The invitation came one bright Saturday morning. Rarity was preoccupied drawing costume concepts for a school play the following week. She was tired, but also determined, for she had a bit of a reputation to keep. Ever since the last play she designed for, she has become the go-to filly for fashion advice. Wanted to know what was “in”? She had the answer. Wanted to know what you should wear to bring out the color of your eyes? She had the answer. Wanted to know what looked good on you? She had- well, you get the idea.
While she was working, her mother knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Rarity yawned, rubbing her eyes.
Her mother walked in holding an envelope with Rarity in big bold letters written on the back. “This is from your great-aunt Golden Brooch,” she said as she handed the letter to Rarity, who read it out loud.
“My Dearest Rarity,
It has been so long since we last contacted each other. Your parents have been sending me pictures and letters to keep me updated, and I must say that I am truly proud of you. I don’t know why your mother decided to marry that lower classmen you call a father, but I’m glad to see you have a sense of fashion. It must be hard with someone of your manner to be living in such a low class village, but do not worry, for I have an offer for you. It is going to be my 50th birthday next Friday, and I ask you to attend. I believe it is time you experience the upper class for a change. If you enjoy your stay, you may permanently live here in Canterlot. I hope to see you soon.
With love,
Aunt Golden Brooch.”
“Ugh,” grunted Rarity’s mother, “she always has to bad-mouth our economic position.”
“I don’t think I want to go,” whispered Rarity, continuing on her sketches. “She definitely doesn’t sound like a kind mare.”
“Oh, I agree honey, trust me, I do. But, I think it’ll be best if you go. She is dawning on fifty years now, and she hasn’t seen you since you were born...”
“But mooom,” Rarity whined in response, “I can’t! What about these costume concepts? They need to be done, or I’ll be ruined!”
Her mom sighed, “You can work on them when you get there, and you can mail them back here when you’re done.”
After about an hour of bickering back and forth, Rarity gave in. She was to leave for the train station at 4 AM on Monday (her mom would contact the school about her week-long vacation), take it from Ponyville to Canterlot, and make it there around noon.
The day finally came, and Rarity boarded the train. When she got to Canterlot, she was greeted by an elderly mare, with a golden coat and silver mane. Her cutie mark was a heart shaped brooch that was a faint gold color.
“Oh darling!” she said to Rarity, “I’ve been waiting for you! Come, come, my residence isn’t far from here. Oh, we have so much catching up to do!”
It was a short walk (if you could call it that), as they made it in 2 minutes time. The building was huge, it was three stories high, and had the length roughly the size of a hoofball (known to us as football) field. Rarity was in awe; she had never seen anything that big before. She studied the massive garden, when she saw a few dull colored fillies moving some rocks.
“Who are they?” she asked.
“The Pie kids,” answered Brooch, “they live on a rock farm just a ways out of Canterlot. I pay them a nickel for every beautiful rock they produce.”
“You only give them a nickel each?”
“No, no, not each. I give them a nickel to share. I suppose if there were five, I could give them a penny each, but there’s only four.”
“Why’s that?”
“Oh child, its obvious isn’t it? They’re lower on the economic status. We’re far superior. Even that father of yours is better than them.”
“I’m going to go talk to them,” Rarity trotted away, mostly ignoring what her aunt just said.
She heard her aunt call for her, but she continued to ignore her. As she was coming close, she saw only two fillies. I believed there were four of them Rarity thought to herself, when suddenly, out of nowhere, she walked into one. However, this wasn’t one of the two she was staring at. This one was very different. Instead of having dull, unwelcoming colors, this one had two bright shades of pink, for both mane and coat. Instead of having straight hair, she had hair that looked reminiscent of a fur ball. And instead of having a rock related cutie mark, hers was three party balloons. You would never tell they’re related.
“Oh, I’m dearly sorry!” Rarity apologized, helping her up.
“Oh, it’s fine!” the pink filly exclaimed cheerfully. “My name’s Pinkie Pie! What’s yours?”
“Rarity. It’s a pleasure to meet you Pinkie. Might I ask where your other sibling is? I’m just curious, as my aunt told me there were four of you.”
“Oh, Maud is sick today. It’s a shame, but between you and me,” She looked around, then whispered in Rarity’s ear, “I think she partied too hard.”
“Partied too hard?”
“Yeah, you see, I like, looooveee parties, so I try to throw them for my family at least once a week! I wish I could come to this party too, but…”
“But what?”
“… Your aunt won’t let me. She said she doesn’t want me ruining anything with my lower classiness.”
I should’ve known.
