//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: Taking big steps 
// Story: Violet Fire 
// by Nagagon 
//------------------------------//

            Okay Fire, you can do this! You just gotta be cool, smooth. Mares like those kinda guys. All you have to do is answer her in a very relaxed way, can’t be too hard, right?
 
                “Have you decided yet?” asked a unicorn with a red bow-tie.
 
                “What?” Violet Fire wondered as the question issued to him brought his mind back into reality. The stallion’s eyes widened as he took in his surroundings: small, white tables, waiters wearing the same red bow-ties as the stranger, ponies sitting on haystacks as they enjoyed all sorts of food, from simple snacks to more sophisticated dishes.
 
                When in Equestria did I get to a café?! he thought in panic.
 
                “Your order, monsieur? What will you be having?” the camarier asked once more.
 
                “What will I be having? Um….” Violet Fire fidgeted in his place. “I don’t… have any money…” he whispered in a guilty tone.
 
                “Oh, don’t worry dear. I’ll be paying, so order whatever you want. You must be starving!” said an elegant voice on the other side of the table. Violet Fire turned his head towards the source of those words. His eyes nearly came out of their sockets in sheer surprise as he noticed who sat on the other side.
 
                The mare of his dreams: Rarity the unicorn.
 
                He was stunned. Completely dumbfounded. When did that happen? Last thing he remembered was exposing the swindler, and then he apologized to Rarity, which didn’t end very well, so he gave her his jar of gems. To his great relief, she had accepted his gift. Then, she proceeded to invite him for… brunch, was it? So she invited him and then…
 
                Nothing. His mind was drawing a blank. How did he get there? As a matter of fact what did he say when she asked him if he wanted to eat? He couldn’t remember anything after her invitation to the café.
 
                “Is something the matter, dear?” she asked, bringing Violet’s wandering mind back to reality. “If you’re having doubts about what to eat, I suggest the daffodil sandwich with the hay fries on the side. It’s a bit much for a lady such as I, but a big stallion like yourself would probably enjoy the meal,” she said.
                
“Oh, nonono, that’s not it!” Violet said, waving his hooves from side to side. “It’s just… I can’t let you pay for my food, especially after I caused so much trouble.”
 
                “It’s no trouble at all, Violet,” she responded. “Consider this a reward for helping me with that swindler from before. Besides, there’s something I want to discuss with you,”
 
                “There is?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
 
                “Yes,” Rarity answered. Suddenly, Violet’s stomach grumbled loudly, drawing the eyes from the other tables. The unicorn smiled sheepishly as his cheeks flushed slightly.
 
                “But first, I do believe we should order,” the mare said. Levitating the menu in front of her for a few moments, she turned her head towards the waiter. “Well, Escargot, I for one will be having your vegetable crème, please.”
 
                “An excellent choice, mademoiselle, as always,” Escargot answered. “And you, monsieur?”
 
                Violet Fire raised a hoof to try and refuse Rarity’s offer once more, but the mare’s intense glare made him think otherwise. Sighing in defeat, the unicorn swallowed his pride and went along with the fashionista’s offer. He knew just how headstrong she could be at times, and when that happened it was best to just go with flow. Besides, he hadn’t eaten a good meal in a while, so he might as well accept it.
 
                “The double daffodil salad sandwich with fried hay on the side, extra crispy,” he answered. Escargot quickly wrote the orders on a notepad before walking inside the café, leaving the couple of unicorns at their table.
 
                Good thing that waiter is gone. I was starting to get nervous with this whole situation. Now it’s just me and Rarity. Alone… just the two of us… sitting… looking at each other... Violet’s heartbeat increased tenfold as his brow became drenched in cold sweat.
 
