Sonata Dusk turned her head slightly as the bell rang. When she spotted Rainbow, her face lit up. "Rainbow! How was your first day of college?" More than just her eyes and ears noticed Rainbow Dash. Sonata could feel the excitement and anticipation sloughing from Rainbow's mind as the woman looked around the store for her boyfriend.

"Pretty good, actually. They showed us around all the places we'll be haunting for the next few years and I got to meet some people I'd been meaning to catch up with. Oops"—Rainbow jumped to the side to let Twilight past—"sorry, Twilight."

"It's alright, Rainbow. Hi, Sonata." Twilight had never known Sonata as the evil 3rd siren, so despite how ancient and strange she was, Twilight felt comfortable talking to her. "Did you happen to look at online sales from the weekend?"

"Hrmm? Oh! Hi Twilight. Sorry, didn't get a chance. We had a lot of customers in throughout the morning. Mostly young people. Students from out of town celebrating their freedom from their parents' tyranny, I guess. They all felt excited." Which, of course, reminded Sonata that Rarity would probably be coming back soon enough too—though Sonata had an all-day shift.

"You're still getting emotional feedback?" Her attention swaying to Sonata, Twilight reared up and braced her forehooves on the counter so she could see over it. "Does it require proximity or line of sight?" She floated her tablet out of her bag and started typing on it.

"Well, I couldn't tell you were approaching the door just now, so it can't ignore line of sight." Sonata tapped her chin with one finger, her nail painted blue with a tiny picture of a taco on it. "Okay, proximity is easy to test. Walk all the way to the back of the store, but make sure I can see you."

This, for Twilight, was the best bonding experience she'd had with Sonata apart from their defeating Adagio and Aria. They were doing science! "Keep trying to feel for me as I get further away. Tell me to stop when you can't feel it anymore."

It was an easy request for Sonata to follow. Since the incident where her fellow sirens were defeated—by her, mostly—she'd been picking up more than just anger from those around her. It was almost impossible to turn off her telempathy some days, but for some reason the seven friends she'd made were like a drug for her—she couldn't get enough of their positivity. "Okay."

Twilight started walking, glancing back over her shoulder to watch for Sonata's signal. When she got none and reached the back wall, she began tapping away.

Sonata seems to have no perceivable limit (tested at 15 meters). External testing required.

"You're buzzing with so much excitement it's hard to focus, but I could definitely still feel you all the way down there. I—" Sonata cut short as Twilight ducked behind a shelf and was just as suddenly gone from her empathy radar. "That's a little freaky. As soon as I couldn't see you, I lost all your emotions too."

"This is amazing. Let me just write that down and—got it. Okay, so I'll go and transfer all the orders to my tablet and start gathering them, I guess." Twilight's mood was bubbling with excitement. Part of her had to wonder where she'd ended up that she worked selling sex toys, but the adventurous 18yr old inside her (which was well in excess of a two-thirds majority) tossed that aside by claiming that she was making people happy.

Meanwhile, Spicy Hot had located Rainbow in the aisle that had collars and cuffs. "Hello, miss. Shopping for something to wear?"

"Well"—Rainbow caught the game quickly and looked at some of the more restrictive items—"I wanted to get something my boyfriend would like, but want it to be special so the other guys in my life don't feel left out."

"Ah! I have just the thing. Came in recently and I think it would look lovely on you. You'll need to get your boyfriend to get the tag engraved, but it should be a nice replacement for the one you have on already." Spicy grinned like a fool at the silly game. They'd both been talking about something special and it had finally come in. "If you'll just wait here?"

The excitement built in Rainbow while Spicy was off getting the new collar. She looked at some of the items on the shelf with a sigh—most were designed for human necks. There was a few smaller collars at the end of the aisle, what Spicy now called his everyone is turning into a pony and will need new collars stash.

"Here we are, ma'am. Would you like me to put it on you so you can check the fit?" Spicy was already moving to do that, reaching up to Rainbow's collar with the key he held and inserting it into the lock.

The click of the lock was a surprise to Rainbow. The ever-present weight of the collar was something she was used to. It was a staple in her life and a lifeline that kept her anchored. When the band was removed, she actually gasped out loud.

Spicy brushed at Rainbow's blue coat, gently petting it down where her collar had made it ruffle up a little. "You're going to need to take your collar off regularly to keep your coat neat under it."

"Lucky I talked my boyfriend into moving in with me. I'm sure he'll take care of it for me." Tilting her head to the side, Rainbow looked back at Spicy's face and drank in the confidence in his expression. "I'm sure, if he was here, he'd slip that around my throat and make me his again."

"Well, why don't you turn and look forward, close your eyes, and pretend I'm your guy?" His tone was low, hungry. Spicy had no clue if he was just going to collar her or if he'd then bend her over and do something ill-advised on his shop-floor.

Carefully working the metal collar around Rainbow's neck, Spicy marveled at the precision and quality in it. When sealed closed with the hidden lock, it would form a perfect anodized black band around her throat with a small ring at the front. The ring held three names on it—two below his. When he clicked the latch closed and pulled away the magnetic key, a shiver ran through him.

Rainbow felt relaxed and comfortable with Spicy behind her. He was larger than her for the moment, thanks to him still having more human in him, but even he'd lost some of his already short height. The feel of the metal around her throat made her shiver in excitement. She walked to the mirror at the end of the aisle (it was there for people to look at their items against their throats before sale—and totally not to encourage people to make impulsive purchases.