“Rarity! Come here right now!” Golden Brooch bellowed.
“I’m Coming Aunt Brooch! Sorry Pinkie, I have to go. It was certainly a pleasure meeting you.” Rarity galloped near Golden Brooch. She knew she was in trouble for talking to a lower classmen, but she didn’t care. She may be a spoiled diva, but she was never rude to an innocent pony.
“Come, come, child! You’re going to need to unpack.” They both entered the mansion, and Rarity glanced back at Pinkie and her sisters working hard, just for one lousy nickel.
“Now child, you shall go to your room and unpack. I’ll have the butler help you find it. When you’re done, come right back down, we have party planning to do.”
“Um, Aunt Brooch?”
“Yes child?”
“Why can’t we invite Pinkie and the other Pie kids? They seem like nice-” she was cut off.
“No! Why are you being so clingy to lower class ponies, child? It’s that father of yours, isn’t it? Oh, I knew your mother should’ve married a man that respects her culture, like Will Palomino. Now he’s a gentleman.”
“Aunt Brooch! How could you say such a thing? This ‘Will Palomino’ might be a gentleman, but my father is a good stallion! Our economic class has nothing to do with it!”
Golden Brooch shook her head, “So, if I am interpreting your statement correctly, you don’t want to live a luxurious lifestyle here in Canterlot?”
Rarity was silent.
“What’s the matter child, cat got your tongue?”
She remained silent.
“Oh, you can go ahead and play the silent game, child, I can wait. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a couple of crofters to pay,” Golden walked towards the front door, opened it, and went outside. Rarity was left there, alone in the massive space her aunt called a living room, and just stood still. She wasn’t angry, no, she was sad. Borderline depressed even. Of course she was just exaggerating, like she always does when she’s in some kind of distress. Golden found her weakness (one of the many she had), and that was accusing her of not wanting a higher class of living. It’s a very petty weakness, but that isn’t uncommon with a mare like Rarity.
“Excuse me madam’” a voice from behind croaked.
Rarity turned around, shocked. She found herself face to face with an aging unicorn stallion. He was around the size of Mr. Cake, and he had a coffee-brown coat with a silver mane. He wore a Dress shirt and tux and had a monocle on his right eye. Rarity spoke up, “Oh, hello sir. You’re the butler, I presume?”
“Yes I am indeed, Lady Rarity. My title is Reginald Palfrey.”
“Your title? Do you mean your name?”
“Yes, yes, I do. But Lady Brooch prefers me to say title. I’m not entirely sure why, but I must do her bidding.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Yes, yes. Now enough about that, I was instructed by Lady Brooch to escort you to your room. May I take your bags?”
The two of them went all the way to the third floor. To Rarity’s surprise, there was actually an elevator. So this is how Aunt Brooch gets through the house. It makes much more sense.
While in the elevator, Rarity asked Reginald a question. “Excuse me Mr. Reginald, but what do you think about my aunt and her… classist remarks?”
Reginald sighed, “It truly bothers me, to tell you the truth Lady Rarity.”
“There’s this one filly who I met earlier today, her name is Pinkie Pie, and she and her sisters work for my aunt, and only get one nickel. Pinkie said herself that she loves parties, and I want to invite her to this one but of course, Aunt Brooch said no.”
“Well Lady Rarity, I can’t really say much more without losing my job.”
That made Rarity goes into a pouting fit for the rest of the way to the room. She had to do something.
Then it hit her.
She could make invitations, in secret of course, and give them to the Pie kids. Her aunt would be angry, but it would serve her right. Once they got to the room, she thanked Reginald for the help, tipped him with some of her spare bits, and went to work. She got all the essentials she needed for invitations, like paper, glitter, jewels, illegally downloaded pictures of famous artwork (wait… that’s not quite right…), and more glitter. They were some of the best things Rarity had the pleasure of designing (I could write a whole story on them, but I digress).
Now, working on these was no easy task. She had to stop production on the costume sketches to go through with this plan. It may seem like a task that would only take an hour or so, but to Rarity, this was a serious mission. On top of having them be perfect, they needed to be hidden away from Golden Brooch, for she would surely destroy them.
The day before the party rolled around, and Rarity was ready to give out the invitations. She didn’t put names on them, because she didn’t know the name of two of the sisters, and she didn’t want to seem like she was picking favorites.
She saw Pinkie right outside in the gardens. She trotted up to her happily, “Hi there Pinkie!” She said happily as she reached her. “Guess what I have?”
“Ooh, ooh, cupcakes? Rainbows? Rainbow flavored cupcakes?”
