The Sinners and the Saints

Chapter 2

Hitting the Hats

Rarity slowly removed her hoof her from Twilight’s mouth as she looked around the busy Ponyville square. Like always, it was the center of the small town’s hustle and bustle, accompanied by the sights, smells and sounds of a prospering society. Loving laughs, crabby cries, sincere smiles, forlorn frowns; all the product of a prosperous population. Everyday, a wild congregation of contradicting emotions and personalities clashed here in a beautiful display. It truly was the summit of social and economic activity. To every pony a place their own. But, just where was theirs?

Starting to feel small from over-analyzing the rather average scene in the town, the white beauty turned onto Twilight. “So, since we have already gone someplace I wanted to go,” she said as she turned and presented the wide variety of locations to Twilight, “why don’t you chose where we want to go?”

The amount of choices was staggering. So many flashy signs, each advertising a different service. Words blurred together:

‘Buy one, get one free!’

‘Fifty percent off!’

‘All you can eat!’

It was clear that it was making Twilight dizzy; she had never been one for choices. Even when given only two choices, Twilight was not a decision making pony. Sure, give her thirty minutes or so to do some math on it and she’ll have an answer for you, but not everypony had thirty minutes or so to spare. One day, Applejack had tried to give her a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ book as a gift. Twilight nearly had an aneurysm.

Twilight was obviously trying to take her pick, but there were just so many places to choose from. Book stores, restaurants, stalls, book stores, boutiques, bakeries...

And book stores.

“I think I wanna go to the bo-”

A sudden squeal of excitement from Rarity cut Twilight off, her attention focused elsewhere. Elsewhere being a fancy hat store. “Oh my goodness, Twilight! We just have to go there! Come on!” Nearly dragging Twilight behind her, Rarity shot over to the store with a quickness that would rival the Wonderbolts’, muttering words so fast that even she herself didn’t know exactly what the hell she was babbling on about. All she knew was that it had something with “hats”, “fancy”, “couth”, and “had to get there.” Oh well. Decision made. Apparently, Cute Hats N’ Shit was their new destination.

Rarity half-walked, half-ran in first, Twilight awkwardly falling in line behind her. Almost as soon as the sightly too cold air conditioner hit her, Rarity’s eyes lit up with sparks of passion. The shelves were lined with row upon row upon row of positively radiant head apparel. From the elegant and beautiful to the straight up freaky, the store had a selection of, if Rarity had to guess, nearly every hat, helmet, and turban in the world. It almost seemed insulting to call such a lovely thing a store. To the white fashionista at least, this was more of a department, dealing out pure pleasure in the form of silly hats.

Lugging an awestruck Twilight behind her, Rarity darted down the first aisle. “Oh Twilight, we need to try on some hats! Oh my gosh, this one has gems!” she gasped and picked up a silver tiara, dropping her usual formal tone for once. The crown itself was rather plain, silver with a very unusual design, but the genuine sparkling jewels around the rim really sold it. The curves and bends in the front pattern resembled stars while a large pearl in the middle symbolised the moon. both objects refracting light easily off of it.

Slowly turning to face Twilight while she gawked in dumbstruck shock at the royal piece, Rarity looked up and met her friend’s gaze. “Oh, you just have to try this on! It’s absolutely perfect for you!” She craned her neck around, scanning the store. “Where are the mirrors?”

After wander around the store for what seemed like hours but was really only fifteen minutes, someone finally came to assist them. Approaching them with a cheery smile, he helpfully inquired if they needed anything. A strapping young lad, wouldn’t hurt a fly and probably hadn’t had a drop of alcohol in his life. Not the kind of pony that deserved the treatment he got.

Rarity was about to have a full fledged fit. As if they hadn’t had enough trouble trying to find the mirror already, this...swine dares to ask them if they were having problems? That was the last straw. Taking a deep breath, Rarity was prepared to give this stallion the worst customer he had ever had.

“Oh, thank goodness, we have been looking for service everywhere!” Rarity giggled seductively and cuddled up close to the colt. “And, my, what luck we have! To be treated by such a handsome stallion such as yourself...and look at these muscles, Twilight!” She held up his rather puny foreleg and showed it off to the world. This wasn't even her final form. “You know, I bet you’re just greatat helping fine, young mares such as ourselves...so why don’t you show us where the mirrors are? Pretty pwease?” Batting her eyelashes up at him, she gave a baby voice twist on the ‘please’.

The stallion, noticing that Rarity was now actually touching him, gulped nervously. “S-sure. I don’t see, uh...no problem.”

A satisfied squeal from Rarity and they were off, trekking along the store’s aisles on the quest for mirrors. Looking back at Twilight, she was about to wink inconspicuously at her, but it was obvious something was wrong. Her features were contorted into a slight grimace, her eyes narrowed and her nose scrunched. The purple mare looked almost...angry? Annoyed? Agitated? No matter, Rarity would just ask her about it later.

Keeping her hoof steady and firm on his shoulder, she kept the colt on edge, like a dog on a leash. His muscles tensed and tautened beneath her touch, a feeling Rarity was familiar enough with already. Seemed to happened every time she touched a stallion; an almost reflexive flinch or recoil. And she had touched many stallions in her time. And many stallions had touched her. But, she never tensed when she was touched like that. It wasn't like she was a promiscuous slut like so many others liked to call her, but...touching had never meant anything to her. There was no ‘spark’ they talked about in books. There was no ‘fiery sensation’ when he touched your face. There was no ‘clinging moment’ when you just knew he was the one.

Because there was no love.

