As the six ponies and the young drake explored all the surprising amount of trinkets and spoils of Capper’s humble abode, Rarity was immediately drawn to a large oil portrait on the wall. Especially, since it was the largest piece in Capper’s collections of treasures and art, and the fact that it took up most of the wall space in the windmill. It was hard not to notice it.
The oil painting was a portrait of some kind of proud yet noble pirate captain, posing regally upon a rock near the rocky shore of an unknown sea. In her mind, Rarity complimented the artist’s technique and attention to detail. Especially all the detail that went in the war general’s jacket. All those golden buttons, pockets, and stitches were just simply divine to Rarity. However, Rarity was not fooled by the conveniently placed, cut out picture of Capper’s face pinned over the painted face of the true general in the picture. With her magic, and while Capper and her friends weren’t looking, Rarity peeled Capper’s picture away and saw the male giant parrot man face that was attached to the pirate captain’s body.
While placing Capper’s picture back in its place, Rarity looked back subtly to Capper. But, only for a brief moment. As Rarity turned her head back to the picture, she couldn’t help but chuckle silently to herself, roll her eyes and shake her head. To the white unicorn, everything was starting to make sense when it comes to Capper. This painting, his home, his intellect, all that he had shown to them reflected a need for the finer things in life. A need for beautiful, artistic, creative, worthwhile things. Rarity completely understood this feeling because she would feel it everyday. That is why she creates beautiful clothes, crafts, and designs all the time. That is why she would hunt for Gems and jewels in places like the pits of the Diamond Dogs caves or the depths of the dark Everfree forest. That is why, for as long as she could remember, she wanted to visit and live and open a boutique in Canterlot. Her need to be a part of something truly beautiful...is embodied in every action she takes, every design she creates, and in everything she thinks and does. To be without some sense or appreciation for the beauty in the world would be like without air for Rarity. So, she could understand Capper’s silent struggle for gorgeous and fabulous things.
Although, the only difference between Rarity and Capper in terms of this struggle is that Capper can hide it.
But more importantly, this painting showed that Capper wanted to be part of these finer things too. And once again, Rarity couldn’t blame him. Every time the white unicorn would design a dress for some mare to wear, she could feel fabulous and beautiful because the client felt fabulous and beautiful in their new dress. In that moment, Rarity knew she had to help Capper somehow. Oh sure, Rarity couldn’t lie that perhaps part of her need to assist this cat may come from her slight attraction to his charm, his intellect, and his dashing looks. But Rarity kept telling herself it was only one small part of her motivations because when it comes to the courtship, it’s important for a lady to keep the ball in her court. As Rarity noticed a huge tear in Capper’s jacket sleeve from across the room, and an idea instantly sprouted in her mind.
She immediately began to search the place for some red thread, a sewing needle, and perhaps for some accessories to liven up Capper’s wonderful red jacket. Despite its patches, dirt, and how worn it look at times, it was still a fine and quite distinguished jacket in Rarity’s eyes. She could tell that Capper tried to take care of his jacket to the best of his ability. The fact that Capper cared so much for his jacket, despite his circumstance and the fact that he could have thrown his jacket away like any ruffian would, just warmed up her heart. Rarity has always felt that there weren’t enough creatures in this world that didn’t take care of their precious valuables or their clothes anymore.
Rarity went over to one of the far corners of the room and examined the woven basket beside a lounge room chair. Inside the basket were a lot of things that Rarity wouldn’t expect to find in a sewing basket like this one. There were circular glass lids to jars without a whole jar to accompany them, chewable soft cat toys, plastic toy mice, feathers of all sorts of colors and shapes, and long pieces of straw and rope. Anything random and incomplete you can think of, it would be in that basket. Rarity tried to look through this unusual, compact, and full basket without disturbing too much the “order and organization” of the items pertaining to the basket. Luckily, she was able to find something that definitely belonged in a sewing basket. A wooden spool.
