Sunshine

A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction

By Gen

DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fanbased work of prose. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro, and the reinvention of Lauren Faust. No copyright infringement is intended, please support the official release

The regal atmosphere of the Carousel Boutique was rich in fine art and fashion. I counted my blessings for the fact that I would be fortunate enough to meet Rarity, a pony who is well known around this country for making fine lines of clothing for ponies around Equestria. From what Fluttershy told me, she is a prodigy in the fashion industry. All I have to say is that if her work is like her home, there was no need to deny such a claim.

Other than the fine decorating, you could tell that this mare had experience with a thread and needle by the countless dresses hung around the room on clothing racks. Not only that, you couldn't turn your head without catching a glimpse of what lies inside of this home. Opulent and velvet-like fabrics that were obviously used for sewing, mending, and creating. Gems that could land even the richest man I could imagine in an even richer position. The pony mannequins though... Just as creepy as the human kind, if not worse. Now, you would expect it to be just a simple mannequin, right? Looks like a pony, but it's clearly not. Nope. It looked like a blank copy of one of these mare ponies. All it was missing was some hair, eyes, and color. Maybe I was just over-reacting though. Either that or it was the way the things looked like blank carousel horses. I have been known to feel uncomfortable around the lifeless devils.

"Mr. Froster, do be a dear and raise your' arms. The angle you have them at is making it quite difficult for me to properly take your waist measurement."

Yes, Rarity has been taking my measurements for the past half-hour. Every. last. One. Sewing needles of all kinds had been held in between my teeth as closed lips held them into place. At the moment, I had taken up the game of counting each one of the tiny, metal needles sticking out of my mouth over and over again. There were fourteen. Yes, the number has been permanently burned into my memory.

The pedestal that I stood on wasn't that high at all. It would be much like a stepping stool for a human, but I wasn't sure about a pony. White and circular, I couldn't help but feel bored when pointing out the only two things about the pedestal. The boredom wasn't the worst part though, oh no. Not like being stripped down to my bandages wasn't enough, I was now put on display in the middle of this boutique! It was humiliating, but I couldn't say anything out of line. Rarity was making me some new clothes, after all. For free, might I add!

"Oh yeah, sure..."

Aside from having to talk through clinched teeth, being used as a live mannequin wasn't all bad. I got to stand there in my bandages... Standing there for a really long time... Blessed to still be wearing my boxers. Okay, maybe it was bad for me. For a little while, I felt like I was going to die from my own embarrassment. I was just grateful that Rarity had taken the liberty of lowering the curtains to her windows.

Doing as I had been asked, I lifted my arms parallel to my shoulders to notice some floating yellow measuring tape wrapping around my waist tightly. This magic stuff really was mind-boggling to me. Soon as it wrapped around me, it left just as quickly to float in front of Rarity, whom had been standing a few feet from the pedestal. She looked at the measurement before taking a mental note of it. Her red, work glasses had been easily adjusted by a fore-hoof when taking a closer look at it. I never would have guessed that a pony like Rarity would have been farsighted.

"Again, I'm dreadfully sorry about this, Mr. Froster. I hate to have made you stand there for such a long while, but I just do not have any kinds of mannequins for a proper reference to your' body-type."

Magic had now surrounded the needles in my mouth before pulling them away to a small tomato pin-cushion so that it could allow me to speak clearly. It was a real relief for me to be able to speak, but I didn't understand just why Rarity didn't just use the tomato pin-cushion from the very beginning. Well, maybe I could. Her cat did enjoy playing with the ones that she didn't need anymore. It would be a shame if that nice little kitty pricked herself while playing.

Taking a moment or two, I eventually managed to get that metallic taste out of my mouth. Whatever those needles were made out of, they had to have been made out of some good metal. Doing so, I did my best not to show just how bored I had become with all of this. "Oh, it's no problem at all. You would probably get the same treatment back where I'm from..." I paused before fading into a mumble. "...If you talked to the right person." Despite my mumbling though, Rarity seemed to have perfect hearing.

"You mean the right pony, correct?"

A tad annoyed to hear this, I arched a brow at Rarity. I was really getting fed-up with being corrected about that right about now.

"No, I do not. Humans don't talk like that."

