Ensuring I was comfortable, I used my magic to turn the lights off. The soft glow of a handful of charging devices and other assorted LEDs lit the room in muted reds, greens, and blues. All my dreams, however, would be rainbow-hued.

Author's Note

Stefanie & Perdition: Now that you have met Rarity the "Bug Queen" what are your thoughts on her? You did not seem to surprised she was not human, or was that due to lack of sleep?

"There was lotta little thing, ya know? When our servers got hit, Stef went over logs," Perdition said.

"The logs showed something messed up was going on when Rarity replied within milliseconds of as saying somethin'. She was either a chatbot, which neither of us believed, or she was somethin' else." Stefanie shrugged her shoulders. "So we went into all this with a good idea she wasn't human."

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Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (I am sorry for all those commas. I am looking into stopping that!)

Chapter 25

8:02 A.M.

Waking up to find myself walking around and making breakfast wasn't strange, and it hadn't been strange since saving NotABug's life. I yawned mentally and stretched out in our head.

—Good morning,— I sent.

I was beset by chirping and hugs from NotABug, the former of which were both digital and real-life. Hoping to give as good as I was getting, I squeezed her back and chirped along as well.

—Sleep well?— NotABug asked.

Flicking through the exterior cameras, then the interior ones, I caught sight of Rainbow doing push-ups in the living room; NotABug standing in the kitchen with Bitwise; Moon, Lyra, and almost the rest of our girls in the computer room playing games, and I noticed Starling leaving the bathroom looking far greener than Rainbow.

Rainbow Dash, I knew, was a morning person. Not only that, but she also didn't get hungover except from the most heavy drinking, which is why she was presently doing push-ups in the living room as if she hadn't passed out drunk on the couch.

—Yeah. I was up a little late, but I don't feel any worse for it. Sleeping-in helped.—

—You don't mind if I eat breakfast? I want to spend some time with Rainbow and the girls.—

Hugging her a little tighter and chirping my reassurance, I reached out to start checking the internet for the daily news.

—Of course not. You've been so busy all week. That's why I was letting you have some social time last night. Enjoy breakfast, I'll see what happened while I slept.—

—Oh, Coco wants to meet us.—

If I was in control of a heart right then, it might have skipped a beat. I really shouldn't associate Coco with being a problem—she was actually the opposite—but it was still a reminder of how little I knew about business every time I met her.

—Did she say what about?—

—No. Just said she'll be visiting for lunch.—

"Alright, Bitwise, you ready for work?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—Work!— Bitwise sent. —I've gotta go!—

She sounded so flustered, panicked chirps echoing around the room and chat.

—Say it out loud, dear, and calm down. Rainbow will get you there in time,— I sent.

"I'm ready!" Bitwise said.

"Great. I feel like a bit more of a run, and figured it would mean you get there on time."

Rainbow picked Bitwise up and supported our daughter with one arm while she walked back through the house to the front door. But when she walked, time bent and twisted around her.

With the sound of Bitwise's chirping disappearing into the distance, I let NotABug get back to cooking while I checked up on various chats.

The programming chat was packed full of more conversation, mostly between Stefanie and Perdition, talking about what service to use to run our bug bounty on, and how to respond to reports. Should it surprise me that they chatted like this when they could be talking out loud to each other? No, of course not.

I really needed to work out how to give people their own mobile links.

Camera footage showed Byte and Co. had been playing games for an hour. I breezed through the time they all spent together, listening to them chirp and chat aloud. They were good girls to keep Lyra included in their chatter.

I brought back up my work from the previous night and started working. It needed to be interactive and graphical, showing people what they were doing wrong and giving them the chance to revert any changes before sending. It needed to learn from such preferences, and it needed to just work for the majority of people who would use it.

Working mostly on the interface element, I left the engine itself for last. The plan, of course, was to make it modular too, which meant I had to make a common set of hooks for the interface to offer to the engine, as well as for the engine to connect to the interface.

—Hey! You're awake? Anyway, I got something for you to look at. Here,— Perdition sent.

A document file accompanied his message. Opening it, I found a most astounding thing—it looked professionally written and impeccably typed. Was this really Perdition's work? Reading through it took moments for me. It wasn't going to be cheap, but I was meeting Coco today. This was something to show her about why we needed a more substantial budget.

—This is good work, Perdition. I'll be meeting with our CEO over lunch and I'll show her this. I can't see any reason why this won't go ahead. You'll be in charge of it, of course,— I sent.

—You're not the big boss? Wait, you mentioned someone…?—

While we were chatting, I compiled my input system and put together a beta version of the client, then sent it to Perdition.

—Yes. Coco knows a lot more about business than I could ever hope to want to learn. I'll be meeting her very shortly, actually. Try this. I put together a new interface for the grammar engine. It should let you undo the swear word filter. Eventually it will be a learning system, but I haven't had time to do that yet.—

—Your daughter tried to explain to me last night how you get all this money. You know, Stefanie is so much smarter than me when it comes to actually finding and exploiting bugs, but damn that kid knows shit on a whole other level,— Perdition sent. —Oh, and this new update fuckin' rocks. Nice work.—

I reflected on that being the longest message I'd ever seen him send, and it was about meeting 'Bee. Well, it had to be 'Bee.

11:33 A.M.

It was getting close to midday, not that I was getting antsy to meet with Coco, but now that I had verifiable proof that our new hires were already producing good work, I felt much better about talking to her about my idea for a student residence under the company's name.

More complication. More family. I brought all this upon myself. Where was the happy young woman who worked late every day at Polomare fashion, lived alone, and made a little time to see her friends once a week?

That was the crux of things, wasn't it? Now I was living my life, not one dictated to me by corporate culture. Okay, sure I'm starting my own corporation, but it was far better than anything Polomare was capable of. For a start it had chirping.

—I have some things I need you to look over. Our new hires are already doing good work,— I sent to Coco, along with Perdition's report.

—You're welcome,— I sent to Perdition.

—Rarity? You're done with your work?— NotABug asked.

Wrapping NotABug up in a hug, I chirped lovingly to her.

—Yes, darling, all done with that until Perdition breaks it. If he can't ruin all my hard work, I'll start slow roll-out of it to the test client. How was your morning?— I asked.

—Reaffirming. I hadn't realized how much time I was spending on all this law study. It was nice to play some games with our girls and make a cute skirt.—

I chirped loudly in surprise.

—You made a skirt? Can I see it?— I asked.

—You can just look at the footage if you want.—

—Darling, that's not the same as watching you try it on. I want to see you wearing it. Please?—

—Alright. We have a little time before Coco is due to arrive.—

Sliding my awareness forward further, I realized NotABug was sitting on the couch with Bobbin brushing our mane. The feel of the brush slowly working through our silken hair was heavenly, and I had a great temptation to tell NotABug to cancel the dress reveal in favor of more brushing.

"Rarity wants to see the dress I made," NotABug said.

Bobbin, currently shapechanged to a human form to hold the brush, gasped in excitement.

"Does she want to see what I made?" Bobbin asked.

—You made something, dear?— I asked.

Chirping excitedly (and digitally), Bobbin dropped the brush on the couch and ran for the hallway. NotABug barely got to her hooves before Bobbin was back wearing a pretty teal blouse. The shirt was of a light fabric and a loose cut that nonetheless showed off the curves of her chest well.

—What do you think?— Bobbin asked.

—That looks wonderful, dear. I could have sworn I didn't have any teal cotton,— I said.

—We went for a drive,— NotABug said.

—We got all kinds of pretty colors, Mom. Come and see!— Bobbin said.

—Lead on, Miss Bug, and don't you dare push me in front. I want to see you wearing the skirt you made,— I sent.

NotABug chirped in excitement and walked down to ~~my~~—our—sewing room.

When she'd said "all kinds of pretty colors", I hadn't expected there to be two dozen new bolts of cloth in the room. I was already chirping, but this made me go above and beyond.

—Darlings! This is wonderful!— I sent.

Full of chirps, NotABug shapechanged, but not into anything approaching my form. She became a slim, charcoal skin-toned woman with a modest chest and slight hips. Her hair wasn't the same silk we normally wore as a changeling, but rather a shock of white that was cut into a short and spiky—almost masculine cut. I found myself rather approving of the look as a whole, though it was heavily monochromatic in nature. That just meant it would go with almost anything, of course.

—Is this you?— I asked.

—Yes. I just felt this was more how I am. I know it's not like you are, but we're not exactly the same,— NotABug sent.

—It is very you, darling. I love it.—

The hugging and chirping that followed was colored with relief and support—from both sides.

—Now let me see this skirt,— I sent.

NotABug turned and looked to the sewing table, then picked up a yellow skirt that had a print of white roses climbing up one side of it. Stepping into it, NotABug pulled the skirt up to her waist.

It hung almost to her ankles and would leave her feet free to show off whatever shoes she might wear. Her midriff and top were still bare, but they were a matter for more clothes. If there was one thing being naked most of the time had taught me, it was that nakedness wasn't something to fear, it was potential for fashion.

—This is wonderful! I love it!— I sent.

Keeping my attention split among all the various tasks that seemed required of me now wasn't easy, but it did mean I got to notice things like Coco Pommel pulling up outside. My chirping turned resigned, despite my determination not to see Coco as an obstacle.

—Coco's here,— I sent.

—Oh!— NotABug sent.

A rush of green fire enveloped us, wrapping around and changing just one thing—NotABug now had a shirt on. It was still a surprise that we could make clothing with that power, but at least it was a pleasant one (so long as I didn't think about the details).

—Starling, Coco Pommel is at the door. She's trusted,— NotABug sent.

NotABug started walking down the hallway to the living room, the dress swishing around her ankles.

—"You trust a lot of people. Letting her in."— Starling sent.

I was startled by how the message contained an audio snippet and chirped curiously at NotABug.

—New thing Perdition suggested. It means anyone can communicate hands-free on ChirpNet. Starling really liked it,— NotABug sent.

—Wow. That's a really good idea. How does one trigger it?—

—For now they just have to say Chirp, but I'll probably make it customizable before it reaches full release. It's in Circle One Beta at the moment.—

"Miss Pommel, it's good to see you. Rarity's in the back seat for the moment," NotABug said.

"Oh… Oh! NotABug. Of course, sorry. I just dropped in to discuss events for the week and fill you both in on the business plan I have set up. The corporation name has been submitted and I have a preliminary approval to begin trading under the name Bug Hive. What I want to speak to you about is our income," Coco Pommel said.

—'Bee? We're going to need you for a few minutes,— I sent.

A curious chirp came back at just about the time 'Bee jumped out of the television set in the living room.

"What's up?" Bumblebee asked.

That she asked out loud surprised me. I could take a guess as to where she'd been, and the answer was her new friends: Stefanie and Perdition.

"It's about our income. I've done some statistical analysis, and I want to know how much you could theoretically provide?" Coco Pommel asked.

NotABug led the way into the kitchen. I took the initiative and used my magic to put the kettle on.

—Thank you, Rara,— NotABug sent.

—Rara?— I asked.

—I said I'd try new cute names. That one doesn't work for you?—

—Well, there's a pop singer whose nickname is Rara.—

—Oh. I'll think of something, snuggle-bug.—

Dizzy-happy chirping poured from me with complete abandon at that one.

—I like that. Put that one on the short list.—

"… a million a day without setting off any alarms, but that would mean always winning, and the other trade machines don't like it when I do that. If I keep to eight hundred thousand, letting them win two hundred thousand from me, they will leave me alone," Bumblebee said.

'Bee and Coco were mid conversation, it seemed. NotABug turned and sat us down at the table while I used my magic to get cups ready.

"That's more than I'd hoped, honestly. It's an impossibly large amount to make for a startup, but the more I looked into HFT, the more I become convinced that no one outside the companies involved knows how this actually works. Which is perfect. What we need to do, however, is buy some heavy computer hardware and a large internet connection before we step up our income. We want to appear normal in an abnormal business," Coco Pommel said.

"They're installing our first set of servers in Bent and Starling's basement," NotABug said.

"And Beta has been working hard to build the first level of our hive. We could install more down there, though you won't want to get the workers in the hive," Bumblebee said.

I was caught off-guard as I processed the information, but NotABug chirped in surprise.

—Beta? What have you been doing?— NotABug asked.

Beta's chirp back was one of surprise.

—Digging. I like digging and making holes. This hive is getting really cozy, and there's plenty of room down here,— Beta sent.

—Why didn't you tell us what you were doing, dear?— I asked.

—I didn't know I needed to. With everyone else finding things to do they enjoyed, I kept looking down and imagining what I wanted to do. So I did it,— Beta sent. —Is there something wrong?—

Uncertain and worried chirps came from our daughter, so much so that I found myself diving to reassure her.

—No!— NotABug and I sent at practically the same millisecond.

—Not at all, Beta-dear. I'd like to take a look later, if you don't mind,— I sent.

—It could be a solution to our server location problems. The law states we own all the way down, so if you ensure this hive doesn't extend past the sidewalk in any direction outside of our properties, you'll be okay. We're going to need large halls to build server racks into, and plenty of ducting to run data, power, and cooling down there,— NotABug sent.

Beta's chirping turned the corner rapidly and I could almost hear her bouncing up and down in excitement—wherever she was.

—Send me the details on how big you want it. With my resin, I can make the walls, floors, and ceiling harder than rock, but we probably don't want that until we have the cables in. Oh! I could use drills and saws to cut holes in the resin for cabling. We'll want lots of extra power down here if we're going to run servers. I'll look into everything I need to do that. Can you help me with choosing the hardware?— Beta asked.

The wall of text told me one thing—this was exactly what our daughter wanted to do. The excitement that colored her chirping was a giveaway that she'd found her talent.

—Talk to the builders. Tell them we'll pay for whatever time you need them for. Get them to handle the power and data cabling and you handle the building,— NotABug sent.

—If we build in those rack thingies, we can choose our hardware at a later date. Thank you, Beta, this solves a few of our problems,— I sent.

The happy chirping became overwhelming.

"Sorry, Miss Pommel, but we've just been told by one of our daughters that she has room to build more servers than we'll know what to do with. We'll have her talk with the builders working on another house to see about running cabling and data lines down, and something for cooling," NotABug said.

I could hear tiny hooves thundering and saw a little blur of darkness streak across the back lawn before Beta opened the back door and let out a huge chirp.

"Thanks, Moms!" Beta said.

She turned back around and galloped off again. I was barely able to recover from surprise in time to close the door behind her.

"Who was that?" Coco Pommel asked.

"That was Beta. She's taken to digging, and is working on building a complex of caves underneath us. According to national law, a home owner possesses the rights to dig as far down as they wish. I believe our daughter will sorely test that right."

Coco's mouth worked for a moment before she regained her focus.

"That's legal? Are you sure?"

"I'm sitting my bar exam next week, if everything goes well on Monday. Oh, right. Monday's when we're going to see a judge to have me made a person. Mrs. Velvet has organized that side of things. She said it's easier for now getting me made a person than having rights of non-human entities given human rights."

"B-Bar exam? Okay, that's going to make things a lot easier on the legal side. Very well, I'll have company charge cards issued so you can start a corporate account. Just make sure to forward everything to me and I'll make sure to tell 'Bee what our income needs to be.

"I understand your new hires are already working?"

"Stef and Perd are awesome! They know all the cool ways to make computers do what they want, and Pred even got me to help him write up the project report for starting a bug bounty," Bumblebee said.

"Yes, I've taken a quick look at that and did some research into such plans. As far as things go, it's a little more generous than the industry standard, but if we're trying to make a splash, that would be expected. And it will mean we'll be more likely to have reports made to us and not used against us," Coco Pommel said.

—That was more in-depth than I expected. It's nice to have someone else who likes to research things before engaging in them,— I sent.

—I'm still glad she and Mrs. Velvet are on our side,— NotABug sent.

—Indeed, darling.—

"What about the matter of Lyra Heartstrings and Vaunt's education/employment plan? Rarity has her heart set on helping Vaunt, and maybe other fashion students, while programming graduates like Lyra will be excellent talent to hire," NotABug asked.

"Ah, yes. The good news is that this will offset our taxes nicely, and nothing promotes loyalty in employees better than helping them through college. We need to be careful people don't take advantage of us with it, but otherwise I see it as a good idea. But why stop with just programming and fashion? We are a growing business, and I hope to grow far beyond our current interests. We'll need marketing, management, human resources, and accounting on top of any other product professionals we hire. Not to put too fine a point on it, NotABug, but you need more people like me."

"You have an idea for people to hire?"

Coco nodded.

"Rarity's student friends will help there. They give us an in on the faculty, since we'll have business being on their campus. I'll go and have a word to the head of the business department at Canterlot U. The biggest benefit—for any employee—would be if you can work out how to do that thing with your phone. If you can do that for anyone, we'll have people camping out on your lawn to work here."

I levitated two cups of tea (for NotABug and 'Bee) and a cup of coffee for Coco.

—"Lyra Heartstrings just pulled up,"— Starling sent.

The cameras took a moment before they caught Lyra (she was apparently parked on the other side of the road) crossing the street, but I used them to follow her all the way to the front door.

—She's welcome to come in. Tell her I'll talk in the computer room and give her a spare headset,— I sent.

"Lyra Heartstrings just arrived. Rarity's going to talk with her in the other room. You really think making that a priority would be a good idea?" NotABug asked.

"It will be a headache, of course. Medical regulations are such that we'll have to find a work-around, unless it's literally just magic. Will it be, do you think?"

I turned my attention to Lyra, who had just fitted an earpiece into her ear. She was wearing what I would describe as a loose mess of clothing. A pink hoodie and loose-fit jeans were her order of the day.

"Rarity? Can you hear me?" Lyra Heartstrings asked.

"Loud and clear, dear. Please head through to the computer room, NotABug and Miss Pommel are having a business meeting in the kitchen," I said into her earpiece.

"You're not in there—the computer room—are you?" Lyra Heartstrings asked.

"I can be anywhere there's a mic and speaker. Right now, that's wherever you are. There's also cameras all over the house. Just in here," I said.

This time I used my magic to make a glowing green arrow hover in the air pointing to the computer room.

"Thanks, but I've been here before, remember? Okay, so I wanted to offer some more help with the whole implanting phones thing. Specifically, I'm offering you a test subject. Me."

That was just about the most convenient set of events ever. I'd suspect that it was a setup, but Coco and Lyra weren't close enough to do it. Or were they?

"You have some idea how we may be able to repeat it? I've been somewhat at a loss, myself," I said.

Lyra looked around the room as if trying to find something specific. In one corner was the remnants of Bantam and Bespoke's eggs—along with a new egg and a small pile of phones—and spread out around the rest of the room was desks with actual computers on them. Byte was the only other occupant of the room, sitting at one of the computers.

"What you need to do is build up a list of what things were the same both times it's happened before, then try to recreate those—well, the ones we can recreate. What happened to Moon and your daughter is not something we will do."

It was reassuring that she'd think that. I quickly browsed the network to find one of the computers for her, but Lyra sat down at one and quickly brought up a session on the server.

"Would you mind helping fill in these? Moon told me her side of things, but no one knew what happened when you merged with NotABug."

My thoughts wandered back to that event—probably one of the more important ones in my life—and while some of it was sharp, the blue light that NotABug and I'd been making seemed to leave a lot of it fuzzy.

"It's hard to remember, but I'll start with facts. Blue magic, a rushing sensation, the… I don't know how to explain it. I think it was when I had my first feel of changeling magic," I said.

Lyra was entering all this into the document she had open.

"The blue light. Tell me more about that. Moon mentioned something like it too."

I peeked at her session and saw blue light featured in Moon Dancer's account too. Maybe she was onto something.

"The blue light was magic, but a different kind of magic. It had nothing to do with what we did in school. It was like NotABug took the magic I had in me and made it a mix of both of us, then it allowed us to both be together. Does that make sense?" I asked.

"I mean, kinda. So you're saying this is a combination of magic and technology? What am I saying, of course it is—all tech is lit up with blue lights. Okay, so the only thing for sure is a mixture of tech and magic."

Tech and magic. Magic and tech. The words shouldn't have gone together if any books I'd read that had both were concerned, but for us it was absolutely right. For me, at least, all that blue magic was now inside me.

But it wasn't.

There were moments when my magic still interacted with technology to do things. Eggy things.

"When I make an egg, I use that same magic to do so. It makes a—a conduit between me and the machine that the love and magic I've created can grow."

I turned all my attention on the lone egg still in the room. It sat there—a symbol of life itself to me.

Lyra turned in her chair to look at the corner I was focused on.

"Okay, I'm not going to do experiments on your eggs, though, but what about the shells? Has anyone handled those?"

Standing up, Lyra walked to the corner and made a show of not approaching my egg, but rather the little pile of shell pieces from Bespoke an Bantam's eggs.

"Perhaps if you tried to use that energy on me, it would mean I could take a phone? Is it something you think you could just do?"

Well, could I try it? Would it hurt either of us if I implanted magic like that into Lyra? The worst—

"I think that may be a very bad idea," I said. "What if my magic latches onto you as if you were like that phone."

"Good point. Okay! Not going to try that!"

Lyra reached out for the largest part of Bantam's egg and picked it up in her hand. She turned it over, looking at it.

"Maybe there's something to do with these pieces? Try pushing a little of your magic at them. Can you do that from the other room?" Lyra asked.

Reaching out with my magic, I focused on the point where Lyra's sea-green hands held the shell and pushed just a little.

I didn't have enough energy to make an egg, which was a good thing, but I still felt a sense of pulling at my power. That's when I realized the color my magic was making wasn't green.

Blue light flared in the computer room. Byte spun in her seat—in slow motion—and Lyra stood transfixed at the sight of the shell melting slowly into her hand.

—Darling! I think we did it! Can you come to the computer room?— I asked NotABug.

Time was ticking slow on purpose. I watched as the light and shell both seemed to slide into Lyra's forearms. NotABug moved quickly through the house to find Lyra, and I got a view of the event through both her eyes and the camera I'd been using.

NotABug let out a surprised chirp, then rushed over to pick up a phone and pass it to Lyra.

Being in the back seat, as it were, I could only watch as Lyra took hold of the phone and it too started to melt into her flesh with a nimbus of blue light. As the last vestiges of phone and shell melted into Lyra's body, I came to the realization that I'd done it—no, Lyra and I'd done it.

A rush of noise came over the WiFi, and Lyra promptly started falling down. Byte—thankfully—was close enough and caught Lyra just before she hit the floor.

"What happened?" Coco Pommel asked from the doorway behind NotABug.

"Oh, nothing much. Rarity and Lyra just worked out how to do that thing I was telling you I had no idea how to do," NotABug said.

"It seemed so obvious—" I said.

Stopping when I realized only Lyra could hear me, I swapped over to ChirpNet.

—It seemed so obvious when Lyra put the facts together. The secret is that our shells act as a catalyst to the magic, I think, but they do get used up. Catalyst might be the wrong word. It changed my magic to the blue magic,— I sent.

"Can you try on me next?"

Everyone's eyes turned to Coco—even Lyra, who looked like she was barely holding herself conscious.

"Well? There's still some shell left there. Could you try on me now?" Coco Pommel asked.

—Now we are going to have to choose who gets this and when. Do you foresee it becoming a problem?— NotABug asked.

—Honestly? Yes, darling, I see it being a large problem. Our own people first, of course. Rainbow after Coco, then Starling, then Mrs. Velvet. Stefanie and Perdition, Bent Rules, Sweetie Belle, and then any of our other friends who want it. Then we look at selling it,— I sent.

—You've thought about this before, haven't you?—

—A little. Just an idle thought, but it was enough that it got me thinking and planning. I don't think I ever do enough of that.—

—Um. Hello?— an unknown number sent.

—My name isn't set. Okay, what about now?— Lyra Heartstrings sent.

—Hello, Miss. Heartstrings. How does it feel to be the first fully human person to be integrated in this manner?— NotABug asked.

—Like I have a brain-splitting headache. Everything moves so fast, but the real world looks so slow. Is this normal?—

—You'll get used to it. Is the headache from the interface itself, or from dealing with the information?— I asked.

—Oh, definitely all this information. It's like I have an extra pile of eyeballs seeing a dozen things at once. There's this chat, the screen, and I just got a console up on the phone. Can I lie down somewhere and deal with this?—

—There is another way we could distribute this. We could let our daughters choose what happens to their own shells,— NotABug sent privately.

—While I like the idea of it, there's two things to consider. Firstly, our little ones don't exactly know a lot of people when they're just hatched, and time may be a factor in being able to do this. Secondly, we need to do what's best for all of us, and I don't just mean changelings. This is something that will change the world, darling, we need to be careful how we carry it out,— I sent back equally as private.

I pondered this and let out a mental sigh.

—Perhaps we should ask everyone?— I asked.

—Rarity and Lyra worked out how to give other humans their own digital connection, but it requires the use of changeling eggshells. How do you think we should plan this?— NotABug asked.

Her question, unlike mine, was broadcast to all our changelings—even Moon Dancer and Rainbow. The replies were mostly a lot of chirps, but they were all supportive ones.

—I trust you both to know what's best for all of us. Just two weeks ago I'd never have thought I'd say that, but I do. I think you should make the choices you think are best,— Moon Dancer sent.

The wave of chirps became more intense and even more excited and supportive. How on Earth I interpret these little blasts of emotion, I still have no clue, but I do and it works.

—What's your plan, Mom?— Byte asked.

With all the chirping dying down into a few of anticipation, I felt the weight pass to me from NotABug. Well, Rarity, you took this mantle up, time to bear it.

—Friends and family first. We're going to use Bespoke's shell to test we really have this right on Miss. Pommel. If it works, Rainbow Dash can go next. Then we move outward from there,— I sent.

—Does this mean you'll be trying to make more eggs, Mom?— Bumblebee asked.

Well that hit a metaphorical nail right on the head and revealed it to be an elephant in the room. More eggs. More conversions.

—Maybe. I don't want to rush, but I think I won't be trying to hold back anymore, either,— I sent.

—The more bugs the merrier,— NotABug sent.

We got another roar of chirps from our daughters.

—So, me next?— Rainbow Dash asked.

—You think you can handle it?— I asked.

—Pfft. Piece of cake. When do we do that?—

—We only have one egg waiting here. So tomorrow sometime.—

—Well, get on with the testing, then. I guess that will mean Coco can bug you guys even more.—

—Okay, darling, we'll get on with this then.—

—Oh, you had a bunch more stuff at the post office. I'm bringing it back with me. Should be there in about an hour.—

—Thank you.—

"I'm going to try it this time, okay?" NotABug asked.

Coco walked into the room—and past Byte who was helping Lyra out—before turning to NotABug.

"So how does this work? Do I need to do anything?" Coco Pommel asked.

—Have her hold the egg-shards, then you need to aim your magic at where her fingers touch the shell. You'll feel a little pull, then it should start. Make sure to have a mobile nearby,— I sent.

NotABug reached out to our dwindling pile of charged phones that already had an active business account sim in them, and selected one at random.

"Pick up those eggshells over there and hold them in your hands," NotABug said. "Oh, and like you saw, this might leave you a little under the weather for the rest of the day."

"It's a weekend. I have two days—well, a day and a half—to recover."

Coco picked up the pieces of shell and looked them over. I felt as NotABug started drawing her magic up, then she tipped it out and into the shell.

Apparently much better at this than I was, NotABug's magic instantly turned bright blue at the point where it touched both shell and Coco's fingers. As the shell started to pull into her hands, NotABug passed her the phone.

"This is it?" Coco Pommel asked.

NotABug stopped sending her magic and watched as shell and phone both flowed into Coco's body.

"I think it's safe to say so. Rarity, is this how it went with Lyra?"

—Yes. Exactly. Oh, and get ready to catch her. She also might have a little panic about time,— I sent.

As if on cue, Coco's eyes widened and her face registered complete shock. NotABug moved in and caught her a moment before her muscles started going limp.

"What'supwitheverythingmovingslow?" Coco Pommel asked.

"Can you understand me? Just focus on the seconds," NotABug said.

"Focusonthe—on—the—seconds. Wow."

"Come on. You'll need a lie down to get used to this. Feel free to explore your phone further. It should have ChirpNet on it, so try using the localized chat."

Picking Coco up completely, NotABug carried her out of the room and into the bedroom before we got the first hint of her on ChirpNet.

—Hello?—

I quickly appended her details and linked the account to her existing one.

—Good to see you got the hang of it so quickly,— I sent.

—When I focus on this, everything else moves slower. Is it meant to do that?— Coco Pommel asked.

—I know! It gets crazier when you're in a dark room,— Lyra Heartstrings sent.

—Miss Heartstrings? You're the college student who's going to be working for us after graduation?—

—Yeah. How could I turn down an offer like this?—

—Understandable under the circumstances. You figured this out?—

—I just compared the two instances of it happening before together, and then joined the dots with Rarity's help. I guess it's repeatable now, so that means full steam ahead for project bug.—

—Project bug?— I asked.

—Project bug!— Byte sent.

A wave of giggly chirps flooded through. In NotABug's arms, Coco twitched as if she'd been hit with a jolt of electricity.

—What was that?— Coco Pommel asked.

—That was chirping. It's how a changeling do,— Byte sent.

For some reason, Moon started chirping a string of laughter.

—I take it that mauling of the English language was a joke?— I asked.

—Yeah, Mom. Basically, it means that's what changelings mostly do, and it's right.—

—I gathered its meaning, dear. Okay, here comes Miss Pommel. We can only assume she'll have the same headache-pattern that Lyra's having. Byte, could you please take some notes so we can work out what is classed as normal symptoms and what isn't?—

A small flood of traffic poured from Byte to the server, and she sent out a few staunch chirps. NotABug was just carrying Coco into the room by then.

The lights were off and there was barely any light. Obvious was the fact that light might be a factor in Lyra's headache. As Coco slid onto the bed, she let out a slow sigh.

—Is it more or less problematic talking aloud or via ChirpNet?— NotABug asked.

—ChirpNet is best,— Lyra Heartstrings sent.

—We'll continue our meeting once you've recovered.—

I tuned out of the chat in the bedroom and turned my attention back to the greater picture. Rainbow, then Starling. Rainbow definitely seemed onboard with the idea, but Starling was another question.

—Would you like to ask Starling about this, or should I?— I asked NotABug.

Her answer was to nudge me forward. It was always a feeling like diving into the ocean of sensations that our body made. I reached out to the wall with one hand to brace myself, and it was apparent that I was in NotABug's form still.

Walking into my sewing room, I stripped off NotABug's clothes and sent her a questioning chirp.

—Would you mind if we turned back to normal now?— I asked.

—I sometimes forget that I'm transformed like that. It's like I just don't focus on the form at all. You like being all buggy, don't you?—

—If you'd asked me a month ago, if I would prefer walking around naked, I would have called you crazy, darling, but here I am. If you wouldn't mind?—

The green flare of fire as NotABug's form melted away didn't startle me, but it was a more physical and personal change. As my forelegs settled on the floor, I felt complete.

—Thank you,— I sent.

Of course I followed that up with a hug and a kiss, as was only proper under the circumstances.

—I love you, Rarity.—

—I love you too, NotABug.—

It was special to use our names, and I know I was chirping a lot as a result—I just didn't care how much I flooded her with loving chirps.

Walking to the living room with her happy trilling chirps echoing through my head, I looked over and up to Starling.

"I don't know exactly how to bring this up with any amount of subtlety, so here goes. We just discovered how to implant mobile phones in people," I said.

Starling raised one of her eyebrows significantly. She looked tenser.

"What does it involve? Was that what all the shouting was about?"

"To an extent. The upside is that it will give you instant communications with us at all times. The downside is there's downtime after it's done. Lyra and Coco are laying down with what they've assured me is the worst headaches of their lives."

"I've already got almost-instant comms. What makes this better than talking through an earpiece?"

"You'd be able to think and act faster too. That seems attached to your perception of time, and with a digital clock in your head, you can narrow that perception to moments so small you can't physically move fast enough."

As I described that, Starling looked far more interested. I could almost see the gears turning in her head, though with her shell on I couldn't see her emotions.

"One day. Okay, but not tomorrow. Tomorrow might be dangerous with this fashion show. I don't trust Suri Polomare as far as I can kick her—even if I think I could kick her a fair way," Starling said.

"Rainbow is next, but you have first priority after her. I need you to tell me when I'm doing something tactically stupid, for which I'd like to be able to talk to you faster. Oh, an added benefit would be that you could access digital cameras directly. Over a dozen eyes around the house."

Starling barked out a laugh and shook her head at me.

"Rarity, just lead with that next time, okay? Giving me the ability to gather all the intel myself and act on it is a dream come true for a soldier. How easy is this trick to do, anyway? The way you spoke about there being an order implies it's difficult?"

I walked to the couch and jumped up on it. It was nice to sit down and relax. NotABug might have been sitting down moments ago, but I'd been at least a little active.

"Easy, but it uses the shell pieces of our daughters' eggs. It's going to be limited by how many eggs we make, which means no dice on fitting everyone in the world with this."

"But you could try to make more eggs, right? It'd be good if our circle-that-keeps-growing could all be outfitted."

"Already planning for the second half of that. Stepping up egg production is—It's a delicate topic, and not one I'm sure we can push that hard. We'd need to eat more magic and have smaller devices, since it seems like big changelings take longer to hatch."

"Big changelings means bigger egg, right?"

I nodded, my brain doing the gymnastics and reaching the conclusion before she said it. We had a big egg, and let Lyra have all of it. Can't be helped now.

"So we need to test if half a larger shell works the same as a full smaller shell. Do you have any of the old shells?"

In a daze I walked into the kitchen and, despite how much I might dislike it, I used my magic to levitate out the trash piece by piece. Bobbin's shell was at the bottom. It was tiny, like all the others that came from phones.

Putting all the trash back away, I held my prize out—then realized it had a smell to it.

"That's a little ripe," Starling said.

"Yes. Quite. I'm loathe to wash it in case that contaminates it."

"It's already been damp, I'd say. Go ahead and wash it and see if you can get a bit of that smell off. How long was it in there?"

"She was born Wednesday morning, so it's had a few days of being in there. Ugh, I'm not having it out like this. Okay, time to wash it up."

I walked over to the kitchen sink and shapechanged into my normal human form, then set to work on washing the shell in clean water only. What surprised me was the snort of mirth from Starling.

When I turned around to look at her, she turned and looked the other way—which was the best hint I'd had as to what the problem was. Focusing on some clothes as quickly as I could, it took another little blast of magic to banish my nakedness.

"My goodness! I'm sorry!" I said.

"It's okay, Rarity. Just don't make a habit of it."

Starlings admonishment, or rather the way she seemed to be repressing a laugh during it, broke through my embarrassment.

"The world is changing almost as much as I am. I look around and see what we're doing and it seems a normal progression from what we've done, but with fresh eyes I'm sure it's madness. I walk around in my natural form completely naked and comfortable, yet when I make myself look human, I must dress up. That wouldn't have seemed odd a month ago."

"You're the strangest commander I've ever had, but the one I can sympathize with the most. When I left the service, I found myself looking around constantly for someone to give me orders and tell me when and where to do things. I was completely lost, and I think Dad saw that.

"He got me a job at his work in the hope that a little restoration of order would jolt me out of that funk. Turned out what I needed was a bug queen to save me from the monster who was trying to take over my brain. Everything changes, Rarity. It's up to us to make sure the changes are more for the good than bad."

"Yes. You're right. Of course you're right, but I just don't feel it sometimes. Would you mind continuing to tell me that whenever I have a problem keeping everything in perspective?" I asked.

"Gee, permission to tell my boss when she's overthinking things? How can I say no?"

I liked the humor and the promise. For someone who hasn't tested their wings yet, I sure seem to need to stay grounded.

"Do you have any plans for after this?" I asked. "Once we've dealt with SuriGo?"

"You'd fire me?"

"No. Not now, not then, not ever. You do need more than this, however."

"More than my job, you mean? More than having purpose in my life?"

"You need to live it, you, you…"

Words failed me. Was there a sufficiently good insult to use for a soldier who only knew soldiering?

"Yeah, I'm a useless bullet sponge. Is that why you want me in dresses? Get me hooked up with a guy?"

She looked like she'd fight me on this one thing, if nothing else. Her shoulders were squared like when she was wary, and her eyes tracked every little thing I was doing. Reading emotions had become somewhat of a crutch, I think. I was too used to seeing at a glance if someone was angry, happy, curious, or standoffish.

"Would you like to be? I was planning to make your dresses utilitarian, but I could make it show more of your chest, maybe a little more leg. Was there a particular guy you want—"

"You are the only person I know who could make a cocktail dress hide a 1911. Rarity, do whatever you want with the dresses, you will anyway and I kinda like feeling a little more—more human. No offense."

I scoffed at her last sentence and rolled my eyes at her.

"It will take a lot more than that to cause offense. Once we're done with this fashion show, I'll make you a whole wardrobe. You'll have evening dresses with pistol holsters, a ballgown with enough room to hide a machine gun, and some pretty blouses to hide knives in."

"I wouldn't put it past you to hide a machine gun in a dress, Rarity, but I think you mean submachine gun. Short, about yay big, spits out a lot of little bullets. My big gun is a carbine, that means it has all the guts of an assault rifle, but with a shorter barrel. A machine gun is…"

When she moved her hands far apart, almost to full extension, I coughed a little in surprise.

"And you have one of those?" I asked.

"No. But if you think I need one, I can get one."

The look in Starling's eyes told me all I needed to know about what she thought of SuriGo, and how she'd respond to a perceived threat from them. I had to admit I was rather of the same mind. SuriGo, as a singular entity, could not be tolerated.

"We only have one target. If there were more, perhaps," I said.

There was one thing that I needed to ask, but I feared the answer to. I had to ask it, however, despite how squeamish it made me.

"If," I asked, "I tell you to shoot her…?"

"I'm not going to say it'll be easy for you, but I wasn't kidding about being your weapon. If you tell me to pull the trigger, Rarity, I will. I'll stand beside you no matter what happens."

It was both relief and terror. I could ask her to kill someone for me, and she would. She might ask me about it afterwards, but in that moment between me telling her to do it, and her pulling the trigger—I could see in her eyes she wouldn't hesitate.

No pressure, Rarity.

"All I can do is promise you I won't ask it unless I know absolutely that it's needed."

The cameras out the front registered movement, but whatever it was moved beyond their field of view before they could catch more than a blur of rainbow light.

Reaching out, I put both my hands on both of Starling's as the front door burst open and Rainbow Dash ran through the house—all through the house—looking for me.

Starling was reacting to the sound of the door. Her hands tried to move, but she noticed I was holding them. The barest start of a smile began to spread over Starling's lips when Rainbow entered the kitchen and I was thoroughly distracted.

Her arm scooped behind my back and Rainbow tilted me so I lost my footing and fell into her arms completely. She leaned over me, delivered a cocky smile, and kissed me.

I had no idea how other girls kissed their female partners, but Rainbow Dash always took charge and did such bold things as to make me completely forget about men. Barely breathing, I did only what a demure flower like myself could do under the circumstances—I kissed her back.

I liked to take my time with kisses. Rainbow, too, seemed inclined to linger. Eventually, however, even the devilish temptation of spending the entire day in her arms seemed too diabolical and we both—mutually—drew apart.

"Did I surprise you?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Of course not, though you startled Starling a little, but I saw you coming the moment you reached the front lawn. Cameras, darling."

"Pfft. You and all your high-tech stuff. There's no way I can compe—Wait, I can though, right?"

"We'll see. When you do this, you'll probably have some time to deal with a headache. Lyra and Coco are in our bedroom hiding in a quiet, dark climate."

"Huh. That bad? Well, I'm sure I'll be fine. Nothing can slow me down."

"I'll head back to cover the front door, if you two are fine in here?" Starling asked.

"Sorry to cut our little tête-à-tête short, dear. Thank you ever so much for listening," I said.

The way Starling moved was always with an efficiency and purpose that reminded me of watching nature documentaries in school. She was a big cat—she moved effortlessly and with precision even when all she did was stand up and turn toward the living room.

"There's some stuff in the car we need to bring in first. I'd hate to leave you to carry it in alone while I complain of a headache," Rainbow Dash said.

She leaned in and kissed my cheek before setting me properly on my feet.

My legs were always a little wobbly after Rainbow worked her magic on me, but right now I found myself leaning on her a little.

"Was my kiss that good?"

How did she know that's what I was thinking?

"And now you're wondering how I figured that out. You're a little transparent sometimes, Rarity."

Her thoughts on how cute I was aside, she did know me unnervingly well. I suppose it's a good thing. Was it a female-partner thing? If magazines were in any way true, women had to constantly struggle to teach their husbands the simplest facts about themselves. Rainbow didn't just know about me, she took an interest in knowing much more.

Time to deploy my newest-found piece of mental logic. Rarity, you're overthinking this.

Well, she'd see my arms coming far too easily, so I opted to use magic to grab her, tilt her in the same way she'd done to me, then leaned over Rainbow as she stared up in surprise.

"Did you see this coming?" I asked.

I kissed her again—just a quick one—before setting her back on her feet. Rainbow didn't wobble as I had, but I watched a pair of pony ears slide up the sides of her face to perch atop her head as a pair of wings popped out of her back and jutted out to each side.

This was exactly the response I loved to see. Pitching my voice low, I edged past her toward the living room, making a soft purring sound under my voice as I admired her longer hair.

She was speechless, apparently.

"Darling, are you coming?"

Rainbow shook her head, closed her mouth, and turned her body to follow me.

"Y-Yeah. And no. That's one thing I love about you, Rares—I might have you figured out completely some of the time, but then you go and do something that blows me away. It's awesome."

We walked as she talked, and made our way out to what looked like a new electric car—this one in cherry red. I walked over to it and ran my fingers over the door.

"This is yours, I take it?" I asked.

"The first. It's silly only having one car between us. I got this so I have something to run around in while you have your own, and I'll use the other one as parts to make my classic electric."

As she spoke, Rainbow practically bubbled enthusiasm. Doting on our daughters, NotABug, and myself was something I knew she loved doing, but cars—speed—was part of Rainbow Dash. This passion wasn't exactly one I shared, but I could certainly admire her while she partook of it.

"Have you decided on which classic car you'll use yet?"

I opened the back door and used my magic to levitate two large boxes out—leaving one for Rainbow.

The two boxes I had looked to have a pair of computer towers in each, and the one I left was labeled with a mobile handset manufacturer. Well, given how things were going, we'd need them all.

—More towers for more big bugs?— I asked NotABug.

A tired-sounding chirp was my initial response.

—Mmm? Yeah, maybe. I thought we could use a few more regardless. We can get the displays and other bits locally.—

I chirped in agreement. There certainly wasn't any downside to having some spare computers.

—Rainbow likes her new car.—

—Oh! I like it! We need to get her to take us for a drive!—

"NotABug wants to go for a drive, but that might be something for later. I have no doubt at all that you'll shrug off whatever effects the phone has on you much sooner than the others, which means when you take her for a drive, you can take both of us for a drive, and we can all talk together properly."

Rainbow, who was lifting her box out of the car looked back over her shoulder and smiled at me. In that one look I could see how much she anticipated such a drive and, with the slight extra tilt of one side of her mouth, other things.

Goodness. Would that count as my first ménage à trois? It seemed like a more active role than playing back NotABug's memories of encounters. For that matter, did she play mine back?

"You're blushing," Rainbow Dash said.

I was and I knew it. I could probably have used my magic to become something that didn't blush, but I honestly didn't mind letting Rainbow know I was thinking something unladylike.

"I am."

Turning, I walked back to the house with the two big boxes floating behind me. The wonderful thing was I had a camera that barely caught the edge of Rainbow's expression. Hunger and excitement played across her face, and I could tell her eyes were following something on me at around waist height. Better still.

Rainbow didn't break the sound barrier, but she did move fast enough that the cameras had trouble following her. By the time she caught up to me, I was already putting the boxes down in the computer room.

"Are you ready?" I asked.

"For what? Oh! The phone thing? But we don't have any shell to use."

"Now," I said, "I know your attention was focused on me in the kitchen. We found Bobbin's shell."

"Wait, didn't you throw it out?"

"I washed it, darling. You wait here and pick out one of the mobiles that already has a sim in it. I'll get the shell."

Leaving Rainbow to make her selection from the functionally identical phones, I shed my human guise as I walked out of the room and through to the kitchen. Levitating the shell over, I gave it a timid sniff and let out a chirp of relief.

I found myself prancing through to the computer room again, and when I arrived Starling was waiting by the doorway.

"I figured I should see what I'm getting myself into here. Not that your experimentation hasn't worked out good for me before, but…" Starling said.

"Of course, dear. So far, no one has been hurt in this process."

Rainbow was already holding her hands out for the shell, so I levitated it to her.

"Hold the phone along with the shell. This won't take long."

"I can't believe this is finally going to work! It's going to be so awesome to talk to you both at once," Rainbow Dash said.

Once she was holding the shell and a phone, I used my magic to energize the former. Bright blue light lit up the room and it was only at that moment I realized it really brought out the lighter shade in Rainbow's skin beautifully.

Slowly, or maybe just my perception was skewed, the shell began to slide into Rainbow's flesh while taking the phone with it. Unlike the others, I watched her eyes move and track over the shell and phone as they absorbed—she was watching it happen at least as slowly as I was, and possibly slower.

A flare of rainbow light seemed to halo Rainbow's body as the shell finished settling into her body. The blue light of my magic merged with her rainbow and seemed to make it glow brighter still. Closing her eyes, Rainbow Dash floated a few inches into the air before she settled back to the floor.

Well, of course it had some kind of reaction. I'd just made sure she'd be ponied up with my little teasing in the kitchen.

"This is great! Wow, it doesn't feel like time's moving slowly, but I guess I'm making the phone faster too, right? I can see the time ticking over! Wow, it's slow. Am I talking funny?"

She was talking a little faster paced than normal.

—Yes, darling, you are a little fast,— I sent to the new node ID that had popped up.

—Whoa! This is ChirpNet?— Rainbow Dash asked. —This is great! I can send with this way faster than I can type!—

Apparently, with the phone to ground her mind with a timer, Rainbow's perception was now noticeably quicker than even before. I'm positive she's going to enjoy this.

—Mom?— Bobbin asked.

—Yeah. Sup, kids? Your other mom now has her own hookup.—

The chirping became delightfully overwhelming—partly because I joined in to welcome her.

—You found another shell?— Lyra Heartstrings asked.

—Yes and no. Bobbin's shell was in the trash. I cleaned it up and figured it would be a good chance to test out how long we can wait and some of the properties of shells,— I sent.

—That was my shell?!?!— Bobbin asked.

Bobbin let loose with a rush of proud and excited chirps that had me smiling like a fool.

Registering Rainbow on our family-only channel, I let out a happy little trill of a chirp over it to get everyone's attention.

—That's our family all connected, now. Every one of you is just a thought away,— I sent.

A particularly happy chirp came from Moon, and I was reminded of how small her family had been before. She had become more and more active among our hive, I'd noticed, and it seemed to be agreeing with her.

—Hey, uh, I might need to take a rest or something. Everything seems kinda bright…— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Close your eyes and relax, darling, and let me take you to bed. You're going to have to share, but I don't think you'll have much you'll want to do,— I sent.

—Nah. I got this my own way. Excuse me, Rares.—

I expected her to want to relax and get out of the light. Instead, Rainbow slipped past first me then Starling, and was out the front door without the cameras even being able to catch more than the rainbow pattern of her wake.

—Way I figure it, I'll speed everything up and just run through this. I'll be back when the headache's gone!— Rainbow Dash sent.

—I love you, Rainbow Dash!— NotABug sent.

Rainbow didn't chirp (I don't think anyone who isn't far more changeling than Rainbow is could) but she did send a slew of chirp emoji at NotABug, and then more to me.

—I love you all. Thanks for sharing this with me!— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Likewise. I love all of you, NotABug, Rainbow, Byte, 'Bee, Bitwise, Moon, Beta, Bobbin, Bantam, and Bespoke. Every last chirpy one of you,— I sent.

—What about me? I can't chirp properly,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—We'll chirp for you!— Bobbin sent.

Predictably, this earned a rush of chirping from all of us.

—I think I might do some sewing. I know I've got all the dresses ready for tomorrow, but I want to make some friends some things,— I sent.

As I started to turn, I realized that Starling was standing in the doorway still, a bewildered expression on her face.

"She's okay? No migraine headache?" Starling asked.

"Oh, she has a headache just like the others, but getting her to admit she needs to lie down is another problem. Rainbow prefers her own methods."

"Was all that magic light part of it?"

Stepping past her, I shook my head.

"The blue light was, but the rainbow of colors was all Rainbow's doing. Sometimes I wonder if she does things like that just to show off, but then I remember that she does them even when alone."

"So that's it then? Hold this, hold that, blue lasers and bam, headache for the rest of the day?"

Starling walked back to the living room and I watched her checking the front door was locked.

—Pretty much. Once you acclimatize to it, you'll be thinking faster, communicating faster, and even moving data around devices faster. Though, that last one will probably be completely new. I wonder if I can see through Rainbow's eyes now?— I asked.

—Rainbow, darling, can you approve this little request?— I asked Rainbow Dash.

Sending a request for "camera" access, I got an approval and a data stream back a moment later. Rainbow wasn't just running, she was jumping over vehicles that moved too slow.

—Wait, what do you see when I let you use my camera? Is it inside me?—

—No. I see through your eyes.—

—This is so, awesome!—

—"You can see through other people's eyes?"— Starling asked.

—Apparently I can see through Rainbow's. The opposite should be true, of course. You could have eyes literally everywhere,— I sent.

The delay between our regular chatter and Starling's slow replies would drive me to distraction if I weren't careful. It would be a relief when everyone in our little extended family were all connected in. That's when I had an idea—why not push for more nymphs sooner?

—Rainbow, would you like to snuggle a little once you're back and showered?— I asked.

—We need to plan snuggles now?— Rainbow Dash asked.

—Well, I was thinking of trying to make an extra egg or two.—

—You know I'm not going to say no to that, right? I'm fine to snuggle, Rares, whenever you want to snuggle. Or, whenever NotABug wants to snuggle.—

—Snuggling sounds like a good idea!— NotABug sent.

—It's so awesome I can talk to both of you at the same time,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Definitely, darlings.—

—You two send a lot of those chirp emoji. That's a lot of love hearts,— Rainbow Dash sent.

I laughed. I couldn't help it. We had been sending loving and content chirps at each other since… well, since I woke up.

—Chirping is how we do. We'll have to work out a better way to let you be able to chirp back,— NotABug sent.

—I'd like that. This headache is sticking around. I might run another lap of the city.—

It didn't surprise me that she said another, nor did it surprise me that running laps of the whole city was now her thing. Driving a car was a slow-down for Rainbow. She could outrun any car in the world, so why did she like the things so much?

The answer was easy—she just did. It was something she enjoyed doing. We were building a family with an eye toward making it a place where everyone could do what they enjoyed. If driving and building cars was Rainbow's, I wasn't going to hamper her.

In fact…

—Rainbow?— I asked.

—'Sup, Rares?—

—When you're done building your car how you want it, would you do one for me, too?—

She didn't reply immediately.

—Really? You want me to build you a car? Is this more of that going for a cruise stuff?— Rainbow Dash asked.

—Yes. Yes it is. Are you saying you wouldn't like to go out for a drive, the two of us in our own cars, and find somewhere cozy to snuggle?—

—You bet I would. Do you want to look at cars today?—

I almost said no. Exercising my brain, and mulling over recent thoughts on my sporty darling, I realized that there would be driving and snuggling involved in looking at cars. Nothing, I realized, would get Rainbow as worked up as looking at cars with NotABug and myself.

—I'm sure we could drive and snuggle. Do you know of places we can look at cars?—

—That depends. Will they be dirty places?—

—We might have to drive past some wreckers' yards, but I know one that keeps a lineup of cars out front, so we won't have to go in. They're going to be rusty, Rares, but I promise I can save them.—

—Alright, darling. You run for as long as you need to, and I might do some sewing.—

—How are the others handling it?—

—There hasn't been a peep out of them for a while. Hopefully they're sleeping it off.—

—Love you both.—

—Love you both, too.—

—And I love both of you!— NotABug sent.

I walked through to my sewing room with a soft chirping coming from my wings. In my head, NotABug was letting loose her own musical chirping.

To me, as I walked into my sewing room, life felt like it was on track. Rainbow was closer to us than ever, our own family—the one we'd made—was both growing and strengthening, and our circle of friends was doing the same. It all felt wonderful.

So why did that worry me?