Luna’s mane, I’m sitting at a table with Rarity! WHAT DO I DO?! Calm down Fire, CALM DOWN! Yeah, like yelling at yourself will help you chill out. She just wants to ta—OH MY CELESTIA SHE WANTS TO TALK WITH ME! Violet’s eyes darted nervously around as he forced his facial muscles to come up with something close to a smile. Looking for anything that wasn’t Rarity, he noticed a glass of water close to him, the ice cubes inside it conveying to him the coldness of the beverage. Giving the waiter a mental ‘thank you’, he grabbed the cup with his hooves and brought it to his muzzle, making sure to drink it as slowly as equinely possible to stretch out how long he could go without having to talk. Meanwhile, Rarity merely looked at the stallion from head to hoof, as if judging his very existence, which only caused the flow of sweat on him to increase. Finally, she spoke:
 
“I must say, you are a very peculiar unicorn.”
 
Betrayed by his own clumsiness, Violet tried to speak while still drinking his cold mineral water, allowing an ice cube to slide down his throat which caused a fit of coughing. After placing the glass on the table, the stallion began punching his chest with great force while still wincing and trying to gasp for air. With one powerful strike to his thorax, Violet coughed the ice cube out of his throat, bringing blissful normality to his breathing. However, the spit-covered frozen chunk flew across the café, landing perfectly on the cappuccino of a pegasus with a goatee, splashing the beverage on his face. Narrowing his eyes, he angrily put on a fedora hat that was sitting at his side and walked out of the café, mumbling something along the lines of ‘uncalled for, mate’. Violet’s eyes accompanied the stallion’s walk for a while before going back to Rarity, who merely stared at him with a cocked eyebrow. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
 
“How –cough– how so?” he asked, bringing a hoof to his muzzle to block his coughing.
 
“Well, you look like a dashing, gentle young stallion,” she answered. Violet blushed slightly as he grinned at her complements. “But then you shatter that image with your clumsiness, lack of forethought and uncouth manners,” At the last item of her list, she looked at the waiter removing the pegasus’ ruined cappuccino. Violet blushed and cowered slightly behind the table. “However,” she said, looking back at the stallion. “While you do have a few, shall we say, flaws, you also have a few surprises to yourself. The way you handled the swindler was most unexpected,” she said, levitating her own glass of water and taking a delicate sip from it. Violet’s ears perked as his head shot up.
 
“It was?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.
 
“Why, yes, dear. You see, I’m quite proud of my ability to pick the most fabulous of gems, so imagine how perplexed I was to see you walking up to me and declaring that I was about to buy fakes. My, I nearly slapped you again, then and there,” she playfully added. Violet laughed along. He had a feeling there was more truth to that joke than she was showing, but decided to play it safe and not touch on the subject.
 
“But I must say I’m quite intrigued: however did you acquire such refined knowledge of gemstones?” the mare asked as she looked intently at the stallion. Violet’s eyes widened. Without knowing, she had asked the only question that could blow his cover and she didn’t even know there was a cover to begin with.
 
His knowledge of gemstones and their proper treatment came from his diet from before he was a unicorn. Gems are a delicacy for dragons, something they eat as a treat. It was more of a luxury than real necessity, since they could find nourishment from other sources. Because of that, they strived to make those gems tastier than they already were. It was pretty much the only thing in Spike that he could definitely say was draconic, so he worked himself to the bone, studying and experimenting with gems, aiming to become better with each passing day. It was knowledge that came with the instincts and nature of a dragon. It was something that nopony would know; no matter how well-versed they were in the art of finding and treating gems.
 
At least, no… ordinary… pony. An idea began to form in his mind.
 
“You see, I’m… um… a gem treater,” he answered. Rarity looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
 
“A gem treater?” she wondered.
 
“Yeah. Basically, I find gems and make them better and tast– I mean, shinier!” he exclaimed, saving himself from a near faux paus.
 
“Fascinating… but your technique is rather, shall we say, peculiar,” she said. “Wherever did you learn such skills?”
 
Violet Fire shifted awkwardly in his seat. “It’s… um… kinda hard to believe.”
 
“Even so, I’m dying to find out,” she said, eyes glimmering with expectation. Fire had hoped to avoid delving into his explanation, but how could he refuse those entrancing sapphire eyes? He took a deep breath. He was going to have to make this one count, for it was the only way to end the insistent probing of his past, one which he had yet to build.
 
