Chapter One Hundred Eight
Rarity hummed to herself as she currently stood in the show room of her shop, idly glancing back and forth between the various displays. Although she would willingly admit that the humming was little more than an effort to distract herself from her own thoughts.
It was early August, and she genuinely didn't know what to do with such a fact.
Life in general was slowly in the process of returning to what many would consider "normal" in Ponyville. Although there was an almost surreal quality about it; a strange sort of feeling that she simply couldn't seem to shake. It was a sense of something being out of place, but not something she could easily lay her hoof upon and move it back into place. And that inability to either understand, or otherwise do something about it, was slowly serving to wear on her nerves.
Although that was probably to be expected, considering the bombshell of a revelation Discord had dropped on them not all that long ago. Even now it was quite disturbing to think about, so she tried her best not to do such. Her own musings on the matter weren't of any relevance, and only had the potential to cause greater worry than good.
She also had to contend with the fact that the fashion industry was progressing without her being in the lead. The past month had been brutal on all of them in some form or another, and society beyond the borders of their little town could be downright unforgiving at times, even to the best of them. Such had necessitating logging more hours than usual in an effort to try and catch up on developing and emerging trends, as well as refresh herself on what the current ones were.
The fact she currently had no clientele to provide her services to did absolutely nothing to help with her nerves. She just felt like a bundle of unfocused, nervous energy in desperate search of some sort of outlet. If she could just put her hooves to some sort of work, she was certain it would work wonders for soothing her current sense of anxiety.
"Maybe I should go see how Applejack is doing," she muttered to herself as she began pacing. There was always something at Sweet Apple Acres that needed to be done. Maybe that would be for the best. Even if it wasn't her own field of expertise, it would still be something to do. Even if it was just menial labor, it would be better than what she was facing presently.
"Hi, Rarity."
She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts, she almost jumped at the sound of Sweetie Belle's voice coming from behind her, and quickly spun around to see her little sister as she stood there looking back at her. She certainly didn't remember hearing the sound of the bell ringing from the door being opened. Had she been her silly self and slipped in through the cat door, rather than bothering with the proper door?
No matter. Perhaps her sister had something she needed help on. Something that would allow her to be a good big sister and assist with.
"Oh, hello Sweetie Belle."
"Hiya Indi."
It was only then she realized that her sister had actually brought company over. Although that realization left her hoping Sweetie Belle hadn't come in through the cat door, as she might've felt inclined to let her guest in, in the same manner. For Sweetie Belle it was one thing, but for a guest it was just plain rude.
"Hello, Shady, what brings you by?" she asked.
"Gumdrop here," Shady replied as she raised her left foreleg to gesture to her side.
"Actually, Shady, I'm over here on your right," Sweetie Belle corrected as she stood on her other side.
"Gumdrop here," Shady corrected without missing a beat, immediately dropping her foreleg back to the ground to gesture with her right.
"Yes, well, I'd appreciate it if you didn't refer to my sister as a "what" if that's not too much to ask," Rarity replied. Even if the two were friends, such an address still struck her as being quite rude.
"Fair enough," Shady replied and nodded. "I need some new saddlebags. Mine are getting frayed around the edges, and starting to chafe. Mom said she wants something nice for me, and will be by later to pay for them; that way I can't sneak any candy from Barnyard Bargains. Gumdrop here was nice enough to escort me since it was on her way."
On the outside, Rarity was every bit cultured and mature as she always was. But on the inside she was brimming with excitement at the prospect of having anything to do that would provide a sense of normality, no matter how minor or trivial it might seem. A set of saddlebags was foal's play as far as her work went, but it was still her work that she would be doing. She could put her skills into motion, instead of simply standing around idly while trying not to pace in an unladylike fashion.
"Applejack, darling, as your friend I'll help you if I can, but you'll simply have to wait until I can get there."
"But of course," she replied as she turned in the direction of her workroom, all the while making sure to maintain her voice to sound professional. "If you'll walk right this way, we can get started with your measurements and go from there."
"I have the feeling if I knew how to walk that way, I wouldn't be dealing with chafing," Shady remarked, earning at least a giggle from Sweetie Belle.
Before they could actually proceed, the front bell sounded as the door to the shop opened, catching Rarity's ears and prompting her to turn around and greet whoever else had decided to enter.
The pony in question was one Spoiled -Milk- Rich, wife of Filthy Rich. A fellow socialite such as herself, yet not like herself. The two of them were, to put it nicely, distinct opposites from one another in how they went about conducting themselves.
That wasn't to say Spoiled Rich was a bad pony, as she certainly had her good points. But those good points were few and far between. Experience had taught her that Spoiled was best dealt with in small doses, no longer than a few minutes at a time. Especially when she was wearing a sour look upon her face.
