It’s been. . . Wow. Almost two months since I opened the Carne Den. Fancy’s money has been paid back, with the added interest and a little extra as a thanks for helping with everything. With him fully paid off, that means more money can go straight to our profits, which could be put into the restaurant itself, or saved back for a rainy day. For now, it’s going to be saved back.

I was helping out in the kitchen, as tends to happen on Saturdays, when Gilda came in. “Yang, you’ve got a special guest.”

“Explain, please” I requested.

“Twilight Sparkle.”

I sighed as I kept at the work. “Any idea what she wants?”

“Aside from talking with you, I dunno. I’ll see if she’d be willing to come back around 11 or midnight.”

“Thanks, Gilda.”

Gilda didn’t even respond as she left to talk with the princessly purple pony, allowing me to continue working. For being the bosses here, Gilda and I didn’t really do much stereotypical boss stuff. We didn’t sit in an office with paperwork or give excessive orders all day. Instead, we were right out there with the staff, sharing the workload.

It didn’t take long for Gilda to return. “I told her how busy we get at this time and to come back later tonight. She didn’t sound happy that, but she’ll be back before we close.”

“Once again, thanks.” Business wasn’t letting up for the time being, and even if the kitchen staff could handle it all, I was worried they wouldn’t be able to do as well as when I was with them.

Eventually, things calmed down to the point where I felt fine leaving the kitchen staff to take care of things there without me. I haven’t looked at the other eateries in town, but I think the Carne Den is the only one in Ponyville open this late. It certainly would help explain why we still do good business well into the night. There was even one night where the supper rush lasted until nearly midnight. A good number of them had to have been tourists.

I left the kitchen and saw Twilight and Spike sitting at the end of the bar. I squeezed past Fuzz and made my way over to her. She and spike both had drinks. “Rough day?”

“Oh, hi Yang” Twilight said. She sounded really tired. “And yeah, rough day. In my court today, there were disputes over a tree on a property line in Vanhoover, the proper density of feathers in pillows, and a big group that I had to, quite literally, throw out of the castle.”

“It sounds like you need some time off. Maybe a week at the beach?”

“We could use that. Hey, can we talk a bit more privately?”

“Sure, and feel free to bring your drinks.” I squeezed past Fuzz again and went towards the office, opening the door for Twilight and Spike. All three of us sat down. “So, what’s up?”

“Your house” Spike said.

“Spike, please leave those kinds of jokes to the punfessionals, okay?” As Spike apologized, Twilight winced. “But seriously, there’s something you want to talk to me about.”

“Where do I start with this?” Twilight asked herself as she thought. “What if I told you there was a largely unknown princess?”

“Go on.”

“Under the ocean near Los Pegasus, there’s a huge underwater city, filled with seaponies. My friends and I became merponies and went down there to save it a few months before you arrived.” Twilight took a long sip of her drink. “Anyways, the princess there, Skystar, wants to see you. She’s heard about you, but can’t come here, so we’re going to her.”

“It’s basically a royal summons, Yang” Spike added. “You have to go there. I don’t have to go, so I’ll be staying here in Ponyville, where I won’t get turned into a pufferfish again.”

What. “It’ll make sense when we get there. She wants to see you by the end of the month. You should look into getting some swimwear from Rarity.”

I sighed. I really didn’t want to look into swimwear yet. I mean, I’m fine with my body, except for the hair triggered temper, but swimwear is another matter entirely. “How long until the trip starts?”

“It would be best if we leave by the end of next week. All we need to do is gather a few things and we’ll be set.”

“I’ll visit Rarity tomorrow morning. Hopefully, I can make it quick.” I started on a note to explain my absence tomorrow if it turned out to be a long trip there.

For the first time, I felt intimidated by the doors to the Carousel boutique. The thought crossed my mind to just turn back and go home, sleep another hour, and get ready for work. Then again, it’s Sunday, and Sundays aren’t very busy days, so today would be the best day to get this done.

“Yang, is something wrong?” Sweetie Belle asked. “You’ve been pacing there for almost ten minutes now.”

“Huh? Oh, well, I’m-”

“You’re here to get a swimsuit made that you don’t really want, right?”

“How did you know?”

“I was with Rarity when Twilight explained the trip to Seaquestria.” I’m not sure how to feel about that place’s name. “I also saw the pictures of human swimwear Twilight gave her and figured it wasn’t your cup of tea. I mean, some of it covers less than your underclothes, which doesn’t make sense to me. I mean, you wear the bikini openly in public for swimming, but the more covering undergarments aren’t considered okay to wear openly? I don’t get it.”

