The sun shone brightly through the window, a bright warm blanket of light draped over the table in the kitchen of Carousel Boutique. To one side sat the alabaster unicorn who lived there; on the other side, the buttercream pegasus who was her best friend. As they sat, they sipped from their cups.

“I do always love hearing about your animals,” Rarity said.

“As I love talking about them with you.” Fluttershy smiled.

Rarity let out a little sigh. “But it’s been a while since I’ve heard you speak about that Angel, that dear little devil. How has he been?”

“Oh, Angel and I parted ways a couple of months ago.”

“Parted ways? What do you mean?” Rarity asked.

“Yes, he left the company. Really quite a shame, but not much to do about it. I haven’t seen him since then...”

Fluttershy scooted her chair out from the table and stood up, trotting over to the kitchen counter. From the stovetop, she picked up a teapot—an ornate, ancient thing—and started to walk back to the table with the thing between her teeth.

Suddenly, there was a very loud noise. BOING!

Fluttershy jumped, startled, dropping the teapot in the process. Time seemed to slow down as the antique china spiralled towards the ground, and—

“Oh my goodness! That was a close one!” Rarity exclaimed. Fluttershy opened her eyes—which had instinctively snapped shut—to see that, miraculously, the teapot hadn’t fallen to the ground and shattered; it was suspended aloft by a shimmering blue magical aura. Yet even though the teapot was saved, a pool of the liquid had spilled onto the floor, soaking Fluttershy’s hooves.

“Thanks, Rarity,” Fluttershy said wearily. “Anyway, as I was saying, I haven’t seen him. Honestly, he could have been eaten by timberwolves or something.”

“A fate befitting for that dumb bitch. I never did like him.” Rarity set the teapot down on the table, and then picked up a cloth rag from the counter in her magic. She moved as if to wipe up the liquid, but—

“Aha! It is I!” another voice exclaimed. The cabinet beneath the kitchen counter burst open and a smiling pink pony popped out, her mane floofing up as she stood up. “Angel, reborn as a pony! Also I’m a girl now!”

Rarity facehoofed. “Oh goodness, you heard everything I said, didn’t you?”

“You really should have been careful,” Fluttershy remarked.

“I heard everything, in spades. But meh, I understand.” The pink pony leapt over to the puddle on the ground, and started licking. “Oh, this is the good stuff. But yeah, I was pretty sucky, wasn’t I?”

Rarity grimaced; Fluttershy just stared.

“‘Pretty sucky’ is a bit of an understatement, dear.”

“The absolute worst!” the pink pony said with a grin. “And I’m here to finish what I started.”

“You don’t seriously think I’m going to put up with this, do you?” Rarity said, skeptical.

The pink one smirked. “You’re just An-jealous.”

A beat. Then, all three of them laughed, uproariously.

“Do you want to come home with me, Angel?”

“No, I’ve got some murders to do.”

And, much as the sun kept shining on down through the window of the Boutique, life went on.