“I learned it from dragons,” he finally said as he closed his eyes shut, waiting for a burst of laughter or words of disbelief. However, his expectations were met with silence. There was no laughing, no discrediting of his claims. He slowly opened one eye to inspect the damage he had caused and only found Rarity, still sitting at the other end of the table, but with a confused look on her face.
 
“Are… are you not gonna call me a liar?” he wondered.
 
“No,” she simply answered, levitating her glass of water towards her mouth and taking another sip.
 
“So, you believe me?”
 
Rarity did not answer immediately. Instead, she lowered her cup on the table and looked the stallion in the eye, a warm, caring smile on her face.
 
“I believe you know so much from past experiences you lived through. I don’t find it odd for you to have walked among dragons.” She looked at her reflection on the surface of the water, her sapphire eyes meeting her own distant, sad gaze. “I walked alongside a dragon once. A gentle, sweet dragon.” She raised her head and looked at Violet once again. “So if the pack you traveled with was remotely similar to him, you should consider yourself lucky, dear.”
 
Violet stared at her, head tilted to the side, unsure of what to say. He hadn’t expected the conversation to take such a course. Was she sad? Of course she was, but what was the cause of her sadness?
 
You know it, don’t you? You’re just choosing not to see it, he thought, scolding himself. There was no doubt, she was sad because of him. Because of ‘Spike’. But he couldn’t go over that. Spike was gone. He was Violet Fire now.
 
And as such, he was going to set things right.
 
Before he could raise his voice to say anything, Escargot came back, carrying a platter with their order on it. He quickly placed the correct dishes in front of their respective owners and left as silently as he arrived. Violet grabbed his daffodil sandwich and gave it a large, blissful bite. His stomach rejoiced as its master shoved a bunch of hay fries inside his mouth, munching on the nourishment with great delight. Rarity watched with wide eyes as the stallion devoured the dish like a starving dog. Suddenly, a thought occurred to Violet, something that he hadn’t considered due to the excitement of the past events. He swallowed his meal before wiping a smudge of ketchup and bread crumbs off his muzzle, and then spoke.
 
“But why did you want to know that?” he asked.
 
Rarity opened her eyes, pausing her appreciation of the light green cream she was savoring. The mare gently lowered her spoon as she magically levitated a napkin towards her muzzle and wiped it clean. Violet watched her careful, fluid motions in complete awe. His admiration for her grew even more, but so did his uneasiness, as he realized that, although he had succeeded in become so similar to his beloved, they were still worlds apart. He shook the thought away, trying to focus on Rarity’s words.
 
“Well, dear, as you may know, I’m a fashion designer. Not only that, I run the local clothing store, Carrousel Boutique, where–”
 
“Where every garment is chic, unique and magnifique,” Violet Fire completed. Rarity looked at him as her eyes widened in surprise.
 
“Why, yes. How did you know my catchphrase?” she asked. Violet shifted awkwardly as he tried to come up with an excuse to dodge the question.
 
“That’s, um… your slogan! I heard it from somepony in… Canterlot! Yes, Canterlot. That’s actually how I knew of your beautiful and original designs,” he answered as he tried to distort his lips into a convincing smile. He sighed with relief as Rarity giggled lightly.

“Oh you,” she said with a wave of her hoof. “But as I was saying, my store thrives on fabulous and precious designs, and by precious I mean gemstones, of course,” she said. Violet simply nodded in agreement; he had seen plenty of her designs before to know of her passion for flamboyant gems in every single dress she made.

“Your unique talents impressed me quite a bit. So much, in fact, that I would like to request your assistance in my shop,” she said as her lips curled up into the best business smile possible. Violet, however, merely raised an eyebrow.

“Excuse me?” he said in a tone of genuine ignorance.

“I meant that I wish for you to place your knowledge to a better purpose by assisting me.”

Violet responded by tilting his head to side and blinking vaguely.

“To aid my business?” Rarity tried.

“Um... sorry, I don’t get it,” the stallion answered as he shook his head in denial. Rarity facehoofed as she snarled in frustration, until she finally snapped.

