Puppy Love
By: TCSNxs
“Ow,” Rainbow yelped as the pin bit into her flesh.
“Sorry,” Rarity apologized as she managed to reseat the sharp tool in the garment. “Though you do need to stop fidgeting.”
“Well hurry up!” the pegasus replied. The unicorn smiled despite Rainbow’s bluster.
The main floor shop of the Carousel Boutique was an uncharacteristic mess. The fashionista worked on Spitfire’s order for new training uniforms for the Wonderbolts. By itself, it wasn’t a large order. But once the Wonderbolts sported their new training gear, orders were sure to pour in. The prospect of an insane amount of bits usually had put the fashionista in a happy mood for at least half the day. That said, it also made her a bit distracted.
The unicorn decided to use a off-white as the dominant color for the cotton and spandex outfit. Various holes in the garment allowed airflow and perspiration relief. Blue and white streaks of lightning crisscrossed along the back and barrel of the wearer. It was simple, elegant, functional, and had a high profit margin.
“Why am I doing this again?” Rainbow asked ask as she watched herself in the full-length mirror. Though the normally naked pegasus despised clothes, she had to admit the garment helped her cut a stark figure.
“Aside from the fact that I promised you dinner?” Rarity answered half-heartedly. “Because I needed a pegasus with a strong musculature and natural arrogance to model it.”
“Arrogance?” Rainbow groused as she turned a glare to the fashionista.
“Self-assured. Flamboyant,” Rarity explained. Her magic flared as she stitched on the last bits of flair. The fashionista glanced to the pegasus as she shifted to a matter-of-fact tone. “In short, I needed you.”
“Oh,” The pegasus turned back to the mirror and wore a grin. The designer learned one thing through her years in business. When in doubt, one always needed to appeal to a pony’s ego. Not that Rainbow’s needed much of a stroke..
“Did you hear Pinkie’s business folded?” Rarity said in an effort to stop the hyper pegasus’ fidgeting.
“Yeah,” Rainbow answered. She wanted desperately to go about the day. “What happened?”
“Well,” Rarity began as she shifted into narration mode.
~(o)~
The Cake family enjoyed the late spring air about Ponyville. Carrot and Cup strolled along the busy avenues of the bustling town. As Mr. Cake pushed their children, Pound and Pumpkin, Mrs. Cake balanced a tray of congratulatory cupcakes on her back. The slight bump in her belly held the newest addition to the clan—tentatively named Lemon or Black Forest. Regardless, Mr. Cake was proud of his soon-to-be-expanded family.
The family approached “Madame Pinkie’s Fortunes and Bistro”. Though they tried to get the party pony to focus on one idea, Pinkie was absolutely sold that crystal ball scrying and hot Fillydelphia sandwiches were a surefire winner. Regardless, they wanted to wish their former tenant and employee well in her endeavor. Mr. Cake opened the door for his beloved wife, to which Mrs. Cake repaid with a gentle kiss on his cheek.
“Welcome to ‘Madame Pinkie’s Fortune and Bistro', where the future is served with a side of sprouts!” the party pony chirped as the bell above the door rang. Her gear was right out of an old Gypsy’s home, save for the candy corn accents about the headdress. Her perpetual smile somehow grew wider when she saw who the customers were. “Oh hey guys!”
“Hey Pinkie! We just wanted to drop off these cupcakes and see how business was,” Carrot said as he looked around the vacant space. It was obvious that though Pinkie did her best with the decor, the collage of modern dining sets and Roamani art pieces didn’t seem to help attract a customer base. The fortune telling room was hidden from the rest of the diner by a large purple curtain. The pink prognosticator of Ponyville hugged the two foals. They even giggled as their former foalsitter made a few honking noises for no reason.
“Oh, it’s going soooo good,” Pinkie said with a smile as she seized the cupcakes. “Do you guys want a reading or a drink?”
“Well sure, we can...” Mr. Cake looked to his wife.
“Absolutely!” Mrs. Cake affirmed.
“Then step into Madame Pinkie’s Parlor of Mysteries,” Pinkie said in as deep a tone as she could muster. After setting the tray aside, the party pony slowly drew the curtain back. The party pony had used every stereotype imaginable to decorate the room. On the cloth covered table next to her crystal ball, she had a set of outlandish tarot cards made with her own hoof. Celestia and Luna, representing the Sun and Moon cards respectively, were flipped over. It didn’t help the artwork was done in crayon.
Mr. and Mrs. Cake sat as Pinkie adjusted her headdress and gazed into the crystalline sphere. Madame Pinkie waived her forelegs around nonsensically as the foals clapped and giggled. Pinkie broke character as the foals' reaction warmed her heart.
“I’m getting a message,” Madame Pinkie said as she returned to the business at hoof. Her hoofs grazed over the sphere. Pinkie gasped as her hoofs paused. The party pony gave a flourish as she pointed to Carrot. “I sense that you, Mr. Cake, are the father of two!”
