Apple of My Eye- Ch. 17
Teacher’s Pet
AKA- Let The Shipping War BEGIN!
It had been a week and a half since Aurora arrived in town, and Sugar Cube Corner had never been busier. At first, it was just the odd customer that wanted to see Orion’s cousin, most of them just wanting to meet anypony related to the stallion that had put on a strip show at his own welcoming party. And most of them had not been disappointed. Aurora was almost exactly like her cousin, and just as attractive. There had been more than a few arguments among the stallions and mares about what her type was, and how they could attract her attention. Unfortunately for all of them, she was a hard working mare that wanted nothing more than to come into work, do her job, and relax. She had even taken to wandering around town accompanied by the local dragon Spike. This had in turn started a few rumors in and of itself, but most of them had been started by jealous ponies whose partners were interested in the grey pegasus.
There were a few ponies though, that were not content with simply watching from a distance…
“Heads up Aurora!” Dash cried out, trying to back pedal midflight and failing miserably… so much so, that the local weather manager was soon tumbling down the street of Ponyville after slamming into the startled grey mare… hard…
Dash sat up, shaking her head to dispel any dizziness from her crash landing, and looked down to see that she was straddling Aurora right there in the middle of town… Perfect.
“Heh… You alright there Rory?” Dash asked, blushing but not moving from her seat atop the less than happy mare.
“Dash… we’ve talked about this… slow down when you’re over my airspace.” Aurora said, a bite in her voice, “And quit calling me Rory… I hate that nickname…”
“Yeah I know. But why does it bother you when I call you Rory? I worked for awhile to come up with that nickname.” Dash answered, helping her friend up off the ground and flapping her wings just subtly enough to glance off Aurora’s flank without attracting attention.
“You didn’t come up with it, you heard Pinkie use it. And I hate it because Pinkie only calls me that when she tells me to duck after firing her party cannon.” Aurora answered, shaking her head and trying to get her eyes to refocus. If Dash kept ramming into her like this, she was seriously going to have to invest in a crash helmet… “I think you knocked a few of my feathers out of place too!”
“Ah relax Aurora, you can just preen them back into place later. Hey, if you need some help, I could show you a few tricks.” Dash offered, her eyes lighting up at the possibility of doing something so intimate with the grey mare.
“I’m good… Spike showed me a few books on wing care. They had some tips in there that I wanted to try anyway. And besides, I thought preening was a private thing with Pegasi.” Aurora answered, recalling a passage from The Language of
Wings.
“Well yeah… but I mean, it can’t hurt to have some help now and then right? I mean, I remember Fluttershy needing help this one time with a loose primary. That was embarrassing, but better to get help than let something happen to it, you know?” Dash reasoned, blushing slightly.
“Yeah… I guess… Still, I think I’m good. If I need help, I’ll call you.” she responded, rolling her eyes at her friends crazy antics and starting to walk back to the bakery to finish out her shift.
“So Aurora. What’ve you been up to lately?” Dash asked, walking alongside her.
“Mostly just work, Rainbow. Sometimes I’ll go hang out and read a book at the library. Haven’t really been up to much…”
“Any luck on figuring out what your special talent is?”
“Heh… Not a bit… I’m honestly not sure what I’m going to do besides this job at the Corner, and I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll ever be able to get my own place. I feel bad crashing at Applejack’s, you know?” Aurora said, slipping into the conversation more than she’d intended.
“Not really… I mean, Applejack’s cool about helping folks out like that. And it’s not like rent for your own place is exactly expensive around here.” Dash responded, wrapping a wing around Aurora and pulling her close to walk alongside.
“Uhhh… Dash… could you not do that? I know it’s not really viewed the same as when I would do it, but it’s still a little difficult to walk like this…” She complained, trying to push the touchy blue mare off just a bit.
Rainbow Dash frowned and tucked her wing back to her side. “You know Rory, it’s not that big a deal… Besides, I kinda wanted to ask you if you wanted to do something with me say, tomorrow. It’s your day off, right?”
“Yeah… it’s my day off… but I kind of planned to try and see what other work there was around town so I could start saving some more bits.”
“Like I said, don’t sweat it. I can help set you up with a place of your own if you’ll do me this one tiny favor tomorrow night.” Dash pleaded, stopping and turning Aurora’s face so they were staring into each other’s eyes.
“Okay Dash… what is it?” Aurora asked, wondering just what it could be that would have THE Rainbow Dash asking for help.
“I’ve got a friend coming into town… and I kind of need you to pose as my date at this club… and I know you’re technically a straight-ish stallion yourself, so I figure that this isn’t asking too much, right?” Rainbow said, blushing furiously but still powering trough her short explanation.
“……Are you kidding me?” she deadpanned, “You want me to pretend to be your date tomorrow night, for a friend of yours that I don’t even know, and for that, you’re going to set me up with my own place? Did I miss anything?”
“Nope, you got that pretty quick.” Her friend replied.
“Have you ever heard of a saying, too good to be true?” she asked, taking note that other ponies were looking over at the two Pegasi standing in the middle of the road.
“Not really… I mean, it’s not like I’m asking you because I like you or anything…”
“You’ve hit on me… in front of the entire group… and from what I’ve heard about how things work in Equestria, some of the stuff you did when I first got here was borderline sexual harassment.”
“Oh come on, I just like kidding around and joking with you is all!” Dash responded, laughing hollowly and flapping her wings nervously.
Aurora sighed, massaging her temples with her wingtips before responding. “Sorry about the attitude Dash, you really don’t deserve it, but I didn’t get much sleep last night for some reason, and this day just keeps dragging on forever, and I just feel WEIRD… but yeah, I'll be your date tomorrow...”