“I WANT YOU TO WORK FOR ME!” she yelled, throwing her hooves in the air.

“Ohhhhh, now I get it!” he said as he nodded slowly, but after a few moments, his eyes  widened in utter surprise. “Wait, WHAT?!”

“Why so shocked? You are certainly fit for the job,” said the mare as she drank a spoonful of her soup. Placing the empty cutlery on the table, she continued. “You see, although I normally manage the shop all by myself, I’ve been trying to find an assistant for a while now,” she explained. “Not that I truly need one, mind you, but having another pair of hooves helping at the store would ease my burden, giving me more time to work on my designs. Also, your fantastic skills as a gem treater could increase the value of my pieces quite a bit...” she said as her her eyes began sparkling with avarice.

Violet looked at the mare with increased worry. She was incredibly gentle and kind, but add gems and profit in the conversation and she could be somewhat... difficult to handle. However, there were more pressing matters to worry about than Rarity's delusions of fortune and fame.

 Violet Fire was shocked. Not in the negative way, just surprised at the sudden change of events. He hadn't planned so far. He intended to clear the misunderstanding between him and Rarity, maybe start off as friends or simple acquaintances. Slow steps, no rushing.

And lo and behold, he was a getting a job offer from her.

Not that the idea didn't have its perks. He was completely and utterly broke. He couldn't even buy himself a loaf of stale bread, let alone all of his other basic necessities, such as water, lodging and food. So Rarity's offer was a gift on a silver platter. But that wasn't the proposal’s most appealing feature. Should he accept it, he'd be able to spend most of his day by her side. That alone was reason enough to jump at the offer. However, wasn't it too fast? He would be leaping, not walking, towards his ultimate goal: being with her.

And leaps have a nasty tendency of turning into straight meetings with the hard, cold ground, a prospect that he wasn't too fond of.

Then again... he thought. Isn't this why you transformed in the first place? Spike would take it easy, but where did that get him? Heartbroken and alone, And was that what he wanted? To play it safe and be friendzoned by her? Suddenly, he remembered something Twilight said about an ancient empire that had lived long ago.

'Facta non verba' was one of their mottos. It’s something along the lines of 'don't talk, do'.

The stallion raised his head confidently and looked at the mare sitting across the table, who had kept on talking about sales and profits during his internal meditation. One simple word came out of his mouth:

"Deal."

"-and then I'll show that snob prince just–" Rarity lifted her gaze and looked at Violet, her eyes wide in surprise. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"I said 'deal'. I'll take your offer," he answered. To his surprise, Rarity grabbed his hoof, holding his violet limb across her white ones. His heart skipped a beat as he felt her soft, warm hooves around his own.

"Oh, thank you so much, dear, you don't know how relieved I am!" Rarity said as she smiled kindly at him, her eyes shimmering with happiness. Violet felt his mane stand on its end as his face turned a deep red from the rush of emotions. With some struggle, he held back most of his grin and gingerly scratched the back of his head. Suddenly, Rarity gasped.

“Oh my, look at me! Here I am, jabbering on and our food has gone cold,” she said looking down at her bowl. Violet mimicked her, looking at his own plate. He touched the hay fries and realized they had lost their warmth from before. He shrugged and grabbed a handful of them, shoving them into his mouth, chewing gladly.

“They are still good to eat,” he said between bites. Rarity giggled as she levitated another spoonful to her mouth and drank the cream.

“Agreed,” she said. Violet continued enjoying his meal when he noticed Rarity looking at him intently. Uncomfortable with the gaze, his ears splayed back as he blushed slightly from embarrassment.

“Um... what is it?” he asked. Rarity blinked, surprised.

“What? Oh, I was just... thinking about some details of our arrangement, you see” she explained, but her actions betrayed her words: the way she avoided his eyes, the faint, but existing blush on her cheeks. What in Equestria is she thinking about?

“Details?” he wondered as he gave his sandwich another generous bite.

        “Well, given that you have no money and no place to stay, I was thinking I should pay you by the working day.”