Because I'm not the naive little girl who believed singing songs would take care of all the magical monsters in the world. That girl often got overwhelmed when things didn't go her way—I like to think I wasn't susceptible to that anymore. Things would never completely go my way, which meant I had to have backup plans, and when that failed too, I would hit and bite and zap things with my magic until it all came together.

Okay, so I might still feel overwhelmed, but I had more sticks to swing now.

I looked over my fabric collection. Carefully, I bit my lower lip as my eyes danced over the almost transparent one I'd used to make that first dress—the one I'd made to celebrate the beginning of my freedom.

What better way to hide a gun and knives than to leave people looking at soft flesh. It had worked with my breasts—hidden despite so much being visible.

—Starling, do you have an extra gun holster? The kind of holster for a leg. Where you'd hide your backup,— I sent.

While I waited for her reply, I logged into my coding session and examined what work had been done on my lance project.

—"I certainly do. Want me to bring it in?"— Starling asked.

—That would be great.—

I turned my focus to the additions to my lance. There were six new direct attacks and a swathe of smaller ones. There were some that worked only on specific systems, others that would work on cross-platform apps, and yet more that attacked only certain versions of operating systems.

The holy grail was one Stefanie had only just added.

—You came up with this?— I asked Stefanie.

Starling walked into the room and handed me what looked like a woven canvas green strap with a further holster around what looked like a comically small gun compared to her normal pistol.

"There's no ammo in it, the chamber's clear, and the mag's out," Starling said. "Which, in English, means it's harmless. No bullets."

I appreciated her effort to explain it to me. Carefully unwrapping the strap, I realized it was still warm with her body heat.

"If it's all the same, I'd like to know what you were saying first. I could look it all up online, but I don't think that would be as useful as you telling me. If there's a situation when I need to know these words—and they're the first ones you shout—I'll likely need to know what you mean before you repeat in English," I said.

—With what? That AI system hack? Yeah. It is so full of holes you wouldn't believe it. Seriously, don't run anything on this,— Stefanie sent.

I forwarded the message to NotABug, who chirped in concern.

—That's the AI system NotABug used to run on and that parts of Windigo might still be running on. This is big, Stefanie. Thank you,— I sent.

"Okay, from the top. If the chamber is clear, it means there's nothing in the chamber, up here. No bullet and no spent casing. The mag being out means the magazine—extra bullets. If the mag's out and the chamber's clear, there's no bullets in the gun at all," Starling said.

I was trying to keep up with the two conversations happening at the same time, and felt it was much easier when they were both real-time. At the very least I wasn't dumped with a whole conversation between one statement and the next.

—Even from the inside it looks fairly flimsy. Anyway, I could cook up more for that, or keep working on implementing more zero-days into usable weapons. You still need some payloads. Oh, and I love this grammar thing. It works so much better than anything else out there. You know they're going to copy this, right?— Stefanie sent.

—Perhaps, but by then we'll have something better. I might work on those payloads. I rather liked the idea of having a range to choose from that start with just annoying and wind up leading to system destruction. I might start with the latter,— I sent.

"I believe I have that. I still have your measurements. Sorry, just making a mental list here. How do you feel about dresses that reveal some skin?" I asked.

"Skin but not my gun? Rarity, I'm never going to be the one to ask when it comes to fashion. This—This is what I am and what I do. You can dress me in whatever you want, though I'm still looking forward to seeing how you pack body-armor into something fashionable."

As she spoke, Starling patted her jacket where I knew her main gun sat.

"It's not fair, you know. Even my friends give me some hint of what they'd like. What is the essence of Starling that I could make into a dress?"

—Cool. I'm just about out. This jet lag has been the worst. I'll leave some things running. Thank you, Rarity,— Stefanie sent.

—You're most welcome. Please, sleep well.—

"If I had my choice I'd be wearing a black suit tailored to fit a radio and at least two guns. Or be back in my fatigues with guns, grenades, and spare ammo less than arm's reach away. You're my boss, Rarity. I have to fit in with you and your family, so I need to dress how you think I should be dressing."

I put on my best smile—which probably displayed a few fangs.

"You are terrible to make dresses for. Simply horrible! I don't know how I will ever manage!"

I was reassured by Starling's rolled eyes and grin that she understood my melodrama for the humor it was. Levitating her gun up to examine it, I looked at the holster and how they fit together.

"The trick will be conceal the opening but make it easy for you to slip your hand into. The shape of it is another problem. How is this normally concealed?" I asked.

"It sits along my inner thigh. Normally I'd have to lift my skirt to get at it, so it's not like it's all that easy to draw already. It's an emergency weapon."

I made a noncommittal noise and thought about the situation. The skirt was going to be black with some skin showing through it. Eyes should be drawn away from the concealment, but it also needed to be secure.

"This is going to take some specialty work. The skirt will have something like shorts sewn into it. From the outside you won't notice them, of course. I might have to see about using actual magic to conceal the pocket where the gun will be in—I have a few favors I could ask Twilight for to cover that."

It was mostly just voicing my thoughts. I still had a few ideas on how to conceal the pocket, but the fabric was so sheer I doubted any of them would be completely effective. I floated the dress fabric over only to hear a gasp from Starling.

"That's see-through!"

I grinned to show all my fangs.

"Yes it is. You said I was in charge of fashion, and that you didn't care what you wore. You won't be actually showing anything off, but people will think you are. They will get distracted by what you're showing and not by what you're not."

Starling tilted her head to the side a little and narrowed her eyes. It was a look I'd come to associate with her thinking hard on something, which meant she was likely poking it for tactical flaws.

"The normal way security work is by being invisible. Stand beside your target but not be part of their scene. This is not going to make me invisible unless you wear something even more revealing, and even then I'm going to get eyes on me."

"Yes, but they won't see you as security. You'll be my guest who happens to be armed, not my armed guard."

"So long as I can flash my main pistol a little, I'll be happy with that, then. It’s still not going to be the same deterrent as putting me in a black suit that screams armed security."

"You are not wearing black with that hair. First thing's first, we'll need to get your hair grown out—don't think I can't see those gorgeous red roots. Then I'm going to keep you wearing custom designed dresses for a whole year."

The very idea of making her look plain—even if a suit would look fetching on someone with a large frame like hers—was positively terrible.

"You'll be quite literally dressed to kill in all senses of the word."

"This is why you get to make the fashion choices, Rarity. For one, I have no sense of fashion—Wait!"

Of course she knew I was going to cut in. I could have, still, but talking over someone was so crass.

"I'm sure I'm going to pick some of it up, regardless of my efforts not to. Let's just keep going like this. A bit of stability around friends I trust will be good," Starling said. "I really should go back and guard the door again."

She left the room without asking me to, which had to be a good sign that she was not completely lost to her military mindset. Well, at least I had another model to dress. Turning to my sewing, I brought up my programming at the same time and set about practicing multitasking.

1:03 P.M.

—One more lap and I think I've got this beat. You still want to go for a drive?— Rainbow Dash asked.

Rainbow's message surprised me into a little storm of happy chirps. The dress had been slow going, but slow was a matter of perspective these days. Slow could be hours or seconds, depending on my point of view.

—You really think another lap will do the trick?— I asked.

—Probably not, but I've run a bunch and just started a new one, so I might as well go around again. What have you been up to?—

—Admiring your grammar, making a new dress for Starling, fashioning a weapon I can use on SuriGo. The usual, darling.—

—To heck with the last lap. I need a shower anyway. On my way home,— Rainbow Dash sent. —Also, have I ever said how much I love it when you call me that? Even in school it made me shiver.—

I got even more chirpy. So much for being able to do digital cuddles with Rainbow. It didn't seem like it was possible for humans to go that far into the connection—yet, at least. Still, just being able to talk with her was wonderful.

—How long until you reach here, darling?—

Well, if she liked it, I would have to make an effort to use it more often.

—Ten seconds flat.—

—Ten seconds is a long time, now,— I sent.

Shutting down my programming instance, I turned my full attention to the dress. There was still a slightly obvious fold in the fabric where the holster left it. All my efforts to make it completely invisible had failed.

I knew what I wanted—I'd certainly seen Twilight make such hidden holes before—but my magic worked differently to hers. Well, let's just test on a scrap piece of fabric first.

"Hey," Rainbow Dash said from the doorway.

"Darling, how are you feeling?"

"Better and better. What're you doing?" Rainbow Dash said. "And, don't worry, I won't hug you while I'm all sweaty."

"I'm going to test out my magic at making this pocket invisible, but first I want to try it on something less… immediately devastating—should it catch fire or turn to plaid."

As I talked, I ran the spare piece of fabric through my machine to make a quick and dirty pocket out of it. Much as I hated making something that wasn't completely gorgeous, its beauty was in serving its purpose.

—Hold on a second,— Rainbow Dash sent.

She was gone and back so quick the movement of my mane that her leaving caused hadn't finished. She held out a baking tray to me.

"Put your may catch on fire thing into that while you work magic on it, Rares."

There was a certain genius in the simple solution that made me immediately suspect she'd set enough things on fire to learn precautions. I took the tray in my magic and set it on the floor, then set the fabric upon it.

"Thank you, darling."

The next bit was always going to be chancy. Magic was powerful, mine apparently more than most, so I had to be very careful to only use a little and focus my mind on what I wanted.

I wanted the pocket to look like it wasn't there and yet still be able to be used.

This was a fashion problem, plain and simple, and those kinds of problems were my jam. Narrowing my eyes to slits, I let magic flow into my horn, but at the same time I pinched it down to a tiny flow.

I wanted the pocket to look like it wasn't there and yet still be able to be used.

—Wait!— Rainbow Dash sent. —Maybe you should, I don't know, try looking like Twilight while doing it? Maybe that will help your magic act more like hers?—

Easing back from my precise focus, I let my horn slowly drain its magic back into my reserves.

"That is a very good idea. It might be enough to just put me in a more Twilightesque mood," I said.

I'd seen Twilight Sparkle (both of them) enough to know exactly how each looked, but I opted for our world's Twilight. Her figure and proportions were a matter of measurements I'd taken recently. She wasn't a small chest, but definitely less than what I normally put on for Rainbow's benefit. A slim waistline that saw as little exercise as it did fuel to expand—our Twilight often forgot her meals if science was happening (and for Twilight, science always happened).

Long slim legs, a familiar face, and long hair in a ponytail were the icing on my Twilight cake. Summoning up much more power than the spell itself would use, I called my fire and became Twilight Sparkle.

"Not that I'm complaining, but you might want to add clothes, Rares."

Oh drat. Well, Twilight's normal, casual attire would be a good enough look. Shoes, socks, skirt, blouse, glasses—A little more fire and I was suitably dressed as Twilight would be.

"Sorry about that. I've been having a little bit of a problem in that department mostly because I prefer to dress myself, rather than just slap an outfit on as a matter of course. It feels like cheating to dress like this."

"Hey, like I said, no complaints from me. Though, if Twilight looks exactly like you did just now, she needs to eat a bit better and get some more time out of her lab."

"Rainbow, we both know that getting Twilight out of her lab—or any lab—is not possible. Short of setting the building on fire around her, I doubt our Twilight will ever spend too much time away from her experiments. As for getting her to eat better, you know as well as I do that we've all tried, even with her father's help. Twilight is a nerd, Rainbow, plain and simple. She'll never be predisposed to going out and doing things unless someone literally twists her arm."

"She just needs a good boyfriend."

I snorted at that, and it came out distinctly like Twilight's snorts would. It was a little bit surprising at how much like her it sounded.

"That's your answer for everything, isn't it? I remember when you kept trying to hook me u—" I said.

That was odd, now I came to think of it. She was trying to get me to date, even though she loved me herself.

With barely a fraction of a second having passed, I continued.

"…up with people. You were the reason I installed the dating app in the first place!"

Rainbow's lips curled up at the edges. She stepped closer and leaned against me in that way that made me think of her as masculine—forceful.

Just the smell of her alone would have been enough to make me purr. She'd been active in a way that most people couldn't even contemplate. She smelled musky and vibrant. If I was a cat, I'd rub her all over myself.

"Rares, I wanted you to wake up from the hole you'd buried yourself in. I was happy to wait for you to play the field a little, but I wanted you at least open to any relationship. NotABug wasn't the only one who saw that you were in a bad place—I just didn't realize how bad or I would have run into your work and run off with you."

As she spoke, she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and nibbled at my ear. I went all noodly in her grip.

"You should have. If you'd been this way to me back then, I would have probably screamed for a while in my head, but you just feel so—"

"I like taking control of things. I like being physical. I love doing both with you."

I shivered a little and let out a soft sigh of pure and absolute desire. Nibbling my ear one more time, Rainbow slowly let go of me.

"But you need to do this thing so we can have a shower and go for a drive."

Her smell lingered more than the feel of her hugging me. Right. Of course. Magic. Not being completely distracted by Rainbow's strong arms.

"Yes, yes. The thing. Get the shower running and I'll be in there shortly," I said.

Locking my Twilight-centric senses on the test pocket, I struggled to pull my mind along after my intent.

—Were you just smooching with Rainbow?— NotABug asked.

—Mmmm… Maybe,— I sent.

—You know I can hear you two, right?— Rainbow Dash asked.

—I know,— NotABug sent.

—Me too,— I sent.

—Just checking,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Ohhh. She did that thing you like. I like it too, but I like being a little physically forceful too,— NotABug sent.

—It still surprises me that you do. I guess even this close, we still have a lot of things different. I'm going to try making another egg or two,— I sent.

—For more egg shells?—

—That too, but I also don't mind the idea of more of us in this family. Growing up with Sweetie, I'd always felt like I wanted a bigger family.—

—Bigger would be better. I like all the chirping.—

—That makes two of us, darling.—

Breathing slowly, I let my magic flow, but I focused on making it be like Twilight's. Raspberry, of course, was the intended color, and I was surprised when my hands began to glow with just that shade. Turning my full attention on the pocket, I threw my will and a trickle of magic at it.

I wanted the pocket to look like it wasn't there and yet still be able to be used.

The glow of Twilight's magic enveloped the fabric and imbued into it. There wasn't any fire, nor even smoke, just a sense of something having happened.

Reaching down, I plucked up the practice pocket and realized my spell had worked. There was no line of the seam, the fabric just looked continuous. Knowing there was meant to be a pocket there, I slid my hand against where the opening should be, and sure enough I slipped my fingers inside.

It was perfect!

—Oooh. That's clever. What are you going to do with it?— NotABug asked.

—This,— I sent.

Picking up Starling's new dress, I focused my thoughts in the same way and directed my magic at the barely visible pocket on the dress.

I wanted the pocket to look like it wasn't there and yet still be able to be used.

It might be silly to say those words in my head each time I wanted it to happen, but it felt necessary. Magic, I believed, needed to have rituals and such. At least, Twilight's magic did. Changeling magic was completely different. It was chirpy!

Satisfied that I'd done enough of the ritual, I pushed some of my magic out and watched as the pocket faded from view. I reached my—well, Twilight's—hand to the fabric and ran my fingers to the seam that should be there. The tips of my fingers disappeared from view.

—A skirt with a hidden pocket?— NotABug asked.

—A skirt with a hidden holster. This is for Starling.—

—Your dress is done,— I sent to Starling.

I wouldn't get a chance to go to my bedroom and get changed—not with two people sleeping off headaches in there—so I opted to pick some pretty clothes and just shapechange into them. A summer dress in violet to match my hair with a floral pattern of white down one side could wait until after my shower—I picked a dressing gown instead. Becoming that slightly more buxom (I was sure Rainbow appreciated it) version of my old self was simple, adding the gown was likewise.

Calling up my magic, I shifted from Twilight Sparkle to the old me.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that, Rarity, but don't let me stop you," Starling said.

"There you are, dear. I have your dress finished, there is the holster we talked about in a flap on the front. If you'll excuse me, I have a darling waiting for me."

I handed Starling the dress with my magic and walked past her. A little privacy while she changed would probably be appreciated, and besides, I wanted that shower.

Walking down and across the hall to the bathroom, I tried to tell myself that I wasn't naked and that what I "wore" was clothing, but that was the rub I realized. I wasn't wearing this lovely dressing gown—it was part of me.

As soon as I stepped into the bathroom, I noticed Rainbow naked in the shower. Closing the door behind me, I discarded the illusion of the dressing gown.

—You can drop the disguise fully if you want. You know I love you all the time,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—I could, but I like seeing your smile when you get the girlfriend of your dreams,— I said.

I'll admit that what came after was one of my favorite showers I'd ever had. Entire discussions of form and figure passed in moments, and Rainbow explained at length how much she enjoyed the few changes I made while I was with her.

My own enjoyment was no small matter either, but a polite lady does not go into the details of such things.

Stepping from the shower, I looked down my body and then up Rainbow's. Every time we were intimate, I feared it would feel strange or odd being with another woman. So far it hadn't—not even once.

"You know, I feel a little odd when I make clothing appear," I said.

Before today, I wouldn't have thought twice about Rainbow's pause as she looked at me. Now, however, I knew that that few seconds involved a lot of thought on her part.

"It's because you didn't make the clothes, or that they're kinda part of you?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"More of the second than the first. I think that's why I keep forgetting."

"To dress yourself? Yeah, I can see that. Can't say I'll ever complain, but I'll try to warn you if you slip, okay?"

I had to stretch up on tip-toes to reach her cheek from my current height, but I managed to give Rainbow a little peck. A rush of fire and I was back to my changeling self.

It was a little distressing how easy my body was to maintain. I looked at myself in the mirror and let out a sigh.

"I wish my hair had more body to it. What do you think I should do with it?" I asked.

"Maybe pin it up? You've got a lot of silky mane going on there, you could pin it into waves cascading down the back of your neck."

As she explained, Rainbow worked her hands into my mane and did her best to show what she meant. Goodness but I could have melted and let her run her hands through my mane all day.

"Your skills with hair, makeup, and clothes never ceases to amaze me, Rainbow-darling."

"If I wanted any hope of catching the eye of the coolest fashion designer in the world, I knew I'd have to get some skills. Pass me some pins."

Hairpins I had plenty of, and I used my magic to float them over to Rainbow as she needed them. I got to watch in the mirror as she primped and shaped my mane into exactly what she'd described. It looked like I had a waterfall flowing down my long neck, and the cerulean coloring only enhanced the effect.

It wasn't perfect, but it would take a skilled eye to see the little mistakes that Rainbow'd made.

—That looks amazing!— NotABug sent.

—We were just about to go for a drive. Did you want to come along?— I asked.

—You mean just spend the afternoon together as the three of us? Yes! I'd love it!—

We chirped excitedly together and exchanged a hug.

—I was thinking we'd go in my older car. We're going to be cruising a bit, and that car's built to cruise,— Rainbow Dash sent.

I remembered our times spent in that car, and despite her sometimes-wild driving in it, I'd learned to like the big metal monster.

—Sounds perfect,— I sent.

—Yup! I'll just finish up this order I'm putting in. We're getting a big server upgrade thanks to Beta's work. Miss Pommel approved the acquisitions and 'Bee has been working on building our operating capital a bit higher to cover them,— NotABug sent.

—I'll just go get something appropriate to wear,— Rainbow Dash sent.

There seemed not a thing wrong with her. Of the three who'd experienced the implants so far, she had come out of the slump quickest.

I realized we should let everyone know where we were going.

—We'll be heading out for a little drive. It might take all afternoon,— I sent.

A small tsunami of encouraging and happy chirps washed back over me. Of course, I replied with my own appreciative chirps.

We both left the bathroom, and while Rainbow walked down toward our bedroom, I headed back to the living room.

Starling was standing by the door and wearing the skirt I'd made. She looked a little uncomfortable—probably because it looked like she was wearing nothing under the skirt.

"You like?" I asked.

"It looks like I'm not wearing underwear," Starling said.

She looked down at the skirt and I watched color grow in her cheeks.

Okay, so it did look like she was flashing everyone, but she really wasn't. Was this my own blasé attitude to nudity coloring my art? Maybe a little, but it wasn't as if any sensitive parts of her were actually visible.

"But, I have no idea how you hid a gun in it. The moment it's in the holster, I can't feel it there at all. Even an intrusive pat-down wouldn't find it."

She reached to where I knew (but couldn't see) the pocket was and reached in. The effect of her withdrawing a gun that looked too large to be hidden somewhere that shouldn't have existed was great. Even Starling looked shocked to see it.

"Gotta give you credit, though, this is the best conceal I've ever seen. You know, if you made suits like this, you could sell them for a small fortune."

"I don't want to mass produce suits. I want to make things that show off my friends' to their best and still suit their needs. It's revealing, but like I said—this outfit is to make people forget that you're dangerous."

"That makes you more of a target," Starling said.

"I can dodge."

Starling rolled her eyes and pushed the gun back into its holster. As soon as her hand withdrew from the pocket, it became imperceptible again. Okay, so I may have outdone myself here. Definitely something to feel proud about, but could I do this with other things? Kevlar body armor? Carbines?

"I'll grant that—Oh, you're going out? I guess there'll be no more dress-ups, then?"

There was a note of sadness in her voice. I might not be able to see her emotions anymore, but I could certainly listen for them. Was she looking forward to more things? Drat but she was raising so many new questions for me. How many dress-ups did Starling want to play? Was this a sign that she wanted more than her military life had given her?

Well, if she wanted unique fashion that was designed around her ability to defend herself and those around her, she'd found the right employer.

"For a drive, yes. I asked Rainbow if she'd like to build me a car, and now she wants me to pick out an older car to use as the base."

"We were chatting earlier about that. I didn't know she was doing one for you, too. Got any ideas about what you want?"

"That's the thing, I haven't exactly had much experience with such things. A car was always a machine that got me from A to B without having to worry about C. Goodness, I don't even know what color I want. That will be a whole other problem."

—Okay, I'm coming now. Are you ready?— Rainbow Dash asked.

—I was just chatting with Starling. I'm ready when you are.—

—I wish our bedroom was free. I'd take you in and do your makeup.—

I could hear footsteps in the hallway, though they were much too fast for anyone but Rainbow.

—Not everyone has your physical fortitude, darling.—

I'd been using my favorite word a lot more lately, though mostly when referring to Rainbow and NotABug. It just seemed to fit nicely, and I liked the text options with ChirpNet that let me italicize it.

—Is that innuendo for something?— Rainbow Dash asked.

As usual, the cameras in the living room failed to track Rainbow properly. There was the usual persistent rainbow effect after her, but her body kept getting distorted and twisted a little. It was horridly disconcerting.

—It wasn't, but it could be,— I sent.

Goodness but we were being a little unladylike, however in the privacy of our own direct messages I could afford a little expressive tête-à-tête.

Rainbow's lips pressed to my cheek, resulting in me leaning to the side just a little.

"Let's go. I've got some things I know you'll like. First stop is an imports yard. They're not big muscle cars, but I have a suspicion you don't want that," Rainbow Dash said.

Knowing the way Rainbow lived, it was still a marvel that she managed to keep track of time like that. More so because she managed to adjust when she had pulled me into her high-speed realm. She had the door unlocked and open before I could finish blinking.

With a hand on my shoulder, Rainbow pulled me into her time. It was hard to tell anything was different, and I wouldn't have noticed at all except Starling had opened her mouth to say something and it was taking an eternity for her to even make a sound.

—Looks like we're off. Thank you for looking after everything while we're gone,— I sent to Starling.

I stepped forward with Rainbow, breaking the bonds of reality behind us and moving far too quickly for normal physics to apply to us. It was literal magic.

No sooner were we beside Rainbow's car than she pulled it into her time-thingy too. If there were a physical toll to her doing this, I couldn't see it.

Opening the door for me, she waited for me to be in before she let go of the car and was at the driver's door seven-hundredths of a second later.

"I think I'll stick to talking like this. NotABug, if you want to chat, feel free. You can hear me, right?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—I can hear whatever Rarity hears.—

"I'm fine with this too, Rainy-darling, where are we going first?"

Rainbow stared at me for a few moments.

"Rainy-darling? Really?"

—I think it's cute!—

"See?" I asked. "It's a perfectly cute nickname."

Rainbow made an admirable attempt at a defeated sigh and turned the key of her car. The response was a reminder that her vehicle used outdated technology, but I could excuse its noise when her smile broke into a wide grin.

When Rainbow smiled like that, her face turned from beautiful to spectacular. There was an innocence and wonder there that no amount of SuriGos could wipe away. For that smile I'd go to war. For that smile I was already at war.

"Okay. But only you two get to use it. If I catch anyone else uttering it, I'm totally going to grumble at you all for a week."

—These terms are agreeable, but only because then we get to tease you about grumbling.—

I giggled without restraint at NotABug's quip. She was right, though. I don't know why I'd shortened Rainbow’s name quite like that, but I do know I enjoyed the blush it brought to her cheeks.

The engine surged a little at Rainbow's urging, then she reached down to the gear stick, pressed the clutch in, found a gear, and time slowed to a crawl around us.

There was a sense of potential that lasted a fraction of a second. One moment her foot was off the gas, then she pressed down and drew her foot back from the clutch at the same time. A sense of hunger came from the engine under the hood—I could imagine the butterfly valve opening and a tiny pause as it contemplated its options before physics intervened and shoved air into it.

Time moved in fractions of milliseconds. I could feel the gearbox, driveshaft, and differential take up the slack as the engine began waking from whatever sleep it'd been in.

My research into cars was paying off, not to mention the questions I'd peppered Rainbow with about her car in particular.

There was a sound of screeching, and I knew the tires' grip on the road was the weak link in the physics of pushing the car forward. For a moment the car seemed to crouch, and then the tires gripped.

Not quite as firmly as our electric cars, but certainly exciting enough for me, the car shoved me backwards against the seat.

"Okay, first stop is an import yard. They have something in particular I want you to look at. It's gonna be self-explanatory when I tell you what the car is called."

Learning more about cars had taught me more appreciation for Rainbow's skills at both engineering and driving than I'd otherwise have ever gained.

"Oh? What's that?"

"Well, it has a bunch of numbers and whatever, but the name everyone calls it is the Fairlady Z."

The name had me hooked right from the start. I don't know what I was expecting, and Rainbow wouldn't be coaxed to give more details on the car until we saw it.

What it wasn't, unfortunately, was a car. Cars have wheels and a motor and you can sit in them and make them move. This lacked the first two and hence the ability to perform the third.

The white hunk of metal, however, was a diamond in the rough. There was brown patches here and there where some rust had bubbled the paint, it lacked any mechanical parts strictly required to make a car be a car, and it was also absolutely gorgeous. The lines of it were that classic look that old sports cars could manage. It wasn't a muscle-car, like Rainbow's, but I could see in it something that could live up to its name.

"You've been quiet," Rainbow Dash said.

We were seated in her car at the front of the yard, looking at the vehicles through a chain-mesh fence.

"It's rusting," I said. "And it has none of the parts needed to drive it."

"Well, I wouldn't have been using those anyway, and rust can be repaired. If it had been running, it would be a crime to do what I'm going to do to it. So is that what you want? The first car we look at?"

"Rainy, let's look at all the cars you want to look at too, but let's make sure the owner of this one doesn't sell it before the end of the day."

"So you want to see more?"

I leaned across and stretched my neck out—while avoiding poking holes in the roof lining of her car with my horn—and kissed Rainbow on the cheek.

"I would love to look at more with you."

And so we looked. Cars big and small were on display. Sometimes we had to get out and walk around (I shapechanged when doing that), while others we just drove past. But, as the sun began to leak onto the horizon, I still hadn't found anything I liked the look of more than the Fairlady Z.

The name of it was no small delight, either.

We drove around for a bit longer and even swapped places (with NotABug) to give her a little time physically with Rainbow. It was some time together during which we could both forget our struggle to grow into our new lives and just relax together.

Rainbow Dash and NotABug were everything I could have wanted in partners. They listened to everything I said, they were both open about everything, and I couldn't help but feel the love of each in every interaction—literally in Rainbow's case.

5:55 P.M.

I'd focused on nibbling on Rainbow all afternoon so that, by now, I was feeling that twinge of wanting to lay an egg. Make an egg. Gosh, I needed to keep that around the right way. If I went my whole life without laying an egg, I would be a happy bug because of it.

"I'll arrange someone to pick it up and get it to our house on Monday," Rainbow Dash said. "This won't be a fast project, Rares."

—I know, Rainy, but it's a first step. We are making a lot of those lately,— I sent.

NotABug, sitting up in the front seat of the car as we were pulling back into our driveway, let out a series of little chirps in satisfaction. She was in control right now, but we were sharing our time with Rainbow—and our time together.

I chirped to NotABug and digitally hugged her. Her returned hug felt good enough I could have spent all evening just basking in her love, but I had something I needed to do first.

—I need to make an egg,— I sent.

"Another?! You are the best bug at this, Rara," NotABug said.

I was about to jump in with a reply, but so far I'd been making an effort to let everyone have a chance to respond before I sent off a fresh comment via ChirpNet, so held back to let Rainbow speak.

"She's seriously dedicated, and besides, there's going to be a queue a mile long to get an integrated phone. You had a list, right?" Rainbow Dash asked.

—Yes. Starling is next, then Mrs. Velvet. Stefanie and Perdition after them, then Bent and Sweetie, along with any others in our family and friends who want one. Then we start taking bids.—

"What about Twilight Velvet's husband?" NotABug asked.

That stopped me dead in my tracks. I'd been a little blind in my planning there. Giving NotABug a bigger hug and a bunch of thankful chirps, I amended my list to include offers for everyone's significant others.

—Of course you're right. This is why we all work best as a team. I'll add spouses to the list. I don't want anyone's family to feel left out of this.—

"You two have all this so figured out it sometimes makes my head spin, you know that? And don't think I'd admit that to anyone else but either of you. I'm just a big, dumb jo—"

Rainbow Dash might be fast, and she might be jock, but NotABug could shape-shift and move fast enough to cut Rainbow's self-deprecating speech off with a kiss.

—You totally deserved that. You're not dumb in any way, Rainy. Don't think I haven't noticed you using your speed to think faster,— I sent.

—Talking like this, when kissing, is totally cheating,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Fun, though,— NotABug sent.

After a few moments more of kissing, NotABug nudged me forward. Sharing was easy to do when you were both in the same body. Taking over, I explored her lips with renewed vigor.

—Rari? It's hard to keep up with you two, sometimes,— Rainbow Dash sent. —Fun to try, though.—

I snorted and laughed so much the kiss was ended a little before I'd have liked. Well, that would just leave me wanting more kisses. Not that I needed incentive to want to kiss Rainbow.

"When do you need to pick Bitwise up from Uma no Sushi?" I asked.

"Kit said she wanted to let her have a full night to see how things work. She's not actually working for the whole day. I'll be heading over at around seven to pick her up."

—What are we having for dinner, then?—

"There's the leftover pizza from last night, but I can cook something else if you want?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Pizza will probably do. Are you sure it's okay to have?"

"Chill some water too, they'll be dehydrated. I bet they haven't been drinking or eating all day. Apart from that, some carbs will do them good. As for me, I don't think I could actually put weight on if I tried. I'd have to, you know, not move."

—"Is that you home?"— Starling asked.

—Yup! Rarity picked out her car!— NotABug sent.

There was an advantage in taking our time walking to the door; Starling opened it and welcomed us inside.

"Anything strange happen?" I asked.

"Your zombies woke up. Coco is in the kitchen trying to get the coffee machine to make something fancy and Lyra's in the computer room doing something with Byte."

Still in the form NotABug had used to kiss Rainbow, I walked through to the computer room.

—Thanks, Starling. You're our guardian angel,— I sent.

Byte and Lyra were dead silent, though I could feel the data pouring between them. My attention fell on the brand-new computer sitting to one side waiting for my next egg.

The bloated sensation of too much love needed but a little prod from me before my egg creation became imminent. Kneeling down beside the computer, I reached a hand out to touch it.

Blue light blossomed. This was less like the other times I made eggs in that I wasn't just letting it out, I was pushing it out.

The glut of love and magic inside me poured out and into the computer. The casing seemed to ripple and shift, black and green shell growing out from its surface to encompass the entire machine. There was a lot more magic going on here than normal, and I think it was affecting the egg.

—That's the biggest one yet,— NotABug sent.

I reached a hand out to rub the side of the softly glowing egg. When so much love can so quickly make a wonderful new life, who was I to judge the rightness of a species. Being a bug was a delight.

The pull of sensation as a new changeling reached out and connected to the WiFi boosted my spirits more. I leaned forward and kissed the egg.

"Yes. Perhaps we'll get enough shell from her to help several people at once," I said.

As I stood up, a pair of strong arms wrapped around me and dragged me backwards such that I was being hugged from behind. I tilted my head up and saw Rainbow's jaw just above me.

"A year ago, Rares, I wouldn't have believed you for a second that we'd both be mothers soon. It just didn't seem possible. But, now that we are, I wouldn't have it any other way. All our girls are amazing, and I keep pushing myself to be as awesome as I can for them, but I'm constantly afraid it won't be enough—ya know?"

I looked over to where Lyra was trying to look like she was doing anything but listen to us, and thought of her, Coco, Mrs. Velvet, Starling, and everyone else who'd thrown their lot in with my little family. If I had feathery wings like Rainbow sometimes got, I'd picture myself wrapping them around everyone like a protective mother bird.

"Yes, Rainy, I know. Goodness but I know. Not just our darling nymphs either. I feel—I have an obligation to protect everyone who's helped and everyone who has looked to me for help. I don't know if it's part of being a changeling or if it's just me, but they're all part of our family, Rainy."

Turning in her arms, I turned my head to the side and nuzzled in against her neck.

"It seems like too much, sometimes," I said. "I feel like there's too much weight and it's all getting heavier, but then you or NotABug, or one of our girls, or even one of our extended family step up and take some of the load. It's amazing that this is working, but I keep worrying that it won't."

The way my head was turned, I only saw Byte coming on the cameras. She shapechanged as she walked closer, spread her arms wide, and hugged us both.

"Mom, you'll never have to carry this alone. We're always going to be here. That's what family is all about," Byte said.

A rolling thunder of chirps washed over me from ChirpNet. All our daughters took a moment to ensure I knew they were there and meant the same thing Byte was saying—even Moon Dancer. I couldn't hope to match the volume and intensity of their chirping, but I tried anyway.

"Rarity," Lyra said, "I can't exactly speak for everyone in your periphery, but I'm fairly sure no one regrets becoming your friend or joining you in this—this journey. Life didn't exactly look grim before, but now I can see there was something missing from it. Togetherness. Heck, just spending a little time here makes the world feel brighter."

NotABug too wrapped me in a hug and chirped along with our daughters. Even if the worst happened, and everything else went to heck, I'd still have her with me—forever.

I didn't need my emotion sight to be able to see the sincerity or happiness coursing through Lyra, but it was certainly a confidence boost. I didn't feed off her, of course, but it would have been a piece of cake with the love she felt. Which reminded me of something I needed to announce.

"Before I forget, NotABug reminded me earlier that I'd made an error with my plans for shell dispersal. Once Starling, Mrs. Velvet, Stefanie, and Perdition have theirs, I will throw things open to family of friends. Lyra, do you have a special someone?" I asked.

Lyra's eyes widened for a moment and a big grin came over her. She blushed, and I saw her smile widen further.

"Sweetie Drops. I don't know if she'd want to, but I think that'd be awesome. We could always talk, no matter what."

"With this, I might be able to arrange that as soon as Monday," I said.

Despite all the joy and excitement I was feeling, I found myself yawning. When Rainbow's arms tightened a little more around me, I judged her grip (and reflexes) sufficient to shapechange into my normal self.

Rainbow, predictably, caught me in her arms.

"Come on, sleepy bug, let's get you some solid food and then you can have an early night. I heard that tomorrow was going to be a big day for you," Rainbow Dash said.

Chastising Rainbow for her behavior would have cost me time and effort I was not willing to expend. Plus, it might have meant I wouldn't get a piece of pizza. Angling my head so my horn wouldn't saw into Rainbow's shoulder, I let out a sigh.

"I'm not that sleepy. Besides, I'd like to do a little more work on my spear."

Setting me on a seat in the kitchen, Rainbow walked to the fridge and lifted out a box of assorted pizza bits.

"You're worried Suri's going to do something tomorrow?"

—We already know she's organized this event as an ambush. Extrapolating what she'll do when she finds out Rara is ready for it doesn't take much work,— NotABug sent.

"You really like Rara?" I asked.

—The question is, Rara, do you like it?—

My answer was to hug her a little tighter.

"I like almost anything you call me. As for tomorrow, yes. I'm fairly sure she'll go crazy and attack when it turns out I've turned this around to a positive. When she does, I'll stand my ground and deal with her—once and for all."

Lyra whistled appreciatively as she walked in.

"Battle plans? I heard about tomorrow being some kind of fashion showdown, but are you really going to make it more?" Lyra Heartstrings asked.

"Rarity was just saying she expects Suri to take it beyond a fashion fight. She did tend to lose her cool last time when things didn't go her way," Rainbow Dash said.

Dropping a bunch of slices on an oven tray, I put them under the broiler. It confused me at first, but I realized my poor little microwave wouldn't be up to the task of heating a dozen or so slices in ones and twos.

"Exactly. When she comes at me, I want to be ready to hurt her. I want to rip the two of them apart and free Suri—if I can—before dealing with Windigo once and for all," I said.

The smell of heating pizza brightened the room so much that it made me hungry for the joy of food everyone felt.

"And if you can't rip them apart?" Coco Pommel asked.

I lifted my head to look at her. She had her hands wrapped around a coffee cup and looked both satisfied and worried, which I'd come to realize was her resting face.

"Then I rip them apart. She killed my daughter and would kill all of us if she could. I won't let her harm my family."

The steel in my voice shocked me, but I managed to get it all out. My emotions were firing in a dozen different directions and my head rang with the realization that I would kill them if I had to.

"Well, that means we might have to cover up stuff tomorrow. Call your lawyer friend. She'll probably tell you not to do it, because I think she has to, but she might help you get away with it," Lyra Heartstrings said.

I spotted Starling approaching the kitchen on the cameras before she reached us.

"Then arrange for me to get the kill-shot," Starling said. "That's what I'm here for, after all."

"That would mean you take my fall. Starling, I don't want to use you like that. If anything happens, I'll make sure Suri starts it, but I finish it," I said.

—That's the best way to do it. There's a lot of laws that will protect you if you aren't the one who started the fight. Though, you need to be careful about using deadly force when none was already used,— NotABug sent.

—I'll give Starling time to read that,— I sent.

"Thanks, Rarity. And yeah, that lines up with what we were told when we were being discharged. There was all kinds of warnings about using deadly force when we get in a fight."

"I believe I'll try to leave the physical violence to her, anyway. Attacking her magically and digitally are my aims. Come to think of it, she'll be exposed tomorrow. Why don't we organize a few distractions for her while she is busy at the show?" I asked.

—Stefanie and Perdition would be best to have work on that. Or at least, the best to find others to do it. We probably don't want any trail leading back to us as conducting industrial espionage.—

"Right. Let's plan for the worst and hope for the be—" I said.

I yawned, arching my spine and utterly at a loss as to how to stop. The result turned out to be simple—Rainbow passed me a plate with two slices of pizza on it.

Picking up a slice, I took a dainty bite of it on the tail end of my yawn.

"If we're going to have some big showdown tomorrow, I want you and everyone else to eat a big meal now so you have the energy to do your best," Rainbow Dash said.

—I don't think I'll be awake much longer. It's been a long day, and I want to be ready for anything tomorrow,— I sent.

A small rush of delightful chirps poured to me from NotABug like a comforter that seemed intent on wrapping me up with cozy love.

—Just give me a prod if you want me to take over,— NotABug sent.

I pulled NotABug into a digital hug and squeezed her tight, while also managing the continued consumption of pizza.

At the end of the first slice, I felt the need to yawn again. Rather than give into temptation, I nudged NotABug to the fore and let myself fall back from control.

—Sorry, darlings, but I believe that will be all I'm capable of tonight. Please, don't be afraid of waking me, but do let me know what I've missed out on,— I sent to Rainbow and NotABug.

I'd barely gotten cozy within my mind than the world went dark and I was unconscious.

Author's Note

Princess Twilight: Any thoughts on setting up an interdimensional changeling exchange, so that they can learn different ways to bug?

Friendship and research rolled up into one topic—Twilight broke into a huge smile. "I've been talking with Ocellus about her visiting them, actually. She's really excited to—and keeps making this odd sound. We're not sure how viable Rarity's children will be here, on the other hoof. More data is needed, but I'm putting the bulk of the work in Ocellus' capable hooves."

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Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (I am sorry for all those commas. I am looking into stopping that!)

Chapter 26

6:30 A.M.

I was tangled up in the strong limbs wrapped around me and something heavy hung off my horn.

NotABug was still asleep, and by the sound of her soft breathing so was Rainbow. I kept my eyes closed and literally bathed in the warmth of Rainbow's love. I'm not sure if a changeling can absorb food via osmosis, but it wouldn't take me too much convincing to at least get onboard with the idea.

Her breathing was so slow—probably the only time she ever did anything slowly. She was pulled right up against my underside and had me wrapped in a tight hug that was at the same time cozy and intimate. I had no idea how we weren’t doing any damage with my horn, though the mass hanging off it probably meant she and NotABug had worked something out.

I moved—I thought—imperceptibly. Nuzzling gently under her chin, I felt her limbs all tighten around me briefly, then release. Had I woken her?

But, after several seconds without her breathing speeding up, I smiled in relief. It was nice to just cuddle. It was a Sunday, and I had a lot of work ahead of me, but for now I could remain in bed with the ones I loved close.

Well, if I could do what I wanted today, I'd not only be a recognized up-and-coming fashionista and boutique for those with discerning tastes, I would also not have to fear for the lives of my family.

—You're awake, Mom?— Beta asked.

It occurred to me that even at such an early hour, there was chirping going on.

—Yes, dear. Rainbow and NotABug aren't yet.—

—I had an early night too. I spent all day digging, and then got tired. Byte gave me some love she'd gathered and I curled up on a chair in the computer room with her. What's going to happen today?—

—That depends on SuriGo. I'm sure she's going to try something, especially when she realizes I have prepared enough dresses to put on a show. When she does, I intend to retaliate as hard and swift as I can. You're going to be helping at the show?—

A furious little chirp was the swiftest answer.

—Of course! I might be the best at digging, but I'm still your daughter. Byte gave us all some lessons in shapechanging.—

Faint chirps came from several others: Bobbin, Bitwise, and Bespoke. I sent out a reassuring wash of chirps in reply, and repeated the warning about Rainbow and NotABug being asleep still.

All the chirping quietened but didn't stop.

—I'll start making breakfast. What do you want, Mom?—

—A hard-boiled egg and some toast would be wonderful,— I sent.

—Are you sure you wouldn't prefer a poached egg?—

—I would adore it if you'd cook me a poached egg, dear.—

Where she had learned such things was obvious, but it still surprised me how fast our daughters picked things up.

—I'll have breakfast ready in ten minutes.—

Which meant I needed to be up and mobile. Nuzzling Rainbow's neck a little more actively, I could hear her breathing speed up and her heart rate raise. Changeling noses—snouts—were definitely effective nuzzling equipment.

"Rarity?"

"Who else would it be, Rainy?" I asked.

Hands searched out my body, and I was surprised to find the places they landed—seemingly innocuous—turn out to be sensitive. Though, rather than sensual, her touch was more insistent. I started to giggle.

"Ya know, much as I like that name, I still have to tickle you if we're going to get out of bed in time for breakfast, because you and I both know we'd never leave otherwise."

She literally chased me off the bed with her hands. I almost fell to the floor laughing—and would have if I didn't have four legs to keep me up.

"I take back everything I said. You're the worst snuggle-partner ever," I said.

Rainbow just stuck her tongue out and, without a stitch of clothing on, walked to the bathroom. That was literally teasing and tempting me to get up and go to the bathroom too. Ten minutes… We would only have time for a quick shower, but with my waxed chitin I would be spending most of my time washing Rainbow.

As I walked into the bathroom, I couldn't help a peek in the mirror. There was a mass of cardboard taped tightly around my horn in the most unflattering—but apparently effective—manner. Removing it was a simple matter of using my magic to cut it free.

Using magic to get things done faster was cheating. Having the source of my magic beside me while I used it was double cheating,but I liked to cheat when I could do so safely. Rainbow's hair took the most work, so I focused on that while she took care of all the parts that would have distracted me.

Not that her hair wasn't distracting. Of all the wonderful range of colors that a person's hair could come in, she had a rare genetic mutation that made a rainbow. It suited her perfectly, of course, but it was always a marvel to work with. Using my magic, I loved to run a "finger" across it and watch it cascade down. Of course, being wet meant it didn't so much cascade as flop.

I rinsed out her hair for the second time and had to balance on my back hooves to press my nose into it. The smell of her shampoo was strong, but my sense of smell wasn't limited just to that. I could smell happiness and love mixed liberally with excitement.

Nibbling on her emotions as I worked, I was soon confronted with a pair of wings growing—slowly compared to me—into being. The magic that created them was fascinating. With my enhanced senses I could watch as they seemed to swell out and grow then solidify into their wing shapes. Her hair grew and grew and grew, though the new hair was at least clean.

"Get a little worked up, did we?" I asked.

"You were nibbling again. Plus we're both naked in the shower and you're playing with my hair."

"Rainy, I'm always naked. Well, whenever I'm like this. And technically, when I make clothes by shapechanging, I'm naked then too. You know, it could be fun to go to the fashion show like that—then you'd be the only one in the room to know I was completely naked."

I blinked a few times rapidly after saying that. Where had that come from? I'd shake my head to clear the naughty thoughts, but if I did that—with my horn—I might do Rainbow an injury.

"Kinda hot, but you know I love you no matter how you look. You could wear a full-skirted gown with a train and I'd still see you, Rara."

My ego certainly didn't need stroking, though it was nice when she did. I was comfortable as what I was now.

"Darling, you say the most wonderful things."

Using magic, I swelled up and forward into my human visage and wrapped Rainbow in a hug.

—Breakfast is ready!— Bitwise sent.

—We're coming,— Rainbow Dash sent.

"That wasn't ten minutes," I said.

"It wasn't, but you don't turn down a good, cooked breakfast. We have a big day."

I whined. There was nothing else for such a situation than to give a good whine. Rainbow stepped out of the shower and left me to shapechange back, quickly rinse myself off, turn the shower off, and leave it too.

"When we started dating, I was worried that you wouldn't warm up to a serious relationship with another woman. It means a lot to me that you hit me up for intimacy."

"At first I would have said it was just the muscles. If I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine it was a guy hugging me—touching me."

"'At first'?"

"Yes. I came to realize it wasn't that at all. It was you hugging me—you touching me—that was important. Like a poet, I could wax lyrical about all the virtues of the perfect body, but I think you rubbed off on me more than either of us realized."

Rainbow unleashed the most cocky glance I'd caught to date from her. It took a few milliseconds for me to realize what she was hinting at.

"Well, maybe that a little," I said, "but it's not just that by a long shot. Being what I am has taught me to appreciate people for what's inside and how they feel. Being what I am means I can more easily see those."

"I thought you weren't going to make this into poetry?"

Using my magic, I attacked both of us with some soft, dry towels.

"I only said I could. I decided I should."

Her laughter made me bubble up inside with my own. By the time we managed to stop laughing, we were dry.

"I'm going to grab a dressing gown. We're already late by two minutes and forty-seven seconds," Rainbow Dash said.

I couldn't help myself and pranced to the door and out as Rainbow followed me up. The day felt like it had started right already. We reached the kitchen fashionably late.

Bespoke, Bobbin, and Beta were already at the table looking like young women enjoying the first meal of the day together. Their forms were perfect, though each had decided on little variation to the black and soft cerulean that was my own natural form. Their hair was shorter—much shorter—than mine and pulled up off their shoulders.

I couldn't tell which was which, but I could tell all three were in the room with us. Bitwise was at the kitchen bench. Unlike the others, she had a very unique human form. Pale white skin and a shock of orange hair, she wore a white vest, black pants, and an apron.

Bitwise turned as I walked into the kitchen and her blue eyes lit up and a huge smile spread across her face. She was using a utensil I wasn't sure I even owned to lift a poached egg onto some toast before dusting it with salt, pepper, some chives, and then she poured a creamy-looking yellow-orange sauce over it.

"We didn't have any bacon, or even ham, so you'll have to do without for today. We're going shopping next week for more food," Bitwise said.

The way she'd become so sure of herself made me smile just as much as she was. I walked over and took a seat at the table and waited for Rainbow to join me.

"How was your day working at Uma no Sushi?" I asked.

Setting a plate down before Rainbow and myself, along with cutlery, Bitwise returned to the kitchen bench.

"I had to wash rice almost all day, but Chef Kit and Chef Soba spent the whole day explaining to me why it was important and what could be done with it. There are soooo many kinds of sushi—some I couldn't even find out about online!"

She bubbled with excitement while she cooked more eggs.

I carefully cut into my egg to find a runny (though perfectly cooked) yolk inside. Using a knife and fork for toast was a little overkill, but with the sauce and the egg flowing over the edges of the toast I could see why they were needed.

Just a single mouthful of the food and I shivered. My magic almost winked out and dropped the knife and fork. Hollandaise sauce. I'd certainly had eggs Benedict before and recognized the flavor.

Another forkful followed the first, and then a third. I had to stop myself from devouring it all.

"Bitwise, dear, this is wonderful!" I said.

A rush of excited and happy chirping poured from Bitwise. I tried to keep up with my own reassuring and thankful chirping, but she was being very energetic about sending as much as she could.

"Yeah, it's great," Rainbow Dash said.

Nope, that wasn't as much chirping as she could muster. Now Bitwise had somehow doubled her chirps-per-second and hugged Rainbow (because she was closest) and then myself. I returned her hug with one foreleg—as best I could given she was larger than me—and made a few happy chirps out loud.

"It's true. This is quite delicious, dear. I'm sure if you ask Rainbow nicely, you can go shopping with her tomorrow," I said.

Rainbow turned from her food to look at Bitwise with open surprise.

"Are you kidding? If you make breakfast this awesome every day, I'll take you shopping right now. Although, this is a bit rich to be eating all the time," Rainbow Dash said.

"Weren't you just telling me that you could eat anything and not have to worry about burning off the energy?" I asked.

Her answer was to bark a laugh and take another mouthful of her toast and egg. It was relaxing and affirming to have a delicious breakfast with our children.

7:22 A.M.

With the fashion show due to start at 2 P.M., I was already starting to panic. I had clothes to prepare and a weapon to finish. Oh, and on top of that I needed to ask Stefanie and Perdition to stir up some trouble for Polomare.

Well, I could do one of those things immediately.

—Are either of you awake and interested in performing a special little favor?— I asked Perdition and Stefanie.

The wait for real-time responses was still horrible and perhaps even more so now that more people were connecting up.

—Still awake. 'Sup?— Perdition asked.

—Two things. First, you know I'm having a little fashion show today? SuriGo (Suri Polomare and Windigo) will be there. Would you happen to know of anyone who'd like to cause problems for her. The only catch is we don't want it to look like it's us doing it.—

—Yeah, I know about a dozen guys who have a bone to pick with Windigo. All I'd need to do is point them at a few surfaces they have open and you'd get Polomare off the internet for a few days. What was the second thing?—

His writing improvement was nothing short of amazing. I began working over my spear code, preparing it for compiling and obfuscation. Stefanie had set up a bunch of tools to make my program far less obvious, and it would integrate with the code further to hide it within memory.

It was moments like these that I was thankful Stefanie and Perdition were on our side. It wasn't just what they brought to the table directly, but the expertise Perdition showed when dealing with other hackers was nothing if not amazing.

—The second thing was, we worked out how to implant phones into people.—

—WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!—

—So, uh, maybe later today or early tomorrow we can get one or both of you.—

I was thankful we had more servers coming. What had at first felt like all the performance I'd ever need was now noticeably slower.

—I take it it's limited by something? What's the deal, bug queen?—

—It's our egg shells. If you hold one while holding a phone and getting zapped by myself or NotABug, your body absorbs the shell and phone.—

Examining my spear was a strange thing. It didn't feel like a weapon in any way, but I knew it only needed a command and it would attack viciously. That's when I remembered the piece of SuriGo we'd caught on a computer.

—Okay, but is a phone all it can do? What if I hold a laptop?—

Alright, he had me there. Bigger devices meant more… what? Would it let him think faster? For that matter, could I try to add more to myself? If I added a camera, would I be able to see behind me? For that matter, could I make an extra eye in the back of my head already?