Despite being without a thread, Rarity felt like she could work with this wooden spool. Then, she turned her attention to all the bookshelves that particularly covered the walls of Capper’s living quarters. Her eyes lightened and she smiled when she saw a colorful yarn ball used as one of the book ends on the shelf. The yarn ball wasn’t quite the traditionally circular yarn ball that you would find in a craft store. In fact, not all of the yarn ball was actually made of yarn. Some of its colorful strands had materials of cotton, satin, and a whole lot more. But the small thread that caught her attention was a fairly medium long strand of red. Using her magic, she was able to untangle the red thread from the yarn ball and wrapped it up around the wooden spool she just found.
After that, she turned her gaze to the desk positioned in front of the window looking out to dust sandstorm view of the town they were currently in. Like the bookshelves, the desk was fairly messy, but not too much to consider Capper as a slob per say. It actually reminded Rarity of her work desk whenever she was working on a huge dress order for an important client back at her boutique in Ponyville. And that thought made Rarity kinda giggle softly to herself. She looked and observed all that resided on the table, she saw all sorts of quills, papers, ink marks, claw marks, and various decoratives that gave the desk its personal touch. She then awed at the shining glass jar filled with all sorts of small but shining items. Just with one look, she was able to find something that looked like gold. She used her magic to bring the jar over to her, and with her hoof reaching in, she found two fake gold buttons. They may not be real gold, but they had such a special shine to them that Rarity couldn’t help but find the two buttons just simply charming.
Perfect! Rarity mused to herself in her mind.
Then, she looked over to the curtains hanging over the desk and noticed that some of them had patches being hold up with some pins and needles. She took one of the needles out of the curtain and carefully placed the beginning of the red thread through the hole of the needle.
Without thinking, feeling in the zone of her sudden burst of creativity and generosity, Rarity used her magic to pull Capper over to her by his torn sleeve.
She could hear Capper say, in the midst of all this, “Woah, woah. Hey, hold up now.”
Before the tall cat knew it, Rarity had already fixed up his sleeve as good as new. He then awed “Woah”, when Rarity then magically sewed on the two buttons she found earlier near the collars of his jacket.
“Here you go,” Rarity explained with a smile, “I do apologize. If we were back home, I could have done something truly fabulous.”
Capper gave her a brief but confused look, before speaking with suspicion in his tone, “Okay. What’s the catch?”
“Oh nothing,” Rarity replied with some hint of a soft chuckle in her tone as Capper started to walk away from the unicorn. Then, she continued sincerely, “After all that you’ve done for us, consider it a thank you.”
Capper had his back to Rarity, but this couldn’t hide the fact that his ears pinned back with guilt. His head nodded down slightly and his eyes dropped to his feet. His new soft tone show matched his body language, “Oh. Don’t thank me...really.”
However, Rarity did not notice Capper’s display of guilt and told him with great confidence and excitement in her voice, “But! That does not mean we can’t brainstorm until then!”
“Uhhh, brainstorm?”
Capper turned around and saw Rarity walk towards his desk in front of the window. He went up to her and saw that she was immediately pulling out one of the only clean sheets of paper that was on the desk with her magic, only with a long, grey feather quill.
With delicate, lady-like grace, she began dipping the quill in a little container of black ink. As she sketched pasionately yet swiftly upon the parchment before her, she remarked with glee, “I was thinking at first something free flowing and slender to highlight your height and your marvelous tail, but I have a feeling that you have too much of that in your closet as is. Not to mention that you’re probably tired of just every creature pointing your height first and…”
“Woah woah! Hold on a minute Miss Thang!” Capper quickly protested, trying to stop and slow down Rarity in the midst of her new project, “You mean to tell me that you want to work on this project now?! Didn’t you just say that you couldn’t do it because you’re weren’t home?”
Without looking away from her sketches, Rarity replied with, “Just because I don’t have my fabrics with me doesn’t mean that we can’t have any fun coming up with some ideas until then. Besides, you’re my client. I would need your input before I tackle the construction of the design. To me, your opinion is what matters most in this process. If you don’t like it, even in the slightest, would mean that I have failed you.”
Capper couldn’t help but chuckle and let out a smile towards Rarity’s direction, “Let me guess, you’re some kind of seamstress or artist or something?”
