Rarity pushed open the door to the boutique, flipped the sign to open and trudged over to her sewing machine where she sat and laid her head on the table. It was not her fault. It had not been her fault. Of that, she was quite certain. Hot tears were still trickling down her cheeks and a brief glance in a mirror showed that streaks of mascara were smearing her face.
That would not do.
She lit up her horn and pulled a tissue from the box seated next to her sewing machine. Sighing, she reflected on why her bursting into tears was such a common occurrence that she had a box of tissues set aside specifically for that. She wiped away her tears and pulled up a panel of blue thread, pulling out the sheet, unsure of what she was going to make out of it. All her orders were done for the week. She should be in Canterlot with her family and what was wrong with her?
Maybe she'd make a dress. A blouse maybe? Opal hopped up and nuzzled her cheek, affection Rarity half-heartedly returned. When Rarity turned on the sewing machine the cat jumped away while Rarity levitated over her glasses, placing them on her muzzle so she could see the stitches more clearly. As she stitched, minutes went by and soon her mind was completely clear, focused entirely on shaping the fabric with both her hooves and her magic.
Suddenly, the door creaked as it opened and Rarity didn't look up. "Welcome to the Carosel Boutique where every garment is chic, unique and magnifique."
"What are you making?"
Rarity's head shot up. Cookie stood in the doorway, then crossed over the threshold to come stand across from the sewing machine. Rarity looked down at what was apparently a mix between a blouse, a skirt and a dress. She had no idea what it was, in truth, but she kept the sewing machine turned on and decided that it was going to be a dress so she continued to pull the needle through the blue thread, over and over again.
"It is a dress, Mother. Are you in need of a dress?"
Cookie sighed. "No, I am not."
Rarity spent a few moments threading the needle. "Then why are you here?"
"You know, Sweetie Belle was really looking forward to the trip."
Rarity's jaws clenched shut. "Yes, she was. So I am not sure why you opened your mouth and ruined it."
Cookie stomped her hoof. "I did not!"
Rarity looked up at her, narrowed her eyes. "I do not have time for a scolding from my mother. I am an adult mare not a filly. I have obligations and responsibilities and right now, I need to work on this dress. You are welcome to browse, even purchase something, but I do not have time for whatever it is you wish to make me feel guilty about it."
Cookie spoke from between clenched teeth, stalking closer to Rarity's sewing machine. "If you feel guilty about something it is not my fault!"
Rarity winced as she lost her control over her magic and the needle jabbed her hoof. Cookie patted the injured frog. "Are you alright?"
She drew away from Cookie's touch. "I am fine. I am fine, alright? Where's Sweetie Belle?"
"Still with your father."
Rarity sighed. "Guess they decided to make a day of it." She snatched the needle back up and continued her work. The dress was taking shape in her mind now though she had began the work with a sense of frustration.
"It only takes an hour to Canterlot. You could at least come see a show with us."
Rarity grumbled, looked around the room in a vain attempt to find something to do. The dress was a failure, an unsightly mess and waste of good thread. She pulled it off the machine, bundled it up and tossed it in the trash. Cookie stepped away. "When you want to talk, I'll be right here."
"Very well, Mother."
Cookie walked away, began to browse among the dresses on display at Carosel Boutique. For a time, the only sounds in the space were the clopping of Cookie's hooves and the whirring of the sewing machine. Sunlight filtered through the windows, illuminated the room in a soft, yellow glow. It was only an hour past noon. The day was yet young though her morning customers would have no doubt been discouraged by her having been closed. She looked up as a regular customer of hers, Berry Punch, trotted inside and also started to browse, eventually picking up a red evening gown which was going to make it look like she had a second coat due to her natural fur color.
Rarity said nothing. Long gone were the days of her giving helpful fashion advice which constantly fell on deaf-or unappreciative-ears. Her customers had every right to choose whatever fashion disasters they wished. It wasn't up to her to correct them.
Unlike some Ponies she felt others had every right to live their lives in the ways they chose, particularly when they were adults who had their own careers, who had long passed the authority of parents or teachers, who were very close to obtaining the rank of Master of the Craft in the Seamstress' Guild-
"Um, Rarity?"
Rarity looked up at Berry Punch, realized that her customer had been standing at the cash register before walking over to her sewing machine. She held the dress over her back. "I, um, I would like to buy this? Are you alright?"
The needle flew from her magic, stabbing the table. "I am fine! Why does everypony keep asking me that!"
Berry stumbled back. "I was just asking you a question!"
Rarity bit her lip, bowed her head in a perfect image of ladylike contrition. "My deepest apologies, Mrs. Punch. I have been...I have been frustrated today. Please forgive me."
"Yeah, um, okay. Could you ring this dress up for me?"
