Svengallop closed the door of his office, yet another dreary day of work behind him. He took a deep breath and tried to relax his stressed nerves.
Sometimes you had days like this. Dull, mind-numbing and exhausting. Every now and then Svengallop wondered was he the only office worker in Manehattan who felt like strangling somepony after making calls and being pleasant to everypony all day.
It was always like this. No matter how hard he worked and channeled every inch of his considerable talent for the good of other ponies, nopony ever appreciated his work! He turned ordinary ponies into celebrities, adored and worshipped by the masses. He gave them lives that most ponies could only dream of!
Or at least, he used to do so. These days it was difficult to find ponies who appreciated his talents. Ever since that cursed charity event in Ponyville…
Svengallop shook his head at the unfairness of the world in general as he walked down the stairs.
Coloratura would eventually see the error of her ways and return to him. He simply needed to wait until it happened and everything would return to how it used to be.
Well, at least it was Thursday.
This was the day he looked forward to all week. The worsening of his financial situation had forced him to cut corners from many things, but this weekly indulgence was something he simply could not drop. It was the only thing that kept him sane.
Unfortunately, these days his old recreational activities simply weren’t enough. So he was going to try some new things. His therapist had advised him to find an outlet for his stress and he knew just the way to do so.
Svengallop stepped onto the busy street, the constant background noise of hooves and passenger carts soon surrounding him. It was the regular rush hour in Manehattan, most ponies leaving from their work at this time of the afternoon.
After making sure that the lock his suitcase was in perfect working order, Coloratura’s former manager walked down the street and took great care to avoid bumping into anypony. The last thing he wanted was to have the contents of his suitcase sprawled across the street or stolen.
It didn’t take him long to reach his first destination. It was the kind of nondescript and mundane hat store on the side of a street that in normal circumstances he would never visit. He tailored his suits in much more esteemed establishments. Alas, what he wanted could only be found in a store for common ponies.
Svengallop ignored the curious glance of the clerk pony behind the counter as he walked in and did his best to ignore all these common ponies surrounding him. He walked around the store in quick order in search of what he wanted.
It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for. There was a whole stack of them in a bargain bin.
Svengallop took one of the brown stetson hats and turned it in his hooves. It was dull, bland and utterly uninspired. Something that an earthy pony working on a field with the artistic sense of a rock would wear. Just holding it made him want to tear it apart.
He bought three of them.
Still ignoring the curious look on the clerk pony’s face, Svengallop stepped out of the store back to the street with his new hats. It took only a moment of waving with his hoof to find a free taxi cart.
He climbed into the cart and asked to be taken to the Bronclyn’s main park. As the stallion pulling the cart nodded and trotted along, Svengallop sat down in the cart, still trying to relax.
He knew that this sorry state of affairs was only temporary, he did! But, it didn’t make reading about Coloratura in the newspapers on weekly basis feel any better. Sure, this new, more natural style had met some limited success, but Svengallop knew how fickle ponies could be. Sooner or later her fans would demand Countess Coloratura to come back.
When that eventually happened, Coloratura could only hire him again, they both knew that Countess Coloratura couldn’t exist without him.
He sighed once again and reached for his suitcase, opening it and taking this day’s newspaper out. He ignored the main headline about the new peace treaty with changelings and instead flipped pages until he reached the article that had caught his attention this morning.
It was nothing amazing really. Just a small article about some idiotic farm product competition that was held in Ponyville. Accompanying the article was a picture of the winner with her quite possibly the largest apple in the world next to her.
Svengallop looked at the smiling face of Applejack, grinding his teeth and feeling a burning heat flush through him. It took all his willpower not to tear the newspaper to pieces.
He had spent so many hours thinking about it.
How everything had happened and more importantly, why. Despite everything, he couldn’t blame Coloratura or be angry at her. She was just a naive young mare who didn’t know any better. Airheaded ponies like her just needed a firm hoof to help them along, to guide them.
No, that dirty earth pony was the one to blame for all of this. Applejack was the one who had filled Coloratura’s head with all that childish nonsense about being true to yourself. Applejack had engineered that ridiculous enterprise to make Coloratura dismiss his honest work.
Svengallop stared at the picture for a moment longer before taking a deep breath. Then, he carefully folded the newspaper again and put it back to his suitcase.
After a while, the cart stopped. Svengallop paid the stallion and stepped out. He waited until the cart had disappeared behind the corner and started making his way down the street.
Unicorns had it so easy, they could just use magic to carry everything above their heads. Pegasi could fly everywhere. He needed to balance both his suitcase and the shopping bag while also avoiding everypony else on the street.
After some walking, he turned to a small side alley between two apartment buildings. He walked to the end of the alley and looked around to make sure that the alley was empty before taking stairs down to the door of a basement level.
Svengallop pulled a key from the pocket of his suit and unlocked the door, stepping in and closing the door right behind him. The dark, ragged hallway wasn’t exactly comforting, cheap lights allowing you to see ahead of you and that was about it.
He didn’t know how ponies could live in a literal basement that some enterprising pony had turned into a few apartments once the building above it had run out of space. You felt like a rat in here.
