//------------------------------// // Gilda x Rarity // Story: 2G // by Bysen //------------------------------// Meanwhile, earlier. “Don’t pay that recording any mind. I’ll be with you in just a moment!” a voice called from somewhere out of sight. A few seconds later a white unicorn mare came out from a door, a brief glimpse into the back room Gilda saw some fabric rolls and a pinned up mannequin. “Hello-oh, hello! I don’t get many gryphons in my boutique. I’m Rarity. How may I be off assistance? Are you after something specific or just browsing?” she said, accelerating from a walk to a saunter when she saw who had come in. Gilda [the author mentioned by name, making sure you knew this wasn’t another misdirect of whose who. Wait… I said Gilda in the last paragraph already… whatever] said “Neither. I’m just looking.” “Y-yes. Quite.” Rarity offered in turn, mildly stunned by the answer. “Welp… I think I came to the wrong place. Nothing here’s my style. Shouldn’t have expected ponies to have the same tastes.” “Oh, I assure you darling, I have something for every taste. What you see on open display is just a sampling. I have muchmuchmuch more than just these.” she said, hating herself just a little for dismissing what she considered her best works, which is why she had them so proudly displayed. “Now tell me, what is your taste precisely? I’m sure I’ll have something but we must narrow down what that something is exactly first.” “Well, uh… it’s… punk.” “What was that?” “I said punk!” she raised her voice but not quite shouting. Punk was cool. But it was twice as tryhard which made it twice as uncool. “Oh-hoh, don’t worry.” she reassured. “Punk, goth, 70s. They may have a reputation for who they’re associated with but you cannot deny that the styles themselves are magnifique! Why, I myself have been known to rock a jacket and fro from time to time.” “Really…?” Gilda asked mockingjay as she looked the prissy looking pony up and down. “Yes. Really.” Rarity replied with a smirk as she quickly turned and jolted behind a counter. She scrummaged through a few albums on it’s shelves before pulling out one, flipping to a particular page. “See for yourself then.” Gilda went over and took a look at the photo. She then looked up at the pony. “That could be anyone in that helmet.” *picture of Daft Punk Rarity to subvert expectations of Punk Rarity from that one episode but I can only find an EG version of it* “Well I am that anyone and regardless of who it is under there, I made that outfit. So, would you like to see what I have in line with this style?” “Yeah. Sure.” “Wonderful! I won’t be a moment Miss…” “Gilda.” The name sounded familiar to Rarity. She couldn’t place it though. Normally a simple ‘Have we met before?’ would come up in small talk but surely if she’d met this gryphon before she’d remember her. As far as Rarity could recall she’d met three… no four. Gallus, Gabby [that drake stealing hussy], the one Rainbow Dash knew and that one from the train with the cake. Oh, and Natalya, that lovely athlete from the Equestria Games. She could say she knew more dragons than gryphons. Or would that be specist? She dipped into the back and barely a moment later [thanks to the time dilation spells Starlight had put on that room] she came back out carrying an array of wares to wear. “Now, unfortunately, most of my clientele are of course ponies. And as such the only pieces I currently have available in your size and form are those designed for pegasus stallions.” “And what are you implying?” Gilda asked, bending her neck forward and her head to the side zeroing in with one of her eyes. “N-nothing at all! Just that your frame is larger than that of a pony. Rest assured I wasn’t saying anything about your femininity or-” “Relax. Gryst… ponies can’t seem to take a joke.” Gilda bemoaned. She knew that of course. But it never stopped her from making comments like that. Maybe she did it hoping to find a pony who’d throw one right back at her. Like Rainbow Dash did. Not that Rainbow did last time they’d met. Gilda was more pony like than she’d like to admit and Rainbow was more gryphonlike than any pony she’d met [and liked]. But was that even a good thing? Despite liking gryphons as a whole, she knew most of them where absolute arse hats. Herself included. Although, Gilda was glad what had started to make her ‘pony-like’ hadn’t affected her as much as Gabby who basically wasn’t even a gryphon in terms of attitude. Gilda would probably be an aunt soon if she guessed right about Gabby and her extra long delivery runs. Wonder who she was hooking up with? But right now Gilda had something completely unrelated to her sister’s love life. “Rarity wasn’t it?” she said to the nervously smiling mare. “Show me what you got.” Rarity paused a moment before recovering, mildly scolding herself for thinking ‘No wonder Rainbow’s no longer friends with the one she knew if they’re all like this. No no, don’t generalise like that.’ “Of course. I have three that I think you’d like.” levitating three jackets, one with matching pants and another with matching brace guards. “Feel free to try them on.” She lay them out on the counter. The first was a black pleather buckle-up jacket with three ring studs on each shoulder, a long collar designed to not be folded down and an odd-sized pair of bracers. One just the size of a band with a sting stud link and the other about three times longer with a pattern of a crescent moon that Gilda didn’t recognise as being Luna’s Cutie Mark. The second of the three was a brown, wool lined pleather zip-up jacket that at first glance looked ridiculous. The main body of the jacket looked normal enough with two zippered pockets on the lower half and the very bottom being trimmed with the inner wool showing on the outside. Things got a bit weird at the shoulders though where the same wool lining from the bottom was on a nearly as large neckline. The zipper continued through that though into the collar that again was long but not meant to be folded down. However unlike the last collar that was meant to be flared out this one had belt buckles over the zip and looked as if it would go all the way up her neck and possible even a bit over the face ending in some more wool trimming. The arms [forelegs] too had a smaller belk around the wrists [ankles?]. It was clearly meant to be a winter jacket and while it certainly fit the model for ‘rebelling from the norm’, Gilda wasn’t entirely sure she’d call it ‘Punk’ so much as ‘JRPG’. A term she’d learnt from the nerd Glenda. The first nearly fell into that category too but made her realise that if the second jacket had been black, it probably would've been punk. The third jacket was black… possibly real leather, with 6 belt buckles running up the center. The buckles themselves where black too but the clasp was a stark contrast of white as where the two link studs on the lower pockets and all down the arms. It had a shirt collar with a ridged design running along the edge that when folded over matched the design on the lower part of the collar. The matching backs, luckily, didn’t have such a flashy belt buckle over the fly but a similar, subtler belt did it well. The studs ran down the legs too and made a pattern that without the other leg would look odd and random so that when walking it almost seemed to move. Rarity flipped over the second jacket, which unlike most jacked for pegasi that just had two holes for the wings [and for the tail in the case of the pants] this one instead had another length of wool-lined material shorter than her own wings but roughly the length a pony’s would be until it was all feather [just over half the total wing length], with some smaller, more delicate belts straps hold it in place. Gilda looked at the three of them for a while. The second one certainly screamed ‘high’ fashion to her. The third more emo or goth than punk. And the first, too generic punk. She lifted one of them up and looked down the neck hole. “Yeah. Way too small.” she dismissed. Although she had actually done so to try and be polite about thinking they were all shit. “Oh, well, they won’t fit perfectly of course but I can make the adjustments faster than you’d think.” though for Rarity it would be approximately 60 times longer than Gilda would wait here in realspace. “If you’d try on the veste doublée en laine [wool lined jacket] and allow me to take a few measurements I’ll be able to make the necessary changes to it and either of the other two. What do you say?” she asked, levitating the second jacked towards Gilda. “I know it’s not quite ‘punk’ but I think it would look good on you all the same.” Gilda grabbed it roughly. Intentionally so. If it couldn’t hand a little stress now then there was no way she’d get much use out of it before it was wrecked. “Alright, I’ll give it a go.” Gilda said as she began unbuckling the neck. A phrase she thought she’d never have to use. Once she was done she ran the zipper down the centre and unlinked it at the bottom. She was about to put an arm [claw/foreleg?] through the sleeve when she thought “How much is this going to cost anyway? I’m not exactly rolling in bits.” “Well most of my clients tell me it’s more than they hoped but less than they expected.” she answered as she covered her mouth, turned her head and did a little lady-like chuckle. “That’s not an answer.” “Quite true. I apologise. This piece will cost ฿259. A bargain I assure you.” Gilda made a ‘not bad’ face. Rarity had been right. More than she’d hoped but less than she’d expected. Her claw came out of the sleeve a bit more than was intended for the type of jacked this was. it was very comfortable but would definitely be too warm for this time of year. She threw the body of the jacket over her back and shifted for a moment before her wings came through the holes. They fit, but it was a bit tight. “One moment while I go and grab my measuring tape. You just finish donning the veste doublée en laine while I’m looking.” she said with an odd shift in here gave. Not that Gilda noticed while she put her claw threw the other sleeve. The piece of winter clothing on, she reached up for her wings and lined the cover up with them. She expected this part to come nowhere close to fitting. Ponies had much shorter wings than gryphons. At least on