"Oh, hello, Mrs. Rich," she greeted, doing her best to main her air of professionalism. "How can I help you today?"
"I need a new dress," Spoiled stated, getting straight to the point. "Filthy and I are traveling to Las Pegasus next week for a business meeting. He's perfectly content with his go-to suit for this, but I want something spectacular! Something that will make me stand out amongst all the rest who'll be in attendance. And it needs to be done before we leave."
"Of course," Rarity replied in an even tone. "I'll be with you in a bit; I shouldn't be more than an hour at most. If you'd like to take a seat while you wait-"
"Excuse me?"
Rarity could detect a definite edge in Spoiled's tone as she spoke. "Pardon?"
"I believe I already explained that we're leaving next week. I want my dress done immediately to ensure I'm not left waiting to the last possible moment before we leave," Spoiled stated.
She found herself wanting to frown in response, both to what Spoiled was implying, and how she was being addressed. But she didn't. She maintained her composure throughout, wearing a finely crafted mask to hide her own irritation.
"I can assure you, Mrs. Rich, barring unforeseen difficulties arising during the design process, your dress will done in plenty of time for your trip. But at the moment I already have another customer who put in their order first."
"Then bump them. I didn't come here to be told to wait," Spoiled insisted.
"I'll do no such thing, Mrs. Rich. You'll get your turn soon enough, but you must first wait for your turn, just like everypony else must."
"Mmhm," Shady mumbled and nodded her head in confirmation.
The gesture had been entirely the wrong thing to do in such a situation, and Rarity knew that to be the case. But it was far too late to prevent it. Spoiled was in a foul mood at the moment from what she could tell, her entire demeanor positively suggesting she was just looking for some sort of fight at being told she'd have to wait her turn like everypony else. And the gesture just seemed to draw not only her focus, but also her ire.
"Wait, you mean her? That blank flank!?" Spoiled asked incredulously.
Rarity nodded in response. "Yes."
"You mean to tell me that you're actually putting some poor, filthy, blank flank ahead of somepony like me!?" Spoiled all but shouted in disbelief.
Rarity frowned internally in response. "Kindly don't insult my customers, Mrs. Rich."
"Customer? What could she possibly afford from you and your shop; a scrap of cloth to serve as a ribbon for that chopped up mane of hers? I'm willing to pay good money for this dress to be made, let her go elsewhere and beg for charity from somepony else!" Spoiled retorted.
Now Rarity was quite displeased, and found maintaining that mask of civility difficult. This was obviously going to require sterner measures of address.
"There's not gonna be any scraps leftover after covering that flank."
Her retort never even got off her tongue as Shady spoke up first. That just seemed to make Spoiled all the angrier. Rarity wasn't certain, but she thought she saw her left eyelid starting to twitch.
"What did you just say, you little brat?" she demanded to know.
"Oh, nothing really," Shady replied as she turned around to better face Spoiled's direction, and reveal the fact she was presently smirking. "Just a suggestion though; when you're backing up, you might wanna announce yourself so ponies behind you know to get out of the way."
Sweetie Belle snorted in response, it taking every ounce of self control she had to not immediately succumb to laughter. Which just seemed to make Spoiled even madder than before.
"Do you have any idea just who you're talking to, you little brat!?"
"Can't say that I do, I've never been good with faces," Shady admitted. "But since you smell like a Prench whore house, I can hazard a pretty good guess on who you are."
Rarity flinched hard while Sweetie Belle let out a shocked gasp/wheeze at what she'd just heard, that quickly morphed into laughter, unable to hold back any longer as her entire body quaked. She was honestly surprised her sister wasn't toppling over at the moment from how hard she was shaking.
"You rude little..."
But right now her attention was elsewhere. By this point Spoiled was absolutely livid, making no effort whatsoever to hide her fury behind her own social mask. Now she was actually storming over, her posture indicative of seeking a physical confrontation. That simply wouldn't do at all.
She honestly didn't know what was worse in this situation; Sweetie Belle being afraid enough to flinch away from the approaching mare, or Shady being unable to see and not knowing enough to flinch as she just stood there.
Having seen more than enough, Rarity enveloped the two in her magic and pulled them further back, while simultaneously stepping forward, forcibly thrusting herself between the two foals and the older mare.
"Spoiled Rich!" she spoke firmly, her eyes narrowing as she stood rigidly at her full height, mere inches away from the other angry mare in the room. "This is a place of reputable business, and I absolutely will not stand to have my clientele assaulted or belittled in any way by others, regardless of the reason! Am I understood?"
The last part might've been presented as a question, but it was fully rhetorical in nature. And if that fact weren't known from the start, it certainly would be before long.