Rarity sighed again, stood up and crossed over to the cash register where she took the dress in her magic, floating it onto the counter and ringing it up before handing it back over to Berry Punch who headed out of the store at a quick clip. Either she needed to get to a social engagement almost immediately or she was trying to get away from her as fast as she could.
Much like everyone else today.
With a heavy sigh, she collapsed back into her chair and laid her head on the desk. Tears were threatening to come again, a deep pain welling up. She bit her lips, forced the tears not to fall.
"Why are you doing this to yourself, Rarity?"
"Shut up."
The hardness of the words shocked her as did the gentle touch of her mother's hoof on her back. Rarity squeezed her eyes shut and remembered an anecdote Twilight had once told her about the time that Spike, who at the time was a very young hatchling, had bit her during a tantrum. The infant dragon, afraid, had hidden from her yet Twilight had coaxed him out with a song and just held him till he had calmed.
She flinched away from her mother's hoof. She was not a toddler throwing a tantrum, she was an adult and why couldn't Cookie understand that? She straightened up. "I am sorry. That was inappropriate."
Cookie shook her head. "I'm not angry with you."
Rarity paused at that statement, looked over at her. "I am not angry at you either, I suppose."
Cookie shifted. "Do you want to talk about what happened today?"
She bit her lip. Oh, she did. Absolutely she did, just not with her. Not to Applejack, either. It was quite uncouth to complain about one's parents to an orphan. But perhaps Pinkie or Twilight. Or Fluttershy. Fluttershy would understand, preferably over a little tea and gin. "I really need to work on this."
Though, what she really needed to work on was figuring out just what "this" was. The raw fabric had been shaped by her will and right now her will was a precarious thing.
Apparently, she'd been going for a dress with a green top and blue skirt. The color scheme worked so she decided to simply go with it, stitching the thread. She paused. "Sweetie will want to see you. You should go."
Cookie shook her head. "I really want to talk to you."
Rarity focused on guiding the thread with her magic. "Why?"
Cookie pulled up a chair with her magic sat across from her. "Because you are my daughter, Rarity, just like Sweetie Belle is."
"What is your point? Sweetie is a child and surely she wants the presence of both her parents."
Cookie nodded. "And her big sister too."
This time Rarity kept hold onto the needle before it could once more go flying off. "I think I've had quite enough of Canterlot for one day. I'm going to take a walk."
"I'll come with you."
"If you insist."
Rarity stood, walked over to the door, pushed it open and walked into a bright and sunny day. Just as Cookie had said she would, she followed her. Rarity closed the door behind her, flipped the sign to closed and stepped onto the little cobblestone road. The fresh spring grass, just coming in and yet ungrazed and unmowed, spread its tendrils along the cracked and ancient stone. A cool wind blew over her and played with strands of her mane. She pranced along the rocky road, her tail lashing the air behind her, which also had the effect of keeping Cookie far behind her right until Cookie stepped off the road and beside her. Rarity frowned and almost broke into a gallop to get ahead of her, but Cookie refused to let her get far away from her.
She couldn't help but remember her distant foalhood, when Cookie would hardly let her walk too far from her, even pulling her with her magic when she got too far ahead. Rarity grit her teeth together while Cookie finally caught up with her. "Rarity, can I ask you something?"
"Ask me whatever the Tartarus you want."
Cookie completely stopped while Rarity strode on straight ahead. "Why does what other Ponies think matter so much to you?"
Rarity stopped completely, turned. "Excuse me?"
Cookie's gaze did not waver and she stepped a little bit closer, an expression on her face of such unutterable disappointment that it made Rarity cringe. I am not a foal. She repeated this to herself a few times, just inside her own head. She couldn't have anyone thinking she was cracking up. "And you don't? Everypony cares what others think of them."
"Well, of course they do, but not as much as you do."
Rarity shook her head, stomped her hoof, stopped. Convince you're mother you're not a foal by stamping your hooves. Great job Rarity! "I do not care more than anypony else. I run a business. It is perfectly normal in my line of work-"
"I'm not a stay at home mom, Rarity." Her tail slashed the air. "I know that reputation matters to clients. Hell, I didn't see you and don't see Sweetie nearly as much as I'd have liked to-want to-because of my career and maybe that was a mistake. Maybe if you'd had more attention as a foal you wouldn't have turned out like this."
"How dare you!" Rarity trampled forward, steam curling from her nostrils. "I'll have you know, you raised a good, fine proper lady!"
"What is it then? Are you so arrogant as to believe every social interaction is with a potential client?"
Rarity slapped her own forehead. "Turned out like this. I run my own business. I am not a drunkard in an alleyway. What do you mean by that?"
Cookie took a few steps closer. "I mean somepony who throws a hissy fit because their mother made a Celestia damned joke."
Rarity's chest heaved. "It was embarrassing! Do you even know who that was?"
"I do and I'd be lying if I didn't say it was not entirely a joke."
