Author's Notes:

Both of these mini-scenes are things I just couldn't quite fit into the flow of the main story, but didn't want to throw out with the bathwater either. Both of them take place after Sunset & co.'s trip to CEE.

By the time Twilight, Rarity, and Sunset made it back to their own world, the sky was beginning to darken. Sunset thought maybe the others would’ve already left, but they found Applejack and Rainbow Dash lounging under the - significantly larger and brighter - Fire of Devotion.

“How’d your trip to Equestria go?” Applejack asked. “And what’s in there?”

By there, she meant the messenger’s bag Sunset was wearing, which had been converted from the plain saddlebags she’d borrowed to hold the miscellaneous pamphlets and forms she’d ended up with, plus Rarity’s sketches and Twilight’s rambling, half-feverish and only mostly-legible notes on... everything, as far as Sunset could tell.

Before she could explain any of that, Twilight blurted out, “We saw two ponies fuck a dragon!” and immediately clapped a hand over her mouth.

Rainbow sat straight up. “What!? Man, I thought you said it was gonna be boring! What gives?”

“Darling, it isn’t as though we planned for it,” Rarity soothed, at the same time as Sunset said to Twilight, “Well, technically, we watched two ponies fuck in front of a dragon.”

“Yeah, well, that’s cool an’ all,” Applejack said, purposefully disaffected. She examined her fingernails and buffed them on her shirt.

Sunset smirked and took the bait. “Yeah? What did you guys do?”

“Nothing much,” Rainbow said.

“It jus’ turned out that-”

“-there’s a tentacle pit in here-”

“-and hoo boy does it know how to get some.”

In unison, both girls raised their hands and fist-bumped each other without even looking.

Sunset blinked. Rarity looked intrigued. Twilight practically vibrated.

“Oh my gosh oh my gosh how does it work? Please tell me you recorded it.”

Rainbow gave her a sidelong glance. “Uhhh....”

Twilight realized what she’d just said and blushed. “S- sorry. It’s been... an... afternoon.”

“And it started with the dragon-fucking,” Sunset pointed out.

“Wait, I thought you said you’d...” Rarity paused slightly. “...had liaisons with a room full of tentacles. If you don’t like sex, what would you enjoy about this place?”

“Nah, that was me and Fluttershy,” Applejack said, answering the first question.

Rainbow opened her mouth to answer the second, but was usurped by Fluttershy, who’d come within speaking distance. “For the same reason she likes it when I force her to hold a pose until she collapses, and then tell her she was a good girl for trying so hard.”

They all looked at Rainbow, who was blushing deeply. “Um.” She swallowed hard. “Y-yeah. Pretty much.”

Applejack snickered. “You’ve seen me naked and this is what trips you up?”

Rainbow socked her in the arm.

“And the status quo is restored,” Sunset said. “Okay, so now that we’re all here, the main thing I learned is that the Clocktowers in Equestria are loaded. We can get some money from them, and by ‘some’ I mean ‘a lot,’ but probably we should work on buying some companies, especially the ones that make sex stuff.”

“Setting aside the fact that that’s more of a vague goal than an actual plan,” Applejack said, “none of us can legally drink yet. Nobody in their right mind is going to sell their company to a bunch of teenagers for any amount of money. And last I checked, pony-land currency isn’t valid here.”

Sunset waved the last objection aside. “It’s literally made of precious gems and solid gold, we’ll be fine. And technically, I’m almost twenty, but you’re right. We look too young, so we’re going to need a reasonable adult on our side.”

“And when you say ‘reasonable’-” Twilight started.

“-I mean ‘willing to actually help,’ yes. In Equestria, it’s basically government-run, except for on paper, so Celestia, Luna, and Cadance are all safe bets. They don’t have nearly the power of their pony counterparts, though, and honestly I don’t know our Celestia or Luna nearly that well.”

Twilight bit her lip. “Dean Cadance might be willing to help....”

Sunset nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. It’s not going to be easy by any stretch, but it should be doable if we’re careful. That, and Princess Cadance is married to your - well, pony you’s - brother.”

“What?!”

“Oops,” Sunset muttered.

While she set to calming Twilight down, she handed her bag to Rarity, who pulled out the rest of its contents to sort through and spread the ones meant for sharing out on the floor for everyone else to look over.

“Oh, that’s cute,” Fluttershy said. “Themed safewords. Hmm, they don’t seem that easy to remember, though....”

“It’s like if you’re going up the clocktower,” Applejack said, and demonstrated with her hands. “Staircase, clockface, towertop.”

“Uh, where are we gonna get half of this stuff?” Rainbow asked.

Pinkie pointed to something on the paper Rainbow was holding. “I have that!”