She had been with a lot of worthy colts, some tall, some short, some handsome, some ugly. But not a single one of them made an impression. The long line of faces in her mind always seemed to blur together, none of them memorable or special. It was all about the sex, there was nothing to it other than that. Sometimes they wouldn’t even go on a date and at least try to pretend they were in love. Because they weren’t. Both of them knew that. Rarity had never loved somepony, and nopony had ever loved her. And, at least as far as Rarity could tell, neither of them ever would.

After pondering through various philosophical and emotional debates of the importance and meaning of love and sex, Rarity finally came back to the real world, ironically just as they were approaching the mirrors. Six reflections faced a central standing platform, while flattering light was cast down by various spotlights and bulbs. Putting on her flirtatious masquerade again, she turned to the employee again. It couldn’t hurt to toy with him one more time. “Oh, thank you so much, however will we repay you for your services?” Snuggling up close to him again, Rarity looked up at him with a alluring gaze.

With an awkward cough, he looked away from her stare. “Oh, um...n-no need to repay me. Just doin’ my, uh...job! Yeah, yeah. Just doin’ my job.” It was almost like her flirting physically pained the poor guy. With one last look at them over his shoulder, he walked away in dumbstruck confusion, running into a few things before turning the corner.

Turning to face her still somewhat sour-faced friend, Rarity heaved out an enormous sigh. “Works every time.”

Twilight wasn't quite so amused. “Why were you all over him? Just a minute before he walked up to us, you were talking about how you would bite the head of the first person you saw.”

“Ha! If you really want to torture a stallion, flirt with them relentlessly. It kills them when they get teased like that and don’t get anything out of it.” Rarity said, acting like this was some kind of common knowledge supposed to be known by all mares.

Her face visibly relaxed back into its more beautiful state. For some reason, Rarity couldn’t help but love the fact that somehow she had cheered her up. It wasn't the first time the white pony had noticed that her less than social friend was gorgeous, but it was the first time that she really got to study her features. Her purple eyes like the night sky, the gentle curve of her nose...it all fit together so well.

“Rarity?”

She shook herself out of the mesmerized trance. “Y-yes, darling?”

“Don’t you, uh, want me to try that on?” Pointing to the silver crown that Rarity had forgot she still had in her hands, Twilight stepped up to the platform.

“Oh, sure! Here.” The tiara glowed and glimmered with faint magic as Rarity delicately placed it on Twilight’s head, taking a few moments to steady and center it before deciding that it was just right. “Perfect. Go ahead and take a look in the mirror.”

A few moments of suspense hung in the air as Rarity closed her eyes, anticipating her reaction. She didn’t have to wait long, however, because just a second after she had closed her eyes, she heard Twilight’s gasp of wonder.

“Oh my gosh, Rarity! It’s...it’s...” Twilight was speechless, her eyes wide in the mirror. “It’s beautiful!” Her jaw wide open, she stared at herself in the reflection, as if she had never seen herself this way before.

“Didn’t I saw so, dear? I just knew you would look great in it!” It was the truth. She did look great in it. Better than great, actually. The way the light would hit the crown made it refract and radiate off of it, giving the impression that it was glowing. It looked like the night sky, even complete with what Rarity just realized were constellations. Sparkling brightest out of all the gems and designs, however, was still Twilight. Not only had Rarity taken note of how stunning she actually was before, but now she looked positively scrumptious. Why, if she just had a dress to go with that, she be prettier than her!

Twilight scrutinized herself in the mirror for a while longer, taking in how good she actually looked, before turning to face Rarity again with an childish grin. “Can we try on more hats?”

Rarity considered it. Well, she did see some she wanted to wear on the way up here. “Sure, I don’t see why not!”

They spent the next hour or so trying on all sorts silly hats and headgear. They would find matching hats and pose in the mirror together, pretending to be detectives, policemares, and various other costumes, before collapsing in a snorting heap of laughter and confusion. Rarity once brought a Stetson up and did her joking impression of Applejack, before Twilight got a party hat and pretended like she was Pinkie Pie, leaving them both rolling on the tiled floor. They knew they were acting like a duo of school-fillies, but, honestly, they didn’t care. It didn’t matter who stared or who scoffed. All that mattered is that they were being themselves. It had been a long time since Rarity had been this happy and truthful with someone, and no one was going to stop that.

As a final act, they both put on rainbow clown wigs and became Rainbow Dash, saying various phrases like “swag” and “gotta’ go fast!”, before being angrily escorted out of the store by the manager for ‘unruly behaviour’.

“...And stay out!” The old stallion yelled after them, followed by an angry slam of the front door.

“Hmph. How rude!” Rarity whined, busying herself by trying to fix her mane’s state from wearing all those hats. “I can’t believe he just...threw us out like that! When we were having so much fun, too!” She continued to fumble with her hair with her magic until she finally came to a stop, somewhat satisfied. “The nerve! Well, I guess we just have to go some where else,” she said now turning to a somewhat amused Twilight. “What?”

“Oh, nothing. You’re just...really cute sometimes, Rarity.” Cute? What in Celestia’s name did she mean by that? Rarity had been called many things like hot and sexy in her time, but cute? Twilight was the only one who had ever called her that. It was just such a word of...affection. Something she had never had before.

“ So where are we headed next? Isn’t it my choice now?” Rarity dodged Twilight’s words, acting like she had never even heard them. But she did.

“Actually, you kind of dragged me over here when I was supposed to pick where we were supposed to go.”

“Right...” Rarity’s voice dropped slightly and her eyes found the floor, before suddenly coming back up again. “Well, where do you want to go now?

Twilight smiled sweetly, an unknown glint in her eye. “I think we should head back to my library.”