“No, no, no. I have invitations to you and your sister to my great aunt’s 50th birthday!”
“Oh, Rarity, You shouldn’t have! I mean that literally, because I’m leaving to be mentored in Ponyville tomorrow.”
“Rarity’s jaw dropped, “What!? Are you serious?”
“Yeah, it’s a total bummer right?”
“Well… it’s both a yes, and a no.”
“Yes AND no? How Rares?”
“Don’t call me that, and yes, both yes and no. Yes because I live in Ponyville, and no because I spent days working on these when I should’ve worked on a school-related project.” Rarity’s ears went down, and she had a sad expression on her face. If she knew that Pinkie was moving, she wouldn’t even have bothered. “Can you at least give these to your sisters?” she asked, handing Pinkie the invitations.
“Well, they might not want to come without me, but sure! I bet they’ll cherish them for like, a lonnnnngggg time.” Pinkie took them and stored them into her hair.
“Umm… right...” Rarity said in response.
“Why do you look so down? Turn that frown upside down! Hey, that rhymed! Hee hee hee!” Pinkie giggled.
“Well, I have these costume concepts for a school play I was supposed to work on, but instead I worked on those invitations. Oh, this plan was doomed to fail; I don’t know how I didn’t see it.”
“Hey there, what did I tell you about that frown? Now come on, I’ll help you work on them.”
“Wh-what? But they have to be perfect, and if they aren’t…” Rarity’s chin started trembling. She on the verge of tears.
“Oh, they’ll be perfect all right! Just as long as we work hard, and as a team, we can move mountains!”
Rarity smiled a tad. “Thank you Pinkie Pie. You’re a true friend.”
The two of them had to enter the house stealthfully. There were a few decorative vines on the side of the building, which lead up has high as the second floor. However, when they got on, the vines made a rustling sound that was too loud to be stealthy. They had to find another way in, and that's when Rarity got crafty.
"What'cha doin'?" Pinkie asked Rarity, who was stacking rocks together in a stair-like formation.
"Improvising'" She responded. There were a lot of rocks, so it wasn't impossible.. or so Rarity thought. She ended up being a few rocks too short, which made it impossible to continue.
"Oh, no no no! How are we supposed to get up there now?" Rarity pouted.
Pinkie brainstormed, and came up with a totally foolproof plan. "You can lift me up, and you can go through the front door! Yeah, yeah, yeah, it'll be great!"
Rarity gulped, "I hope you know what your doing." She lifted Pinkie up, being careful not to fall down almost twelve feet, and got her in. "WHOO HOO!" Pinkie celebrated.
"Shhhhh! Were trying not to get caught!"
"Oh yeah, right." Pinkie smiled and headed towards the elevator.
It opened.
Out came the butler, to Rarity's slight relief. Surely he would understand, and they'd won't get in trouble. The way Rarity knew it was the butler was, well... Pinkie. Who said hi.
Rarity ran down the rocks and into the house as fast as she could, only to be stopped by her aunt.
"Uhh, excuse me aunt Brooch. I need to get going upstairs."
Golden Brooch looked down at the worrying filly, "What's the rush child?"
Rarity didn't have time for this. She dashed past her aunt, and headed straight for the elevator. It seemed like an eternity to Rarity, when finally it stopped, and the doors opened.
To her surprise, she saw Mr. Palfrey and Pinkie chatting like they've known each other for years.
"Oh, hi Rarity! Have you met my uncle Reginald? He's a swell guy!"
Rarity's jaw dropped. "U-uncle? Mr. Palfrey is your uncle?"
"Why yes, Lady Rarity. How do you think Pinkie and her sisters got their job? Your aunt wouldn't of just hired any old rock farmers."
"B-but wait! You're a unicorn!"
"Yes, yes, I am, but that doesn't mean I can't be there uncle. Ponies can cross breed you know."
This all came so sudden to Rarity. Then she got another surprise.
"Oh, Lady Rarity, I worked on these costumes for you throughout the week. I saw that you were busy with other things, so I decided to help you with them a bit. I hope you don't mind."
"Thank you! Oh dear Celestia, thank you!" Rarity started to cry. It was a touching moment, that both Pinkie and Rarity still look back on today. Not much happened after that day for the rest of Rarity's visit. Pinkie left, Rarity attended the party and decided to return home, and Reginald Palfrey never got caught. This is an experience that the two mares will share for the rest of their lives.
Author's Note
If this story seems to be a bit rushed, I'm deeply sorry. This is the first time I wrote one of these and actually posted it online. Constructive Criticism is welcomed, and I hope you all will stick around to read my future stories! ^-^
