//------------------------------//
// The Class 
// Story: The Silanos 
// by Kama and Hallie 
//------------------------------//

The two humans sat on one of the couches of Rarity's class, one of them looking more enthusiastic than the other was. Gabriele just sat there with his arms crossed, clearly not having any excitement for whatever lesson was prepared for him. Many of the students in the room occasionally glanced at the human brothers in the middle of their activities and lectures. The two humans really stood out compared to everyone else in the room, besides the obvious reason, as the both of them were at least several years older than the other students. Not to mention the Silano brothers looked very odd, as despite them supposedly being related, the two of them look absolutely nothing alike, with one looking like a brooding thug while the other looked more friendly and colorful.

Ainsley had to get a little personal help from Rarity since he had very little experience in designing. In his only experience designing clothes in the past, which were the ones he wore today, while he did design how he wanted the clothes to look like, he left everything else to the professionals. It turns out, actually creating an outfit from scratch was a whole different league than just deciding the colors and size you want. 

Rarity was using an anthropomorphic mannequin for today's class, both as a way to help teach Ainsley and Gabriele, as well as to teach her other students how to make non-quadruped outfits. Rarity stood by Ainsley's side through most of the class, explaining each fabric and tool, while Ainsley picked out which colors he liked and tried to do the cutting and sketching and outlining on his own, all while conversing with the unicorn. Gabriele, on the other hand, did next to nothing to help his brother with making the clothes, instead spending most of the time just sitting back sulking on the couch and playing around with his closed switchblade by tossing it in the air and catching it in his hand repeatedly, waiting for this whole thing to be over.

Gabriele absolutely hated having to play nice with the ponies, in fact he hated having to play nice with anyone in general. Gabriele was never someone who particularly found any enjoyment in being friendly to people, which was one of the main reasons he always felt more suited into doing his father's dirty work with Vincenzo De Luca. There was always a huge catharisis in him just roughing up and or torturing some pathetic jackass who tried to screw him and his family over, or at least insulted him in any way. Teaching an arrogant asshole a lesson and showing them who's boss in the situation was something that brought great satisfaction to Gabriele's violent mind.

The only thing that could surpass that was killing. Gabriele was no stranger to murder. In fact, he's killed countless people in various ways ever since his late teen years. Gabriele was always aggressive even when he was little, very often getting into physical confrontations even as a kid, and they would often end up very bad for the opposing party (who knows how many have had a broken nose in their childhood because of him). As he got older and more involved in his father's business, it was only natural that his father paired him up with his capo and right-hand man, Vincenzo De Luca, who did a lot of Roberto's dirty work. Gabriele and Vincenzo have always gotten along since his childhood, and they were both equally as ruthless as each other, so they were the perfect pair to work together as the Silano crime family's top enforcers. Both he and Vincenzo have been sent out to take care of many clients and enemies throughout the years, and they've threatened and or killed people in every single way imaginable. Gabriele's favorite thing to do was threaten people with his stiletto switchblade, often cutting or slicing off body parts in the process, while Vincenzo's signature method to rough up someone or kill them was to strangle them with a garrote wire, but most of the time it was to threaten them into doing something for them, usually paying. These things earned themselves nicknames among their associates in his father's business, that being "Stiletto Gabe" and "Vinny the Strangler".

But ever since they moved to Equestria, Gabriele hasn't gotten too many chances to do what he did best, at least not as much as back on Earth, since the first few months in Equestria were more focused on establishing business than enforcing it, as they were literally starting from scratch in this new world. . Especially this week since the whole "Cherry Incident", there has barely been any action, with the only action he got was breaking Leroy's kneecap with a baseball bat. Now he was expected to try to play nice with all these ponies, which he was not having a good time with. 