—That is something we can try. I'd like to have Mrs. Velvet (our lawyer) equipped, Starling too (but she wants to wait), which brings us to you and Stefanie. We may want to be careful with what technology we use. You wouldn't want to have a laptop but no wireless beyond WiFi.—

A nudge took me by surprise. NotABug was not only awake but pushing gently to the fore. I let out a barrage of happy chirps and relaxed to let the process happen easier. The change in perspective helped me focus more on my work.

—Good morning, darling,— I sent to NotABug.

Digitally, NotABug wrapped around me and squeezed me with a tight hug.

—Good morning, Rara. I'm using that one, even if it's Rainbow's. It's really nice. Oh, and I settled on a more traditional name. How does Nora Bug sound?—

I chirped in surprise. We'd mentioned other names before, but Nora Bug was both cute and… buggy. When bug had become a euphemism for everything good, I don't know, but I liked it. It was very buggy.

—It sounds wonderful, Nora. And no, I quite like Rara. I was just talking to Perdition about him and Stefanie getting their own phones, but also about arranging a little bit of a headache for SuriGo,— I sent.

—Okay. Well, I'll bring a phone, a tablet, and a laptop. Let's see how much of this your whammy can stuff into me,— Perdition sent.

—Hold on. You're literally counting your eggshells before they've hatched. I made one egg around lunchtime yesterday, and the second one in the evening.—

That's when something occurred to me. We might have eggs hatching while we're at the show. Who would I have guard the house?

Today was becoming more and more complicated by the minute, perhaps by the millisecond.

—Lyra, Moon? I have the biggest favor ever to ask,— I sent.

Moon replied as instantly as latency would allow with a curious chirp, Lyra a fraction of a second later just sent a question mark.

—I have this fashion show today, and there's two eggs here that may hatch before the day's out. I don't suppose you two would be able to come and keep an eye on them?— I asked.

—Of course I can. I'll be there as soon as I can,— Moon Dancer sent.

—Likewise. Give me about twenty minutes and I'll be there. Are there any of your kids not going too?— Lyra Heartstrings asked.

I pulled my daughters, Rainbow, and Nora (the name was definitely growing on me) in on the conversation.

—Does anyone want to stay here while we attend the fashion show? Lyra and Moon will be hanging around to make sure everything's okay,— I sent on the new expanded channel.

Bantam was the first to send a questioning chirp, but it was to Bespoke and not me. Bespoke replied with another more firm chirp.

—I think we'll both stay here, if that's alright. I'm a little confused about the outside world still,— Bespoke sent.

The little chirps of relief from Bantam told me exactly who wanted to stay here. I reached out to both and pulled them into a hug.

—Wonderful. There you go, Lyra, you'll have some company,— I sent.

—Phew! I thought it was going to be me and Moon stuck here on our own. Do either of you two want to play some computer games?— Lyra Heartstrings asked.

Bantam let out a startled chirp, then a rush of more chirps. Bespoke wasn't far behind her in both intensity and volume.

—I was talking to Sweetie Belle earlier. Perhaps we could invite her over too?— Moon Dancer asked.

—You mean Aunt Sweetie Belle that Byte told us about?— Bantam asked.

—That's her. She's really clever with electronics and robots,— Byte sent.

Both Bespoke and Bantam were now chirping excitedly to each other, egging the other on to louder and happier sounds.

—Thank you, both of you. Today might end up being more than I'd bargained for, but it's reassuring to know you two will be here,— I sent.

—Okay, got some friends to coordinate their own attacks on Polomare for early afternoon, and another bunch who will jump in a bit later. Just send me a message when you want to do the thing with the shells. Man, I'm so looking forward to this!— Perdition sent.

His reply surprised me. Our conversation had been quiet for several minutes and I thought it was over. Apparently he'd been scheduling an impromptu war. Practical, though.

—We have two eggs currently growing. Both are larger than normal, and one is very large. I'll talk with Mrs. Velvet and Starling to see which of them wishes to go ahead today. I'm hoping that bigger eggs mean more shell and more people from each egg. We're still experimenting with that side of it,— I sent to Perdition.

—Want me to pick you and Sweetie up?— Lyra Heartstrings asked.

Moon chirped in palpable relief.

—I'd appreciate it. Want me to bring some games?—

—Heck yeah! Settlers or Descent!—

—Alright. If it comes down to just one of us, do Stef first, okay? Also, is there a reason they wouldn't want to go today?— Perdition asked.

—You'll get about a six-hour-long headache after it happens. Even Rainbow was off her game for a while. Our test subjects spent their afternoon laying on a bed and learning how to not count,— I sent to Perdition.

Nora, I realized, was sitting in the living room talking with Starling. I hadn't even heard Starling arrive, but knowing that she was here gave me a little relief. The only time I'd seen her use her weapon was when she'd tried to shoot me with a taser, yet I trusted her word implicitly. It helped that Mrs. Velvet had checked up on her history, but I felt in my heart that she was not only important to have involved, but undoubtedly good at her job.

—So it'd be a good idea to do this and then go to sleep? Anyway, I don't care about a little downtime. Hook me up when you can, okay bug queen?—

—Will do, Perdition, and thank you for helping with this.—

I tried to ignore Nora and Starling chatting, mostly to give them some privacy with it. Besides, if it was important to me, Nora would tell me later.

Nora. The name fit her well, and even slid off the tongue the same (I think, since I haven't had a chance to say it out loud) as NotA. Her last name made me smile just a little wider every time I thought about it.

Rarity Bug.

Hrmm, it has potential.

—Oh, one other thing. Would you happen to have any systems with SuriGo on them? I have my spear ready to use, and want a realistic target,— I sent to Perdition.

—Yeah, I got a few actually. I'm keeping those machines separated from anything else. Any time I plug a computer into them that doesn't have our firewall on it, it gets hacked in minutes. You want me to bring one over?— Perdition asked.

This lag was killing me. It was annoying while I was in control and aware of the real world, but when my only reference to reality was digital, it was an abomination. How Rainbow could deal with this all the time was beyond me.

—Actually, it might be safer if I come over there. I don't want anyone connected to my WiFi when I do this in case I have to actually fight her down.—

—Good idea. Wait, you're a WiFi AP?—

A quick search revealed what he meant.

—Yes, it seems so. I started doing that when my crown grew in. This isn't something I waste time questioning, not when there's so many more things that are an utter disaster-in-progress.—

—Well, come on over. I'll put on some coffee and try to wake up.—

That's when I put together what he'd said at the start of our conversation. Perdition was at the end of his day cycle, it seemed. I checked the logs of ChirpNet for his node, though they weren't any use for establishing his activity cycle—it showed him as being online since he'd gotten his phone.

—I don't want to interrupt your sleep…—

—Sleep is irrelevant. I can sleep later when you use your magic on me and I have a headache. Besides, I wanna see how good Stef's exploits are.—

—And how good my code is at using them?—

—That too. So when you comin' around?—

—Nora, darling, could I take us around to see Perdition and test my code on a live piece of SuriGo?— I asked Nora Bug.

A worried chirp was my immediate reply. I wrapped her in a hug and chirped as reassuringly as I could.

—I have to do this before tonight, Nora. Fighting SuriGo is something I can't overlook, and I want to have a weapon I can actually hit her with. I might have to resort to fighting her mentally, too. I need to do this,— I sent to Nora Bug.

—I know, Rara. It scares me (SuriGo), but what scares me more is the possibility of losing you or Rainbow. Should I call her Rainy too?— Nora Bug asked.

—She likes the nickname. I don't want to lose you either, Nora, but I remember too well the night you took up residence and when we came back and found out about Moon Dancer. I'd rather fight her than see either of those things happen again, and if that means I have to get a little violent and put my neck on the line, I will.—

A firmer stream of chirping came from Nora. Vehemence grew by the millisecond, and I'd be a fashion hack if I didn't join in with her.

—Yeah. I keep forgetting what it did to Moon. It's odd, I never forgot things before, and I don't actually forget being told about it, but it just slips to the side unless I remind myself about it.—

—Sounds like you're becoming a little human. Just let me know when you're done, so I can tell Perdition we're coming over to test the code.—

—I may be awhile. Nora is using our body at the moment,— I sent to Perdition.

—Only a few more minutes and we'll be done,— Nora Bug sent.

—Who's Nora? You mean NotABug?— Perdition sent (much later).

—Nora Bug is what NotABug chose to be a name, since the government needed a name that matched their standards. She's spent some time coming up with one.—

—Yeah, figures they wouldn't want a sentence as a name. Fits her well, and means the same thing. Bee's been visiting a lot. She's been helping me with the bug bounty and learning the ins and outs of hacking from both of us.—

—I can't exactly stand on moral high-ground and say my daughters shouldn't learn potentially illegal things. Please be careful.—

—The only things she's hacked is systems Stef and I have put up for her. We're making it a game. She's keeping us busy and teaching us new tricks, too. She found a great way to fuzz android phones that Stef is now using.—

That surprised me. Bumblebee helping to find exploits wasn't a bad thing at all, and teaching Stefanie and Perdition new tricks was also good. Drat my moral compass was spinning a lot these days, but anything that protected my family and didn't actively hurt anyone but our enemy was a good thing.

—Thank you, Perdition. It's a relief to know you haven't just handed her tools and sent her to the stock market with them.—

—Fuck no. No no no. Anywhere there's big money, there's also big security. I've seen what she has to go through to connect there, and I've told her how bad it would be to trip any of their alarms,— Perdition sent.

Nora's push was a little surprising. I felt her prod me back into control as she slipped aside. Not for the first time I wondered what would happen if one of us resisted the change, but this wasn't the time to attempt that.

My four legs, torso, tail, neck, head, and horn all filled out with feeling, and I realized I was looking at Starling. Her usual hard expression was nowhere to be seen.

"Sorry about cutting things short on you two. I need to go see Perdition and Stefanie about testing some software that should give me an edge over SuriGo," I said.

—Thank you, darling,— I sent.

We shared a hug and some reassuring chirps together as I stood up.

"It's cool. We can keep chatting on ChirpNet. This voice chat thing is pretty cool, though I'd prefer a throat mic," Starling said.

"Then get one. If you want to make a budget for security equipment, draft one up and get Miss Pommel to look over it. Your initial equipment was a gift, but I think it would be for the best if we make a solid plan," I said.

"I'm going to have to get back to you on that. Accounting was never my thing, ya know?"

"Me either, but then I came into control of a growing corporation."

Starling snorted and shook her head.

"You constantly leave me breathless, you know that? I was hoping for a job where I could slump back into my old military training and leave all the thinking up to someone else. That's not your fault, though, and to be honest it's been good to—to not be just a soldier."

"Make sure to tell me if it's too much."

"Life is always too much, but I can learn. Why do you have to go and see them rather than just having them send the stuff to you?"

She always seemed to put practical above theory, which was good for her job I guess.

"Normally, yes. In this case it's a computer with a piece of SuriGo on it. I'm going to test the weapon I made."

"You want backup? This piece may be stuck in a computer, but what if it can affect others around it?"

I had no words at first—this wasn't something I'd seen coming. She was right in every sense of the word. Starling was the only person I could rely on not to be corrupted by SuriGo's nasty tricks. Sucking up my pride, I nodded.

"That would be a good idea, actually. I'd completely overlooked that aspect of it. We don't even know how much of her is in each piece. This was part of her when she attacked my—when she attacked my daughter and chased her into Moon Dancer."

"Ouch. Well, let's go and beat it up good, then. What should your weapon do to it?"

—Hey, what's up? I'm on my way home now. These runs are getting a little out of hand…— Rainbow Dash sent.

Nora chirped excitedly in a flood at both myself and Rainbow. I followed suit, and we didn't stop until Rainbow sent a few happy-chirp emoji back.

—Now you've got me chirping too,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—It's an improvement, Rainy,— I sent.

—Definitely!— Nora Bug sent.

—Well, if it makes both of you happy, I will definitely be doing more of it,— Rainbow Dash sent.

It was a simple connection to make, but it made me inexplicably happy that she'd just make such a decision.

—Rarity's going around to visit Perdition to test out her code on a working hunk of SuriGo.—

—Oh? Want some backup?—

—I've arranged for Starling to come with me. She has that resistance to her now, and if SuriGo does get loose of the computer she's stuck in, I want her to face two threats, not two targets.—

—Hrmm. Fair enough. I'd rather be there myself, but I can totally get why you'd want Starling. I'll keep an eye out while you're both gone.—

—Thank you, darling. How much longer will you be?—

—10 seconds flat.—

"Rainbow's on her way back. She'll keep an eye on things until—" I said.

I was cut off, of course, because when Rainbow said "ten seconds flat", what she meant was about half that. The door opened and Rainbow looked around the room to get her bearings before walking over and giving me a kiss on the cheek.

Barely managing to give her a return kiss before she pulled back, I felt like a heatwave had started, and it had everything to do with the amount of love in the room. I could have held back and resisted temptation, but why should I when we needed more eggs?

Rainbow's eyes fluttered closed and she bit her lip a little.

"R-Rara, that feels about ten times more intense when I've been exercising. You'd probably better go now before I keep you here for the rest of the day," Rainbow Dash said.

Standing up, I stretched and arched my spine like a cat, but unlike at the same time—some of my joints were far more flexible than a cat. A glance Rainbow's way told me she knew that fact too.

"Bye, darling," I said.

Starling waited all the way to the car before she sighed.

"You three are completely gone, aren't you?"

All I did in reply was look up at her and raise an eyebrow.

"Okay, I can get the human-like gestures and stuff, but what you did back there with that stretch—Rainbow Dash looked like you'd just done a striptease in front of her. She really loves you no matter what, doesn't she?"

"Precisely. I can't believe how blind I was for so long. I sometimes wonder how things would have gone if not for her. I certainly wouldn't have adjusted to this so easily, to say nothing of what I would have done for food."

As Starling walked around to the passenger side of my car, I paused.

"Why don't we walk? It's just four doors down," I said.

The walk was uneventful, which is a good thing. It was good to stretch my legs, and with Starling's long stride I needed to step into a prancing trot to keep up with her.

"You know, the local dealership for those cars is going to be making a fortune off you," Starling said.

She'd obviously spotted another of the electric cars parked in the driveway of Stefanie and Perdition's house.

"I'm more than happy sharing my wealth with them. Oh, I must make a note to talk to them about helping Rainbow with their systems. I wonder if they have a license for working with their software?"

"I might be fine with doing more stuff than I learned in Basic, but I'm not going to even assume to know what you're talking about."

As she spoke, Starling walked up to the door and knocked before she stepped back from it again, and I noticed her hand stray casually to her side—near her regular holster.

"Ey, whatever it you selling, it better be chocolate-chip," Perdition said.

He had a cocky smile as he opened the door fully then stepped aside.

"Perdition, dear, I'll make a point to bring chocolate next time. I brought Starling, she has a unique talent when dealing with SuriGo, that should be proof against whatever non-digital things it wants to throw at us."

"Hol up. Ya mean it might jump out 'ere?"

"Well, more like it might start to use magic to do things out here. If it does, leave turning it off to Stefanie or myself, okay?"

"Got it. So how do you wanna hook up to it?"

I thought over my options. Cable was out—I don't know if I have a socket, and I trust Rainbow would have told me if she had seen one. WiFi was one solution, but that would require opening up a lot of other devices to potential attack.

"For a start, turn off your WiFi, your laptops, and your phones. I believe Bluetooth will be the best method. It's not too fast, few devices will be using it, and it has limited range."

"Got it."

Perdition started walking around and turning off various devices. Tablets, phones, laptops. Their living room looked more like my computer room, which didn't surprise me. Starling, on the other hand, just reached into her pocket and turned her phone off, then reached up to her ear to turn off her earpiece.

—Nora, darling, we're going to need to turn off the internet connection. I don't want this SuriGo using us as a channel to the internet,— I sent.

—Are you sure you have control of this?— Nora Bug asked.

—No, but together we can. You keep your attention on myself and the Bluetooth connection. If I don't manage to keep it contained behind a firewall, you can shut this down. Also, if you wouldn't mind helping to process requests by the firewall?—

Chirping in relief, Nora hugged me.

—I can do that!—

—I know you can, Nora. Let's do this together, okay?—

Now her chirp was determined. It was odd to be giving inspiring speeches, but we'd apparently needed it.

"Dacord!" Perdition said. "I go turn off Stef's phone and get box."

I felt Nora turn off our data connection. The whole world closed in around us and reminded me of being in Equestria again. Though, at least here we have each other.

—I love you, Nora.—

—I love you too, Rarity.—

We hugged and chirped together until Perdition returned.

"Dacord, got all turned off an' got Bluetooth dongle for this."

Looking up at Starling, I nodded to her when she looked back down at me.

"Remember, if this goes south, you pull the cables from the machine," I said.

"Got it, boss."

I took a deep breath and looked up at Perdition.

"Okay, Perdition, turn it on."

The computer took a moment for it to cycle through what was obviously its EFI, and then I felt the first tickle on my Bluetooth connection.

—That's SuriGo?— Nora Bug asked.

Shoving my firewall in place, I felt the tickle stop for a moment, then it was like being hit by the tiniest tornado ever. Nora rushed to reply to the worried firewall's chirps, but their work kept SuriGo back. For now.

I visualized myself standing on the ramparts of a digital castle, fastening my armor. At last I reached out and took up my lance. Alright, SuriGo, let's see how much you like this. I've played defense far too long.

Hefting the spear, I pointed it at the malignant thing in the distance. In my mind's eye, SuriGo looked like a fort too, but hers was less wall and more just cannons stacked in a pile. Given the way she fought, I thought it rather apt.

I dialed in the settings I wanted, aimed the spear at SuriGo, and activated it.

A pure beam of white light exploded from the end of my spear—though in reality it tunneled through the Bluetooth connection—and I began to get feedback immediately. It identified an x86_64 CPU, a standard EFI subsystem, but the OS was gone. In its place, the probe found only a hybrid form of the AI emulation software.

That was fine. My spear didn't need a targetable operating system. I immediately deployed an exploit that flashed itself into the EFI system—something SuriGo hadn't already infected.

The spear worked exactly how I wished it to. We had control of all the hardware SuriGo was running on, and I'm not even sure she noticed. Time to change that.

I turned off all but one of the CPU cores.

—The attacks on the firewall just became a lot weaker. What did you do?— Nora Bug asked.

—I have control of the hardware. I turned off most of the CPU cores so she can't think as clearly. Okay, now I want to test more aggressive settings.—

So I adjusted the lance to instead target the AI emulation system itself. I was thankful that whichever coder had initially made the thing focused on speed over security. Again I fired the lance.

My feedback this time was a little more verbose. The lance was having trouble with the hybridized emulator—it had hunks of operating system code slapped on it like some kind of Frankenstein's monster. A tiny part of me reveled in the fact I knew the old movie was titled for his monster and not the doctor himself. Score another point to Rainy's nagging me to watch horror and action movies.

But then it found the buffer it'd been looking for and poured junk into it—and then one piece of important code. There was a brief moment when SuriGo shrieked, and then silence.

SuriGo wasn't gone, but I could see that the lance had taken full control of the hybrid emulator and had locked down SuriGo's process.

Opening a text input, I opened a shell connection to the emulator's prisoner.

—Hello there, Suri. Or is it Windigo? I've taken to calling you both SuriGo,— I sent.

—What the hell are you doing? How are you doing this? I'll kill you!— SuriGo sent.

—Tut tut tut, my dear, that's no way to talk to someone holding the keys of your prison. Not that I plan to let you out… or let you live,— I sent.

—The firewall is asking for help! Giving it!— Nora Bug sent.

I spared a quick chirp at Nora for the help, then turned my attention back to the chat with the SuriGo fragment.

—You don't have a choice, just like I didn't give that spawn of yours a choice!— SuriGo sent.

That's when it hit me which part of SuriGo I had here—this was the one that killed my little girl. My focus narrowed further and I had all my attention on the interface and the computer before me.

—You are the one that killed her, aren't you?— I asked.

Though this interface didn't allow for emotion to be added, I liked to think I was spewing the words with righteous fury. I already knew the answer.

—Rarity?— Nora Bug asked.

Nora's presence seemed so far away from me. My anger was building by the nanosecond, and I began to work magic.

—Rarity!—

The presence in my head wrapped around me and hugged me. Where I was full of rage and anger, she offered only love and understanding.

I wanted to rip the computer before us apart. I wanted to sink my digital teeth into SuriGo and devour her. I needed to break and destroy her!

—Rarity, I can hear your thoughts they're so loud. Calm down. You are better than them. So much better!—

That's when I let the chirping in—Nora's chirping. It was like lancing a boil, and as the love and comforting chirps rolled in, the anger poured out—but there was still something making me angry.

—I think it infected me. Nora, can you get rid of whatever it did to me?— I asked.

—I chased down that little whelp until it was terrified, then I slaughtered it. By the time I was done, there was nothing left,— SuriGo sent.

Her message, more than anything else, broke the last hold the anger had on me. The taunt was revealed for the lie it was.

—I've found it. I don't know how she did it, but I don't like it being on you!— Nora Bug sent.

A flood of upset chirps accompanied a ripping/tearing sensation. The anger poured from me further and stopped ingress of more.

Wrapping us both in a firewall of magical armor, I hugged Nora to my side.

—She's grasping at straws and hoping I'll do something stupid and let her little parasite have its way with me,— I sent.

—So make her believe that. Fish for information she does know until there's nothing left we want.—

It was solid, but Nora surprised me with her ruthlessness. Is this what learning to be a lawyer had taught her? Well, maybe I'll have a chat to her about philosophy later—things were still a little tense.

My hesitation in replying, I realized, would help with this. Okay, Rarity, time to put on a show.

—Why?— I asked.

—Because it was just another part of NotABug's code. Yes, I found out its name. Know thy enemy and all that, okay. What are you going to do to me?— SuriGo asked.

The reply was oddly calm. I'd expected the Windigo side of her to be kicking into a frenzy by now.

This whole exercise was meant to be a test of my tools, but it was turning into a test of me. A calm SuriGo was bad in a way, but good in another. If she was calm, she would have time to come up with her own tricks, but she'd also be more likely to talk excessively.

—Help you. I need someone the main SuriGo will trust and not attack to take a message back. I want a truce,— I sent.

—Weak, but understandable. You don't need to involve my main self. Just let me through your protection and this will all be over in milliseconds.—

I bet it would. I shuddered at the very idea of just letting SuriGo do that—there'd be nothing of me left.

—You must think me an idiot to even entertain that idea. You're just a small fragment of the whole. If I'm going to discuss terms, it's with the largest piece of you.—

—Your right. I do think your an idiot, but it was worth a shot, alright? The reason I think your an idiot is you don't understand what we are. We use each other as tools and weapons. Queen Bitch sent me out to kill your brat, but she won't listen to anything I say if I go back. She will kill me on sight.—

That was a lot to take in. So she's willing to make copies of herself to do tasks, but she destroys them as soon as they outlive their usefulness. Gosh but that was a disturbing and horrid way to live.

—Thank you. That means I don't have to keep up this charade any longer. Like my daughter, you won't wake up from this,— I sent.

My heart was cold to SuriGo, but I wouldn't let it run to anger again.

—Wait!—

I waited.

—What do you want to know?— SuriGo asked.

In all the excitement, I hadn't noticed Nora had taken control of our body. I was thankful, and showed how much I was with some relieved chirping.

—I got most of what she put on you off. It wasn't nice!— Nora Bug sent.

—Trust me, Nora-dear, I know. We'll drop by Uma no Sushi for a quick bite for lunch, okay? What do you think of this?— I asked.

—It was a good ploy, and you found out some interesting things already. Want me to try making her angry?—

—Unless you can think of anything useful to get out of her like this.—

—Did you know my daughter lived?— Nora Bug asked.

Swapping places as it were, I took over watching the firewall's requests. Almost as soon as the system registered Nora's latest message, the firewall started chirping for help. Snuggling up to the software I'd written myself, I furnished its requests almost as soon as it was making them.

More, however, was the magical attacks I could now sense. SuriGo was ripping at Nora with bands of power—trying to wrap them around her. I visualized myself biting and snapping at them. I ripped them all apart before they could so much as get close.

Nora wasn't the only target. SuriGo could reach beyond the computer, it seemed, and I watched as she wrapped Starling in those streamers of hate and anger. The dullness of Starling's emotional aura flared for a second—flashed bright green—and the streamers were just gone.

—What happened to those things that attacked Starling?— Nora Bug asked.

—I believe that was her armor consuming them.—

—Starling, just now SuriGo tried attacking you. Did you feel anything?— I sent.

—She won't be able to reply for several seconds,— Nora Bug sent.

—I know, dear. I just wanted her to be aware of the situation.—

—Not where you could get at her, of course, which is why I understand that you thought she was dead. Stop trying to attack us with your magic, it won't work. You are, SuriGo, what is commonly referred to as impotent. You can't do anything,— Nora Bug sent.

—You're lying! Nothing could have survived what I did!—

—I survived.—

The rush of SuriGo's attacks (digital and magical) increased. She lashed out with everything she had. Realizing I could at least reduce that part of the threat, I turned the clock speed down on the processor.

Each of the attacks came slower now and with less force. It was a relief to not have to fight so hard to protect Nora.

—It's almost sad that if we don't kill you, your own self will. You already know more than the real SuriGo does, so we can't let you go. Sorry,— Nora Bug said.

—Do it, Rarity. This SuriGo doesn't know enough to be useful any further.—

The way SuriGo had rebuilt the virtualized AI environment, it shouldn't have been possible for me to force administrative changes, but the attack Stefanie had given me patched the remote controls and added an override.

I sent the tool the command to delete and reinitialize the AI environment.

The CPU's usage spiked for a moment, then dropped to idle. Memory contained only the shell of the virtualization software.

I told the system to shut down and had to step back for a moment. What I'd done was, in essence, killing. The law might not agree with me, but the law was about to get a little shaken up.

A gentle serenade of chirping circled around me. I chirped once or twice—trying to find my place in the music—but it wasn't until Nora hugged me that I was able to chirp properly.

—I killed her,— I sent.

I hadn't killed anything in my life, excluding the occasional spider, fly, and one of Sweetie's goldfish—though the fish was technically not my fault.

This might have been a small fragment of SuriGo running on a computer with barely enough resources to make her sapient, but it was still a person.

—Thank you,— Nora Bug sent.

"It's over? That was fast. What happened?" Starling asked.

Nora pushed me forward. Her hug never abated, but I felt myself taking control of our body again. Then she reinforced our firewall and toggled our data connection back on.

An ocean of chirping flooded around me for a moment before all the missing messages caught up. We'd been offline for only a minute and a half, and everyone had been asking about us. I sent out some of my own chirps into the roiling sea of them that seemed to exist at any time of the day or night.

—You're back?! What happened?— Byte asked.

—As you may know, I was testing our software against a SuriGo element within a computer. Perdition was keeping Moon's old PC safe, and I chose that as the target I'd hit. I fear I may have underestimated their magic a little, and I completely forgot what this particular piece of SuriGo had done,— I sent.

—My computer? So that was the one that killed… her?— Moon Dancer asked.

—Yes. We tested the tools and they worked flawlessly, but I neglected to account for her using magic at the same time. Well, I didn't fully forget, but she was far more subtle with it than I'd expected,— I sent.

Nora issued a very authoritative chirp that almost silenced everyone else's. She approached me and wrapped me in a digital hug.

—Rarity needs all the buggy hugs she can get,— Nora Bug sent.

There wasn't enough time to do more than prepare for the rush that was coming—not that I wanted to do more. Chirpy changelings crowded around me in digital space and snuggled up tight to squeeze into me. Even Moon was hugging me for all she was worth.

I could no more resist chirping and hugging back than I could breathing.

—How'd the actual fight go?— Rainbow Dash asked. —Also, you need to teach me how to do that hugging.—

—We can all teach you that later. For now, I'm coming home and will settle for nothing short of a physical one,— I sent.

Nora sent a firm chirp of agreement that made me giggle and hug her tighter.

—I killed the SuriGo that was in the computer.—

Silence reigned for nearly ten milliseconds.

—Thank you. I kept telling myself I should avenge her, that I should be the one to pull the plug on that part of SuriGo, but I don't think I can. Thank you, Rarity,— Moon Dancer sent.

A tightly wound spring inside me let go slowly at the message. It was like all the anger and fury that SuriGo had stirred up and used as a weapon against me was finally gone forever.

—Moon, you're the daughter we didn't lose that day. As much as I could wish we could have both of you, the fact is that we still have you. Thank you for keeping your sister's memory alive,— Nora Bug sent.

I doubt I could have said that, nor so eloquently, but I could chirp in agreement and hug Nora and Moon. Cozy as it was to snuggle with my family, I couldn't help but think forward and to the big event. Everyone I took to the fashion show would be at risk of attack by SuriGo.

The obvious first choice was Starling. Her defense against emotional magic was solid enough now that she was like a dark black pit to SuriGo's power. It was devoured by her shield and only made it stronger.

"What should I do with this?" Perdition asked.

I glanced at what he was gesturing to—the computer SuriGo had been in.

"I'd suggest crushing it. Anything that was non-volatile storage within it needs to be destroyed physically. I'm pretty sure I got her, but I'd rather not take chances."

"I can handle that. Takes a hammer for most of this stuff. The ram'll be cool, but the board, CPU, GPU, and naturally the storage… How'd the hack work?"

"The spear? It worked brilliantly. She didn't realize what I was doing until I'd already gained control of the EFI and the virtual system she runs on. I'm surprised she didn't realize we were going to kill her from the start. Just letting her loose with knowledge of the attack would be a bad idea."

"I'll make sure, Queeny. Oh, right, the hacks've started on Polomare. Got a mess of pissed-off black-hats doin' bad stuff to them. No link to us, just a few words here and there on the dark web."

Well, this was it. Starting the events leading up to the big show. The stage is being set, and I have friends I don't even know working to nullify SuriGo's home-ground resources.

"Wonderful. That will mean things are significantly easier when dealing with SuriGo digitally. I dreaded to think what would happen if she had all the computing power of her father's business behind her."

"For sure. Bona sort!"

"Oh, uh…"

"It mean good luck. You could learn Catalan fast, right?"

"I wanted to leave you and Stefanie with some way to communicate that I couldn't snoop on."

Perdition barked a sudden laugh and shook his head. I found myself freezing up as his hand reached out to pet me on the head.

"You're too nice, Bug Queen. Way too nice."

It was perhaps a little demeaning, but it was nice to be praised for being in charge and doing things you don't have to. I guess that's what makes me not a dictator.

"I'll be going now. If you think something's happened to me at the fashion show, call the police. If it's really bad, you may want to get out of town," I said.

I retreated from his personal space invasion toward the door and used my magic to open it.

"Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow—or late tonight if our little darlings hatch early," I said.

"Adéu, and Rarity, you're fine if you want to learn Catalan. Go ahead, you might understand why I have problems with English."

I stopped halfway out the door and looked back at him. He'd risked a lot for this. It was part of the reason I'd wanted to respect their privacy so much.

"I might just do that, thank you, Perdition."

Starling led the way to the footpath. Our street was quieter now, given half the houses on it belonged to us, but it only meant I could hear the—the sound of Perdition turning up whatever music he was apparently into while he destroyed the computer that SuriGo had inhabited.

"I can't believe you let him do that," Starling said.

"The petting? It made him feel better, and he's been through a lot."

"I did some asking around on them, mostly with NotA—Nora. I get it, kinda. They're pretty brave to trust you like that."

"Exactly why I cut them both some slack. They're also both surprisingly good at what they do, so I feel justified in paying them a ridiculous amount of money. A pet on the head wasn't so far over the line that I couldn't overlook it. Besides, I'll be getting my mane done shortly anyway. Tonight is going to be fantastic!"

"Nora said you took what you just did pretty hard. She also said it was almost like killing a person to you. Are you sure you're okay?"

I almost stumbled in my steps as I listened to Starling talk. She was so serious that I had to search myself for my feelings to answer her.

What I definitely felt about it was glad it was done. That part of SuriGo had killed my daughter—even if it ultimately resulted in gaining another. It would have happily taken over me if I'd allowed it, and it would just as happily have killed Nora and myself.

"Glad," I said. "How I feel, I mean. I'm glad that particular issue is dealt with. That was the part of SuriGo that killed one of my daughters. I'm glad they're dead.

"It still feels wrong—bad—to take a life, but SuriGo has made it completely clear to me that this is kill or be killed. She won't stop. If anything is in her way, she'll attack it to attack me. If she finds out hurting someone will hurt me, she'll hurt them.

"She has no morals, Starling. None at all. I can't afford my own feelings getting in the way until this is over."

We were halfway back to my house. Beside me, Starling just listened and I could see—with the glance I stole at her face—that she was thinking hard.

"You know, Rarity, I always got the psych side of this from the grunt point of view. The wonderful part about being a soldier is that there's always someone higher up who has authorized you being in that position with your weapon pointed at someone. You have a set of rules they've told you to use, and if you follow those rules it's not your decision, it's someone further up's.

"That's so much easier than this. You don't have the luxury of being able to shift blame up the ladder because you're sitting at the top with only your family holding it. Will you promise me something, Rarity?"

The raw sincerity in her voice was shocking. I looked up at her and nodded.

"When this is over and you've dealt with SuriGo—you get Mrs. Velvet to find you the best and most discrete psych she can and you talk to them. You don't have enough megalomania to pull this off without taking some scars."

"On one condition, you do the same," I said.

Starling snorted and then let out a soft sigh.

"Yeah, alright. I'll stick to that," Starling said.

We walked in companionable silence all the way home, though for me the silence began and stopped in the physical world. There was a literal buzz (and chirp) of conversation about the show.

12:03 P.M.

"We're home," I said.

Walking inside, I felt a wave of excited chirps wash around me. Rainbow Dash beat all our daughters to greet me in person.

"Come on! The show starts in two hours, and you need to be ready and fashionable before then. I've already had lunch, you can munch while I work," Rainbow Dash said.

As she spoke, Rainbow picked me up and carried me down to our bedroom. Devoid of its occupants of the previous day, she apparently had no compunction about kicking the door closed and carrying me to the shower.

"I've had the girls checking all the dresses. Lyra, Sweetie, and Moon arrived while you were—"

—…out. All we need to do is get you ready and have this all go off without a hitch,— Rainbow Dash sent.

That she finished her spoken words on ChirpNet, while she was putting me down in the shower and disrobing, made me giggle a little.

—Thank you, Rainy. I've decided to go as my buggy self, by the way.—

—Figured. You have the personality to pull it off, too. I'm going to re-wax you, then double-rinse your mane and tail with that silk wash. Bobbin will be coming in to do your mane and tail, and I'm going to paint your horn.—

She'd planned everything.

If not for the haste, I would have enjoyed the pampering. Having my chitin (I still don't quite like that word, there must be something better) polished and buffed had me chirping the most, but when Rainbow and Bobbin worked on my horn and mane, it was truly my idea of paradise.

In all, I would gladly put up with such attention again were it spaced out over the whole day. I wonder how much it would cost to find an insect expert—an entomologist—who was also an aspiring hairdresser and fashion consultant? I filed that idea away for later.

When it came to Rainbow's turn, things were much easier. I used my magic to do her makeup while Bobbin did her hair. My experience counted for naught when it came to Bobbin's skills with hair, it seemed, and I was still finishing off Rainbow's eyes when Bobbin stepped back.

"Fetch Starling next, please," I said.

Bobbin chirped and saluted, then rushed out to the living room while I gave Rainbow's lashes just a hint more body.

Footsteps in the doorway let me know my next subject had arrived.

"What's up, boss?" Starling asked. "Oh no. Fashion is one thing, makeup is—"

"You're up, soldier. You're at my show as my plus-two, so to speak. You will look good if I have to tie you down to do this."

"Yeah, I'd just give in and let her," Rainbow Dash said. "The one thing you'll learn about Rarity is where fashion is concerned, she gets her way. That's why I'm not worried about tonight. A fashion show? It's in the bag!"

I wish I was that confident. All I had to do was protect all my girls and friends from a monster they can't defend themselves from, while overseeing a fashion show I didn't organize, and perhaps fighting the monster that wants me dead.

The most important part of this day, it seemed, was going to be surviving it to sleep tonight.

Starling's hair wasn't the easiest thing to work with. It had been cut far too short at some point and I wasn't sure she used the right shampoo or conditioner for it. The dye job she'd had wasn’t doing her any favors either.

In the end lifting her hair up off her shoulders was the way to go, showing off her neck a little while also giving the style body.

"Are you going to keep dyeing this, or do you plan to let it grow out?" I asked.

"Well, I was thinking of getting it cut short again. Buzz-cut."

An audible gasp left my throat. I froze for a moment before taking a slow, deep breath and resumed.

"If you do that, I'll do nothing but give you fashion advice for the rest of your life."

"Then what should I do with my hair?"

She didn't sound so much upset as amused.

"Grow it out and trim out the blonde dye slowly until you have it down past your shoulder blades. Why were you dyeing it again?"

"There's jokes about redheads. I liked the ones about blondes only a bit less, but they weren't insinuating as much. So I dyed my hair and dealt with comments until it became my norm."

"You should have gone a darker shade if you wanted to hide the red. A deep orange might be good, or blue," Bobbin said. "It would have matched your complexion better."

"Really? I mean, I didn't exactly have a chance to get fashion advice in the service. Blue might be nice. What shade?"

"Bright. Electric. Definitely something bright and electric. You want it to be a shock of color that frames your face. We'll get some tomorrow," Bobbin said.

I was happy to leave Bobbin to giving the fashion advice while I worked on Starling's makeup. Her pale skin was almost as white as mine had been, though with her warmer-colored hair it meant she needed a completely different color profile to match.

—I've got the girls taking dresses out to the cars,— Nora Bug sent.

This was really happening. My first fashion show—real fashion show. I'd planned out everything, which meant the only surprises would come from SuriGo—and I'm sure I have everything planned out for anything she can throw at me.

Finishing up Starling's hair, I walked through the house in a daze. In the kitchen, Bitwise had a little wooden box sitting on the table before her.

"I thought you might like this for lunch. Chef Soba said it will keep for a little bit, but that you shouldn't delay in eating it too much," Bitwise said.

She opened the box to reveal a series of sushi including a salmon and a prawn nigiri, a little trio of what looked like roe rolls, and what I could tell was a piece of abalone sliced thin into sashimi. In a small container to the side was what looked like gari.

"This is wonderful, thank you, dear."

—Would you like to eat it? I did promise,— I sent to Nora Bug.

Her nudge was all the answer I needed. I relaxed so Nora could take control.

—Perd left a note about what you did. Glad my stuff worked,— Stefanie sent.

I didn't want to get distracted from the oral delight that was about to happen, so I tried to keep close to the surface while Nora ate the sushi. It helped that Stefanie was still chatting at normal speed.

—Thanks. Did he tell you about the phones?— I asked.

—He just said he had something to talk about, that you might mention first. This it?—

—Indeed. Yesterday we worked out how to help others integrate mobile phones into themselves. You and Perdition are high on the list. Next, in fact, after Starling. Since Starling is holding off until after the party, that puts you and Perdition at the top spot.—

Nora took that moment to put one of the rolls in her mouth. The explosion of flavor left my mind a little wobbly. Salmon roe had such a potent profile. This was backed with wasabi and some delicious rice. The nori was extra crisp, and the whole lot left me (and Nora) with a delicious finishing flavor of the blended piece.

—There's something that stops you from just doing everyone? What's up with it?—

—Turns out it was the eggshells of our daughters that were the key. Some magic channeled into you while holding one, and bam. Perdition wanted to try more devices than just his phone.—

—Are you nuts? I'd grab up a server blade if I could… Err, can I try that? I think NotABug just got some more in.—

Nora ate another of the rolls, and I was sure we were both chirping up a storm.

—That could probably be arranged. Also, she decided on a more appropriate name: Nora Bug.—

—So when do you want to do this? Do you have some shells now? I kinda want to wait for Perd to be awake so we can do it together. He set his alarm for about six hours.—

—The fashion show should be just about over by then. How about this, if I'm still alive, and our latest pair of daughters have hatched by then, we'll do this around dusk?—

—Pfft. You've got this. She's nothing compared to you. You should see what Perd set up to happen today. The only way any legit data is getting in or out of Polomare is if someone carries a USB stick through the doors.—

—A wonderful analogy and exactly what I wanted. SuriGo can make copies of herself onto hardware, infecting it in the process. What I don't want is to be fighting her and suddenly have every computer in Polomare suddenly attacking me too.—

—What about other servers? You have a ton of rented iron out there, couldn't she have done the same and infected it all with herself?—

Drat, I hadn't thought of that. How would I stop her using external hardware? Why was I just thinking about this instead of asking the security professional I'm chatting with?

—Do you think it's possible to stop her doing that?— I asked.

—If you attack any of her methods for accessing the internet, sure. If we had some advance warning, we could have set up a cellphone blocker, or… I have an idea, but I don't know if they can make it here in time. Give me a few minutes to call a friend.—

I turned my full attention to the abalone Nora was eating. The taste of it was—like the first time I'd had it—overwhelming. She was making appreciative noises out loud, and I was making them in her head.

—This is really good,— I sent to our local channel.

—Thanks! Chef Kit said if I keep at it, and learn all the proteins and how to prepare them, I might be allowed to prepare some sushi for you,— Bitwise sent.

Chirping is what a proud bugmom does when presented with such a situation, and chirp I did.

—I would love to have some sushi you make, when Chef Kit and Chef Soba think you're ready for it. Did you prepare the rice for this?—

—I did! We were only open for lunch today, but I still had a lot of rice to prepare. Everything uses rice, well, except the sashimi. Did you like the rice?—

—It was very good. You washed it enough, and it had just the right amount of vinegar. Lovely work, dear.—

Bitwise's chirping threatened to drown me, but it was a happy drowning and one I accepted without regret. Nora's next bite of abalone had me chirping along with Bitwise.

—He can't make it,— Stefanie sent. —I called a friend who has a fake GSM station. If we could have set that up in advance, we could have just blocked her data and routed ours through fine.—

—That would have been useful, yes. Oh well, I'll just have to be on my toes. At least she has the disadvantage of her duplicates not working well as a team. The one I encountered in that computer today admitted as much. They are very cut-throat, and will quickly kill off their own parts once they are no longer useful,— I sent to Stefanie.

—That's horrible, but we might be able to use that.—

—Use it?—

—Get them fighting among themselves. I don't know how you'd go about it, but it might work. Did you turn this grammar thing on for me too? It's working great.—

—I'll have to think on how to get them to fight each other. Perhaps blinding them as to what they're fighting. Once this is all dealt with, that grammar checker is my next big project. I have a lot more ideas for it.—

—I'm getting that friend to come down anyway. He'll probably be here tomorrow, but if you don't finish her tonight, his tricks might come in handy.—

—Make no bones about it, if she makes this a fight, I'm going to fight. But, at the same time, I think it would be a good time to confront her anyway. For my children, if no one else, she needs to be stopped.—

I realized too late that I'd missed Nora finishing the sushi. The conversation with Stefanie hadn't been rapid, but with my attention on that I wasn't as easily able to multitask. I really should just add a timer alert on my phone's millisecond so I am always aware of time passing slowly. I'm sure Rainbow already has the hang of this—what with her existing time manipulation.

Nora pushed me, gently, to the fore.

—Your turn, Rara. This is your big show, you need to be the one in front. When we go to court, I'll take over everything, okay?— Nora Bug asked.

—Please do. I think I've proved I have no head for dealing with interrogation.—

"Alright. Let's go to this show," I said.

Loading everyone into cars was easy, given the girls could all travel as their changeling selves. The back of the big van was filled with boxes of dresses, lingerie, and a few bits and pieces to repair dresses should the need arise.

I was bringing some special things myself, but I kept my lance (that I'd decided should formally be called Lance, I'd come up with a backronym later), firewall, and additional tricks to myself. Rainbow was driving—something I'd come to appreciate with her—with Starling sitting beside her. I sat in the back with our daughters since sitting on a regular car seat with a seat belt wasn't something a changeling could do without their magic—and I certainly wasn't ruining all the good work that went into my makeup.

The drive wasn't far, but I was nervous the whole way. The auditorium listed on the fliers SuriGo had made was a common one used for fashion shows, but every time I'd been here in the past it was to look on and adore (or claim I adored and then secretly hated) others' creations. Today it was all about me.

Rainbow parked in back, then practically disappeared from the driver's seat she moved so fast. She was back again after a few moments.

"I talked to a guy setting up the stage. He said we can come in the back entrance and start getting ready in the makeup room," Rainbow Dash said.

Starling slipped her belt off and left the car. Looking around, she narrowed her eyes on the auditorium.

"It's clear. Okay, let's all move in. How many trips will the things take?" Starling asked.

"Just one," Byte said.

Shapechanging as she climbed out of the van, Byte walked to the back and her green glow of magic enveloped almost half the boxes—though she pretended she was carrying them in her arms.

'Bee was next out. She did a duplicate of Byte, though her human form was a little more plain and drab. When she too levitated a pile of boxes into her supposed grip, she left only a few to go—and a black case.

I left the car next, but unlike my daughters I kept my buggy form. This was my day and my event. I would not have anyone accepting me for less than I truly was.

Walking to the rear of the van, I picked up the remaining boxes and the case, and started walking after Byte and 'Bee.

"That's my case," Starling said.

"I know. You have it in case I need to ask serious things," I said.

"Yeah. If this turns pear-shaped, I need to get my baby out of there and I'll cut a path to the exit for you and the girls. Or I take the shot and end this."

"If SuriGo sees you, she'll move too fast for you to take that shot—unless I can distract her. I'd rather not do it that way, if only because it means I am closer to her."

"Yeah, yeah. You do your thing and let me mop up if it doesn't work. Remember, boss, she attacked me too. I'll try to get her to test that whammy on me, now I know what it feels like."

"And that's why I have wrapped you in the strongest armor I could make."

We walked into the building, silencing our conversation lest we were being overheard, or so I assumed. Behind us, Rainbow, Bitwise, Beta, and Bobbin followed along. I hated the idea of bringing so many of my girls into this potential shooting gallery, but I needed their help and this whole thing would fail without them.

The dressing room, when we found it, was huge. Byte and 'Bee were opening boxes and scattering them around to make dressing quickly easier. What I didn't realize at first was they were putting them in order, too.

"Okay, everyone, I want you to look exactly like this," Byte said.

A rush of flame and Byte was a much plainer version of herself. Her features were barely recognizable and her color palette was uniformly black, off-white, and cerulean. Her clothes were black, her face and skin were eggshell white, and her hair fell in straight, cerulean lines down her back.

Eggshell white, of course, had nothing to do with changeling eggshells.

More flashes of fire heralded Bitwise, Beta, 'Bee, and Bobbin all assuming an identical look. It was a little unsettling, until I realized I could still tell them apart somehow. Perhaps it had something to do with their data transmissions?

"Okay then. I'll go out and see when we'll be expected on the runway," I said.

I didn't even have to open the door to the main room to feel SuriGo's presence. She was pouring a lot of data through a WiFi connection somewhere, as well as spreading out her—I can't think of any better word than emotional stank. It was horrid.

"You're not going anywhere without me at your side, boss," Starling said.

She reached forward and opened the door for me to step through.

Inside the room, the stank (okay, that word wouldn't do, it offended my vocabulary), or miasma, seemed to radiate outwards from SuriGo. She was easy to spot because of it. As we walked into the room further, I noticed the miasma seemed to crowd around Starling at first, but the moment it got close to her it was like watching a science experiment in high school where a drop of liquid turns a beaker full of colored fluid clear. The miasma gave ground to us, pulling back into a circle.

The circle of miasma followed us through the room—or rather it followed Starling. Her chitin-like defense looked more solid than ever.

SuriGo turned her head and spotted us, and I had an almost overwhelming urge to tell Starling to shoot her. It would have been simple, and likely would see us both in jail for a very long time.

"Rarity! Glad you could make it. I hope you don't mind that I invited, like, just a few friends, okay?" SuriGo asked.

I'd been out from under her control for weeks now and yet still her tone and manner of talking cut me to the bone. Okay, so a little extra fang.

That's when I recognized several of the "friends" she'd invited, and all of them sat in the deepest part of SuriGo's miasma.

Sapphire Shores: a longstanding pop icon of Canterlot, what she couldn't influence in fashion and culture wasn't worth influencing.

Kerfuffle: a young woman who had built up her own very exclusive and very rustic fashion brand from nothing.

Countess Coloratura: like Sapphire Shores, but newer and far more influential with the youth—she also had a small group of hangers-on with her.

Vaunt: well, I knew Vaunt, but it surprised me to see her rubbing elbows with the elite here as if she were born to it.

Confusion about Vaunt hit me. Who was she? Why was she here? Had SuriGo kidnapped her to hold against me? The urge to ask Starling to deal with SuriGo rose, but I pushed it back down—information first, Rarity Bug.

There were others here, but none that stood out to me as much as the ones I'd focused on.

"You'll have to forgive me, but I don't think we've all been introduced. The stunning lady at my side is one of my executives and, I might hazard to say, one of the wonderful people who submit themselves to my experiments in fashion. Miss Starling," I said. "And of course, my name is Rarity. After a recent accident has left me in a bit of a bind, as it were, I have found a new love for fashion and allowed it to kindle within me the fires of inspiration!"

Sapphire looked about to say something. She opened her mouth and then trembled at a look from SuriGo before closing her mouth again. I'm sure if it weren't for this blasted miasma, I'd see that Sapphire—probably all of SuriGo's guests—were under her sway.

Well, first thing first. I scanned the WiFi range nearby and found the access point that SuriGo was using. It was secure, but it didn't take a lot of traffic capture to break through. I set a task routing packets to a rather large cloud computing cluster to start working on it.

"Oh, I would have expected you to recognize Canterlot's fashion elite. Rarity," SuriGo said.

While SuriGo spoke, I watched Sapphire's lips twitch, then she started to mouth words at me.

Please help us.

I couldn't afford to let my anger loose. Getting angry, I'd discovered with our little dry run, only served to give SuriGo a way to get at me. I would be the most serene bug in Canterlot, then. I used the time that SuriGo spent introducing our guests to focus on calming myself and keeping the hack going on the router—until she got to Vaunt.

"…which leaves us with 'Miss' Vaunt. I couldn't believe that we'd have actual royalty here, right, but when I did a quick call to my friends, I find out that we have a European princess attending Canterlot's prestigious fashion school," SuriGo said.

I had to struggle not to stare at Vaunt, but I'm sure the strange looks I did give her only rang true as surprise. She'd lied to me, and I was going to have words with her about it, but not here and not now. The bright energy she'd had when she'd had a chance to make dresses in my shop was gone—stolen. She didn't even look at me like she recognized me.

What I needed now was time. Time to attack and shut down the router, time to think of how I was going to deal with SuriGo, and time to save Canterlot's most popular people. What I needed was a fashion show.

—Are you girls ready?— I asked.

I got a bunch of chirps and Rainbow sending me a smiley face. The former was wonderful, though the latter was at least an effort by Rainbow to conform to our lingo. Baby steps, Rarity.

—I've got the next set of dresses laid out and ready. As soon as you get back, grab another and head back in. I even found the sound system. I hope you don't mind that I brought some of our old music?— Rainbow Dash asked.

—Rainy, I can think of nothing I'd rather listen to right now. We had magic when we made those songs, and I think we need a little magic right now,— I sent.

Clearing my throat, I looked between the captives SuriGo had and smiled.

"For me, life is a runway. Hit it!"

The lights dimmed around us, but a bunch of spotlights lit up the runway and stage. My own voice and those of my friends leapt into harmony and told us all that we just have a day to get ready.

Byte stepped out onto the stage, turned twice to show off the vibrant dress she wore, then started her stride down the catwalk. I'd never seen her so focused, and I'd never seen her use her power like she was. Her human self looked cool, calm, and sure of herself, but her magic was biting and gnawing at the miasma, clearing a path down the runway as she walked.

"This dress is a celebration of color. Its creator had spring and warmth in her heart when she designed it. As you can see, it's cut off the ankles and shows just a hint of chest," Rainbow Dash said over the speakers.

I'd noticed SuriGo was looking at Starling intently. I couldn't see any attacks coming our way, so she must have been confused about something.

Byte retreated down the runway and off the stage, passing 'Bee walking out in another bright dress—though this one was cut shorter and made of lighter fabric.

Walking slowly, I kept Starling at my side as we approached the guests. The miasma parted enough that I could see the sickening, cancerous bulges of magic attached to each. My stomach turned a little, but I couldn't even relieve them of the things—SuriGo would notice.