“Well, when you put it that way, it really doesn’t make sense. Then again, how often do ponies wear clothes?”

“Come in, Yang” Rarity called out from inside. “We have so much to discuss.” She sounded too happy for my liking.

“Might as well get it over with.”

“You’re right, Sweetie” I admitted. I took a step and crossed the threshold into the place I once called home. I saw Rarity on the pedestal with a disturbing number of sketches in her magic. If I was going to turn back, I wouldn’t have gotten the chance since I was grabbed by her magic and pulled over to her with surprising force.

“Okay, so I was looking over the swimwear and saw that you humans are just so creative with them. Asymmetrical designs, neatly placed holes in the middle of the material, by the way, here’s a sample of the material, all kinds of additional details, and even the use of materials that aren’t traditional swimwear material! Maybe I should open a shoreline Carousel Boutique in Los Pegasus next year.” It was about there that I started to tune out her rambling. While I was tuning her out, I glanced at the sketches. They all had front, back, and side drawings.

After about five minutes of her talking about swimwear like pinkie talks about parties, I reached out and clamped a hand around her muzzle. I had to use a surprising amount of force to hold her mouth shut. “Enough about your ambitions to clothe the world, Rarity. Can we focus on the task at hand? And maybe let go of me?”

Rarity couldn’t answer because of my hand, but she did release me. I let go of her muzzle and she was able to speak again. “Sorry, Yang. I’ve just been on a roll since six this morning. I’ve just had a nonstop stream of ideas and variations on those ideas. Colors, shapes, cuts, I have no idea how you come up with it all.”

The internet probably had something to do with that. “How about you just show me some ideas you’ve got? Preferably the more modest and simpler designs.”

“Really? You don’t want to see the more creative and exotic designs?”

“If they’re for me, no. I’ll stick with simple, symmetrical, and modest.”

A large number of the sketches went into a stack that was almost scary in its height. “Well, that brings our number of selections down quite a bit. I’ll let you go through them, see what you like.”

Rarity put the remaining sketches in my hands and I went into the dining room to go over them. The first thing I did was to separate the swimsuits from the bikinis. I wasn’t going for those. The remaining swimsuits were fairly similar, so now it was down to the smaller details, especially the practical ones.

One detail I had to decide on was the neckline. I wanted one that was fairly close to my neck, but I also had to consider the process of putting it on and taking it off, which a lower one would help with. If I could get it on and off faster, that would be better, especially if I had to use the bathroom. I wound up prioritizing the lower neckline.

As I kept looking the swimsuit sketches over, I realized I had practically no idea how to put them on. As I was wondering just how to do that, one sketch caught my eye. It had a low enough neckline for what I was looking for, but what really caught my eye was how the upper half of the back was open. It still looked modest enough for my standards, and with the open back and low neckline, I would be able to slide the part that went around my neck over my head.

The practical side of the mental argument was more convincing than the argument against the exposed skin, especially considering that my athletic outfits were all two pieces that didn’t cover my midriff and I was fine with them. Even with that in mind, I still wasn’t keen on the bikinis.

With the swimsuit chosen, I went back out to Rarity. “I’ve chosen one.”

“Alright.” Rarity took the sketch from my grasp. “I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting you to choose this one.”

“It looks easy enough for me to get on and off.”

“Fair enough. Now, let’s talk patterns, shall we?”

I sighed. “Let’s get it over with.”

“Let’s start with the main color. Now, I will admit that I am not a fan of brown as a main color, but you seem to wear it pretty well.” No argument there. Rarity cast an illusion spell to show what she was thinking, starting with the swimsuit I’d chosen in brown. “Of course, just plain solid brown is boring, so I was thinking of adding your emblem here.” My burning heart symbol appeared in bright yellow on the left side of the body. “And some black as well. Black always looks good.” the sides of the body turned black, except for the emblem. It made a distinct hourglass shape on the front. “What do you think?”

“I actually kind of like it. How much will it cost?”

“30 bits. That covers material more than anything. As useful and available as it is, it’s not all that cheap to produce.”

“That sounds alright. How long until it’s done?”

“I’ll have it ready for you tomorrow. Thankfully, it looks like your measurements haven’t changed since I made them, but I’d still like to see how it fits.”

“Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Let’s get it over with, Rarity.” I still wasn’t looking forward to wearing the swimsuit.

“Here you go, dear” Rarity said as she floated the folded up swimsuit to me. “Take your time, make sure everything fits, and come back so I can see it on you.”

