The morning of the Fall Formal found me being dropped off at Louis's boutique in town.

"Make sure she makes the dress an appropriate style for your age group please." Mom said as I hopped out of the truck.

"I'm planning too, but you know how she gets." I replied before shutting the door and heading for the shop.

Upon entering, I saw my friends from school near the public fitting rooms.

"Hey girls, what are you doing here?" I inquired.

"Oh, Rarity works here." Fluttershy replied.

"Ah, I see." I responded. "Hey Rarity, is Louis in?" I called out.

Rarity poked her head out from the curtains where she was working with Twilight apparently. "I believe she is in the back. She is with a customer though, or a friend of hers, I am unsure." She said.

"What did the friend look like?" I inquired.

"I got a picture with her!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly, before bouncing over to show me the picture.

Next to Pinkie, with just as big a grin, was a familiar face.

"Ah, seems Ellie is here." I said before grinning. "Time to go make my displeasure known that she hasn't even called to say 'hello'."

"Ummm, Niamh, they went into the back room a while ago." Applejack said.

"Indeed, I believe they are in Louis's private workroom." Rarity said, probably in some small amount of fear for her job.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. I was trained by the best after all." I replied as I moved towards the racks.

"Trained, trained in what?" Rarity asked, but received no answer. Huffing, she moved to the racks that she had seen Niamh disappear into and found absolutely no trace of her classmate. Nothing was out of place, but the young brunette woman had completely disappeared.

"Apparently being a ninja." Applejack said with a chuckle.

I smirked to myself as I heard their conversation from inside the back room.

Out of everyone that people should most definitely be paying attention to but don't, is The Help. And I just happened to have been trained by my Aunt Sheffield, one of the best intelligence operatives/maids I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

She had been part of the Royal Navy Admiralty staff during a visit to Pearl when I was nine. Me, being the curious young girl I was, wanted to know what Mom did when she was at work.

It had taken weeks, but I had finally figured out how to get past the gates unnoticed by the sentries and cameras. Of course, there were sensors that I didn't have a clue about, which is what led to me getting caught by Sheffield.

Mom was not pleased when her old friend had carried me by the scruff of my neck into her office and plonked me down in the chair. After a serious ass chewing, which was well deserved given that I had just snuck into one of THE highest security places at Pearl, and was actually able to get fairly deep into before I was thwarted by the biometric door locks as well as having faked being sick, she had Sheffield keep an eye on me to make sure I didn't do it again.

That led to three weeks of me attempting to escape the ever watchful eye of Sheffield, and never being able to get more than a block away from home.

After that, Mom sat me down and explained that her work was in weapons development and was extremely classified, and my attempts to sneak in could put her job and, this was heavily implied at the time but not outright said, our freedom if I continued and actually saw something I shouldn't.

This stopped my attempts at breaking into her place of work, but I had actually stopped trying to do that after the first week. After that it became a game of trying to get past Sheffield undetected and go to the beach or to the shops near the naval base.

Sheffield, with begrudging consent of my Mom (she wasn't immune to my sad puppy impression at that point), then decided to actually train me in the art of The Help. Not the actual doing the things the help does, but the doing it unnoticed part. I picked it up surprisingly quickly. By the time the Royal Navy delegation headed back to the UK, I was moving unseen when I wanted to.

Which is part of the reason I was so annoyed with trying to get evidence to confront Sunset with. All of my training and practice failed. I was never targeted by her, but I could never quite pull off what I needed to to get the evidence on the occasion I had a chance to.

So, I used it for things like this. Sneaking into the back room of Louis's boutique to scare the pants off of her and Ellie Cleveland, another of my navy family.

I was able to find her private workroom easily, having been in it before several years ago on one of my summer visits, and carefully approached the door, looking for traps.

She had learned I was trained by Sheffield and took what she thought were appropriate countermeasures.

I smirked as I bypassed a couple of trip wires that had been set up before reaching the door. Standing close to it, I could hear voices inside.

