//------------------------------//
// Pride of a Unicorn 
// Story: Disappear 
// by ShimmeringStallion 
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Pride of a Unicorn





The girls didn’t have to go very far into Ponyville before coming across their destination, which a few of them clued in on as soon as they saw it. Applejack described her logic. “See, after Pinkie Pie said that comment about the hat that Vanish was sportin’, it made me think: If Rainbow Dash damaged my hat, what’d be the first thing I’d do?” Twilight didn’t understand the logic, since it seemed obvious what the answer would be. “But Applejack, Rainbow was with us, so he couldn’t hurt her, remember? Besides, even if he could, why would he run off in such a hurry?”

Applejack continued running, but turned around to face Twilight. “No, Twi. You got it all wrong! He didn’t run off because he was plannin’ an ambush or nothin’, it was because his hat got damaged! You've gotta think like a hat owner!” Applejack could tell that Twilight was having problems grasping her logic. She sighed and tried another approach. “If you got a book back, and it was damaged, what would be the first thing you’d do?” Twilight thought it over. “Well, I guess I’d try to fix it fir-…! Of course! Applejack, that’s brilliant! He wanted to fix his hat! And there’s only one place in Ponyville for tailoring and repairs!”

Carousel Boutique stood before them, but they didn’t see any sign of the dual-horned unicorn. The idea of them being mistaken slowly sank in for most of them, as Pinkie Pie stood in front of the store and looked inside through the window, cupping her hooves over her eyes to block out the sun above her. “Hmm… He’s not inside, neither is Rarity, for that matter.” Rarity gave a deadpan look towards her clueless friend from right behind her. “Pinkie… I’m right here, remember?” Fluttershy ducked down suddenly, causing the others to curiously turn in her direction. Twilight spoke up. “Fluttershy, what’s wrong?” Fluttershy whispered to her friends. “I-I hear it… I hear it, but I don’t see it… m-magic, Twilight… you’re not using yours, and neither is Rarity, s-so… AHH!”

Fluttershy jumped towards Twilight, taking shelter behind her friend as the others turned their attention to the suddenly materializing stallion, who had been staring through the window of the store, himself. Just as they thought, Vanish was using his magic to conceal himself, but accidentally touched Fluttershy’s hind leg while he was cloaked. Though now visible, he seemed to still be using his magic somehow, and the girls saw the method behind his actions fairly quickly: He was using magic to hide his second horn, so he wouldn’t stand out in public, thereby drawing the attention of other ponies nearby, not that Fluttershy hadn't almost done just that with her shriek of fear. The stallion's gaze hardly shifted from the store to the ponies that had chased him.

“How did you follow me!?” Vanish quickly changed the subject, clearly upset about something that was distracting him as he looked back into the store. “Forget I asked, that’s not important right now. Allow me this opportunity to substitute that question for this one: Why is there a tailoring store that is closed in the middle of the afternoon!? It’s way past the time for lunch, and I saw it open for business when I passed by on my way to Ponyville Hospital!” He didn’t seem to be talking to the girls, but rather to himself, as he mused over the reason. “The owner must be quite lax in their duties, either being very lazy, or very careless to close up shop so early in the day!”

Such words would not stand without comment from the ‘owner’ standing right next to the stallion. “Oh, “lazy and careless”, you say? Well, maybe that owner was busy with her friends, concerned for the safety of somepony who was recently admitted in the hospital! Did you ever think about that!?” Vanish turned his attention to the furious, purple-maned unicorn in front of him, to which he quickly saw the relation between the well-worded example and what had recently transpired.

Rarity continued her verbal assault. “And maybe that same lazy or careless owner, is actually a very busy, considerate, and graceful businessmare who had been out of her store until now, whereas she returns and has to deal with a customer who is proving to be a clear and prominent example of a ‘jerk’ in every sense of the word, through his ignorance and oblivious manner which he’s vividly displaying at this very moment!” Vanish fixed his stare to the ground beneath his feet, as he started looking at the bottom of his hooves. The rather surreal act knocked Rarity out of her enraged state, be it ever so briefly, as her friends looked on in fear and curiosity, as she spoke through her aggravated temper. “And just what are you doing, now!?”

Vanish closed his eyes and blushed in embarrassment. “Well, my dear, suppose that the pony who was formerly viewed as being a “lazy and careless owner” by a certain pony, who shall remain nameless out of fear of being scolded further… suppose that owner showed herself as being a very busy, considerate, and graceful businessmare who was, in fact, out of her store until recently, whereas she returned to her store, and was confronted and insulted by an ignorant, oblivious, clear-and-prominent jerk-of-a-customer; would it be logical for that customer to assume, upon realization and recognition of their previous display of ignorance, that they just stepped in a substance to be considered ‘most foul’, and would only consider it natural to be checking their hooves to see exactly what substance they had stepped in?”

The other mares snickered from behind Rarity, who kept an ice-cold look of dismay pointed towards the dark blue, red-faced pony in front of her, and an elegant, disappointed tone in her voice. “… I would say so, yes… and? What would be the result of that customer's examination of their hooves?” Vanish sighed deeply, speaking with a regretful tone. “The hooves look clean… but they feel absolutely filthy.” As the other mares struggled to stifle their laughter, Rarity continued to look down her nose at the embarassed, well-spoken stallion in front of her, until she walked by him and, turning her head to face in his direction and closing her eyes without a word, used her magic to unlock the store and went inside, closing and locking the door behind her.

The girls couldn't help but laugh hysterically at the scene they just witnessed, prompting curious looks from other ponies in the plaza. This caused Vanish to feel the need to return to his invisible state out of pure embarrassment and humility, but this only caused Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight to laugh harder. Pinkie Pie had wandered off to tell some of her other friends nearby about the interaction that just transpired, as Fluttershy had begun to consider if Vanish had his feelings hurt from her friends’ laughter.

After catching their breath, and after Pinkie Pie returned from telling some random plaza-goers about the interaction (leaving most of them rolling on the ground in hysterics), Rarity went back up to the door, unlocking it and opening it slightly, feigning ignorance by making it appear as though she believed that nopony was around. “My, my. No customers? Maybe I should close up shop for the day. I’m feeling awfully lazy today…” As Rarity produced a false yawn, Vanish quickly reappeared, desperately hoping that Rarity was joking. “Please, wait! I-I request your knowledge of tailoring… in order to repair this fedora. M-May I be allowed to enter your establishment?” Rarity felt that she had her fun, and that Vanish had suffered enough for her enjoyment. She flipped the sign to ‘Open’, enabling access to her friends and customers alike.