Sometimes You Just Need A Push (-up)
A stab of pain shot Limestone through the heart. She clutched her chest with one hand, while bracing herself against the tiny, ill-lit bathroom’s pedestal sink with the other. But soon the agony became too great. Her knees buckled, and she hit the floor screaming.
The sudden shock of cold tile on her skin brought clarity enough to form a single thought: Whoever invented the bra needs to die!
Limestone pawed desperately at the middle of her back. She wriggled more onto her front—which she regretted, as it intensified the heart-pain. But soon her fingers felt the complex mechanism keeping the instrument of torture clasped upon her, and they pinched and pried at it, trying to figure out its “trick.”
She issued first one, then several, and finally a torrent of curses during her lengthy struggle. What began as careful prodding soon became full-on wrenching of the mechanism, as a heady cocktail of adrenaline and animal instinct pushed her harder to escape.
There was the tiniest, faintest feeling of give from the stitching. Limestone clutched the awful thing on either side of where she’d felt it, and dug her nails in so hard that pinpricks of pain danced across her palms.
Then with a roar, she tore the bra asunder.
The pain subsided, and she sucked deep breaths to steady herself. Limestone raised one shaky arm and clutched the lip of the bathroom sink; her other arm followed, still holding the limp remains of her erstwhile torture device. She hauled herself up slowly, breathing hard, almost afraid to survey the damage to her bare chest.
She did so eventually and froze at the sight of a thin red trail running down the left side and onto her abdomen. As she struggled to process what she was seeing, she raised the offending object in her hand, noting a spot of crimson on its left side and what appeared to be a small wire poking out of it.
Several loud knocks at the door jarred Limestone out of her stupor. “Daughter?” asked a male voice, strong and deep. “Be everything all right in there?”
Limestone grimaced, though this time not with pain. “No it’s not, Dad. Do you know what Mom just…” Her hand reached for the doorknob, but she stopped it in time. She blushed with embarrassment at what she’d almost done. “Uh, hang on, let me get my shirt back on.”
A pause. “Daughter, be this something that thy mother ought to discuss with thee?”
“I don’t want to talk to her,” she said quickly, shrugging her way into a plain brown t-shirt. “Dad, do you even know…” Limestone opened the door and held the source of so much pain up near her father’s eyes. He recoiled on instinct, despite his greater height and labor-honed build. “Look at this, Dad. What do you call this?!”
Igneous Rock Pie raised his brownish-orange hands defensively. “A… brassiere?”
“Ugh. No, look at the blood!” She shook the bra, which flopped and dangled, visibly exacerbating Igneous’ already considerable level of tension. “That’s an exposed underwire! That’s not only dangerous, it’s crazy!”
Her father cleared his throat. “Now Daughter, as I understand it, thy mother chooses brassieres as she does out of loyalty to thy grandfather’s business.”
“Grampa Holder sold that business to Wal-Mare a long time ago! Nobody should care if we don’t buy name-brand Boulder Holders every time, if you can even call a Wal-Mare house brand a ‘name.’ And it’s not like Mom or the others…” She made a cupped-hand gesture toward her chest. “You know, need the underwire? Mom doesn’t know what she’s buying for, and I’m tired of being the one who gets left hanging.”
Igneous’ eyes glazed. He scratched at his bushy grey sideburns. “I am… grateful that thou wouldst share this with me. I love thee, and I care that thou shouldst… have… what thy body needs.”
Limestone put her hands on her hips. “Let me guess: the ‘but’ is, you're not gonna go lay down the law with Mom about bringing this reign of Wal-Mare terror-bras to an end?”
“Too often do I mediate between thee and thy mother,” Igneous said slowly. “Thou must learn when fighting will not help thee, and to remain firm and support thyself otherwise.” He turned and set off down the narrow hallway.
“No, Dad, the whole problem here is the lack of support!” Limestone hesitated, glancing down at her shirt. “Can you take me to the mall?”
