Her hand working overtime, Limestone's lips squeezed into a hard line as Sonata described more and more threats in Equestria. "This is all useful, but I think a better way to deal with this would be for you to write a book on all these. My boss hasn't told me to ask this, but you'd probably sell thousands of copies just to law enforcement—particularly if you put in notes on how to neutralize them."

While Sonata wasn't a genius like Twilight was, she had been around long enough to pick up what Limestone was putting down. What appealed to her, though, was that she'd be able to do that while working for Spicy. "Given how fast things here are progressing, I take it you'll want any drafts as I come up with them. Okay, I'll try that, but you have more questions for me?"

Limestone worked through her list. Unlike with Aria, she didn't have to deal with a hostile interview, so she let Sonata talk as much as she wanted and kept pulling her back to the questions when she got really off-topic. "Finally I have one last question for you."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Sonata slumped back a little more firmly into the couch's embrace. "What is it?"

"Would you be willing to be called on again in future? You have so much intimate knowledge of all this. I don't think I could ask all the right questions if we had a month to just talk—let alone one night." Looking at her notebook, Limestone shook her head at the amount of things Sonata had gone over. Not just things that can control minds, but some of the more serious dangers too.

Sonata wasn't overly keen on the open-ended nature of the request, but she figured some riders might help. "I mean, I kinda like my job here, but if you need me for something that's life or death, I can come running."

"I hate to make it sound like your citizenship hangs on this, but I'll make sure to put in a good word for you with the General." Looking down at her hands, Limestone carefully folded up her notebook and slipped it into her jacket pocket. "And now I sound like an ass."

"How long have you been doing this?" Sonata asked.

"Been in the army for seven years, been at this new job since the night you helped shut your sisters up."

"I meant talking to people who were questionably a monster, or a friend, or just neutral—and trying not to threaten, cajole, or freak them out." Lifting her hand up, Sonata moved with more speed than Limestone could track and booped the soldier on the nose.

Freezing at how fast Sonata had moved, Limestone realized what'd happened and tried to calm herself. "You remind me of my little sister."

Mentally crunching the facts she knew, Sonata realized who Limestone meant. "I don't think I could ever live up to Pinkie's energy, but I have tried to model my morals after her and her friends.

It was a fight not to smile, but Limestone was good at not smiling. "You could do a lot worse than them if you want a moral code." Standing up, she turned for the door. "After all, you could have used me."

"Pfft. You're not so bad. You didn't get in too big a huff when I booped you, and I haven't been arrested." Sonata shrugged. "Don't try to lie, you just hide your niceness better."

"Don't tell anyone that, ever." Limestone, with her back to Sonata, actually allowed herself a moment to smile. "I'll catch you around, Sonata Dusk—Oh, take my card." Turning, Limestone held out one of the cards Raven had given her.

Taking the card, Sonata quirked an eyebrow at it just having a number on it. "Want me to call and leave my details?"

Facepalming and folding her ears back at the mistake, Limestone reached into her pocket, pulled out her notebook, and took down the details Sonata gave her. "Kinda new to this. In the army, you can always get in contact with anyone you need to."

"You'll get used to it." Sonata picked up the dishes and started carrying them over to the kitchen to wash. "Hey, you ever want to go out and have some drinks?"

Limestone froze. She'd talked to Pinkie about Sonata and the others. "I—uh—I'm straight."

Sonata snorted. "I get enough tail. I meant someone to have drinks with. It's a little tough being friends with a bunch of people who can't drink."

"Yeah, I hear that. I'll give you a call next night I'm not stuck transcribing notes." Patting at her jacket, above where her notebook was, Limestone let herself out. "Thanks, Sonata."

"Hey, you're just making the world safe for all of us. Goodbye, Limestone."

"Well, that couldn't have gone any better if you'd tried. A slew of information, a promise of assistance, and if she delivers on that guide we'll have what's essentially a field manual." Raven Inkwell's hands kept racing on her keyboard. All through the debrief she'd been typing, and now she had a lot more to type.

"It was hard to get a read on her at first. She seems to hide behind a veil of airheadedness, but when she starts talking about things that happened over a century ago—" Limestone shook her head. "She comes off as just a normal person with ten times the age. I don't know why, though, but I think I made a friend."

"I won't order you to cultivate that—you're not cut out for spy work. What you do with your time outside work, with members of the public, is your own business. Just don't let it get in the way of my business." When one of Raven's hands was disabled by her familiar laying on it, she exerted a little willpower and made a phantom limb to keep typing for her.

"Thanks. She actually sounded lonely for a friend. I guess I'm a bit the same way." It cost Limestone to admit that, but she wanted to be square with the general and not be accused of something later on because she wasn't completely honest.

"Dismissed, Sergeant." When Limestone left her office, Raven looked down at the intact and unmolested totem of detection on her desk. "And for what it's worth, I want to believe that we have another ally in all this."

