Fluttershy poked her head inside the Carousel Boutique, the motion making the door ring with a gentle jingle from the bell above it. She’d been asked to come over to help Rarity with some sort of task, though she was unsure as to just what it could possibly be- the letter the unicorn had sent her had been incredibly vague. She steps further in, glancing around the shoppe but seeing no sign of her friend.
 
“Rarity…?” She calls out timidly, not wishing to raise her voice too loud lest she disturb the dressmaker in her work. “Are you here?”
 
The buttery Pegasus waits a few moments without any response, turning to leave afterward. Obviously she either wasn’t there or was very busy and she’d better come b-
 
“In here darling!” Rarity’s voice comes from the room beyond.
 
Fluttershy perks up, trotting quietly into the back room where Rarity was currently. “Hello Rarity! Ooh… what’s all this for?” She asks, noting an array of cameras sitting on tripods and far more mirrors than usual clustered around the small stage-like runway the fashionista kept for exhibiting her latest creations.
 
“For the photoshoot! Oh yes, yes indeed.” Rarity’s head pops up from behind the stage, somewhat tangled in cables. “I think I just about have it set up for you.”  
“For… m-me? Nonono, Rarity I said I wasn’t going back into fash-“
 
“Fashion? Not at all darling! This one is…” The unicorn waves a hoof in the air. “Different. It’s more a magical exhibition and photography experiment.”
 
“I d-” She tries to reply.
 
“Oh pleeeeease Fluttershy you have to help me with it, I simply don’t know who I’ll ask if you don’t since you’re the ONLY one that truly understands the mind of an artiste! You have talent! PIZZAZ! I’d ask Applejack but she’d just tromp mud everywhere, Rainbow Dash can’t sit still to save her life, Twilight is stuck in her books, and Pinkie Pie… don’t get me started on Pinkie Pie! You just HAVE to help me!”  
“I…” She starts again, voice soft.
 
“Pleaaaseeee!” Rarity asks once more, eyes wide and needy.
 
“Okay…” Fluttershy replies, still unsure.
 
“OH! Thankyouthankyouthankyou darling!” Rarity hops out from behind the stage, nearly tripping on a cable but saving herself gracefully. “I’ll just need you to drink this and then hop up onto the stage in the light, would you dear?” She asks, producing a smallish crystal flask resembling a decanter of sorts. Within it sloshes a silvery liquid, almost looking like mercury.
 
“Drink… that? What’s it do?” Fluttershy blinks, taking the flask.
 
“Turns you to silver of course, like the magnificent piece of art you are Fluttershy!” Rarity bats her eyelashes at the Pegasus.
 
“W-wha? Silver? Like… like a statue? Of Silver? I, no, no, I can’t…” Fluttershy stammers.
 
“Oh but you said you’d help me…” Rarity droops, looking crestfallen. “Mm… tell you what, would it help if I did the same? Joined you up there?” She asks, producing a second flask of glittering liquid, this one like molten gold.
 
“Well… um… okay…” Fluttershy tries to hide a bit of blush beneath her long bangs, seeing her friend like that, she just couldn’t say no again. Couldn’t.
 
“It’s settled then!” Rarity says, smiling once again as she pops the cork from the flask and quaffing the liquid with gusto. “Go on, quickly, drink yours.”
 
Fluttershy balks for a few seconds before doing as she was bidden, drinking back the flask of silvery fluid and trying not to gag at the coppery, metallic taste. It felt cold going down, like minty ice-water.
 
“Ugh… okay, so um, now what?”
 
Rarity hops up onto the stage, motioning her to follow. “Up here darling.”
 
As Fluttershy moves to climb onto the stage she’s met with a dense, swimming feeling all around her, head spinning a little as she clambers up, limbs feeling like lead. Rarity leans in close and helps her up, swaying a little bit with Fluttershy. Her horn lit up and somewhere off in the corner of the room a slow waltz began to play off an old record.
 
“Dance with me.” Rarity asks, holding out a hoof.
 
“Okay…” She replies meekly, seeing that Rarity too blushed a little. The Pegasus takes that hoof as they begin to circle each other in a slow rhythmic dance, limbs seeming to grow heavier with each step. A few of the cameras flash around them, taking pictures automagically.
 
A stiffness follows, Fluttershy’s eyes widening a little, startled as she looked down upon her hooves losing their colour, a silvery metallic sheen taking over her fur. Each step on the floor now rung with a metal like tap as if she were wearing thick iron shoes, each motion taking a little more effort than the last.
 
Rarity too was beginning to change similarly, a golden hue taking place of her white fur, starting to reflect the light from the camera flashes as it crept up her legs. “Don’t worry dear, I’m with you.” The mare smiles.
 
Fluttershy was reassured by her friend, her legs now stiff as pegs, bending them only with tremendous effort and the sound of densely creaking metal. Their stiff motions soon halted in their steps, limbs no longer responding to their command as the metal flowed upward, cooling off from their body warmth, like they were slowly being dipped in cold bath. A strange numbness followed, she could feel the stage beneath her, but muted through her metal hooves. Most of all though she could feel the touch of Rarity’s golden fore-hoof, now locked with hers in a metallic touch, both of them swaying slightly as the cameras flash more. She glanced around into the mirrors, seeing her body vanishing beneath the ever moving metal from so many angles… a curious thing to both see and feel.
 
The cool touch of the metal marched upward, over their shoulders and hips- cutie marks and fur along the way changing hue into glittering precious metal. Fluttershy’s wings clamped firmly by her sides, and both of their tails frozen solid in metal before it reached up over their bellies and chest.
 
“A-ah… Rarity…” She smiles a little bit, the metal squeezing in on her chest and compacting, making her breaths difficult and short.
 
“Shh… I’m here.” The mare responded, both of their lungs soon solidified as the metal reached up over their necks.
 
They stared into each other’s eyes, silent and mostly still now, not a word could be spoken between them now if they tried. The two mares blushed, hiding secret joy that they were together like this, stuck to one another for who knows how long.  
Fluttershy smiles sheepishly as her muzzle and countenance are subsumed by the silver, her eyes frozen facing Rarity who’s gaze did the same in gold. The cameras flashed a few more times around, their new bodies glittering brilliantly, reflected in the light through the mirrors all around before they shut off, leaving the room in truest stillness and silence when the record stops.
 
Truth be told, Rarity did not know exactly how long the potions would last… this was just how she wanted it too. To be with Fluttershy, like this. It wouldn’t last forever, if the potion didn’t wear off then their friends would find them, and it wouldn’t take much effort from the Element of Magic to return them to their natural state, hours, maybe days from now. Goodness, would they have some explaining to do then…
 
… but for now, for now she was content. And so was Fluttershy, content to simple exist with the pony she so admired.
 

 
Commission for Bornofsound on FA
 
Second part: >>1064527