“Hello, is there anything I can help you with?”
Sweetie Drops turned to be greeted by the wide smile of the purple haired lady, her new target for the day.
Drops hadn’t been in the shop for much more than a minute, but her awkward physicality and confused looks had, as expected, caught the fashionista's attention quickly. She had just brushed over a wide variety of dresses, moving closer to Rarity as she did so.
“Yes please,” Drops said with a bashful smile. “Sorry, I don’t really know all that much about fashion, but I need to find a smart dress for a wedding that’s coming up.”
“Well, fret not,” Rarity said, “I’m sure I’ll be able to find the perfect dress for you.” She glanced at the clothes Drops was looking at with a frown. “But first, we must get you back into the smart section, these are all casual attire.”
Drops gave her an apologetic look and followed her lead.
Even though Rarity obviously knew a lot about fashion, Drops was still quite impressed seeing her in action. She would brush her hand through a variety of clothes, picking out specific ones as if she could tell which would look good on her with just a glance.
Rarity held two dresses up next to Drops, who thought both of which would look surprisingly good on her—almost good enough she considered getting them just because—but quickly placed them back and found some that looked even better.
Drops had originally been putting on an act of fashion ignorance, but compared to Rarity, she did, actually, know very little.
Drops gave Rarity a smile as she picked up to more dresses. “I really appreciate all the help, Miss…”
“Oh please, just call me Rarity,” she said, frowning before putting some back.
“Rarity, It’s nice to meet you. I’m Bon-Bon.”
“Bon-Bon?” Rarity stopped looking through the clothes and turned to face her again. “You haven’t just happened to move to CHS recently, have you?”
Drops hesitated. “Yes, just this week actually.”
“Ah yes, Sunset told me all about you. You’re in her maths class, right?”
It took a lot of Drops’ will power not to groan at the knowledge that Sunset, the very person she was meant to be most discreet with, was telling her friends about her. “Yes, that’s right,” she forced out.
Rarity laughed. “Well, it’s nice to meet the girl who’s suddenly become the talk of the school. I’ve been hearing so many rumours about you.”
Drops raised her eyebrows. “All good I hope.”
“That’s putting it mildly, dear. I don’t mean to intrude, but is it true you did so well in the running endurance test that they had to stop you because they ran out of lesson time?”
Drops held down a gulp. “It wasn’t as impressive as it sounds. They did the test quite late in the lesson.”
“Did you knock a teacher over in a self-defence lesson?”
“I come from a rough neighborhood.”
“Can you recite any line from hamlet instantaneously?”
“I like to read, okay?”
Rarity paused for a second, looking Drops up and down with an inquisitive look. “Did you throw a ball at someone who was picking on Derpy.”
“He deserved it.”
Rarity scoffed. “Well, I would have thought so. Had I walked that way, I would like to think I’d have done the same. Although, I probably would have missed him.”
Drops chuckled. “I just happened to be in the right place, at the right time, with a good aim. It was no heroic gesture.”
Rarity raised her eyebrow at her. “You’re certainly a modest one.”
“It comes from having a lot to be modest about.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow, letting a silence grow between them. It wasn’t awkward though. Rarity was giving Drops a look of admiration, and maybe even a little awe. Sweetie Drops did her best to stay firm, but getting so much praise for those actions unsettled her.
Sure, to everyone else, her protection of Derpy is easily seen as something that should be applauded. But she knew the truth, that it had been an avoidable risk to her mission’s integrity, another time her emotions had gotten the best of her.
This silence was interrupted when Drops’ stomach growled, causing Rarity to giggle.
“Sorry,” Drops said with a blush, “I haven’t had any lunch yet. You don’t by chance know any good places to eat here.”
“As a matter of fact I do.” Rarity grinned. “My break is in a couple of minutes. If you wait for me, I can take you to it.”
Drops gave her a warm smile. “That would be nice.”
Rarity did her best to pack up her things as quickly as possible, not wanting to keep her new acquaintance waiting. She had asked if Drops wanted to get a dress before they left, but she insisted it was fine.
Rarity began to lead Drops to a small cafe that she and her friends frequented. Drops saw any details about her friends as potentially useful, and Rarity seemed only too happy to give said info when posed with the right questions.
With only a small amount of small talk, Drops found herself bathing in information that had seemed so troublesome to obtain. She now knew all about Applejack’s farm, Fluttershy’s animal obsession, and Pinkie Pie’s antics.
She was also presented with stories of Rainbow Dash’s attempts to create a band, and how that was eating up all her time. While it didn’t sound like much, it explained why Rainbow was the only sports captain not running after her, something that could have potentially sped up the operation.
Rarity also seemed happy to talk a lot about herself. Not in a cocky way or anything mean, Drops was asking the questions after all, but she just seemed to be rather confident when talking about herself. This was good, as shy people make it harder to get info.