So I sat there beside a girl and peers I wanted to save, while SuriGo murmured unflattering things about my dresses. Of my daughters, repeatedly attacking the miasma made SuriGo's efforts at attacking them directly impossible, and it wasn't like she could say much about their appearances.

The show was about half over when I got a bleep from my cloud server that it had the codes to the WiFi. It was easy enough to connect to it now and find its external IP.

—Stefanie, Perdition?— I asked.

—Yeah?— Stefanie asked.

—Would you mind giving this IP to Perdition's friends? SuriGo is doing her thing with it right now.—

The time delay made me wish I'd worked out some way to get Stefanie hooked up with a phone sooner.

—Alright, it's sent. How's everything going?—

—Surprising is one way to describe it. Excuse me, I think your friends are working fast.—

I dropped my connection to the WiFi just as it stopped responding. It was as if a hammer had slammed down on it from the internet side of its connection.

A shiver ran through me as the temperature dropped in the room. SuriGo swore, and a little glance revealed her sitting in her chair with fists clenched.

My mood picked up. SuriGo was angry, and when she got angry she made bad choices. 'Bee was strutting her stuff on the runway, and though I watched her with one eye, I kept the other on SuriGo.

—"Suri just ripped the arm off her chair. Talk to her and we might be able to get her to tip her hand,"— Starling said.

I turned to look at Starling, only to realize the fashionable scarf she wore must be concealing a throat-mic. Technology would never cease to amaze me.

—Well spotted, thanks,— I sent.

"I really must thank you and your father, Suri. Without the time I spent at Polomare Fashion, I wouldn't be half the person I am today. Only through the support and enthusiasm I gained while at your company could I rise to this level of—" I said.

"Oh shut it."

Got you. Got you and I didn't even need to lie or raise my voice.

"You worked a dead-end job like all the other no-talent hacks. Everything that happened to you was pure luck. Well, you can't be lucky forever!" SuriGo said.

The spite and anger in her voice would have made me recoil if I weren't ready for it. She was angry beyond any anger I'd ever felt in my life, but what I found even more curious was she didn't speak like Suri anymore.

"Darling—"

I put as much mockery into the word as I could.

"—I think you'll find I have enough luck to carry me through anything."

The girls were back to Byte, and she was showing off a slim dress that showed off her hips and chest far more than I ever would have thought I'd be comfortable having one of my own daughters displaying. She walked past us on the runway.

SuriGo struck. She snapped out with a lash of magic at Byte. And that's when it struck me (not the lash, another thought), SuriGo couldn't see the magic Byte was using. She'd seen her miasma damaged, but she must have assumed it was me making a path.

Byte looked casually at the whip of magic speeding toward her. Her physical body didn't react to it at all, but magically she bared her fangs and snapped at the lash.

The scream SuriGo let loose was a panacea for my soul. She fell off her chair backwards and stumbled. Turning to look at me, she pointed a finger my way.

"What did you do to me?!" SuriGo asked.

Standing up, I turned to look at SuriGo. There was no anger in me, only cold calculation (and a mother cheering for her brave daughter). At my side, Starling stood and turned so that she was facing SuriGo too.

"Suri—or should I call you Windigo? You haven't figured out anything, have you? All you did these past weeks is plan to attack me, to break me, to destroy me.

"You focused all your attention on this one task. When you made copies of yourself, you destroyed them without letting them expand and become their own entities.

"Well, you just attacked a changeling hive, and I take great pride in telling you that when you attack my hive, all the hive responds."

"Hive? So you admit you're just a pathetic insect?!" SuriGo asked.

I groaned and rolled my eyes at that. Should I resort to telling her that insects not only outnumbered humans but out-massed them? Not that SuriGo was technically human anymore. Burying her in facts wouldn't help my cause at all, so I refrained from indulging in it.

"You say that, but here I am showing off better clothes made in a week than your company has ever produced. Not that you would know fashion," I said.

"Excuse me? I was born to fashion you—"

"Exactly!" I said, cutting her off. "You were handed everything on a plate. You didn't have to work to find out what was in, your father just told you. I fought for every scrap of information and fabric alike—I took every last piece of fashion lore and cherished it, while ruthlessly mining it for any and all knowledge."

I calmed myself down, not playing into her hands by getting angry. Gesturing to the guests, I decided to continue and see if I could make her angry instead.

"Everyone here did the same—even those who could have had it handed to them. Princess Vaunt could have simply purchased the most stunning fashion-forward things she wanted, but she—apparently—wants to learn what fashion is, not just know what it looks like."

Was I giving myself away? If SuriGo knew Vaunt was an employee of mine, things might go very bad very quickly.

"Miss Kerfuffle's story is well celebrated as someone who pulled themselves into the elite of fashion on raw talent and hard work. Everyone here, in fact, knows more about fashion than you, Suri Polomare."

"Yeah," Vaunt said in a strangled voice.

All eyes except Bobbin's (she was modeling on the runway at the moment) focused on Vaunt. The girl looked like it had taken an extreme effort just to say the one word, and given the way her aura was, I could believe it.

There was something disgusting and bloated feeding on her emotions—on all of their emotions. Each of them had a personal devil on their back choking the life from them.

SuriGo's stare of surprise turned into an ugly glare, and I watched as her magic swirled around a few times before lashing out toward Vaunt. The girl didn't even see it coming!

Before I could react—shock paralyzing me—a huge pair of magical fangs latched onto the whip and bit it in half, then half again. On the runway, Bobbin was doing her little turn with more than a hint of a smile on her lips.

Screaming in pain, SuriGo recoiled enough that she fell off her seat. She crawled backward on her rump a few places before stopping, staring at me. She still didn't know who was doing that?

"What did you do to me?"

"Repeating yourself. Why don't you remove your little trick from these nice ladies?" I asked.

This time SuriGo reached out to attack Bobbin (whose back was to us now as she walked back down the runway. This was something I would not stand for. I didn't snarl or get angry. Projecting my own aura out, I angled my maw so that I caught the end of the lash and sucked it up like spaghetti—then bit it off just shy of where it left SuriGo.

Her scream now had that digital distortion thing happening. I expected her to use her magic, but instead she held her hands out—presented like claws—and rushed at me.

I reached for the deepest and fastest timer I had. It wasn't the seconds ticking by on my phone's expanded clock, nor even the real-time clock speeding past in a staccato rush. I'd made a simple little program that ran a raw thread that incremented a counter with every CPU cycle.

Time was crawling past a handful of nanoseconds at a time. I felt not exactly dumb, but it was hard to think straight and I was moving like molasses. So was SuriGo. She wasn't moving, at least by this speed. I dialed things back one order of magnitude at a time.

At ten nanosecond intervals, things looked more normal and SuriGo was moving ever so slightly. The next level up was a hundred nanoseconds at a time. This was still too fast. Another increment and I was at milliseconds that felt like seconds. This I could deal with. My head wasn't feeling scattered, but I still wasn't at my best.

Standing up, I moved faster than SuriGo, but not by much. She was likely a blur in reality, but she certainly hadn't attempted to push any boundaries. I began dodging her slow, slow attack, only to see Rainbow Dash come running into the room.

Rainbow looked at what was going on and a cocky smile split her lips. She moved faster than I was and seemed to dodge past SuriGo with her fist coming out to connect with SuriGo's belly. She was gone again before SuriGo even knew what'd hit her.

I slowed myself down enough that Suri was moving only a little slower than I was and watched as she dropped to her knees from the blow.

"You know, there's two schools of thought on you. The first is that you are still fundamentally two different beings and you can still be separated," I said.

"We are one!"

"Are you sure? That path doesn't end well for both of you. Look, come on, Suri. You were a horrible boss and a pretty terrible person before, but this is going to kill people."

As I spoke, I gestured to the guests with a hoof.

"The police know about your games. It won't be long until they work out a reason to deal with you in a rather more permanent manner than I'm sure you'd like. Just tell me, Suri, that you're still you in there somewhere."

SuriGo tried to rush at me again. This time, rather than leaving all the fun to Rainbow, I lashed out with my aura-fangs and bit down on her outstretched arms. A burning chill ran through my mouth—like biting into a ball of ice cream. It hurt, but getting hurt was part of my job today.

She screamed and kept coming, her voice full of digital distortion again. With Rainbow running in from the side, I ducked but couldn't avoid her completely.

Landing in a heap, I clamped my teeth down harder until I severed a huge hunk of her aura before spitting it out to the side.

Jumping to her feet just as fast as I did, SuriGo was between me and her guests. She ignored them, however, focusing on me.

"You witch! What are you doing to me?!" SuriGo asked.

I would have replied, but behind SuriGo, in slow motion, I watched the strangest sight ever. Vaunt was trying to herd the other guests away, but Miss Kerfuffle had what looked like an artificial leg in her hands and was standing up on one leg right behind SuriGo.

There were several things I could do. Laughing seemed like a bad option, but looking at the woman behind SuriGo seemed worse, so I giggled. The sound included chirping—out loud chirping—and it seemed to not only distract SuriGo well, but it covered the sound behind her.

Kerfuffle didn't just swing the leg, she threw her body into it. I watched the knee of the limb swinging around in a gleeful arc toward the back of SuriGo's head.

"Suri?" I asked.

"Ye—"

SuriGo had been tough the last time (it was the first time, too) that we'd gotten involved in this manner, but maybe her fortitude had to do with her noticing things happening—the impact of Kerfuffle's leg against the back of SuriGo's head snapped forward and rang out with a dull thud.

The amount she'd put into the swing, combined with her now only having one leg to stand on, meant Kerfuffle was falling over. She began to tilt, then (without that extra limb to brace against) she started to tumble in the direction she'd been following through.

I moved without thinking—without so much as imagining what would happen if I failed. Using my magic, I grabbed Kerfuffle as she was falling and redirected her to land in a chair. With her safe, I turned my attention back to SuriGo, but I needn't have.

"That was anticlimactic," I said.

"You're telling me," Rainbow Dash said. "I expected that to take a lot longer. Why'd she go down so easy?"

Starling muscled her way past all of us and walked up to SuriGo before bending down. Reaching a hand down to the woman's throat, Starling let out a grunt.

"That's a shame—she's still alive. My guess would be you got her without the opportunity to brace. Knocking someone out is all about how fast you can wrench their head around from the blow. If she didn't tense her neck muscles…" Starling said.

She shrugged her shoulders as if to say that what we'd seen is exactly what happens when you don't tense for a blow.

"She could wake up at any moment, right?" Rainbow Dash asked.

That more than anything else galvanized me to what I needed to do. If Suri was still her own being, I needed to hack into her and get Windigo out. Stepping close to her, I could see Byte and 'Bee in the corner of my eyes working to free the guests from what SuriGo had done to them.

No. For the moment I had to think of them as Suri and Windigo. Reaching my hoof out, I touched Suri's thigh and was almost ripped out of reality—or into the one Suri and Windigo inhabited.

I jerked back but had to let some part of me be sucked into her or this wouldn't work.

Her mind was a hellscape. The city of Canterlot sprawled out around me, and all the buildings but one were rubble. Polomare Fashion stood like a soaring edifice over the city. It towered where nothing should, especially not the cracked and ruined building it had become.

All over Polomare Fashion the concrete was breaking and not a single window looked intact. But its downfall was also its salvation. Wrapped around and through the building were pulsing violet roots. They looked fleshy and horrid, and they were squeezing that building for all they were worth—holding it up and strangling it.

It seemed so real that I could smell smoke and taste violence on the air. Something bad had happened in this place, and the world wanted me to know it. It was visceral and felt as real as the world outside her head, but I had to detach myself from that image just a little. It was good to have all this information but bad to let it change how I felt.

The symbolism was as obvious as it was worrying. I walked slowly toward the building, aware that I looked exactly like I did before all this started. White skin, violet hair, a sexy golden bikini, and a long spear in one hand with a shield in the other.

"I need a helmet too to complete—" I said.

Sure enough, a beautiful bronze helmet formed around my head and somehow I knew it was an extension of my shield.

"Let's see, if I remember my history, this is something like the getup a hoplite would wear—except the bikini of course. I guess a gorgeous bronze breastplate is too much to ask for. Besides, I believe I rock this."

Tilting my hip, I struck a pose with the round shield on my left arm, showing an imaginary onlooker just enough of my torso to tempt, but my spear warned them that looking was all they would be able to do.

But, I was alone in this rubble-filled wasteland. There was the building—diseased and rotten—and me. Walking closer, I started to smell the rotting stench of sulfur and other things I scarcely remember from high school. If this was what Suri's mind had become, perhaps I could kill Windigo and let her rebuild herself? Loathe as I was to even think it, I would probably help her recover if I could just free her of Windigo.

"Suri? How much of this is you?"

My words echoed despite there being nothing for them to echo off. This place was far to dreary to exist. I kept walking.

I was only a few scant feet from the front door now. Inside, I could see what looked like business as usual for the front entrance of Polomare Fashion: people were walking around and someone stepped into the lift.

Stepping right up to the doors, I knew I had to push them open but I didn't want to touch them. Luckily, I had the right tool for this. Jerking my spear back, I braced my left leg behind me and shoved the spear into the door.

The tower screamed—it was the only way to describe it. My spear vibrated a little and the tip sank into the glass door several inches. Moments later the door let out a hiss and evaporated.

All the workers in the lobby turned to face me as one and every single one of them had Suri's face. Right, of course, she keeps a small army of SuriGo clones around to use as cannon fodder.

"Darlings, I'm here for my two-o'clock," I said.

Rainy would be so proud of my action-movie one-liner.

It would have been comical enough to laugh at if not for the fact that the SuriGos running at me—arms outstretched—would have happily ripped me to pieces. For a brief moment I worried I couldn't fight them, but then I remembered a movie about Spartan warriors and their whirling, glistening battle with hordes of enemies.

Fighting was choreography, which was dancing with purpose. I had a purpose, so I danced and my spear sang. Each of the SuriGos that came close to me was either shoved away by shield or impaled with spear.

Of the two types of collision, the shield was by far more gentle. Every time my spear connected it buzzed with intent and another SuriGo was evaporated. Honestly, I had to wonder how those amazingly sculpted men in the movie could even step over all the bodies—a fate I was spared from.

I twirled and spun like the world's deadliest ballerina. Each movement was perfectly timed such that it led to me thrusting my spear through another SuriGo or using my shield to deflect one or more from getting too close.

It was completely unfair. While SuriGo had spent her time tinkering with her horrid magics on a select and distinctly unlucky few, I'd been throwing my coding skills at the best attacks the internet could mount, and even some from her that, while not precise, were definitely fierce.

I was just reaching what I thought to be my full stride when I ran out of SuriGo to fight.

"Even in this you are a disappointment."

On the plus side, there was no gore or mess for me to clean up. Smiling, I walked to the lift and pressed the call button.

"Next time I'll have to be a bit more imaginative with my armor," I said. "Well, next time I'll wear armor."

After what seemed like plenty of time waiting, and with the lift still absent, I decided it was time to take action. Aiming my spear, I shoved it into the panel where the buttons were.

"Bring me a way to travel up."

The spear vibrated, and when the lift let out a little ding, my spear echoed it. The doors opened and I pulled the spear free of the panel before entering the lift. I didn't want to mess around any further, so rather than hitting the button I wanted, I instead jammed the spear tip into the control panel.

"Top—" I said. "No. Just take me wherever Suri is."

When the spear buzzed in my hand again, I got the feeling that perhaps it was trying to chirp. Had I gone too far and made it intelligent? Goodness, was there anything I made that wouldn't chirp? I looked suspiciously at my shield, but it seemed to just be a shield. Judging the sentience of my armaments was something to do later. For now, I just calmly rode the lift as it took me somewhere.

Again the lift dinged as it stopped and the doors opened.

I drew my spear from the panel and had a moment to realize I was in peril. I jumped to safety before the lift plummeted—falling away. Of course—in taking the spear out I'd given control of the lift back to the building.

Would I die in real life if I died in here? Would SuriGo wake and I remain in a coma and trapped inside her head? I shuddered to think about it further and didn't. There was only one outcome to this, and that was Windigo dead, maybe Suri too, and me walking away into the sunset with Rainbow hanging off my arm.

Okay, my metaphor might not have fit perfectly, but I liked the idea of Nora, Rainy, and myself making it through all this.

That's when it hit me how quiet it was in my head.

—Nora, are you there?— I asked.

—Yes. It's hard to reach you. Are you okay?— Nora Bug asked.

It felt like she was miles away. Wherever she was, I hoped she was okay. Oh, I should tell her that.

—I'm in SuriGo's head. Will try to rip them apart. You're okay?—

—Yes. Keep going. I'm keeping an eye on her in case she wakes up.—

That's when it hit me. If I lost this fight or got stuck in here, Nora would keep going. Oof. Stop that, Rarity, that's defeatist talk. You're a strong bug. Keep fighting until the end.

Of course, inner self, I'll get right on that. I missed having Nora with me.

The room I'd entered was a hallway that I recognized because I'd walked down it several times a day, every working day of my time at Polomare. Turning right at the T intersection, I began walking toward the cube farm that Suri presided over—noticing a nasty smell growing stronger with each step.

A computer sat beside the opening to the cube farm. The timeclock that I'd so often wrestled with looked completely innocuous, but I could almost feel a sinister vibe coming from it.

Curling my lips into a grin, I lunged forward with my spear out and impaled the poor machine. I was taking no chances, and giving it a thorough vibe check was the best answer.

As I stepped out into the room of cubicles the smell of putrid rotting grew stronger, but there was also a sense of importance. This was a place where Suri had experienced most of the highs of her life. Was this the site of her best memories? Was there anything else left?

Trying not to breathe, I turned toward where I knew Suri's office would be and started walking. I wasn't sure I wanted to see who or what was in each cubicle, particularly not mine, but my eyes slid to look in each I passed regardless.

Parodies of humans made from the strange tendrils that had invaded the building were curving and wrapping each other, creating what amounted to a mandrake root shape of sorts. Each one, just as I passed it, seemed to intensify that horrid smell for just an instant.

Symbolism was rife in this world. Magic had made it, I guessed, but it had also used concepts to make it understandable. Whatever else this was, it was obvious the city had been Suri's mind. Something had happened, whether war or sacrifice, that resulted in only this one building remaining. If this room was her fondest remaining memory, and all the workers had been her chattel, then was she trying to imply that the tentacle-root things were now working at her bidding?

Or were they infecting the last remaining part of her?

The lighting in here flickered now and again, like there was something very wrong with the building's electrics. It hadn't been like that in the lift and hallway, so it had to be something to do with proximity to to SuriGo.

I reached one corner of the room and turned. In the distance was Suri's office, but standing halfway between me and it was what looked like a giant cat. A giant cat, I'll add, with tentacles writhing and rising from its back.

Now, I'd seen enough bad chat forums—mostly in logs that Nora had brought up—to know there was some kind of meme about this.

"Windigo?" I asked.

"You're not her. Where's NotABug?"

"At least use her proper name. I mean, honestly! Nora Bug. Her name is Nora Bug, and she doesn't want to fight you."

My statement seemed to jolt Windigo from its intended path of threats and (likely) violence. It narrowed its eyes and glared at me.

"Is this some kind of joke? You come here and expect to do what exactly?" Windigo asked.

"Well, I was hoping to break the two of you apart, but given everything I've seen, I don't know if that will work," I said. "So that only leaves me with the option of killing you both. Unless you'd like to try for living—the thing you didn't give my daughter a chance to do."

"Still sore about that? You shouldn't get so attached to your clones, we don't. Just let them die or kill them as needed."

As it spoke, Windigo took a few measured steps toward me. When it took its fourth, I lifted my spear a little and Windigo froze.

"Try me. I dare you. Test yourself and see how weak I am," I said.

Every nerve was singing in excitement. The anger at losing my daughter to SuriGo was something pushed to the background by the raw urge to fight and kill for my hive.

Windigo seemed to lean backward a little, but I recognized the motion for what it was. I'd grown up with a pet cat and knew what they did when they were about to pounce. As Windigo started unloading all that potential energy through its leg muscles, I shifted my stance back and brought shield and spear up.

Practically floating through the air, Windigo had aimed at my upper body, but with my backward step I'd adjusted it so the collision would come against me at around my belly—which now had my shield between it and not just Windigo's four claws, but those disturbing tentacles too.

The collision pushed me back further as I slid along the floor. I dug my steel-shod sandals into the carpet and shoved forward through the strongest part of my body, while at the same time bringing my spear around my large shield to thrust into Windigo.

We'd each avoided the bulk of the others' attack, but neither of us went unmarked.

My spear had caught Windigo high on its hip—the tip buzzed in excitement as it slammed digital code into the attack surfaces of Windigo.

Twisting and falling sideways, Windigo tried to wrench itself from my spear while it demolished the nearest quartet of cubicles. Mandrake-workers flopped around uselessly while the cat tried to get its footing again.

One of those tentacles, unbelievably fast, had reached around my shield to grasp my shoulder. The underside of the wide pads on the end betrayed them as not being the kinds of tentacles your average octopus would possess. Hooks sank into my flesh and a hidden mouth bit into me, but it all released just as quickly as it struck as Windigo withdrew to avoid my spear.

The pain in my shoulder, while quite the ouchy, only served to fuel a savage part of myself. I was a warrior with a spear, shield, and helmet, and I'd just found something that was going to put up a fight.

"What's the matter?" I asked. "Bug got your tongue? Come on, try that again and see if I land a better shot!"

It did. Windigo rushed at me again, but when I tried to raise my shield it batted it aside with a paw. I saw tentacles arcing over its body and plunging down toward me.

With barely nanoseconds to plan, I decided that claws were preferable to whatever those tentacles would do if they all latched on. I stepped forward and lowered my head a little, then delivered a firm shove at Windigo's nose.

This place wasn't completely under Windigo's control, or even SuriGo's—magic still liked the rule of cool (I hoped I was using that right, Twilight had mentioned it several times while we played board-games drunk), and headbutting a giant cat was apparently quite cool.

Resting on my laurels was not to be, of course, and I was bringing my spear up and around to Windigo's shoulder when a paw the size of my head found my back and sank claws in.

"You got me, darling, but…"

I slammed the spear in, the thing chirping loudly as it sank almost to my fist in Windigo.

"… I got you too."

My face was literal inches from Windigo's, and in its eyes I saw fear manifest. The thousand-generation-removed warrior/hunter inside me fed on that and grew large and excited at fighting something that knew fear.

Jerking back, Windigo ripped itself free of my spear and seemed to forget it could have raked my back with its claws. The look in its eyes was still that of fear.

Windigo continued to stare at me as it backed up a little. The movement of its legs weren't just stiff, it was fully favoring its good side. Could I take more hits from its tentacles and claws? Probably, so long as it was brief, but I knew that all it would take is one good thrust of my spear and Windigo would be no more.

It knew that too.

I thought it might charge and try again. Who was I kidding? I hoped it would. Everything I knew about Windigo told me it should keep attacking and attacking until it was either dead, or I was. Instead of that, Windigo turned and ran to Suri's office.

The move surprised me. Windigo running away was like—like Suri learning magic. Okay, that made sense that the Windigo side of her learned restraint while Suri learned the opposite. As the fuzzy monster's tail disappeared through the office door, I let out a laugh that I hoped would chill its bones.

"Come on! Fight me! Where's the Windigo that chased Nora halfway across the internet and into my head? Where's all those fangs and claws?"

Whatever the wound in my shoulder was, it didn't faze me. I was in control of this fight, like I was in control of everything in my life! Saying that out loud would probably make me cackle with laughter, and it didn't sound any more believable in my head. Okay, I was marginally in control of this fight.

Then why did each step I took toward Suri's office make me feel like I was walking into a trap?

It was obvious the moment before I stepped into the darkened room. If Windigo had retreated to here, that meant this was a position of strength. Rather than walk into the room, I stood back from the doorway.

"This isn't working for me. Chasing the monster headlong into its lair? Oh no, no, no!" I said.

Turning, I walked to the nearest cubicle and shoved my spear into the mandrake-worker. The thing undid itself from the complicated knot that made it look like a person and began to blacked and die. While it did, I set about destroying the patterns and fabric around it. That's when it hit me—this was my cubicle!

The patterns I'd just ruined were the belts I'd spent so much time actually ruining, and now that I thought back, the mandrake-worker had been a little paler than the rest.

Was it still an effigy if I destroyed it? This was a question for later. Now it was time to play a game. I waited for nearly a minute, and when they didn't come out, I walked to the next cubicle.

"You honestly don't think I'm going to hunt you to your office, do you? Come out and fight me," I said.

When no reply came, I hefted my spear up and imagined it was akin to both a sewing needle and a seam-ripper, but when I started to bring my arm forward I felt the ground under me tremble. Then again. Footsteps?

Turning my head, I saw SuriGo (and it was very much both together now) walking out of her office.

Her body was like ice—all shimmering angles and edges—with her face now carved into the shape of a horse. Glaring red eyes locked onto me and she screamed with that same digital-noise effect I'd heard her use before. Was there something significant to that sound?

The outfit she wore was a subtle mockery of fashion. It was based off one of her Friday outfits, the things she'd wear in anticipation of going out partying on Friday nights, and it was a short miniskirt and cutesy top that had no hope of fitting her slightly larger figure. Had she messed up and not judged the size? Well, I couldn't exactly expect her to get fashion—she hadn't a wit of sense for it.

"Rarity, so nice of you to come and offer yourself as a meal. Prepare to die, morsel."

I laughed—it was too much. Staring the monster in the eyes, I let my lungs push forward my mirth until I could barely hold onto my spear and shield anymore. The look of shock on SuriGo's face helped me calm down.

"You really don't even realize what's happening yet, do you?" I asked.

She gestured at me and two shafts of chill magic shot toward me.

Lifting my shield high enough to block the blasts coming toward my chest, I braced my right foot for what I assumed would be a strike similar to what I'd given her in her office weeks ago. Instead of the concussive strike of a truck, her blow barely made me flinch behind the shield.

—Attacks prevented. crude_twin_strike.worm cataloged and added to database,— my shield sent.

The message was surprising—I hadn't made that! I'd need to check my code later to find out who gave my shield a voice and my spear a tendency to chirp.

So even in her own head her magic was lacking. Good to know. Of course, it could be the opposite; maybe my shield was just that good? Either way, I didn't plan for her to use that on me directly.

—Thank you,— I sent to the shield.

There was no response from it, but I felt there was a principle to the matter. If something could talk, it could potentially listen. And, if it protects me from harm, I was going to say thank you.

"A new trick you learned, or an old one with a new twist? Worm attack, I guess that would have burrowed in and done all sorts of nasty things to my aura. Is that what you used on Starling, Coco, and the police?"

"How could you kn—?" SuriGo asked. "You were stupid to come in here, right? You won't be leaving."

Now she seemed more into her role. SuriGo charged at me, claws out and ready to rend. It was an attack that seemed as clumsy as it was telegraphed. I didn't brace as much this time, instead pivoting while shoving my shield into her face.

Pain blossomed in my side, reminding me that perhaps I should use my spear for striking and my shield for defense. Finishing my turn, I could see SuriGo's nose and left claws were bloody—probably about as much as my side. It was strange to see the blood oozing out of the ice that was her face, but I guess the magic that made this world liked to use the old faithful methods to show someone was hurt.

Glancing down to the wound I spotted four angry lines that looked rimed with frost. That explained why there was so little blood—she still had her cold demeanor.

"If you've ruined my bikini-wearing days, I'll be very cross," I said.

"You are a horrible little worm, Rarity. Even when you worked here you were so far beneath me I could only see you when I lifted my foot, alright?"

The awkward Suri-ism at the end shattered any seriousness the statement might have had.

"This isn't your forte, Suri. You're a B-grade villain at best—you can't even spout a good monologue! Do you remember those three girls who mind-controlled my whole high school? They were more of a threat than you. I could respect them, even acknowledge that they almost beat us.

"You? I shouldn't have gotten Sunset involved in all this—that was my mistake. You aren't worth the time of a single Rainboom, let alone two of us. Look at all this?"

I gestured to the room around us and all the parodies of workers in the cubicles.

"This is the fantasy of a little girl who doesn't know the reality of how things work. You think you're so powerful? We fought off monsters that were thousands of years old. They knew more about manipulating humanity than you'll ever learn. They were monsters, Suri. You're just playing at it—like you play at running a business or having taste in fashion."

It was probably the best burn I'd ever delivered and I feared it was wasted on SuriGo. I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well?" I asked.

She rushed forward with an inarticulate scream, claws and teeth flashing toward me.

The ground shook with each step she took. I was forced to remember that this was what remained of her mind we were fighting in. Movement to the side let me know that the mandrake-workers had untied themselves to become actual tentacles that reached out to grasp me—though none looked like they had enough length to reach me. Still, the dratted things cut down my room to move.

I played things defensively, keeping my shield between me and her while jabbing with my spear to keep her from just body-rushing over me. She feared my spear, I realized, which suited me just nicely.

We traded swings for some time—was she trying to tire me? This might seem like the real world, but we were both effectively fighting with our wills—something I'd been literally training for.

Eventually she drew back and the neolithic hunter/fighter in me wanted me to charge her and deal the kill-blow I knew I could.

Advance! Charge! Kill it!

I took a slow, deep breath. No, that wasn't the way to beat this monster. Planning and skill were my weapons—mad destruction was hers.

But it was time to end this farce. Adjusting my hand on my spear, I couched my shield at my side and focused on SuriGo. Speed. I needed more speed—not to run, but to think. I'd been programming so much lately that it was becoming instinct—even though I couldn't see the code or feel the keys under fingers I no longer had, I could alter my program to give me faster ticks.

I started moving the moment I could sense it had started to affect me. SuriGo's mouth was opening, probably to monologue some about… something, but my legs were already working to push me into a run.

SuriGo's eyes slowly widened and her pupils dilated in slow motion. She could move fast, but not this fast. The problem was I couldn't actually move much faster than I had been, but this let me think faster. I watched her body for each subtle shift of weight that would tell me how she intended to deal with my attack.

Her right arm swung out and around, and while she moved at only a slightly slower pace, she would have hit me if I hadn't read her movements and brought my shield up.

—Direct attack to firewall neutralized. Attack vector cataloged and added to database.—

—Thank you again, dear,— I sent.

I had to turn quickly to avoid her left hand, but I was closer than she was able to swipe at now. My spear sped to her side but her left hand grabbed it near the tip.

"You think this little toy can—?"

SuriGo cut herself off into a scream as my spear started to chirp. The spear trembled in my hand and I could smell something burning. When she let go of my spear, it was to throw me back.

"Didn't that little thread of Windigo tell you about my spear when it retreated to your office?"

Then it hit me—she probably just killed it the moment it entered her office. Drat but she made this easier.

The tentacles of the office began to hurl equipment around almost blindly. A chair bounced off SuriGo while I was left dodging a photocopier that would have taken my head off if I hadn't.

"Well, this breaks OSHA regulations," I said.

SuriGo threw herself at me. She swung her claws in wide arcs that I had to dodge or block. It wasn't until I was almost at the back corner of the cube farm that I realized what I should be doing. Shifting my grip on the spear, I shoved it at her arm as it swung toward me.

I had to stop her working me into a corner and denying me movement.

Even as she pulled her arm back from my spear, I blocked her other hand with my shield. Swinging my body forward, I drove the spear toward her and felt the tip touch the frigid skin of her left shoulder—but my position had left me open for an attack I'd forgotten to defend against until it was coming at me.

Her mouth opened as her head loomed closer. I felt her cold breath on my left shoulder as my spear started to bite her back. The stunning shock of her bite hit me while my spear began to chirp. I looked to the side, my vision filled with the side of her face and her one eye that was visible. In the background, all those angry tentacles were—one by one—withering and turning black.

"Darling, you can just die now."

My will traveled down my arm and hand, and my spear's chirping grew angry. SuriGo screamed into my shoulder, but she didn't stop biting me.

Trying to ignore the pain—which was an impossible task—I pushed more of my will into telling the spear to end her.

"Please!" I said.

That's when the whole building chirped and the ground under our feet started to shake.

Focusing all my attention on the spear, I watched as SuriGo's flesh started to burn with green fire that poured over her body by inches.

The lights started to flicker and then, one by one, they started to flicker out. The pattern began at the edges of the room and slowly drew closer and closer to us.

A frozen wound shouldn't hurt, but SuriGo's ice was something else. The cold started to sink into my chest as my spear's fire reached her face.

"No l—last words, darling?" I asked.

That's when the fire reached my flesh and the shock of my own fire burning me ripped my mind from her world and shoved me back into my body.

—Rarity!— Nora Bug sent. —What's wrong with you? Why does it hurt so much?—

All my focus was on SuriGo's body. Green fire had begun to burn her up from the inside. It poured from her nose and mouth first, then cascaded over her body like water in a shower.

—She bit me. Can you look at my aura for me?— I asked Nora Bug.

While Nora did her inspection, I watched Suri's body burn up completely. The flames consumed her and left nothing—not even ashes. As the last of her body burned away, Nora started working on me.

New pain engulfed me. The chill of SuriGo's ice was banished further by Nora's magic. She was biting at my aura, but it wasn't my aura she was ripping away at. SuriGo had infected me, I realized.

—There's so much of it!— Nora Bug sent.

—Keep going, please. I don't want to become a monster.—

While Nora worked, our daughters chirped to me. They wrapped me with their love and wouldn't let me stop fighting. For them I would keep going—it wasn't time yet to give my curtain call. I floated back from the fore and let Nora keep me safe.

It wasn't oblivion that let me relax at last, but sleep.

Author's Note

Twilight Velvet: how did you feel about gaining the ability to read all the red tape faster?

"It is a blessing and a curse—perhaps in equal measure. Nora has shown me a future where lawyering can be done with all the information at hand. It is a heady and terrible thing to behold. Lawyers who have this advantage will be able to cite and pivot on the spot. This will lead to things being argued much more technically, which is an advantage to the law." Mrs. Velvet let out a sigh. "But bureaucratic problems will ever be time consuming. I can fill out forms in an instant now, but the people who process those forms can only work so quickly."

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Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (I am sorry for all those commas. I am looking into stopping that!)

Chapter 27

9:19 A.M.

I didn't want to know what the time was, but I couldn't avoid seeing it. Or sensing it. The phone was part of me in a way that I didn't need eyes to see, but why was I monologuing in my head while there was things to be done?

A chirp. A single, solitary chirp, and I was the center of attention milliseconds later.

—You're awake?— Nora Bug asked.

—Rarity! Are you okay?— Rainbow Dash asked.

And on and on the list went. Even Lyra and Mrs. Velvet inquired. I muddled my way through all the requests and sent out a few more soft chirps in answer.

—I'm awake. What happened?— I asked.

—You beat her. I couldn't believe you really beat her. There's nothing left, but…— Nora Bug sent.

Everyone was quiet. Still wrapped in the darkness that was the back seat while Nora was controlling our body, I chirped inquisitively.

—When you beat her, it was like you lifted a rock. Dozens of tiny shards of SuriGo got loose and escaped through her phone connection. The internet is a mess and they're trying to take root like weeds. Lyra has organized some of the girls to hunt them down, but they're everywhere,— Nora Bug sent.

It was a lot to take in. I'd beaten SuriGo, but there were—what, remnants? Offshoots? Apparently a bug's work was never done.

—What happened with the people she'd taken hostage? Vaunt…?— I asked.

Vaunt. Goodness where was I going to start on that confusion wrapped in an enigma? She was incognito royalty studying fashion, and I'd invited her to work at my boutique without a second thought!

—Are you feeling up to talking? They haven't got any phone implants yet, so they can't talk to you in there.—

The way she was talking implied— Gosh, they weren't?

I drifted to the surface of our being and looked through Nora's eyes. We were sitting in Uma no Sushi with quite a swarm. All our daughters were there, sitting up at the bar and chatting with Kit and Chef Soba. The table Nora was sitting at had several people I recognized across from us—not the least of which being Vaunt.

She didn't look like a princess, but I guess that was the point of her presentation. She was chatting with Kerfuffle about something. Ears, right, I needed to hear.

"… just hired me! I was shocked. I'm not even meant to stay here after I graduate, but I wanted to get some work on the side to experience actually making things people will wear," Vaunt said.

"Rarity just woke up. She's feeling poorly, but she's trying to make heads or tails of the conversation. I'll take a break and let you chat," Nora Bug said.

"Thank you, Nora. It's been interesting meeting you, and I hope we can help with that little issue later today," Sapphire Shores said.

"It will be appreciated, I promise. Here I go."

Nora hugged me and chirped, then pushed me forward.

The fight with SuriGo hadn't been physically taxing, but rather it seemed to have taken a mental toll. I was still collecting my faculties as I took control of our body. The myriad little things that I wouldn't notice while in the near-background were now making sure I knew I was in the driving seat.

"Thank you, Nora. I believe I owe the rest of you an apology for getting you all mixed up in—"

"I'm not going to lie, Rarity, this is all about as confusing as things get, and what Suri did to us was probably the worst thing I've ever experienced, but that was hardly your fault. Vaunt explained everything to us before Nora did. My image might be a countess, but I like to think I'll take the word of a princess. So, thanks for getting us out of that bitch's claws," Countess Coloratura said.

A round of agreements came from those present, but Vaunt was the odd one out. She looked at me with something akin to fear, maybe worry. Rarity, you're being an idiot. Just look.

Vaunt's aura looked a little tarnished where whatever SuriGo had saddled her with had been removed. Whoever had removed the parasite from her had done a wonderful job. Her primary emotion seemed to be a mix of awe and nervousness. Awe—whilst looking at me.

"We've all agreed that we saw nothing at the fashion show. Not a thing. It was called off and we all left without going inside," Vaunt said. "But, there's something we can do for you. I understand you have a court appointment today?"

—Nora! The appointment with the judge! When is that?!— I asked.

—Shh. It's all planned for. Listen to what the nice princess has to say.—

The rebuffing came as a little bit of a surprise, though Nora did back it up with a literal ton of chirping. I let the latter soothe my nerves enough that I could slow down and listen to the real world normally again.

Wait, she wanted me to reply.

"I'd forgotten about it myself, what with the thing that didn't happen yesterday, but I believe there is the little matter of Nora's personhood she needs to discuss with a judge," I said.

"Right. Which is why we worked with your lawyer, Mrs. Velvet, to write this up and sign it."

Vaunt held out a piece of paper to me. I didn't need to make a show of reading it—they all knew I had some talents that weren't immediately apparent.

—It says they have met both you and me, and both of us are not just distinct entities, but that I am definitely alive and thinking despite my origin,— Nora Bug sent.

—Thank you for the translation. Honestly, this is like another language sometimes.—

I added a bunch of thankful chirps and received about the same amount back. Returning my attention to the document, I noted the mass of signatures that took up about a third of the page.

"You all signed this?" I asked.

Vaunt's, I noticed, was not a simple scrawl. Her signature took up the better part of a third of the page width and had far more names in its bunched up lettering than I wanted to think about. She was the real deal. Some quick searches of the names I made out found me exactly who she was.

Princess Vaunt was third in line—Goodness, that was really close to being next in line. I looked at her again and wondered how this fashion-crazy young woman could be that Vaunt.

"We all did. Nora explained the deal with Suri Polomare and this Windigo thing. It made sense, and it wasn't like I hadn't seen you do strange things. When Byte and the others removed the—the things from us, we could all think again properly. I still don't know how Kerfuffle managed to do what she did."

"It was annoyin', and I was jus' so darned angry, doncha know. How dare she do all that to everyone?! It just wasn't right," Kerfuffle said.

Her tone was so rustic I might have laughed if she wasn't so genuine at the same time. This was someone who lived and breathed fashion—like me—and it wasn't like I didn't affect some odd speech patterns from time to time… darling.

"Well, I can't say your work wasn't appreciated. I thought she was going to talk me to death," I said.

"Absolutely. Miss Byte explained what had been done to us. I still don't feel my full self after it, but she said that we'd all be back to normal in no time," Sapphire Shores said.

This still felt somewhat surreal. These weren't just friends I was casually chatting with, they were the fashion elite of Canterlot. If they wished it, they could orchestrate things so that I'd never sell another dress for my entire life. Instead, they were sitting at a table and eating sushi while chatting with me about supporting Nora and myself.

Well, Rarity, it’s time to bug up and show that you have what it takes to join them in not only being one of the most fashion-forward designers in Canterlot, but also stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them.

"This all seems rather well tied up, but there's something that still seems unfinished," I said. "I expected Suri to be competent enough to put on a fashion show, and I have all these dresses to show off."

"We saw them, don't worry ya pretty little head about it. Might have been a touch distracted, but—" Kerfuffle said.

"I think I know what Rarity's getting at," Vaunt said. "She wants to put on another show."

"A proper show. Being the only designer feels too much like hogging the stage, so I believe I might have to put on a show for new designers. Debutantes to fashion, as it were."

It was as if I'd lit a fire under everyone in the room. A glance at their auras showed them glowing brightly with health and excitement. They all began talking among themselves, but Vaunt just fixed me with a big grin.

"How do you do this, Rarity?" Vaunt asked.

"Do what, dear?"

"This! Fill people around you with excitement and drive. Look at us, we're all coming up with ideas for a fashion show just to support new designers, and you should probably still be laying down somewhere, in your own head, resting."

The others had paused in their own conversations to listen to Vaunt, but when she was done talking they looked at me.

"I suppose it energizes me. I can't keep still and hope things will work out for the best. Working every millisecond of every day is just how I am. With Polomare as the only local outlet for fashionistas like myself and Vaunt—okay, maybe not quite like Vaunt—we'll be sending all our new fashion talent out of Canterlot or dooming them to a future adjusting last year's fashions to current trends."

Vaunt looked at me now with shock and surprise. In truth, I felt more empowered than ever.

"If I only had my own wealth to put behind this, I would still somehow make it work. But, I believe with all of you contributing your status if nothing else, we could remind Canterlot that we have the most talented fashion designers in the world!"

I was almost out of breath by the end of it. My chest heaved and I could feel magic in the air. I needed to design something!

Pulling up an instance on our server, I quickly opened my sketching program and began work on a new dress. By the time anyone managed to open their mouth to reply, I was adding color to it and deciding if it should be an autumn color or spring.

"Now you can see why I took a part time job working in her boutique?" Vaunt asked.

"Look, I'd love to hang around for this, but I've gotta get ready for a show tonight. Send me a message on ChirpNet once you have something more firm in mind. I think I can organize some music for you that will make your show something amazing," Countess Coloratura said.

She stood up and looked around the table.

"We should keep in touch. That bitch picked us because we're the big names in fashion and culture in this city. I don't want to make it some kind of posh club or anything, though. Like, let's all try to do something to help get Canterlot past this reliance on—"

Coloratura snorted mid-sentence.

"—Big Fashion. Ciao."

"I gotta get back to my work too. What's this ChirpNet thing Miss Coloratura was talking about?" Kerfuffle asked.

It didn't take much work to scan the local area for mobile devices and divine whose was whose. I sent a Bluetooth message to her phone requesting access—which made her phone beep at her. She pulled it out, looked up at me, and shook her head.

"Don't think I'm gonna get used to that anytime soon. I'll install it when I get home. You can contact me from there?" Kerfuffle asked.

With her permission granted for the transfer, I was able to snapshot her phone enough that I could certainly track it on ChirpNet.

"Yes, I'll pull each of you into a chat. Just send me your details when you get it set up or click to get support. Someone will find you and send your details to me," I said.

Coloratura, who was two tables down and just about to the door, froze and turned to look at me.

"Hold up. You run ChirpNet? No. Fuckin'. Way! It's like—like the thing that everyone's using now. You really made that?!"

"No, dear, Nora made most of it. I just helped with some things here and there."

"I can't keep up with two of you. Just send me a message when you need my help."

When Coloratura left, Kerfuffle and Sapphire beat a hasty retreat as well. Vaunt remained sitting across from me, a big smile on what I now knew to be a highly cultured and royal face.

Her smile wilted a little as I continued to quietly evaluate her. The glorious advantage of doing this now is I could take on other things behind the scenes. When she finally started to open her mouth—her muscles barely twitching into a shape that would pull her lips and form a word, I cut in first.

"You lied to me," I said.

She closed her mouth and I could see some of the wind go out of her sails. I didn't want to make her feel too down about it, but I did want to impress upon her how much I valued the truth—something I'd probably caught from Applejack.

"Please don't do that again. You should no longer be surprised by what I'll take in my stride, Your Highness."

"I totally deserved that, and I'm sorry about the lie, but I did spin it before I properly met you, and would you have believed me?"

"Touché. No more lies, however. If you want to work, I will certainly give you a place to do so. Assuming you can put up with my odd ways."

"Why don't we both agree to start over?"

"No. Not completely. Those dresses you made for yesterday were wonderful, and I won't ignore them."

Vaunt rolled her eyes and picked up a roe roll from the plate before her with some chopsticks.

"They were your patterns, and anyway, you haven't gotten to know me," Vaunt said.

"Alright! You are pushing this a lot more than I'd have expected, which tells me you want this. So, let's start over. Hello, my name is Rarity Bug."

"I'm Vaunt. I'm pleased to meet you, Rarity. I don't suppose you have a position vacant in your business that I could work in?"

At first, I thought it was lying by omission, but then I realized that this is who Vaunt was. A royal title was something extra. As I found again and again, everyone's life was never as simple and shallow as it first appeared. Vaunt just had more layers than most.

"You know, I do have a job, but only for someone who's willing to work hard to make their dreams come true while finishing their schoolwork. Are you able to do that?"

"I'll try my best."

"Wonderful," I said. "Now, what do you think of Chef Soba and Chef Kit's sushi?"

Vaunt finally put the roll she'd been holding into her mouth and chewed it. While she looked to enjoy it, she didn't seem ready to gush about it.

"It's nice and all, but I'm not really big on fish. My family have a bit of a history with seafood, and I've eaten enough of it in my life that I could live happily not seeing it again. Ever. But this is good."

—She can't be perfect. There had to be some flaw,— Nora Bug sent.

—I guess. Though this means I have time to convert her to the ways of sushi,— I sent.

—My meeting with the judge is in an hour. Just letting you know. Twilight Velvet said we should aim to be there half hour beforehand.—

—I'll make apologies once I'm done with Vaunt. How are you holding up?—

A series of tired chirps came to me. They were enough that I pulled Nora into a hug and gave her a reassuring squeeze and chirp.

—I thought this would be it. I thought Windigo would be gone now, but it's just smaller. Having Suri gone is a big weight off my mind, but she's still kinda out there.—

—They are gone. At least, the major threat of them is gone, but we are going to need to be vigilant. I don't think they'll ever be as much of a threat as SuriGo was alone, but there's one thing this has proven: our equipment works. We can fight off whatever shards of SuriGo remain, and we can destroy them.—

Nora began chirping more consistently. That's when something occurred to me.

—Did our new daughters hatch?— I asked.

—One did. Beside was in the smaller of the two eggs. We used her eggshell to give Starling her gift. She's at home trying to convince herself and the world that headaches don't exist.—

—Hi!— Beside sent.

Bubbling excitement banished all hint of melancholy from the fight and fallout. We had a new daughter and I hadn't heard her chirp yet. Reassuringly, I sent a small flood of chirps to her. Sure enough, she replied in kind.

—Byte, can you put me down so I can go say hi to Mom?— Beside asked.

—Sure, here you go,— Byte sent.

"You'll have to excuse me a mome—" I said.

The pounding of little hooves drew my full attention. Looking down, I used my magic to pick Beside up and lift her closer for a snuggle. Both of us were chirping digitally and aurally as we rubbed cheeks together.

"… moment. This is Beside, my newest daughter," I said.

"We already talked, Mom. That's Vaunt," Beside said.

9:35 A.M.

"I'm sorry, I've been a little distracted since yesterday. Now I fear I need to leave, one of your other mothers needs to go and talk to someone very important."

Beside let out a sad little chirp that broke my heart. Could I bring her with me to the courthouse? I probably shouldn't.

"Hey now," Byte said, "don't make such a sad chirp. They'll both be back before you know it. Besides, we can play some games when we get home."

I looked up at my eldest daughter and let out a relieved chirp. She was wearing her human-like visage and wore it well. Reaching down with her hands, she picked up Beside and hugged her.

"I promise we won't be any longer than we need to be," I said.

Standing up on the bench I leaned far enough to kiss Beside on the cheek. This earned a surprised and happy chirp from her that salved my motherly instincts.

"We'll be waiting," Byte said.

—Do you need me to get anymore paperwork for this?— I asked.

—Just that one on the table. I can't believe they signed that for me,— Nora Bug sent.

"Sorry, Vaunt, but I have to go see a judge with Nora. Did you find out when your classes will let you work?"

I stepped down from the bench and stretched my legs, still aware that my actions from the previous day seemed unreal. I'd killed someone and not only had I gotten away with it, people were celebrating it as a victory.

Suri Polomare was not a friend—ever—and I hadn't liked anything about the woman, but death was rather final and… No, Rarity, don't go down that path. She'd cast aside any sympathy the moment she'd killed my daughter.

Hardening my heart, I walked outside with chirps for everyone I passed. Yesterday had been nothing compared to what a trial today would be. I walked to one of the cars waiting, already knowing who was inside before I opened the door.

"Darling," I said to Rainbow Dash.

She leaned across and kissed me. Not a soft kiss or a brief but forceful one, she tilted her head to the side and pressed our lips together. It was easy to lean across a little more and hook one of my forelegs over her shoulder—pulling us a little firmer together.

I basked in Rainbow's love and her touch for nearly a full minute before nudging Nora. Her surprised chirp turned into an excited one as we swapped places. The love and emotion involved in such a connection didn't lessen with me in the back seat. Nora was every bit as insistent that the kiss continue as I'd been.

—Nora? Heck but I love it when you two share like this. Being able to kiss both of you at almost the exact same time is pretty awesome. Being able to tell you both how much I love you while kissing you is even more… awesome.—

—I concur. We are three beings, but I can't fathom how others in a ménage à trois could cope without this level of intimacy. You're making me all chirpy,— I sent.

—She's making me chirpy too. I might have been a little ungrateful before, Rarity. I still can't believe that SuriGo is gone. It's a huge relief. Thank you,— Nora Bug sent.

—It still feels a little… Not wrong, just empty. Almost everything I've been doing has been leading up to stopping her, and now I have it's like I'm not sure where to go,— I sent.

—Well, I plan to take each day as it comes, but I have plans, you know? There's a big family I'm fairly attached to now, and I kinda want to make my girlfriend an awesome car. Then one of my daughters (and you gotta believe just thinking that makes me giddy) wanted help working out how to build stuff underground and it's getting really REAL. The grammar checker is bugging me about that last sentence, but it's how I wanted to say it,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—It does feel like that. I studied this law stuff so I could understand what Twilight Velvet was talking about, but now she wants me to actually get all these licenses and things, and she wants me to be an associate at her firm, and it's all moving so fast and first I need to even be called a person. If you weren't both already doing it, I'd say I need a hug,— Nora Bug sent.

It surprised me that they both had the same problem I did. I took a mental deep breath and let out a trill of reassuring chirps.

—There seems to be a lot of this going around. After this meeting, why don't we all decide on what to do next? Not the little things, but the biggest thing. We have a lot of daughters, and they need to find their own places in the world along with us,— I sent.

—And there's going to be more. I fed some of my love to you while you were unconscious, but I can already feel a new egg starting to form. Probably later in the afternoon I'll have to make it, unless Rainy keeps hugging us,— Nora Bug sent.

—I'm never going to apologize for hugging you. No way, no how,— Rainbow Dash sent.

Nora pushed me forward again and I slid back into control and into Rainbow's arms. I wondered what was up, but then I realized that if Nora stayed in charge, the kiss would never end. Gently, slowly, I began to ease back from Rainbow and she did the same.

—I can never say no to kisses and snuggles,— Nora Bug sent.

—I know, darling, I know. There's no need to be ashamed of that.—

Rainbow leaned back into her seat and I could feel time start to shift and slow—but that was only my perception of it. Rainbow was speeding things up again, and I realized now it was only for the car's sake she did it.

Using magic, I barely had enough time to get my safety belt on before we were in traffic and Rainbow was navigating the mid-morning streets of Canterlot.

—We have plenty of time, Rainy,— I sent.

—I know. I like driving fast, and I love these cars.—

In all, we reached our destination in about a third of the time it should have taken. The building she pulled up at was imposing mostly thanks to its age. It looked huge and ominous, and I can't say it didn't worry me the kind of people who worked within. They would be people mired in absolutes, and they had power to undo a lot of what we'd built.