“Ask thy mother,” he called back to her.
With a low growl, Limestone set off after him, still holding the evil bra in a death grip.
Ahead, Igneous rounded the corner to the living room. Limestone took a deep breath and followed him, knowing what she’d likely hear—
“Whoa there! Boingy boingy,” said Pinkie from the couch, waggling her eyebrows above large headgear braces that framed her smile. Next to her, Marble peeked up from above a heavy book, let out a little gasp, then retreated again.
“You should put a bra on,” said Maud, her other sister, from the table in the adjoining dining room.
Limestone turned a glare on Maud, but noted the textbook, pencils, and notepads laid out before her. “Maud, I’m gonna let that go because you’re high on geology or whatever. But Pinkie, Marble, these things ain’t exactly rocket-powered. How do you even know I’m not wearing one?!”
“Pinkie Sense!” her sister quipped, smiling hard enough to strain her braces. “What’s that, Marble? …Oh, ‘Marble Sense,’ too!”
Limestone facepalmed.
“Daughter, put thy bra on, please,” said Cloudy Quartz, who pushed past her into the dining room and set a basket of laundry down on the table next to Maud. “That’s the new one I bought thee, there, yes? ’Tis indecent being out in such a state.”
“Y’know what’s indecent, Mom?” She raised and shook the bra. “Take a look at this.”
“Watch thy tone, please,” Cloudy said, before taking the bra in both hands and holding it up to the overhead light. “Hm. Why wouldst thou put on a bra with an exposed wire?”
Limestone spluttered. “Why ‘wouldst thou’ buy me a bra with an exposed wire?! Did you even look at this before you threw it in the cart?”
Cloudy’s brows knit as her whole expression darkened.
“I mean, come on, Mom! You think you’re smart enough to keep us home and school us yourself, but you can’t even be bothered to notice—”
“Daughter! Mind thine insolence, or thou shalt be given extra volunteer shifts at the homeless shelter!”
Cloudy and Limestone leaned toward each other with noses flaring and lips beginning to curl, when a deep but distant voice startled them: “Doing good for others ought not be a punishment, beloved wife.”
“What—but… Igneous! Come hither! Dost thou know what thy daughter just said?!”
“Verily I heard her, but I feel thou must needs work this out with her thyself this time. And the same goes for thee, dear daughter! As the Good Word of Harmony teaches us, ‘if thou befriendest thy foes, then thou shalt have none!’”
“Ooooo, denied,” Pinkie giggled from the couch.
Limestone and Cloudy both turned rage-filled looks in Pinkie’s direction. But they startled, paused, and blinked, as each noticed the mirror-image expression on the other’s face. Gradually, they settled back into staring at each other with tight frowns.
“I want you to take me to Canterville Mall,” Limestone said.
Her mother blinked several more times. “Surely not! Imagine: mine own daughter, gone cavorting amid such a cesspool of mammon-worship and ess-ee-ex-crazed, licentious youth?”
“Look, I swear, I just want to buy a decent bra. No… ‘cavorting,’ or whatever. I’ve got a little money saved up, and I can even drive there myself if you’ll just sit in the passenger seat.”
“She is behind on hours toward her learner’s permit,” Maud interjected.
Limestone sneered at her.
“Very well,” Cloudy said, giving Limestone a look of stiff-lipped determination. “For thy father’s sake, I’ll agree to this. But we shall use our time driving to this mall to remind thee of the Way of Harmony that a daughter of this household shall adhere to. ’Tis just as I do each day with Pinkamena and Maudelina before they go out to their ‘schools.’ We shall speak of honesty, loyalty, generosity, kindness, good cheer—”
“Sounds magical,” Limestone muttered through clenched teeth.
“’Tis worse than I imagined,” Cloudy breathed as they stepped into the mall’s glass-domed entrance.
