Me and Twilight lay in the bush just next to the entrance to the boutique, the branches were sticking in some awkward places, but it would be worth it. Spike’s idea was brilliant, or at least I thought so. I was surprised at how alike me and the dragon now were, our sense of humour was the same. Our attitudes were the same. In the back of my mind, that devious little voice whispered to me, ‘Probably because Twilight wanted someone around just like you!’
I ignored the voice, but looked to my side and glanced at the magenta pony beside me inside the shrubbery. She looked as though she was at least finding this entertaining if not enjoyable. She gave a half smile and rolled her eyes in a “You boys” kind of look.
Spike hushed us as we continued to move, so we grew still. At that point he reached out for the door and knocked. From inside I heard a slight sigh, and then a voice that spread a smile across my face, still as lady like and pompous as ever! “I am very sorry, but I do have a lot of work to do, so please make this qui”- she opened the door and stopped midsentence.
Her face burst into a smile as she squealed, “SPIKEY WIKEY!” she leaped at him, and he caught her. She proceeded to pepper the dragon with kisses. She spoke between each pucker and peck. “Well...this is... a wonderful surprise...you were only...just here...!” she beamed up at the dragon, who smiled back. All of his awkwardness concerning the unicorn when we had spoken to him had seemed to melt away. Wow. He really was like me!
He kissed the spot under her horn and spoke quietly and warmly. “Well, I just couldn’t stand to be away from you I guess.” This resulted in another barrage of kisses from the white unicorn. I’d never seen her this happy! It felt good to see that my ‘passing’ hadn’t stopped all good things. To see that my friends had continued their lives made me feel amazingly happy.
“You know...” Spike began as he let down the platinum pony. “I brought somepony along; I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.” Rarity pouted, sticking her lower lip out.
“But Spikey,” She said in a baby voice, “I thought we could have some time alone together...” I stuffed my fist into my mouth to stop myself from laughing at this new side to Rarity that I’d never seen before.
The two of them moved into the shop, Rarity lead the way and Spike followed her. He gave a quick glance at the two of us hidden in the bush, he gave us a thumbs up then moved into the boutique. He left the door open. We both pulled ourselves out of the shrub as quietly as possible and listened carefully.
Spike began to speak again, “Well, what would you say if I told you they would one of your old designs? One that you were quite fond of?” Though I couldn’t see, but I knew that Rarity had jumped into the air with excitement by the sounds that came from within.
“Really? One of my old designs?! Oh heavens, that’s wonderful! Where are they? Are they coming later? Which design is it?” she sounded ecstatic!
“It’s a coat...” The deep voiced dragon hinted.
“Hmmmm, I’ve made a lot of coats Spikey, and I love every one I’ve ever made so far! Come oooonn give me another hint!” She wined playfully.
I took that as my queue to act, I strode into the room. She had her back turned to the door, So I cleared my throat loudly. The unicorn turned and looked for a moment before her eye widened with shock. “Well...” I began, “It’s a black coat just like this! It smells just like this! And It’s worn by a weedy little human...just like this.” I stretched my arms out to my sides and smiled at the pony fashion diva, I gave her the best smile I could. “Hey Rarity.”
She was stunned into silence, she stared at me for a long time without a single comment. She took a step towards me, she had a tape measure wrapped over her shoulders but now it slid off and fell to the floor. She looked back over her shoulder at her beloved ‘Spikey’ who gave her an encouraging smile and nod. Her mouth hung slightly open with surprise, not very lady like!
I heard Twilight come into the room after me. Rarity’s vision dropped from my face to hers, she managed to blurt out half a question to her fellow unicorn. “Is it...?” I couldn’t see the magenta pony, but whatever she did must have reassured her friend because her surprised face broke into a huge smile!
“TOM! Darling!” She cantered up to me and flung her hooves around my waist. I wrapped my arms around her as I fell down onto my knees so I could be at her level. We stayed there for a moment hugging. Rarity was true to her nature, she stayed tear free and kept herself composed. As she pulled away from me she gave me a critical scan up and down. “But my dear! What are you doing wearing such filthy clothes?!” I looked down at myself, only just realising that I was still wearing the same dirt caked clothes I had been on earth.
“We can’t have you wandering around ponyville looking like a vagabond now can we?” her tone was suddenly professional and business like. She turned to her ‘dragon-friend’ (The term just popped into my head, and I suppose it’s the best way to describe what he was to her) and asked, “Spikey, do you know my little chest upstairs in my room?” The dragon nodded, he immediately regretted it however when he received the surprised expressions from me and Twilight.
Rarity smiled as she realised what she had just said in front of the equivalent of Spikes family. She moved over to him and gave him strength with a little peck on the cheek. “Well inside it, just to the left, there should be a little bag. Could you get it for me?” The dragon smiled, nodded, gave the little unicorn a quick squeezing hug before heading up the stairs.
When she turned around and saw our confused expressions, she explained. “Well darling, before you di”- she paused unsure how to continue. I understood this would take some getting used to, everypony had grown so used to me being ‘dead’ and now I was here again, and I would have to deal with ponies adjusting their stories about me.
“Before you left, it was coming up to your anniversary with Rainbow. Well I had been working on something for the two of you at the time. I...well at the time, it didn’t seem right to upset Rainbow more, so I decided to leave it. I found it a few weeks ago, and I planned on giving them her tomorrow.” Spike returned with the bag. Rarity took it from him with her blue magic with a quick “Thank you darling!” She then began to open it; she pulled out a few scraps of paper with some half finished designs scribble across them. Bits of blue and yellow material were pulled out in clumps along with the white pages.
“AHAHH!” she exclaimed, her magic brought out a blue and yellow...thing from the bag. I crossed the room and took it from her to investigate it. “Don’t worry, the material stretches, it’s supposed to hug you body.” The fashion pony explained. I flipped the piece of clothing around so I could see the front, the chest was yellow, and so was the stomach. In fact a single stripe of yellow travelled down the centre of the shirt, leaving only the long sleeves and the back blue. The wrists of the long sleeves ended in jagged yellow lines.
The whole colour and design reminded me of something vaguely, but what? The unicorn carried on explaining as I slowly took off my jacket and placed it over the head of a disused mannequin. “It was meant to be a little joke; I planned on saying something like ‘Now you have your own wonder bolt on your arm’ or something along those lines.” She gave a smile as she reminisced about her plan from so long ago.
I tore off the filthy pink shirt I was wearing –sorry Pinkie- and put on the new tight long sleeved blue uniform. Though a year old, the material was still soft and smooth against my skin. I held my arms out to the sides and twirled on the spot, before asking the room. “What do you think?”
“Nice!” Said Spike.
“Simply darling!” cooed Rarity. I looked to my friend still stood near the door, Twilight was looking at me in a way that I couldn’t read her expression. (Yet again) I felt the little narcissistic voice purr to me.
‘You do look really nice, Rainbow Dash will love it!’ I ignored it, but then Twilight spoke.
“You really do look very nice, Rainbow is going to adore it!” She said with a sad smile she failed to hide from any of us. Though my exterior seemed unchanged, my insides squirmed at how my darker side had predicted her response nearly word for word. I knew how Twilight felt about me, and here I was acting like an inconsiderate jerk. Hell! I’d even used her feelings against her to make her believe me less than an hour ago! I’m a terrible person! A well dressed, inconsiderate, monster!