“Close, I’m a fashion designer! And not to brag, but a pretty good one if I do say so myself.” Rarity bragged a little, with her hoof placed over her puffed out chest.
“More than just good,” Spike added, scurrying from the area near the bed in the room and towards Rarity and Capper at the table, “She’s the best fashion designer in all of Equestria!”
“Oh now Spike, don’t you be telling Mister Capper any flattering lies on my behalf.”
“Aw c’mon Rarity, you know it’s true.” said Spike in a genuine tone and with a smile, as he tried to climb onto the table and place his chin upon the table’s surface. “You run and own three successful boutiques all on you own.”
Capper’s eyes widened slightly with interest, his ears perked up and his smile grew. He did not expect Rarity to be an entrepreneur of sorts, he honestly thought she was just some upper class lady who got stuck with or lost with some gullible group of ponies. “ Woah, a real business mare huh? You must really have your hooves-”
“And!” Spike interrupted, “She has even designed gowns and dresses for some of Equestria’s finest, including a princess or two.” Spike added with a fun little wink, which was “subtly” towards Rarity’s gaze. And of course, she took notice.
With more awe and interest in his voice, Capper commented, “Wow Rarity, I had no idea that you-”
Spike turned his gaze slightly to Capper and gave him an unimpressed, sassy scowl, “So yeah, Mister Capper, she’s more than just some seamstress.”
“Now Spikey Wikey,” Rarity replied in a sweet yet motherly tone to Spike, still not taking her eyes away from her work, “ I’m sure that Mister Capper didn’t mean any harm towards me or seamstresses with his remark.”
“Spikey Wikey, huh?” Capper replied with in a tone taking in too much pleasure in Rarity’s embarrassing and cute nickname for the little dragon, “My, that’s quite a name for a giant gecko.”
“For the last time, I am not a gecko!” exclaimed Spike, “I’m a dragon!”
Capper tried to contained his sudden burst of laughter and his smile from Rarity and Spike, “Oh, pfft! Really? Pfft! My bad Spike. Oh wait, sorry, pfft! Mr. Dragon. Pfft bwhaha ha ha!”
“Oh yeah!” Spike proclaimed as he finally climbed on top of the table in order to tell the giant cat off, “Well, at least my name isn’t Capper! I mean seriously, what kind of name is that?! What does it even mean? Were you born with a bald cap as a kid or something?!”
“Oh Spike Wikey,” Rarity remarked calmly yet sweetly, still not taking her attention away from her sketches. Rarity used her magic to stop Spike and remove him off the table. Once he was back on the floor, Rarity asked him, “could you be a dear and lend some of your wonderful assistance to Twilight and her research over there? It looks like she might be onto something.”
Spike gave Rarity a confused look before turning around to see Twilight reading an old leather bound book on a small table not too far from the bed in the room.
Well, that explains why Twilight has been so quiet, Spike thought to himself, leave it to Twilight to find herself some reading to do on a quest to save Equestria.
Spike brought his attention back to Rarity and remarked with, “Uh sure thing. No problem.”
But, before Spike could leave Rarity’s side, he threatened Capper with, “This isn’t over. Capper.” Spike added a hiss in his tone when he had to repeat Capper’s name.
After that, Spike used two claws to point to his eyes and then used those same two claws to point to Capper’s eyes. With an angry frown and a slight huff in his step, Spike walked over to help Twilight.
Capper silently chuckled to himself, and then whispered into Rarity’s ear with a smirk, “Oh, you’re good.”
But, Rarity didn’t hear Capper’s smark aleck whisper. Instead, she was thinking to herself aloud, “Capper, Capper. Cap. That’s it!”
Suddenly, taking Capper off guard, Rarity quickly began to sketch something out with more detail and vision. Capper almost took a step back in order to give this unicorn some more room. He wasn’t expecting a unicorn like her, a pony like her with some energy and zest. One moment, she would be just putty in his claws. Delicate, dainty, flirty, and gullible to a tee as he would predict she’d be. But then, she would have these random bursts of where she would just surprise him out of nowhere. Capper couldn’t for the life of him figure out this pony. This both scared him, confused him, and yet strangely fascinated his curiosity. In that moment, he strangely cursed his cat like curiosity.