Once my moody moment had passed, I took a quick breather before passing a glance over to a single sofa sitting along the walls of the boutique. Both sitting down to relax, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had been taking the time to kick-back during the time that Rarity had been making my new clothing. I could tell that Fluttershy was trying to prevent any of my wounds from re-opening by how she was eyeing me like a hawk. That mare really was something else, you know? Really looking out for me. Pinkie on the other hoof... Hand... On the other hand. Never mind. Pinkie, in her oblivious glory, had been rummaging through the sack-lunch that Fluttershy had taken the time to pack for us. Us as in Fluttershy, and me. As frustrating as it could have been, it was funny seeing Pinkie reach down into the paper bag like she was a child trying to sneak something from a cookie jar. Almost made me think that this was worth the fact that Pinkie had eaten all the food. Almost. There was no point in stopping her. Pinkie had already eaten both the muffins and cupcakes. The fruit never stood a chance, and the vegetables were taken down the moment I had looked at the pink mare.

Even if it wasn't intended, it really added insult to injury that Pinkie had the nerve to crumple up the bag right in front of me. The rumbling in my gut only spoke scornfully toward the mare, but I did my best to shut it up. The last thing Pinkie had done to the paper bag was that she had tossed it into the closest trash can much like it was a basketball. She looked almost lazy by how she didn't even move from her place on the sofa. It went in at least... Yay.

"Swish! Three-pointer! -and the crowd goes wild!"

Taking the moment to celebrate, Pinkie stood up on her side of the sofa while pretending to imitate a cheering audience in a hushed tone. All in the while, Rarity had left me standing up on the pedestal as a sort of reference to her work while the while going to sit at a desk to begin on my clothes. She had her measurements, so all I needed to do now was be a good reference and wait for my new clothes. What Pinkie had been doing was something that I did notice to have distracted the fashionista. From the way Rarity was looking at Pinkie, you would suspect that she had that thing shipped in from somewhere. "Pinkie, don't stand on that sofa. I had it imported from Saddle Arabia." Called it.

Taking the warning with a positive attitude, Pinkie nodded in her ever-cheerful way before hopping down from the imported furniture. Making her way in my direction, I couldn't help but hear her laughter. "Wow, now you look like a scarecrow, Jake." You know, she was actually sort of right there. With my arms sticking out like they were, I did sort of look like a scarecrow. "You're a mummy-scarecrow." -And she lost me there. "Hey, If I go get some crows can you scare them?" It was getting extremely difficult for me to even take Pinkie Pie seriously right about now. She had to be the biggest, most random optimist that I had ever met, but I can't exactly say that this is a bad thing. It's entertaining, if you have that kind of sense of humor.

Tapping a hoof on her working desk, Rarity boldly cut in on the conversation. "You will not be bringing any filthy crows into my home, Pinkie. This is a boutique, not a cornfield." Rarity was kind of a neat-freak, wasn't she? Still, it wasn't like it was irrational to be. I wouldn't exactly like someone bringing crows into my house either. Partially disheartened to hear it, Pinkie did seem to become a little gloomy. It was short-lived however as the pony popped right back into her cheerful way of living once more, and twice as strong as before.

"Okie-dokie-lokie then."

Clearing her throat, the sound had gotten Rarity my attention for the while. If I knew girls from my world even the slightest, this meant that they had something to ask of me. "So Mr. Froster, you've spoken of where you are from but I've yet to really know anything about it." It's not like I was trying to be descriptive. I've really only told her that we had clothes, and that must not be enough. "Would you mind sharing just what you know with us?" Well, I suppose that I could. What was the harm? I wasn't exactly the type to turn down a question like this anyways. Who knows, it might just be fun.

"Sure, but I'm not exactly the brightest bulb in the box. I just hope you don't want to know everything."

Rarity had already moved onto a sewing machine that had been built into her working table. By the way her magic was holding up all sorts of cut-outs of denim, I suspected that she was working on my jeans. Hearing me did make her lift her glasses at me with confidence. Only taking the time to talk, Rarity ceased her working as the repetitive threading of her sewing machine came to a stop. "Oh no, Darling. All that I really want to know about is the fashion of your' world." The fashion? I should have expected that. This mare looked like she ate, slept, and breathed fashion.