The rest of orientation week passed in a rush. Sunset couldn't get over how exciting it was to finally attend college for real. She rushed to her first lecture on Monday morning, waiting at the door at half-past-seven in the morning.

Not caring that she was half an hour early, she pulled out her textbook and started reading over the first chapter—again.

With a bottle of juice in one hand and her lecture notes in the other, Chris Alias walked right past Sunset and pushed the door open to the lecture hall—shoving it until it locked open. She was wearing a smart-looking white suit, complete with trousers, and had her cerulean hair swept back and trailing halfway down her rump. "You can come in if you'd like. I won't bite until second semester."

Sunset jumped a little, then walked into the lecture hall as if in a dream. She could swear the sound of some coming-of-age anime intro was playing in her head. "Sorry. Still a bit excited about all—all of this!"

Genuinely smiling at the raw enthusiasm, Chris nodded toward Sunset's textbook. "You actually unwrapped it before your first class?"

Blinking in shock at being pulled back to reality, Sunset looked down at her textbook (that already had little sticky-note tags of interesting sections she'd marked. "Some of the students in Intro Psych won't want to be here. They'll be getting a shove from their parents or course-advisors. Why don't we make a wager?"

It felt like a game before the terms had even been explained. Sunset raised an eyebrow. "What kind of wager?"

"If over half the class unwrap their textbook from its wrapping at the start of my lecture, I'll want a paper from you explaining what reasoning is behind their choices." It was a stupid bet, Chris knew, since normally three-quarters of her freshman year students did it.

Sunset could feel the game already forming. She'd gladly write the paper, but she'd rather find out what the boon of the game was. "And if it's under half?"

"Then you can get into my psych study group. It's mostly sophomores and up, but I feel comfortable that you'll hit the track running." Lifting her bottle of Bug Juice, Chris took a sip of the sugary drink.

Thinking for a few seconds, Sunset's face lit up. She grinned at Chris with devious intent and nodded. "That sounds like a deal. When's the study group meet?"

Chris wasn't a fool and nor was she blind. She'd spotted the wings and tail Sunset sported and knew her to be one of the girls from the concert. "I'll tell you in… fourteen minutes—and twelve months."

Sunset tilted her head, a plan already forming in her head. "Sooner than that. Excuse me." She walked out the door of the lecture hall and pulled out some paper to make a sign. Pinkie Pie, she knew, was right about one thing—Sunset had grown quite the chest. Now it was time to put it to work.

1 textbook wrapper = 1 hug

She tacked the sign on the wall beside her with some tacky paste, and slipped her jacket off. The last part of her plan involved pulling the hem of her shirt up a bit and tying it under her bust so it tightened and showed off her assets. "Come on, girls, time to work."

Chris waited at the desk to one side of the stage, watching as students filed into the hall. When eight o'clock rolled around, she watched as Sunset entered the room wearing the biggest grin Chris had ever seen on a first year.

Clearing her throat, Chris waited for Sunset to take a seat before beginning. "Welcome to Introductory Psychology. I'm Chris Alias, your lecturer for this class, and we'll be meeting here at this hour of the morning every Monday and Wednesday until you pass or pass-out. Please, everyone open your textbooks to the first chapter."

There was some plastic crinkling, but Chris was stunned to see only a handful of the girls of the class and two of the guys who looked extremely embarrassed as they made noise. Her eyes riveted to Sunset as her thoughts raced.

It made the lecture go by at a murderous drag—for Chris. She hated not knowing what Sunset had done, but it wasn't until the two-hour session was over that she was finally free to approach her. "What did you do?"

"I get to join your study group no matter what, right?" Sunset asked as the other students seemed only too happy to leave the lecture theater as soon as possible.

Reaching her fingers up to pinch the bridge of her nose, Chris felt like grinding her teeth (though she had managed to kick that habit). "Yes."

"Turn around and count to ten." Sunset waited for Chris to stop glaring at her and actually turn before pulling the hem of her shirt up and tying it under her chest, then she got out the sign she'd made and sat it on the table.

When Chris first turned around, she was confused. All Sunset had done, that she initially noticed, was she'd drawn attention to her belly and chest by tying up her shirt—then she saw the sign. "I should have stipulated a two-thirds majority, shouldn't I?"

"All but two of the guys went for it, plus four of the girls. A few good hugs were well worth it." Sunset released the knot on her shirt and let it fall back to her waist. "So when's the study group?"

Author's Note

Rarity: Aside from your family, have you heard of any more parasite infestations around town?

Shuddering a little, Rarity closed her eyes and spent a moment trying to forget that her parents were likely banging like rabbits several times a day. "This may come as a surprise, but I don't keep track of such things. I believe Marble and Twilight are—ahem—on top of that. We're all making sure to bleach our toilet bowls. I managed to convince my parents to do the same."

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.

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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
CadelDdraigDarkkon
Canary in the Coal Mine
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Sirion123
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