“Ta-da!” Rarity cheered as she levitated the finished sketch up in the air with her magic, feeling so proud of her latest masterpiece. At least, the beginning stages of it anyway. “So, what you do think? I call it Dapper in Paws! Oh, pardon the corny title, but when you’ve been around Pinkie Pie for as long as we have, her influence can rub off on you. Besides, the name just came to me as soon as I gave the ensemble that adorable yet fetching top hat. Isn’t it such a nice homage to the classic, Victorian, theater going gentleman? But I digress, what do you think?”
Capper looked back and forth between the levitating piece of paper and Rarity’s smile. With some hesitation and skepticism, Capper took the parchment into his claws. His eyes widened and he gasped softly when he saw what Rarity came up with. It was a sketch of the Abyssinian himself dressed in a black, shining, cape with golden ties to tie it in front, with blue diamond buttons to hold the ties in the front of the cape, and a matching black top hat decorated with a long purple feather. Capper almost didn’t recognize himself in this sketch. This wasn’t the con artist he slowly grew to be in Klugetown. This wasn’t the cat down on his luck and subject to the cruel rules of reality and the Storm King’s rule. This wasn’t the cat he knew, or at least, the cat he had to get to know for quite some time now.
No..this cat felt like someone new yet familiar. But still...it could never be him. At least, that’s what Capper believed. However, despite this, Capper couldn’t help but long for this. To be the dapper, confident, and happy cat in the picture. To be the cat that this pony apparently sees in him, even though they had only just met just a few hours ago. Capper kept wondering how she was able to do it; to see past his clothes, his home, and his status as nothing more than a citizen of Klugetown. How was she able to see past all that and make him look good, handsome, and decent in this picture? Was this how she truly saw him as? Could she truly believe that he could look this good? Or, was this just her being nice? Was this her just repaying her debt to him?
No...he didn’t think so. If she really was that kind of pony,...then he would have had a harder time tricking them. She truly is a sincere, kind, generous, warm, happy, and excitable pony. A truly decent mare.
Capper couldn’t help but have hope in this moment. To grab onto the hope that this picture portrays to him. To grab onto the hope that Rarity had just given him. Capper knew it was foolish to hope, but still...this picture...makes him want to forget the cat he is now and dream of wearing this outfit someday. Even though, as soon as Verko walks through that door, that dream and the pony who made that dream possible for him will leave him.
However, in the swirling mess of all these thoughts and emotions, Capper was nonetheless touched by Rarity’s generosity. He never thought in all his days that some creature, especially a pony of all things, would be so kind enough to want to do this for him. Without any strings attached. The way she did it was so casually yet efficiently gave him such a warm and full feeling deep down inside him. It was if everything just faded away, and Capper could focus on this picture and the unicorn beside him. Not only did he find someone truly good and pure in this harsh existence, something he thought he would never find again, but Capper just might have found someone who could possibly understand him someday. Someone to talk to and connect. Capper was bewildered at what this pony was doing to him. He kept asking himself why she was doing this now, especially as Verko’s arrival was drawing nearer and nearer.
Then, Rarity’s voice pulled him out of his inner turmoil, “Capper?”
“Huh?” Capper quickly looked away from the sketch and stared deep into Rarity’s slightly worried and concerned eyes. In that moment, he never noticed how light blue they were and how deep they were. In that moment with her, they were drawing him in. Usually, he was the one to draw others in with his eyes.
“Is everything alright? You look a bit pale. Is there something wrong?” she asked.
“Oh.” He remarked quickly, trying to recover and think of something clever to say. He chuckled and stuttered nervously and rapidly, “No, no, no! Nothing’s wrong! Everything’s great! Just great! Ha ha, anyway, soooo...what was your question again? I’m sorry.”
“I said, ‘Do you like it?’” She repeated, with her sweet smile returning to her face once more. In Capper’s eyes, her smile made her eyes and her face brightened with a certain glow he couldn’t describe.
He uttered in his slightly confused yet awed state, “Y-Yeah, I do. I really do.”