Gabriele both admired and hated the ponies of Equestria. On one hand, everything about them as a species and culture were amazing; the unicorns with their magic spells, the pegasi with their flying and ability to control the weather, and the earth ponies with their...strength? Farming skills? Gabriele didn't really find earth ponies to be  all that interesting, just regular fucking horses for all he knew. But at the same time, the ponies always digusted him in a way he could never really fully put his finger on. They weren't like humans, that much is obvious, but they were so hard for someone like him to fully understand. Maybe it was their cuteness, their colorfulness, their overly friendly nature, the fact they were all so soft in more ways than one, maybe it was one of those things, maybe it was all of them, he couldn't know for sure. It's all best represented with Princess Twilight, the so-called "Princess of Friendship", who the more Gabriele learned about the more he couldn't stand. 

Who even was she? Ainsley was the most educated of the Silanos when it came to Equestria, and Gabriele had heard from his  brother about how Princess Twilight was nothing more than some nerdy bookworm student of the former Princess Celestia who was a complete antisocial recluse, but ever since she came to Ponyville and made friends and defeated Nightmare Moon, she's suddenly gushing all over the idea of friendship and now she's making the whole damn country form its identity around it, it was completely ridiculous. Some know-it-all nerd gets a taste of the real world for a moment, defeats a few bad guys with her magic friendship powers, and now she suddenly thinks she knows everything and was trusted to run the entire kingdom. Gabriele couldn't know for sure if doing business with the ponies would be hard or easy considering how stupid they all seemed.

Now he was stuck in Rarity's class in the School of Friendship, having to try and get along with her. Ainsley was doing just fine, he'd always been the friendliest and most approachable of the Silanos, even Gabriele can admit that, but he himself definitely wasn't. He had no interest in getting involved with fashion and its painfully tedious process of work. All he could do to entertain himself was toss and catch his switchblade, and looking around at the other students. The fact that they all willingly signed up to join a school of friendship, they were all ridiculous, all of them were pathetic idiots. What were they all doing with their lives?

"What do you think, Gabriele?"

Gabriele was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Rarity's voice address him directly. He looked up to see both the white unicorn as well as his brother looking directly at him. He could only look at them with a confused expression.

"What do I think o' what?"

"Your brother's idea to make a fancy suit for you!" Rarity answered with excitement.

"What? Why?"

"Well, no offense, darling, but your outfit is very...dreary."

Gabriele looked at Rarity with an even more confused expression, then to Ainsley, who gave him a smug smile as if to say 'i told you so'.

"Why the fuck is everyone tryna criticize the way I dress today? Dreary how? Whaddya mean?"

"C'mon, Gabe, if you weren't wearing that yellow shirt you'd look like some drunk husband who beats his wife," Ainsley said.

"Well, at least I'm fuckin' wearin' somethin', unlike everyone around 'ere who's just struttin' around naked without a care in the world. Ya know how many horse balls and cunts I gotta ta see everyday jus' goin' outside? Way more than I can count, an' that's jus' talkin' 'bout today. It's a fuckin' nudist colony out 'ere. I'm pretty sure I've seen yours at least a couple o' times in this class," Gabriele told Rarity, who's face turned red and she shifted her tail slightly upon hearing him say that.

"Just look at all these naked fuckers sittin' in class all naked, all shamelessly showin' off their fuckin' genitals like it's no big deal. Look at 'em all sittin' around like that," Gabriele addressed all the students in the room, who all went silent out of pure awkwardness, none of them knowing what to say in this situation.

Rarity knew that humans were always very sensitive around the subject of nudity. Despite Rarity being someone who's centered her entire life around clothes, even she was quite surprised by how nudity-shy humans were. Ponies often wore clothes too, but most of them only wore them for special occasions, whether it's an event or any specific activity that requires some form of clothing. Most of the ponies who very often wore clothes were the higher-ups in Canterlot and Manehatten, but even then they were few and far in between. The only other creatures in Equestria and beyond Rarity could recall that wore clothes frequently as well were the residents of Klugetown, and maybe also the parrots of Ornithia, and they still weren't as fanatical about it as humans were. Humans literally wore clothes nearly all the time, there wasn't a single hour of the day that they weren't wearing clothes, except when they were bathing or, depending on the human, even when they slept. Though, in regards to sleeping, they usually took them off if they were...sleeping together.