I took the swimsuit to the upstairs bathroom and felt a bit of nostalgia along the way. Just a bit. Then I went into the bathroom, took a breath, and changed as quickly as I could. I will say that, despite my initial trepidation, the material did feel nice. It was soft and smooth in a way my other clothes weren’t, and it fit me quite comfortably.

On the other hand, I did have a few personal qualms with it. I didn’t like how exposed my legs were, for one thing. At least Rarity had taken my personal tastes into account and it wasn’t going into places I’d rather it wasn’t. Sure, the leg holes were a tad snug, but it wasn’t revealing any of my rear like it was an extension of my legs. I also didn’t like how long it took for me to get my hair through the swimsuit. If I could file a complaint about anything to whatever forces did this to me, it would be about how problematic my hair is.

Still, two really minor complaints didn’t stack very well against a swimsuit that did exactly what it was meant to do, fit perfectly, and really did look good on me, especially when those complaints were more personal than with the swimsuit itself.

After I got done looking at myself in the mirror, I left the bathroom and went back downstairs. This was the part I really wasn’t looking forward to. Scratch that, going out in public was the part I wasn’t looking forward to.

“My, you look spectacular!” Rarity exclaimed. “More importantly, does anything need to be adjusted? Is everything comfortable?”

“It’s pretty good, Rarity. I’ve got no complaints against it.”

“That is excellent to hear. Say, what do you think a seaside Carousel Boutique should be called?”

She was still going on with that idea. “Umm. . . Coralsel Boutiki?”

Rarity gave me a flat look. “That’s both a wonderful and terrible name. I have no idea how to feel about it.”

“Neither do I. Anyways, I should change back, pay you, and head home.” I went back into the bathroom and was struck with an idea. I didn’t have to take the swimsuit off yet. I could just dress as normal and wear it home. Sure, it would basically be like wearing two sets of underwear, but I was going to be changing back at home anyways. Plus, it would also let me avoid bringing a box home. Why didn’t Rarity use bags anyways? In fact, I didn’t see any bags at all here. Weird.

After putting my clothes on over the swimsuit and gathering the bit pouch, which totally violated my recent observation on the lack of bags around here, I went back downstairs. “Yang, did you leave the swimsuit upstairs?”

“No, I’ve got it.” I lifted one side of my shirt to show the swimsuit underneath. “Thirty bits, right?”

“Of course.”

I counted out thirty bits for the swimsuit, then another five for a job well done. “There you go.”

“I still owe you a spa trip, by the way. Maybe you could get a feel for it there?”

Oh yeah. “No thanks. That’s not what a spa is for.”

“Good point. I’ll see you later.”

While I was changing in my bathroom, an idea came to mind. I could take the time to see what it was like to be wearing a swimsuit in the water without anyone around to watch. I was making enough money that I wasn’t worried about the bills, so I took a second shower. Well, I made it more of a bath than a shower. Scalding hot, as usual.

The first thing I found out was that wearing the swimsuit felt, well, alright. There wasn’t anything spectacular about it, just the feel of the wet material on my skin. Even in my more sensitive areas, it wasn’t that bad.

While I was laying down in the water, I decided to try something else. I took a breath, closed my eyes, wished I had a clock in here, and went under the water. I didn’t pinch my nose, which I never really believed to help much anyways. After what felt like a minute, I surfaced and took a deep breath. That was a pretty good length of time under there.

Another idea struck and I went underwater again. I opened my eyes and I could feel my aura acting as a thin lens in front of them, keeping the water away from my eyes and keeping everything from being a total blur. Things still looked a bit fuzzy though.

So I could see underwater fairly well and hold my breath for a decent amount of time. To use some rather technical terms, I was feeling quite awesome.

As nice as the hot bath was, the steam was gone and it would be best if I got out and got ready for work. I stood up, took the swimsuit off, and opened the drain for the water to leave the tub. The swimsuit, naturally, felt wet, but when I looked at it, it looked like it was sweating. Water was coming out of and dripping down it.

I set the swimsuit in the sink, dried off, got dressed, and went downstairs for a slightly late start to the workday. There were bits out there with the Carne Den’s name on them and foods that had various customers’ names on them. Also, we had a few orders of ingredients and desserts coming today, so I had to be there for that.

Author's Notes:

I haven't seen the 2017 MLP movie yet. None of us have, really.I think. I'm just using the information available from the toys and TvTropes to come up with the information for this arc. Yes, Yang will become a mermaid. And yes, I do have something planned for that. Also, I'd like to know what you, dear readers, want to see happen during the trip.

After Seaquestria is done, it's off to winter and another planned enemy. At least that's the plan.