Limestone looked from her mother up to the huge sign hanging high above the floor. On it was pictured a blond-haired, brown-skinned woman sitting nude—but strategically posed—before a black backdrop. It also bore the words:
Chestnut Magnifico welcomes you to the Platinum’s Secret Semi-Annual Sale.
“Come on, Mom. With how they’ve got her sitting, it’s not like you can see anything.”
“Nothing but those great expanses of bronzed flesh!”
Limestone rolled her eyes. “All right, so I don’t have to go into Platinum’s Secret. And it’s not too late for you to turn back, either.”
“Nay. I understand what hath brought thee here, but I shan’t stand by and send mine eldest as a lamb unto the slaughter. Thou needest protection and guidance in a place such as this, lest thou end up as just another of these hedonistic youths.”
She pointed into the crowd, and Limestone beheld a nearby bench with a green-skinned, dreadlocked girl sitting next to two other girls—one lighter-green, the other cream-colored—who seemed to be rather more than “Best Friends” with each other.
“Look Mom, I’m not gonna style my hair weird and start… kissing people.” Limestone couldn’t resist gagging slightly. “And I’m definitely not gonna start posing on signs, naked or otherwise. But I’m also not leaving here without a bra, okay?”
Cloudy frowned and glanced down at the floor. “Let me do something, please. Thou art mine eldest daughter, and nothing could diminish the love I feel for thee, but I fear for thee in such a place.”
Limestone narrowed her eyes. “Not that I’d want to give Maud the satisfaction of knowing this, of course, but she’s right about one thing: I could use a real wallet now that I’ve got a permit and I’m getting out more. This envelope of money is pretty uncomfortable…. maybe you could hold onto it for me?”
Cloudy’s expression brightened. “Of course! ’Tis a wise precaution anyway. These youths may trouble their own ilk from time to time, but surely not their elders.”
Still holding her mother’s gaze, Limestone slowly produced the beat-up envelope of cash from out of her pocket and handed it over. Cloudy unzipped the top of her austere brown leather purse and put it in.
“Very well—”
A red-and-yellow-toned blur passed between them. Something pushed Limestone backward, knocking her off her feet. She looked around, trying to get her bearings, and saw her mother similarly dazed and down. But then Cloudy looked at her empty hands, and Limestone did as well, and both came to a single realization:
“That girl stole my purse!”
Limestone stood and spotted a figure with red-and-yellow-streaked hair bobbing and weaving through the crowd to her right. A quick glance backward from the girl revealed a flash of amber skin. She made eye contact with Limestone for just a moment before turning away, continuing to make good on her escape.
Cloudy Gripped Limestone’s shoulder. “She hath my purse! My cards! My driver’s license!”
“And my bra money,” Limestone said, smacking her left palm with her right fist. “How ’bout we do a little mother-daughter bonding over her face?”
“Thy father would not approve,” Cloudy said, cracking her knuckles and giving Limestone a wicked grin.
“Yeah, but he usually doesn’t, with us,” Limestone said, returning the grin.
They set off into the heavy crowd together, alternately dodging and pushing past slower-moving mallgoers. Limestone felt it was odd to be surrounded by so many people, much less ones of her own age, give or take. She forgot her newfound determination for a moment, and flushed with embarrassment at the thought of standing out among them as some random weird girl pushing through. She glanced back at her mother, hoping to find renewed strength. Instead, she saw brows knit in contemplation, and a mouth pulled tight with displeasure and fear.
Maybe she’s worried about having to get new cards and stuff. Or did she honestly think being an adult would get her somewhere with the one kid in this whole mall who’d actually try something? Why couldn’t she have just stayed in the car! She’s never going to let any of us go to the mall ever again!
“Up there!” Cloudy shouted, pointing toward a large glass storefront lined with white mannequins wearing fleecy dark-colored dresses. “She just went in! Let’s try to circle around and stop her!”
“Got it!”
Limestone and Cloudy cleared the entrance together. Up ahead, the red-and-yellow-haired girl ducked past a rack full of sweaters. Without a word, Limestone broke left and Cloudy broke right, dashing to either side of the row of clothes where it looked like the girl was headed.