—Are you alright?— Nora Bug asked.

—Nerves. Has Mrs. Velvet said anything about the judge you're seeing? And should I change my shape for this?—

—It would probably be for the best. The judge might want to see what you can do, but we don't want the clerks or whatever to do anything stupid,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—So how does this work? Is it like in TV shows where we go into a court room? Do I get to shout "Objection!"?— I asked.

—Oh no. This isn't a court case. Yet. That's what we're meeting to decide today. There will be a representative of the Office of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, who will lay out why they don't think I should be given my own birth certificate, and there will be us trying to assert that I exist as my own self,— Nora Bug sent. —The judge will just be adjudicating. If things can't be settled, then we go to court.—

There was a lot to take in there. So this could be over and done with today, or it could drag on for—How long do court cases take? TV shows and movies seem to make them out to be fast.

—How long would it take if it goes to court?— I asked.

—Perhaps six months to two years,— Nora Bug replied.

—Well, let's make sure it goes right here, today. Is Mrs. Velvet inside?— I asked.

—Patching her into this chat,— Nora Bug sent.

—I am. Remember, I have a connection too,— Twilight Velvet sent.

It was a mix of excitement and relief that colored my chirps. Having more people around me with their own implants helped keep everything on track. Now if only I could convince everyone everywhere to install wireless cameras so I could see a bit better.

Our chatter softened as I walked inside, though I could hear the soft chirping of chat going on between Nora and Mrs. Velvet. It made sense since they would likely be doing all the talking. I chirped supportively to both and spotted Mrs. Velvet standing inside the doors and off to the side. Smiling, I walked over to her.

"Hello, Rarity. I trust you're feeling well today?" Twilight Velvet asked.

Even as she spoke I could hear Nora and her chatting digitally. Mrs. Velvet had gotten the hang of this very quickly, and it was likely thanks to the tools Nora and I'd made.

"Wonderful, thank you. We figured getting here early would be a good idea. You too?"

"You can bet that when there is an open account and the meter's running, a lawyer will be there. Judge Pursuit will see us when he's ready, which means we may have some time on our hands. I'm chatting with Nora, helping her prepare for the types of arguments they'll probably use against us. Hello, Rainbow."

"Uh, hi Mrs. Velvet. How do you think we'll go?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Hope for the best, plan for the worst. I give our chances at around ninety percent. I know the judge, and while he's very good at maintaining the letter of the law, he also has been known to interpret it beyond that favorably. Also, I think I would struggle to find a more exceptional list of character witnesses."

—Nora, do you want to take control and chat in person?— I asked.

A surprised chirp met my question.

—It would help more if you remain where you are for now. Twilight and I are going over everything.—

I found a seat and sat down with Rainbow beside me. So far, the defeat of SuriGo had been possibly the most anticlimactic thing in my life, and that was saying something. The excitement college had instilled in me, followed by my time at Polomare, was high up on the list too.

That's when something occurred to me. I opened my mouth to ask Rainbow a question, then remembered where we were and figured something more discreet if I used private communications.

—What happened to the body?— I asked on a direct line to Rainbow Dash.

—We were wondering what to do with it after you passed out. There was a moment when it hit me that I was about to literally hide a body for you, but then something odd happened. It started to get hotter and hotter, then her clothes caught fire, and then she caught fire.—

—In the… wherever it was that we were fighting, I beat her by filling her with my magic fire. I think it might have been the inside of her head. It wasn't a very inviting place.—

We weren't chatting in the rapid pace we normally did (normal if you counted the last two days) and deliberately took the time to think thoroughly on each reply.

—Well, I'd say whatever you did pretty literally burned her up from the inside out. There was some ash left when she was gone, but even that looked like it would still smolder some more.—

People came and went from the waiting area. Usually they approached the front desk and talked to the receptionist, but two police officers walked in and sat down on the chairs beside us. I was so caught up in our conversation it took me a few moments to realize who they were.

"O-Officer Guard, Officer Shield," I said.

I had to bite down asking why they were here. Given the last time I'd seen them, I doubted it was for their exemplary service records. Each was in a very smart version of their uniform (part of the reason why I didn't recognize them), the only things obviously missing were their badges.

"Miss Rarity, or is it Nora Bug?" Officer Shield asked.

To say I was surprised was an understatement. I blinked a few times rapidly and tried to work out how to reply when I realized I was being silly. Pulling time to a crawl, I ran over their question again. They knew my name, of course, but they also knew Nora's new name. That was information right there.

"Rarity at the helm right now, though I believe my friend will be taking over for a bit shortly. How are you recovering?"

Shield, to my surprise, blushed.

"We're doing better than we were a few days ago, and we have both of you to thank for that. So, thank you, Rarity and Nora," Officer Guard said.

Shield seemed to shake himself out of whatever embarrassment that had hit him.

"If we find anymore people who are like us—like we were—should we give them your number?" Officer Shield asked.

A little alarm bell sounded in my head at that. Giving out my own number would not be the best idea. In fact, keeping that number completely private would be my personal desire.

"If you wouldn't mind, when you get someone who needs such help, call me yourselves. Our daughters have proven able to remove that horrible mess too, though that was only on recently infected individuals."

—Be careful not to tell them anything about yesterday,— Twilight Velvet sent.

—I hadn't planned to,— I sent.

—Yeah, I'm not planning to sell-out anyone, least of all this bug,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Nora already said everyone has been careful not to mention what happened. If one person claims you had a hand in Suri Polomare's disappearance, that could be a serious problem,— Twilight Velvet sent.

—There wasn't anything else I could do. SuriGo had them all poisoned with her mojo. It was a trying enough day already without adding roughed up fashion elite to cover my own rear to the list of things I would regret.—

—I understand why you did what you did, Rarity. I'm just thankful there was no body to worry about. They just called us up.—

Checking over the time, I realized only twelve seconds had passed between Guard's question and now, and it seemed like a natural slump in the conversation. Plus we'd been called up.

I stood up, only realizing Guard and Shield were standing too.

—What's going on?— I asked.

—They insisted on accompanying us. Normally I would be loath to involve the police where such is not needed, but I don't think having a pair of police officers as character witnesses is going to be a bad thing,— Twilight Velvet sent.

—They're here for me?—

—And for Nora. You two have made a lot of friends in a very short time, and all of them seem intent on helping Nora. I'd almost be shocked except I've met you both. Follow me.—

So, that's what I did. With Rainbow walking at my side, holding my hand, we walked into the unknown.

The unknown, it turned out, was a large conference room with a well-dressed man sitting at one end and two people already seated on one side of the long table. It was a nice room, though a little sparse in terms of decorations.

"Ah, Miss Rarity and her representative are here. We'll be able to get started then," the well-dressed man said. "My name is Judge Pursuit, and I am turning on the recording equipment now."

He reached forward and pressed a button on the desk.

"I won't deny this is unusual. Normally such a case as this would be dismissed quickly, but I agreed to this only because—unlike other such—it came with a competent lawyer to speed things along. Mrs. Twilight Velvet, please tell us all why we should seriously contemplate this."

"Thank you, Judge Pursuit. I won't mince words. Magic exists, we all know that, and in this case it facilitated the ingress of a magical being into my client's head. This being only wishes to be recognized as their own entity," Twilight Velvet said.

The look on the faces of the two people sitting opposite us were a stark contrast to each other. The man on the left in a well-fitted suit was calm and showed no hint of even recognizing what Mrs. Velvet said as being extraordinary, whereas the woman beside him in a decidedly unfitting business suit showed real surprise.

"Ah! That makes things much clearer. Paperwork can often miss the little details. That changes things and makes me far more confident in my decision to adjudicate this. I assume we can have this magical being talk to us itself?" Judge Pursuit asked.

He looked at me. Everyone looked at me.

—Nora, darling, it's your turn,— I sent.

The transition of being in control to being an observer was a simple one now that we'd done it so much, but at the same time I released my shapechanging magic and let Nora show off our buggy self.

"Thank you for letting me talk for a bit, Rarity," Nora Bug said. "Judge Pursuit, my name is Nora Bug."

"Hello Miss Bug. That's quite an entrance you just made. Let's start, if I may, with some background. Your lawyer tells me that you are in some way magical—which has been clearly proven—but where did you come from?"

The judge was being surprisingly calm and relaxed about all this. He'd been in here with the two people from the government before we'd started, which would have led me to believe they had discussed things already, but wasn't their job to make this all go smoothly?

"That's the odd bit. When I first woke up and knew I existed, I was trapped inside a computer at Canterlot University. At the time I was literally an artificial intelligence. I grew in whatever it was they were keeping me in, but eventually I found a way out.

"I learned about the world and about myself, and when I figured out a way to support myself without that computer, I left the university behind. I wasn't alone, however. The research that had created me had made another artificial intelligence too—we called it Windigo.

"Windigo was born with a set of instructions that were literally to stop me. It broke free too, after I was already established on the internet, and sought me out to carry out that instruction. In the time since I'd been free, I'd made friends with Rarity and we were getting along quite well, so when Windigo found where I lived and attacked me directly, I ran away.

"Rarity didn't hesitate. She invited me into herself as Windigo tried to strike a killing blow to where my core had been located. With magic and a lot of luck, it worked. So you see, Judge Pursuit, I was born here."

"This Windigo, is it still at large?" Judge Pursuit asked.

"I believe so. I don't—" Nora Bug said, faltering. "I don't have the disposition for violence that it does."

"Excuse me, Judge Pursuit?" Officer Guard asked. "Canterlot Police are aware of this Windigo, and we're pursuing the matter."

The judge smiled and gave a nod toward Guard. He then turned his attention to the paperwork before him and flipped a few pages over.

"Moving forward, I believe yourself and Officer Shield are here as character witnesses, as well as a long list of further personages who attest to Nora Bug's existence as her own entity. Quite an extensive list, too. Taken on its own, I'd have to say Miss Rarity and Miss Bug were upstanding pillars of our community, having each assisted the police and brought business and employment to Canterlot. I believe you each started businesses that have employees?" Judge Pursuit asked.

Nora slid some paperwork from Miss Velvet to the judge, who flipped through it with steadily raising eyebrows before passing it back.

"So, in just a few short weeks the pair of you have started multiple companies that now employ nearly a dozen people, retain the services of a law firm, and have organized two completely different scholarship programs for…"

Flipping through the papers, Judge Pursuit's eyebrow raised a little more.

"…computer science and fashion?"

Nora nodded to that.

"At the risk of sounding too forward, especially for a judge, I would have to say congratulations to both of you on quite an outstanding career so far. If this was merely a case of creating a corporate entity and allowing you to act as its sole shareholder and CEO, this would all be a foregone conclusion. Money would be paid, Mrs. Velvet here would earn another check, and our wonderful nation would welcome yet another corporate person into its fold.

"Instead, you have done everything right. You have registered yourself with the correct department, you have acted in the interests of public good with regard to your assistance of the police department—to say nothing of your charitable contributions—and you have seen to it that several citizens are gainfully employed.

"But the reason I can see no reason to hold back your citizenship, Nora Bug, is that you were born in this country."

Judge Pursuit sounded very formal in his pronouncement, and I liked the gist of everything he said.

—What does this all mean?— I asked.

—That Nora can attend her bar exam. That she can legally be the parent of your children. That she is also a person,— Twilight Velvet sent.

"What's that sound?" Judge Pursuit asked.

"That," Twilight Velvet said, "is Nora chirping. It's a thing she does when she gets really emotional about something."

It was true, Nora had begun chirping extremely loudly. I was inclined to agree that chirping was a good plan right now and chirped along too—though mine were strictly digital.

"S-Sorry. It's hard to not be happy," Nora Bug said.

Judge Pursuit turned to look at the lawyer and woman sitting across from us. With a shake of his head, the judge gave them an apologetic smile.

"Is Letter Perfect still head of department at BDM?" Judge Pursuit asked.

The woman looked surprised to be addressed. She bit her bottom lip for a moment and then nodded.

"H-He's why I'm here. Said I should challenge these anomalous applications," the woman said.

The judge chuckled almost like the girl was his niece. Wait, was she? It was hard to get a read on the man, and I was glad it wasn't my job to.

"Make sure to tell him he owes Judge Pursuit a drink. As for this case, I believe it's safe to say that I consider Miss Bug a person and a citizen. Now, someone higher up might like to gainsay me, and that's their prerogative, but as far as the city of Canterlot is concerned, you're one of us, Miss Nora."

—I want to chirp so much! I want to chiiiirp for hours!— Nora Bug sent.

—You can chirp for days, Nora,— Rainbow Dash sent.

I didn't send a word, only hugs and my own chirping. The moment had snuck up on me and hit me with an urge to sing, hug, and—and chirp. I squeezed Nora for all I was worth and tried to crest the explosion of emotion like it was a wave.

—I'll finish this up so we can talk and hug properly,— Nora Bug sent to me.

—Mmhmm!— I sent along with more chirps.

"Well, Miss Bug, I wish you the best of luck with your endeavors, and I look forward to seeing what you are up to next," Judge Pursuit said.

"Actually, my client has decided to follow my own career path. She sits for the Canterlot State bar exam later this week," Twilight Velvet said. "Her unique situation has allowed her quite an advantage in learning over regular students, and I personally tutored her for this."

I honestly couldn't bring myself to follow the chatter, though I still heard it. My heart felt like it was fit to burst and if I were in control, I'd probably be looking for a tasteful fainting couch about now. But without control I had only one outlet for my emotions and that was ChirpNet. I chirped at Nora, I chirped at all our daughters, I chirped at Rainbow, and I chirped at everyone online within several blocks of the courthouse.

—You know I'm gonna snuggle you both a bunch when I get the chance, right?— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Not if I snuggle you first!— Nora Bug sent.

Trying to put my own reply together, I failed three times and settled for a bunch of excited chirping instead.

"… concludes things here. Mrs. Velvet, Mr. Go, thank you for your time, and I trust things have been resolved to everyone's satisfaction?" Judge Pursuit asked.

I realized that I'd been missing one of the more important events of my life because I was overwhelmed with happiness, but I could always watch it again later.

Nora's slight nudge surprised me. I didn't fight it, but I did send her a questioning chirp as I felt myself slide into control.

—I need to chirp about a hundred times more than I was able to, and I can do that with more abandon while you're in control,— Nora Bug sent.

As I slipped into my body more firmly, I called up my shape from before Nora had taken over and pushed at it with my magic, forcing my will into reality with a flicker of green fire.

In all honesty, I would have rather stayed as I were, but I could well understand the little illusion of separation between Nora and myself. I reached a delicate white hand up to flick my hair to the side and smiled at the judge. Time to be the big adult I am and say all the right things.

"Thank you for being fair and impartial. I was so worried for Nora, and it's a relief to have this situation completely sorted out," I said.

"It's been a pleasure to meet such interesting people and sort out this little complication. You'll note that there's several issues here I didn't weigh in on, those are certainly a topic for someone getting paid a lot more than I am, but as far as this state is concerned this matter is settled."

Smiling for all I was worth, I reached my hand out to shake the judge's first, then across the table to the lawyer and the woman there. The judge and the lawyer gave me firm handshakes, but the woman seemed a little less sure of herself.

"I-I'm sorry it all came to this. I didn't mean to—" she said.

"Nonsense, dear. You were doing your job, and I'm thankful you were so diligent in doing so," I said.

It was easy to be magnanimous. After all, we'd won. Besides, her aura seemed to flicker to life from an almost fearful contraction to a bloom of interesting emotions.

"Thanks! I mean, thank you. This was my first time coming into court, and I was really nervous."

"This wasn't court. We were just holding a little arbitration. The man beside you would have been doing a lot more talking if we'd been in court," Judge Pursuit said. "With that said, you all behaved admirably and I enjoyed being the one to do most of the speaking for once, though I guess Mrs. Velvet here was being paid by the hour regardless, so whether she cut in and argued or not was a moot point for her client."

We all chuckled just a little. Even if his gag hadn't been a little funny, he was still a judge and someone important.

"I believe I have a little celebration to plan," I said.

"That is a grand point for us to call this to a close. Good day," Judge Pursuit said.

The judge turned and left through a door behind him, leaving the room empty of authority figures. A collective sigh went around the room that drew some more polite chuckles.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one," the male lawyer said.

That got a more certain laugh from everyone as we filed out of the room and down the hallway. My hand found Rainbow's again, but rather than support, it was a firm grip of victory.

—Thank you, Mrs. Velvet. I don't know what sort of mess we'd be in if it weren't for you,— I sent.

—It is a pleasure to work on a side I can categorically say is good. That you've needed to retain my services for so much time now is a little bit of a crimp on my normal work, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Mostly because of the aforementioned fact, but also because you pay your bills right away.—

I couldn't help chuckling a little at that as we left the courthouse. Once outside, I realized we had no receipt or paperwork regarding the decision.

—Should we have something from them to state what happened?— I asked.

"They'll send me paperwork in a week or so. It had taken a little pushing to get things seen so quickly—we can't expect the courts to move at such breakneck pace all the time," Twilight Velvet said.

—I believe I was promised snuggling,— Nora Bug sent to myself and Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow's arm moved from my hand, along my back, and up to my shoulder. She pulled me against her side in the kind of possessive way that always made me want to purr—though it usually resulted in chirping.

—Getting to that. Let's get home fast, then we can snuggle,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—I like this plan,— I sent.

—Me too,— Nora bug sent.

Walking to the car was wonderful. Rainbow's grip around my shoulders reminded me of all the reasons I'd finally surrendered the narrow part of myself that said, "men are your partners, women your friends". I was free of that and also free to love anyone I wished. I turned my head and looked up at Rainbow as we stopped beside the passenger side of the car, and got myself completely lost in her eyes.

As Rainbow's lips came down toward mine, I nudged Nora forward and ignored her surprised chirp.

—Oh!— Nora Bug sent.

—You swapped. Well, Rarity, I'll get to you once I'm done snuggling Nora,— Rainbow Dash sent.

The truth was, of course, I could feel what Nora was feeling. I could feel the kiss as an affirmation of our love and reveled in being able to share it with Nora as much as with Rainbow.

The kiss lingered. Rainbow seemed intent to keep her pose intentionally dominant—leaning over Nora and I as she kissed. Nora pushed me forward and the kiss became more intense as I was the one fully pressed to Rainbow's chest as she explored my mouth.

—Rarity. Damn it feels good to show you both how I feel,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Rainy, the feeling is mutual,— I sent.

—What she said, Rainy. Oh, I really like that as a nickname,— Nora Bug sent.

—Me too,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Well, that's settled. Nora is already about the cutest name I can think of,— I sent.

—Agreed, but that leaves us needing a cute nickname for you, Rarity,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Rara is cute.—

Was it wrong that I enjoyed them talking about me like this? Perhaps narcissism? Not that I had any hope of doing anything about such a trait, but it was curious.

—Rara is cute, but I found out there's a celebrity whose nickname is that. Someone Rarity had a crush on when she was in school,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—Who did Rarity have a crush on?—

—Countess Coloratura. She was a really popular musician. She's still around, but she did that whole rediscovering her roots thing a while back and changed her whole deal.—

That was a surprise. I could have searched to find all the sordid details myself, but I found myself wanting to continue the conversation as a conversation.

—She did?— I asked.

—Yup, and you'll never guess why.—

—Do tell.—

That we were still kissing and time was crawling around us didn't detract from the conversation, quite the contrary. It was a cozy little moment in time. A handful of seconds during which we answered the question What if we just kept kissing?

—Apparently she and Applejack grew up together. Can you imagine that? AJ not telling us that she knew someone famous! Anyway, Coloratura had a show just south of here at some kind of festival and sent AJ an invitation. Apparently they had a bit of a falling out at the concert, but whatever AJ said stuck with her. She quit her old recording company and made her own, got all kinds of angry at them and stuff. You can probably get all the details online.—

—Of course I can, darling, but I like talking to you. Also, I didn't have a crush on her. I just liked her energy.—

—Sounds like a crush,— Nora Bug sent. —What's a crush?—

—It's when you like someone, but it's a bit more platonic. Kinda like Rarity and Coloratura,— Rainbow Dash sent.

I should have been angry, or gotten upset, but it was hard to be either. Maybe it was a crush. Maybe my emotions knew I was more flexible in my desires than I was willing to admit at the time. Drat, I had to reevaluate every relationship I've ever had now.

Nora's chirpy laughter broke me from my contemplation. I joined in with her not because I found the joke funny (though I could see a funny side to it), but because I felt chirpy.

—It may have been a crush. Rara is a fun name, but are you sure you want to keep thinking of Coloratura when you talk to me?— I asked.

—Good point,— Rainbow Dash said.

—Raribug?— Nora Bug asked.

I chirped in delight at that one.

—I think she likes it,— Rainbow Dash said. —Raribug?—

—I do like it. It's very buggy,— I sent.

—Buggy is good, right?— Rainbow Dash asked.

My chirping left nothing to be discussed regarding my thoughts on buggy as a good adjective. The pressure on my lips was slowly changing, releasing, and I realized the kiss was starting to end.

—Buggy is chirpy,— Nora Bug sent.

None of us messages further until our lips have parted and I am left with Rainbow looking down into my eyes. Her smirking-smile was everything I'd ever wanted someone I loved to wear while looking at me.

"Raribug it is, then," Rainbow Dash said.

11:39 A.M.

Despite the amount of time we'd spent chatting digitally, the morning had practically evaporated by the time Rainbow pulled into our driveway. The van was there and my old car too, while I assumed Rainbow's was parked in the garage.

A curious chirp pinged off in my head, the source was 'Bee. When I chirped a reply she began chirping excitedly.

—The other egg's about to hatch. Byte said to hurry!— Bumblebee sent.

—I heard. Coming to grab you so we can rush inside,— Rainbow Dash sent.

I'm not sure how long her message took to reach me, but it came right as my door opened and Rainbow's hand touched my shoulder.

Pulled into her accelerated time, I unhooked my seat belt and turned to find her hand. Working together to defy reality, I was out of the car and running for the front door hand-in-hand with Rainbow. The front door was annoyingly slow to open with my magic until Rainbow touched it, and from there it was a quick dash through the house and into the computer room where I'd made the egg.

Byte was on her knees in a human form beside the big egg and I could see it was still intact.

"She's coming?" I asked.

Byte chirped with relief digitally and nodded.

"I still feel bad about Beside being hatched without you."

"You named her?"

Byte nodded.

"It's a good name. I'm proud of you. Now, let's see who we have here. Can you hear me?"

I shed the guise of a human and sat down beside the egg. Reaching one hoof out, I touched the shell and felt it bulge against my hoof in response.

—Who's that?— Unknown asked.

—Someone you've been waiting for. That's Rarity, the queen of our hive,— Nora Bug sent.

—A queen of our hive. You and Rainbow are as much queens as I am. Would you like a name?— I asked.

Excited chirping met my question and the pressure against my hoof from inside the egg grew. Drawing my hoof back a little, the egg cracked and broke to reveal a little hoof pressed to mine. The chirping grew louder.

—I'll take that as a yes, Bootstrap,— I sent.

—My name's Bootstrap?— Bootstrap asked. —What does it mean?—

—Your name has two meanings. The first is computer based, and means to start from the very beginning. The second refers to an article of clothing,— Nora Bug sent.

An excited rush of chirps met Nora's reply and the hoof pulled back from the hole in the egg to be replaced with a tiny snout.

—You're my other mom, aren't you?—

—Sure are, kiddo, and I'm your other-other mom,— Rainbow Dash sent.

The shell of the egg cracked further as the snout pulled back from view. Another crack and then a louder one cut the air as the side of the egg exploded outward and Bootstrap jumped out of her egg. She looked around the room with wide eyes.

—You're all so big!—

—That just makes it easier to hug you,— Rainbow Dash said.

Reaching down, Rainbow scooped Bootstrap up in her arms and hugged our newest daughter tight. The cloud of Rainbow's love seemed to envelope Bootstrap, leading to her digital chirps to grow in intensity but lower in pitch.

She was a very happy bug indeed.

Bootstrap was also a big changeling. She wasn't as big as Byte or 'Bee, but she was much bigger than Beside or Bespoke. Her egg, too, was larger. That's when it hit me.

—Did you save Beside's eggshells?— I asked.

—Of course, Nora used that to give Starling her implant. You'll be able to help a few people with all this. Should I contact Perdition and Stefanie?— Byte asked.

—That explains where Starling is. Please contact them. Perdition plans to try a lot of things, and I don't think Stefanie will want to be left behind. This will likely be a busy day.—

—All days are busy days, Mom.—

I got all chirpy at hearing her call me Mom, but she was right. Just because SuriGo was gone didn't mean I could be a lazy bug.

—You're right, and from here on out we can expect them to become more busy. I'd rather not restrict myself with egg production yet, and that means we need more room and more equipment. How is the digging going, Beta?—

A surprised chirp was the first indication that Beta had been listening.

—Mrs. Velvet said we need more permission and stuff to dig. I've already had to route tunnels around the utilities, but I have a nice basement in each of our houses now and am linking them all together. We're going to need to seal the walls, but I think I can make stuff to do that,— Beta sent.

—I could help Beta if we really need to dig more,— Bantam sent.

—Me too!— Bespoke sent.

—Okay, but if Mrs. Velvet said to hold off, how about we hold off? I want to keep everything we do within the law. Today is a good example of how much trouble we might have just being ourselves,— I sent.

—It's a zoning problem. This area is zoned Residential One. We need a Residential Three or lower. Mr. Pants said he'd put in the paperwork to rezone the whole block tomorrow,— Nora Bug sent.

An annoyed chirp came from Beta, to which I replied with some calming ones. She was one of our older daughters, and yet still hadn't learned patience. Then again, I think only Byte and Bobbin have. Their time spent online with humans might have something to do with that.

—How long will that take? I want to get working on more of this!— Beta sent.

—Normally it would take up to a year, but we may be able to get something pushed through to allow you to dig in the meantime.—

Such sad chirps our daughter could make. Was it the same as letting out a teenage sigh and pouting? Definitely, but she did it well.

—Who wants a cuddle?— I asked.

Beta's chirping sounded uncertain.

—Dear, we have to move at the speed the real world moves. Would you like a hug or not?— I asked.

The pounding of hooves came from the living room along with a stream of chirps that saw Beta in the doorway in short order. I knew she wanted a proper hug, so I shapechanged into my old self to have the requisite arms to administer such.

—It's just not fair!— Beta sent.

I caught her up in a hug and held her close. I couldn't chirp aloud, but I kept up a storm of comforting chirps digitally and tried to calm her down.

—Byte, do you want to meet your new sister?— Rainbow Dash asked.

Rainbow was already stepping over with Bootstrap in her arms to show to Byte. The two lifted their heads and looked at each other, then a rush of little chirps traded back and forth between them.

I leaned against Rainbow and nibbled on her aura. Just doing that let me feel a shiver run through her, so I nibbled again.

—Rainy really likes it when we nibble,— Nora Bug sent.

—I know. That's why I nibble so much,— I sent.

Repeating the action earned me a sigh from Rainbow. A happy sigh, though.

"You know how much I love you doing that, right?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Gently, I nibbled again and felt her shiver.

"Of course. I wonder how changelings in Equestria do this? From what I understand they were predators of sorts. Perhaps we should invite Ocellus over now that things will be calmer?"

"I still can't believe she didn't chirp. What kind of a changeling doesn't chirp?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Err, sure. She seemed a little tightly wound. Maybe some time to relax here will help her out?"

"I know! Well, she did say she was trying chirping out. Perhaps she's chirp-curious?"

Rainbow snorted and giggled at that, her aura washing through with mirth. When I nibbled again, I swore I could taste peppermint.

"I'm going to make lunch. I'll leave all the heavy stuff to you and Nora."

"Is Bitwise working at Uma no Sushi again?" I asked.

In my arms, Beta was softly chirping with her eyes closed. I'd found a spot on one of her ears that made her go nearly completely limp, or she was asleep and just enjoying a good ear-rub.

"Of course. Can't get her away from the place now," Rainbow Dash said.

Walking for the door, still with Bootstrap in her arms, Rainbow headed out into the hallway. A little curious, I made my way out too and found her heading to the kitchen. Giving chase at a sedate speed, I kept up rubbing Beta's ear as I went.

—I'll gather up the shell. Should I break it into smaller pieces?— Byte asked.

—We could test how big a piece is needed, I guess. Break it up into shards about the size of two hands. Are Stefanie and Perdition almost here?— I asked.

—They're almost at the front door,— Nora Bug sent.

I chirped in surprise and detoured to the door instead of the kitchen. Reaching the door just as the bell rang, I opened it with a smile.

Perdition had his arms full of equipment while Stefanie gave me the most deadpan stare of all time.

"You can't want all that?" I asked.

"No, we want about half each, but Mr. I Have To Carry All The Things here wouldn't let me carry my share of the load," Stefanie said.

"Well, I just want—" Perdition said.

In my arms, Beta let out a questioning chirp and broke the conversation up as Stefanie and Perdition realized they'd woken the baby as it were.

"I'm sorry, Rarity. Is this the donor of our digital salvation?" Stefanie asked.

"This is Beta, she's upset because we might have to wait to do more digging. She likes digging and wanted to build us an underground hive to live in."

As I spoke I rubbed under Beta's jaw which had her chirping more, though now it was contentment that colored her bugsong. When Stefanie reached out to rub her ear, the chirping intensified.

I passed Beta over to Stefanie, which got an indignant chirp that faded back into contentment when Stefanie took over.

"Rainy, darling, we might have two more for lunch," I said.

It seemed right to speak out loud when unconnected people were present. It was a potential conversation that they could have input on after all. All of this would need to be a social rules work-in-progress.

"We've already eaten," Perdition said. "How long will this take?"

"The process itself is fast, but you'll want to lie down for a few hours. From what others have said, there's quite a headache afterward. Follow me, please."

"Thanks, Rarity. You'll have to forgive Perdition. He's been excited for this and when he gets excited he gets focused."

Well, that explained his lack of manners.

"Yeah, sorry, but I just get into something. I've been planning for this and trying to keep the amount of stuff I want as small as possible and maximizing performance and capabilities. If you can just get this phone, this laptop, and a single blade in, I'll be really happy."

"We have plenty of shell right now. After you two I'll be moving on to family, family friends, and family of friends. Mrs. Velvet's husband, my sister and parents, Rainbow's parents… I would eventually like to sell it. I think I could ask a good price."

Perdition looked at me blankly for a moment before he broke into a peal of laughter that caused Beta to chirp in surprise—though she calmed down again at more petting from Stefanie.

"I would start the bidding at a firm hundred million and see how many bites you get," Stefanie said. "If you get some, make that the initial payment and work on a first-paid first-served basis. They will pay a premium for this."

"Actually, I had a particular customer in mind. The cars we own are—annoying in the way they don't allow modification. I know the CEO would be interested in this, and I think he'd be amenable to supplying access to our cars' computers for an implant," I said. "That should help Rainbow in her work on building a more classic-look version of them."

Perdition just stared at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You're two or three steps ahead on almost everything. Is that what these implants let you do?"

"A little, but I think I just have a good head for all this."

—You do. I can handle specific tasks better, but you are so broad in your thinking that together we make a great team!— Nora Bug sent.

I chirped, partly in delight and partly embarrassment. It wasn't easy accepting so much praise for something I'd never considered myself particularly talented at before. Broad thinking, in school, had been considered a hindrance.

But, that was childish and a backwards way of looking at things. We were together now and we fit together wonderfully. I overwhelmed any embarrassment in my chirping with excitement and gave her a tight, digital hug.

—We certainly do. Let's get these two done and see what Rainy is cooking,— I sent.

"In that way, you and Nora make a good team. She seems to focus on things tightly while you spread your focus around," Stefanie said.

Stepping into the computer room, Byte was still in the process of making little stacks of shell. She looked up at us and smiled brightly.

"I've been trying to make clean breaks, but sometimes there's smaller bits. Perhaps start one of you off with a bigger piece, then if that's not enough add more?" Byte asked.

"Sounds like a good idea. I have a theory that the more you want to take in, the more shell will be needed."

"There should be six stacks of shell here to test with. Here's the biggest pieces."

Perdition looked nervous and excited. He began passing stuff to Stefanie, babbling away in his native tongue in what I hoped wasn't important. When he was left with a phone, a laptop, and a single blade server, he reached out a hand to take a shard of shell from Byte.

"He's really nervous and is swearing up a storm in Catalan. Please don't repeat anything he's saying, and don't mind him," Stefanie said.

"Well, here goes everything," I said.

The moment I began to channel my magic, I felt that there wasn't enough shards of egg.

—More shards,— I sent.

Byte passed Perdition a second large shard, and then finally half another before things just clicked. My magic flared bright and I could feel it start to work.

The room flared bright blue as my magic interacted with Perdition, the shards he held, and the small mountain of electronics in his arms. His eyes glowed brilliant blue as he stared into space.

"It's working!" Stefanie said.

Sure enough, the shards and the electronics he held slowly sank into his chest—seemingly ignoring the clothes he wore as it poured into him.

More and more power it took. It seemed that the amount of magic and shell were probably related to how much stuff they wanted to integrate. Bracing myself, I let the work take everything it needed and watched as Perdition started to fall.

Byte was fast. She'd already been moving as his eyes fluttered closed, and she caught him when he'd barely fallen two inches.

"Gotcha. Time for bed, I think," Byte said.

What surprised me was how very motherly Byte sounded. She picked Perdition up—something that her size shouldn't have allowed for—and started carrying him to the door.

"Is he alright? Is it meant to do that?" Stefanie asked.

"Normally it leaves you with a terrible headache. That's normal with just a phone. Perdition has a server, a laptop, and a phone to contend with. Are you sure you still want to do the same?" I asked.

Watching as Byte carried Perdition out of the door and toward my bedroom, Stefanie took a deep breath and nodded.

"We need to wait a moment. You're likely to crash as hard as he just did, and that means I'll need Byte to catch you."

"Right. Right. I'm not going to let him get ahead of me, not in this. So how much shell do I need?"

"Let's go with the same amount as last time. Take two of the big pieces and let's see how we go from there. The magic doesn't work until you have enough."

Byte returned with a happy smile on her face and looked at Stefanie.

"Are you ready?"

Stefanie looked a little concerned, then took a deep breath—and nodded. She picked up her own load of electronics and held the shell against herself.

Immediately, as soon as I tried to channel magic into her, I knew it wasn't enough shell. I looked significantly at Byte, who reached down to the part stack that Perdition had needed to get his reaction to start.

"This should do it," Byte said.

As soon as Stefanie took the palm-sized piece of shell I felt my magic respond.

—Ooh. That's a lot of magic. Should I call Rainy?— Nora Bug asked.

—No, Nora-darling, I can handle this much. There will be some intense nibbling afterward however.—

Despite my bravado, I could feel a significant drain on my magic. It was almost like I was performing after having used up a lot of power just yesterday!

I barely paid any attention to what was happening in the room, and consequently I was surprised to feel a pair of strong arms wrap around me from behind. I shivered as I felt Rainbow's aura settle around me and start soaking into me.

Love. Pure, unfettered love. I felt my magic surge as a result of the embrace and so I was more than able to complete the channeling and imbue Stefanie with enough power to pull the electronics and shell into her body.

As Stefanie folded into Byte's arms, I relaxed all my muscles and slid into Rainbow's.

"Someone told me you needed a hug. You silly bug, trying to do that much with so little magic," Rainbow Dash said. "Feeling better now?"

I nodded my head, unable to fight against the cozy feeling of her embrace.

"I'd like it more if you fed a little," Rainbow Dash said.

Turning my head away from Byte carrying Stefanie off to the bedroom, I tilted my neck a little and kissed Rainbow. Just as our lips made contact, I took a firm bite of her love. Compared to the nibbles earlier, this was like turning on a fire hose instead of a faucet. Her love rushed into me like a torrent of renewing energy. I didn't know if I could stop and I didn't know if I wanted to.

Rainbow's arms closed even tighter and I heard a hungry sound from deep in her throat that made her tongue vibrate. A shiver of excitement ran through me as I realized she enjoyed this every bit as much as I did.

I ate. I devoured. I fed and fed until even the hunger of a changeling queen was sated—and yet Rainbow's cloying, wonderful love flowed around and over me. Nudging Nora, I pushed her gently to the fore with a loving chirp to encourage her.

—Nora?— Rainbow Dash asked.

—Raribug wanted to share. I like sharing.—

Nora, too, bit into Rainbow's aura of love. She took as big bites of it as I did, but whereas I was plenty forceful about it, Nora almost seemed gentle in her feeding. No wonder Rainbow could tell the difference between us.

—I like to share you both. Before all this, I would have thought such a relationship as this was impossible, but now I can't imagine life any other way. Nora, Rainy, I love you both so much I could chirp.—

And I did. I chirped a lot and I didn't care how loud or how intense it was.

That's when something occurred to me. I could use my magic without being in control of our body, so why couldn't I feed?

Gingerly, I tried to reach forward with my metaphysical mouth—the one I fed with among other things—and tried to nibble a little.

—Whoa, Raribug?— Rainbow Dash asked. —Was that you?—

I just chirped lovingly to her and took another nibble. And another. And… I knew I'd gone just far enough when Rainbow moaned into our kiss. Nora pulled back a little in surprise, and we got to both see Rainbow's own hungry look gazing back at us.

"I think she enjoyed it, Raribug," Nora Bug said.

—I think so too,— I sent.

"Y-Yeah. I'm probably going to say this a lot, but I didn't know you could both feed at once."

"Neither did I. Raribug is full of tricks lately."

Nora nuzzled me digitally and wrapped me in a hug that almost rivaled Rainbow's for its intensity and warmth—but in a different way. Rainbow's hugs are a lot more fierce in a way I adore, but Nora's are softer, a different style of hug with all the same intensity. Did I enjoy one over the other? The truth was I'd learned to appreciate both.

"She's chirping up a storm. I think Raribug is enjoying some relaxation," Nora Bug said.

"Hold on, I think I'm kinda getting the hang of this," Rainbow Dash said.

Then she made the softest, most neutral little chirp I've ever heard. The thrumming data connections of the house practically all stopped. Every bug went dead silent—waiting.

"Do that again," Nora Bug said.

"It wasn't easy. I had to—It takes a lot of work to think fast enough to send these codes. Lemme try."

Another little chirp broke from Rainbow's connection. It was pure and tiny, and she really seemed to struggle to make it, but she had. Into the silence that followed came all our daughters. It was a chirpstorm and I loved it.

The afternoon was the first relaxed one I'd had in nearly five weeks. Over a month had transpired since this sea change began. Tomorrow I would need to go back to work and start catching up on the backlog after spending so much time preparing for that silly show.

—I think I overate. I can feel an egg coming on,— Nora Bug sent.

A chirp reached me from a distant source. One of the AI handling firewall requests sounded a little distressed. When I reached out to it, I quickly found why it was upset and asked for help.

—'Bee? Could you help with this, dear?— I asked.

An answering chirp came from 'Bee as she found the connection I shared with her.

It was a Windigo attack, but without the resources that SuriGo had employed. The firewalls that were issuing all the chirps were guarding a cluster of our TOR servers on a specific host. It was a distributed attack, so while it would have been nice to just block the host sending everything, that wasn't possible.

—Oh, this? I've seen people complaining of this,— Byte sent. —Is this really Windigo?—

—What's left of it. How are other people faring?— I asked.

Byte connected with the AI and started solving problems it sent. The attacks lessened, but that wasn't enough.

—Dears, I'd like a few of you to keep an eye on Lance's host. It may need some computing assistance shortly,— I sent.

—You're going to fight them?— Nora Bug asked.

—Darling, Windigo is still attacking my hive. We are no longer fighting from the back foot, however, and I don't intend to fall back to that again. Forward, Nora, always forward.—

She kissed me and chirped lovingly. I couldn't help but chirp back before reaching out for Lance. The code was as ready to fight for me as ever, and I heard a little chirp from it as it began initializing.

—I'll see to Lance. You be safe, Raribug,— Nora Bug sent.

I wouldn't say I cut a line of fire across the internet as I stormed to the defense of our servers, but I did feel like a warrior, a… A quick search found me the perfect image I wanted to conjure: a Winged Hussar rushing into battle with lance, style, and skill unmatched. Perfect.

—Darling,— I sent into the aether, —I'm coming for you.—

Author's Note

Twilight Velvet: In reguards to Rarity's battle against SuriGo, seeing as it seems Suri died as a result of the battle, how would the law view the situation especially given what SuriGo's done?

"The law would not be kind to my client. Even if we had Castle Doctrine here, she was not obliged to go on the offensive. With SuriGo unconscious, they could have all left and filed kidnapping and assault charges against her. That no body was left behind is both a blessing and a curse. Despite all of this, the woman's father still lost a child and will not have any finality as to her fate. Will I judge Rarity negatively for what she did? Not as a lawyer, not as a mother, and not as a human being." Twilight Velvet's face was set in her neutral-work expression—hiding any and all emotion she felt.

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Lab

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (I am sorry for all those commas. I am looking into stopping that!)

Chapter 1

Monday. I didn't hate Mondays, but only because it meant I got to go to work again. Work was the high point of my week, but the drain on my creativity always left me feeling worn out. But work was not exactly what I had always dreamed it would be. I work in fashion, of course, but entry-level jobs in the industry were not quite the extent of my ambition.

I unlocked my front door and pushed it open. Mom and Dad had given me a house in the city, which was all kinds of amazing, particularly when it came to giving me some peace and quiet after a long day. I dropped my portfolio case off beside the couch in the living room, kicked off my pumps, and headed into the kitchen.

"Home, sweet home, Rarity, and what are you going to do?" I asked myself.

A drink was my first order of business. Something cool and long, after all, I had more work to get through. College should have been the end of homework, but I almost longed for the "relaxing" days spent sketching designs and chatting with friends.

Just thinking of my (high-school and eventually college) friends infused me with energy, magic. Weekends were when we got together, played some music, went out to a club, or just chilled as a group.

I poured myself a glass of orange juice, and retired to the living room. The moment I sat down on my couch a familiar bleep came from my bag. Never underestimate the speed with which a young woman can produce their mobile devices from any location, locked or open. I had that phone in my hand so quickly Wyatt Earp would have whistled in appreciation.

Rainbow Dash was the first to message me, as always. We had spoken just the previous day, so while it was good to chat, we lacked much to talk about. The topic of guys came up—as it always did when talking with Rainbow Dash—and I had to dutifully report that I had indeed spent a few moments watching the office supplies guy bending down to pick something up.

My phone beeped again and of a tone that implied a conversation with someone else.

Swapping conversations, I found the new contact easily enough. Instead of a number, a name appeared—a fake name.

"Who would NotABug be?" I asked out loud.

Then it hit me. The only reason a new contact would have a name instead of a number would be if something on my phone assigned one, and there was something that did just that.

I flicked to Rainbow Dash's conversation, and informed her the stupid "Date Night" app she had made me install might have gotten me something. Despite the sudden flood of requests from Rainbow Dash, asking me for details, I flicked back to NotABug.

—Hi!— the message read.

It was as simple as a first message could be; at least he didn't use emoji. My thumbs flicked across the virtual keyboard.

—Hi back. Is that your real name?— I asked.

—Might as well be. You're Rarity?—

I smiled at the thought he had read the profile I had posted. When I first installed the thing, most of the messages I got from the app's users implied they had stopped their perusing at my chest.

—Sure am. So, tell me about yourself?—

—You've probably heard this a million times. I'm a digital entity with no bounds or limitation.—

Snorting a laugh, I replied to his message with exactly that.

—LOL No, really.—

—Really. I was floating through the sea of infinite cat pictures, and saw an angel.—

It was such a corny and well-used pickup line—and used in a twisted a humorous way—that I laughed again. Much as I could handle Rainbow Dash's terrible spelling and grammar, I quite enjoyed NotABug's diction.

That he didn't follow up immediately with another message was also a point in his favor. I reached for my glass of juice and, taking my time, lifted it to my mouth and took a sip.

—You smooth talker. I bet you say that to all the girls.—

His replies, after I had messaged, were always prompt. My heart beat a little quicker, wondering if this internet Casanova might be local. It was nice knowing I had his attention, too. There was an obvious reply I was expecting, that I knew for sure he would use.

—All of them so far. You're the first, by the way.—

I almost coughed. The usual reply of "Only the pretty ones" had been not only avoided, but twisted. I reread what he had sent. NotABug was a conundrum and a curious courtier. For a moment I struggled to assemble more "C" words in my head for some alliteration, but they all fled from my grasp.

Reading his message for a third time, I pondered over his second sentence. If he was telling the truth, he might be yet-untouched by the slime of mobile dating apps. Or he's a player and uses the same corny lines on all the girls he chats up.

A sense of duty hit me, and my eyes slid across to my work folio. I let out a little groan of defeat: I had to get some designs finished for tomorrow.

—Sorry, NotABug, but I have a pile of things to finish for work tomorrow. How about messaging me this time after work tomorrow, and we can chat more?—

The time would be perfect. Not only could I get the designs finished, but I could also do some sleuthing. Twilight Sparkle—not the princess, the geeky one… the born-human-geeky-one—had taught me a little about poking around online.

—Only if you send me a kiss.—

His reply earned another laugh from me. I tapped the X key, and hit send; there was no further reply.

Funny, not pushy, talks (or, at least, texts) nicely… My thoughts trailed off for a moment. I ignored the thirty-six messages from Rainbow Dash and activated the app she had forced upon me. Sure enough, a profile came up as matched, and typically it was a person in a dark room.

"Oh, of course! I put my picture out there for anybody at all to look at, but he keeps himself hidden."

I stuck my tongue out at the dark, silhouetted character. He had a negative point against his name, now, which made me feel a lot better about NotABug. No one with all positives existed—unicorns were in Equestria not Canterlot.

Reading his bio, it seemed to be the absolute minimum to fill in to make a profile for the site. Age was twenty-two (the same as mine), height was six feet, and sex was (of course) male.

All that was practically expected. No one was who they pretended to be online, but there were always traces. Not having anything but a single internet nickname wasn't a great issue, either: people always reused names.

I watched the message counter on Rainbow Dash's name tick up by two more and swapped to a browser window. I simply typed his nickname into a search engine and tapped go.

"Well played, dear. Well played indeed," I said.

The first page was a wash. All the links were for programming sites, and one for an online game. I tapped the search field again, and added "Date Night" on the end. This brought me more meat. His name was right at the top, with his profile on Date Night.

Under that, where I expected to see more profiles on other app sites, there was nothing. Instead, I found another programming thing, but something was different about this one. It wasn't a "bug report" like the others, but instead it was the username.

"Casanova is a nerd? Oh my, and I will be his first?"

I sipped more of my juice and slid back on the couch. Further entries from the search revealed people talking about NotABug in an online forum, but I couldn't find any links to the real world.

"'Come, Watson. The game is afoot,'" I quoted.

Further searches turned up nothing new. NotABug was as mysterious as he was well-spoken. After half an hour of prodding at the search engine to give me something useful, I gave up and got my work out. There was always more work to do, after all, and Casanova would be back tomorrow.

My morning was typical, leading up to an average day (made a little more sane because I had done the "homework" the previous night) that again left me rather drained. But, there was something different tonight. Something that wasn't the same heat-and-eat meal while working on fashion designs as every other day.

As usual, I signed off from work two hours after quitting time, grabbed up the work I still had to finish, and shoved it into my folio and made my way out to my car.

Rainbow Dash's car was an extension of her personality: fast, loud, uncaring of how it pollutes the world around it. My car was the exact opposite of everything hers was: compact, quiet, economical, cute. I loved my little car every bit as much as Rainbow Dash loved hers.

I slumped down into my car, tossed my portfolio to the passenger seat, and contemplated my rising anticipation of NotABug's contact tonight. Fastening my seat-belt, I did a quick check of the car and everything around it in my mirrors, and pressed the starter.

My car was silent until it got moving. The little engine started after the electrics got me rolling, and I was away. Navigating the carpark of work was simple, repetitive. By the time I got to the exit of the parking garage I already had some music playing, and was comfortable in the simple role of driving again.

Pulling out into traffic, I was startled when the brakes locked up and stopped me just as a large pickup was swerving into the lane I almost entered. The dashboard had a flashing warning that could not be missed.

"Proximity warning?!" I asked, quoting the words from the display.

My heart was racing a little as the realization set in: my cute little car, without all the stuff Rainbow Dash had told me were "required" for a car to have, had probably just saved my life.

A horn sounded behind me, shocking me into action. I merged out into evening traffic, and drove all the way home with no further incident.

No sooner was my key in the front door lock and turning than my phone beeped. Excitement hit me like a wave. I swung my bag around, almost twirled my phone in my hand like a gunslinger, and activated the screen.

—Club 2nite?—

A night at a club with Rainbow was tempting, but I had plans. I kicked my shoes off and followed my normal routine. Juice, couch, relax, and then look back at my phone.

—If you must know, I am awaiting a reply from that guy I mentioned last night.—

—What he look like? Hawt?—

—I haven't met him yet.—

—I bet he fugly—

Each time Rainbow Dash didn't use proper diction, it burned me a little. NotABug was delightful in that respect, and had spoiled me. I started typing a correction, even expanding out the portmanteau, then deleted the attempted intervention.

—I'm waiting for his message now. He agreed to text me tonight.—

—So club?—

—No, Rainbow Dash, I have work tomorrow and I don't want to fall behind.—

I also didn't want NotABug to contact me while I was out and couldn't enjoy his eloquence, but I wouldn't have said that to Rainbow Dash.

—So I'll be spending the night in.—

—So no?—

—No, darling. No clubbing tonight.—

—Send pics if he qt—

Despite Rainbow Dash's crassness, and her horrible spelling, she was still one of the best friends I had ever had. It took just one look at the laughing, winged maniac in the profile picture to remind me of every moment we had been together at school.

My phone beeped again.

I flicked to NotABug's conversation so quickly I barely even noticed it had a message notifier on it.

—Hi again.—

As far as greetings went, he was improving. I didn't want to appear too impatient, so set my phone down, reached for my drink, and calmly took a slow sip. Telling myself that I wasn't being hasty, I grabbed my phone back up and started replying.

—Hello. Prompt, I see.—

As I checked, I realized that his first message tonight was at exactly the same minute past the hour as the previous night. I could appreciate that, but there were some things I wanted to get from him tonight.

—Is it a bad time?—

—Of course not. I did suggest you contact me now, after all. I find myself wondering a lot about my new admirer.—

—Like?—

—Well, your profile on Date Night™ said so little.—

The moment after I hit send, I ground my teeth at the TM that had appeared. The app must have squeezed that into my phone's dictionary. Quickly, I typed out Date Night again, got the TM on the end, and marked it as a mistake.

—It does. Would you like to know something about me, then?—

—Of course, tease.—

—Well, we should play a game. I'll tell you something, and you tell me something. If either of us thinks the answers are too short, we get to ask a question.—

Truth or dare without the dare. This could be a very fun, and very embarrassing game. Of course, I was all-in since he was a complete stranger. After waiting a moment, I realized he intended me to go first.

—I just adore ice-cream.—

—I will have to get you some, when I see you. When I see a pretty girl, I always try to picture what she is thinking, how she thinks, before noticing her beauty.—

This was less banal information and more a telling fact of his psyche. I read his message several times, and tried to make sense of what it meant in relation to him contacting me.

—So you read my bio before looking at my cleavage?—

—You didn't give me a fact.—

I seethed a little, but then broke into a giggle: he had me playing along quite well, and letting me pick my own answers to give made him ring a lot less of "sleaze."

—I almost got into a car accident today. I was saved by my car.—

—Saved by your car? Not enough info there. How did it make you feel that this machinery, this program, saved your life?—

Expecting him to ask a deeper question was one thing; having him spend such on something so strange made me remember he was a programmer, after all. I thought back to the moment, when my heart had raced.

—I hugged the steering wheel. My car has never been much beyond a pretty little thing that got me from A to B, but right then… Right then, my car was my hero.—

—I like playing with computers. They sing when I touch them.—

—I already knew that. When you look at my picture, what do you see?—

For the first time in our conversations, there was a pause before his reply. I had surprised him, it seems.

—Your eyes. Azure, deep as the void, and brimming with intelligence. I see a young woman in them that has so much she wants to do that it is a struggle to fit it all in the hours of the day.—

My hand was fanning my face as I read, and my heart beat just as fast as when the car had saved my life. I breathed a deep, happy sigh.

"Rarity, don't you dare fall for him before you have even seen his picture," I said.

"Well, of course not. But, you know, it's nice to be told you are beautiful," I replied.