"I gotta say Louis, this is a damn fine suit. Thanks for making it for me." Came Ellie's voice.

Louis gave a laugh. "It is no trouble Ellie, you know I always make sure you ladies look your best." She replied. "Now, go ahead and take it off so I can put the finishing touches and get the wrinkles out of it for you."

Ellie gave a noise of understanding, and I began to hear clothes rustling from the other side of the thin door. I waited until I heard a belt being undone and did a three count before entering the door.

"Hi Aunt Louis! Hey Ellie! Oooo, cute striped ones. Nice." I said making the two women freeze at my sudden entrance, Louis carrying a jacket and vest to her work table and Ellie bent at the waist lowering her trousers, eyes wide with shock.

I smirked and rolled my eyes. "Let's be honest, this is nowhere near the worst thing I have caught either of you doing." I drawled as I leaned against the door frame.

Which, this didn't even crack the top fifty of things I have walked in on someone doing. I shuddered when that memory of Akagi-sama popped into my head. Never going to look at calamari the same way ever again.

"Goddamnit Niamh! Haven't you heard of knocking!?!" Ellie finally said loudly. "What if we hadn't been doing this?"

"If I had heard what you are implying could have been an alternate activity, then I would have simply slipped a note under the door and returned to the front with my, classmates, acquaintances, friends?" I began before lapsing into silence.

I actually didn't know where those girls fell. Applejack obviously was in the friend category, but everyone else I was friendly with, but not in a 'we have each other's numbers and gave sleepovers' way. I shook my head to clear that bit of wool gathering away for the moment. Truthfully, I was really only doing this whole going to the dance thing to make sure that things don't get too out of hand. Cause either way, there was going to be a train wreck tonight, and I figured SOMEONE should do what they can to limit casualties.

"Ah, you're here for your dress aren't you?" Louis asked.

"I am. Things are going to be interesting at the Fall Formal this year, so I have decided to attend. I also understand that you have a dress ready for final fitting for me." I replied to Louis.

"I do indeed, and I do think you will like it." Louis said. "I also have shoes and accessories to go with it."

"I figured you would. You always make sure we have the full setup when we have to dress fancy." I replied as she moved off to locate the items.

"So, school dance huh?" Ellie said. "Gotta date or are you going stag?"

"Stag at the moment." I replied. "You met the girls up front, or at least Pinkie Pie. I will be going with them to try and limit the collateral damage of the train wreck that is going to happen tonight." I added before looking at Ellie. "Though, I am considering bringing a plus one."

"What do you mean?" Ellie asked, confused.

I gestured to my current attire. A loose t-shirt, and slightly baggy shorts.

"This or something similar is my normal day to day wear. I am taking after my mom when it comes to certain features." I said simply.

Ellie thought for a moment and I saw her recently turned eighteen year old lesbian brain hit upon that particular file in her memories.

"So yeah, having someone on my arm would, at least for tonight, hold off the horny teenagers and I would be able to actually enjoy the night." I said, crossing my arms across my chest, eyebrow raised in challenge.

"Eh, what the heck. I'm not doing anything tonight, so sure. Plus it gives me a chance to wear the suit that Louis made for me." Ellie replied finally.

"Thanks. Because while Louis might be keep the dress from being like that silver number from a few years ago." I paused as both Ellie and I recalled the results of that particular photoset involving a McLaren and a scandalously skimpy dress before I shook my head and continued. "She will definitely want to accentuate my 'assets' a bit." I finished after wiping a bit of drool from the corner of my mouth.

"Fair point, especially if you are developing like your mom." Ellie replied. "Think they are even going to recognize you once Louis is done with you?"

"Probably not, but most of my classmates aren't that dim." I replied as Louis returned.

"Alright, here we go Niamh." She said, handing me the dress, a shimmering dark blue material under the plastic. "Go ahead and get changed and then I will do the final fitting."

I took the dress and headed behind the screen to get changed. Off came the sneakers and socks, then shorts, then shirt, then the two sports bras I wore to keep my chest contained.