By chance, Limestone's gaze happened to fall upon a female mannequin bedecked in a green jumper and a cute-looking pair of jeans. She slowed just slightly as she absorbed the careful detail of their workmanship. Boy is this a far cry from the stuff mom makes us! Her eyes then wandered to a second mannequin wearing a jacket of tan suede that looked both warm and soft to the touch.
Another jacket caught her attention, though: one of black leather, and with a mop of red-and-yellow-streaked hair above it.
“Hey!” Limestone shouted, putting on a burst of speed. “Mom, she’s here! You give me back my bra money, you—”
The girl snarled. And for a moment, Limestone was struck by the look of wildness and determination in her eyes. Rarely did Limestone meet anyone willing to stand up to her, much less someone who could meet or beat her own level of aggression. But perhaps the more striking thing was just how disheveled the girl’s appearance was, now that Limestone got a decent look at her.
The girl’s long hair was a mess of greasy tangles, as though she didn’t know how to take care of it, or simply hadn’t had the time. She clutched Cloudy’s purse with nails that looked inconsistently long and unevenly chewed. Her face was streaked with dirt, and there were heavy bags under her bloodshot eyes. It reminded Limestone of some of the toughest cases she’d run into while volunteering at the local homeless shelter—including cases where the staff had needed to call in social services and refer people for psychiatric help.
But she didn’t give Limestone more time to reflect. Instead, she reached over with both hands and pulled a heavy clothes rack to the ground. Then she vaulted into the next aisle, dodging around another customer and heading back toward—
“The exit!” Cloudy shouted. “Come, Limestone, I see her heading back out to the hall!”
Limestone doubled back around the row of clothes she was in and headed toward the store’s exit. Her mother came running up next to her, and seemed to be holding something long and floppy in each hand.
“I found these while I did pursue the girl,” Cloudy said with a tentative smile, raising what turned out to be a pair of beige-colored bras. “Now, while not genuine Boulder Holders—”
“No,” Limestone shouted. “I’m picking a bra that I like. Come on!”
Cloudy dropped the bras just before dashing through the store's anti-theft scanners. The scanners beeped anyway, though, and Limestone turned and raised her hands defensively toward a couple of random shoppers near the door. "Not stealing," she declared. "Look, there they are—we're not taking anything!"
"There she is," Cloudy said, drawing Limestone's attention back to the matter at hand. And indeed, Limestone turned in time spot the wild girl pushing through a large group of teens and entering another store across the way.
The two of them picked their way through the intervening crowd and toward a much smaller storefront displaying pictures of stern-looking executive businesswomen. Limestone and Cloudy both glared at the gangly adolescents, most of whom had their attention buried in their cell phones, or who must’ve been laughing at an inside joke.
When they finally reached the storefront, they were intercepted in the doorway by a prim pink figure with an immaculate white suit and a plastered-on smile. “Why hello. You ladies are welcome to Posh Pantsuits, and it would seem—” a pause, just long enough to size them up briefly but thoroughly “—not a moment too soon.”
“Did a girl with a purse just run in here?” Limestone asked.
“With my purse,” Cloudy added between breaths.
The shopkeeper tittered humorlessly. “But of course not. We serve only the finest clientele, or at least those who bathe regularly and are able to pay. We’ve seen that one around lately, and she seems able to do neither.”
“But she was going this way.”
“She was sent out.” The shopkeeper winked, then pointed a dainty finger down the hallway. “That way, to be specific. Though ladies… if it were my surprisingly halfway fashionable purse on the line, I’d get security involved. That one seems almost feral.”
“A wise suggestion,” Cloudy said. “Come, Limestone, let us seek them.”
“But she could go anywhere in the time it would take us to get somebody. Maybe we could herd her into a small store, and one of us could watch the entrance while the other goes and gets security? I mean, do you really want to risk her getting away with your stuff?”
