Ponyville’s finest drinking establishment was Wine and Carpets, located just across the street from Sugarcube Corner. Their business model of “you stain it, you bought it” produced robust revenue, and nopony could deny they had the finest selection of drinks and the best live entertainment to be found in Ponyville. They had standup comedy, performance art, and consistently good music, and several of the Elements of Harmony were regular customers.
Rarity generally only went as part of a group; in her mind, drinking was a pleasant distraction with friends, a vice alone. Her feelings about standup comedy were much the same. Yet, one particular evening in the fall, she arrived at the door of Wine and Carpets unattended. Once inside, she sat, ordered a small glass of mild wine, and left it untouched as she sat alone at her table.
Anypony could tell she was waiting for something. Her eyes lingered on the stage, and it wasn’t long before the evening’s scheduled show began.
“Hello, everypony.” The band that walked on stage had five members: a dragon on drums, a griffon on the saxophone, a unicorn on the piano, an earth pony on the guitar, and a pegasus singer in front. “I’m Prior Art,” said the pegasus, “and we are They Sing Cover Songs.”
And they did, with grace and distinction. They sang Smells Like Horse Spirit with such passion Neighvana themselves could not have done better. They sang Birds of a Feather, an old griffon song, though they changed some of the raunchier lyrics to be more suitable to pony culture. And, in response to request from the audience, they sang the Winter Wrapup song, just like Ponyville would in a few months.
Their performance won them applause and a good quantity of tips, and Rarity suspected it also won them a second booking at the same venue. But she did not applaud and no sooner had the show ended than she strode towards the stage with purpose, arriving before the band members had even finished removing their instruments.
“Which one of you is Novelty?” she asked.
A moment of silence followed. None of them ratted another out. Eventually, the griffon raised a talon. Rarity experienced a moment of incongruity, trying to associate the slight, quiet, grey unicore mare who knocked on her door with the bulky, intimidating, male griffon before her. But she had overcome greater challenges before, and did not show her discomfort on her face.
“I’d like to speak with you now.” The words came out cold and snappish, and Rarity had to force herself to amend, “If that’s okay,” in a noticeably softer tone.
“Sure,” said Novelty, said the griffon, and he did not follow his bandmates backstage, but hopped from the stage to the floor, and followed Rarity back to her table. A waitress asked if he wanted anything, and he ordered a glass of water. When Rarity failed to speak, he tried to start the conversation on his own. “Did you like the show?”
“The dress you gave me,” Rarity said. “It’s good. It’s very good. It’s…” She lifted and released her hoof from the table several times. “It’s in my style. So much in my style I feel like I made it, only I hit my head and somehow forgot about it. There’s so much artistry in the design, the technique is…”
Several times, Rarity tried to speak and failed, but Novelty did not interrupt, and after a moment to steady herself, Rarity was able to finish: “You might be the greatest dressmaker of our generation.”
Novelty laughed. The sound gave Rarity momentary pause, much like she’d experienced near the stage; it was very much the laugh of the archetypal male griffon, a boisterous, loud, assertive sound. “I’m not. And this isn’t how I expected this conversation to go.”
“If you made that dress yourself, I think you are.”
“You’re flattering a mirror,” Novelty said, his tone light. “That’s a copy of your work.”
Rarity pulled back her lip. “That isn’t one of my dresses.”
“No, it’s every one of your dresses.” With the tip of a talon, Novelty gestured in the air. “The floating chest plate and geometric shoulder wraps are from the princess dress. I know they look different because they’re in orange instead of teal, and because they’re broken up into hexagons instead of triangles, but if you put those two dresses side by side, you’ll see it. The wither wrap is from Twilight’s backup coronation dress, again, I just changed the color and added a geometric pattern. The dock rest and train are from your ‘pegasus week’ display at Rarity For You. The hock wrap is from Rainbow Dash’s second gala dress.”
Rarity hesitated for a moment, her expression turning to a frown. “Still, there is talent in knowing which elements to combine for the best result.”
“I used trial and error.” For a moment, Novelty hesitated. “I don’t want to attract a lot of attention by transforming in the middle of the club, but.” He extended his talons, and there was a small rush of green fire, after which the digits in question were painted an ugly yellow. “I look at that and go, mmm. That color palette doesn’t work.” Another flash, an ugly purple. “Oh, and that doesn’t. And then I do this all day until I find one that looks good.”
He shrugged and sat back. “It was like that, but with dresses. I must have tried a thousand combinations before I landed on that one.”
“Oh.” The frown on Rarity’s face only depend, and with it appeared lines below her eyes. “I thought… it was beautiful, you understand.”
“Yes, it is. But that’s because your work is beautiful, Rarity.” Novelty leaned over the table, lowering his voice. “It’s because you’re creative and talented and… you’re the sort of pony who’s good enough that even their cheap knockoffs stand out from the crowd.”
Rarity lapsed into silence and met Novelty’s eyes across the table, and Novelty again spoke: “I uh… I picked a name, like yours, because I admire you. And I’m sorry, if that was too much. But after Chrysalis’s downfall, I didn’t have a lot of figures to look up to. And I knew you well.”
“I’m not mad, Novelty.” Rarity’s voice was stiff. “I’m… upset about what happened. But as long as you keep your word about not revealing my secrets, I’ll just be upset that it happened. Not mad at you.” Then she added. “The stitchwork is excellent.”
“Well I’m good at sewing.”
“You want a job?” Rarity asked, her expression suddenly animating.
“What?” Novelty pulled away from the table, and his expression was quite taken aback.
“I could use another seamstress. And your stitchwork really was good. I’d certainly trust you to finish one of my dresses, with—”
“Rarity, I’m very sorry for what happened,” Novelty said. “And I’m very grateful for how forgiving you’ve been. And if you want to talk about it, I will. But I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to spend a lot of time together. I know the layout of Carousel Boutique too well. If you understand.”
“Oh… yes.” Rarity laughed, faintly. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I don’t even know what I was thinking.”
It was at that moment that the waitress returned with water for Novelty, and bread for the table. “You want anything else?” they asked.
“I was just leaving, actually,” Novelty got up and nodded to Rarity in what could be taken as a respectful gesture, but then left before she could reply, and at a pace that discouraged inquiry.
“Ouch,” the waitress said, in the face of sudden retreat. “Too bad. He was cute.”
Rarity sighed, and in a dramatic motion, dropped her head to the table. Her wine glass, untouched, wobbled and tipped over, spilling down over the side. She and the waitress both looked at the spill, their eyes tracking the drops of fluid.
“It was a white wine,” Rarity said, with as much dignity as she could muster.
“We put special dyes in the wine,” the waitress explained. “It makes white wine stain carpets just as well as red.”
Rarity went home without answers, and with one carpet, mildly damaged.