"You're actually defending that rude little street urchin!? And after what she had the audacity to say to somepony of my caliber!?" Spoiled shrieked incredulously.
"I am," Rarity stated as she stood her ground, unwilling to budge from either her spot, or her position. "As the proprietor of this shop, I refuse to stand idly by and simply look on as a customer is bullied. And while her comments were certainly rude, you were the one who attacked her first. I can't fault her for defending herself. But I can certainly fault you for your conduct. You're a grown and married mare, Spoiled Rich, and yet you feel inclined to attack a foal, belittling and insulting her for not having a cutie mark, all because she's ahead of you in line for an order being filled? What in Discord's name is wrong with you!?"
All throughout, Spoiled didn't speak up as she was verbally torn into for her conduct.
"As the proprietor of this shop, I won't allow my customers to be insulted, regardless of who they may be, or what their social standing might be; I don't discriminate, nor will I tolerate it. If the present situation were reversed I would currently be informing Shady of how rude she's being for implying that you're as fat as a cow, or that you reek like a brothel worker, and how unacceptable that manner of address is," Rarity continued firmly as her brow furrowed in displeasure.
Spoiled actually looked uncomfortable as she was addressed. Not merely infuriated, but actually uncomfortable, as if she was slowly realizing that she'd bitten off far more than she could chew.
"Now then, with all that said, as the proprietor of this shop I reserve the right to refuse my service to anypony I so please at my discretion. And right now I'm choosing to exercise that right."
At that, Spoiled smiled. "Well then, I'm glad you came to reason. I-"
"The door is behind you, Mrs. Rich, have a good day."
Spoiled stopped talking, as she slowly realized just what she'd heard said to her, her face morphing from confusion to displeasure.
"I beg your pardon?"
"It's quite simple, Mrs. Rich. I'm rejecting your request for my services. After that disrespectful display of yours just moments ago, I simply have no interest in taking you on as a customer at this point in time. Perhaps sometime later in the month, after you've had time to calm down and conduct yourself in a manner more appropriate to your age, I'll feel inclined to reconsider my position," Rarity stated calmly as she allowed her posture to relax. "Sweetie Belle, if you'd be kind enough to escort Shady to the back, I'll be with you shortly."
"You-" Spoiled grunted in disbelief at what she was hearing, "you're dismissing me!? For some blank flank foal who should be selling pencils out of a tin cup on a street corner? You're turning down what I'm willing to pay for your services, to work on some charity case who doesn't have any bits to her name?"
Now Rarity was quite upset. In terms that Rainbow Dash would so casually use without so much as a second thought, she was actually quite pissed. Spoiled was proving herself to be more and more horrible with each passing exchange, and necessitating a revising of her earlier assessment of the mare. But that would come later, once she was done here. Eyes forward once again, she returned to her stiffened and rigid posture as she prepared to do what was proving to be necessary.
"Get out of my shop, Spoiled Rich. I have no interest in accepting you as a customer, as you've been nothing but abrasive and abusive since you set foot inside, acting as if you can freely bully your way through life, and believing you can intimidate others to get what you want. You'll find that won't work with me. And if you can't accept that fact, then that's your fault, not mine. Had you been the maturer mare in this, I would've been quite happy to accept your request for my services. But the fact that was apparently too much to ask of you, has thoroughly convinced me that I have absolutely no desire of working with you, either now or in the future. Now then, the door is behind you. Kindly leave, and don't slam it behind you on your way out."
"I beg your pardon?" Spoiled asked as she stepped closer, bringing her full height to bear as she glared down at Rarity, going so far as to get right in her face as she spoke. "Do you honestly think you can just order me about like some common pony?"
"Spoiled Rich," Rarity spoke calmly, yet very firmly. "I have tried to be patient. I have tried to be understanding. I have tried to be mature. And I have tried to be eloquent in explaining the situation to you. But I can see such a socially cultured approach isn't going to work on the likes of you. You leave me no alternative but to resort to brash terms a bully such as yourself may well be familiar with; get out of my shop this instant, or so help me I'll pick you up and throw you out! Is that understood?"
Now Spoiled's eye really was twitching in annoyance. She practically snarled, her lips drawn back to reveal her teeth in a sneer as she got snout-to-snout with Rarity, unwilling to be spoken to in such a manner, and unwilling to let the matter drop.
"You worthless, arrogant, second-rate seamstress. You dare to address me in such a disrespectful manner?"
"I do," Rarity replied and flicked her tail in annoyance, refusing to be intimidated in her own business, and her own home. "Now leave. This "second-rate seamstress" whose services you so eagerly demand, has a customer waiting on her."
