Getting out of bed, Spicy had a shower and got dressed. Leather pants that clung to his hips, a tight white shirt that did nothing to hide his red fur or muscles, and a fishnet shirt over that. Shoes no longer fit thanks to his hooves, so he just walked through the house and made his way to the garage and his not-at-all-compensating VW beetle. Rainbow was the one who liked her vehicles fast and noisy—Spicy just liked something cheap that would get him from A to B.

The drive to his store was uneventful, boring even. Canterlot had settled back down following the big event that had shaken the city. A terrorist attack, it had been called, where several people had been killed and others wounded. It had resulted in a blast of old magic being released. The story had been too neat and tidy—it explained everything.

Pulling up in the alley three doors down from his shop, Spicy climbed out of his car and locked the doors before making his way to Canterlot Crops without any strange looks at his bat wings, tufted ears, hooves, or pony snout.

Climbing the stairs to the second floor, Spicy put his key in the lock and opened the door to Canterlot Crops. The smell of rubber was (as always) prominent first thing in the morning. He turned the lights on and turned on the cooler to circulate fresh air through the store.

While Spicy was getting ready to open, the doorbell rang and Sonata stepped into the shop. "Good morning! Breakfast is served!" She set down a plate with two breakfast burritos on the front counter and grabbed one for herself.

"Twilight already let me know she will be in some time in the afternoon." Spicy Hot had to admire Sonata Dusk for being herself. He knew how monstrous she could be—given he'd helped her deal with her former companions—and that she'd made the choice to be moral was significant to him. The first bite he took into the burrito told him she had even more hidden depths, not the least of which being that she was a sorceress with anything Tex-Mex.

"Does this feel weird?" Sonata asked. "I mean"—she took a bite of her burrito and let out a happy sigh, only continuing when she swallowed—"Rainbow and Rarity are both at school. What is a cute, submissive monster like me meant to do with her day?"

Spicy laughed, taking the "submissive monster" phrase as self-deprecating humor. "Got used to having a nice domme around to take care of all your itches so fast? You really fell hard for her."

"It's been a long time since I had someone be that forceful with me. It's nice, you know, to realize there are still people in this world that can love you in a way that turns every switch you own to sweet ocean waves yes!" Shivering just at the thought, Sonata slumped back against the wall before she remembered she had wings again. "Ouch."

"New collar?" Spicy asked.

Distracted from the soreness of her wings, Sonata exploded into happiness again. "Yes! Rarity gave it to me to remind me that I belong to her—even while she's at college. There's no magic in it, but it's nice and snug and with it on I can almost feel her touching me."

"I'll be out tomorrow morning. I have a meeting with the bank." Running his hand along the dildo aisle's top shelf, Spicy let out a happy sigh at the feel of so much rubber. "I might have investors already backing me, but I need the bank's support to establish point of sales, more purchasing power, and a million other things."

"So this is all going ahead? Onward and upward?" Taking another bite of her burrito, Sonata sighed happily.

"Yeah. Yeah it is. I never thought this would work, but you know what, I want it to work. I want to make a brand that introduces people into having more fun in their bedrooms. I want there to be more housewives who want to tie up their husbands and more husbands who want their wives to strap a toy on and peg them. Then—" As with every retail worker, even ones that owned the store they worked in, Spicy cut his conversation off as the doorbell rang again.

Trixie Lulamoon wouldn't normally visit such a store. She'd purchased toys before, of course, but this was more than just buying a vibrator or two online. This store had lots more rubber things than she could ever be comfortable being around—but it had something more important than her sensibility. "You're Rainbow Dash's boyfriend, the one from the—the event?"

Raising an eyebrow, Spicy nodded. "In the flesh as it were. What can I do for you?" He suspiciously eyed her from head to toe. She was wearing a pair of leggings, running shoes, a shirt, with a hoodie over the top. It could have been running attire, but wasn't quite.

"I-I-I—" Trixie bit down on her voice. She'd practiced this part, she'd envisioned it in her head every time she saw the shaking phone camera footage of Spicy fighting Applejack. The naked woman's body was nothing to her, but she knew well how strong Applejack was now, and all that strength had been useless against this one, mostly normal human. "I want you to teach me how to fight."

Of all the things Spicy could have expected Trixie to say, that wasn't it. "What makes you think I could teach that?"

Pulling her phone out, Trixie started the shaking video playing and held the screen out to Spicy. "I-I know how strong she is. She should have crushed you in seconds, but instead you stood up to her. I-I-I want to learn how to fight s-so I don't—so I don't have to stand in the sidelines again. I'm not as fast as Rainbow and I don't have magic like Rarity—but neither do you."

"It's been a month since then, and I can already see how I could have done much better. I was fighting for my life." Shaking his head, Spicy watched the desperation grow on Trixie's face. "I can't teach you this because I'm not good enough yet. I know who can teach you, though. Come back at six."

Hope, bright and powerful, invaded Trixie's being like a spreading virus. Every cell in her body started humming with just the offer of hope. For the first time in a month a smile crept onto her lips, and she nodded. "I'll be here."

Sonata watched Trixie leave again and raised an eyebrow at Spicy.