“Nay,” Cloudy said, setting her jaw and nodding. “Very well; let us keep up pursuit of this Harmony-forsaken wastrel.”
Limestone frowned as they jogged down the hallway, looking to and fro for any signs of the girl. Something about her mother’s words didn’t sit right with her, though. She struggled to place the feeling. “Mom, what you just said…”
“Harmony-forsaken? Daughter, is it not the very thing?! We are here but a handful of moments, our eyes assaulted by lusting teenagers and a banner of salaciousness… and our effects are stolen by someone whom these so-called authorities ‘tolerate’ instead of apprehending? Recall, the shopkeeper said the girl hath been around ‘lately.’ And did you notice that she cannot even bother to clean herself?”
Limestone’s frown deepened, to whatever extent that was possible. A bit more of the stray thought started fitting together in her head. “Yeah, but doesn’t that seem wrong to you? I mean, I got a look at her, and the word that shopkeeper used—‘feral’—it’s not a bad way to describe her.”
“Everything is wrong about it, Daughter. Look at what degeneracy breeds within this cesspool!”
“No, Mom, normal people aren’t feral. Even lusting teens have limits. This is more like what we’ve seen at the homeless shelter! Something would have to go pretty wrong for this girl to be running around, stealing purses, not keeping herself clean…?”
Cloudy glanced at her, meeting her eyes for only a moment while trying to avoid running headlong into other mallgoers. “What art thou saying, Daughter?”
“I… I don’t know. Just that if she isn’t crazy, there has to be a lot more to the story here.”
“There!” Cloudy shouted, drawing Limestone’s attention. “And how fitting that it should be there, of all places, where the beast shall finally be caged.”
Limestone slowed, blinking, as she spotted a smaller copy of the Chestnut Magnifico poster that they’d seen earlier. It hung just to the right of the black-and-pink sign above the door. And for some indeterminate reason, the display on the left side was emblazoned with the word “PINK” over a collection of stuffed dogs that appeared to be wearing women’s underthings.
“Platinum’s Secret,” Limestone breathed.
She’d heard things about it, of course: dark rumors from her mother of unspeakable “ess-ee-ex” clothing and accessories that nevertheless drew in people of all ages. One time, through means that no one could as yet fully explain, one of their catalogs had turned up among Marble’s school books. Marble had insisted it wasn’t hers, but Cloudy had compelled her to do extra volunteer shifts at the shelter for a few weeks “just in case.”
“I’m going in,” Limestone said as loudly as she dared.
Cloudy looked at her with alarm. “Daughter, no.”
“You’re the adult, Mom. The security guards will be quicker to listen to you than me. Right?”
A shadow passed over Cloudy’s features. “…No, you’ll wait out here. Do not go in there, understand? Just watch the entrance.”
Their eyes met. Limestone felt a surge of adrenaline. Her mother tensed and took a long breath. Both knew, based on years of experience, that Limestone would only do what her mother said under three specific kinds of circumstances. First was if she personally agreed with it; second was if her father agreed with it; and third was if there was no reasonable way around having to do it. And Limestone watched a silent war play out across her mother’s face, as Cloudy doubtlessly ran through a similar train of thought.
“Mom, you’ve spent my whole life teaching me about the Way of Harmony,” Limestone said, breaking the long silence. “I know what it says; I know what you expect; and I follow it, even if I don’t always think it leads the same direction you do.”
Cloudy shook her head. “Very well, then; I pray thou wouldst find wisdom in its teachings. I shall go and fetch security.” She turned and headed back toward the mall’s entrance.
Limestone sucked in several deep breaths as she watched her mother disappear into the crowd. When she was reasonably sure that her mother could no longer see, she turned and plunged herself through the forbidden doorway.
