"And look!" Lucy turned the big plastic slab of a menu around. "You can get a tuna melt with Swiss cheese! Just the way you like it!"

Jim shrugged, took a sip of his bourbon, coughed—why the Hell had he ordered bourbon?—and set the glass down on the little napkin with the Dandelion Cafe's new name on it: Temperance Bar and Grill or something. He refused to give it more than a glance.

Lucy got that look on her face, the one that made Jim feel like he was wearing footie pajamas and shrieking about not wanting to brush his teeth. "I know," he said, refusing to notice Dandelion's redesigned interior, the ferns and wood paneling gone, the walls now bare concrete with the ducts all exposed overhead. "Change is the only constant, right?"

That got her smirking at least. "It's not a death sentence, Jim."

As tempted as he was to take another sip of bourbon, he reached for his water glass instead. "Tell that to Circuit City. Or Toys-R-Us. Or Sears."

Her eyes widened, and she reached across the table—some weird white linoleum instead of the wood-grain Formica it was [i]supposed[/i] to be—to touch his hand. "This is about 'My Little Pony,' isn't it?"

His throat threatening to squeeze shut, Jim took a swig of water and forced it down. "Don't start, Lucy."

"Start?" She blinked and sat back. "Jim, I [i]love[/i] that you found a fandom; you know that! I mean, growing up watching 'Sailor Moon' transform and fight for justice in the name of the moon literally changed my life! And when the series' original run ended, it was like—there wasn't—I almost—" She took a breath, blew it out, and took another one. "The point is: when it ended, I didn't let it end for me. I went looking for more, and I found it even though there was hardly any internet back then and I was, like, eight years old! I've still got friends I made because of that show, and the bronies you've met online will always be—"

"Will they?" As much as he didn't want to say them, the words came out, and he dropped his gaze to the tabletop. "The last Bronycon's come and gone, the last episode'll be airing before Halloween, and then..." His throat tried to do that squeezing shut thing again, but he slammed down another mouthful of water. He was a Senior Administrative Analyst, God damn it! Why did he keep choking up about a stupid cartoon?

"Yes, it'll be different." Lucy's voice flowed over him as sweet and cool as partially melted ice cream. "Yes, things'll change. But change isn't always bad, right?" Her hand touched his again. "Right?"

What she was saying finally clicked in his head, and Jim had to smile, had to turn his hand over to take hers. "Wuffums? Some changes are my favorite things in the whole wide world."

She smiled, and then the waiter was stepping up to the table.

"Tuna melt with Swiss," Jim said. He pushed the bourbon toward the waiter. "And maybe trade this for an iced tea?"

Lucy's smile got wider, and she tapped the menu. "I'll get the whole cow, uncooked, and could I get the blood and the head in a bucket on the side, please?"

The waiter wrote it down, but he was peering over his pad. "Sorry, ma'am," he said, "but, well, until we get to know the locals, I'm supposed to ask..."

The air crackled slightly around Lucy, but her smile didn't fade. In fact, it grew even toothier, curving around the snout that stretched from her face. Black fur bristled to cover her skin, her shoulders broadening, her torso lengthening and her whole body bulging to fill her Spandex blouse and skirt.

"Thank you." The waiter nodded. "Would you like a tankard of the first-spilled blood now?"

"Please," Lucy said, her voice still hers, Jim always thought, however raspy it became.

The waiter left, and Lucy's ears perked along the sides of her lupine head. "See? Dandelion's used to charge extra for that."

"Yeah." Grinning, Jim combed his fingers through the fur on the back of her paw. "I guess maybe I can live with a few little changes here and there every once in a while."