"Honestly, I don't blame her for wanting to have a way to protect herself. Her father was killed by something she could never have fought. Akido would be a good way for her to learn to deal with some problems while also understanding why she shouldn't go seeking fights."

Shrugging her shoulders, Sonata couldn't reply because of the big mouthful of burrito she'd taken.

Rarity could hear Rainbow's car before she could see it—everyone could. She turned at the sound of the big engine and almost facepalmed at her friend's need to do everything fast. Of course, fast had its advantages, though Rarity usually kept herself fashionably late.

Though, today at least, Rainbow had beaten Rarity to being actually late. When the low, loud car pulled up beside her little car, she let out a sigh. "You're late, Rainbow."

"I know, I know. I couldn't help it." Climbing out of her car, Rainbow had to perform some gymnastics to get all six limbs free—in the process showing off the tight shorts she was wearing to keep herself modest. Landing on her hooves, she forsook walking upright for the easier style of going on all fours. "I haven't even had breakfast yet."

"Pfft, silly Rainbow, I can help with that!" Pinkie Pie slid across the hood of her Jeep and landed before Rainbow while holding out a pink-frosted cupcake. "It's not a muffin, but it should give you the energy you need to attack the morning."

Reaching up with her wing, Rainbow took the cupcake in the grip of her feathers and nibbled on it. In a brief moment of ravenous hunger, she devoured the cake in four bites only for Pinkie to produce a second. "C-Can I have—" When Pinkie passed her the second cupcake, Rainbow grinned like a fool. "You're the best, Pinkie."

Sunset climbed out of Pinkie's Jeep, along with Twilight, Marble, and Fluttershy. "Anyone seen Applejack?" It felt strange to be with her bigger group of friends again. She'd been settling into the house for a few weeks now, and Marble had become part of their clique easily enough. When Rarity had announced she was moving into a flat with Sonata, it hadn't surprised any of them at all.

A loud bang caused all of them to jump and turn to find the source of danger—only to see it was an old jalopy, that had just backfired, pull into the student car park.

Rainbow Dash, finishing her cupcake and having to jump into the air and flap her wings to see the car, was the first to say, "That'll be Applejack. I swear, her family owns the biggest collection of clapped-out cars."

Pumping the brake peddle over and over, Applejack ended up pulling on the parking brake and, when that failed to stop her, stalled the engine while it was in gear. Her car ground to a halt. Climbing out with wooden chocks, she carefully put two around each of the back wheels and then got her bag from the car.

Watching all this, Applejack's friends almost all universally recoiled in fear for their friend driving the car that apparently had no way of stopping that didn't involve possibly damaging the engine.

"Uh, Applejack?" Rainbow asked. "If you want, we could carpool to school each day."

"What? No way, sugarcube. Ah've seen you drive—all fast and crazy. Far too dangerous." To maintain tradition, Applejack felt the need to defend her old car at least twice from any offers to never have to drive it again. She hoped against hope that her friends were more stubborn than she was.

"Are you sure?" Rainbow asked.

"Look, Ah just—"

"Applejack," Rainbow said, "I like driving. Let me give you a lift each day so I can drive my car around some more."

A great weight lifted from within Applejack. "Well, if it's for you, Rainbow, then okay. I'll really miss ol' Green Rocket here, though." With her bag slung on her back, Applejack patted the top of the car. The back-left door fell off. "I'll just put that on top and text McIntosh to come and pick it up—so long as you're sure it's no imposition?"

"None at all." A literal ton of relief ran through Rainbow knowing her friend wouldn't be driving the car. She pondered if she could pay someone to steal it and take it to a scap-metal dealer, but didn't want to encourage even a thief to drive the thing. "Where's Fluttershy?"

"I'm here." Fluttershy climbed off Bridget's back and left her hand resting on the timber wolf's shoulder. "I-I thought it would be fine to ride her here, plus my van broke down and I didn't want to have to walk, and she—" Biting back further words, Fluttershy ruffled her wings and looked at her friends. "Sorry I'm late."

"It's fine, Fluttershy. Come on, we should be going in to get instructions on what to do." Rainbow Dash, still hovering with her wings flapping repeatedly, shifted her weight and flew closer to Bridget. "You takin' good care of her, Bridget?"

Ruffling her coat of branches, twigs, and leaves, Bridget blew a greenish mist from her nose. She couldn't talk to Rainbow, but she could let Fluttershy know how she felt.

Fluttershy giggled. "Bridget says thank you for offering to take care of me."

"Hey, you're not coming in? I wanted to see everyone freak out at an awesome, huge wolf coming to school," Rainbow Dash said.

"She doesn't like being around this many people."

Author's Note

Derpy: What's better, driving or flying?

"I've tried flying, but I can't get enough lift yet. Rainbow said it was to do with my changes not being advanced enough yet. Guess I have to wait before I can give you that answer, huh?" Winking, Derpy looked around and spotted a familiar face. Her playful expression turned to blisteringly happy excitation. "Flashy!"

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
Daremo
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Ender Voidwalker
KFS Crimson
Sirion123
Vi Watch

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