Saying that I answered this without thinking would be a lie. As I said, I'm not the smartest person in the world. I needed some time to think. "Well, it's... Decent. Most of the time, it's nothing really fancy." Joking-ly, Rarity scoffed at me as if she had gotten a kick out of it. It wasn't amusing how Rarity did so, but I just met the girl. She must have been expecting so much, but it seems that she's on-top of even human fashion. "Usually, we only dress in fancy clothing for special events like weddings, or parties." I couldn't help but notice Pinkie smiling a little bit more when I said the word 'parties'. "Any other time humans wear things like shirts, shorts, pants, and skirts. Socks and shoes are essential, but there are times when we would also wear coats for the winter months." The look that Rarity gave me did more than tell me that the basic information was sure not to suffice. I needed to go a little deeper into detail, but how? "Not good enough, huh?" I couldn't help but feel the pressure on me at the time. "Sometimes we paint designs on shirts, but that's just to make them look cool." Maybe that would suit Rarity better.

By the expression of shocked intrigue that Rarity had frozen on her face, I could tell that it at least let her know where our styles may have differed. It looked like this was something that not even Rarity had heard of. "You... Paint on your clothes?" The possibility that one could actually paint on anothers' clothes sounded absurd to Rarity. The fact had come as such a shock to her that she seemed to have almost messed up on her own work when trying to ease her own mind. Luckily she had caught herself before anything happened. Adamant in her determination to know more about this strange custom, the white unicorn showed no signs of letting go of the subject. Rarity was quite persistent to figure out more about this. "I'm sorry, but that sounds simply absurd. You're meaning to tell me that your' species actually incorporates painted art onto clothing?" The only reason I didn't answer was because the question sounded more like it was meant to confirm suspicions. "What would one use to perform such a task?" Was she asking me? I wasn't the professional on this kind of stuff, but I do recognize what paints could be used for such a thing.

I could feel my arms beginning to grow sore, but I couldn't just let them fall at my sides just yet. The thought of disobeying a being that could throw me around like a rag-doll didn't sound too ideal at the time. Call me paranoid, but I just didn't like it. If anything, this conversation was sure to take my mind off of the desire to lower them. "Mostly acrylic paints, and dyes. You would normally have to use some sort of adhesive spray to keep it on the shirt, I think..." As I previously stated, I wasn't a professional on any of this so I could easily be wrong. I'm sure that Rarity could easily work out the bugs if I was.

From where I had been standing on the pedestal, I could see that Rarity had already finished both a shirt, and a pair of pants. Dang, she worked fast. Rarity even had the time to let her magic fold them up together while she began working on a pair of socks. Taking the time to look up at me in her own disbelief, Rarity arched a brow. "So you honestly paint on your clothing?" The thought almost seemed barbaric to her at first when she looked back down at her current work, but with time it seemed to set well for her. Taking the moment to think it over, Rarity tilted her head at an angle to look at the shirt a little differently. "To paint on ones' clothing... What an odd custom..." Then bounding back in a boost of morale, Rarity had something that I could only call a 'flare of inspiration'. With a gasp, Rarity placed a hoof on her chin..

"I-de-a!"

The gasp had more than caused me to fall out of my frozen stance, and off of the small pedestal. Once again, I was lying flat on my back as an aching feeling spread throughout my body. A low moan left me when attempting to sit up once more. Unfortunately, I was a little less than able to sit back up due to my injuries. My body had just about had it for today, and this was becoming all the more obvious to me.

Fortunately enough, I did finally manage to make it back to my feet. As slow as the action was, I was relieved to be able to stand up at all. The struggle that I had made to stand was the last thing that could have possibly interested me at the time though. Right now I just wanted to see what was so important that Rarity needed to make me fall off that pedestal.

Holding my head was not an easy task for me right now. At first, I had even been seeing double after just pushing myself to stand again. From what I could see, Rarity had pulled some black paint and a paint brush to her sewing table with her magical abilities. My shirt had been neatly unfolded and was now lying flat with the chest of it pointed up toward Rarity. She set the paint can down while the brush stayed suspended. Dabbing the bristles into the inky black paint, Rarity looked down at the shirt with pride and confidence. "I hope that you don't mind Mr. Froster, but I'm going to be using your clothes so I can practice this strange new process." Practice? That was comforting. I could only guess what Rarity would do to my shirt.

