The next day, Firefox was feeling much better, but still had a fever. You insisted that she get more rest. While this did mean that you had to use IE some more, you were… mostly fine with that. It wasn’t too bad, you thought. She at least got the job done, albeit slowly, but you knew she tries her best.

	“Maybe Firefox will be all better when I get back from work…” you think to yourself. As patient as you were with IE, you really hoped you could use Firefox again soon. 

	“Okay IE, I’m going to work now.” You say to her. “You just find something to occupy yourself and I’ll be back at six.”

	“Kay… sorry…” she says. She was slumped over on the couch. It looked like she was still upset about last night. You walk over to her and stroke her mane.

	“IE, come on, don’t beat yourself up. It’s not your fault. Once Firefox gets better we can figure this out, I promise.”

	“Okay… you’re too kind…”

	You leave her there on the couch and head off to work.

	Hours later, you come back home. You enter the door and you hear running water, coming from the kitchen. You think nothing of it, obviously.

	“IE, I’m home!” you shout.

	“Don’t come in the kitchen, please! Sorry.” She responds. You, of course, head right to the kitchen to see why.

	Before you was an absolute watery mess. The kitchen’s sink’s faucet was missing and the sink was gushing water out.

	“I’m sorry, I was just trying to get some water and the faucet broke off! Sorry! Please don’t hate me!” She said. Her fur was soaking wet and she had what looked like all of your towels from the linen closet all over the floor.

	Casually, you walk to the sink, open the cupboard doors underneath it and turn the shut off valve.

	“Oh… I would have figured that out eventually.” She said, sheepishly.

	You looked around you. The floor and countertops were covered in water. The bread that IE had laid on the counter had disintegrated into a sloppy mess. Towels covered the floor, each of them filled to full, and it looked like IE and used every single one of your clean towels.

	“M-master, I’m so sorry. Please don’t hate me.”

	“No, no, IE, it’s fine. Just help me clean this up, alright? There’s a mop in the closet near the foyer, go get it please.”

	“Okay… sorry…”

	It took you more than a couple hours to clean up the mess. IE was gloomy the whole time, just muttering “sorry” every few minutes. Besides that, neither of you said anything to each other.

	Afterwards, you made IE and yourself something to eat. Just sandwiches; you weren’t a particularly good cook. IE was still visibly upset, her head drooping.

	“Hey, IE,” you say to her, “how about you open up my email for me? mail.pony-mail.com, username anon, password is ymouse.”

	“R-really?”

	“Well, of course. Come on, just do your best.”

	“Okay… here goes…” Her eyes glowed and a blank screen appeared before you. “Just let me load the page here…”

	The page remained blank for some time. It didn’t seem like any progress was being made. IE looked very worried.

	“J-just hold on, master.” Minutes went by, but no progress was made. “I-I seem to not be getting a connection.”

	Her eyes started to water.

	“I-I’m sorry…”

	You patted her head, trying to reassure her. She tried to hold her tears back, sniffling and making pathetic whimpers.

	“I’m… I’m so sorry!”

	She couldn’t hold it anymore. A stream of tears came from her eyes, and she covered her face in her arms, crying on the floor. In between sobs, she continued her apologies.

	“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… sorry… I’m sorry… for being useless…! I’m sorry… for being awful…!”

	You carefully picked her up off the floor and held her in your arms. She continued bawling. Her tears and snot absorbed into your shirt. You didn’t quite know to say to her.

	You held her closer.

	“IE, come on, stop crying. It’s okay… it’s okay…” You did your best to comfort her. She kept crying for some time, silently sobbing into your shoulder. Finally, she calmed down.

	“I’m just so sorry.”

	“Please stop apologizing, IE. It’s not your fault.”

	“Sorry… oh, sorry for apologizing… sorry.”

	You set her down next to her on the couchand scratched her around her ears. She seemed to like it. Her breathing evened out, she closed her eyes, and went to sleep.

	“That’s okay,” you said to yourself. “I don’t need the Internet right now.”

	Eventually, you also fall asleep, with IE next to you, her head on your lap.