Now, it wasn't just societal taboo that drove humans to always wear clothes, there were other more natural factors too. Unlike ponies and other Equestrian creatures, humans did not have a coat of fur covering their body, they were all very bare-skinned, and even those that did have large amounts of hair on them, mostly the males, still did not compare. For the past hundred thousand years, due to their lack of fur, humans relied on clothes for survival needs, including absorbing sweat, protecting them against cold weather and extreme sunlight, insect bites, and every other element that can harm their bare skin. Not to mention since the males don't have a sheath like stallions do, there'd by a much higher risk of their privates being harmed in some way if they didn't wear any clothing. 

Rarity wasn't against the idea of humans always wearing clothes, in fact she admired it to a level, because since humans have to wear clothes everyday, they always try to wear something that suits them as an individual. While ponies had their cutie marks to signify who they were, humans had their clothes. You could always tell a lot about a human based on the way they dressed, it was easy to tell who's rich and who's poor, who's more masculine or feminine, what they worked as, what their lives were like, what their favorite things were (mostly thanks due to the fact that humans very often wore printed t-shirts), how they felt about themselves, and many more. While not all of the clothes looked great, or even any good, they still helped tell a lot about that person. Rarity could even make an example of it with the two humans right in front of her. Ainsley was easy to figure out, a male who dressed in a very feminine manner, with his white and pink crop top and pink mini-skirt, it was easy to tell he was very colorful, cheery, bright, was very fashion-conscious, and generally very approachable. Gabriele on the other hoof, was the complete opposite, he was someone who did not care very much about his looks, at least not to the extent his brother does. His outfit was very simple and kind of sloppy, as it had barely any effort put into it and looked very quickly put together, and judging by how exposed his hairy arms and chest were, he seemed to really want to make himself look tough and essentially put up a sign warning anyone not to mess with him. The only thing about himself that Gabriele put even the slightest bit of effort into was his hair, which was oily and greasy and looked to be combed quite frequently, but that's about it.

But still, Rarity couldn't for the life of her understand why humans were so insistent on having to wear at least three pieces of clothing nearly all the time. Many of them begin to panic or cease to function if you merely suggested them to getting naked in the presence of others. Ponies never really thought much of nudity, it was barely even a thought that entered their heads most of the time. Heck, even their princesses barely wore any clothing. Nudity was just the natural form of the body, it wasn't really anything to ashamed of or make a big deal about. Humans were often amazed and confused as to how ponies can be so nonchalant exposing themselves in public or being exposed other ponies, but honestly, Rarity and most other ponies thought that unless somepony was intentionally making sexual signals in public like raising their tail for all to see, especially with foals around, then there's nothing really that inappropriate about it. Everypony went about their day regularly, treated each other normally, and it wasn't like they were constantly peeking their heads under each other's tails to stare at their private parts, same goes for every other creature in Equestria, so they really didn't know why humans made such a big fuss about it.

Humans seemed really ashamed and embarrassed about their own natural bodies, especially when it came to showing it to others. They only ever truly got nude without any feelings of shame with a very specific few, mostly with their lovers and mates, which seemed to be one of the ultimate forms of trust to them. Though Rarity also learned about the existence of nude beaches and nudist communities on Earth, so it seemed they could let go of their nudity taboo should they choose to, but for most it's already deeply ingrained.

Rarity cleared her throat before speaking, quickly getting rid of any slight feeling of embarrasment she might've still had. "First of all, Gabriele, I do not want that kind of vulgarity in our class, and secondly, it's not a matter of who's wearing clothes or not, darling. It's a matter of style," she said with a dramatic flair. "Don't you think a handsome young man like yourself deserves to dress up in something much more dashing?"