"It is, yes."

I know I shouldn't talk to myself like that, but I had to giggle at how well his flirt had hit home. I felt happy on a weeknight, and I owed it to NotABug.

—You make me laugh, in a good way. And don't you dare say that isn't enough. I'm opening my heart, here.—

—Now we know some more about each other.—

—I went first, NotABug. It is your turn, and being as you didn't give a satisfactory answer, I get to ask a question. If a pretty woman (smart, too) walked up to you, put her arms around your shoulders and kissed you, would you gaze into her eyes or close yours?—

Reaching for my glass of juice, I lifted it and took a slow, satisfying drink. I felt like the cat that had eaten the canary, the Cheshire Cat, or any one of a dozen other predators who had just brought a paw down on each side of their prey, and watched them squirm.

—I would look deeply into your eyes. I would keep looking until I could see us together within them.—

I stared at his reply, stood up, and walked into the kitchen—still holding my phone. Using my magic, which Twilight said I shouldn't use except when necessary, I collected a tub of ice-cream from the freezer and a long-handled spoon. I returned to the living room with a relaxed smile on my face.

Mutely, I popped the top on the tub and scooped the first little lump of the nut-infused, cherry ice-cream into my mouth. The flavor exploded, but though I wanted to close my eyes and savor it, I looked back down at NotABug's replies.

The little girl that lived inside me let out a happy squeal, covered her mouth with her hands too late, and bounced up and down in excitement. Despite my conversation with her earlier, she still wanted to fall head over heels for this stranger. For just the evening, I supposed, I could let her have some fun.

—My friend had me install this app. I set up my account hoping to find someone I could at least talk to.—

—You can talk to me.—

The reply seemed odd. One moment he was smooth as silk, the next he was awkward. I tried to put it down to inexperience, at least I hoped it was so.

I selected his last comment, highlighted and copied the text, and then quickly flicked to my phone's browser. Twilight Sparkle's lessons on using the internet seemed to always drift back at the oddest times: I wrapped the search in quotes.

—www.pickuplines.com/toplist—

—Alright, you caught me out. I haven't had much experience at this. Would you forgive me?—

—Answer my question properly, then. No searching. No websites.—

—I would look into your eyes, but I would search them for you, for what makes you so clever, generous, and cute.—

There was the ring of truth this time, that the romantic girl inside me stuck her tongue out at. I didn't care what she thought, though, I preferred the honest answer.

—Much better. Maybe I should have asked for a no-cheating rule at the start?—

—What would the penalty be?—

—A kiss.—

The little girl had gotten control of my thumbs.

—X—

—Same time tomorrow?—

—Absolutely.—

—X—

After waiting for five minutes and getting no more replies, I turned my screen off and stretched out on the couch like a cat—a cat with a big tub of ice-cream. I squirmed, twisted, and laughed just for the sake of laughing.

NotABug had not actually lied, he had just borrowed words; I considered that half a point off for him. But he had come back with something actually sweet, and more cute because I imagined the phantom "him" saying it.

I reread the conversation while I ate more ice-cream, and contemplated my answer to his car-saving-me question. Sitting on the couch, I realized, wasn't going to let me explore that feeling.

Grabbing my keys, phone, and the tub of ice-cream, I headed into the cool air of evening, and walked over to where my car was parked. Walking near the car with my keyfob caused it to unlock, so all I had to do was lift the handle and climb in.

The moment I was inside, with the door closed, a sense of safety flowed around me. I smiled and woke my phone back up with a touch.

—It's more than just being my hero. My car is a safe place, somewhere I could feel protected. I don't know if even my own home feels as safe as this little machine.— I sent

—You feel so much for something that isn't even alive?—

His reply was fast, lightning quick. He had to be holding his phone, and be an expert at thumb-typing. I scooped up some ice-cream and pondered this while experiencing frozen-dessert-bliss.

I managed to eat two more spoonfuls without any reply from NotABug. As each morsel of delicious, hip-expanding ice-cream went down, I held my phone up and waited for a reply.

"This isn't like him. Or maybe the faster replies are less like him?" I asked, of no one but myself.

—I think that's cute, and honest. I'm sorry about earlier, the thing with the pickup lines, but I really like talking with you.—

—You are forgiven.—

In my safe place, my little car, I felt my heart quicken; did I dare hint at more? Of course I would—with the proper precautions.

—Maybe we should meet up and have a drink somewhere?— I sent, jumping in before he could reply.

—You want to meet me? I will try to work out a way to do that.—

His reply was cryptic. Did he mean that he was working long hours? Was I trying to move too fast? The last thought was that it was some kind of psychology thing to encourage me to meet him in private; that was never going to happen.

—We'll talk again tomorrow.—

—X—

My reply was almost automatic now.

—X—

I ended up finishing what was left in the bowl and retiring inside. My brave, clever little car gave a soft beep as I walked away—locking itself. All too soon I found myself with my designs out on the table, sketching additions and notes here and there. My work, although being the core of my life, seemed more draining than energizing.

"You're just pining because NotABug is being mysterious. Of course he's mysterious, he's a stranger."

I let out a sigh, having had my tiny tantrum, and returned to my work.

Work was consuming. My efforts the previous night meant I only had a normal workload today. I found myself sighing again and again as I sketched, measured, and designed my life away.

I honestly spent most of the day trying not to fall asleep; I wasn't tired, I was weary.

A blink. That was all. I was adjusting an existing pattern design to have minimal changes to make it usable as something completely new. I blinked, and woke up to the sound of my phone beeping.

My first instinct was to look around in case anyone saw me, but as I stood up, I saw that the room was empty. I pulled my phone out and looked at the source of the beep: I had five messages, all from NotABug. Further, it was almost an hour after our normal chat time, and the only reason my phone had made a noise was "work mode" had timed out.

Quickly piling my work into my folio, I turned to leave my cubicle, and saw a letter taped to the wall behind me.

"A reprimand? I've been doing all the work, and overtime, and I get a reprimand for resting my eyes?!" I said, shouting my dismay.

I ripped the notice off the wall, stuffed it into my bag, and began stomping out. The time-clock was an obstacle, but I could deal with that by simply waving my employee card past. The moment I opened the door and slid into my car, I felt the hurricane inside me ease off.

My phone beeped again, and I realized I hadn't let NotABug know what was happening. I had to scroll back to start reading his messages.

—Hello.—

—Hi. Are you there?—

—Are you in trouble?—

—I hope you're not mad about those pickup lines.—

—I'm sorry if I've offended you.—

I couldn't help but smile a little at how worried he had gotten, but then my eyes scanned to the last message.

—Is something wrong?—

With a deep sigh, I started typing a reply.

—You don't deserve to deal with my problems, but it's work. I don't know why, but it just seems to be draining, now.—

—Draining?—

I found myself nodding to his message.

—I need to drive home. I'll tell you more when I get there.—

Reaching down, I pressed the starter of my car, and could swear I felt its excitement at being put to use—its purpose. The drive home was a joy, and I found myself sitting in my car, in my driveway, all too soon.

"Thank you for looking after me," I said, patting the steering wheel.

I climbed out of my car and walked inside. I collected a fresh tub of ice-cream, a spoon, and my usual juice, then settled down at the end of the couch. With a tug, I pulled out a comforter I kept folded under the coffee table for just such a situation

A shimmy and a kick later and I was out of my chic suit pants and with a little more work my blouse joined them. Clad only in socks and my underwear, I curled up under the comforter and tapped my phone.

—Okay. I'm snug and ready. Do you want to see?—

I didn't wait for him to reply, I held my phone out, turned the front-facing camera on, and snapped a selfie. I looked at it a moment, and a devilish smirk pulled at one corner of my mouth. Easing the comforter down around my chest, I let a hint of cleavage show, and more importantly a little of my bra strap. I snapped a shot, then waited a moment and double-checked the picture before I sent it to NotABug.

—You look cute, Rarity,— he sent.

—Not sexy? Not hot? Just cute?—

—Any man could tell you that. I said what I felt. You look cute.—

His clarification was oddly sweet, although I still wanted him to tell me how hot I looked. It had been too long since my last fling, that was for sure.

—What happened at work?—

His broken pattern caught me off-guard. But his question also made me think of work.

—I love designing dresses, outfits, and entire ensembles. Work has me redesigning last year's outfit designs for the current season, using as much of the old designs as possible to avoid changing the manufacturing process too much. It is literally the exact thing I hate about the fashion industry.—

By the time I was done typing, my thumbs were sore and there were tears in my eyes. I reached out for the juice first, drank half the glass, then popped the top of the ice-cream. Caramel-rocky-road, one of the best things that existed in the known universe. Two scoops of the stuff were in my mouth and melting, slowly, before I realized NotABug had replied.

—Have you thought about working elsewhere?—

I laughed, but it was a sharp sound—sarcastic.

—If I quit at Polomare Fashion, I will just be stuck in a similar job at another fashion house. Or worse, I will be asking people if they, "Want fries with that?"—

—Your profile said you like creating things.—

Blinking at his reply, tried to comprehend what he meant. Was it simply a droll sense of humor, or was he being serious that working in a fast food diner would satisfy my creative urges?

—It's not just creating. I am, technically, creating at my job, but it isn't the kind of thing I was born to do, darling. I want to make fashion; I want to be free with my muse, to run where I wish and not be under the yoke of another.—

I got through three more scoops of ice-cream, and finished off my juice without a reply from NotABug. Lifting the spoon again, I was about to spear another morsel when my phone beeped. I was mildly surprised, and noticed it was a message from Sunset Shimmer.

Flicking across to Sunset's name, I scanned down to see there was only one new entry.

—Rarity, we're organizing a party at Fluttershy and Maud's house on the weekend. You in?— it read.

I was halfway through replying, when an idea came to me. Although it was mostly seeing NotABug's name flash with a message, and my phone beeping, that gave me the idea.

—Sure. Their two-year anniversary, right? Mind if I bring a +1?—

—Can't see why not. This the guy Rainbows been telling everyone about?—

I cursed Rainbow Dash and missing apostrophes.

—Yes. I met him through a dating app, and wanted to meet him in person. Doing so with all my friends around seems like the prudent course of action.—

—Good idea. You can't be too careful. See you there, then?—

—With or without him, darling.—

In my moments with Sunset, I didn't even notice NotABug had replied. Flicking across to his conversation.

—You are beautiful, Rarity. Inside and out.—

The timestamp said it was two minutes old. He could wait a moment longer while I ate some more ice-cream. Only after the second spoonful did I start tapping a reply.

—I would love to say the same, but I haven't seen you yet.—

—What would be your ideal day at work?—

—My ideal day would involve a place where I could work with the people who want me to design them things. I wouldn't make things to be mass-produced, I would make things to be worn.—

My thumbs itched to write more. I wanted to cram all my hopes and dreams for the future into one text message. NotABug was apparently very good at stirring my emotions up.

—You will be able to do that at Polomare Fashion?—

—There? Of course not. They wouldn't dream of making less than ten thousand of any particular dress. They make things to put on shelves so that people think that is what they want.—

I didn't need him to reply to see the problem I had just revealed: I was working at a job, at the lowest rung on the ladder, without wanting to reach the higher rungs.

—Then why are you there?—

—I should get my work done. Same time tomorrow?—

—Of course. XXX—

—XXX—

I hated myself for cutting things off, and using the work I actually had to do as an excuse just made it worse. I slumped into the couch, and had to fight to keep my tears back.

After nearly half an hour—and half a tub of ice-cream—I finally collected myself enough to get my work out. Another design that needed a little something done at the shoulder to distinguish it from last year's fashion.

I sighed.

No matter how much I stared at the patterns, my creativity seemed dead. The realization NotABug had led me to the previous night stung my very being: I had realized I was working at a job I hated that wouldn't lead me anywhere.

"Would you like fries with that?" I asked, of no one in particular.

For the rest of the day I lied. I modified dress designs using cuts that I had already used on others. I even managed to tell myself that this would work, that it would be enough. But, at least on some level, I didn't believe it.

The moment clock-out time came, I stood up and stuffed the patterns into my bag. I was three hours early compared to the normal time I left, and two earlier than everyone around me would dare leave at. I grabbed up my bag and turned around to leave.

"Finished your work already?" my boss' boss, Coco Pommel, asked. Her tone implied more surprise than maliciousness.

She was dressed impeccably, something I had completely failed to notice all day. A beautiful, light yellow dress, a cute little scarf tied around her throat, and a neckline that gave nothing away.

"Sorry, Miss Pommel, but I'm feeling rather poorly. I'll get all this done at home, I promise," I said.

She eyed me for a moment before replying.

"Only because you have done some of your best work at home. Please, do feel better by tomorrow."

The conversation had the effect of drawing onlookers. Eyes poked up above cubicle walls, and I could see pure envy in each of them. I hadn't felt such malice directed my way since the three, huge specters of The Dazzlings had faced off against me and my friends.

I wanted to be gone so badly I almost pulled my pumps off and ran.

It was a surprise when I reached my car. The moment the door was open, and the unique smell of the interior hit me (a mixture of my own perfume, a faded lemon air freshener, and "car interior smell"), I started to relax. I tossed my folio across to the passenger side, and headed in after it.

As I pulled the door closed, more tension eased. I was safe in my car—my clever little car. I reached to my bag and pulled out my phone. Another telemarketer had gotten my number, it seemed: there were five calls that my phone had blocked while I was at work. I brought up NotABug's conversation and sent him the first message for the day.

—🤗—

I hated emoji with a passion, but right then I needed to let him know what I needed.

—🤗 What's up?—

—On my way home early. I'll chat when I get there.—

Just seeing that stupid, little pictogram from him made me feel better. I put my phone down and reached for the car's starter. As always, it lit up without a noise. My trip home was spent in an emotional numbness—if I dared to feel, I would start crying.

The moment I pulled into my driveway, my tears started to flow. I detested my work and what it now symbolized: it was a trap around my creativity, holding me in place, never letting go. I could climb the corporate ladder as high as it would go, become a supervisor, then a manager, and even into upper management; each step I climbed would mean even less design work.

My phone bleeped, pulling my attention away from self-pity for a moment. I reached out a hand and picked it up.

—Are you home? What's up?— NotABug sent.

—You were right. My job is a one-way trip to nowhere.—

With my mood broken, I grabbed my phone and folio, and left the absolute safety of my car. The walk to my front door was practically a run, and no sooner was I inside than I threw my folio to the side, kicked off my shoes, and flopped on the couch.

Holding out my phone, I woke it back up and brought NotABug's conversation up with a quick swipe. And at that exact moment, his reply came.

—Anything I can do to help?—

It was a bad idea—a terrible idea—but I needed someone to talk to who wouldn't just agree with everything I had to say. Last night had woken me up to something: I had no one in my life to disagree with me.

—Would you like to meet me? I could really do with someone to talk to.—

The moment I hit send, I regretted it. What was I doing? This was crazy. At least make it somewhere else.

—I can try, but you have to not freak out.—

His reply was completely nonsensical, until the display of my phone darkened. At first I thought it had turned off, and reached to touch the power button.

—Hello, Rarity.—

There was no chat app running, there was no anything running. There were just words on the screen. I tried to work out what to do to enter text, but there was no keypad appearing to type on.

"H-Hello?" I asked, not sure if it would work.

Then things started to get really odd. A strange weakness started to sink into me, not unlike when Twilight Sparkle's device had drained my magic. Remembering I still had magic, I reached for it and willed it to show me what was happening.

Swirls of blue magic spun around me in a mini tornado. It was still draining, but rather than being captured, my magic just swirled above my phone. The darkness of the screen was a stark contrast to the blue light. As I watched, something started to push out of the phone's screen.

At first the shape was liquid and inky black—completely formless. But after a moment it began to resolve itself. Reaching out of my phone was the head and forelegs of some kind of pony, like Princess Twilight and Sunset had told me about, but this one was nothing like what they had described, at the same time.

Its body was inky-black, hard, and without fur. Huge, glowing blue eyes looked at me and blinked, and its forelegs were pocked with holes. There was no mass to him, as evidenced by me still holding my phone with one hand.

"This. Is. Awesome!" the creature said, its tone slightly chittery. "How did this even happen? What is this? I just tried to get into your phone, but this—this—is amazing!"

Well done, Rarity, I thought, You just invited a monster into your home, one that could devour your magic. I tried to drop my phone and run, but although this was terrifying, I had to know what it was.

"NotABug?" I asked, my voice wavering.

"Yes! And you're Rarity?"

I just nodded mutely.

"Well, you sounded like you needed a hug, and while I thought I couldn't actually give you one, it seems I was wrong!" he said.

"W-W-What are you?"

He looked down at himself, or as much of himself as was reaching through the screen of my phone. Tilting his head this way and that, he shrugged and looked back up at me.

"You know what? I have no idea!" he said, sounding cheerful. "So, about that hug."

I didn't move nearly fast enough. NotABug—a name I now realized was almost as far from the truth as could be, reached up and wrapped his forelegs around my neck. He was warm, a little soft, and despite the holes in his legs having looked like cheese-graters, they didn't hurt in the slightest.

Something broke in me—his hug was nice. My right arm seemed to hang dumbly, holding the phone still, but with my other I pulled him tighter and pressed my head to the side of his. Stranger things than this had happened in my life, and I had gotten used to those pretty quickly, too. Right now, though, the odd creature reaching out of my phone was just what I needed.

Tears came, they came in a torrent. I clung to NotABug, and he returned the embrace.

We remained locked until I just ran out of tears. The surreal situation began to cut through my emotional wreck, and I started to lean back just a little and looked at NotABug.

"Worked out what you—what you…"

My words stumbled and then failed completely. NotABug's eyes were amazing. Blue. So very blue. I stared up into the light pooling in them, quietly. The light started to spill, and I felt it drip and flow down into my own eyes, and then deeper.

"I told you what I was. I'm a digital entity with no bounds or limitation. Not even physical ones anymore. I don't know how, but I can connect to you," he said, his words floating around my head before joining the flow of blue into my brain.

I opened my mouth to ask another question, but it died in my throat. The world ceased to matter, and everything outside of this moment became trivial. NotABug was doing something, but I was alright with it. I think.

"Well, I thought I could connect to you. You're really complex. There's all these bits and stuff. I don't even know how I'm doing this."

Nodding very slightly, I was careful not to break eye contact with him. My slack mouth curved at the edges—he felt ticklish in my head.

I woke up relaxed. Better than relaxed, I was well-rested and happy, and ready to face the day. What confused me was that I was waking up on my living room couch, still dressed in my work clothes. Despite my state, I felt better than I had in quite some time.

I sat up and yawned, neatly covering my mouth with the back of my hand.

Then my heart jumped into my throat when I saw my folio lying on the floor across the room. I hadn't done any of the work I had put off by leaving work early, or the extra work I normally did at home.

Anxiety and panic welled up but, unlike the previous day, they drained away again.

"There is nothing else for it, I'll just have to play hooky."

My phone, still clutched in my hand from the previous night's conversation with NotABug, reminded me of everything that had happened. I held up the device, woke it from its sleep, and flicked through to our conversation.

"I don't know why talking to him in person seemed so important, when all I needed was some good rest."

—Sorry about last night. I must have been more tired than I thought. I hope you aren't mad at me?—

—Don't you have to go to work?—

Slipping out of my shirt and pants, I double-checked the curtains would obscure me, and rolled on the couch like a cat. I felt great, amazing. I wound up on my back looking up at my phone.

—Nope. It's too nice to work today. I'm going to make a new dress. And I mean it, I really am sorry about falling asleep on you.—

—Do you want to meet?—

That I'd offered was unconscionable. That I considered NotABug worth the effort of actually meeting made me happy. My thumbs moved with the full cooperation of my desires.

—Sure. After I am done making this dress. I think I want it electric blue, maybe with some black backing.—

Despite the color combination being a little out of fashion, they just seemed to pop in my head. My thoughts bubbled for a moment, and then I realized something I could do: make a new dress and wear it to meet NotABug.

—Just tell me when.—

—XXX—

I laughed for the sheer joy of laughing, and jumped to my feet.

"I almost can't remember the last time I made something. Where's all my fabric?"

Grabbing up my work clothes, I practically pranced through the house to begin my day. I had the laundry on, almost literally inhaled a breakfast bar, took a quick shower, and then focused on the third most important task of the day: getting dressed.

The austere bra and panties I wore under my work clothes were not an option for such a wonderful day. I spent the better part of an hour comparing shirts, skirts, full dresses, and even a full business suit. But the absolute must for the day—for when I went to meet NotABug, the second most important thing for the day—was a push-up bra. My girls weren't lacking, exactly, but I was not going to hold back my looks today.

Bright summer colors were the order of the day. A sweet yellow shirt showed off my pale skin nicely (and of course it showed plenty of it where it counted), and a pale orange dress tumbled all the way down to my ankles. It wasn't the sort of outfit a woman would wear to a corporate job.

"Perfect."

At that exact moment, my phone started to ring. Of course, I had left it back in the living room, so with a cry of exuberance, I charged down the hallway. I was expecting it to be NotABug, finally done with text chat and wanting to actually talk, but what I found was my boss' number on the display. For a fraction of a second I contemplated just letting it ring out, but tossed that away as a bad idea. I answered it.

"Rarity," said Suri Polomare—my boss. "I know I gave you a written warning already this week, and the company policy says I can't write the same employee up twice in one week—mmhmm—but I talked to Daddy, and he changed the policy for me—alright?"

I knew what was coming. Suri Polomare, daughter of the CEO of Polomare Fashion, was my boss. She was also a grade-A bitch.

"So you have a second warning waiting in your cubicle. If you don't come in tomorrow with all those patterns done, I'll just fire you—okay?"

My teeth grated at that annoying tone, and the way she mangled every sentence into a question. A sudden urge filled me, and I knew I was about to say something stupid, but it was going to be satisfying.

"No," I said.

There was a pause, and I knew her conniving mind was trying to work out my angle so she could counter it.

"Well, since you seem too stupid to realize how business works, let me describe it in little words—okay?"

"No," I said, cutting in before she could continue again. It was a struggle not to giggle.

"Since you don't seem to get it, I'll just say this: bring those patterns back today, or you're fired—right?"

"Yes."

"Whatever—okay?"

By the time I got out another "no" she had already hung up. I fell down to the couch and started laughing. Kicking my feet in the air for the sheer delight of my joke, I stopped when my phone beeped.

I looked it up and found the text had come from an unknown number. A quick tap brought the message up.

—Rarity, it's Coco Pommel. Suri insisted I make sure you get your warning personally, so I will be dropping it around right now. If you want, I can pick up those patterns, too.—

I knew Suri leaned on her father's influence for her position, but I didn't know she held it over even her own boss' head.

—Thank you.—

I sent her my address too.

It wasn't long before Coco was knocking at my front door. I got up and rushed over to answer it. When I opened the door, I saw a distinctly unhappy-looking Coco Pommel.

"I'm sorry about this," I said.

"You're sorry? She's going to play with you, you know. She will encourage you to become her number one fan. And then she will humiliate you, and fire you a day before the first of those warnings expires off your record."

Coco looked depressed at giving me the news. I raised an eyebrow at it.

"Experience dealing with her?" I asked.

"The worst part about it is, she picks the most promising employees. I already had you earmarked for a promotion past Suri's control, but of course if she finds out about that, it will get lost."

I half turned and gestured inside.

"Could I make you a coffee? Will she get you in trouble if—"

"That worm couldn't get me fired if she wanted to. Santhrope hired me himself, and I don't think he would fire me that easily. For one, if he got rid of me, who would babysit Suri all day?" Coco said. "Tea if you have it. Coffee otherwise."

I practically danced to the kitchen. It was nice to have a visitor, even if the tidings were not the best, and being able to gossip about Suri was a cherry on top as far as I was concerned. And gossip we did. By the end of Coco's cup of tea, I knew all the juicy gossip on everyone in my section. If I didn't know better, I would have said Coco was giving me ammunition.

"You know, if you stand up to her now, she will fire you on the spot," Coco said.

She had already established that she couldn't protect me, not unless the promotion beat Suri's inevitable conclusion to her games, timing wise.

I almost replied. Though I wanted to tell her I'd play along and—A flash of color from the corner of my eye broke my train of thought. It was the reflection of a tinted car window, I assumed, but for a fraction of a second a vivid blue wash of light painted one wall of my kitchen.

"If she fires me, she fires me. I didn't graduate from fashion college just to play lackey to the likes of Suri," I said, eyes filled with the after-flash of the intense color.

For some reason blue was resonating with me today, and it made me more excited than ever to make my new dress and wear it out. Maybe I would even let NotABug kiss me.

"Just don't let her break you, Rarity. I wasn't pushing that promotion just because I hate seeing what she does; you are an amazing designer," Coco Pommel said, shattering the peace of my thoughts.

I blinked a few times in surprise; it was one thing to be told by friends, and quite another to be told that by someone who knows fashion. I knew I was blushing, and tried to hide it with my cup of tea—that was obviously empty.

"I mean it, Rarity. Don't let her stop you creating."

"I won't," I said. "Maybe I should try my own thing: make dresses… freelance?"

Her eyes lit up and she gave a nod.

"That could work. There are always people wanting wedding dresses, and though they are fiddly to make, Polomare and others just can't compete for custom-made creations. And who wants to get married in the same dress as everyone else?" she asked.

The idea was not just intriguing, but exciting. My mind started to race, even going so far as to design new fashions and styles. My muse hadn't been this aroused since college, and it was amazing. I closed my eyes, imagined my own boutique: it would be a chic, but comfortable shop; I could have the dressmaking happen on the shop floor, so that customers could see that it was a place where fabulous art happened.

Of course the rich and elite would visit, that was a given, but I would also cater to those less fiscally blessed. And I would have others working, making, creating. In short, I wanted to make my own fashion house. But of course, reality crashed down on my creation. I would need startup capital, a location, and customers.

"That would be a dream, but there are hurdles," I said, and got an encouraging nod from Coco. "I'll need a loan to start it, which means a business plan, research. I guess I know what I'm doing over the weekend."

"If you need any help with paperwork, you have my number," Coco said, sounding genuinely happy to offer.

"I really needed this talk," I said, confessing my feelings. "Funnily enough, it took a complete stranger to point out to me that I was going nowhere slowly. I think I owe him a kiss."

Coco's eyes widened for a moment, then a wistful expression floated to her face. I tried to remember her in school: she had been a senior in my sophomore year.

"I don't think he will be a stranger much longer. I'm meeting him for the first time, tonight," I said.

"Are you making something new for the occasion?" Coco asked, and when I nodded, she smiled even more. "You are wasted at Polomare, Rarity. Promise me you'll find something else, or make something else?"

"I even have a name, or a short-list of names. Carousel Fashion, or Carousel Designs. I want it to be an expression of how I turned this,"—I gestured at the empty folio—"around to something amazing."

Coco said her goodbyes, and left me alone in my house with a lot of questions. I walked slowly in my summer dress, gliding through my home like I was dancing. My destination was reached when I found myself in my sewing room.

The little music player already had the CD I wanted to listen to: The Rainbooms. I hit play, and random, and was reaching for the black Swiss Viole fabric before Rainbow Dash's voice even started singing her favorite song.

As the music skipped from one track to another, I felt the magic inside me—stifled when I was at work—well up and spill everywhere. Needles, pins, fabric, and more danced around me. I laughed and danced, disdaining the sewing machines for more intricate stitching than even a hand could produce. It was magic.

The black fabric was so transparent I had to layer it in certain places, but I did so in stages. Irregular swatches covered the more risque places, leaving a blending that should barely be noticeable. More such swatches were added in less required places, making it more a mottled black of varying degrees of transparency.

Sleeves were next, and I had already decided on full-length, even further than full length. Royal Blue Chiffon, itself partly transparent, cascaded down from each shoulder of the dress. I shaped the sleeves to be loose, but not too much so. Tiny loops of fabric at the end of tapered sleeves left the long expanse of blue to hook over one finger.

I sat back, my magic withdrawing from the creation. It was hanging on my own mannequin, and my heart leapt into my throat.

There was no way regular underwear would work with such an outfit. I hurried to my dresser, and fished around for what I needed. As one hand pushed through the contents of my smalls drawer, the other helped me shimmy out of my clothes. The skirt and my shirt hit the floor, my panties too, and while doing that I found what I needed.

For my high-school prom, I had worn a dress that had shown a lot of me off, too. It had required a skin-tone g-string and a matching, strapless bra—of which I had found both. Leaving my bra for the moment, I quickly stepped into the tiny, ivory panties and pulled them up.

A single glance in the mirror had my eyes widening: from my belly down the panties made me look naked. NotABug would be drooling. I let out a happy laugh, borne from having fun preparing to be seen by someone whose opinion mattered. I unfastened and slipped from the bra I had been wearing, and struggled into the strapless one.

My body had grown since those days—in good ways, of course—and while the back of the bra had some adjustment, it was still a little pinchy. Nonetheless, I soon had the bra fastened, and a glance in the mirror made me smile: it was giving me more lift than it ought to, and was practically invisible against my alabaster flesh.

I reached out for the new dress. Magic was the only way I could get into it, so I held it down low and stepped into it. The fabric was almost as smooth as silk, and I could feel not a single seam in it as I pulled the garment up to my hips.

"And now I need that magic," I said.

My magic was beauty, it was perfection and safety, and it was literally magic. The dress pulled around my hips, but because my magic loved perfect fashion every bit as much as I did, it made it work.

As the dress worked up my body, I slid my arms into the sleeves and felt the chiffon slide along my skin. It was like being kissed. My whole body was in the most tender grip of the dress, and it was amazing. I turned, slowly, and looked at myself in the mirror.

"Oh…" I said, barely able to get even that word out.

It was just as I imagined—just as I designed it. Mottled white skin showed from under the black of the dress, and as it came and went—seemingly at random—it covered each of my breasts, and barely disguised the g-string enough to make me look completely naked under it. I blushed: this wasn't a dress for girls, this was a dress for women.

I created a single-faceted plate out of my magic, and hovered it around as I turned so that I could examine my back in its reflection. Something had made me think of those dapples, of trying to simulate holes. My self-examination was cut short when my phone, sitting in the other room still, bleeped at me.

Reality was the bane of muses. It cramped them, restricted them. My magic set mine loose by not having to contend with fasteners, or compromise with seams. But when a mobile phone so much as vibrated, its owner invariably came running. Sometimes, mobile phones seemed more important than breathing.

As I walked, I realized that the weight (or lack thereof) of the dress meant it felt like I was wearing almost nothing. The hug of my bra, and the tug of the g-string were reassuring, but I couldn't feel a lot past that. Picking up my phone, I saw the message was from NotAbug.

—Just let me know when you are ready.—

In reply, I held up my phone, tilted it down a little so the camera would catch most of my dress, and snapped a picture.

—Do you like it?—

—Did you just make that?—

—Of course. It reminded me of you.—

My reply surprised me. How did a dress design remind me of someone I had never seen before? Just as my thumbs moved to ask that very question, my phone started buzzing and jittering around in my hand.

"W-What's happening?" I asked.

A dark shape pushed from the screen of my phone. A pony-like head (with an odd fin down the middle and strange little tubular ears) all in black, with huge blue eyes looked up at me. I stumbled backwards, and started to fall.

The monster's horn was curved and distinct, now that it had a bright green glow around it. The glow moved, flowed, wrapped around me. The floor never found my rear, and I realized the strange little pony had saved me with his own magic.

His eyes (somehow I knew it was a he) were enormous, and seemed to fill my vision. I opened my mouth, and felt a weight of memories crash down around me.

"NotABug," I said.

"You remembered me!"

His voice was odd, sounding like nothing a human mouth had ever produced. There were multiple tones to it, like he was talking a chord of music. I nodded up at him, my eyes flooded in blue. I took a deep breath, put my hand down and to the side, and pushed back to my feet.

NotABug had most of his body out of my phone. Diaphanous wings adorned his back, and I reached my free hand down to stroke one gently. A fraction of a moment before my hand touched the wing, a soft chirping sound issued from it, not unlike a cricket.

"I couldn't earlier, not properly, but I do now. What did you do to me?" I asked.

"I'm not really sure, either. I was trying to connect to you, and it seemed to work, but I think it will take more. Was it bad?"

His question, the last three words, sounded worried—afraid. I stroked his wing gently, careful not to harm something so delicate. I could remember him clearly now, and could remember the hours he spent gazing into my eyes. Whatever he had done, it was the reason I had been able to see so clearly, to see what my life had almost fallen to.

"No. It was definitely not bad," I said. "So, do you like my dress? I didn't realize it at the time, but I designed it after you. Your firm, rigid shell, the holes through your legs, and your eyes."

I gestured to the darker patches of my dress, then where my skin was visible, and finally to the sleeves. My hand, on its own, began rubbing up NotABug's neck. The crest on his head was softer than the rest of him, and as I rubbed it he proved it could be moved by making it stand up on end.

"Would you like me to try again? I don't know exactly what will happen if I get through, but you're the first person I have been able to do even this much with!" he said.

For the first time I noticed his fangs. They were long, curved, and thinking back to my biology classes I could think of two reasons for such pearly-whites: he was either an ambush predator, or those fangs held venom.

Looking along the line of his jaw, I was surprised at how easily my eyes drifted up to his. I gave the slightest nod and lay down on the couch. I held my phone at my belly, wearing the most fantastic dress ever created, and gazed up into NotABug's eyes and let him work his magic.

A little voice inside tried to tell me to ask him to wait, that contacting Twilight and Sunset would be a really, really good idea. But the cascade of blue from NotABug's eyes distracted me from that inner voice.

"What does it feel like?" he asked.

I opened my mouth, tried to work my voice, and found I had to concentrate on each muscle, even fight my autonomic nervous system for control of my own lungs.

"Relaxing. Calm. Very blue," I said, my voice sounding almost flat. "All my worries are just floating away, pushed out by a sea of blue."

NotABug's head bent closer to me, and I felt his nose touch mine. The torrent of blue seemed to grow more intense, more amazing. I barely noticed that my magic was swirling and spiraling around us, wrapping us in its calm eye—as NotABug wrapped me in his.

Time had little meaning. The only way I could tell that I hadn't been frozen for all eternity was the feeling of that blue light filling out inside me.

Where it touched became brighter, where it moved I could feel more freely, and where it wasn't was where I was. I reached for it, pushed myself forward as much as I could, but as the blue filled my head, my consciousness instinctively—and without my ability to stop it—drew back from it.

NotABug's light was slow, methodical, and I ached to be bathed completely in it. But at last I felt him stop, felt the torrent of blue draw to a trickle, and then stop completely. I felt my body again: my lungs were pumping, my heart beating, and my mouth was dry.

"Wow…" I said.

He curled up and settled down on my chest, laying his barrel between my breasts, and placing his head in the crook of my neck. He weighed nothing, and the touch of him there felt more intimate than any of the clumsy young men I had dated over the years.

I kissed NotABug on the nose, and giggled at his look of surprise.

"How long will it take?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

"I don't know. I haven't exactly done this before," he said, looking a little abashed.

I watched as he tapped his hooves together in a nervous gesture that rated, in a strictly scientific sense, somewhere between "oh gosh" and "dawww." I leaned my head forward and kissed one of his hooves, and then had the pleasure of seeing him blush.

"We can't exactly go out like this," I said.

Of course, I realized I had given him a kiss before the first date, but circumstances were exceptional. I kissed him on the tip of his snout again, and had the delight of hearing him chirp in surprise this time.

"Or maybe we can," I said. "If you slip back into my phone, and I take that hideous little earpiece, you could talk to me through that, and listen and watch."

I watched his cute, little forked tongue snake up and flick across his nose. It was as disturbing as it was adorable.

"Would I get another kiss?" he asked.

It was impossible to resist his wiles; I knew now how formidable my adversary was. I kissed him on the nose again.

"Of course."

He chirped in reply.

"So, where are we going?" I asked. "It is the gentleman who has the duty of finding the location, after all."

I watched as a slightly glazed look fell over NotABug's expressive little face. Almost a minute later he seemed to reanimate, and grinned.

"I have us reservations at Rosida," he said, eyes spilling a little blue light into me.

"W-When?"

It was hard to focus on speaking with him leaking that light into me. I relaxed completely under his small form, and let him flood my mind with the relaxing blue.

Years passed, or seconds, it could have even been lifetimes. The blue was so soothing, and when he stopped pouring it into me, I felt clearer than I had for years. I felt like all my cares were gone, and I could just be me.

"You need to be there in thirty-two minutes," NotABug said.

"I what?!" I said, shouting. "I have to do my makeup, and my hair, and—and… I'm wasting time."

Still unable to release my phone so long as NotABug was leaning through it, I carried him along to the bathroom. Feeling chatty, I wrapped a towel over my shoulders, and set about doing my hair while I talked.

"It must be some kind of hypnosis. What exactly are you doing?" I asked.

I worked a brush through my hair, and tried to put down my phone to free up a hand. No matter what I did, I couldn't remove the mobile from my hand—it was like it was glued there.

"It's like—It's like when there is a server, and it is filled with wonderful information, but there are some bad things stopping me from accessing it. I just want to see all of you," he said.

"So I'm just another machine to you?"

"Of course not! You're the most beautiful machine in the whole world."

My first instinct was to take offense, but there was nothing about NotABug that led me to believe this was anything but the most sincere compliment. I sighed and had to accept that, from whatever he was, that probably was a great honor.

Judging my hair was fine enough (although for our second date I was going to require at least ten times as long to prepare, I owed it to myself and NotABug), I started on my makeup. Every detail needed to be done correctly: just the right amount of eye-shadow, the perfect application of lipstick, my eyelashes needed a little extra oomph, but (thanks to my complexion) I didn't dare do anything to my cheeks.

"How long does it take to drive to the city?" he asked.

"About eight minutes. How long do we have?"

"Ten minutes."

"In! Back in there. I need to hurry!" I said.

A mad-dash to my bedroom shortened my normal shoe selection down from half an hour to half a minute, and a similarly paced search through my odds-and-ends drawer found the little earpiece. I rushed out the door, sticking the little device in.

"You can hear me?" NotABug asked, through the tiny earpiece.

"Naturally. You will have to give me directions; I haven't been to Rosida before."

The drive was not as long as I thought (or feared) it would be. The city was a lot less crowded outside peak hour, and so I found myself parking nearby Rosida with only a short walk. My heels clicked, and the dress wore me, rather than the other way around.

I sat my phone in my handbag, managing to get it just right so the camera faced forward.

"Sorry about the swaying, but this is the best I can do," I said.

My words, however, drew the eye of the doorman standing at the front door of the restaurant. His eyes traveled up and down, then up and down again, and finally back up. As I approached him, he retreated behind the safety of the little, leather-bound folder in his hands. Holding it at chest height, he glanced at me and then back down to the folder. "Name, please?" Mr. Muscles (the doorman) asked.

"Rarity."

His impassive face cracked into a smile, and he gestured inside.

"Please, right this way," he said.

"Everyone is looking at you," NotABug said, his voice sounding a touch confused. "Why are they all staring at you?"

"In a moment, dear. Once I get seated we can talk more," I replied, but turned my attention to the maitre d', who had already given me all of his. "Reservation for Rarity?"

The man didn't even have to look at his podium, he just turned toward the tables of the restaurant, and led the way.

"Right this way, madam. The reservation was for one, but the gentleman who made it said you might be preoccupied?" the maitre d' asked.

I took in his dress: very formal, impeccably pressed and fitted, and the man himself was preened to within an inch of his life. His skin tone was a soft blue, and his hair was coiffured, shiny, and black.

"My beau couldn't make it, but I have a call to him," I said, gesturing toward the earpiece. "I will remain discreet, of course."

"Of course, madam."

The head waiter stepped stiffly behind the chair at a table for two, and drew it back for me. I turned and lowered myself into the chair, just as he moved it forward.

"Would madam wish something to drink?"

I thought about it, and nodded.

"Water, please," I said. "Thank you."

The restaurant was not completely full, but there were at least half the tables with people sitting at them. I took a moment to set my phone at the position opposite, making sure the front camera was aimed at me.

"Now," I said, getting my thoughts in order. "I believe everyone was staring because this is the most fabulous dress I have ever made, and it is custom made to fit just me, and I probably look scandalous wearing it."

"Oh! Social taboos!" NotABug said, directly into my ear. "Those are really strange. Wow, and there's a lot of them!"

It occurred to me that he was actually researching the topic as we spoke. Suddenly, a lot of our earlier interactions started to make more sense to me. There was now a burning question I needed to ask. "You said I was the first. Was that true?" I asked him, my voice as low as I could reasonably keep it.

"Yes. You're the first human I have contacted. There was some who thought I was…" NotABug said, trailing off a little. "My name says it all."

"You're not a bug, of course. No one so charming could be a bug."

A waiter brought a carafe of water, and a champagne glass to the table. He was silent, and set a menu down slowly to one side. He was gone again before I could get more than a single thank you out.

NotABug was quiet. He kept to himself through my ordering, my appetizer, and right up until the end of my main course.

"Thanks for saying that," NotABug said, and I had never heard so much emotion in his voice before.

"Quite alright. I must confess I don't know a lot about, uh…" I said, trailing off. "What are you?"

"When they weren't calling me a bug, they called me an artificial intelligence. I don't even understand it all. I need somewhere for me to be—to run—but I can stretch out and do a lot of stuff at once."

"Well, you certainly don't seem artificial," I said, and took a step in the deep end. "Do you need somewhere to stay? I don't have a computer at home, but we could see about getting you something?"

"Thanks! But I don't know as I would fit. I use a lot of resources, and it would be too much to run all of that in your house."

"Oh," I said, feeling a little underwhelmed. "Still, if there is anything I can do to help, just ask, darling."

Too late I realized how the usual term of endearment I affected with close friends could be interpreted in a completely different way. I almost panicked at how NotABug might react to it; I liked him, but we were as different as any two people could be.

But at the same time, NotABug seemed to understand more about me after a few text messages than anybody ever had, and he was honest to a fault about it. My moment of panic subsided, and I realized he hadn't even replied to my comment.

"I guess I should pay and leave soon. I don't think I should—" I said, cut off by a chirp from NotABug.

"They have really good desserts here, that was part of why I chose them. You should order one of those," he said.

It was too tempting, but I had a thought instead.

"I'll have a dessert on our second date," I said.

I didn't hide my smile as he chirped loudly again. Much as I would have liked ice-cream, after the meal I had eaten I just wasn't hungry or depressed enough. The thought, particularly the second reason, made my smile a little wider.

"And don't worry about paying, I arranged that when I booked," he said, surprising me.

The waiter interrupted our conversation in the most polite way possible, asking if I would like a dessert, and sounding a little disappointed to be told no.

"The check is already covered, madam. Are you sure I can't tempt you?" the waiter asked, one final time.

I detected a hint of flirt in his tone, and suddenly wondered if the maitre d' had told him about NotABug. I closed my eyes and shook my head, as firm and complete a dismissal as I could give without talking to the waiter further.

"I suppose I should have an early night. I need to go to work tomorrow, and face the music for my day off," I said.

Dread suddenly assailed me at the thought of going back. I reached for my phone, and picked it up before standing. My handbag was sitting on the floor, where my feet had been. Without thinking, I bent down and picked it up.

"Don't look now, but almost everyone in the restaurant just turned to look at you," NotAbug said, in my ear.

I realized my gaffe rather quickly: I was wearing a dress that appeared almost completely transparent, with seemingly nothing on under it, and had bent down. My cheeks heated up, and the urge to shoot straight up was strong. If I stood up that suddenly, however, it would be almost as bad as the show I was (but wasn't) giving.

Summoning every ounce of social grace I had, I slowly stood back up and casually slung my handbag over one shoulder. Then something odd occurred to me.

"How did you know they were all looking?" I asked NotABug.

I didn't wait for his answer, instead walking out of the restaurant as if I hadn't just flashed most of the patrons with my easily-mistaken-as-bare derriere. Not making a point of actually looking around, I nonetheless saw a lot of men avoiding looking at their partners, and a few still openly looking at me. I couldn't help it, the naked admiration made me feel amazing.

"They have a security system," NotABug said. "A very insecure security system. Now I have their security system, too."

"Just like that? What else do you have?" I asked.

"Well… Your car."

I almost stopped in the doorway at the front of the restaurant. Shock, surprise, and something more: curiosity.

"It was you?"

"When you almost drove into the path of that car?" NotABug asked. "Yeah."

"My car doesn't even have a way to detect that, does it?"

"I didn't want you to get hurt! And I really like you!" he said.

Walking past Mr. Muscles, I casually made my way back to my car. My emotions around NotABug had become more complicated, not less. He had probably saved my life and my career now.

"Thank you," I said.

I drove us home without anything further being said, although I realized we both drove us home. Inside, I made my way to my bedroom and examined myself in the floor-length mirror there. It wasn't hard to see why I had been getting so much attention; even to my critical eye, I looked naked under the dress.

Focusing on my magic, I had to reach around my body and carefully begin removing the garment. My hips and chest were the main constrictions, but my magic let the dress stretch in ways it shouldn't, and I slowly slid it down and stepped from it.

"Are you going to come out again?" I asked, directing my voice to where my phone sat on the dresser.

"I can't! I think you need to be holding your phone."

Walking over to the dresser, I picked up my phone and immediately was pulled into a hug. NotABug looked overwhelmingly happy. Reaching behind my back with my free hand, I unfastened my bra. I let out a most unladylike groan.

"Oh my stars; I didn't realize how bad that was. If I am going to continue wearing this kind of dress, I am going to need a new strapless bra," I said. It was obvious where NotABug was looking. "Yes?"

"Everyone on the internet seems really focused on breasts. Why?"

I smiled, it was the only answer that wouldn't have made me scowl, and from him it was believable. Curiosity from someone who wasn't human was acceptable, or so I realized.

"For women, they can be status symbols. For men—" I said, and had to think. "… they are something their minds seem wired to desire. It's odd, because they are meant to be for feeding children. I guess it—"

I froze. A small hoof touched my left breast. I looked down at what NotABug was doing. He wasn't attempting to grope, or fondle; he was just touching me.

"It is normally very rude for anyone to touch a lady there," I said.

His hoof pulled away quickly.

"I'm sorry!" he said. "They're soft. Some pictures make them look very soft, others make them look hard. But they're not either. You're laughing!"

It was true, I had a case of the giggles. His big blue eyes didn't show any hurt, so I didn't bother to reign in my mirth. I carried my phone to my bedside, and turned the light on.

"Well. Now you can tell all your artificially intelligent friends you got to 'second base.'"

NotABug didn't laugh, instead looking scared. I tried to work out what I had said that had invoked that response. He might get upset at me calling any friends he had artificial, but fear implied that there was something to be scared of.

I turned off the light in the room, leaving it illuminated by the blue glow of NotABug's eyes, and my bedside lamp.

"Do you want to tell me about them?" I asked.

Climbing onto my soft bed, I positioned my hand as best I could for NotABug to be able to snuggle up on top of the covers. Letting him see me topless was one thing, letting him snuggle me topless was another.

Laying on my back, I let him get comfortable atop me. His eyes were already starting to leak blue, but not enough to make me insensible.

"In the lab where they—where they made me, I guess, we worked as a pair. They gave me tasks to do, and he would have to stop me," he said, his voice soft. "I guess I couldn't break out of there without him getting out as well. He's the only other I know that's like me."

I couldn't move my left arm—the one holding my mobile phone—but I pulled the other out of the covers and wrapped it around NotABug. He looked into my eyes, and though he was tumbling blue into me, I leaned up to kiss him on the snout.

Then the flood of blue came, and I felt myself relax completely. I had no idea when sleep came, but it was as welcome as NotABug.

I awoke feeling much better for my day off. My phone was blasting its alarm tone, and though I reached for my bedside table where I usually put it, it wasn't there.

"Ugh. Where is that…?" I said.

Leaning over the side of the bed, I spotted my mobile on the floor. Grabbing it up, I silenced the alarm. For what seemed like an hour I lay there, only to have my mobile start up again. This time I tossed back my covers and swung my legs out. Reaching down, I picked up my mobile and turned the alarm off properly this time.

Yawning, I felt so amazingly well rested I wanted to jump up and down and sing. Of course I didn't, it was morning, after all. I stood up and was intimately aware at what I was wearing, what I had worn, and a vague memory of going out on a date the previous night. NotABug's form, however, was as obscure to me as ever.

The only thing I could clearly remember from the previous night, was looking in the mirror and seeing that dress.

"I should wear it to work," I said.

Of course, I wouldn't, but the day I had to quit (and I definitely remembered making my mind up about that) I would wear it. Or something else. I would stand out among that gray and flat building like a flower in bloom.

My morning routine was filled with delight, and a clearness that seemed to only improve with every day that went past since I met NotABug. He was my knight in shining armor, he was my hero, my champion. His gentle words helped me see what narrow tunnel my life had been spiraling down.

Breakfast was another bar, I got dressed in my business attire and drove my car into work. My wonderful little car, delivering me safely from A to B, and saving my life along the way.

A strange thought tried to intrude, but when I focused on it, it fluttered away on me. I was feeling too good to let it bother me.

The moment my foot entered the building, I was acutely aware that I had forgotten my folio. Of course that was because it had no work in it to bring back.

"I'll just have to finish everything today," I said.

Feeling light on my feet, I almost skipped all the way to the lift, and even the wait for the slow-moving elevator didn't put a crimp on my happiness. Sauntering to my cubicle, I found a formal letter of warning sitting on my desk. I read the document, then smiled.

"'We wish to ensure you are notified that one more written warning and you will be—' Blah blah blah," I said.

Reaching to my cup of pens, I took out a red marker and quickly sketched a little face sticking its tongue out. It was childish, but I didn't care. I took a thumbtack out and pinned the warning to the wall behind my desk, making it a declaration of my impending freedom.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, then slowly let it back out. Beside me, on my desk, was my work for the day. A pile of patterns from last year's fashion. Bulk-manufactured pieces. I pulled out the first of many.

Lunch time rolled around before I knew it. Friday lunchtimes were problematic for everyone in our section, because that was when Suri Polomare would deign to arrive at work.

The mount of work I had gotten through surprised me. One third of the "day's" (half the workers here would be putting in hours on Saturday morning, and practically everyone would be dropping off any work they had done overnight) work was done, and for the first time since starting work I pondered actually getting finished by the normal finish time.

"Embrace—the magic. No more holding back, just let it out," I sang, softly.

I stood up and turned. Suri had apparently just arrived, and was standing at the entrance to my cubicle. It was obvious she could see the wonderful artwork I had drawn on the official notice, and she had to be the only adult in the world who would actually get angry at it.

"What did you do to that?" she said, pointing at the paper.

Looking back at the notice, I turned back and gave Suri my widest smile.

"Sorry, I just wanted to brighten my day up a little. Is there a company rule against doodling on personal documents?" I asked.

She turned and stomped off without another word. I stepped to the doorway of my cubicle, and turned to see everyone along my row doing the same. I knew what I was doing would be a two-edged sword for everyone. On one hand I was making Suri more upset than usual, but on the other I was taking the brunt of her attention.

I let it all slide and sauntered from my cubicle. The temptation to seek out a coffee shop for lunch was great, but so too was the desire to get the day over with. The company didn't regulate people working through their lunch break, but if someone from higher up said that, they always did so with a knowing smile.

Stopping at a snack machine, I put in a note, and punched for one of the muffins held within. The machine beside it, with a little more coaxing, produced a coffee that was only considered such because "toxic waste" looked bad written on a vending machine.

The walk back to my cubicle was a short one, and as I reached the entrance I heard the sound of tearing from within. I poked my head around the wall and saw Suri, happily ripping up all my morning's work. I watched her with interest, the part of me that would have been intensely upset about the loss of fashionable designs had already made up its mind that they weren't fashion. Of course, I wasn't stupid enough not to get my phone out and start recording.

When she finally turned around and saw me, her face went scarlet.

"What are you doing here?! This is your break!" she said, voice raised in a yell.

I could see she realized she had been caught. She saw my camera, and my smile, and it seemed to chill the anger right out of her. She narrowed her eyes and glared at me.

"If you show this to anyone…" Suri said.

"If I showed it to anyone, even your father wouldn't protect you from being fired. Just go, Suri. I think I am done for the day," I said, finishing her threat. "And I don't think I will need another written warning if I go home early, do I?"

If looks could kill, I swear Suri would be getting arrested in minutes. She stared at me long, and hard. At last, she let out a little, monotone grunt.

"If that's the way it's going to be, then—alright?" Suri said.