“Be honest darling, is it too much? I know that my designs can be a bit much sometimes and…”
“No no, not at all!” He quickly replied, trying to make sure she knew that he loved the sketch above everything else. He finished his thoughts softly with, “It’s just so...perfect.”
“Marvelous! I’m so glad! You did it once again Rarity, another satisfied customer.” Rarity slightly bragged while walking away from the desk and going towards the rest of the group.
“Ha ha, you sure did Rarity,” Capper softly chuckled with a soft smile, “Ha ha, Dapperpaws.” He whispered at the end, as he looked back to the sketch in his claws, re-reading the title of Rarity’s newest design.
“Hmm? Beg your pardon darling?” said Rarity, turning around to face Capper once more.”
“Dapperpaws,” He repeated in a tone slightly louder than a whisper, with a soft smirk on his face, “that’s...my last name. Dapperpaws.”
“Oh.” Rarity realized. In this realization, she eventually couldn’t help but laugh at this incredibly corny and funny coincidence. She tried to cover her quivering mouth, before bursting into fits of loud laughter. The sound of Rarity’s laughter made Capper burst out laughing with her, and this attracted the attention of every pony in the room.
“Oooooh! Ha ha ha! Oh my goodness!” Rarity managed to fit in during this bursts of giggles and chuckles, “I didn’t, ha ha, know that, ha ha! I apologize, ha ha, for this ridiculous corny coincidence! Not that your name is corny or anything!”
“Ha ha!” Capper breathed out during his fits of laughter and joy, “No, no, it’s alright! Ha ha! I get what you mean! Ha ha! Even I can admit that my last name is a little ridiculous at times!”
Meanwhile, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy were huddled on the bed not too far from the desk. Trying to stay as quiet as they could, in order to eavesdrop on Rarity’s and Capper’s conversation. Their eyes would swift back and forth between the couple behind them, and then to each other with big smirks and smiles on their faces.
But, Pinkie Pie couldn’t keep her own laughter or giggles in. Luckily, Rarity and Capper couldn’t hear on the count of the rest of the ponies in the group kept shushing Pinkie Pie.
“Pinkie!” They whispered.
“Tehee, sorry you guys. I can’t help it. Tehee!” Pinkie Pie whispered sweetly and giggled with a cute smile on her face.
“How much you wanna bet that they’ll end up being together?” Applejack whispered with an all-knowing smirk.
Rainbow Dash replied with, “I don’t think it’s a question of if, but rather, the question of when.”
Fluttershy then added, “Aww, they’re so cute together.”
Meanwhile, Rarity’s laughter eventually started to die down, and when it did, she added with a soft yet coy smile, “Well, I certainly don’t think it’s ridiculous.”
“Ha ha! Huh? Wait? What?” His laughter instantly stopped when he heard the slight flirty tone in Rarity’s tone. He opened his eyes and saw that subtle yet coy smile on her face and this made him smirked back at her with the same sly as she was displaying to him. “Oh really now?”
He lowered his head to her eye level, which made Rarity title her head slightly to the side and give Capper a seemingly shy but flirty look. Capper smoothly remarked to her in a slightly hushed yet cocky tone, “Is that so, Miss Rarity?”
“Guys!” Twilight proclaimed to the room, capturing everypony’s attention. Even to the unicorn and the humanoid cat who were just flirting with each other not too long ago.
Everyone gathered around Twilight and Spike and saw on the table a map to what seemed to be a tall and steep mountain. And on top of this drawing of a mountain were two majestic winged creatures.
“We’ve been looking for the wrong queen.” Twilight explained, pointing her hoof to the two winged creatures on the map, “We don’t need the Queen of the Hippos, we need the Queen of the Hippogriffs. Part pony, part eagle.”
“Oh? Oh you mean the Hippogriffs.” Capper remarked nervously. But then, he quickly recovered with, “Now, the trouble with that is no one knows where they are.”
“It says here that they’re on top of Mt. Aries.” Twilight retorted defensively, pointing harshly back to the mountain on the map.
“You mean the mountain right outside the window?” Pinkie Pie cheerfully commented, pointing her hoof to the window by the desk. The view in the window showed the group a clear view of Mt. Aries itself.