The brush slowly began skimming across the top of the shirt while I could see Raritys' eager expression begin to slowly fade as seconds passed. Ever so slowly, I could plainly see that Rarity had been becoming more and more displeased with the work that she had been doing. Pretty soon, she just seemed to look angry as she muttered something illegible under her own breath.

"Oh, This is impossible!"

Tossing the paint brush into the can, Rarity made her annoyance very well known. She bit her bottom lip to conceal what I could only suspect were un-lady-like words while looking at her work with displeased stares. All in all, it was a little uncomfortable to see the mare pressing her fore hooves down on the table when glaring at the shirt. It almost seemed like she was trying to intimidate it.

It didn't take much to persuade myself to go see what had gotten Rarity so angered in the first place. What did I have to lose? So placing my hands behind my back, I slowly made my way towards the magic pony. The sound of bare foot-prints caused Raritys' ears to perk up. "What's the big problem? I'll have you know that fall was literally a pain in the rear." Unfortunately, my approach had caused quite a reaction out of the unicorn. Using her forelegs to circle around the shirt, she began using her head to block my vision while closely looming over it.

"No! No, don't look! It's dreadful! Awful! Distasteful! I should have never tried such a silly idea!"

The words that were spoken didn't set too well with me while I looked down to the white mare with a suspiciously furrowed brow. A mixture of my curiosity and stubbornness had forced me to reach down at the mare before lightly brushing her away with a hand to look at her work. Following my movement silently, Rarity withdrew into herself as if I was a designer judging her work. What I saw surprised me.

It wasn't 'surprise-bad', but more of a 'surprise-wow' kind of thing. What I had been looking at was a dark-cyan colored shirt with strange circular marks on it. It was like looking at a circle, but there were four smaller circles rimming the larger in an almost square-like formation. The crazy brush strokes had more than shown me how wild Rarity had gotten with this.

After taking a look at the shirt, I proceeded to analyze the cloth as if I was inspecting some sort of modern art. My gaze then fell to Rarity. Her own self-induced humiliation had made her try and shield her humiliated state from me. "Before you say anything, I feel the need to say that I was only practicing." Just that stubborn reaction was enough to push a single chuckle past my lips. Hearing me do this, I could already notice Rarity beginning to glare daggers at me. "What nerve! I'll have you know that laughing at a mare is not a proper mannerism!" Well, didn't she just have some pep in her step?

A smile soon revealed itself on my face when looking back at the shirt. I remained silent when lifting up the shirt so I could get a better look at it. How I did this must have caused Rarity to enter some sort of silent state of her own as she froze with uncertainty. What drama. "You really need to be more confident." Turning the shirt completely around to the two other ponies in the boutique, I revealed the shirt to Pinkie and Fluttershy. "I have glasses, so there must be something that I'm missing here. Does this not look alright?" The expression Raritys' face... Priceless.

"NO!"

The moment that I had showed the painted design to the others, Rarity had gone into full-on panic mode. According to that shout, she really didn't want me to show it to anyone. I was still gonna though. Rarity jumped at the shirt to swipe it from me, but I easily pulled it out of her reach like a Spanish matador. "Nope." Was my only statement spoken when dodging Raritys' assault.

The pony landed on her hooves once more before forcing me to lift the shirt out of her reach. The little unicorn bounced and bounced, but even when Rarity got close to grabbing it from me all I did was lift it just a bit higher. "Please, Mr. Froster! Lower that from sight! Don't let them see that! We must dispose of it properly! Stop immediately! Stop!" When she grew tired of bouncing, she softly patted a hoof against my thigh as some sort of last resort. It was kind of depressing, but I showed no regret or remorse. Her attempts completely stopped however once she noticed that both Fluttershy and Pinkie were now staring at the shirt both perplexed by what they were looking at.