        “Oh, that’s a good idea.”

        “Yes, I am full of them,” Rarity said, proudly pointing her nose upwards. Suddenly, she gasped and reached a hoof to her mouth before her lips turned into a wide smile and her eyes sparkled with joy. “Ideeeea!” she said in a singing tone. Violet looked at the mare with both worry and expectation. “I will make a uniform for you to wear at the shop!”

        “A uniform?” he wondered.

        “Why, yes! I simply cannot allow an employee of mine to look anything less than dazzling and fabulous! Besides, you’d look smashingly handsome in a suit, dear,” Violet Fire paused momentarily as he imagined himself wearing a black tuxedo with a white silk shirt, while Rarity wore a daring red dress besides him. That... actually wouldn’t be so bad, he thought. Noticing he was almost drooling over the image of a femme fatale Rarity, Violet shook the thought away and dragged his head out of the gutter and back into reality.

        “Thanks Rarity, but there’s no need for–” he began, but was quickly cut off by Rarity’s hoof.

        “No use trying to talk me out of it now, my artistic switch has been flipped, so you better nod and do as I say, darling,” Rarity said as she leaned over slightly, giving the stallion at the other end of the table a judging look, one he was very familiar with: Do as I say or no emeralds after dinner. Violet gulped and nodded.

        “Perfect!” she exclaimed. “Come by tomorrow and I’ll take your measurements. Oh, I can already imagine the designs for your outfit, they are going to be fabulous!” she sung. Violet winced. It was bad enough that he was being dragged to play dress-up by the pony who thinks makeovers are the answer to every problem, but it was more alarming that she used plural to refer to his outfit. This is Rarity we’re talking about. There’s no way she’d settle for making only one simple suit. Suddenly, Rarity gasped, bringing his thoughts to a quick end.

        “My, is it already this late?” she asked. Violet looked around them and finally noticed that the scenario had changed slightly: the sun had moved quite a bit from its high point, shining over the café with a completely different light. Most of the customers from before had already left to go about their business, being replaced by other ponies. Must’ve been, what, an hour? Two?

        “Oh dear, I’m late!” Rarity exclaimed.

        “Late? For what?” Violet asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

        “Oh, just an... appointment, that’s all,” Rarity suspiciously looked away, averting her eyes as she answered. That didn’t answer my question, Violet kept his thoughts to himself; whatever it was, Rarity clearly didn’t want to talk about it. The mare raised a hoof to call for their waiter. Escargot walked towards them, the same serious and professional patience from prior still unshaken by the long hours they had spent simply talking.

        “Was the meal to your liking, mademoiselle?” he asked.
        
        “Oh, just delightful Escargot. You have the best vegetable créme I’ve ever had.”

        “Thank you, mademoiselle,” the camarier said with a short bow. “Will you be having your usual after-meal tea?” Escargot asked. Violet then noticed that he hadn’t drank anything for a while now and that the continuous talking had left his mouth slightly dry. He eyed his glass. The ice had long since melted, but there was still some water left, enough for swig or two.

        “Oh, not today, darling, I’m running on a tight schedule,” Rarity answered. Violet reaching his hoof to the glass and with a quick sweep brought it to his mouth, letting the blissful liquid wet his parched tongue and lips. 

        “Very well,” Escargot shifted his eyes to look at Violet. “And what about your date?” Violet’s eyes widened as he turned and accidentally spat the water all over Escargot’s face. The waiter remained unfazed and merely dried his face with a napkin. Violet quickly wiped his muzzle with the back of his hoof, but before he could answer in any way, Rarity did something completely unexpected. Something that sent chills down his spine and brought a lump to his throat. Something he heard her do before not long ago and expected to never have to experience ever again.