“Ha! That’s what you think,” Mr. Cake beamed as he put a hoof over his wife’s shoulder, “I am the father of three!”
“That’s what you think,” Pinkie echoed with a smirk.
Knowing better than to doubt anything related to the party pony's "Pinkie Sense", Mr. Cake gave his wife a questionable look. Mrs. Cake gave a sheepish smile as she wanted desperately to disappear behind her two-toned pink mane.
~(o)~
“Yeah, I’m surprised they hired her back,” the pegasus said with a cringe.
“True words, darling,” Rarity confirmed as she snipped the last thread with her scissors. “And we’re done!”
“Oh,” The pegasus turned back to the mirror. Rarity smirked as she shifted the tools back to the desk. The fashionista stepped back as Rainbow turned a full circle. Indeed, while Rarity often subscribed to the maxim that “more was better”, she decided a different tact for this potential line. Though the simple in nature, the sportswear was relatively easy on the eyes and even elegant on the brash pegasus. It was perfect.
The door’s entrance bell rung just as the pegasus completed her circuit. Rarity glanced over to see a pony she’d never seen in her shop during business hours. Aside from the oddity of the pony’s appearance, she was still her chipper self.
“I’ll be with you in a moment!” the unicorn sang as she turned back to the pegasus. The fashionista gave a nod as she voiced her opinion. “My, my, darling, aren’t you stunning!”
“Meh,” Rainbow gave a half-hearted shrug. The sparkle in Rainbow's eyes told a different story that Rarity didn’t miss. “It’s alright.”
“If you say so,” Rarity said. Her smile never abated as she magically shifted the garment over to a wooden equinnequin used for such things. Rainbow checked her haunch after she was freed of the garment. Thankfully, she found no red clashed with her cyan fur from the earlier puncture.
“Tomorrow night then?” the pegasus asked. She wanted to get about with her day.
“7:30 at Olive’s Garden,” the unicorn confirmed. Though it wasn’t genuine Marediterranean cuisine, it would likely agree with the pegasus more than any high end restaurant.
“Hey Mac,” the pegasus greeted the large earth pony as she moved out the door. Big Macintosh nodded with a polite smile as she stepped aside.
“Now what can I do for you?” Rarity said as she bounced towards her desk.
“Afternoon, Miss Rarity,” the large farmer greeted. He forced a smile on his face as his hoof ran through his cropped blond mane. “Ah...uh...”
“Is something wrong, dear?” the unicorn asked. The normally gentle and pleasant looking stallion seemed out of sorts. She noted his saddlebags, which were usually chucked full when he wore them, appeared empty. The farmer took a deep breath as she put his hoof down.
Mac’s usually smiling face became a blank slate as he continued. “Ah need your help. Somethin’ awful’s happened and Ah didn’t know where else to go.”
The unicorn knew the Apple family well enough to know the prideful lot only asked for assistance as a last resort. As such, she understood it likely took a lot for large stallion to get through the front door. Rarity considered herself complimented.
“Oh? Well, do come in,” Rarity said.
~(o)~
Rarity did her best to put the guarded stallion at ease. After she closed up shop for lunch, she took the stallion into the kitchen. Where she normally drank tea, she decided coffee would be better suited to the farmer’s tastes. To the fashionista’s palate, the acrid black liquid was always a little too bitter without sugar. But for Mac’s sake, she would make do.
The stallion was always there to take out large loads of refuse for her or help move the store around after hours. More than that, he had always did so without complaint. She’d expected the farmer to need a garment mended or perhaps a new outfit created. It was the least she could do for the gentlecolt. But when the stallion explained the problem and set the item on the table, she didn’t hide her horror.
“So this is...it, then?”
“Eeyup,” the stallion confirmed.
On the table between them laid Twilight’s old Smarty Pants doll. Macintosh meant to give it back to the librarian after the incident with the “Want-It-Need-It” spell. However, between the demands of the farm and Twilight’s obligations everywhere else, he didn’t have much of a chance to give it back and apologize for taking it.
“So Winona got a hold of it and...,” Rarity said. She couldn't mask the look of horror.
“Eeyup.” the farmer summed it up.
During that magical time of year when all animals experience notions of love, Winona was kept in the family’s farmhouse to avoid any whining and barking complications a few months later. As luck would have it, she happened upon Smarty Pants as she rooted around the house as she sought for a means of escape. The normally intelligent Collie was hardly responsible for her action during that heated moment when she knocked it off the shelf. Whether it was unbanished remnants of the “Want-It-Need-It” spell or simple biological urgings was an academic matter. With no means of escape and little relief in sight, the poor doll had become the object of substitute affection for the lusty pup.
Between the bite marks, stuffing poking out in various places, and one eye completely gone, the doll looked very much worse for wear. As the family worked away the day on the Sweet Apple Acres, they couldn’t prevent the Collie from exercising her frustrations upon it.