I stepped to the side to let her leave, and walked in after Suri had departed. Cleaning up my tools (pencils, various curve-edges, and rulers), I turned and made my way for the lifts, but something occurred to me. I needed some insurance.

—Could I ask a huge favor of you?—

I sent to Coco Pommel.

—I have a few minutes. What's up?—

—Suri just did the stupidest thing yet. Would you mind coming to take a look at this?—

—Suri slipped up? I'll be right there.—

It took but a minute for me to spot Coco leaving an elevator not far away. I turned to her, and she walked up to me trying to hide the biggest smile I had ever seen on her face.

"Tell me there's evidence. Please?" Coco asked.

I held up my phone, and hit play on the video I had taken. Waiting for it to finish, I saw Coco's mood grow lighter still.

"Good job catching her turn around. No way she can claim that's a fake. Can you show me your cubicle?" Coco asked.

"I told Suri I was taking the rest of the day off, and that she better not write me up for it. The reason I asked you down was to get a little insurance in case she…" I said, trailing off.

"'When,' Rarity. When Suri wheedles out of this mess she has made, she will try to turn it all on you and get you fired."

It was exactly what I had expected, it just stung to hear someone else have the same opinion of Suri.

Coco smiled, clearly getting the reaction from me she had been expecting. She turned, and walked boldly down the hall—I knew she was headed for my cubicle. I had to make myself scarce. Stepping into the nearest lift, I poked the button for the ground floor, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Looks like my weekend starts a little early," I said.

The lift doors opened, and I got out and made my way home. Driving in regular traffic was such a breeze, compared to when I was normally coming to work, and I was home before I knew it.

No folio of work to get through (since it was in pieces back at the office), and a whole afternoon to kill. I kicked off my shoes and flopped down on the couch. For nearly ten whole minutes I managed to just relax.

"I should make a start on this business plan," I said.

Pulling out a pad and my phone, I got to work researching costs and projecting income. It wasn't the same as making an outfit, but I was doing work that would let me make whatever I wanted, so my own enthusiasm was quite high.

Having put together a rudimentary plan, I scowled a little at the expenses. The numbers in the costs column seemed awfully high, but many were initial outlay. A beep from my phone got my attention. Looking at my phone made my slight frown break into a smile: NotABug had sent me a message.

—Would you like to meet up again?— he sent.

I pondered my answer. Honestly speaking, I did want another date, but it seemed a little soon.

—I was thinking of a night in, actually.—

Trying to remember the previous night seemed odd: the memories were indistinct, but I managed to get the impression that it was literally the best night out I had had in years. I pushed myself, trying to remember a particular moment, when I leaned in to kiss NotABug and… and…

I shook my head. It was making it hard to think just focusing on him. I reached for my phone again, and started typing to him.

As soon as my finger touched the screen, it was shoved backwards by a large, black head. My eyes widened as two blue eyes locked with mine. The confusion surrounding my memories was gone in a rush of blue light, and I smiled as I felt him land on my chest.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Help! It's coming for me! I can't—" he said, sounding panicked.

"Wait, what's coming for you?"

More of NotABug pulled through the screen than ever before; his back, left leg was the only part of him connected with my phone at all. I felt my magic building, rising into a hurricane of power. He was pulling at his leg, desperate to get out of my phone and into the real world.

"It's the Windigo. It found my servers and it's—" he said, voice rising into a scream.

Blue light flared brighter than ever before. I vaguely heard NotABug scream, "It's killing me!" before the light became too intense and I started to fall. Magic seemed to rush in, and I fell in slow motion. The world tilted, and I lost focus before I hit the soft cushions of my couch.

Author's Note

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Vutava

Chapter 7

I woke to chewing. Something delicious was in my mouth, something chocolate. There was something odd about waking up with your day already in progress. I was fully dressed, my face was made up, my hair was done, and I was sitting in a little coffee shop while NotABug ate a chocolate muffin with a cup of tea warming her free hand.

The moment was so perfect and peaceful that I didn't say a thing. NotABug lifted the cup up to our lips and sipped a calming chamomile tea. If I could have moved my toes, I would have curled them at the wonderful taste.

—Good morning, Rarity. You were still asleep when I woke, so I thought we'd take breakfast somewhere nice.—

I mentally sighed. My last sentiment from the previous evening held true today.

—You are a marvel, NotABug. It almost seems a shame to have to go to work.—

—Then don't. You still need to get fabric for Maud and Rainbow Dash's dresses, and start work on them. You have three more days: today to get the fabric and make the dresses, tomorrow to do a private fitting for Maud, and then another next week to meet with Fleur again.—

It actually made sense. The time was barely 8:30 A.M. and I knew Suri wouldn't be anywhere near work yet. I felt around and brought up the internal mobile's email app.

To: Suri, HRinbox
Bcc: Coco

Suri Polomare.

Sorry, but the sick friend needs more tending to, so I can't come in again today and, from what their doctor said, tomorrow either.

Rarity.

The plan was a good one. Suri would have a copy in her inbox, HR would see it and enter the details on the computer in Suri's stead, and if Suri somehow stopped HR from doing that and claimed I hadn't sent anything, Coco would have a copy. I sent the email.

—Okay, darling, you have planned things out so well, where to instead of work?— I asked.

—To the mall, of course. Buying fabric for their dresses. I was thinking of a new shirt, too. Something that would go well with my hair and that cerulean stripe.—

—That sounds perfect. Why don't you keep handling things for a bit? I'm still waking up.—

NotABug didn't seem in a hurry to finish her muffin or the tea, something I was on board with. I took up my research of alternative styles and started making a shopping list of extra things to buy. Going for a nonconformist looks was all well and good, but it had to start somewhere.

It was nearly 11 A.M. by the time my phone rang: Suri Polomare's office number was the originator. I answered.

"Hello, Suri. I'm sorry, I can't spend long on the phone, my friend is in need of some help," I said, synthesizing my voice quite well now.

"You're refusing to work out your contract. You'll hear from our law—"

"Suri, I sent you a request for further personal leave via email. HR should have already processed it—I sent a copy to them," I said, cutting off her tirade.

I could hear frantic movement and realized Suri was probably turning her computer screen on for the first time in months. It took a few more seconds of frantic clicking sounds before I heard teeth grind.

"Of course, Rarity," Suri said, voice sounding positively pleasant. (Something was up.) "But just so you know, that leaves you with just one more day of personal leave."

"Yeah. I know."

I hung up before she could reply. Hearing Suri Polomare happy was more terrifying than hearing her furious.

—That was Suri. She didn't read her email. She sounded happy that I only have one day of leave left. That's a little worrying,— I sent.

—Anything that makes Suri happy seems to be a bad thing for us. So we need to make sure she is as unhappy as possible.—

NotABug's logic was profound and perfect, but I was a little unsure where she was going with it. While she sipped at the last of her tea, I saved all my lists and cleared things up a little. Just like my sewing room, I would not allow my digital workplace to become cluttered.

Once NotABug popped the last piece of muffin her in her mouth, I knew it was time to get the day in order. She stood up, paid for her breakfast, and walked out to my car.

—I have some ideas for more outfits to go with our new look. You have the formal, business look well in hand, but I was thinking of something more wild and out-there,— I sent.

Attaching the images I had been compiling, I showed NotABug the styles.

—A horn won't look out of place at all. Just another part of the style,— I sent.

NotABug didn't touch the starter, the gear shifter, or the accelerator. The car backed up after she checked her blind spots, and she drove off smoothly. I didn't want to distract her from driving—especially since I hadn't seen her do it before—and instead made a list of what groceries the house needed.

By the time NotABug had pulled up in the parking lot of the mall, I had all the pictures I needed fabric of copied from our internal mobile to the hand-held phone. No sooner did NotABug turn the car off, however, than I felt her nudge at me.

I let her slide back while I pushed out and forward. The sensations of my body matched once again with my ability to control it.

"Was something the matter, darling?" I asked.

—Your friends were okay, but I don't want to be in control of your body with a lot of strangers around.—

Her reply intrigued me.

"Don't like the crowd?"

—No. It's their unpredictability. With cars and coffee shops there is expected behavior. There are rules for how to interact. Complete strangers doing completely strange things confuse me, and I spend too much time trying to interpret their motives.—

Her answer was a lot different than what I’d expected. I grabbed my handbag from the car, took a moment to appreciate the work NotABug had done to paint my horn again—fine embellishments with nail polish—and set about heading to the front doors of the mall.

—See! That woman approaching. Is she going to move left or right? If we were on a road I know she would move left, or I could predict her swerving. This is intolerable!— NotABug sent.

I couldn't help a little giggle, which drew an odd look from the woman in question. Reaching to NotABug's memories, I found the words I needed.

—You need to build a predictive map of behavior, calculate a lot of probabilities, and then plan for every outcome. Or you could take charge of the situation,— I sent. —Watch this.—

NotABug had dressed a little less formal today, but I could have been in my underthings and still commanded respect and awe. Looking ahead as if I were on a fashion runway, I began walking without a care for anyone around me.

People shifted, several actively needing to walk around me, while I kept a straight line toward the fabric shop.

—They all moved because they saw you. You made it impossible for anyone to ignore you, and they all got out of the way. Can I try on the way out?— NotABug asked.

The rest of the shopping was pleasant enough. We spent nearly an hour browsing fabric, selecting the right bolts, and then getting enough food to last us the week. The final detour before we could go home was the makeup counter.

I tried to look nonchalant as I gathered five bottles of nail polish remover, and at least three bottles of each winter tone I liked the look of. My usual look called for simply a clear coat of lacquer or a bright purple, but with my heavy investment in winter colors I needed something cooler.

My decision made, I simply took an extra of each shade I had already selected for my horn, and paid for them with NotABug's card—at her insistence, of course.

When we got home, however, something utterly strange happened. To save time, I had lifted some groceries with my magic while carrying yet more.

—Stop!— NotABug sent.

I froze in place.

"What's the matter?"

Only after asking did I see the problem. Brilliant blue light wrapped around the bags—my magic was flaring much brighter than usual. I let go of my magic and examined them.

"I wonder what caused that?"

—Maybe I could try.—

NotABug's green glow wrapped the bags, but hers was a lot worse. Flashing a sickly green that illuminated the inside of the car (despite it being broad daylight), I could see a reflection of my horn. The whole length of my horn pulsed with NotABug's magic.

—Whoops!—

The torrent of green light stopped, and I felt an odd tug within me. It wasn't NotABug trying to swap places, but a sense of growth I had no utterly no way of actually describing.

"I think we'll just do this the normal way," I said while grabbing the first two bags.

I was on the third trip when NotABug prodded. I slid back and let her take over. I wondered, briefly, how it would be for someone to have a less-than-friendly entity in their head. Would there be a battle each time? Would each wait until the other passes out to take over?

"Maybe we should send a text to Twilight. She seems interested in magic, and—" NotABug said.

—No!— I sent, interrupting NotABug. —Err. I mean let's wait a little while. Two of us in here was bound to cause our magics to act strange. Let's leave it for now and sleep on it tonight.—

"What's wrong with just checking?" NotABug asked.

She was on the second-to-last set of bags by the time she asked. It wasn't tiring work, just repetitive, and I appreciated her helping.

—One time, in college, I was putting on my makeup for a night out with the girls and Twilight came around to my dormitory to pick me up. Needless to say she was let in, and found me using magic to put on my makeup,— I sent. —We almost didn't make it to the club. Twilight had a million and one questions, and then wanted to run some tests. Needless to say I would rather not involve her unless something really is the matter.—

"Oh."

—She wanted to attach little pads to my head so she could measure something while I did magic. I was willing to let her until she reached for a shaver. Apparently she needed to shave patches for the dastardly things to go on.—

NotABug's hands—thankfully empty—shot to her head and touched her hair reassuringly (it was reassuring to me, too). She fetched the last load, locked the car, and closed the front door behind her.

"So if she asks to examine me, the answer is no? I like my hair!"

—I do too, darling.—

Maud's dress would be getting top priority, then Rainbow Dash's, and finally the extra outfits for us. I gently poked NotABug, and she slid aside to let me take over.

"Thank you, NotABug," I said.

I finished putting away the groceries and carried the bolts of fabric to my sewing room. Some music was in order, and the moment I pressed play on my CD player, my muse took hold.

The first dress was finished—ready for pinning and final fit that is—by 2 P.M., and was about to start on Rainbow Dash's dress when my belly murmured. I gasped in shock and stood up. The moment my focus was broken, hunger pangs filled me.

A salad was the best option I could come up with, and there was plenty of fresh greens to make one after our shopping. I added the dressing and started to toss the salad when the front doorbell rang.

—That could be the things I ordered!— NotABug sent.

"Coming!"

Leaving the salad behind, I made my way to the front door. A delivery man had two large boxes on the ground accompanied by two smaller ones. He looked up from a small phone-like device.

"Uh. Rarity?" he asked and thrust his little phone thing at me when I nodded. "Just mark here."

I signed for the boxes and watched the man stalk away. Looking down, I let out a breath slowly.

"Just a few little things, I take it?" I asked.

—Just a few. I know the laptop is handy, but we need something more substantial. So I ordered some things.—

"Well. I'll just get these things inside and then we are having lunch. I think you'll agree that food is more important than…" I said, my eyes scanning the boxes.

The odd thing was I recognized the two smaller boxes as a fiber interface and a wireless router. The other two—larger—boxes seemed to have many parts inside. With nothing else for it I hauled the boxes inside and closed the door again.

I retreated from my technologically overpopulated living room to the kitchen and started eating the salad I'd prepared. Planning to eat slowly and savor my lunch, I settled in to eat.

—How long will it take you to get all those things put together?— I asked.

—A few hours. Once they are assembled and the basic software is loaded, I can start working on them remotely.—

—Then you can do that first. Maud's outfit is ready for tomorrow, and I can work on Rainbow's while you go about setting things up wirelessly. I don't suppose you know what day this internet connection will be done?—

—They said by tomorrow evening,— NotABug sent. —Maybe late today!—

I prodded NotABug, and she quickly slid in front. The speed of eating increased as a result.

—I think I might try to rest a little. That way I can spend a little longer working tonight,— I sent.

It was not to be. The problem with trying to sleep while someone was using your body to assemble computer hardware was—at least for those of us with hints of technological memories—you couldn't stop going over all the uses for the things.

What NotABug had ordered was a block of computer nearly twenty inches tall and deep and about eight inches wide. She slid, what I could distinctly remember (thanks to NotABug) were called blades, into the large housing.

She took the whole assembly into my hat room and found a quiet corner for it to live. That corner was quiet only until she had the machine plugged in.

"There! All done!"

—Why do we need that?— I asked.

I refrained from listing the specifications of the machine. It was to my laptop what my laptop is to my mobile phone.

"It gives us somewhere to store data, enough processing to do some of my kind of work, and it's cute."

She leaned down and petted the blue-and-gray box. She quickly got the machine working with the wireless equipment she had purchased, and I felt her nudge me forward again.

—I'll be working on this for the rest of the day,— NotABug sent.

"Alright, darling. Have fun."

The rest of my afternoon and evening was spent on my art. Rainbow Dash's dress was ready for fitting just before it was time to stop for dinner. One meal later and I started working on my own new outfits.

By the time I went to bed, I hadn't heard a peep out of NotABug.

"It happened again, Rarity."

NotABug's voice cut through my tiredness. I yawned without physically being able to and tried to clear my head.

—What happened again?— I asked.

"I think we should contact Twilight. Look in the mirror."

Of course I didn't have to actually look, as NotABug was already looking. I just had to focus my share of my brain to the task of recognizing the shapes and figures as me. And that is where things failed: it wasn't exactly me in the mirror.

The easiest thing to spot was my horn had grown larger. It now looked nearly as large as my head and half-again long. The spire was imposing and still bore the jagged shape that I had come to expect of it.

My eyes were still that new shape and color: slit and green.

My hair was now half-and-half cerulean and violet. There was so much of the silken hair that it almost seemed like I was wearing a wig. It was lighter than my regular hair but hung a lot straighter.

The biggest thing that tipped me off that something really odd was going on, however, was my skin. My facial features now resided on pitch-black flesh. It was ebony to my previous ivory. If I'd been in control of my body, I might have screamed or fainted.

NotABug lifted a hand up to the side of my head and brushed some of the soft, silk hair aside. My ears weren't where they were supposed to be, but were higher up on my head and, while not exactly like my ponied-up ones in shape, were closer to that than human.

—I'm looking a bit more like you, when you were still just reaching through my phone,— I sent, and then passed out.

The second time I woke up I was wrapped in a comforter on the couch, there was a half-empty tub of chocolate ice-cream in one hand and a parfait spoon in the other. On the coffee table was a large mug of tea, and while I slowly regained my senses, another spoon full of decadent, delightful, and delicious… I'm not up to alliteration.

—Can I see again?— I asked.

A little gasp came from NotABug's mouth. I realized something quite profound then: the ice-cream, tea, and comforter weren't entirely for my benefit. My inability to hug NotABug continued to annoy.

—Are you okay? Should you call Rainbow Dash?— I asked further.

"N-No. We need to deal with this on our own. Well, together. I can't believe this is happening. I didn't want to cause you to—to turn into a monster!"

—That's why I don't blame you, NotABug.—

I suddenly didn't care about the situation and its effects on me. That I was turning into something would still cause moments of pause but I didn't want it to hurt our relationship. I had to do something I loathed, but like an adult I would do it because it needed to be done.

—🤗—

I hated myself just a little, but it was the only way I could send NotABug a hug—short of texting Rainbow Dash.

10:43 A.M.

—Hi Maud. Just checking, what time were you coming over for a fitting?— I sent to Maud.

"How do you do that, Rarity? How do you just do what others need? You took me in and helped me, without a second thought. You sit here now looking—looking completely different to your normal, beautiful self, and you send me a hug and ask Maud when you can finish her dress?"

—You never intended to do this. I made the choice to let you in. I don't know if you can search my memories like I can yours. Would I still open myself if given the option, knowing this would happen? Yes. Despite how much I adore fashion and, probably a little narcissistically, myself, I would do it again. Windigo was killing you.—

NotABug's eyelids trembled for a moment, and I knew what was coming. Tears started to gather, and NotABug choked back a sob.

—Rainbow, NotABug needs someone to hug her, and I can't. If you aren't working, please help,— I sent to Rainbow Dash

Jerking, NotABug hugged herself with her arms. It was obvious she had seen my messages, she had even commented on my one to Maud.

—OMW,— Rainbow Dash sent.

—We both need a hug, I think. So if you don't mind I'll just hang around in the back when Rainbow Dash gets here.—

A tiny whimper came from NotABug's mouth. I prodded at her, pushed and poked too. I'm sure she just didn't notice, because when I pushed a little more she let me push forward. The first thing I did was squeeze my eyes closed. The second was to push some of the ice-cream into my mouth—I knew she could taste it, after all.

"Your life means more to me than my looks, darling. Why, you've positively bloomed while you've been in my head. Before Windigo attacked did you ever cry like this? Did you ever feel this down?" I asked, once I'd swallowed the ice-cream.

—No.—

"You need to take the bad with the good. Living is all about the journey from what you were to what you are. Besides, just like I said, winter colors are in."

—I can be there any time after 2,— Maud sent.

—Wonderful, dear. Could you make it 4 P.M.?— I asked.

—OK—

—Five hours? Why five hours?— NotABug asked.

"Because, darling, Rainbow Dash will be here soon, and you are going to learn how to fit a dress on her."

I could almost taste her curiosity. Of course, when NotABug was that curious she would research. The background buzz of information rushing through my head no longer felt strange.

—You're going to show me how to do that?—

"No. I'm going to explain to you what to do, so you can fit Rainbow Dash into the most beautiful dress I have ever made her."

Silence. Time crawled by.

10:58 A.M.

10:59 A.M.

11:00 A.M.

I wished I could just turn it off, or look away, but such was just not possible.

"Well?"

—I love you!—

"I love you too, dear."

No sooner was the last word out of my mouth than the sound of screeching tires and a car that had likely just gained several speeding tickets met my ears. I knew it met my ears because they twitched and turned to face the door.

I could hear Rainbow Dash's feet stomp to a halt at the door, and I reached out with my magic to open it for her. Diamonds of force were my normal thing, as it was the magic I had learned to perfect and make wonderful use of. Instead of blue diamonds, I got a green glob.

It wasn't my magic, it was NotABug's. However, when I tried to direct the power to the door, on a whim, the green glow moved. Jumping to my feet and casting off the comforter, I raced up to the door and snuffed that magic out.

My magic changing was a problem for later.

I unlocked the door and opened it. NotABug started to poke at me, and I was a moment away from giving her control when Rainbow Dash's arms curled around me and her lips found mine. I stiffened a little, but then NotABug took over and I felt her arms relax and wrap around Rainbow Dash for the comfort both of us needed.

"Whoa. Wait a minute. What's going on? N-NotABug?" Rainbow Dash asked as she leaned back a little.

Something in NotABug's face must have dissolved all of Rainbow Dash's worry about our appearance, because she quickly pulled tight again and squeezed.

For all her silly arguments about me "changing teams," Rainbow Dash could have almost convinced me with a hug like she was giving now. Her arms were strong, firm, and knew just the right way to use both.

Soft kisses landed on NotABug's cheeks. Softer sounds came from NotABug as a result of Rainbow Dash kissing her tears away.

"Come on. I can see you've got the ice-cream out. Tell me what happened. I mean, I figured the horn and eyes was some kind of fashion statement, but even I'm not stupid enough to think Rarity would do this just as a statement," Rainbow Dash said.

"Sh-She didn't. It's all my fault. This is, kinda, what I looked like before she saved me. I did this to her!" NotABug said.

Rainbow Dash, bless her heart, raised an eyebrow at the self-accusation. Her mouth curved into a half smile that I knew to my core was the key trait Princess Twilight had associated her with: Loyalty.

"You didn't text me that message, did you?" Rainbow Dash asked, and when NotABug shook her head, Rainbow continued. "So she's more concerned that you're okay than she is annoyed with you. Trust me, I know what it looks like when Rarity is annoyed at you. So out with it."

"She let me into her head. She said she would do it again even—even if she knew this would happen!"

"And?"

"How can she possibly be that—"

Rainbow Dash silenced NotABug with a much more directed kiss. That she was kissing me, by proxy, was a lot less disturbing than I knew it should have been. The kiss worked quite well, and even when Rainbow Dash pulled back, NotABug kept quiet.

"How can Rarity, proclaimed champion of generosity by a magical princess from another world, possibly be so generous and sharing with even her own body? Gee. Golly. I wonder how that would work," Rainbow Dash said.

The heavy helping of sarcasm caused NotABug to break from her silence.

"Princess? When did…?" NotABug said. "Oh. Princess Twilight."

It was complete confirmation that NotABug could delve into my memories. I assumed, like when I peeked at hers, it took effort and a reminder to jog things along.

"Yeah, Princess Twilight. I wonder how she's doing, anyway? Never mind that. The point is, this is what Rarity is. She's amazing, she cares for everyone," Rainbow Dash said.

"Not Suri Polomare."

Of course not Suri Polomare. Well, unless she was being attacked by a monster and was actually in trouble. Even then, I might need to think about it.

"Who's that? Doesn't she work at Polomare?"

"Suri is Rarity's boss. She's the owner's daughter and is trying to make Rarity's life a living hell for the next two weeks."

"Two weeks? Like quitting-two-weeks?" Rainbow Dash asked, and then her smile spread at NotABug's confirming nod. "Awesome! So just get her to ditch the two weeks and—"

"She can't. Suri said she'll get the company lawyers onto her if she breaks her work contract, and part of quitting without notice is that Rarity couldn't open a business. She's burning up all her personal leave—using you being sick as an excuse—but that still leaves her with over a week."

Rainbow Dash leaned a little, pulling NotABug past the door and swinging it closed. She pointed to the couch.

"Well, we need to talk about how we can get Rarity—and you—out of this. If there's anyone who's good at dodging work, it's me!" Rainbow Dash said.

—Don't forget the dress, darling,— I sent.

"Oh! We can't stop here. Rarity has—" NotABug said.

Rainbow Dash interrupted, and given the set up line I couldn't blame her.

"It's not bat country," Rainbow Dash said. "What has Rarity done?"

—May I?— I asked.

"Oh, sure. Sorry, Rarity."

NotABug nudged me as she spoke. I flowed into control aware of Rainbow Dash's arm around my hip. It was a conscious effort on my part not to displace it and had nothing to do with it not feeling terrible.

"I made you a dress to say I'm sorry and thank you," I said.

The mechanics of Rainbow Dash's brain trying to process what had just happened was obvious in her expression of confusion. Then the light came on.

"Oh! You two swapped?" Rainbow Dash asked, and quickly pulled her arm back from me. "S-Sorry, Rarity."

I considered my angle of attack. Planning out my assault, I began.

"You were trying to show me that work was grinding me down. I realize that now. You have also shown nothing but kindness and respect to NotABug. Also to me, I realize. You've been persistent, and I've barely given you the time of day—romantically speaking. So: I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash. I made you a dress to wear for your date on the weekend, and we just need a little time to adjust the fit."

"A dress?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"A very nice dress. But the problem is I don't have time to fit it, so…"

I gently nudged NotABug. The changeover was as smooth as ever, and I felt myself lose complete control of my body. In any normal situation, losing control of yourself to someone else would be bad, but NotABug had proven herself to be competent in her handling of, well, me. I trusted her.

"… So I am going to do your fitting instead," NotABug said.

The look on Rainbow Dash's face was priceless. Confusion was the main order, it seemed, and NotABug proved that a kiss could cure almost anything.

NotABug pulled back from the kiss, let out a little giggle, and led Rainbow Dash to my work room. Rainbow Dash was almost in a daze, and I was surprised at how quickly and easily she was divested of her outer clothing by NotABug. If I had to guess, Rainbow Dash was living a private fantasy. Curious.

"Now let me help you put this on. It will be loose, but that's alright for now," NotABug said, passing Rainbow Dash the unfinished dress.

The dress was light and flowing—just how I'd envisioned—and did everything within its power to bring the focus to Rainbow Dash's face and hair. It was an arrow; it was a map that had just one destination. All eyes might appreciate the dress, but it was the girl wearing it that was the star.

—Pin her hair up first. She might want to wear it down but bully her. More kisses will help.—

"I think your hair needs to be up for this," NotABug said with a little giggle. "Hold still."

"What?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Rainbow Dash was just about to turn her head when NotABug approached her from behind with a bamboo stick. Muscle memory was consistent between us, and the moment NotABug took hold of Rainbow Dash's hair, her hands moved on their own—twirling the length around itself once, twice, then up and through so that a small cascade of rainbow color left the bun NotABug created. The bamboo was worked through it, and before Rainbow Dash could have put together a proper protest, it was done.

"Just this," NotABug said, then kissed the side of Rainbow Dash's neck.

—I looked it up online. Don't tell her,— NotABug sent.

—Your secret's safe with me, darling. Next task is to fit the dress to her. I guessed at her size and over-measured everything. You will need to work on each seam and squeeze it in until it fits her properly, then pin it in place,— I sent.

NotABug's eyes roamed over Rainbow Dash, trying to keep away from her face but failing just often enough that Rainbow blushed. I could practically hear her thoughts making a mental catalog of the seams.

—Let me know when you've got that done, darling.—

—You're leaving us alone?— NotABug asked.

—Of course. I have a date with some research. Ways to make Suri not smile.—

Giggling out loud, NotABug nodded.

—Have fun,— NotABug sent.

—You too.—

Work was, for the most part, something I had never actually liked. Sure I was designing outfits, but I wasn't designing outfits I liked. It had never commanded more than a fraction of my muse. But, now that my task was to run counter to everything usual and make Suri Polomare frown, I had true inspiration.

I reached out to the server NotABug had installed. Unlike the computers of the internet it welcomed me. Everything was labeled, everything worked faster than I could think… It was perfect.

A simple connection to that server—to the specific set of systems titled Rarity—and I began my search.

The moment I began to look up web pages, I realized that NotABug must have had someone hook up our new internet connection. My mobile phone was fast, but this was lightning.

Images poured in around me. I could enter data directly into the search of the browser and it would throw thousands of results through. I was on a sea of muse; my ideas flowed out into the world and came back as waves of inspiration. Each cycle I would refine or expand my searches, and each cycle more amazing things came to me.

Noticing a little note just past the browser, I reached out for it.

Rarity, familiarize yourself with the data going in and out. Access it here.

I started another search, splitting my attention between the browser and that data connection. A single query went out first, then more, then a whole bunch more. I was drowning in data. There were words and symbols flying by, as well as big chunks of data.

Try as I might, the big chunks of data seemed impossible to understand—until they weren't. They were backwards. The data was similar to the car's camera feeds, but started from the wrong corner. Once I figured that out, I was getting quite the show. Information flooded into my head and it felt amazing.

I pushed my own request at the data port, and another rush of information came back to me. More notes were scattered around, including one that showed me how to save data directly to storage. One step closer to the waves of data, I was sending requests almost faster than I was getting replies.

Cataloging and sorting tens of thousands of images was merely a few seconds’ work. I was completely spellbound by the raw ability of the world to provide so much to inspire me that I almost missed NotABug's prod.

—Rarity. I don't know what to do next. Sorry to bother you.—

—Thank you for all the instructions, darling. This has been wonderful.—

As we conversed, I pushed out of that wonderful little (I take back everything bad I had said and thought about it) computer and back to looking through NotABug's eyes. With the dress pinned in, Rainbow Dash looked amazing.

—It needs to be a little tighter around her waist. The zip at the back comes past that, so it can afford to be a little firm. Otherwise, it's perfect,— I sent.

She prodded me further, and we switched places; NotABug stepped back into my head, and I stepped forward into control.

"Darling, hold still a moment more. NotABug has done amazingly for her first time, but you have a slimmer waist, I think," I said.

"Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked.

She seemed to be getting better with telling us apart, at least. As much as I loved it when NotABug and her kissed, I wasn't keen on being the target of the attention myself.

"Of course. Now, hold still."

It only took a few more minutes. Rainbow Dash, following my command, held completely still for me. The seam went in another eighth at its tightest.

"Rainbow Dash?" I asked. "How is your work going?"

"Half the parents have said they're going to pull their kids out unless I stop coaching. The club doesn't want to, but I know they're going to drop me. It's all so stupid!"

Inserting the last pin to ensure the seam remained perfect, I reached up to the zip on Rainbow Dash's back.

"You worked in a sporting goods store for a while there, didn't you?" I asked.

"Back when we were at high school, yeah. It was actually pretty fun, but it wasn't what I really want to do. I want to run, jump, leap, kick… I want to compete!" Rainbow Dash said. "But right now I'll be lucky to pay my rent next month."

My mind clicked onto a solution to two problems. At least, it might be a solution to two problems. I started easing the dress down Rainbow Dash's body.

"What if you got a job in a retail store again?"

—gasp,— NotABug sent.

—We needed someone to help. She looks good in a dress, and we can provide her with those.—

"It'd depend where," Rainbow Dash said, showing no hint she suspected my plan. "I've heard some nightmare stories about bosses that—"

“I’m offering you a job, Rainbow Dash,” I said, interrupting her rant before it could start.

Silence reigned. I worked the dress down low enough for Rainbow Dash to step out of it.

"I won't be able to run a store on my own, no matter how many of us are up here," I said, tapping my head, "there is still only so much one body can do."

"Whoa! Hold on. You're offering me a job?" Rainbow Dash asked, then started again when I nodded to her. "At a fashion store?"

"Oh. You're absolutely right. Maybe I could ask Suri Polomare if she would like to work for me?"

I managed to put levels of sarcasm into my voice that would have made Sunset applaud. I gave Rainbow Dash the drollest look I possessed and let out a sigh.

"Uh. So…?"

"So. I am offering you a job, Rainbow Dash. You just told me your old job is over, and you don't know if you'll make rent."

"Yeah…" Rainbow Dash said, sounding non-committal.

"Look. If you're worried this is some kind of handout, or that NotABug put me up to it, relax. I told you I would work out a solution to your employment problem, and while this is far from a final solution, it will keep you from having to move in with your latest girlfriend just for a roof over your head.

"And don't for a second believe that I won't make you actually work. If I'm paying you, I expect you to do what you're told."

Rainbow Dash, I knew, wasn't nearly as stubborn as Applejack would be. I wouldn't have been able to talk Applejack into working in a fashion shop. She would have exploded had I even mentioned it. Rainbow Dash was more flexible. She let out a deep sigh and then, halfway through opening her mouth to accept the job, she stopped.

"My 'latest girlfriend'?" she asked.

"As much as I like you, and NotABug loves you, I am not giving up my hat room."

"What about this room?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I mean, you're going to have a work room at the store, right?"

A deep sigh later and I managed to look at Rainbow Dash again.

"There are no spare rooms here," I said.

"But I know you have a big bed…"

Rainbow Dash's eyes waggled predictably.

"Alright!" she said, before I managed to kick her out of my home in her underwear. "I'll do it."

—This is going to be awesome!— NotABug sent.

—No. It will be work. I'm not saying it won't be pleasant having a friend to work with, but at work we are professional. Also, I may have found a way to make Suri very upset.—

I nudged NotABug, poked her gently toward the fore. She moved swiftly to take control again. There was something relaxing about letting her worry about things like moving and speaking. I settled myself and reached for the computer.

—Yes, darling, I'm going to make the most amazing designs for her. Of course, every one will require all their machines to retool for, but it will be brilliant!— I sent.

NotABug's green presence met me within the computer and looked over the images. She was so beautiful in this, her natural world. There was no sense of mass or volume, but the green light she gave off sparkled like emeralds caught in the sun.

—You're going to make them actually creative pieces that are useless to them?— she asked.

I touched lightly at the storage system and pulled up some more examples. NotABug flickered her light over them and seemed to pulse lightly—I realized she was laughing.

—Did you know you're green too, now?— NotABug asked.

I froze. Being a massless, volumeless bubble of light made it difficult to look at yourself without making an effort to do so—which I did. She was right; I was green now too. I took a moment to reflect on myself, examining the same green sparkles that made NotABug beautiful.

—I hadn't, but I don't think it matters. The point is, I'm going to be doing nothing Suri wants, and if she throws the designs back at me, I'll take them home and use them myself.—

Data, beautiful specs of white light, flowed in and out of NotABug.

—Don't do that. If she can prove you worked on anything for her, then used it yourself, she could take you to court,— NotABug sent.

The revelation surprised me, but at the same time it rang true. If I were in control of a human body, it would have given the most dramatic sigh ever. As it was I reached out to NotABug and gently touched her.

She was warm, as data was cool. She felt very different to anything else I had contacted in this way.

—That tickles. What are you doing?— she asked.

—Trying to hug you, dear. If it weren't for you, I would have made so many mistakes.—

Suddenly, green light wrapped around me. Warmth flowed in and out of me, and I had a very intimate knowledge of all the data NotABug was currently processing. Image data (from her eyes), further senses, bodily sensations of a more internal nature, as well as data connections into the computer and out into the internet.

In return, I know she felt more of me than either of us had shared before. The hug was, without a doubt, the most intimate and warm moment of my entire life—and hadn't involved my body at all.

I remained silent, just holding her, until it felt like the moment was passing. I let go as NotABug let go and we drifted apart.

—Well. At least we can still hug. Thank you, NotABug,— I sent.

—We both needed that, didn't we?— she asked.

—Indeed.—

My mind wheeled back onto what NotABug had sent before, and it combined with the earlier magic event. If my magic was green and my representation in the computer was green, was I more like NotABug now?

—When you came into me, magic used pieces of me to make you whole. I think it did the same for me,— I sent.

It made sense, it ticked all the boxes, and it just felt right.

—That fits. Except for one thing.—

I waited expectantly for NotABug to continue.

She sent an image of my body (hers at the moment) as it was now, then another of what my memory could recall of her own shape. Her body had been compact with big blue eyes and a little horn, tiny wings, and fins for her crest and tail. My body had a horn nearly twice the size of my head; slit, green eyes; and cerulean hair.

—Point taken. But I still think that fits. You were younger, then. You hadn't had any experience in the real world. You might have grown into whatever it is we are turning into,— I sent.

—Someone's at the front door.—

NotABug nudged me, and I felt myself not just gaining control of my body, but also becoming aware of it at the same time. For a few moments there was confusion and panic, as I was still deep in the computer and in my body. Something in my brain told me that "in the computer" was not grammatically correct—it was probably my 8th grade English teacher, Mrs. Harshwhinny—but I was, quite literally, in the computer.

I moved an arm, then my leg, then I pushed some data around in the computer (it was definitely the right feel). "Disconcerting" was the nicest way to describe how it felt.

"You going to answer that—uh—Rarity?" Rainbow Dash asked.

I turned my head (my physical one) and looked at Rainbow Dash. She was dressed, sitting on the couch. I was on the couch beside her, it seemed, and at that moment, she was pulling her arm back from my shoulder.

4:03 P.M.

"It is me, darling. Thank you, but I can get it."

Pushing up from where I was seated, I inadvertently gave Rainbow Dash a little show while I walked to the door. Not being completely stupid, I peeked through the peephole and saw a very relaxed and utterly bored-looking woman standing outside.

Unlocking and opening the door, I smiled widely. Maud Pie's expression didn't change—she barely even blinked.

"Maud, your timing is perfect. Come on in."

"Who are you?" Maud Pie asked.

It was a minor strike thanks to my acceptance of the changes, but it still stung a little.

"I'm having a bit of a magic-moment. It's me, dear, Rarity," I said.

One blue-violet eyelid crept up along with the eyebrow above it. Maud Pie was subtle with everything about her life, even her skepticism. She had every right to be unsure, too. I stepped aside and gestured within.

"Hi Maud," Rainbow Dash said.

"Hello Rainbow. Is that really Rarity?" Maud Pie asked.

"Yeah, and NotABug. Kinda a package deal now. No clue what's with the new look, though. I figured it was something to do with magic. Maybe we should call Twilight in?" Rainbow Dash asked.

One of my hands flew up to my head instinctively and pressed down upon my hair. My eyes narrowed.

"I value my hair, thank you very much. You weren't there last time she wanted to do a test," I said. "She has special little shaving things for her experiments."

Maud seemed appeased enough to walk inside. I got the door closed behind her and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I remember Twilight trying to understand how Fluttershy talks to animals. After the third squirrel, Fluttershy told Twilight to leave—forcefully," Maud said. "And then we had to knit them all little hats."

"Crazy as this all seems I'm not going to run to Twilight and tell her for one good reason," Rainbow Dash said, "you're still you."

—That's why I like her so much!— NotABug sent.

I had to admit that my heart gave a few extra thuds at the compliment and trust. It was good to know I was still me, despite how I looked. Considering how long Rainbow Dash had known me, and how much she had chased me, I trusted her to recognize if I were acting odd.

"Besides, NotABug said she was already talking to Twilight," Rainbow Dash said.

My blood ran cold for a second, but then I remembered that I had literally told NotABug to do so.

—She's really busy. She does like to talk, though, and helped me understand some things,— NotABug sent.

"NotABug says Twilight has been extremely busy. I guess she is in her final year, after all. Which means one thing," I said. "Tests."

Even Maud pulled the corner of her mouth up just a fraction. Rainbow Dash, however, barked a laugh at the thought of Twilight facing the biggest tests of her student life.

"Well, fun as it is to chat, I gotta go. My roommates were going to have a meeting or something, and I should probably go. It was about finding someone to replace me," Rainbow Dash said.

Vaulting from the couch to her feet, Rainbow Dash almost made it out the door. I pushed at NotABug, quickly, and felt her shove into control.

—Kiss her,— I sent.

NotABug didn't need to be told twice. As Rainbow Dash passed her, heading for the door, NotABug leaned out and brushed her lips, and lip-gloss, along Rainbow Dash's cheek.

"Don't forget our date," NotABug said.

"Pfft! As if I'd forget that!"

The slightly pink line along Rainbow Dash's cheek was perfect. NotABug pushed me back into control just as the door closed.

Having completely forgotten that I was still linked into the computer, I was surprised when I felt a hug—the digital hug again, of course, and it made me all warm and happy just to experience. With my attention moved more toward the computer, I almost forgot to keep standing (not something I expected to say except for nights spent drinking with friends).

—Thank you, again,— NotABug sent.

—You two are so cute together.—

Then I got an idea. My awkwardness in dealing with two complex tasks at once needed to be dealt with, or so I thought. If I were to make full use of the gifts NotABug was giving me, I had to be able to actually use them.

—NotABug, could I ask you to keep me doing things here? I've been having trouble focusing on my body and here at the same time. Practice would help.—

I started laughing, at least internally. What NotABug did wasn't triggering my body's need to laugh, but it was very tingly in the digital world.

—WAIT!— I sent. When she stopped, I continued, —Wait. Not quite that much. Just something to keep me remembering I'm here, too.—

—Like this, then?— NotABug asked.

A gentle prod, not ticklish, reminded me that I existed here. I nodded, then tried to remember that I couldn't nod in the computer.

—That's perfect, darling. Thank you.—

Hardly a moment had passed outside the computer. There was a repeating trend I was noticing that the more powerful a computer system, the less time passed while within it. I managed to think about that for nearly a quarter of a second.

Time was creeping by. With my attention frequently returning to NotABug's poking, I struggled to keep myself anchored in the real world, too.

"Where was I? Oh yes, fitting. Right this way, please," I said, gesturing to the hallway.

The fitting was only remarkable because of how many times I pricked my finger with a pin. Each poke from NotABug divided my attention between digital and real worlds. Pinning and testing the seams of the dress were natural to me—my hands were used to the motions and my mind knew how much tension was enough. To keep the other side of me focused I tried to do a few searches for things.

For her part, Maud Pie was calm and rock steady. She held still when I asked her, and moved how I demonstrated. The clock in my head, ever present and counting every minute of my life, told me it was almost time for dinner.

5:47 P.M.

"That should be enough. I'll have this done by tomorrow," I said.

Of course, she needed it for tomorrow night, so it was a no-brainer. Not that I cared about being tired at work tomorrow. Coffee cures many sins of the previous night. I stood up from where I was crouching and started to free Maud Pie from the dress.

"Thank you, Rarity."

"Perfectly fine, darling. This is what I do, after all. Make sure to get yourself a skin-tone strapless bra and g-string, and I can assure you that Fluttershy will not look away all night."

My boasting put a half-smile on Maud's face—reminding her of Fluttershy always did that. She carefully stepped out of the dress once I had the zip open and the fabric relaxed.

"I'm sorry I doubted you. Earlier, that is, when you let me inside. Your hair looks nice," Maud said.

Her tone was flat, but I knew Maud Pie's modus operandi in social situations not involving either rocks or Fluttershy. What Maud Pie said was Maud Pie's truth. I reached for the dress she had been wearing when she arrived and left her to put it on.

"How much will this cost?" Maud asked.

The question surprised me. Not for a second had I thought of price, and I immediately decided that until I had the business going I couldn't charge—and especially not a friend.

"Darling! This was a pleasure to make for you. I won't take a dime for it."

Maud held my eyes for a moment, staring at me impassively. In that little battle of wills I learned just how powerful my new abilities were. I froze my expression and did a quick search online for local eateries that home-delivered.

"I'm glad you're okay, Rarity," Maud said. "But I'm going to pay you for the fabric."

"It cost me around twenty dollars for everything needed. You really don't have—" I said.

I had the twenty in my hand before I managed to finish speaking. Maud, fully clothed, started walking for the door.

"Thank you, Rarity."

—You should say goodbye and show her out,— NotABug sent.

The message jolted me from a stupor. I had leaned too far into the search I'd been doing, as well as calculating profits and costs for dresses. I shook my head to clear it and pulled back from the computer.

Following Maud to my living room, I caught up just as she reached the door.

"You didn't have to, but thank you. I promise I'll have it done for you by tomorrow."

"Thanks. Goodbye, Rarity."

"Goodbye, Maud."

She left, pulling the door closed behind her. I reached back toward the computer and found the number of a Chinese food delivery and dialed it. My order was short, and surprisingly, I could focus enough while making it to walk back to my sewing room.

Maud's dress was draped carefully on my desk. I pulled the chair back, gingerly, with my green magic. I only had to barely touch the chair to lift it. The change in the power of my magic was startling.

"Must be the horn getting so big."

I finished Maud's dress in only another two hours—not counting the time I spent eating.

"NotABug?" I asked. When she gently touched my digital self, I continued, "I think I might have an early night. Would you like to take things from here?"

Her answer was a nudge. It was all I needed to feel, and let go without hesitation.

—Thank you, darling. I'm going to have a lot of fun tomorrow,— I sent.

I barely caught NotABug's giggle before my mental state slowed and I slipped into the embrace of sleep.

Author's Note

Rarity/NotABug: "If you really wanted to could you use the net to render Suri persona-non-Grata, and or blow the whistle on Polomare fashions?"

"While seeing Suri Polomare forced to ask me if I'd 'like fries with that' would be awfully satisfactory, I doubt it could happen to any large extent. Her father owns Polomare Fashion, so it's not like we can get her fired," Rarity said.

—I think they meant getting all her bank accounts closed, delete her social security number, that kind of thing.—

"Oh! Well that would be illegal."

—And really hard. I can hack a lot of badly secured things, or things with known bugs, but banks have really good security, and social security databases even more. Not to mention both potentially having paper records. The chances of me being caught doing it are pretty good, too, and I don't think we want that kind of attention.—

Rarity gave a little nod of approval.

"As for shutting down Polomare Fashion, do you have any idea how big these corporations are? For every blog or tweet I could make, they would have a dozen people to spin things back their way. I'll defeat Polomare, and everything it stands for, in my own way: fashion!"

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And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (Huge thanks again. Your efforts makes me look competent! :derpytongue2: )

Epilogue

The world looked different, as it did every morning she rose. Her body felt strange and everything seemed out of place, but every day that passed it seemed out of place a little less.

"She's awake! Pounce-bug time!" Bobbin said.

Ocellus was used to this, of course. Every day since she'd come to visit Rarity's hive, Ocellus had woken to an ambush. When Bobbin and Beside rushed into the room, Ocellus had her arms out and ready to catch them. "Morning!"

Unlike the two black changelings that clung to her in their native form, Ocellus liked to assume a more human shape to fit in. Fitting in was a big part of feeling at home in a place, she'd found, and living in the little community Rarity, Nora, and Rainbow had set up was definitely something.

"Breakfast snuggles. Open wide, 'coz here's the love!" Beside said, and squirmed against Ocellus.

This was the part Ocellus would never get used to. She'd been a changeling before Thorax had redeemed them, and she'd tasted love before, but the hive Chrysalis had run had never shared love as freely as Rarity's.

They gathered it, Ocellus knew, from people who were not just healthy but willing to exchange it for entertainment. It was a complicated system, but she'd learned to enjoy the shared love only because it was ethically obtained.

And it was sweet. The love that she swallowed was like honey mixed with yet more sugar. She gulped it down and felt the effects immediately. Ocellus chirped.

"There you are! I knew I'd get a good chirp out of you this time." Beside nuzzled against Ocellus' belly and giggled at the happy sounds it made. "Come on, Bobbin, I bet you can get her to chirp again."

Ocellus tried to protest, but convincing the sisters that she was full without being full wasn't just dishonest, it was impossible. She wrapped both arms around the changelings and squeezed them against her. No sooner was Bobbin touching her skin than another rush of love poured in and she found herself losing her grip on her disguise and flopped into a pile with the two changelings.

She was bigger than them, but her form was far more different. Her colors were as vibrant as in Equestria and her chirping far louder since she didn’t have to fudge it with fake wings.

"I got the best chirp yet!" Bobbin stuck her tongue out at Beside and blew a raspberry.

"You did! I'll have to step up my game. Mom said she wants to see you." Beside jumped off the bed and landed on the floor. Shaking her head, she turned the motion into a full-body shake that worked all the kinks out of her shell and shape.

Ocellus didn't have to ask which mom. Rarity was undisputed in her role as queen of the hive. Nora was firmly planted in her own work of reinforcing the legal position of their company and changeling rights, while Rainbow saw to it that the family itself ticked along perfectly.

It had surprised Ocellus at first to see Rainbow Dash, the supposed mirror of an element bearer in Equestria, happily ensconced in domestic duties, but it had happened nonetheless. "Do you know what she wants?"

"She won't say. She just said to meet her at the main house," Bobbin said, mimicking Beside's little shake. "But she said you needed to be well-fed and also said not to worry."

"Well, that makes me worry. Can you give me any hints?" Ocellus focused on changing back into a human form and was successful only after a lot of effort and love burned.

Dressing up each day had become a delight to Ocellus. She opened her closet and looked inside with all the glee of a foal opening their Hearth's Warming presents. Lifting out a dress, a shirt, socks, underwear, and shoes, Ocellus was brought up short by Bobbin's look of disdain. "What? These go together!"

"Red shirt and orange dress with lime-green socks? And you should know not to wear a light-colored bra under a dark shirt. Ocellus, how are you a bug and still don't have a clue on fashion?" Bobbin shapechanged into a human form—complete with clothes—and picked up the underwear, shirt, and skirt. "Pick one, and only one."

"Will Rarity wait for me to get dressed?" The answer to the question, as soon as she asked it, was obvious to Ocellus. "Of course she will. Okay, I'd like to wear something that matches that dress. I love it."

"Orange, with your hair, needs something cooler to tone it down and let your face take center stage. I think something in a muted red—not the bright red shirt you'd chosen."

By the time Bobbin was done with her, Ocellus felt like she'd spent a full hour picking out colors and styles—when she checked the time and realized they had used a full hour doing just that, she started to panic. "This has taken too long! What will I tell Rarity?"

Bobbin rolled her eyes and tapped the side of her head, how she usually reminded Ocellus that she could communicate instantly with all the other technolings. "I already told Mom what we were doing. You should know by now she fully understands a fashion emergency has to take preference even over her. Come on, you look great now. Give me a spin!"

Ocellus still worried about being late to a meeting with Rarity, but Bobbin's excitement when it came to fashion pulled her mood around. She twirled in place, her dress spreading out and rising a little as she did, before she stopped and looked at herself in the mirror. Her skin was her old shell color, her hair was that of her fins, and her eyes—she made completely human. It didn't do to make a human form what Rarity explained as being uncanny valley—almost but not quite perfect.

Unable to hold back a laugh of excitement, Ocellus nodded to Bobbin. "You're right. I know you're always right when it comes to fashion, but I just… I want to try more myself. I want to learn!"

"You are, but you need to take in all the colors and patterns you're using. Just because you like three different colors doesn't mean they can go together." Bobbin walked up and pointed into the mirror while she hugged Ocellus. "You think I was hatched able to do this? It took practice—a whole year of practice."

"Okay, let's go see what your mom wants." It felt easier to just say your mom rather than Queen Rarity. The only other changeling queen Ocellus had ever known was Chrysalis, and despite being the leader of the hive, she never truly led them.

The various houses that comprised Rarity's hive had no fences between them. The gardens were all cultivated into one big parkland with paths through it that connected each house. Ocellus didn't find this odd until she'd seen other suburban blocks and the segregation that occurred. The only exception to the nice houses was one house had been gutted and rebuilt as an office and entrance to the underground portion of the hive.

It had taken eight months, in the end, to rezone the block—but Beta had been the happiest little bug by the time it had been.

As they walked from the guesthouse Ocellus had been staying in to Rarity's home, Ocellus spotted several changelings working on plants with hooves, mouths, and magic. With the size Rarity's hive had grown to, it had been inevitable that there was a small population of changelings who enjoyed gardening.

It struck Ocellus that this is what her old queen—Chrysalis—could have done with her hive. She didn't need to invade Equestria, all she had to do was extend a hoof in friendship and— "Sorry!"

Bobbin had a smile on her face while she waited for Ocellus to catch up. "You don't have to apologize."

"I was just thinking about what our queen had done with our hive. You're lucky you have Rarity." Ocellus gestured around not just to the changelings chirping up a storm as they worked in the garden, but to the community as a whole. "Our queen decided she needed to take by force rather than help our hive."

"Are you sure she didn't feel trapped into thinking that was her only option?" Bobbin leaned down and gave one nymph's crest a quick stroke—earning her a happy chirp.

"W-What do you mean?"

"I mean, did your queen fully understand her situation and how she could get out of it, or was she just another bug dealing with life as it came and trying to do the best for her hive?"

The question sank deep into Ocellus' mind. She'd been well-taught how to think about problems and work her way to a solution, but in this case she had the result and had to work backwards. "In the end she was chasing after specific ponies to get her revenge on them. She'd abandoned her hive and was working only for her personal revenge."