average. She’d seen one pony at flight school with wings nearly the size of her whole body. And also a vague memory of seeing a unicorn levitating herself up there just before Rainbow Dash’s sonic rainboom. Gilda reached for the two sides of the jacket’s bottom and brought them together before relinking the zip. Careful when she got up to her transition of fur to feather she ran it all the way up until she got to her neck. While the belted collar went on further, the thickness of her neck stopped it there. Still, it was done up enough she could move around and get a good feel for it. Taking a few steps and feeling how it moved she started to think she might get this thing after all instead of just [semi intentionally] wasting the tailor’s time. She may have to cut back on expensive meals but she’d saved a fair bit of bits by staying at Rainbow’s place instead of an inn. She moved over towards a mirror and looked at herself. It was just off matching her fur and feather colours but was roughly the shade half way between the two complimenting it well. The jacket itself looked absolutely ridiculous but it somehow worked. She raised the collar up and turned to the side to simulate it being buckled. It went right up to her chin but not enough for her to touch it unless she was looking down. It was meant to cover the face a bit to keep it warm but this was probably a good feature of it being too small. As she was examining herself in the mirror one of the wing strips fell down. They were too small for her to properly belt them up but that was a realisation. “How the hell am I meant to do up a belt up there?” she said aloud and turned to where she thought Rarity would be back to by now. She was still in the back however, looking for a tape measure. And on that note, how would she even make adjustments to a pleather jacket? Having been in it for nearly a minute now, Gilda started to feel warm. Not uncomfortably so, but it would be in another minute or two. Sure it was warmer inside the building than outside but she couldn’t just wear this jacket around. She unzipped the top down to the bridge of her feathers and flapped it a bit to get some air through it, hoping that doing so would make it more wearable in general. A few moments passed and her lower fur continued to warm up. Zipping it down further and unlinking it she cooled but having the jacket open like this changed the look drastically. Rarity still wasn’t back yet. “Hey, you lost back there? The jackets getting hot so if you’re gonna take some measurements do it fast!” she called out. “Coming!” Rarity called back, returning with a tape over her neck and a new pair of red rimmed glasses. “Awfully sorry, something unexpected came up.” as she pranced back in. Coming over to Gilda say asked “If I may?” levitating the measuring tape towards the gryphon. “Go for it.” “Wonderful.” she ran the tape down Gilda’s forelegs, then around the neck, then as she got to the wings “Say, you wouldn’t happen to be an old friend of Rainbow Dash’s would you?” despite having taken three measurements by this time this was only a few seconds after starting. She was fast and skilled at doing so and wasted no time knowing what needed measuring and what could be a problem. And her question was included as something that needed measuring and could be a problem. Nevertheless Rarity waited for an answer as she continued her measurements, completing them before Gilda could even answer. “Yeah. We used to be. Don’t go thinking I can get you her autograph or somehing stupid like that though. I haven’t seen her in years. Tartaras, I came to this shop t-” “Boutique.” Rarity corrected. “-o go… boutique, whatever. I only came here because every other shop seems to be obsessed with her and her friends. Didn’t think a place like this would have anything to do with her. But here you are, fangirling over her…” “Oh no no no no, you’ve got me all wrong.” Rarity said stepping back and grabbing a quill and paper and scratching down some notes. “I’m, actually a close friend of hers.” and her tone carried a strong sense of nervousness. “Of course you are…” Gilda sighed. Coming here to avoid her friends and instead stumbling right into one of them. She began to take off the jacket taking her first claw out of the sleeve and through the jacket over herself to take the other out. Rarity took the garment in her magic hold, ran the measuring tape alone a few spots and wrote down a few more notes. “Now, if you’ll give me just a few moments I can make the necessary alterations.” she then waited for an affirmative response but got none. She didn’t get a negative either and so with an awkward smile she turned and headed back into the rear room. A few seconds passed and she called back once more. “Gilda, I have a confession to make.” “Oh sweet hatchling Shirdal…” Gilda cursed, taking the lord’s son’s name in vain. “When I asked if your where the gryphon that Rainbow Dash knew…” she said, coming back out into the storefro-… boutiquefront. “I was really asking if you were the old friend of somepony else.” following behind Rarity was… “H-hello Gilda.” Fluttershy said. “It’s nice to see you again.”