“Objects and windows may seem less mountainous than they appear, he he.” Capper nervously chuckled, playing slightly with the tips of his claws.
Twilight magically folded up the map and commanded, “Let’s go everypony.”
Before Twilight could make it to front door, Capper quickly blocked the entrance and exclaimed “Wait!”
Then, he nervously but surely recovered with, “You-you can’t make it by yourselves. You need an airship.” He finished his argument smoothly with “And lucky for you, I can get you a ride.”
“I think we can make it on our own.” said Twilight in the most polite tone she can muster while pushing Capper out of the way.
Before Twilight could open the door, Rarity told Twilight, “Now darling, don’t you think you’re being a little too dismissive of Mr. Capper’s most generous offer?”
Twilight turned around to face Rarity and firmly told her, “We’ve already taken advantage of...Mr. Capper’s ‘generosity’ long enough.” Then, she turned to Capper and remarked politely but bluntly, “Thank you for letting us stay at your ‘little manor’ for the time being, but we have an entire kingdom to save and some hippogriffs to see right away.”
Before Twilight could turn around, in order to walk back to the door, Rarity firmly told Twilight, “Twilight! Be reasonable! We just journeyed through all of Equestria, and through that wrenched desert and back just to get to this place. Who knows how long it’s going to take to get to Mt. Aries in our condition?”
“Our condition?” Twilight sarcastically replied, raising her right eyebrow up at Rarity.
“No offense Twilight,” Spike nervously added into the conversation, “but I still have cacti stuck in places that, well, you don’t want to know.”
“I may be a farmgirl from noon to when the cows come roaming home, but even I have to admit that my hooves are still mighty sore.” Applejack commented reasonably to Twilight.
“I have sand still caught in between some of my feathers,” Fluttershy shyly pointed out before opening up her wings and letting some of the sand fall out of her wingspan.
“I’m all up for exploring new lands and walking around and around and around,” Pinkie cheered, “but,...I don’t think my mental sanity can take anymore of the endless wandering and getting lost and all that.”
“Just look at our hooves darling!” Rarity exclaimed in her most dramatic, drama queen voice. And in this exclaim, she almost forcefully showed Twilight one of her front hooves. Twilight was not amused by the sight of these hooves. “They are just simply cracked and brittle to the bone! We are desperately need some form of transportation if we are ever to be in top shape to find the Hippogriffs!”
“She is right,” said Capper, smoothly joining back into the conversation, “Traveling on hoof is simply out of the question. You’ll get there a lot faster with an airship...and with my help.”
Twilight let out a “Hey!” when Capper’s tail pushes Twilight out of the way. Capper, now being in front of Rarity, gave her a flirty smirk and took one of her front hooves into his claw. Rarity instantly blushed and let out a flirty giggle at his gesture.
With his eyes solely on Rarity, he explained out loud, “We wouldn’t want to damage these beautiful, hard-working hooves any further now would we?” He finished his remark with a light, quick, but slightly sensual and intentional peck on top of Rarity’s hoof.
This kiss sent a fast but tingling sensation up Rarity’s spine, and her whole body reacted to his touch. But Rarity couldn’t let him see that. Instead, she continued to play coy and casually giggled, “Oh stop it really, you’re too much.”
But then, she quickly added after that in a more blunt tone, “No seriously, don’t stop.” After her quick remark, she returned to her coy and playful smile and she fluttered her eyelashes at Capper.
Capper couldn’t help but chuckle in his throat at Rarity’s little statement. She really was too much, but strangely to Capper, in the best way possible. The way she flirted was just like her personality. One moment, a refined lady to her core. But then the next, a witty little firecracker.
Capper gazed into Rarity’s eyes and smiled before giving another kiss on top of her hoof. And this time, it was more than just a peck.
Meanwhile, Twilight couldn’t help but moan and groan at this display as she approached the front door once more, “Ugh! Am I the only pony with their head on straight today?”