Now, before you assume that I am self conscious about my body, I am not in the slightest. But if I am going to be ogled, it is going to be on my terms, so I dress pretty conservatively a good ninety percent of the time, because the people ogling me are not the ones I want to be doing the ogling.

Namely, cute sapphic girls my age, not men twice or thrice my age. One of the many reasons I was thankful to have friends amongst the locals that could take me places to enjoy the beach when I was living on the Big Island, no bloody tourists.

Soon enough, the dress was finished and a full makeover had been done. Some silver heels and sapphire earrings completed the look.

"Want to show your friends?" Ellie asked. "They're still out there."

"Sure, I wanna see their reactions. I replied.

Out in the front part of the shop, Rarity was finishing the makeovers on her friends.

"There, all done Darling." She said as she finished the last touches of makeup on Rainbow Dash.

"Finally!" Dash said as she leapt up from the chair she had been sitting in while Rarity worked.

Before Rarity could chastise her, the door to the back room opened up, Louis and Ellie stepped out.

"Oh Miss Louis, Miss Cleveland. Niamh was here, but she disappeared on us. I believe she was looking for you." Rarity said nervously.

"We know. The little brat scared the heck out of us." Ellie replied.

"Speaking of, you all are getting to be the first of your classmates to see her outfit for tonight." Louis said as the doors to the back room opened up and Niamh stepped out, heels clicking solidly on the floor with each step.

"Oh wow." "Dang girl!" "Where the heck were you hiding all that?"

The last came from Rainbow Dash.

Standing before them, now no longer wearing the loose clothing and positively radiating poise and confidence, was Niamh.

Her brown hair cascaded down, framing her face, eyeliner, mascara, and eyeshadow done in just such a way to give her a very sultry look that went well with the shimmering blue halter style floor length gown that hugged her developing curves, the silver heeled sandals just visible under the hem of the dress.

It was definitely a refined and mature look, but not overly so for the sixteen year old.

Niamh rolled her eyes. "I have been known to clean up quite well when the occasion requires it. Having to attend official military functions on occasion with my mom that require this kind of outfit and having a bunch of adoptive aunts that absolutely exude refinement means I learned how to best deal with such events." She replied. "Also it helped that I did have a few Marines that were more than willing to be my escort for those events to keep the creeps at bay." She added with a smirk.

"You're friends with Marines?" Dash asked.

"Yup. Turns out I share a birthday with three of them that were assigned to my mom's unit at Pearl. So we wound up being the oddest "quadruplets" on the base. I basically got three VERY protective older brothers who had no issues rotating 'escort duty' for the events to make sure I had someone to keep me safe." She replied, pulling out her phone and showing off some pictures from the events in question.

"Oh, and before I forget, I wanna show y'all this one!" She said as she did a quick search and showed the picture to the group.

All of them looked at the picture and had a variety of reactions.

Fluttershy blushed heavily, as did Twilight.

Pinkie gave a low whistle of appreciation.

Applejack, Dash, and Rarity looked from the picture to the blue haired proprietor of the boutique and back at the picture several times.

"Niamh, what picture are you showing them?" Louis asked nervously.

"One of the tasteful ones from that McLaren shoot you did." Niamh replied.

"Wait, there are more?" Dash asked.

"Oh yeah. The really spicy ones are behind a paywall though, for obvious reasons. They definitely toe the line of being quite lewd." Niamh answered with a grin.

"Aww man!" Dash complained, making the group laugh.

Niamh sighed to herself with a smile.

'This definitely feels like I found some good friends in all these girls. Hopefully things don't go too poorly tonight.' She thought as the laughter turned to conversations about the dance while Ellie went back to get her suit finished.

Author's Note

Wooboy, that one got away from me, but I wanted to establish a bit more world building here. So, can you all spot the ship girls that appeared in this chapter? And, make sure to take some time today to remember those that lost their live at Pearl Harbor eighty one years ago today. Fair winds and following seas.