Gabriele's expression then changed significantly for the first time that day. Instead of being his usual angry expression, now it was now more one of...slight surprise.

"You think I'm handsome?" he asked, his tone quieter than before.

"Of course! Has no one ever called you handsome before?"

Don't be ridiculous, Rares. Broads are always all over me back home. It's just...kinda weird hearin' it come from a horse."

Rarity thought that Gabriele was trying to hide his insecurities by making himself look cooler than he actually was, which was how these situations usually went, but when she paid close attention to his tone and body language, while he may be exaggerating a bit, he definitely wasn't lying.

"Another thing, Gabriele, I would appreciate it if you didn't call me 'a horse', I am a lady, you know, and your teacher for the moment as well," Rarity said with a smile at the end.

"I'd still appreciate it if you talked to me as an equal and as a friend. Unless of course you want me to call you 'human' for the rest of the class," Rarity smirked.

"Fine, hateva' ya say, Miss," Gabriele said with a shrug. "So, uh, what was the thing with the fancy suit again?"

"Well, I was just thinking, Dad wears like a million different suit everyday, right? So wouldn't it make sense for us to at least have one of our own?' Ainsley said.

"A suit? I dunno, I've neva' really pictured myself wearin' any kind o' those fancy-schmancy clothes. Plus, they're really tight 'round the neck, which I neva' really liked."

"So...is that a 'no'?"

"Eh, not really. Despite my personal feelin's 'bout them, I still think they look cool. They make ya look real good, an' the ladies love a man in a suit. So yeah, go ahead, ya can make the suit."

"Really?! Alright, then!" Ainsley said with enthusiasm.

As Ainsley was making the clothes, Rarity sat beside him the entire time, so they could work twice as fast since they're planning on making two outfits, one for Gabriele and one for Ainsley. Rarity designed Gabriele's suit while Ainsley worked on designing his own, but they both still helped each other whenever the other needed something. Gabriele still did not do anything to help, mostly just watched the other two do all the work, but Ainsley didn't mind, he didn't expect his brother to get invested in the class anyway. 

After Rarity finished with making a sketch for Gabriele's suit and taken all his measurements, she asked the brothers what color the suit should be. Gabriele simply said he was fine with any color that isn't anything bright and pink like Ainsley's, so Ainsley decided to go with the color grey. Rarity was a bit skeptical at first, as she thought grey was a very dreary color to choose for a fancy outfit, but Ainsley thought it would fit Gabriele quite well. Ainsley always joked about how his brother had a very striking resemblance to Michael Corleone from the Godfather movies, with the big nose, oval face, and jet black combed hair, so it was only fitting that he should wear a suit just like one of Michael's most famous ones, the grey suit. Rarity was reluctant, but eventually decided to trust Ainsley's decision. He may have been an amateur in fashion, but he had an eye for colors.

This was essentially Rarity's first time making an Italian suit, or at least something resembling it. Gabriele and Ainsley's father, Mr. Silano, had promised Rarity to have a friend of his to teach her how to properly make them, but she hasn't heard any news about that yet. So Rarity considered this as a sort of self-taught practice. Italian suits weren't that different from any other human three piece suits Rarity had seen before, they just had an extra pizzazz in fanciness and style. Who knows, maybe Rarity could use this experience to help follow along with Mr. Silano's tailor friend and show her what he knows, or maybe she'll just end up looking back at it in the future with disappointment and disgust. But still, better to hae tried than never.

Rarity went to one of the cabinets to grab some grey silk fabrics, and Gabriele was very insistent that the suit be made out of silk, saying how that's the best quality material for a suit to be worn by someone like him. Rarity agreed to that, she always did love using silk herself from time to time. She took a look at what Ainsley had sketched up, and was a design that was very...Ainsley. It was a bright pink suit with white stripes, very similar to the suit his father wore the day he and Rarity first met, it had a very slim figure and was quite small around the waist, fitting Ainsley's build, and lastly, instead of pants, it was a tight pink skirt, which was to be expected from Ainsley.