The stares that had been given to the shirt did more than cause Rarity to over-exaggerate on all of this. She had actually done something that I never would have really expected from even someone like her. The shocking part of her dramatization was when Rarity used her magic to push Fluttershy off of the sofa before pulling it over to her. The fashionista then proceeded to fall on the sofa in the most dramatic way possible, and plunging her face into the cushions. What drama; she acted like some sort of natural disaster had taken place. She had even gone as far as to only raise her head to speak pitifully before throwing her face right back down into the upholstery. "Mr. Froster, how could you? To treat a mare so poorly." Raritys' voice drug itself along to match her own depressed appearance. Dear goodness, this girl was worse than my sister.

"Actually, it looks nice."

The dainty words of Fluttershy brought Raritys' ears to stand at attention while her face rested in a pillow. Slowly raising her head to the pegasus, Rarity couldn't help but stare at her as she felt a tad bit clueless to what had just happened. Fluttershy, though rubbing her backside after being pushed off the sofa, seemed more than able to throw a good compliment Raritys' way. Even Pinkie was entertained by the design. Sitting on her haunches, the earth pony swished her arms around in inter-looping circles joyously. "Round, and round, and round, and round-" Finally breaking the looping, Pinkie threw her hooves up into the air. "It's like a roller-coaster!" The expected giggling afterwards ensued.

Rarity on the other hand didn't seem to accept the heart-felt compliments while pressing her face into the sofa cushions once more. "I don't believe you..." This was just getting ridiculous now. My stubbornness finally getting the better of me, I did probably the best thing that I could have done. Throwing the clothing over my head, I proceeded to wear the shirt. Granted the paint was a little wet, but it was better than not wearing a shirt at all.

I had already straightened out my shirt before checking it for any wrinkles or dripping paint. From what it seemed, Rarity had only put a thin layer of paint on so there wasn't even smudging on other parts of the shirt. "You know that you're acting ridiculous, right?" Near instantaneously, Rarity jumped to her hooves and off of the sofa in a sort of out-raged fit.

Rarity was staring daggers at me while I gave her a blank stare in return. It didn't take long before she had given me a piece of her mind. "Ridiculous? How dare you, Mr. Froster! I have never been so insulted in my life!" In her own fit of rage, it took only seconds before Rarity looked down at the shirt that I had now slipped on.

Her initial reaction to seeing the shirt was something that I could only identify as helplessness. What I had done seemed to have rendered her into a state of disbelief when looking wide-eyed at her own creation. "What... What in Celestias' name are you doing?" I had shown no signs of regret when stretching my arms upward to almost brush Rarity off in a way.

While snatching up the jeans that had been only a few inches from my shirt had lain, I couldn't help but notice that they were a little bigger around the waist line than one would really know, but that wasn't anything my old belt couldn't fix. "You don't have to believe it looks good, but I still like it. That being said, I'm taking these clothes." Already fastening my belt around the the pant loops, I snatched the socks and my old shoes before successfully throwing them on as well while Rarity blankly stared at me.

I tapped the bottom of my right shoe on the ground to make sure that it was on just right before looking at Rarity. "Don't mis-understand though. What you made was good, just don't blame me if you don't want to see that." Smiling once more when turning to Pinkie, I spread my arms out wide almost to present my appearance. "I mean, these are some pretty snazzy clothes you made me and that mark actually makes it look even better." Unable to see it myself, Rarity had already seemed to have a sort of approving judgement of my actions but still held some questions about them. Even so, the fashionista only watched me begin to converse with Pinkie. Grinning widely at the Pink Pony, I gave Pinkie a thumbs up of approval. "Pretty cool, right Pinkie?" The pink mare was more than happy to give her opinion.

"Are you kidding? Anything Rarity makes always looks like the best clothes in the entire world!"

As previous words had done, Rarity once more begun to feel complimented by the ones before her. Pinkies' comments, and my own reckless decisions. Only directing her gaze away from me and Pinkie when Fluttershy had decided to stand by her, Rarity had been slowly regaining her composure. "What a peculiar stallion. Just where is he from?" Fluttershy had no real answer for this. Only a soft shrug.

"I'm not completely sure. I can tell that he's nice though, and I think that is good enough for me at the moment."