"Oh, of course, your little charity case who comes around begging you for scraps you'd otherwise toss out. How could I forget," Spoiled hissed as she glared downward. "Saving the little waifs the trouble of digging through other garbage to eek out a meager existence, how so very thoughtful. You must think you're pretty cute, don't you?"
"Oh-ho-ho," Rarity laughed in response, although there was no humor behind it. "Bitch, I am adorable..."
She heard Sweetie Belle gasping behind her, likely caught off guard by what'd just been said, but there was nothing that could be done about that now. Right now she had bigger issues to tend to.
"You're nothing but an arrogant, horn-headed nag! You and that worthless blank flank of a sister of yours!" Spoiled spat right back.
Rarity didn't so much as even blink at the specist comment being directed at her. She simply maintained her fixed glare before eventually responding.
"As a professional courtesy, you have to the count of three to get out of my shop," she stated, very calmly, and very firmly as she glared up at Spoiled. "If I reach three and you're still here, I'm going to pick you up and physically throw you out as I would a bag of garbage, face first into the first mud puddle that I see."
Spoiled gasped in disbelief. "You wouldn't dare."
"One," Rarity countered.
"When Filthy hears about this he's-"
"Two!" Rarity continued as her horn began to glow.
Spoiled, in a moment of clarity, wisely chose not to press the issue any further, and quickly extracted herself from the situation, making a beeline for the door and not bothering to even look back as she left the boutique.
Rarity stood firm for a moment longer, before releasing a breath and allowing herself to slouch. That had taken far more out of her than she would care to admit, both physically and mentally.
"What a troublesome mare," she muttered as she turned around, only then realizing that she had two wide-eyed, slack-jawed foals looking back at her. Somewhere in all of that, she'd managed to forget that they were actually there, watching as everything unfolded, rather back in the safety of the workroom where they wouldn't be privy to such a horrid display transpiring. "I'm terribly sorry you had to be present for that."
"Rarity, did... did you actually curse at her?" Sweetie Belle squeaked out.
"It appears that I did," Rarity admitted reluctantly. "I'm not particularly proud of the decision, but it is what it is. Oh well, no use in crying over spilled milk."
It was only after she said it, did she realize the humor in her statement.
"Yeah, well, I think I'm gonna get outta here. Things are getting a bit too hairy for me," Shady spoke up.
"What?" Sweetie Belle asked in surprise as she looked at Shady. The same foal that went hoof-to-hoof with Diamond Tiara in a battle of wit without a second thought wanted to leave? "But you thrive on hair. You are the hair!"
"And right now this hair is bouncin' her bunny butt on outta here. I'm in enough trouble already," Shady replied and walked towards the door. "I'll come back later, once things have calmed down and it's not my head on the chopping block. Later, Gumdrop, Indi."
It was only after everything had transpired, did Rarity realize that she'd wound up making the young filly actually feel unwelcome. She'd just alienated a customer!
"Shady, wait, you don't have to leave. I promise, you're not in trouble."
Despite the gesture being entirely superfluous on her part, Shady still turned back around to face her. Although her doing so allowed Rarity to see her brow being furrowed in confusion.
"What? How can I not be in trouble after that? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad I'm not and all. But I just cost you a big job that was gonna pay well for the work you do."
Despite knowing the gesture would never be seen by the one it was directed towards, habit developed from years of practicing good social etiquette still dictated that Rarity shake her head in response.
"Spoiled did that herself with that abusive demonstration of hers. There's simply no excuse for that sort of behavior, and I won't have it in my shop. A mare of that age should know better than to throw a fit at not immediately getting her way," Rarity explained. Even just thinking of some of the horrible things that'd been said made her bristle with hostility. Had she been a mare of less culture, she would've slapped her right across the face, right then and there.
Although when she went out of her way to drag Sweetie Belle into it, that would've warranted an upgrade from a mere slap across the face, to an outright slugging right in the face.
"Now, I know that she attacked you first, but in the future I would prefer if my customers allowed me to settle the disputes myself, rather than feeling the need to square off with one another as if this were a boxing ring," she continued. Had it not been for those preemptive fat comments, she likely would've been able to get Spoiled under control with much less effort and ugliness.
Then again, had Spoiled not been so needlessly cruel in her manner of address, she likely wouldn't have been subjected to those fat comments in the first place. And when she had the nerve to go after Sweetie Belle with her specist insults, just for being there... just who did that filthy mud-hoof think she was anyway!?
"Oh," Shady replied, "did I steal your thunder?"
"My dear, I am the thunder," Rarity replied as she smiled. "Now then, that's enough drama for today. I believe we still have some measurements to take, for a set of saddlebags that your mother will find quite acceptable."