The inside of the store was darker than she had expected. Canister lights set above the various shelves and displays cast only a modicum of illumination. How fitting for the den of Tartarus, Limestone thought automatically, channeling more her mother’s words than her own feelings. If anything, she felt gripped by a magnetic sense of curiosity at what could be so awful as to draw even more of her mother’s ire than most things did.
“Hi there, can I help you?”
Limestone jolted with surprise. She turned, seeing a pretty, blue-haired, somewhat-older shopgirl. Limestone gawped soundlessly for a moment, reflecting on the girl’s perfectly modest, if completely black, clothing. Not walking all about in lingerie, eh?
“Uhh, I just…”
The girl glanced down at Limestone’s chest and giggled. “I’m sorry,” she said, resuming a more professional expression. “May I guess that this is your first time visiting us?”
“Uh, yeah,” Limestone said, blushing. “I need a bra.”
“Well, you’ve come to the right place!” Limestone bristled as the girl reached out and took her hands, smiling warmly and tugging her gently toward a set of shelves. “Now if you’re comfortable, we can do a complete set of measurements to make sure you get the absolute best fit. But I can understand if that seems like a lot for your first time, so we—”
“Hold on,” Limestone said, planting her feet and shaking herself loose from the girl’s spell. “Did you see someone run in here a minute ago, carrying a purse?”
The girl frowned, and looked down at the floor. “She ran back into the over-18 room. Poor thing. I’ve been seeing her around lately. Doesn’t act right.”
Limestone felt another surge of adrenaline. Or tension. Or whatever the specific cocktail of emotional and physical reactions was, it made her ears buzz and her stomach churn. “Look, can you watch the door for me? If she runs out, I need to know which way she’s going. But I… I need to talk to her.”
“Okay. Oh, but are you over eighteen?”
Limestone took a long breath. Deep-rooted recollections of Cloudy’s lectures on Harmony, and honesty in specific, played through her head. “No,” Limestone admitted. “But I need to talk to her anyway. It’s important.”
The girl frowned, but nodded. “Okay, I guess, but if anyone asks—”
“We tell your boss you tried to stop me, but I was too ‘ess-ee-ex’-crazed and I overpowered you. Kay?” Limestone blushed like an open flame.
“All right, just take it easy in there.”
Limestone nodded, then turned to look across the store toward a doorway hung with black beads and a white sign with “18+ ONLY” lettering above it.
“Harmony above, please don’t let this be the moment when Mom catches up with me,” she breathed.
She entered through the strings of beads slowly. Her eyes found even less illumination in the smaller back area. What little there was emanated from vivid bars of pink neon set at odd intervals along the walls. Limestone glanced at one of the pictures also hung on the walls, but then blushed fiercely and looked down at her shoes. This one also seemed to be of Chestnut Magnifico, just not with quite as careful posing.
“Uh… hello?” Limestone called, quite keen to notice that one of her shoelaces was fraying at the end.
“You stay back,” came a girl’s reply.
Limestone took a deep breath and dared to look up again. She tried to be selective about where her eyes lingered as she glanced along the rows of items. Some had mere outlines suggested by the garish but dim light, while others were much shinier and reflected it all too readily.
There, at the back of the far row, was a dark silhouette with faintly glistening eyes.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Limestone said, raising a hand.
“You’re buckin’ right you aren’t gonna hurt me,” the girl barked. “I may not be able to blast you without my horn, but I’ve gotten these claw-things to be pretty sharp!”
Limestone furrowed her brows at the girl’s nonsense. “No, look, this doesn’t have to be a fight. If you’re in trouble, or you need for help, my family and I all volunteer at a homeless shelter—”
“You aren’t taking me anywhere, especially not to get ‘help.’ Celestia thinks I’m not ready to make it on my own, but I’ll show her!”
“Celestia…” Limestone frowned and knit her brows, recalling some things that Maud had mentioned while arguing to get let out of homeschool. “You mean, the principal in town?”
The girl paused. “No, I—she’s a principal here?”