	“Hey… anon…”

	Something pushed your shoulder. You were still too out of it to respond.

	“Anon… master… wake up.”

	It sounded Firefox’s voice. Your suspicion was confirmed when whoever it was violently shook you back and forth. That was a thing Firefox liked to do.

	“Gah, dammit, I’m awake!” you shout. IE was still asleep on your lap, snoring quite loudly.

	“You’re very late for work, master. Just thought you should know.”

	“Ugh… I’ll just take a sick day.”

	“I’ll email them about it, then.” Her eyes flashed. “Done.”

	Her speed surprised you for a moment. Just two days of using IE and Firefox’s speed seemed otherworldly.

	“So, this is my replacement?” Firefox said, referring to the sleeping IE.

	“Temporarily. You feeling better?”

	“She looks dated. Her colors are different than other IE ponies.”

	“Yeah, there’s something wrong with her; she can’t update.  If it’s not enough trouble, I was hoping you could try to figure out what’s wrong with her.”

	“Certainly, master.” Firefox placed her hoof on IE’s forehead. IE didn’t stir.

	“Establishing local connection… scanning filesystem…” Firefox’s eyes shined brightly with pulsating light. You greatly hoped she would find out what was wrong.

	As the minutes went by, you waited in anticipation.  Would Firefox figure out what was wrong? Could she fix it? How would IE feel? How does updating even work; would she be the same pony?

	“Firefox…”

	“Yes master?” She said, still doing her magic on IE.

	“What does updating feel like?”

	“You have nothing to worry about, anon. IE will be a whole new pony after this. She’ll be very happy.”

	Her eyes grew dim, and she with confidence she said: “I think I’ve found the problem. And it’s an easy fix.”

	“Really? Oh Firefox, that’s wonderful! What’s the problem?”

	“Quite simply, her update module is calling the completely wrong address for its updates.”

	“So, you just change the address it calls, right?”

	“Yup, that’s it. Applying fix…” Firefox’s eyes flashed. “Done. Should we wake her now?”

	IE was still asleep, completely oblivious to what had just happened. 
	“Yeah, let’s do it.” You gently nudged IE, but she didn’t stir.

	“IE, we have a surprise for you.” You said into her ear. She still didn’t budge. “I guess she’s a heavy sleeper.”

	“Let me.”

	“No-no, wait!”

	Before you could stop her, Firefox did her thing and shook IE awake.

	“WAKE UP SLEEPY HEAD.” She shouted. And IE did.

	“AH! WHAT’S GOING ON!” IE shouted.

	“Firefox, that was rude.”

	She ignored you. “I repaired your update module.”

	IE’s eyes lit up with glee. “Ohmygosh, really?”

	“Yup, go ahead and update.”

	“Thank you guys!” IE’s flashed and glowed with intense light. “I-It’s working!” Then, IE’s entire body glowed. She floated off of the couch, beams of light emitting from her.

	“Firefox, is this supposed to happen?”

	“Don’t worry, master.”

	The process continued. The light was so brilliant that you couldn’t even see her body anymore. Then, it was over. IE fell to the couch. She looked beautiful. IE’s coat was a vivid blue, her mane a brilliant gold.

	“Ohmygosh, look at me!” IE was inspecting her new colors, twirling around with bliss.

	“Thank you, thank you so much!”

	*****

	“Yo, what’d yah do to her?” The clerk asked.

	Now that Firefox was healthy, it was time to return IE.

	“We fixed her. It wasn’t hard.” You responded. “Did you even try to repair her?”

	“Well, no, she’s just a rental.”

	You decided not to give him a lecture on what you thought about the rights of program ponies.

	“Well, I guess this is goodbye, anon…” IE said. She looked sad. “Thank you, again.”

	“It was my pleasure, IE.” You said. “Maybe I’ll come visit someday.”

	“I-I’ll be waiting.” She said. “Thanks…”

	She gives you one last wave goodbye as you walk out the door. Something tugged at your heart. You turned around.

	“Clerk, do you sell rentals?”

-end