There couldn't have been any more true words spoken at the moment, and Rarity agreed with this without saying a word. Seeing how I had been showing off my new clothes as if some sort of model, Pinkie applauded over the rising noises of our laughter. There was one thing that still lingered on Raritys' mind though. "Mr. Froster-" Bringing ourselves from our imaginary fashion show, Pinkie and I froze in a stylish pose when hearing the call. Unlike Pinkie though, I had scurried back into a well-mannered and dignified posture. "If I may ask you a question, why is it that you felt the need to take the clothes even after my..." She motioned her head in a circle as if trying to find the right word. "...Episode." My hands plunged themselves into their pants pockets respectfully while I pondered for an answer.

I furrowed a brow during my deep thinking process. Do you remember when I said that I wasn't the brightest person? Well, this usually led me to doing things that I mostly do not have reason for doing. "Well, I guess that it was because-" I paused for a moment to think the answer over for a couple more seconds. "It must be because... it was made by someone who cared enough to make it." My lost expression on my face had more than led me to be unable to notice how the sentiment tugged at Raritys heart strings. My deep thinking had only led me to close my eyes to aid my extreme thought process. "Yeah, that sounds about right. I think that's it." There you have it. That was my answer. Set in stone.

Ending the process completely, I looked back at Rarity to see her bashful reaction. Surprisingly, this answer got more of a response from Rarity than I could have ever expected. At first, the unicorn could only stay silent, but when she tried to speak it came out in mumbles. I wasn't sure if she was just nervous, embarrassed, or feeling shy at the moment but it was sort of cute. Continuing on with what I was saying, I at least attempted to express my gratitude for all of this. "I know it probably sounds dumb to say, but I really do appreciate you doing this for me. In all seriousness, I thought you were going to kill me whenever you said that I had committed a crime on fashion." Once you think about it, I probably should have been even more thankful to this tiny pony. It seemed that Pinkie had been more than right about just how kind these ponies really could be. That aside, it was enjoyable to share a laugh with Rarity over the 'crime-on-fashion' incident.

"You really did look terrible, Darling. Much like you sent them through the wringer and back."

After being thrown around the Everfree Forest, I'd consider that a kindness from this world. Seriously, compared to anything back in my world this blew any kind of punishment out of the water. That was in the past though, and wasn't important. Everything that was important had been right in front of me at the moment. "Yeah, I guess so." I chuckled. "Still, you shouldn't be so quick to toss your work aside." The only thing that kept Rarity from reverting into her depressed state was the uplifting tone in my voice. I guess that my behavior was just key in this kind of thing. At least by how her ears flipped back, I knew she felt a little guilty for her actions. "You really should be proud of what you made. For a first time painter, you actually did really well." Adding on a thumbs up and a wink to boost her morale, I lightly laughed before continuing my little speech.

"You really are a natural for this kind of stuff! It all turned out awesome!"

The compliment almost taking her back, Rarity had to fight the step back from the recoil she had felt. Negativity had completely vanished from her entire being. If anything, Rarity had become even more confident about her work than she had before. Flashing her hair in another elegant throw, Rarity brushed off her self-induced criticisms like a bad dream. "My, you are absolutely correct, Mr. Froster. I have no idea what I could have been thinking." It was almost as if Rarity pretended that her dramatic episode was brought on by a magic spell that had only just been broken. At least it was nice to see Rarity out of her dramatic rut. Who knows, this might mean that I may finally get to the Golden Oaks Library now.

With goal in mind, I had already turned on my heels before heading towards the door. "Well, not that this visit hasn't been fun, but I do have a place to get to." My mindless nature taking over, when Rarity had spoken up I casually interrupted her like I knew what she was going to say. "Oh, no need to worry. I can show myself out." The cluelessness expressed by Rarity did more than stump her at my attitude, but in my oblivious way of thinking all I did was face the door while wondering just how I would get home.

Just like Fluttershys', it was a small door. Not a double door, mind you; just the same size. I was going to have to try and not hit the frame, but this would probably be something that I would have to come to accept as a harsh truth of this place. Oh well, not like it was something that I would have to live with.

"Wait!"

The shout brought me to a halt before turning back around to see that Rarity had already caught up with me on my attempted exit. The call had successfully stopped me, but I was uncertain to why Rarity had done this. Did I not thank her enough? Did I have to pay her now? "I simply cannot let you leave my boutique while your' paint is still wet." Really? That's why she stopped me? "It wouldn't look well for this place of business for you to just leave with wet paint smearing while you walked, so I must insist that you stay until it dries." Raritys' argument blanked my mind while I began mentally struggling to find reason to retaliate against the fashionistas' wishes.