Limestone shrugged. “Look, I don’t know, okay? But that’s not really the point. I need to get the purse back. My mom’s gonna freak if she has to cancel and reissue all her cards and stuff. Plus who knows what else she’s got in there. And that’s not even mentioning what I’ve got in there.”
“You think I like living this way?! I was born in a mansion, raised in a castle, tutored by the greatest minds in the land! But for the last week I’ve been sleeping in the back of a store, drinking from bathroom faucets, and scavenging from food court garbage cans! I’m not stealing because I want to; I’m just out of options.”
“What happened?”
The girl scoffed. “They wanted to take it all away from me. Said I was researching things that I shouldn’t have. Said I was dangerous… not listening… too hungry for power. That’s the kind of mare that you’ve got cornered here. So I’ll give you a hoof… hand… for chasing me down, but now it’s time to trot away while you still can!”
“I…” Limestone considered the offer, or the threat as it might be. Let security deal with this nutcase, she thought briefly. But something about the way the girl talked, combined with everything about the way she looked and acted…
A feeling writhed in Limestone’s heart. For a moment it brought to mind the stabbing pain of the last Wal-Mare bra she swore she’d ever wear. But she also thought about her father’s guidance not to fight when a would-be enemy could become something different. Limestone had seen crazy before at the shelter, but this girl—however hurt, desperate, agitated, and prone to using horse-words at inappropriate times—didn’t seem crazy. And Limestone wondered whether getting her arrested was really going to help, or if the girl just needed a nudge to seek help when she was ready for it.
Generosity, her mother’s voice said in her memory. Kindness, too.
Maybe she needs more support than my bra situation does, Limestone thought, feeling her shoulders slump.
“I’ve got an envelope of money in there,” Limestone said aloud. She forced herself to breathe as her determination to press on struggled against the growing weight of disappointment that she felt. “It ought to be enough to buy you a few meals, or some hair care stuff, or even a couple nights in a cheap hotel.”
“What do I look like, a charity case?”
Limestone winced; no one at the homeless shelter had ever been a jerk about accepting help. “Just take it, all right? It’ll buy you some breathing room while you figure out your next move. And if you give me the rest of my mom’s stuff back, I’ll do what I can to throw security off your trail.”
There was a long silence punctuated only by both girls’ breathing. Limestone felt a fresh stab of fear about being caught in Platinum’s Secret, much less in its over-18 room.
But then the silhouette jerked suddenly, and Limestone startled as her mom’s purse landed at her feet.
“Th… thank you.” Limestone bent down and picked the purse up, letting herself finger its smooth leather by way of taking a moment to think. “The shelter’s a pretty easy bus ride from here, too. Just save yourself a couple bucks to get there if you want to check it out.”
“I don’t need anypony’s help,” the girl said.
With a small shake of her head, Limestone turned away and pushed back out into the rest of the store. She took slow footsteps toward the shopgirl, who was still waiting by the door.
“Oh! Good, you got it back from her!”
“Yeah.” Limestone met the girl’s eyes with a frown. “For all the good that’s going to do my whole bra situation.”
The shopgirl’s brows knit, but Limestone waved a hand dismissively. “It’s… it’s fine. I probably did the right thing. Or I just gave all my money to a crazy person who’s gonna blow it on Harmony-knows-what.”
“Oh, I’m very sorry. But you… helped that girl?”
Limestone shrugged. “She sounds like a runaway. And I mean, as much of a pain as my own parents can be sometimes… I wouldn’t run unless I had a really good reason.” She turned a longing gaze toward the nearest rack of bras, which were blue and red and scandalously lacy and looked so very, very comfortable. “I gotta go.”
“Well… thank you, I think.” The shopgirl frowned, then suddenly looked in each of her pants pockets before pulling a slip of glossy paper out of one of them. “Here,” she said, raising it toward Limestone. “We’re only supposed to give these out after a purchase, but…” She giggled a little. “It sounds like you already spent a fair bit in our store today.”