When the purple alicorn opened the door, she was suddenly greeted by what seemed to be a giant, buck toothed, naked rat. “Here’s Verko!” the creature announced, adding a little evil chuckle at the end of his introduction
Twilight let out a surprised shout as she hopped away from the door. She got a closer look at the creature and saw that he was wearing a very worn black top hat, a black reddish suit, and even some golden glasses designed to help block the sunlight for wearers who were blind.
Capper’s ears shot straight up as he picked up on Verko’s voice. His eyes immediately opened, but for some reason couldn’t get his lips away from Rarity’s hoof. Capper felt frozen and stuck in this soon to be awkward situation.
Then, he quickly took his lips off Rarity’s hoof, released his hold on her hoof, stood up, and turned around to face Verko. “Verkooo!” Capper nervously over-emphasized with a fake smile on his face, “Verko! My man! My main main man! You’re here! Early!”
Verko raised an eyebrow at Capper, looking swiftly between the tall cat and the white unicorn behind him. “Or so it seems. Am I interrupting something?”
“What? Oh no no, not at all!” Capper replied with a nervous grin.
“Good,” Verko responded bluntly yet seriously, approaching Capper and Rarity. He pushed Capper to the side and then said, “cause I wouldn’t want to be caught dead flirting with the merchandise if I were you. Especially if you still want to pay off your debt.”
When Verko mentioned the debt to Capper, the humanoid cat instantly darted his eyes to the ground and his ears sadly pinned back. His right paw grabbed his left arm, particularly in the elbow area.
Meanwhile, as Verko got closer to Rarity, the white unicorn scoffed in her shock, “Excuse me?! Merchandise?! How dare you speak to a lady in such a manner, you-you rat!”
Instead of being meant with insulted anger, Rarity was suddenly taken back by the sound of Verko chuckling devilishly and evilly, “Ha ha, that’s naked mole rat to you, my pretty little…”
Suddenly, Verko grabbed Rarity by her horn and proclaimed “Unicorn! Ha ha!”
“Rarity!” shouted Twilight, Spike, and the rest of the ponies; charging forth towards Verko and ready to attack him.
But this group attack, as well as, Verko’s grip on Rarity’s horn was stopped by Capper. He put himself between Verko and Rarity and exclaimed “Whoa whoa! Hold up there Verko! There’s no need for all this rough housing!”
Before Verko could say a word, the giant naked mole rat man was suddenly shocked by a huge yet powerful, lighting-like, blast. Capper and the rest of the gang gasped at this ghastly site as they witnessed Verko being burnt to a crisp and fell to the ground instantly. A shadow loomed into the entryway of Capper’s front door and remarked in a smooth but threatening tone, “Oh, I would have to disagree with you there..Capper was it?”
It was Tempest, and she was accompanied by her short little companion Grubber and some of the Storm King’s soldiers.
“Tempest.” Twilight whispered as she gazed upon the deadly display of Tempest coming into Capper’s home with her mini army behind her. She knew that she had to gather up the map and the rest of gang fast and as soon as they can. Before Tempest can chase them down any further.
Twilight gestured Rainbow, Applejack, and Fluttershy towards the window behind them since they were the closest to the window. Rainbow, Applejack, and Fluttershy did as they were silently told; and, Rarity, Pinkie, and Spike saw this subtle hint by Twilight and followed after the three ponies slowly. Twilight used her magic to float the map towards her and fold it up.
“Trusting strangers?” Tempest subtly taunted as she gracefully but deadly walked towards the group in front of her. “Oh, big mistake.”
“Huge.” Grubber emphasized, spreading his little arms out wide with a mischievous smile on his face.
“Hey!” Capper shouted, suddenly standing in front of Tempest and Grubber, spreading his arms out wide and shouting in a firm tone, “I don’t know who you are, but you have no right invading into my space and doing whatever heck you want!”
But then, out of the blue, Capper was knocked out easily and swiftly by one of the soldiers by having it’s large paw lightly pound on top of Capper’s head.
“Capper!” Rarity called out to him, reaching out her hoof to him; but, Twilight pulled her back with her magic towards the window. Everypony was already out the window and onto the windmill fan outside.
“C’mon Rarity!” Twilight told Rarity as they escaped.