There were none. All that I could do was deal with it. I mean, what was I going to do? Just brush Rarity off after she had made me these clothes for free? So as much as I disliked it, I would just have to manage. My chipper smirk vanishing into an unenthusiastic frown, I spoke somewhat absentmindedly as my brain struggled to compute what was happening. "I guess that I could stay until the paint dries." I spoke while rubbing the back of my head. "Do you think that it will matter to the pony waiting for us?" Drawing a good point, Fluttershy had then approached once more with Pinkie trailing behind her.

Fluttershy did seem a little concerned about the subject, if not a little more than I had been at the time. To get Raritys' attention, Fluttershy had quietly cleared her throat before tapping what I could only suppose to be Raritys' front shoulder. "Excuse me, Rarity. I'm afraid that Jacob is right. We really must be going, so we can't just be standing around while somepony is expecting us." Quite the puzzling problem for Rarity. Humming to herself in mild thought, the unicorn tapped a hoof silently on the floor.

Almost thinking that we were going to get to the Golden Oaks Library, it took only seconds for my idea to go up in a puff of smoke. Rarity, being the devious little designer that I could already see her as, had apparently come to the most obvious of conclusions that she could have. I could see it on her face... Well, maybe not 'see', but when you grow up around a manipulative sister, you learn those looks. She kept a gentle tone in her voice that I could clearly match to my sisters when she wanted something. "Well I don't mean to be rude Fluttershy, but why do you not just alert one of your bird friends to send a message." Fluttershys' submissive side had already gotten the better of her when she had quickly backed down from the argument with only a hesitant nod, and left to go relay the message.

This pony had won. Another pony had bested me in the art of argument. Not like I was ever any good at it anyways. Needless to say, now I had already become compliant to Raritys' demands. When she looked at me, I could clearly see some gloating sass in her eyes which had then caused me to give up right there. This mare had to be exactly like my sister in almost every way. "Fine-" I grunted while trying to force a happy tone. "-I guess that we can wait for the paint to dry..." Seeing how I had already become obedient toward her, Rarity turned away before going back to her sewing table with a triumphant smile on her face.

"Very good, now let's do something about those leathery chunks you call shoes. Honestly, they are nearly worn out to the soles."

The pause I had taken now was almost hilariously awkward. Stopping in place before checking the soles of my shoes, I tried not to feel to offended.

"My shoes?" Checking my shoes once more, I looked back up to Rarity before following after her. "-but I like my shoes..."

A pair of brand-new, black work boots stepped down on the floor as my feet guided them in my new outfit. The denim jeans that I had been wearing were more than comfortable for me, and my shirt did more than supply a decent amount of cover for my waist as it hung past my belt. My old shirt had been thrown away while my pants and shoes were going to be used by Rarity for a future reference just in case she ever ran into someone like me ever again. It was the least that I could do after Rarity had supplied me with what she had.

Finally stopping in front of a vanity mirror, I took the moment to straighten myself up. The paint on my shirt had just dried, my jeans looked fantastic, Rarity had taken the time to brush my hair for any stray strands, and I only just now had begun to clean my glasses lenses. If you ask me, I looked pretty nice; dare I say,snazzy. Like I never even strolled through Everfree.

Turning around from the mirror, I could see the three mares I had only just come to know standing not far from me. Presenting my appearance to them, I spun around once to see just what they thought. "So, how do I look?" The three seemed quite pleased.

"Wonderful, Darling. That attire suits you quite well."

"I think that it looks very nice."

"I like the pants!"

Raising an eyebrow to Pinkie, I watched her return the look. "What? I really do." I wasn't even going to try and understand Pinkie anymore. She was just a mystery to me, and that's how it was going to stay.

Rarity didn't seem the least bit bothered by the statement. In fact, she used it to spark a new conversation. Straightening out her posture to perfection, Rarity almost seemed as if she had been boasting now. "Ah wonderful observation skills, Pinkie Pie." What? "Selvage denim. It's quite durable, so it should last you a good long while." So this stuff was even tougher than my old pants?