A slow blush crept up Rarity's face. "What do you mean?"
Cookie rolled her eyes. "I'm not blind, Rarity. You're pretty damned obviously attracted to him. Fancy Pants is his name, right? You gush about him so much."
Rarity lowered her voice to little more than a whispered hiss. "He's married! To one of the most powerful Nobles in Equestria! Let's not discuss this in the middle of the street."
Cookie raised an eyebrow, then nearly broke into a gallop as Rarity sprinted away. "You never mentioned he was married!"
"It must have slipped my mind!" Rarity pushed open the door to her home and business, invited Cookie inside-not that she needed to with the way Cookie pushed past her. Rarity stomped off into the kitchen, used her magic to open a counter, pulled out a pot and placed it on the stove. The ritual was familiar. She filled a cup with water, poured it into the pot before laying a bag full of lavender tea into it.
Deciding her manners were atrocious, she poured in a second cup. After all, Cookie would probably want some too. She flipped on the stove, waited, didn't turn to acknowledge her mother's presence even as she sat down. Mentally, she reviewed the day. Had she over reacted? Steam lifted up from the boiling water and she remembered that quip. We'll go get lunch and you can go talk to your coltfriend in private.
Cookie had even winked. Fancy's face had turned red, alarmingly visible on his white coat. She inhaled the tea. "Alright. Maybe I am...maybe there is an attraction there." The tears were falling again. "Your daughter is a tramp. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
She felt Cookie wrap her hooves around her, despite herself relaxed into the affection. "Rarity, you're not...you're not a tramp. You can't help who you're attracted to."
Rarity pulled away, faced her."Proper ladies do not nurse attractions to married stallions. Like you said, I gush about him all the time-though quite frankly I do not believe I do that much!"
Cookie rolled her eyes. "Why do you have this obsession with being a proper lady? We're only middle class, y'know."
Rarity stalked towards her. "You tell me, Mother, you're the one who paid for my etiquette classes!"
Cookie sighed again. "You're right about that. I did want you to learn manners, to maybe be part of high society one day, but not to the exclusion of everything else! I didn't intend for it to become an obsession!"
Rarity chewed her lip. "Is that why you've never sent Sweetie Belle?"
"I asked Sweetie Belle if she wanted to go and she said she didn't." She strode over to the table, sat down. Rarity poured two cups of tea, set one on front of her mother first (rank was very important in etiquette and Cookie would always outrank her) before setting one for herself. "You, on the other hoof, couldn't get enough of it."
"Am I a disappointment to you?" Rarity winced. That question was only slightly less foalish than "do you love me, Mommy?" She raised the tea to her lips, her horn aglow.
Cookie reached over and grasped Rarity's hooves. Rarity squeezed back, not really knowing why.
"No, no you are not. You are a hero to Equestria, a successful entrepreneur and the first member of our family to obtain a noble rank."
Rarity smiled at the memory of her knighting. "I couldn't have done that without my friends."
Cookie patted her hoof, pulled back to sip her own tea. "In no way does that diminish what you did."
"Thank you for that." She took a sip of the warm tea. "Yet, you said, if I had had more attention as a foal I would not have-and I quote-turned out like this. Despite being both entrepreneur and Knight of Equestria, you see something that I lack. Tell me, what is it?"
Cookie looked away. "Have you ever said something in anger you don't really mean?"
Rarity slammed down the teacup, winced. "Oh, no. You don't get t-to shred my self-esteem-"
"I genuinely did not intend to-"
"I know you did not, but you did."
"If your self-esteem can be shredded by that, you have other issues going on."
She swigged the tea, firmly reminded herself that proper ladies, proper Knights of Equestria, did not put a little something extra in their tea before six in the afternoon. A quick glance at the position of the sun showed that that was very far off.
Cookie sighed, lowered her head. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
"Maybe you were right. There is something lacking in me. By Celestia in her castle, I don't know what it is, but it's something."
"What do you mean?"
"You tell me. Go on. Let's hear it."
Cookie sipped the tea. "Do you really want to hear it?"
"Yes. I have my fainting couch on standby."
"Alright. Sweetie Belle."
"What?"
"You can be very brusque with her at times. She told me about how you yelled at her even though she was only trying to help."
Rarity cringed. "That was, indeed, not my finest hour. But I also did that race and got covered in mud-mud!-just for her."
Cookie lit her horn, lifted the cup, but didn't drink from it. "Then there was your friend Twilight's birthday party."
Rarity shrank back at those memories.
"You asked, Darling. You asked."
She nodded. "Yes, I did. So go on though I told you that story in confidence not so you could bring it up again."
Cookie took a long sip. "I am sorry, Rarity, but maybe you need to hear this."
It was no use. When Cookie gave her that look, she was a chastised foal, not an adult. "Alright. Alright, fine."
"It was a rude thing to do."