"Why, darling, I must say, that is quite a fabulous design you've made!" Rarity

"Really? You think so? Thanks! This is literally only the second outfit I've ever designed in my life," Ainsley said before turning to his brother. "Hey, Gabe! Whaddya think?" he showed Gabriele his sketch.

Gabriele was lost in his own thoughts and busy playing around with his closed switchblade again. He did not move at all when Ainsley addressed him, merely glancing at the drawing with half closed eyes and simply saying "It definitely suits ya."

With that, Ainsley began working on his own suit too, working alongside Rarity. Rarity was making much faster progress than Ainsley was, obviously since she was the professional and Ainsley had literally never done this before, so Rarity often had to assist the human in stitching together the suit, which she didn't mind, it was always nice to teach someone new.

After a few hours, both of the suits have been completed. Rarity finished Gabriele's suit far sooner than Ainsley did, so she spent the remainder of the time assisting and teaching Ainsley in making the outfit. While not one hundred percent perfect, Ainsley turned out to be a natural at making his own clothes, as his suit looked pretty professional. He said that when he was a kid, he'd often help his mother out with sewing and stitching clothes, so he at least knew a bit about what he was doing. Gabriele did not contribute anything to the process other than letting himself be measured, but that didn't bother his brother or the unicorn, considering someone like him would somehow find a way to make things worse, especially since it seemed he was someone who had a short fuse.

Gabriele and Ainsley changed into their suits, and since all the students have already left the class a couple of hours ago, it was less awkward for them to do so. Once they were in their suits, they stood in front of the mirrors to get a good look at themselves, and the both of them, as well as Rarity, had to admit, they did a pretty good job.

"Wow, this looks...pretty snappy, actually," Gabriele thought out loud as he looked at the grey silk suit he wore. 

He rarely ever had to, or even wanted to, wear anything fancy in his life. While he wouldn't be considered athletic, Gabriele was someone who always enjoyed doing some any form of physical activity, whether it's helping out in the kitchen, fixing vehicles, or brutally roughing someone up, so Gabriele never liked the idea of wearing an outfit that he felt would reduce how freely he could move.

"Huh, I guess I kinda do look like Michael Corleone," he commented again after fully analyzing himself.

"I must say, Gabriele darling, grey looks surprisingly good on you," Rarity chimed in.

"I gotta say, I'm surprised too. I mean, I already knew grey would be the right color fa me, but it's an entirely different thing actually seein' it in front o' ya."

"I'm kinda surprised you didn't go with yellow, the color of your shirt. Y'know, to remain consistent?" Ainsley said, still looking at himself in the mirror.

"A yellow suit? Ya kiddin'? I'd look fuckin' ridiculous! I ain't The Mask or Curious George's owner," Gabriele retorted while trying to loosen up his collar and tie, as he'd just remembered how uncomfortable those things were to him.

Ainsley was busy admiring his own creation, which contrasted significantly with Gabriele's own outfit, with his being grey but had a certain shininess due to the silk material, Ainsley's was bright pink and very colorful. It refelcted the brothers' personalities quite well.

"Oh my god, I can't believe it actually turned out this good!" Ainsley said gleefully, admiring his outfit in the mirror.

"It looks fabulous, darling! The both of you look absolutely fabulous!" Rarity wrapped her hoover around the two human brothers and stuck her head between them, a gesture that Ainsley smiled at, but Gabriele didn't seem to be enjoying all too much. "You did a fantastic job, Ainsley! You are quite good at this!"

"Why, thank you, Rarity."

"Ta be honest, I don't think I'll be wearin' this everyday," Gabriele said, having unbuttoned two buttons on the collar around his neck and loosening his tie significantly, trying to give his neck more room to breathe. "But, I look pretty cool in it, so I'm definitely keepin' it."