        She laughed. But unlike her usual joyful way of laughing, it was one filled with awkwardness and discomfort. The sort of laughter you would expect from somepony in a very unwanted situation. It was the same way Violet had heard her laugh when he was still Spike, the baby dragon. Back when he accidentally eavesdropped on Rarity and Twilight talking at the spa. When she had been asked about Spike being a possible love interest and she laughed it off. Violet felt as if his heart had suddenly decided to stop beating. A reasonable decision, in his opinion. He was done, after all. The way she laughed at Escargot’s remark of him being her date proved where he stood: outside the zone of her affection. Everything he had done: transforming, facing the swindler, giving his gems. It had all been for naught. Violet wanted to cry, to bawl like a foal who had just learned that his mother died. The feeling was similar after all. Yet, something stopped him on his tracks. One tiny, nearly invisible element of his situation.

        Rarity’s body language.

        Her muscles were tensed and stiff, the complete opposite of her usual gracefulness and agility. There was a small twitch in her eye, very subtle, but persistent, not to mention the unnecessarily huge grin with the absurd amount of white teeth showing. Finally, the way she shifted her eyes left and right seemed as if...

        As if she’s... faking it? Violet thought. He couldn’t understand it. Was she trying to hide something? Was it because she felt awkward about Escargot’s implying on them being a couple? It would definitely be weird if he was mistaken as her coltfriend when they weren’t in that relationship (much to his unhappiness), but was such a reaction really necessary? And most importantly, was this how she usually reacted? So, it could mean... no, he could not let his mind drift now. Observing was a better way to figure it out. He swallowed the lump on his throat and ponied up. Rarity finally spoke.

        “Hahahaha... Escargot, dear, you are such a kidder! ‘And what about your date’, priceless,” she said while carefully wiping a tear from the corner of her eye as not to smudge her make up. “No, Escargot, my ‘date’ wouldn’t like some coffee. My ‘employee’, however, might have something different to say, right, darling?” she turned her head towards Violet Fire, directing the question to the unicorn.

“Um... no thanks?” he said in a tone of doubt. Suddenly, Violet noticed that the waiter, for the first time, had changed his facial expression and had his eyebrow raised, while his head had moved back slightly, with an skeptical air around him.

“My apologies, mademoiselle Rarity, but I did not know coworkers could have such close physical contact,” he said as he looked down at the table and pointed at something with his hoof. Violet and Rarity turned their heads simultaneously to look at the object of Escargot’s interest. Violet’s eyes turned the size of pinheads as he fought back the urge to jump a hundred feet back over the fact that his hoof was being tightly held by Rarity’s right hoof. He gave her a quick glance and saw that the mare was as shocked as he was, but did not let go of her grasp. The stallion felt his head turn and spin in confusion. Since when were they... why did she... how could he...

        Oh, thank you so much, dear, you don't know how relieved I am! Could it be? Since Rarity said that, had she...

        The white mare let go of her grasp from the stallion’s hoof, pulling her own away from him. Was that blushing he saw on her cheeks?

        “We-we-well, look at the time! I have to go, or I will be really late for my appointment!” Rarity stuttered. The mare quickly levitated a jiggling bag of bits out of her saddlebag and dropped a few coins on the table, fleeing from the premises as soon as they hit the tablecloth and leaving a very confused Violet Fire behind. The stallion blinked at the mare’s escape, still trying to piece together exactly what had just happened, when he heard the scratching noise of a throat being cleared. Turning towards the source, Escargot looked at him, apparently waiting for something. The stallion paused for a few moments, before responding to the question that had remained unanswered.

        “Yes, a latte, with lots of sugar.”






AUTHOR’S NOTE




        Well, this was fun to do. Chapter 8 was, unfortunately, shorter than planned. You have no idea what happens in my mind when I’m writing. Then again, neither do I!

        This was supposed to end more down the lines of “Gasp!” but the “Hahahaha” ending worked out pretty well, assuming you all enjoyed the little latte thing.

        And you are all VERY welcome for the cappuccino gag, mates. Getting foamed milk and espresso all over my face was not a pleasant experience. What a waste of a good cup of caffeine drink. Keep an eye out for that handsome pegasus, for I shall try to make more cameos. I love cameos. They are so much fun to write.

        Butche- I mean, editing, was done by my good friends Frederick the Saiyan and TheWattsMan.