For that matter, the “birds and bees” discussion with Apple Bloom proved to be an awkward experience. But when the Cutie Mark Crusader happened upon the dog and the doll in the living room, the Collie had thrown the gauntlet down. The fact Winona confused her role in nature’s grandest play was apparently a matter of supreme indifference to the dog and profound confusion to the filly.
“The poor thing,” Rarity lamented.
“Winona, Apple Bloom, or the doll?” Mac asked.
“All three I would guess.” the unicorn answered. Big Mac gave a deep chuckle.
Rarity looked at the disheveled doll and attempted to put the images in her mind of “puppy love” as far away as possible. Mac obviously had done his best to clean and repair the doll. But his skills with the plow didn’t translate well to a sewing needle. He managed to haphazardly sew some of the disemboweled doll back together. But even the prideful farmer recognized the doll’s wounds were beyond his means.
“So I’m guessing that you need me to repair Smarty Pants?”
“If ya don’t want to, Ah’d understand. Ah just didn’t know where else...”
“Relax, darling,” the unicorn said. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Ah can pay you...”
“Think nothing of it!” the Element of Generosity said with a smile. “It’s a simple job, really.”
The large farmer smiled genuinely for the first time that day. Rarity beamed as the farmer adjusted his trademark yoke and chuckled again, as much due to the absurdity of the situation as his relieved stress. The fashionista even managed to dismiss the coffee’s bitter taste in light of the renewal of the farmer’s placid disposition.
~(o)~
Ponyville was a quiet place in the early hours of the morning. Where most of the businesses and residences were dark, light poured from Carousel Boutique’s windows into the dark thoroughfare beyond it.
Rarity busily labored to return Smarty Pants to its former glory. Cleaning the doll had taken little effort. The fashionista knew a plethora of spells for removing stains. Only one such magical manifestation would have sufficed. However, given the doll’s torrid romance, she plied each of them twice to Smarty Pants. When she got to removing the farmer’s haphazard and random stitch-work, it proved a grueling affair.
Normally after a few hours of work, the unicorn would have taken a break to play with her cat, Opalescence. However, one whiff of the vigorous dog’s scent caused the cat to play an extended and solitary game of Hide and Seek. As such, the fashionista grumbled to herself as she toiled the hours away. Her magic continued to flare as she finally managed to work the last of the stitches loose.
After that, Rarity started to replace and repackage some of the stuffing. As the hours blended together, she unintentionally started to hum in an effort to stay awake. The fact the song resembled something of a weird mixture between Psychofilly and Dubtrot didn’t matter. It engaged her mind and expressed her frustrations.
As time passed, she had managed, finally, to sew the doll’s many lacerations together, complete with color matched thread. The missing eye was much easier to remedy in comparison. The button that served as the doll’s new ocular organ was a large blue plastic piece. Though she’d never admit it publicly, Rarity kept it around for her weirder creative endeavors on the off chance Disco would make a comeback.
Thanks to the fashionista’s tireless efforts, Smarty Pants had come out of marathon surgery stronger and better than ever. When Rarity was sure the doll could survive even Winona’s affectionate endeavors, the unicorn put her head down in the desk. All she wanted was a little nap. But the effort to climb the stairs and hop into her bed seemed too difficult a proposition. If the unicorn ever needed a reminder of why she preferred cats, that night’s labors had given her all the hints she ever needed.
~(o)~
A loud thud from the door startled the slumbering Rarity from her sleep. The horrible morning sunlight beamed straight into her bloodshot eyes, as if the Solar Regent were playing a cruel joke upon her.
“Huh...just a minute,” the groggy unicorn blurted as her eyes fully shot open. She managed to glance to the wall clock and grumbled as she realized it was half past time to open. She touched up her mane as best as possible and moved for the door. A businessmare never kept a customer waiting long.
After Rarity unbolted the door and opened it, Mac stood there with a few cups of liquid ambition on his back. His gentle smile seemed appropriate despite the harsh glare of the morning sun.
“Mornin’, Miss Rarity,” Mac greeted.
“Good morning,” the unicorn lied. She forced a smile as she let the giant farmer in. The aroma of the hot beverages filled her nostrils with a welcome scent. Rarity’s brain clicked into gear as she perked up. “Is that...Oolong?”
“Eeyup,” the stallion confirmed.
Rarity did her best to disguise her want of the hot drink. Her blue aura flared as she seized one of the cups off the back of the farmer. Mac looked to the table and saw Smarty Pants was well on its way to recovery. His eyes brightened at the prospect that Twilight would not facilitate his early demise. Rarity’s eyelids fluttered as she sipped the liquid. It was a bit tart for her liking, but the farmer obviously did his best and the taste was welcome.
“Thank you, Mac,” the unicorn smiled sweetly.
“Shucks, Miss Rarity,” the stallion said. “Ah saw you sleepin’ through the window and figured it was a long night.”
“It was nothing, darling,” Rarity lied. Secretly, she wondered if Fluttershy could be convinced to offer a free spaying and neutering service.