Then again, he mused as he walked down the corridor, the thick walls made it very private. All the busy noises of the city disappeared the moment you closed the door.
Svengallop walked to a door that didn’t even have a nameplate on it and knocked.
In maybe thirty seconds, the door opened.
“Ah, my dear manager. Please, come in.”
Svengallop looked up at the beaming face of Coloratura. He saw her lavender mane and beautiful teal eyes, feeling tightness in his chest. There was also a pang of guilt, this still made him feel dirty.
But, the aching feeling of burning need overrode everything else. That was why he always returned here time and time again.
Word died in his throat so he simply nodded as Coloratura stepped aside to let him in, doing his best to get his bearings again.
It was like stepping into another world from the dusty, ragged corridor. The floor was covered with a thick, fluffy carpet, drawers and shelves lining the walls. Two doors led out of the room and a series of candles gave out a dim, intimate light against the dark red wallpaper. A vase with what looked like fresh roses was on a table on the side of the room.
Svengallop lowered his bag and a suitcase to the table and turned to face Coloratura again.
Or to be more precise, the thing that was expertly masquerading as her.
“I have something else in mind today, Crypsis. You don’t need to look like her.”
The thing that looked every bit like the most popular pop star in Equestria blinked and smiled, tilting her head.
“Oh? Are you finally feeling like changing your routine?” Crypsis chuckled, her face twisting into the kind of sly grin that looked very out of place on Coloratura’s face.
Svengallop rolled his eyes and frowned at her.
“Don’t make it sound like that. You know that I’m not like those other pathetic dregs. I’m never going to bring you a picture of some celebrity I have never met.”
“Haven’t you heard? There is no wrong way to fantasize,” Crypsis chuckled again, “although, your dedication to this particular fantasy is impressive. Usually, ponies eventually start to branch out once they realize all the possibilities I can offer. Or finally make their move on the real deal.”
Crypsis saw the sneer on Svengallop’s face and sighed.
“Alright, what do you have in mind?” she asked with a more sober expression.
Coloratura’s former manager opened his suitcase and pulled out the newspaper. He flipped the pages until he found the article and turned the paper around to show the picture of smiling Applejack to Crypsis.
“Have you done her before?”
Crypsis smiled at the picture and raised her head to look at Svengallop.
“I think she is the least popular of those six, not very remarkable compared to the others,” Crypsis rubbed her chin and winked at Svengallop, “but, you are in luck. I have seen and heard her speak. We went to the same wedding once.”
Crypsis closed her eyes as a ring of emerald fire enveloped her. The flames vanished again in an eyeblink, revealing Applejack just like Svengallop remembered her.
“So don’t get any funny ideas, get it? I don’t appreciate any of this!” Crypsis poked her hoof at Svengallop and flared her nostrils with an indignant expression on her face.
Svengallop blinked, genuinely impressed by the mimicry despite having seen it so many times before.
The changeling gave a theatrical bow and smiled.
“Why Applejack out of all ponies? Don’t you hate her guts?” Crypsis asked with a raised eyebrow.
Svengallop nodded.
“I do, more and more every day. She is to blame for everything that is wrong with my life,” Svengallop turned to the table again and opened his suitcase. “How does clothing work with you by the way? Is that hat real?”
Crypsis took her hat off and rolled it around her hoof.
“It’s not real if touched. That’s why it was a relief when you said you want Coloratura without that whole formal attire of hers,” she threw the hat to the side where it disappeared into the thin air after flying for a few feet, “usually that is enough for what my customers need.”
Svengallop tossed one of the hats from his bag to Crypsis.
“There is a real hat for you. I have no idea does it even mean anything to her, but I would like to imagine that it does.”
The changeling looked at the hat and shrugged before putting it on.
“At least you brought your own props instead of assuming I have every piece of clothing in existence hidden in my wardrobe like some ponies do,” Crypsis remarked and turned towards a nearby mirror to look at herself.
“This is going to be somewhat different in other ways as well,” Svengallop said as he pulled something else out of his suitcase and showed it to the changeling.
Crypsis looked at the somewhat curiously designed leather harness Coloratura’s former manager was holding and raised a curious eyebrow at it.
“Change of pace indeed,” the changeling chuckled, “Where is this coming from? You have never wanted something like this with Coloratura, even though she is the one who fired you.”
“That’s because I love and care about her, even if she doesn’t understand it,” Svengallop said while pulling a small prod and putting it down on the table next to the harness, “that dirty apple farmer I simply want to put in her place.”
“Alright, but it is going to cost you extra,” Crypsis smirked and stretched her hooves experimentally, “you don’t feel even the tiniest bit of affection towards her, so all I can look forward to in this are bits.”
Svengallop nodded put the rest of the tools on the table, most of them black and made of leather. ”Defiant and resistant at first, please. I want this to feel… authentic. I will try not to go overboard.”
Crypsis laughed.
“Svengallop, I’m a changeling, not the frail, innocent Coloratura I have played for you all this time. You couldn’t hurt me even if you wanted to. Do whatever you feel like.”
Svengallop nodded again and took a deep breath. He took the harness from the table, promising to himself that someday it would be the real Applejack in front of him.
That was the thought that fueled him for the rest of the day.