The only issue was that there was one particular friend she wasn’t mentioning.
“So,” Drops said, giving up on subtlety, “what about Sunset Shimmer? Don’t you hang out with her as well?”
“Well, I, erm.” Rarity’s mannerisms suddenly became a lot less confident. “We’re much newer friends than I am with the others, so I don’t know her as well.”
“Oh, fair enough.” She paused for a second to think. “But it’s nice you are all friends with her. She doesn’t really have many others. Everyone else seems to really dislike her.”
Rarity’s mannerisms only continued to get more awkward. “That may be an oversimplification. But yes, our fellow classmates haven’t been very forgiving of her, which is understandable as she was very mean to them.”
“How so?”
Rarity’s eyes widened with what almost sounded like a squeak. “‘How so?’”
“Yes, how so?”
“Well, that’s... well it wasn’t really what she did per se, but more to do with how she did it. Okay, more to do with the way in which those things were done, the charisma of how she did the event that may have led to people not liking her.”
“... And those events were?”
“I-it’s as I said, really, more to do with the way it was done, or maybe it wasn’t, and more to do with the intentions she had while doing said things as those were probably just as bad, if not a little worse, than what she was actually doing, but probably not as bad as the way she was going about these intentions, which was probably the worst part of it all, even if every part of it was pretty bad, and that’s not even going over the things she did before that, as those were also bad.”
Drops frowned. “Rarity, are you okay?”
“I’m perfectly fine. Why do you ask?”
“Because you won’t tell me exactly what it is Sunset did to be so hated.”
Rarity wiped away the growing sweat from her forehead with a shaky hand. “Well, it was awhile ago now. You can’t expect me to remember all the details. Oh, would you look at that, we’re here.”
Drops turned forward to see the cafe, ‘Sugar Cube Corner’, but before she could take it in, Rarity rushed past her and through the door.
Drops sighed. It would seem that whatever the mystery of Sunset Shimmer was, it wasn’t something she could force out of her friends like that.
Doing her best to feel content with this revelation, she followed Rarity’s lead and walked in after her, happy enough to fill up her stomach at the very least.
Regardless, upon entering, she was happy to see that the cafe was indeed the pleasant little place that Rarity made it out to be. It was brightly coloured with a good amount of natural light that gave it an almost upbeat feel, but it also had a relaxing atmosphere she could easily sit and enjoy for hours on end.
Not to mention the food smelled pretty damn good. But that was probably her stomach talking again.
She quickly looked around to track Rarity, finding her talking to a familiar pink friend, Pinkie Pie. A sly grin found its way onto Drops’ face as she went over to join them. She never was one to pass on such a useful opportunity.
“Oh, you should have come round the boutique. There are so many good clothes I know you’d just love.”
Drops placed herself close enough and at such an angle to Rarity that she immediately noticed her.
“Oh, sorry, how rude of me,” she said. “This is Pinkie Pie, Pinkie this is—
“Bon-Bon!” Pinkie exclaimed, throwing her hand out to give Drops an energetic handshake. “I’ve wanted to talk to you for so long. You’re friends with Derpy, right?”
Drops hesitated, something that surprised her. “Yes, I’d like to think so anyway.”
“That’s great! Get your food so we can talk. I’ll save you a seat.”
“O-okay.” Drops was a bit taken back by her enthusiasm, but she didn’t need to be told twice to get some food.
Scanning over the menu, Drops thought carefully over what to get. The food intake of a secret agent is never as simple as she’d have liked, as every day she needed to meet all the points in specific checklists.
Her carbohydrate intake was limited and harmful chemicals were to be avoided. Any breaking of these rules had to be countered with extra vitamins or protein with intensive workout later, on top of what she already had to do.
So, every time she stared at a menu, it was a constant battle between what she wanted to eat, and what she didn’t want to do later. She normally ended up with the tastiest thing that wouldn’t end with her having to eat some vitamin filled goop later.
And while the cafe didn’t have the greatest selection, Drops could be certain that the chicken wrap with salad would be healthy enough. Something she was perfectly happy with, as it did look delicious.
Once drops returned, she found that Pinkie and Rarity, who had only quickly gotten a drink, were once again engaging in a lively conversation.
“Oh, that makes sense,” Rarity said, “I didn’t know you started working mornings here. I’m surprised you stayed to eat lunch here once your shift finished. I’ve found myself shopping at different clothes shops ever since I started working at the boutique.”
“Nope, I like it here,” Pinkie said with a smile. “And besides, I get an employee discount. Anyway, I thought you made most of your clothes.”
“I do,” she admitted, “but I still like to go shopping every so often. I have to keep an eye on the competition, at the very least.”
“If you do customs, do you think you could make a dress for me?” Drops asked, sitting down at their table. “It would probably be easier than me deciding for myself.”