The black metal against her neck made Rainbow shiver at the sight of it. It was far more discrete than the leather collar she'd been wearing, but at the same time it was far more there. She saw the names and read them out from top to bottom. "Spicy Hot, Thunderbolt, Braeburn Apple."

Wrapping his arms and wings around Rainbow's shoulders, Spicy held her against him. "I love you. You're so amazing like that."

"Like what?" Rainbow asked.

"Mine."

The word sent a shiver through Rainbow that went all the way down to her rump and settled into a warm glow there. With his arms and wings around her, Rainbow felt so cozy she never wanted to move, but her perfect memory reminded her why she'd come. "Don't we have a meeting with the bank?"

Spicy let out a lengthy sigh. "This is what running a business does to me. Tonight I'm bringing extra rope and I'm going to tie you up so tight you won't be able to do anything but squirm—but until then we have a meeting with the bank. Let me grab my jacket."

When he let go, Rainbow made a soft, sad voice under her breath. "Are they even going to recognize us?"

"They'll recognize you. After the concert you guys gave last week, and the viral video someone took at it, I doubt anyone will be able to forget you. I'm not even going to ask if you want to drive." Spicy walked to the office area and grabbed his coat.

Twilight poked her head around the corner of an aisle—her horn aglow as it levitated a stack of boxes by her side—and looked at Spicy. "Are you going out?"

"We need our business plan updated, and that means doing it by the books so that my silent partners remain silent and partners. There's so much stuff that needs to be done just to own a business these days, let alone one trying to grow." Spicy grabbed his jacket and slung it around his back. Slipping his wings through the two holes in it was tricky, but once he'd managed it the jacket sat flush against his spine and let him fold his wings against it.

Rainbow put a wing around Spicy's midsection and pulled him against her. "Yeah, yeah. Come on."

Sighing at the couple as they left, Sonata had to shake her head to banish the warm feelings of delight her new feeding gave her. "How are your orders going?" She watched Twilight walk past with another trail of sex toys floating along behind her.

"Very good. At this rate he'll have to start ordering stock three times a week." Each of the toys got wrapped, labeled, and stacked ready for delivery. "About your offer…"

The words piqued Sonata's interest. "You mean the offer of some experimentation?" The words poured out in a purr.

"I've had some fun with guys—Thunderbolt is amazing—and some girls, but I've not really had a normal sexual experience with a woman." Twilight still blushed whenever discussing sex and sexuality. It might be the biggest and most ambitious science project of her life, but it was also intimate.

"Woman, am I?" Sonata couldn't resist teasing just a little. "I'm kidding. When did you want to have sex? After work?"

Blinking at that, Twilight pulled her phone out of the saddlebags she wore to read through her calendar. "Uh, I don't think I have anything on tonight. What will we do?"

"Just girls stuff. Vibrators, kissing, lots of groping, maybe even nomming." Shrugging her shoulders, Sonata looked over Twilight with a mind for regular fun. "I bet you can do all kinds of stuff with your magic, and I doubt any of the others have taught you all the things hands can do yet. Plus I know more about pony anatomy than most in this world."

"P-P-Pony a—" Twilight gulped and, still blushing, smiled. "That's sounds perfect, since I know a lot about human bodies."

Stepping out from behind the counter, Sonata walked over to Twilight and crouched down. "I've been here for a thousand years—I think I'll be able to teach you some things. But there's even something new I've learned." Reaching out to Twilight's head, Sonata rubbed one of Twilight's ears and carefully fed her back happy feeling with her siren magic.

Twilight almost melted, body and mind. The rubbing of her ear had been nice, but Sonata's magic coursed through her and made the world just a little brighter and happier. She smiled slowly folded her legs and dropped to her belly.

"Hrmm. Maybe a little much, Sonata. Oh well, she'll come around soon enough." Getting back to her work, Sonata kept an eye on Twilight and waited for her to snap out of her little bliss-blast.

Nearly twenty minutes after Sonata had touched her with magic, Twilight finally groaned and felt her brain start to fire again. "Wha—?" Shaking her head, Twilight got one, two, three, and four legs under her and looked over at Sonata while the siren helped a customer. Part of her was utterly confused by what had happened, part was excited to experience a new type of magic, and the rest of her just wanted Sonata to do it again—preferably somewhere more private.

When Sonata finished with her customer, she noticed Twilight walking wobbly, approaching her. "Sorry, I might have given you a little much. Smaller body, less happy-juice."

"I'm not complaining, but next time can we do some measuring of that?" Twilight reached her hoof up to adjust her thick glasses. Her magic ones had been good for a while, but she got odd looks on the street while wearing them (though she didn't figure that they were just looking at the odd little unicorn), and wanted to start college with some normalcy.

"Pick a day I'm not working, then pick a day Rarity has classes. Get one that overlaps and we can do whatever you want. Just a few more hours until closing time."

Author's Note

Ask free legal counsel: Is anybody doing the necessary groundwork for nonhuman sophonts to play nicely with various laws that assume human maturation rates?

"I'm not exactly a free legal counsel, but I'm willing to ensure my daughter has all her rights maintained." Twilight Velvet smiled in the same way a shark does when it sees something soft and meaty in the water. "And, of course, that would set precedent and help the country accept others."

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.

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.
CadelDdraigDarkkon
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ender Voidwalker
KFS Crimson
Sirion123
Vi Watch

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