"Good to know, darling," Rarity said. "Oh! Ainsley, I've been meaning to give you something!" she suddenly exclaimed, trotting off to another side of the room where a small desk rested. She opened it with her magic and pulled out something, which she then gave to Ainsley after she trotted back to them.

Ainsley held the object in his hand, taking his time looking at what was in front of him. It was a turquoise handbag, and it had a gold latch, as well as his name engraved into it in bright pink lettering.

"I decided to make that for you yesterday, I thought its colors might compliment you quite well."

"Really? You made this for me? Thank you, you shouldn't have," Ainsley said in disbelief, not really knowing  what to say.

"Oh hush, darling, it was my pleasure! Not try it on!" Rarity gestured to the human, excited to see it on him.

Ainsley did exactly that as he pulled the strap up his arm and rested it on his shoulder. He stared at it in the mirror, trying to see how he looked with it, and judging by his big smile, he was quite satisfied with it.

"This is wonderful! Thank you so much!"

"You're very welcome, Ainsley," Rarity responded.

"Hey, Gabe! How do I look?" Ainsley asked his brother.

Gabriele just stared at the handbag with a weird expression before looking up at Ainsley. "Why the hell d'ya keep askin' me? Y'know I don't understand any o' that fashion crap."

"Well, you requested your suit to be made of silk, so you must have some care and understanding."

"A lotta guys in our business wear silk suits! It ain't exactly like I jus' came up with somethin' new, did I?!"

"Well, regardless, I'm definitely gonna try carrying this with me everywhere from now on. It really does compliment my colors very well," Ainsley turned back to see himself in the mirror. "Though I think these would go better with my casual clothes. They kinda look weird when I carry it wearing this suit."

"Yes, they were intended to go with your casual clothes," Rarity confirmed and chuckled. "I think that's about enough for today, the teaching hours are almost over and I have other work to do. I hope you had fun today."

"I sure did! He's a bit debatable, though," Ainsley said gesturing a thumb at Gabriele, who only shrugged in response.

Rarity giggled before continuing. "I'm glad you did. Hope you enjoy your new handbag!"

"I'm sure I will!"

"By the way, do we 'ave ta...pay fa any o' this?" Gabriele asked.

"Oh, no! Of course not, darling! It's all free of charge! I was only trying to teach you, and besides, your father has already helped me a lot."

Ainsley then elbowed his brother's left arm, as if gesturing him to do something. Gabriele reluctantly agreed and reached into the pockets of his jeans that were lying atop one of the couches along with his other clothes as well as Ainsley's. After he found what he was looking for, he tossed the object in Rarity's direction, who caught it with her magic. It turned out to be a fairly large brown pouch, and when she opened it, it was filled to the brim with bits, which really took the mare aback.

"Fa ya troubles," Gabriele said flatly and nodded, with no emotion present in his voice. "Welp, see ya again, Rares. We gotta be goin' ourselves too." 

With that, Gabriele and Ainsley said their goodbyes, Gabriele put their previous clothing into Ainsley's new handbag, and the two of them exited the classroom. Rarity stood in the middle of the empty classroom for a couple more minutes, staring at the pouch full of bits. There had to be at least a hundred bits in it, and she was pretty surprised someone she was teaching just suddenly tossed it to her so casually. Did Gabriele really just carried around a bag full of bits wherever he went? Rarity really appreciated the gift, she really did. It was nice for someone else to be generous to you after you'd been quite generous to them yourself. Still, she couldn't help but feel taken aback a bit. It shouldn't have been surprising, though, since Rarity just remembered that his father was a successful businessman, it was easy to forget that when you took a look at Gabriele's appearance and clothing, that suit really helped his image.

Rarity shrugged things off and put the pouch of bits into her saddlebag before exiting the classroom herself and continue her other daily routines.