Limestone took it and stared down at it. Staring back were the words:
ALL BRAS Buy One Get One NO EXCLUSIONS
She looked back up at the shopgirl’s small smile. “I could kiss you right now if that wouldn’t literally make my mom’s hair catch on fire.”
“Oh, get out of here, you,” she said with a single hand wave and a wink. “And thank you for shopping at Platinum’s Secret!”
Limestone walked out of the store, still clutching the purse in one hand and the coupon in the other. She glanced back toward the over-18 room, frowning and shaking her head, and not completely sure if she meant it for the room itself, or for the girl whom she’d just given several months’ worth of her allowance.
“There she is!”
A familiar voice called out to Limestone. She looked up, spotting her mother weaving through the crowd with two bored-looking security guards in lukewarm pursuit.
“Daughter, didst thou…” Cloudy looked down, eyes going wide as she spotted the purse in her hand. “But I… how did…?”
“She didn’t expect me to put up a fight,” Limestone said, finding solace in a half-truth. “I don’t know what all you had in here, but I’m pretty sure she only took my money.”
“Oh, my poor dear,” Cloudy said, touching her hand to Limestone’s arm. “I know that thou hadst saved for quite a while to earn that.”
Limestone sighed. “It’s… fine. Look, I don’t know where she’s going from here.” Another half-truth, but she felt it was the best she could manage. She looked up at the security guards. “Sorry, guys.”
They mumbled something Limestone couldn’t hear. Cloudy recoiled at it. “What?! Of course I wish to press charges if she’s found! ’Tis my daughter’s money she hath stolen. Go, yes, call me if thou findst anything!” She shook her head as the guards shuffled away. “Useless. A police force befitting the rank indecency of this place!”
“Mom?”
“Yes, Daughter?”
Limestone cocked her head, adopting a pained expression. “Out of the entire Way of Harmony, whatever happened to ‘be of good cheer?’”
“But how can I at a time like this? Mine own daughter—”
“Mom.”
“…Yes?”
“I don’t mean about the girl. I mean…” Limestone looked down at her chest, then at the coupon, and finally back up at her mother. “What were you expecting? Not everyone’s gonna have the same super-serious view of Harmony that you do. Don’t you think you’d be better off going into a place like this and showing what you believe, instead of just sitting there complaining about how nobody else lives up to it like you do?”
Cloudy blinked. “Bold words indeed.” She looked down at the floor, and gradually her frown slid into something deeper, perhaps tinged with sadness. “And yet, I can’t deny their wisdom.”
Her eyes flicked up and focused on the coupon.
“Why don’t we go talk over ice cream,” Limestone said, forestalling her. She glanced back toward the store, and squinted to make out where its over-18 room must be. She thought she saw a ripple in the curtain of beads.
“Daughter, where didst thou get that coupon?”
Limestone fought to keep herself from sweating as she watched the girl push back into the main part of Platinum’s Secret.
“I’ll tell you all about it, but we should go, like… right now. Maybe we can sit and talk without shouting for once—that’d make Dad happy, right?” Limestone took a breath. “And when we’re done, I'd like to ask if I could borrow some money from you. I mean… I don’t really want to, but I can’t go on like this.”
Cloudy narrowed her eyes. Limestone’s pulse raced as she watched unspoken questions and protests dance across her mother’s expression. But eventually, Cloudy began nodding. “Aye. Frivolous though it may be, ice cream doth sound pleasant after such exertion. And verily, ’t’would be a waste for us to drive all the way here and return without a few bras for thee.”
Limestone exhaled with relief. She carefully slipped the coupon into her pocket, then smiled at her mother. Who knew she could actually be reasonable without Dad around? The thought filled Limestone's chest with warmth, and stirred her to gently link elbows with her mother’s free arm.
Cloudy looked down at their linked arms, then back up at Limestone. “What… art thou doing, Daughter?”
“Nothing,” Limestone said, unlinking their arms with a sigh and an eye roll.