Rarity blushed slightly. “Well, I mean, it probably won’t be as good as some of the dresses already there, I’ve only ever really made clothes for myself and friends. But if you want me to, I can certainly give it a try.”
Rarity stopped to think for a second. “I’m not really sure how I would begin. I feel like something more casual will suit you, but it’s a wedding so it needs to be formal. Some kind of work-casual attire maybe? Or maybe something more...”
Rarity’s words fell into an indistinguishable mutter, leaving both Drops and Pinkie out of her loop. She whipped out her notepad and started jotting down her mutters, every so often looking Drops up and down before sketching something down.
“So, Pinkie,” Drops said, turning away from the preoccupied Rarity, “what did you want to talk about?”
“Oh, nothing specific,” she said with an innocent smile. “I just normally like to introduce myself to all newcomers to our school as soon as I can, but I haven’t had the chance to with you.”
“Fair enough… Wait, why not? You normally walk past me in the canteen. You could have said hello then.”
“I would have normally, and there were a good number of times when I almost ran up to you, but I was just so happy to see Derpy sitting with someone again. I didn’t want to risk spoiling your time together.”
Drops frowned. “Why would you have spoiled it?”
Pinkie blushed slightly. “I mean, well, I guess I probably wouldn’t have now that I think about it, but you can never be too careful. Derpy doesn’t really have many other friends.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed that.” Drops went to say something else but stopped herself.
“But seeing how you two are getting on so well, I’m hoping that’s a sign of good things to come. Maybe she’ll even start coming to my parties again.”
Again? No, stop. It’s irrelevant.
“Her birthday is actually next week. I’m not sure if she does anything for it anymore.”
Drops no, you need to focus on the mission.
“But don’t worry about it. You two are still new friends, so I don’t want to pile up any pressure to make sure you stay close.” Her smile turned to an inquisitive look. “So what was this rumor about you hitting a teacher?”
“Why doesn’t Derpy have any other friends?” Drops asked firmly. “There are no end to extravagant looking and odd people at CHS, so why is Derpy the only one without any friends?”
The table went quiet. Rarity had stopped jotting down in her notepad and Pinkie became oddly still. They both shot each other a hesitant and almost worried look, with Drops’ impatience becoming visible.
You are genuinely a lost cause.
“Well, erm...” Rarity tried to start, but she lost her confidence.
“It doesn’t really matter,” Pinkie said, waving her arm to hide her nervousness. “You two are friends now, I’m sure she’ll come out of her shell again with everyone soon.”
“Why ‘again’?” Drops voice was firm, trying her best to stop any anger creeping in. “You act as if her friendlessness is new. I want to know what happened.”
There was another moment of hesitation, both Pinkie and Rarity giving each other an uncomfortable look under the pressure of Drops’ gaze.
Rarity sighed. “To be perfectly honest with you, Bon-Bon, it is new. Not that new mind you, but I do remember back in primary school when she was surprisingly popular. I think I still have some of the pictures from that packed birthday party she had at seven, almost everyone in our class was there and we all were good friends with her.”
Drops leant back slightly. “So what happened?” she asked.
“Erm, this may be hard for you to understand,” Pinkie said hesitantly, “but our school hasn’t always been the most friendly.”
“Yes, quite the opposite in fact,” Rarity added. “Very recently, before you came here, the ‘social order’, shall we say, was divided into many groups that didn’t talk to, or even like, one another.”
Drops frowned. “So where did Derpy fit into all this?”
“Well, that was the issue: she didn’t.” Rarity looked away from Drops. “There was never any group for her, and a lot of people were mean to her specifically.”
“I don’t really think anyone was particularly nice to her.” Pinkie’s expression had gone somber. “Even we…”
There was a wave of silence, both Rarity and Pinkie visually saddened by, what must have been, regret.
“Ever since everyone opened up to each other,” Rarity finally said, “Derpy’s avoided any attempt to rebuild bridges, and I don’t blame her for it.”
“I don’t think she trusts most of us anymore,” Pinkie added. “I wonder if she just thinks we’ll exclude and hurt her again. That’s why I was so happy you two became friends.” She looked back up at Drops. “Seeing you two in the cafeteria was the first time I’d seen her smile in years. She deserves friends like you.”
Drops fell silent, feeling a lot of different and conflicting emotions about her new information.
It was a cruel story, but maybe Pinkie was right. If her friendship with Derpy really could lead her to opening up to everyone, finding forgiveness and getting some friends, then that would be a great thing. And she should be content with that, even if she had to leave soon.
Regardless, get your head in the game. This is a mission and that stupid little outburst could have ruined your chances to get close to the people you need. Remember that Derpy isn’t nearly as important.
Drops turned to look Pinkie in the eyes. “You said Derpy’s birthday was this week, right?”
Don’t.
“Erm, yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s this Friday.”
Why are you like this?
“I need to ask you a favour.”
This is a terrible idea.