"I know, great Goddess of the Western Shore, I know. I'm better now, aren't I? I'm not the sort of mare who would break a promise to a dear friend, not work on the dress I promised them and do this just to advance my own interest." The cup wavered in her magic. "I don't want to be her again."
"I saw her again today."
The cup dropped from her magic, was saved only by Cookie's own aura.
"I'm not that bad anymore. And you want to know what really angered me?"
This time, Cookie shrank back. "I know and maybe the quip was inappropriate."
"No, no, it wasn't that." She paused. "Alright, that was part of it."
"Then, what was it?" She set Rarity's cup back down. "And I'm sorry again, you're right. You are better now, you've grown and I'm proud of you."
"But you'd be prouder if I had a stallion and a foal."
Cookie shook her head. "It's not about that-"
"I am tired of you badgering me about this, I am interested in stallions, I like them, but every time...every time it always fails."
"Because you're doing it for the wrong reasons."
Rarity's head snapped up. "Excuse me?"
Cookie hid her face with the teacup as if carefully weighing her words. "Blue Blood. Trenderhoof. Fancy Pants. You're looking at stallions as ways to advance your own careers-"
Rarity's chest heaved. "I am not!"
"Maybe not, but maybe consider finding a stallion whom you actually have something in common with-"
"I want a stallion with my same tastes, my same sense of class-"
"I get it, Rarity, but there are other things in life than class!"
"I'd have never known it from how much you emphasized etiquette! Proper ladies don't do this, proper ladies don't do that! It's your voice that's been in my head for the past twenty years about it!"
She finally lost control of her magic and the tea splashed down on the table. Rarity grumbled and levitated over a cloth. Cookie looked away. "You're right. I did emphasize that a lot. I wanted you to advance, to have a road into high society and you went right along with it."
"Yes I did and now I'm a dreadful disappointment. I don't...I don't...what exactly did I misunderstand as a foal? And I know full well you're not pushing Sweetie as hard about it. I'm not blind either." Rarity cleaned up the last of the mess.
Cookie stood up and strode over to her, laying a hoof on her shoulder. "I love you, Rarity."
"I...I know. I love you too, but this isn't about love."
"I want what's best for you."
Rarity drew back from the touch. "I am an adult. I will decide what is best for me."
Cookie strode closer. "The one thing you never seemed to understand is that as important as advancement is, it is not as important as family. As love. As friendship."
"I am an Element Bearer. I know how important friendship is."
Cookie's voice wavered. "I hope you do. Don't...be like me."
"What?"
Cookie looked away. "I should be there for Sweetie more. But I'm in a state in my career where I'm too young to retire and I have to travel for work and I'm trying to find a way to scale back. I should have been there for you more. I don't want you to follow my bad example."
Rarity stared at her, earnestly wondered what she was talking about. "Bad example? You're a great mom!"
Cookie shook her head. "I should have been there more, Rarity. Maybe even taken a break from my job not just shucked you off to tutors."
"You didn't. That's not how I remember it." She strode closer. "I do remember once, I couldn't have been older than six, I had Unicorn flu. I don't believe you left my side. You had me sleep in you bed."
"I was terrified, you were so sick..."
"There's more memories I have. Those etiquette lessons, those magic lessons. I'm honestly not sure I cared about either subject at first. But you would hold me in your lap and read to me and praise me when I did well and all I think I really cared about was the attention." She smiled. "Then there was our little night time ritual. You would brush my mane every night."
She knew for a fact, Cookie did it for Sweetie Belle as well. The filly couldn't sleep without a mane brushing from either her mother or elder sister.
Cookie shook her head. "When I was there."
"And you were, most of the time."
Suddenly, she threw her forelegs around her mother's neck. Cookie embraced her and they shared a nuzzle. "A mother shouldn't be there most of the time it should be all the time."
"That is an unrealistic expectation."
"I have regrets. And I don't want you to have regrets-to make career such an important part of your life it becomes your life."
Rarity pulled away. "I see. So you've convinced yourself you made mistakes with me-"
"I did."
"Of course you did, nopony is perfect. There are times you were strict when lenience was called for and times you let things slide that I should have been scolded for, but you also taught me all those things I needed to get to the place I am now-and it's a good place."
Cookie embraced her again and Rarity held her, felt tears on her shoulder from where Cookie had laid her head. "Trust me, Mother, I have made too many mistakes, and I do have regrets, but none of that is because of you. If anything, it's because I chose not to heed the lessons you taught me." She sighed. "I really over-reacted today didn't I?"
"Just a bit yes. But I was a bit out of line."
"Just a bit, yes!"
They paused, shared a look, burst out laughing. Rarity shook her head. "Oh, dear. Think there's still time to catch the train to Canterlot?"
"I'm sure there is."
They nuzzled one more time, then, side-by-side they trotted outside and took the road leading to the train station.