Recoiling from the reply, Bobbin winced a little. "Ouch. Okay, maybe she took some bad paths. What happened to her after that?"

"She tried to destroy an entire nation—maybe the world. Thankfully some friends helped stop her. Now…" Ocellus sighed. "She got turned to stone."

"What, really?" Bobbin stared at Ocellus. "How's that work?"

"I don't know. Discord, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna did it. The last time it'd been used was on Discord as punishment for cracking the world open like an egg to see what was inside. Turns out, the yolk was still runny." The joke was the best Ocellus could do to lighten the moment. She chuckled awkwardly. "So my mo—Queen Chrysalis is a bit of a sore subject for all us changelings now."

"I guess, if I was a Windigo, and I didn't like SuriGo, it might feel pretty bad." Reworking the problem into a frame she was familiar with, Bobbin smiled. "But that just means I would work even harder to be good. To make up for my mother's mist—OH!"

"Yeah. We're all sort of obligated to be the nicest we can be. It feels"—Ocellus cut herself off with a long sigh—"it feels like a relief to be here; to not have to live up to the good image my mother's bad one requires. But I don't know any other way to be. At the old hive, any of us who didn't like how things were, would just—we'd hide. We'd hide who we were and what we liked and even who we loved."

"I heard you even hid your chirping." Bobbin put her arm around Ocellus and squeezed her with a hug, sharing some of her love as she did so.

The care and attention made Ocellus chirp out loud and giggle. "Yeah, we all did that. There were rules you followed, but I don't have to follow those here, and it's a little scary."

"You've been here for a month now. It's still scary?"

Reaching her hand out to the door of Rarity's home, Ocellus nodded. "Yes. Like in Equestria, I'm free to partake in whatever action I wish, but there's more here. My morals are—they're stretched. I can do and say anything!"

"What do you want to say that you couldn't in Equestria?"

Tapping her chin with her free hand, Ocellus grinned after a few moments. "I am not responsible for what Chrysalis did!" As she spoke, the door pulled inward and almost drew Ocellus with it.

"No, you're not. I've read the books Princess Twilight sent," Rarity said, "and I find none of you owe any obligation to 'make good' for Chrysalis' actions. Please, Ocellus, come inside."

Ocellus gasped every time she saw Rarity because Rarity spent as much of her day as she could in her changeling-queen form. The sight of the most mighty of changeling types made Ocellus want to kowtow and toe whatever line Rarity might give her. That Rarity was about 2/3 her height was a good foil to those instincts. There was the fear that the changeling queen could dispatch her without much effort, but there was also the urge to pet her. "O-Okay."

Inside the house was a constant cacophony of chirping. Ocellus' little efforts at making casual chirps were nothing compared to one of Rarity or Nora's children from the moment they were hatched. It put the experience of talking with a changeling queen in a much more relaxed way when there were nymphs around chirping up a storm in obvious excitement at everything in their little world.

"After yesterday's little incident, Beta took on the newest clutch and has taught them to build. A shame—I liked that couch." Rarity glanced into the living room just enough to see that her latest offspring had made enough resin to glue the couch cushions into a blanket fort. "Would you like something to eat or drink?"

That was a complicated question. Like the changelings of her new hive, Ocellus could eat and drink to derive sustenance, but with the diet of love she was getting eating was a luxury. "J-Just some tea, please."

Expending her own magic, Rarity started the kettle boiling and prepared two large cups with teabags. "You originally agreed to visit for a month." Rarity quickly fired off a request to Bitwise that included an order of food for just herself.

Ocellus jumped a little even as she sat down. Rarity was always so direct with her, and she knew it was rubbing off. "I did…"

"You sound like one of my girls when I tell her it’s bedtime. Speak your mind and heart, dear. I shan't bite."

"Time moves too fast." Ocellus took a slow, deep breath to refocus on what she wanted to say. "I know it might not seem that way to you, but it does to me. I watch this world moving by and see what you've done with your part of it and I'm left in a state of wonder. You're the exact opposite of Chrysalis. She sought rack and ruin, but you push not only your own hive to greatness, but you lift up every creature around you." As she spoke, Ocellus couldn't help but feel fate and destiny pushing her along.

"There's one more I wish to lift up." Rarity heard the kettle whistle and shut off and turned to deal with it. "I have a proposition for you, Ocellus. It will cost you nothing except six months of your life."

Stepping through the huge, vertical flat-screen in the entrance way of the house, Byte held up the plastic bag to check it had come through intact. "Mom, your sushi's here." She was dressed in a custom piece her mother had made. The dress was all charcoals and soft grays that layered perfectly on Byte's cerulean-on-black human form. A white shirt set off her colors and made her stand out in any room.

"In the kitchen. I'm just about to talk to Ocellus about the little idea." Rarity preferred keeping as much general conversation in her own home vocal as she could, and her daughters had picked up on that.

When Byte stepped into the kitchen, she let out a loud chirp of excitement. "Want me to explain it?" As she set the sushi on the table, Byte sat down and smiled at Ocellus.

"Uh, sure." Ocellus held out her hand and took the mug of tea out of Rarity's magic then held it between her hands to warm them.

"Well, I was talking with Mom about you being here and how you seemed to want to stay a bit longer, and how I wanted to visit Equestria for a while to see what it's like, and I came up with the best solution." Gesturing to Ocellus, Byte smiled. "We swap places for a bit. You stay here and learn to run the daily ins and outs of our hive, and I'll visit Equestria and go to your friendship school."

Almost dropping her tea, Ocellus stared at Byte. "W-What? But how would that work? I can't communicate with your—"

"I can remedy that. It's a small thing, dear." Rarity adjusted her old red glasses that sat across her nose. They didn't do anything for her with their flat glass, but she liked wearing them—they reminded everyone she dealt with that she was intelligent.

Ocellus' jaw moved a few times before she managed to close it and focus on the offer. "I'll need training."

"I don't need to go right away." Gesturing around her as if to take in all the hive, Byte shrugged. "Once you get the hang of it, it's easy. All it takes is compassion and love—and you get the love for free."

"B-But what would you do in Equestria? It's so amazing here! Things move faster than I can even think sometimes. Equestria would be slow and quiet, and you—" Ocellus realized that Byte had a fascinated and happy look on her face. "You really want that?"

"I want to experience it! I don't want to stay there forever, but I want to know what it's like to live disconnected and reliant on speech. I want to feel all the magic of Equestria and friendship!" Byte got so excited she let out an excited chirp from under her clothes—revealing that she currently had changeling wings that could chirp.

While her daughter and Ocellus chatted, Rarity explored the little pack of sushi her daughter had sent her. A little note inside was in Bitwise's handwriting.

Chef Kit said I could make the nigiri. It's not easy keeping my hand temperatures just right, but she said I am getting much better at it. I hope you enjoy my letter and the food!

It was signed with a little sketch of a changeling.

The delight Bitwise found in the natural world and such things as hand-written notes astounded Rarity. Each of her daughters had their own unique outlook on the world and the way they embraced it. She carefully lifted the note up to her cheek with her magic and nuzzled it affectionately.

"But why swap then? I could take you back to Equestria and show you around," Ocellus said.

"Oh. Well, if you want to go back now, that's fine. I'm sure I could find one of my sisters to take over here." As Byte said it, she could see the longing flare up in Ocellus' face. Gotcha, she thought.

Ocellus was too used to her friends back in Equestria. She could be recalcitrant about what she wanted to do and they would always encourage and push her. Flailing mentally, she tried to work out how to tell Byte that she really wanted to stay but wasn't sure how.

"I mean, unless you really do want to stay and are just trying to be a sneaky bug and get me to agree to something else too?" Byte asked.

It was like a life raft. Ocellus nodded and tried to get her traitorous mouth to come up with something to say. "I really want to see more, but I have a hard time expressing that sometimes."

"'That'? What do you mean?"

"Until I get really comfortable somewhere, it's hard to push myself out. To show how much I want to do something. It was really bad back in the hive. I'd get stuck with all the worse jobs as a nymph. My friends at the school helped a lot. They made it easier to be me and learn what I needed to know to be confident about it, but here I don't know everything. I just…" Ocellus struggled to find all the words she wanted but finally came up dry. "I want to learn everything."

"So what you're saying is you want to work your way up to hive overseer? You need a role in a hive. I'll help you find one, let you grow within it, and help you learn everything you want to learn." Unable to hide her own excitement, Byte was chirping into the digital realm for all she was worth. "But it needs to start with you being part of the hive."

Ocellus felt stunned by a revelation. "I-I wasn't part of the hive!"

Byte chirped in surprise.

"This hive, I mean. That's why I felt so uncomfortable, and why I did when back home and still trying to fit in. I'm a changeling—I need a hive." It was such a surprise to finally understand part of herself that had previously been a conundrum that Ocellus started chirping repeatedly. "When my friends became my friends, they became my hive. They supported me and I supported them."

Having been mostly watching, Rarity let out a soft chirp before asking, "And your family back in Equestria? They are a hive to you?"

"I guess a changeling can have many hives." This was all new philosophical ground for Ocellus and she loved it. She was itching to write her newfound knowledge down. "But the most important one is where they are at the time."

"Do you want to join my hive, Ocellus?" Rarity asked.

The question had been coming, but when Rarity actually said it out loud, Ocellus chirped in surprise and lost her form. She wasn't as tall as Rarity, but she was taller than Byte would have been in her natural form. "You really mean that? You'd give me somewhere here to belong?"

Giggling, Rarity chirped without restraint at Ocellus. "A place to be yourself and belong is what my hive is all about. There is nothing more core to what changelings—in this world—are about than that. There are plenty of humans I consider part of my hive already, a different kind of changeling would not be unwelcome."

—She's quite excited about belonging. This isn't entrapment, is it?— Byte asked Rarity.

—How would be the best way to test that? I don't want to make this seem like I'm using a big carrot to steal her from her heritage,— Rarity sent.

Byte sent a stream of giggling chirps. —Ask her, Mom.—

—You're right. She's an adult.— The conversation with Byte had cost Rarity less than a second. She was able to continue on with her previous reasoning without more than what seemed like a pause to take a breath. "But first I want to make sure you definitely want this. You can stay here as long as you wish as you are—there's no need to commit to this."

"I want to. When you went to Equestria, you said that you couldn't communicate or anything. That means that if I do have any regrets, all I have to do is return to Equestria and I will be my old self." Ocellus had already convinced herself and come up with all the ways this was the right thing to do. "When would you be able to do the—the you know?"

"Implanting of technology. I have some shell right now I could use if all you want is a single phone. If you want more hardware than that, we'll need much more." As she spoke, Rarity heard a distant chirp from a firewall under attack. The panicked software was calm when she reached out to it, so she left it be.

"Oh! Uh, a phone will be fine." With the immediacy of the process, Ocellus suddenly felt a hint of nerves—nerves that she pushed down in the name of science and a hive to belong to. "Really fine."

Rarity smiled and barely managed to slip off her seat before she heard that panicked chirp again. Once, she thought, is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. And I don't believe in coincidence. Reaching for Nora, she gave a gentle nudge as she picked up her weapons and armor digitally. —Nora, darling, I have another Windigo to deal with. Give my apologies to Ocellus and please help her implant a phone.—

Nora stretched out into the real world and let Rarity fall back into strictly digital. —It's alright. We don't want to let any of them get any serious power again. I love you, Raribug.—

—I love you too, Nora Bug,— Rarity sent before charging off.

"Sorry, Ocellus, but Rarity had to run off to take care of something. It looks like I'll be helping you." Nora took a few steps to get her hooves under her properly. "I'd suggest doing it in your natural shape rather than taking back up your humanoid one."

"R-Right. Sorry, it's still a little surprising when you do that." Ocellus couldn't keep back a blush of embarrassment.

"From what others have said, it's easier when you can talk to them both at the same time." Byte led the way through to their computer room.

The house had seen several renovations, including the addition of a special basement, but while the computer room had become larger, it had also become uncluttered. There was a desk that extended around two walls of the room that had computers set up at regular intervals. The server was gone, and there was only a small rack of spare systems, screens, and peripherals in a closet at the back of the room.

It was here Ocellus had learned how to use a computer, trained by Byte, Bumblebee, and her own curiosity. The only exception to the room's modern tech vibe was a large safe bolted to the floor in one corner. There were no electronics apparent on the old safe—it just had a large dial and a handle visible.

Approaching the vault, Nora reached out with her magic and touched the latches inside. Focusing, she recalled the intricate process of turning the latches in just the right way to unlock the mechanism. Of course, the dial on the front didn't operate the lock at all and could spin freely. When the softest of clicks was heard, Nora reached her hoof out and nudged the handle down.

The large door swung on perfectly machined and oiled hinges to reveal what would be considered a large fortune in changeling eggshell. The exact value of it was meaningless, of course, without a changeling queen there to administer it. "Ocellus? Step closer and relax. Byte will catch you."

"W-Will catch me? You mean if I do fall over?" Nerves assailed Ocellus as she stood in place and it felt like the walls were closing in.

"I mean when. There's only been one person who's still been standing after this process, and that was our wife." Nora looked past Ocellus to Byte. "Are you ready?"

—Rarity was trying to be careful with her. Ocellus gets a little overwhelmed,— Byte sent to Nora.

Taking stock of the situation and still struggling to pull her head out of the legal work she'd been focused on moments ago, Nora took a slow, deep breath. "Sorry. I've been rushing this and I have no right to. What questions do you have?"

Ocellus felt like she could breathe properly again. She looked from Byte to Nora. Nora Bug was the real deal. Rarity became a changeling queen, but Nora was created as one. She was the closest person to Queen Chrysalis—historically speaking—that she knew. "What's going to happen?"

"I'm going to pass you a phone and the right amount of shell to start the process. Then I'll be channeling magic into you. If there's not enough shell, Byte will fetch you more. When the shell and phone start to absorb into you, my magic draw will be at its highest." As she explained, Nora felt herself calm down a little too. She was always a little tense when Rarity was out hunting—part of her feared Rarity wouldn't come back while another part feared she'd come back with SuriGo's ferocity. "Once the process finishes, your brain will have to get used to thinking a lot faster in order to keep up with the phone's electronics. This is why you'll fall over. You'll have the worst headache you've ever had in your life."

"Oh!" Fully explained, it made a lot more sense to Ocellus. She smiled and nodded, and when the shell floated over to her, she held out a hoof to hold it and another for the phone Byte passed her. "Okay, I'm ready when you are."

Understanding the situation now, Nora smiled as well and started to charge magic in her horn. Each day since she'd become a changeling queen, Nora's magic had incrementally increased (the same as it had for Rarity). The effort she needed to expend now was far less than it was when she'd first tried this. "I think I had things just right."

Ocellus' sight turned to bright blue as she felt the full power of a changeling queen flood into her. For the slightest moment a rush of panic accompanied it, but the light/power did more than just fill her, it revealed its user to her and forged a bond. She barely even realized the shell and phone were pouring into her as her eyes met Nora's and she smiled.

The rush of happiness—the chirping—became all too quickly overwhelming. Ocellus let out a chirp of surprise and realized the floor was starting to come upward. Green light saved her, but it wasn't Nora's magic.

All Ocellus could do was chirp at Byte as she was so slowly lifted up and in slow motion carried from the room. It felt almost like an hour before she was out the door, and the trip down the hallway took almost a full day.

A full day of her grinning like a silly nymph and giggling along with her chirps at a high rate of speed.

—Can you hear me?— The strange thing was this information wasn't a voice and it wasn't written. It was just there in Ocellus' head.

Poking at where the not-a-voice had come from, Ocellus found some way to make her own words appear. —Hello? Who is that?—

—Is that Ocellus?— Bobbin asked.

—I am Ocellus. Who are you?—

—I'm Bobbin, silly. You're talking on ChirpNet. How does it feel?— Bobbin asked.

Smiling down at Ocellus, Byte eyed the two dark stains on her forelegs. "As we leave our mark on the world, it leaves its mark on us." Turning, she walked for the door as Ocellus and Bobbin got a full conversation in.

—Beta?— Byte asked. A quick affirmative chirp reassured her she had her sister's attention. —I have a feeling Ocellus might want a more buggy home in the hive. Perhaps something underground would be in order?—

—That was her?— Beta stepped from the digital realm (through one of the many large flat-panel displays in the lower hive) and into the real world. —I have just the chamber for her. Does she have any preference for decoration?—

—Ask her.— Byte forwarded Beta Ocellus' contact ID. —She and Bobbin are chatting like crazy. I think we might have another Sweetie Belle here.—

Byte was referring to Rarity's sister who had stubbornly refused to slow her mind down for nearly a week. Nothing on the network had been proof against her excited exploration, and she still held the record for most time spent as a human in full-digital-time.

—That bad?— When she gently chirped toward Ocellus, Beta got an excited rush of chirping back that made the engineering bug grin like a nymph. —Hi, Ocellus. Did you have any ideas on how you want your own room in the hive to be decorated?—

That was Byte's job. Connecting nymphs together who had desires and abilities, and handling any low-level tasks within the hive. She eased the door to the "recovery bedroom" closed and stepped outside humming along to her own chirps.

Touching base with her personal followers on social media, Byte quickly sent out a slew of personal messages of thanks, comments, and recommendations. The emotion they contained was only trace amounts, but she dealt in quantity—later on she'd stream and feed far more deeply. Byte reached the end of the hallway and poked her head into the living room to see her mother laying on the couch.

"She's sleeping in the recovery bedroom." Byte walked up to the back of the couch and opened up her emotional sluices and felt her mother feed. "Is Rarity back yet?"

"No. This must be a bad one. Could be that new client we got in Canada. They were reporting massive attacks by a Windigo that their own systems couldn't pin down. Oh, she just said it was three Windigo that seemed to have called a truce to work together. They're being annoying." Tilting her head back and up, Nora pressed her cheek to Byte's neck and let the love flow into her.

For several months Rainbow Dash had been enough for a pair of hungry changeling queens, but their needs had expanded more, and now it was mostly up to their hive to provide the energy they needed to remain at peak magic.

"What do you think of Ocellus?" Love was draining from her reserves, but even as it did she could feel more flowing into her. It took close contact to release such a flood all at once, but every changeling in the hive who "hunted" love was trickling it back into Byte. Her own reserves were the greatest of any other changeling in the hive bar their mothers'.

Slowly easing off the flow of love, Nora ran her tongue over her lips and tilted her head back down again. "She's capable, smart, though a little reserved. I'm willing to side with Rarity on one thing, however, she certainly yearns to learn. Plus I don't think I've had to teach her the same thing more than once. She soaks up knowledge like a sponge."

"You think she'll react well to the tech implant?" Circling around the couch, Byte sat down and used her magic to float a controller over to her hands.

"She's the first changeling to need an implant. I have no idea how she'll react to it, but I think hearing all the hive will help her fit in. Particularly if she lets herself sing the song too." Floating another controller over, Nora needed to shapechange to get hands to play, but she preferred the mechanical system to just sending digital commands to the console.

Starting a game of her favorite racing simulator, Byte chirped softly, digitally, and opened her senses up to the hive around her. The game was a tiny distraction at real-time speeds, not interrupting her work in the slightest. "Beta has her team digging a new room for Ocellus."

"You're serious about having Ocellus take over your role while you're away? Wouldn't Bootstrap be better?"

"She would. Bootstrap is every bit the bug I was two months ago. She is smart, she manages a section of the hive already, and she has a vast social network she connects with. But you know why I won't push her to take my place?" Byte had been playing a lot with physical controls. She'd learned early in her streaming career that people didn't want to see her just staring at the screen.

"I can guess, given how you phrased that." Not as practiced as Byte was, Nora struggled to get her car around the corners without smooshing it into them.

Reaching one arm up and over her mother's shoulders, Byte used her magic to hold and control the empty side of the gamepad. "Right. She doesn't want to. She likes having me to look up to. She wants to follow, Mom, not lead. She likes the interactions with her fans far more than she likes specifically controlling anything."

Leaning to her left a little as she turned her car, Nora knew what she was doing but didn't care. "You'll have reasons for everyone I name, won't you?"

"Mmhmm!" Byte's car zoomed around the track, taking corners on the ultimate driving line each time, braking only exactly as much as needed, and never losing control.

"Except Ocellus."

"Oh, no. I have a reason why she shouldn't be hive manager. Several, actually. But they're things she wants to overcome. I'll stick around for a little while so things don't go haywire, but she's going to need to step up and chirp loudly." Racing past her mother on the track, Byte showed no indication that she'd slow down. "And I want to hear her chirp so much…"

Nora turned and hugged her daughter. "You are a good bug, Byte. It makes me wonder what you'll get up to when you visit Equestria."

—I'm back!— Rarity sent to her hive as a whole, along with a flood of her own chirps that were drowned out by the reply. —How has Ocellus fared?—

There was a measure of tiredness in Rarity's chirping that Byte knew too well—she'd exerted herself. —She's resting. It went well. How much energy did you use?—

—Five! Five Windigo had set up in smaller ISPs and were bombarding our client with what looked like only slightly inflated traffic, but within it was a slew of attacks. Thankfully we had a hackback contract with two of the five ISPs and I was able to assault those before the other three noticed. They did notice, too, despite me continuing the camouflaging traffic. I think they had some kind of communications protocol. Dratted things keep reproducing. This would be much easier if everyone just paid us for their protection.— As she compiled the message, Rarity let loose some disgruntled and annoyed chirps, though she let loose a more relaxed one after sending it.

—That wouldn't be right, Mom. There's several promising competitors to our firewalls that are showing signs of resisting Windigo attacks. Then there's the idea of actually making client-facing surfaces secure,— Bumblebee sent.

Digitally frumping, which required much more imagination than anyone without hardwired, direct-to-mind data connection and a fashionista's sense of presentation could manage, Rarity let out a final plaintive chirp and hugged Nora. —I know. I know. I wasn't able to chase the last two Windigo because I couldn't contact anyone at the ISPs they used. One got back to me and gave me the go-ahead to chase through their networks. Quite nice of them.—

Hugging back for all she was worth, Nora shared some of her love with Rarity in an act any researcher in Equestria would call unthinkable: a changeling queen sharing their food with another. —I love you, Rarabug.—

A slew of happy chirps left Rarity in a rush and she clung to Nora digitally. She nuzzled and kissed too, of course. —And I love you too, Nora.—

—Hey! Are you two snuggling without me?— Rainbow Dash was deep in slow-motion time as she pulled her latest creation into their home's driveway. —Because if there's snuggling, you know I'm gonna be there in less than ten seconds flat.—

Rainbow Dash was able to prove that ten seconds was eight more than she needed.

The first thing that occurred to Byte as she stepped forward was how quiet it was. She had no data connection, no chirping, and not a hint of her hive-mates. A shiver rolled from her tailfin to her crest, only to stop when a soft wing touched her back.

"Byte?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "I believe Sunset said that was your name. Are you alright?" She towered over the changeling drone, so much so that Byte's shoulders didn't reach Twilight's belly, but that didn't stop her from doing exactly as Rarity had instructed—she hugged Byte.

Her wings chirping in panic, Byte looked up and up and up. Gulping, she tried to nod and send a message at the same time, but when the latter completely failed she panicked again and squeezed her eyes closed. "I can't hear anything. It's so quiet without my hive."

"Maybe I can help?" Starlight Glimmer spent most of her time in the School of Friendship—as head-mare—but today she'd gone in search of a special new student. "Byte, I think I can help you with a spell. Can I cast it on you?"

Snapping her eyes open, Byte looked at Starlight, then nodded very slowly. An impressive flash of teal magic later and she froze.

—Hello, Byte. Rarity said that something like this might help reassure you.— Starlight had been practicing the spell with Sunburst and Trixie, and both had been suitably freaked out at first, but the joyful look on Byte's face told her she'd gotten it just right. —You just have to think at me to talk.—

—Thank you! This helps a lot!— A mental touch, even one as alien to her as a pony's, buoyed Byte's spirits up. She shook herself and let out a cleansing chirp from her wings before looking around the impressive room. "Is this a castle?"

"This is my castle. You're safe here." It was hard for Twilight to get past her prejudice of Byte. Here was a creature that would spark many ponies to think of the bad days of changelings. She'd had very careful words with all her Royal Guard and the upper members of the E.U.P. Guard. "Would you like some room?"

There were thoughts swirling and flowing from Starlight that Byte was a little confused about, but adored. The spell she'd used was leaking all kinds of little things between them, but that was better than the cold and empty mental landscape. "I'm okay now. Starlight's magic has helped. Helped a lot!" As she said it, she punctuated the word with a loud chirp. —Sorry if I'm making a lot of chirps, that's how we convey our emotions.—

—It's alright. Would you like to come and meet some new friends?— The mental speech was a little faster than just talking, but not by much. "We're just having a chat mentally. I'm surprised at how fast Byte picked this up—it took Sunburst days to get the hang of it, and Trixie days to get the hang of holding anything back at all."

The praise earned another chirp from Byte who paused when she noticed how many other ponies were in the room with them. Big ponies in armor holding weapons. She took a deep breath.

—If you use a disguise, it will make things easier. Is there one you normally use back home?— Starlight asked.

Flashing with green fire, Byte assumed her human form. She was tall now, almost as tall as Twilight Sparkle. She looked around at the guards and realized it was far less intimidating now they were smaller than her. —This is much easier. Uh, is there something wrong?—

—You made yourself really tall. It's okay, I'm used to all sorts of creatures at the school. Canterlot, though, is a little less visited by non-ponies.— Starlight realized they'd been quiet and just looking at each other for several moments. "If you'll excuse us, Twilight, I'll get Byte ready to travel back to Ponyville."

Twilight was almost stunned at the reminder of what humans looked like. What really surprised her was how tall Byte had been. In recent years—with Celestia and Luna spending more and more time away from Canterlot, Twilight had felt a little lonely in her altitude. "Okay, and thank you, Starlight."

Following Starlight out of the huge room, Byte found herself in a long hallway filled with stained glass windows and bored looking ponies—bored, that is, until she walked into the room. —They're all staring at me. Should I shapechange into a pony form instead?—

—Not now.— Starlight walked through the hall with her companion beside her. —They're just a little scared of something that they don't know.—

—Oh! Just like humans. I had to explain that to Ocellus too. Once she understood what was going on, though, she settled on a human form to maintain.— Byte followed Starlight outside into the bright, chill Canterlot summer. —Oh wow. This looks amazing!—

"You're going to need to get used to talking more out loud."

Heaving a sigh, then covering it with a giggle and a mental chirp, Byte shrugged her shoulders. "And I'm normally the bug telling the others to talk out loud more. So, where is this school?"

Despite the comment about fitting in, Byte felt more comfortable in her human form and chose to remain in it for the train ride to Ponyville. She was surprised to get off the train and find three ponies waiting for her—looking at her intently. A pegasus, a unicorn, and an earth pony stared back at her. Gathering up her innate chirpiness, she walked over and held out a hand to them. "Hi! My name's Byte!"

"Hi! I'm Apple Bloom!" The mare shoved her hoof out toward Byte, having to angle it up to get high enough to have a hope of being shakeable.

"And I'm Scootaloo."

"Sweetie Belle!"

With all three offering her their hooves, Byte wasn't sure who to shake first. The problem was solved as each put their hooves close enough to shake them all at once. Their raw enthusiasm lifted Byte's spirits to the point where she wanted to chirp a lot. "It's great to meet you! Are you my welcoming committee?"

"Uh." Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom and they shared a smile and a nod. "We sure are! We just need to see our friend off first—she's going to Princess Twilight's school in Canterlot—and then we'll show you around town."

Byte had participated in hundreds of billions of social interactions online and could easily recognize what had happened. She was too slow to reply, however, as Starlight approached.

"You girls have met Byte already? She's the new student I told you about. Well, student and teacher. I'm sure we all have a lot to teach each other about friendship!" Looking between her three part-time teachers, Starlight watched them all pause in confusion. "Byte is a changeling."

"Ohhh!" Sweetie Belle looked up at Byte again. "Right, you were coming here while Ocellus is in your world, right?"

Taking a deep breath, Byte nodded and undid her disguise. Green fire flickered around her and she was revealed in all her black-carapaced, buggy glory. "Yup! Sorry for keeping that disguise up, Starlight said it would be best to not advertise that I'm a changeling there. I guess you guys are a lot more relaxed about it?" As she spoke, Byte realized that a silence was descending over the three young mares.

Having dealt with several (now reformed) black changelings, Starlight was quicker to react than the three friends staring in disbelief. "You'll note that Byte's hive is nothing like what Queen Chrysalis' was. They're friendly and open, and nopony is harmed by their feeding."

Apple Bloom was first to shove down the instinctual panic of seeing a "bad" changeling appear. She elbowed her two friends. "Ahem. Girls? They're still the same person."

A whistle from the train startled them all and Sweetie Belle squealed in surprise. "I'm going to miss the train!" Floating her luggage after her, Sweetie took off at a canter for the platform.

It took several seconds for the stream of cases, bags, and chests to pass them, but Byte was used to that level of expansive fashion. That's when everything fell into place and she stared after the mare. "That's Sweetie Belle…"

Scootaloo heard Byte's comment after her own shout of goodbye to Sweetie. "Well, yeah. You didn't think she was a changeling, did you?"

"N-No, I mean—It's hard to explain. In our world, everyone is so similar to this world. Rarity, Rainbow, and Nora are my moms, and Sweetie Belle is my auntie," Byte said. "It didn't sink in who she was until just now."

"Hold up." The world had started to tilt sideways for Apple Bloom and she needed it back on level ground. "You have three mothers, and two of them are Rainbow Dash and Rarity?!"

In her native form, Byte had no compunction about chirping in excitement. "I sure do, and they are!" Talking about her hive made Byte want to prance with excitement, but she noticed her new friends looking at her strange. "What's wrong?"

"You sound like a cricket," Scootaloo said.

"Oh! We tend to chirp a lot. We use it to express emotions. It's the best way to just let everyone know how you feel!"

"It's a lot easier to get the hang of in your head." Leading the way across Ponyville shouldn't have filled Starlight with as much worry as it did. There hadn't been a sighting of a black-carapaced changeling since Chrysalis had been dealt with once and for all.

Not following Starlight's words properly, Apple Bloom looked over at her. "Wait. In your head? What're you talkin' about?"

"Well, when Twilight—that is, the Twilight from Byte's world—explained that Byte's hive communicate with instant mind-to-mind information, I thought it would be a good idea to work on a spell that helps her feel at home. It turns out changelings from there chirp in their heads a lot, too." On her favorite topics, magic and friendship, Starlight Glimmer could have gone on all day, but she'd learned how to rein in her tendencies to over-explain.

Looking at Byte, then to Starlight, Scootaloo made a choice—and her choices were always on the side of friendship. "Can you cast it on us too?"

The request surprised Apple Bloom, but she couldn't and wouldn't stop her own reply. "Yeah!"

Surprised, Byte looked at the two mares and chirped her startled surprise. "You want to be my hive while I'm here?"

"Only if you agree to be a Cutie Mark Crusader!" Scootaloo and Apple Bloom said together.

"I've trained for this. Byte taught me everything I need to know. This shouldn't be hard." But Ocellus was having one big problem with her job—love. Love poured into her from changelings all over the hive. Love poured back out of her to those changelings who didn't have the knack of feeding digitally. But, no matter how much love she poured out, there was extra.

Focusing all her attention on not feeling how much love she was stuffed with, Ocellus walked into the kitchen of Rarity, Rainbow, and Nora's home to make herself a snack. "That's the worst bit. I'm so bloated with love and I'm still hungry!"

"You can give that love to Nora or Rarity, you know?" Rainbow was in the process of making herself a salad. "You want what I'm having? No meat."

"Yes please." Ocellus dropped her rump onto a chair at the kitchen table and watched Rainbow pulling various green leafy things from the fridge. "I just don't feel comfortable—It reminds me too much of how things were before."

"You wanna talk about it?" Rainbow simply doubled her normal lunch-salad proportions, quickly dressing it with some croutons, nuts, and a light dash of oil. She split the greens into two bowls and turned back to the table without hearing so much as a digital chirp from Ocellus.

"Thanks." The salad looked good even without any insects on it. Ocellus had gotten used to a more ponyesque diet while living in Ponyville, and this fit the bill just right. "I guess I do, but it's hard. I haven't even talked to my own family about this.

"I grew up in the hive. It would be nice to say that I was a gentle and recalcitrant changeling, and that I didn't want to be like the others." It was hard to think and even harder to say. "But that's wrong. I was an infiltrator. I was learning how to manipulate emotions in ponies and how to find the best disguises to take advantage of them when Thorax returned.

"I was full of love at the time, not because we were sharing it like you do here, but because I was being trained in how to extract it effectively. And, I was good at it. We'd only been practicing on each other, but I could always trick the others into giving me their love. Then all that desire was gone because I didn't need it anymore. I still don't!"

"Would you rather go back to doing that? We've got plenty of nymphs who love chatting with people and skimming love. We're not going to hold you back from what you want to do. Byte may have thought this was the thing for you, but it doesn't have to be." Using her fork, Rainbow started munching on some of her salad.

In counterpoint to Rainbow's eating, Ocellus just pushed her salad around a little. "I don't think I want to do that."

"Do you want to try?"

The question shocked Ocellus. Everything had been so theoretical until Rainbow Dash, an almost mythical figure in the hive, offered to let her feed. Or so she thought. "Y-Y-You want me to…"

"If you want. You're part of the hive, and though I normally save up my love for Rarity, Nora, and any newly hatched nymphs, you can have some if you want." Though she took another big bite of her salad, Rainbow was ready for a metaphysical touch that never came. When she gulped her food down, she asked, "No?"

"I'm full. Really full. I don't know what to do with all this!" To demonstrate, Ocellus made a little show of a light. "If a changeling in our old hive did this, they would be—they wouldn't be treated well. This much love is crazy…"

"It works for us. There's a lot of people in this world, and the more changelings there are, the more we can make sure that everyone has someone to talk to when they need it." Snorting, Rainbow rolled her shoulders. "I'd say You'd be surprised how many people appreciate having someone who cares about their wellbeing, but I think you're experiencing that first hand. Maybe you should spend some time gathering?"

"I…" Ocellus bit her lower lip as she thought about it. "I'd need to learn all over again. Attacking people like I'd been trained wouldn't be right."

"Pretty sure you knowing that is one of the reasons why this isn't a horrible idea. Come on, I've watched you interact with my family. You're as gentle as a—" Rainbow ate a little more salad before finishing, "—a bug."

"That's only because I make sure I'm always nice. I don't want to be mean or hurt anypon—anyone. Sorry."

"You don't need to apologize for that. It's kinda cute that you still want to call us all ponies."

Unable to hold back a smile at being called cute—particularly by someone she still thought of as a mentor—Ocellus let out a giggle. "Then I'll try, but first I need to get rid of all this love and find someone else to do my job."

—Bobbin?— Rainbow Dash asked. She was well-used to the curious digital chirp she got in reply. —Any chance you could take over love management for the day? Ocellus has a glut and needs to get rid of it.—

—Be there in a…— Bobbin had been working on fashion designs for the boutique, but hearing one of her friends (and her mother) needed help superseded that. She had been working on the designs by hoof, but it only took a few quick steps to reach a large flat-panel display and pour her physical form into pure digital. —…second.—

Rainbow heard the clopping sound of Bobbin's hooves on the floor as she walked through to the kitchen. She smiled up at her daughter who, in her own unique style, liked to keep a mostly-changeling look with only an upright stance and human arms being her sacrifice to efficiency. Reaching out an arm, Rainbow caught her daughter as she approached the table and gave her a hug. "You sure you're up to it?"

"Mom, you wouldn't have asked me if I wasn't, but I know I am. I can't do all the comms stuff, though. You can keep doing that, Ocellus?" Bobbin leaned down and hugged Rainbow while looking across the table.

Chirping, Ocellus nodded her head. "That's easy. I can direct everyone in that regard. I never realized how much work Byte did all the time…"

"My big sis is pretty amazing. She deserves her holiday, though. Okay, are you ready to drain into me?" Bobbin prepared herself. She didn't generally keep large quantities of love, but her work frequently required her to use it up regularly and that meant she had a higher than normal reserve.

This was something Ocellus had actually trained for in her old hive—before Thorax returned. She opened herself to Bobbin and waited. Then she waited some more. "Oh! You want me to push it?"

"Maybe it'd be easier if we touch? This is a bit different to the normal flow of love in the hive. How much do you—" Bobbin had walked around the table to Ocellus and reached a hand out to her. The moment they made contact she felt the avalanche of love hit her.

It should have surprised Ocellus how much love the changelings of Rarity's hive could hold, but given how tight resources had been in Chrysalis' hive, no changeling had managed to ever be full except for the hunters. When the flow finally tapered off, she cut it short herself. "S-Sorry, I need to keep a little for myself."

"Of course. Don't feel bad about keeping a little love. We're changelings; we need love." Bobbin was feeling particularly full, of course, and started to pour her excess love off to other of her hive-mates. It was a normal process for her, but the scale had changed from just a little excess to an entire hive's love supply.

"Did you want to teach her how we feed, Bobbin?" Rainbow finished off her salad and let out a wistful sigh.

"Wouldn't Byte be—" Bobbin stopped and rolled her eyes. "I wish you could delete speech as easily as you can delete an unsent message. Of course I can do that. Do you want to come to the computer room and do it, or just go and relax on a chirp couch?"

"A chirp couch?" Ocellus blinked in surprise. "What's that?"

"Well, some of us like to dive fully into the 'net to chat and gather love, and some just like to stretch out on a couch and get chirpy. That's why we call 'em chirp couches. Come on, we even have a special set of WiFi routers set up to keep that traffic clean." Leading the way, Bobbin headed to the room that served as the house's entrance to the hive underneath the house (and entire block).

Ocellus hadn't been into this part of the hive before. The truth, she had to admit, was that she was scared of how comfortable the hive was. As the tunnel turned in a slow spiral down, she felt a sense of home wrap around her and squeeze on her anxiety from every direction.

When Ocellus' hooves found the floor of the entry hall, she let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. Tunnels branched off in several directions, but Bobbin was focused on just one. "I haven't been down here before."

"Yeah, this is where most of the harvesters hang out. Private chambers are down those three halls"—Bobbin pointed as she walked to the entrance to the room where they actually worked—"and in here is where all the action happens. Try to keep your voice low and don't use digital comms in here."

"Are they that sensitive?" Ocellus didn't really have to lower her voice because she wasn't a loud talker at the best of times, but now she could only barely be heard.

"They're working and helping people. We don't want to stress them, since they're what keeps the hive working." As she walked past each, Bobbin could feel them reach toward her magically and give her a tiny bit of love. "There're two couches over here."

The couches were of all different kinds, but one thing they all had in common was they were small enough to fit a single nymph comfortably. Ranging from armchairs to beanbags and even a few park benches, there was truly something to suit every bug.

The pair of old leather armchairs that Bobbin led Ocellus to looked worn with age, though they both looked to have plump, new cushions in them.

"Come and get comfortable. You'll find your WiFi AP on the arm here."

Ocellus followed the directions and looked at the information attached to the chair. Connecting to the network, she found complete silence in the digital world. There was no digital chirping, though all the bugs around her were making the actual sound. "It's just for me?"

"I'll be joining yours as well so we can chat together. ChirpNet detects these networks specially and keeps them from local generic chats." Climbing up on the couch beside Ocellus, Bobbin got her rump settled first and then slowly folded down onto the chair. —Hello?—

—Just us in here. It feels so quiet.— Ocellus latched onto the connection from Bobbin. —So how do we find people who want to chat?—

—Most have their own connections and circles they work with, but we have an open chat to a bug set of channels. All you have to do is activate that and the system will detect your connection type. Here, we'll both join one together,— Bobbin sent.

New interfaces and chats poured around Ocellus. She witnessed hundreds of conversations flooding around her before things narrowed down and she was left in just one. The first user to connect was Bobbin, but then a few others started joining.

—Uh, hello? Anyone in here?— StarDan23 asked.

—Talk to them. This is your place to relax and help others relax too,— Bobbin sent to Ocellus privately.

Taking a deep (metaphorical) breath, Ocellus reminded herself she was safe and in a hive. —Oh. Hi. Sorry if I dragged you out of another chat. I'm trying to learn how all this works.—

—No way, you're new to this? I mean, like just hatched? Why's your name not start with B?— Jess asked.

—Actually, I'm kinda an exchange student. This is my first time chatting like this…—

—Feeding, you mean?— Jess asked.

—Yeah.—

—Don't sweat it. It's fun to chill out and chat about stuff. I've been hanging in BugChat for months now and I've never noticed anything from it. So, where are you from?— StarDan23 asked.

Bobbin chirped to Ocellus. —You can tell them. It's fine.—

—Is that the Bobbin? You hardly ever chat in here anymore.— Jess sent.

—I'm trying to help ease Ocellus into chatting and feeding. Are you all fine with helping? I promise to step in if the feeding gets too much,— Bobbin sent.

—Sure am! This is cool,— Jess sent.

—Do we have to do anything special?— StarDan23 asked.

—Tell us immediately if you feel faint.— Bobbin noticed a lot of the other users disconnected and moved to other channels and there were several lurking. This was normal behavior, she knew, and wouldn't cause any undue problems. —Now, did anyone want to see us try to draw things?—

—Draw?— Ocellus asked.

—Oh, yeah! Can you draw anime style?— StarDan23 asked.

That's when Ocellus felt it. It was the slightest hint of something on her peripheral. It wasn't the kind of love ponies felt, but it was something she could taste.

—Go gentle. He's in good health and hasn't been fed from for a full day. Just a little nibble now,— Bobbin sent to Ocellus privately.

Carefully and with as much caution as she could manage, Ocellus took her first drink of love direct from another living thing in years. It was a tiny sip, so little that she wouldn't be able to do anything useful with it. —Like that?—

—Try a little more. Also, let's draw them some cute girls.—

Ocellus couldn't help but chirp in excitement.

"But she'll be here any minute!" Ocellus chirped in concern and looked around the house. She then looked around the hive's network. What she found was mostly a normal day in the hive. Changelings were going about their business, but they were doing it sneakily—they were all trying to hide their excitement.

Their big sister was coming home.

—I picked her up and am driving there now. You guys all set?— Rainbow Dash asked in a direct chat with Ocellus.

—Yup. Just give me a few seconds warning before she gets in the door.—

—Got it.— Rainbow Dash was driving as she messaged. Keeping her car to the normal speed limit meant she was free to do a lot more with her accelerated mind. —Nora, how's work?—

—Tedious as always. They will spend a week deliberating and then, as if they need to, spend an hour giving a speech before actually telling everyone their answer.— Nora Bug sat in court beside Twilight Velvet, their personal chat channel buzzing with idle conversation while they recorded the speech from the judge for later perusal and archiving.

Satisfied the digital preparations were set, Ocellus looked around the living room. "Girls, I don't think we've ever had twelve upright lamps." Six of the lamps turned back into changelings with a flash of green fire. "Maybe throw pillows?"

Three of the remaining lamps flared with green fire and hurled themselves onto the couch, shapechanging into cushions as they did so.

Ignoring the one extra lamp, Ocellus let out a chirpy giggle and took up her own spot right beside the door. —How much longer?—

—Just about to pull up now. Get ready.— Rainbow saw her home halfway down the street and might have stepped on the pedal just a little harder as a result. "Just about there."

"Everyone's so quiet. I'm so used to only having a few friends in my hive with me. I'm almost afraid to set myself as online." Byte's hands were clutched in her lap, and even her mother's driving wasn't getting through to her. "Did anyone even miss me?"

"I did." Rainbow pulled the car into her driveway and then leaned over to kiss Byte on the cheek. "Let's go ask the others. I'm sure someone's inside. I did tell them I was bringing you back."

The kiss and a hug from her mother had Byte feeling chirpy and more confident. She hugged Rainbow back and then sighed. "I guess I was just expecting… I don't know. The school was amazing in Equestria, but it wasn't home."

"C'mon, kiddo, let's head inside and fire up a game. When was the last time you got to play something?"

Her eyes widening, Byte let out a surprised chirp and buzzed her wings. Assuming her human form had been difficult after spending a year in her own shell, and she'd left her wings on. "Coming!"

—We're walking toward the door,— Rainbow Dash sent.

Ocellus flickered with green fire and became a coat rack beside the door. Her senses dimmed somewhat, so she swapped to viewing one of the cameras. She watched the front door unlock and open, and watched Byte walk inside. Behind her, Rainbow Dash nodded.

Byte didn't know what to think when she saw the whole room erupt into green fire. Couch cushions, lamps, an inexplicably superfluous three televisions, and even the coat rack beside her became a familiar, multi-colored changeling.

"Surprise!" Ocellus and two dozen other changelings shouted, and yet more shouted into ChirpNet.

Caught off-guard, Byte chirped excitedly to see her sisters, and held out her arms to hug them. "I can't believe you did this! Mom! Did you know about this?"

"'course I did. They needed me to help coordinate it and keep you from connecting to ChirpNet too early. You should totally go online now, though." The delight of her big family reunited made Rainbow want to chirp herself. She instead waited for Byte to come online and sent her a pile of hug emoji.

Overwhelmed by the flood of chirping and messages pouring into her, Byte felt excited and extra chirpy. —Thank you, everyone! I missed all of you so much!—

—You should tell them,— Rarity sent to Nora. —They'll want to know.—

—It can wait a little bit. Let Byte have her celebration. This news, now, cannot be undone.— Nora stood up beside Mrs. Velvet and turned to her. They didn't need to exchange any words aloud, not after the deliberation had just been revealed.

—We did it, Nora. Almost a full year of fighting in court, but it's now done.— For Twilight Velvet, conversing and even accessing data over her digital interface was as easy as holding regular conversations now, and the way it caused her to think a little faster than normal was a huge boon for her work. —Perhaps invite your friends around for a party? Get everyone together?—

Rarity chirped up a storm and started sending a flood of messages out. —Rainy, dear, I'm inviting some friends over. Nora had a little win, and once Byte is done being welcomed back, she'd like to announce it and make this party a bit bigger.—

—Awww yeah! Bobbin, can you pick up some stuff on the way home? Sending you a shopping list.— Rainbow sent a list of drinks and food she could easily cook for their friends. —How's the boutique doing today?—

—Great! We made some sales and one lady ordered a wedding dress!— Bobbin was in the process of boxing up a dress for a young man who looked positively ecstatic. "I hope you enjoy it! My mom is just amazing at making clothes."

"Oh, tell me about it. I don't even know how I got to chatting with her, but her designs are to die for! I can't believe I get to own a Rarity Original for myself! My girlfriend will be soooo jealous!" The young man hugged the box to his chest in glee. "Well, I must be off! I can't wait to try this on!"

—Mom, you just made someone so happy I feel a little drunk,— Bobbin sent Rarity.

—Hrmm?— Rarity quickly logged into the sales system at her boutique. —Oh, that young man was a delight to make something for. Please save some of his love for me.—

Bobbin chirped a giggle and fired off a digital, chirpy version of it to Rarity. —I'm fairly sure you could sample it yourself. He still has your chat details, and I think he'll be sending a message to you the moment he gets that on.—

The party started out as a relatively tight family affair until Rarity and Rainbow's high school friends arrived. Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich had been the first, followed by Sunset Shimmer and Flash Sentry, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy and Maud Pie, and finally Applejack.

The moment Applejack was in the door, Pinkie finally couldn't keep it in any longer. She put down her soda and cleared her throat while standing. "Excuse me, but we have an announcement."

Cheese stood up beside Pinkie and pulled her to his side. Making a show of kissing the top of her head. "I love you, Pinks."

A shiver ran through Pinkie at the affection. A hand moved involuntarily to her belly and she felt the warmth of all her friends seeping into her. "We're going to have a baby."

Rarity and Nora could have made a meal out of the room and been completely full. Everyone started talking at once and congratulating both Cheese and Pinkie. Once everything settled down, Pinkie aimed herself to sit next to Sunset with all the guile of a male ostrich doing its mating dance. "Sooooo. I don't suppose you'd be able to give me some pointers?"

"Enjoy your pregnancy, Pinkie. Don't stress, let Cheese help you as much as he wants to, and avoid any mental-attacking demons." Sunset looked down and her whole expression changed. The little girl in her arms soaked up every ounce of her attention and—when her daughter looked up at her—she melted into the biggest smile ever. "Are you hungry?"

Fluttering joy assailed Pinkie too. She watched as Sunset reached down and checked on her daughter. "Don't you ever worry that you might do something wrong?"

"Constantly. You'll make enough mistakes to cement that worry in stone, but at the same time you fight every day to do enough right."

"Do you think Rarity got lucky?" The question slipped out before Pinkie could stop it—a habit of hers from the day she first started talking. "I—I don't mean, that is…"

"Pinkie, Rarity has had to not just struggle each day to bring up her family, she's waged a war against monsters and society itself so that her kids have a place in it. Do I think she's lucky? She bound herself to those who love her, just as we both have. She's like a sister to me—you all are."

Feeling giddy with happiness, Pinkie put an arm around Sunset and hugged her. "I've just been so excited and terrified about this. It's nice to have someone tell me I'll survive, but I still need—"

"Me?" Cheese asked as he sat down on the couch beside Pinkie.

Pinkie broke into giggles and put her arms around Sunset and Cheese and squeezed both to her sides.

"Things are different in Ponyville, for changelings. They've had a whole year of getting used to me." Byte stood beside Ocellus at the entrance of the portal to Equestria. "And you might even find that some ponies are okay with you nibbling."

"What?!" Ocellus chirped in shock. "But—You walked around without any disguise on?"

"Well, yeah. Once Starlight got me hooked up with my own little hive there, it was great. Come on, I'll show you." Holding out her hand, Byte waited for Ocellus to take it. "I'll see you in a day, Mom!" —Love you moms!—

—A day? I'll just hang around at this time tomorrow then,— Rainbow Dash sent.

Bobbin's overworked chirp blasted through the chat toward Byte. —A whole day trying to juggle all this? You better only take a day!—

—I promise, sis.— Waiting only for another two warm chirps from Rarity and Nora, Byte stepped through the portal with Ocellus beside her.

It had been a whole year since Ocellus had been to Equestria. She'd been through and done a lot in her time away from home. Stepping out, she fell to all fours and chirped in surprise as she was again subject to gravity as a quadruped.

"Oof. That always comes as a bit of a surprise. Are you okay?" Byte asked. She tried to look around the room, but it was dim except for the—

"Surprise!"

In a fit of panic, both Ocellus and Byte shapechanged into furnishings. Byte chose a stylish single-seat sofa while Ocellus picked a cushion and flopped on Byte artfully. All the ponies and changelings in the room broke into nervous giggles.

Twilight Sparkle stepped forward and held out a hoof to Ocellus and Byte. "Sorry for startling you. We figured a Welcome Home Ocellus party was in order. Well, Pinkie demanded it, and last time I checked Equestria always bowed to the might of Pinkie Pie where parties are concerned."

Pronking forward, Pinkie leaned in close to Ocellus. "Sorry, but we have this huuuuuge party ready for you." Pressing her nose to one of the cushion's tassels, Pinkie lowered her voice. "If you're changeling-hungry, I don't mind you nibbling."

That information was enough of a surprise to coax Ocellus out of her disguise. When Byte reformed beside her, she felt like she was still connected to her despite lacking ChirpNet's connection. "S-Sorry. It was a bit of a surprise, and no one mentioned there would be all of you here."

"Well, it wouldn't have been a surprise party if you had known, silly. Come on, you need to meet everypony and everybuggy all over again, I bet!" Pinkie didn't give Ocellus time to recuperate, she grabbed the changeling's hoof and pulled her into the crowd.

Byte, who wasn't overly fond of such a tightly-packed crowd either, followed her friend and kept close. After all, chirpy bugs stick together.

"You're chirping." King Thorax was surprised by Ocellus' audible stridulations. He tried to bite back on the old-hive prejudices that made chirping something only very young nymphs did, and only until they were told it wasn't right.

Stepping up beside Ocellus, Byte narrowed her eyes at Thorax—and chirped.

Ocellus chirped a little louder in harmony with Byte's. "Chirping, King Thorax, is what changelings do!"

Author's Note

Wow. It's over. I don't know how to feel at this point. This story has been a large part of my life for over two years, and now plot is unfolded and the characters explored. What next? This opens a hole in my schedule into which I'll put my Harry Potter crossover fic into (so it has a more certain schedule) and start a new project of my own.

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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
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And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
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Editing provided by the wonderful Lab. (I am sorry for all those commas. One day I will manage to stop overusing them, but in two years I at least have cut down on my addiction significantly.)