Neat.

"Well, I suppose that time is something that I have plenty of at the moment."

Almost catching me in a sort of false joy, Rarity had been chipping away at it in her head to try and figure out just what that was all about. One may not have noticed easily, but I did seem to carry a bit of a mysterious feel when saying such a thing. Just this alone was enough to put Rarity in a befuddled state.

"Odd, whatever do you mean-"

Rarity was unable to stay on the topic no matter how hard she tried. This was completely because of the Pink Party Pony, herself had jumped in on the conversation with her own booming realization. Her fore hooves pressed on both sides of her face, Pinkie had already seemed to have become quite alarmed. "Oh yeah, we were supposed to get to Twilights' house! I completely forgot!" It's almost like she also forgot that she wasn't even supposed to come along with us in the first place.

Unlike her pink friend, Fluttershy wasn't alarmed about this at all. She was actually the confident one at the moment, no matter how timid she seemed while doing so. "There's no reason to worry, Pinkie. I already sent a letter to Twilight explaining how we will be there a little bit later than usual." Pinkies' questionable attitude only continued to perplex me when seeing her completely cut off any panicked attitude, and wiping her forehead of any imaginary sweat beads. Could ponies even sweat? No matter, it was a relief to know that Fluttershy had sent a letter. Then directing her attention at me, Fluttershy tried not to seem too imposing by what she was about to say.

"Also, I hope you don't mind Jacob, but Rarity will be coming along with us."

I would be lying if I said that I wasn't expecting this. First there was Fluttershy, then Pinkie, and now Rarity? Just what else could this world throw at me to side-track progress? There was no point in putting up a fuss about it though. All that I had to do was smile and nod. "Yeah, I guess that it's okay." Truthful this may have been, but I did wonder just why I hadn't heard about this until now.

"Pardon me for seeming un-lady-like for pushing my muzzle in another ponies' business, but why is it that you are heading to Twilights' humble abode?"

Raritys' curiosity had not died down through all of this, and the unicorn seemed a little more than dedicated to finding out just what was going on now. The question did bring up a small amount of discomfort in my gut, but it wasn't an unexpected question. There really wasn't a way for me to describe why I was visiting Fluttershys' friend, but it wasn't like I could evade the question entirely. With a rub of the chin, all that I was left to do was to think of the way to describe this incident. "Well it's sort of odd sounding, but I'm on this visit to know why I'm even here." I could see that the question had risen questions in both Rarity and Pinkie.

"Really? I thought you were here for some sort of super-secret-chef-business."

As random that Pinkies' rambling had become, I had come far more than to expect this from her. She wasn't the only one with something to make known, however. Rarity seemed more than able to give me her opinion on all of this. "Darling, don't you think that you're a little old to be looking for a Cutie-Mark?" A Cutie-what? What the heck was a- "Granted, it must be hard to make friends with that appearance of yours', but that's no excuse for laziness when coming to know your special talent." I could feel a headache forming at the back of my skull when rubbing my eyes. I didn't know what the heck that Rarity was talking about, but that wasn't important.

Deciding to take the high road on this subject, I lowered my arm with a cocked brow at Rarity. "Sorry, but I don't what Cutie-whatchamacallits are, so I'm just going to ignore everything that you just said." Raritys' ears flipped back while giving me a sorry smile. I think that she could see that comment had more than offended me, but I was just going to take that as an apology and move-on. "Anyways, I woke-up in the Everfree Forest and nearly died out there." I looked to Fluttershy with a smile before she coyly hid her face behind a fore leg and her mane. "Lucky, Fluttershy here was able to get me back to some-what working order." My smile quickly fading, I couldn't help but look at the ground; lost in thought. "Honestly, I've seen so many differences between here and home that I've come to expect the worst." Looking at the bottom corners of my vision, I had already picked back up on these thoughts.

Slowly approaching, Rarity once again tried to pick at the subject from earlier. It seemed that my expressions did more than hint her to that they were similar subjects. "-And what is the worst?" I hesitated before answering.

"Something that I hope isn't even possible..."

Author's Note

Well, I finally finished Chapter 4 in its' re-write. It took a while to do so, but I hope you will all enjoy it.