Rainbow perked up almost instantly, grinning ear to ear before pulling Aurora into a bone crushing hug. “Thank you thank you thank you thank you!” she cried out, releasing her friend long enough to let her breath, while she pumped her hoof into the air in victory.
“I’ll swing by the farmhouse say, tomorrow around nine? Don’t bother dressing up, you just have that one vest anyway, and it doesn’t really fit you the way you are now. But you still might wanna do something with your mane.” Rainbow advised, having finished her little celebration performance.
“What’s wrong with my mane?!” Aurora asked huffily, stroking it with a hoof over her shoulder.
“Nothing’s wrong with it… but it could look better, you know? Anyway, just stop by Rarity’s and ask for her help. Tell her that you’re going out with me tomorrow night while you’re there.” Dash instructed, rising off the ground and looking like she was about to take off.
“Whoa! Where are you going? And why do you need me to tell Rarity something like that?”
“Just do it! I’ll pick you up tomorrow night!” Dash shouted, taking off into the sky, leaving Aurora alone in the middle of the main street with at least a dozen ponies looking at her funny.
Aurora blushed and tried to ignore the stares she was now getting from various ponies on the road. Oddly, most of the looks she was getting were from stallions, and they almost looked… sad? She was on her way up the road when she heard somepony whistle at her from out a window.
Oh gods… why is everyone looking at me? Could it be because of my mane? Rainbow said I should do something with it… and WHY DO I CARE?! I didn’t care before… why am I freaking out now? She thought to herself, speeding up her pace until she was finally safely back at the bakery.
“There you are Aurora!” Mrs. Cake said, snapping her from her thoughts. “I was just looking for you…… Are you alright dearie?”
“I’m fine Mrs. Cake… I just… I didn’t sleep that well last night, and I’ve just felt weird all day… Is it alright if I leave early today?” Aurora responded, shaking her head and sighing.
“Of course dear! At least you have the decency to ask to leave… Pinkie just kind of takes off sometimes.” Cup Cake answered, smiling kindly. “Now why don’t you get going sweetie. Try and find something to help you relax, and feel better. In fact, you’ve been working so hard the last two weeks, why don’t you take a couple days off.”
“Thanks Mrs. Cake.” She answered gratefully, wrapping a wing around the blue baker in a hug, “I really appreciate this. Hopefully things will get better when this spell wears off.”
“Well, everything in its time sweetie. And you should be a bit more confident! You make a very nice looking mare. Why, I remember when I was your age, I envied the ones that looked like you… but that was a different time entirely… now, enough chit chat, you get on out of here unless you want to buy something, and you go get to relaxing!” Cup responded, laughing as she shoved the young mare out into the afternoon light of Ponyville.
Aurora blinked, mildly confused in the afternoon light of the small town… She’d had days off before, so this wasn’t a new concept for her… but what did she actually want to do at that moment? She’d never exactly been a huge fan of wandering aimlessly, so that was out. And most of her friends were either still working, or they were Fluttershy. Aurora liked Fluttershy, she really did… but seeing her at the Apple farm so much over the last week was more than a little weird. And it wasn’t even because she and Big Macintosh were effectively dating. There was just a new kind of vibe she got from Fluttershy that hadn’t been there before… it was weird…
Maybe I could go see the ponies at the spa about my hair? She thought.
“I thought Rainbow said to go see Rarity…”
Yeah, but do you think it’s a good idea to take advice from the one mare least likely to be found in the spa? At least the spa has a couple ponies there that are actual stylists. No slight on Rarity, but she’s a dressmaker. Not exactly a pony that deals with hair on a regular basis…
“I’m not about to start arguing with myself.” Aurora swore silently, “I’m going to go back to the farm and ask Applejack’s opinion. She’s the most honest pony around, and she’s been there for me since day one. Plus, she’s Rarity’s friend. If anypony can tell us what to do, it’s going to be her.”
Suit yourself. Just remember that I suggested the spa.
“Shut up…”
“Who are you telling to shut up? I haven’t even gotten a chance to say hello yet silly!” Pinkie said, out of nowhere.
“Gah!” Aurora yelped, “Pinkie! Quit doing that!”
“Sorry Rory, but I wanted to get your opinion on these new glitterbombs I made…” Pinkie said, pulling out a small orb made of what looked like rubber… but with a fuse sticking out of part of it… and it was already lit!
“Pinkie! Throw that damn thing away! It’s gonna go off!” Aurora shrieked, ducking behind a small cluster of barrels.
“Oh you silly-willy-billy! It won’t go off until the perfect moment of comedic timing!” Pinkie assured her, waving the lit explosive back and forth, and tossing it from hoof to hoof. “You see? I made it out of this bouncy ball I found, and I stuffed the whole thing with sparkly glitter, not so sparkly glitter, and cookie dough!”
“Why would you put cookie dough in a glitterbomb?” Aurora asked, still cowering behind the barrels and waiting for the whole thing to explode and take Pinkie’s hoof off…
“Well it wouldn’t be a glitterbomb without cookie dough! Now, do me a favor and duck.” Pinkie answered, her face suddenly becoming rather serious, and her hoof winding back in a classic baseball pitching stance.
Aurora hit the deck behind the barrels and looked up just in time to see the bomb being thrown… right behind her…
“BUUUUUCK!” Aurora hollered as the bomb went off, the blast practically gluing her to the side of the barrel and covering every inch of the surrounding twenty feet in bits of chocolate chip cookies, freshly baked by the blast, and a fine mist of neon pink and green glitter.
“You alright there Rory?” Pinkie asked, poking her head around the barrel to see her friends dazed look, her eyes spinning around like pinwheels in their sockets, and her usually dust colored coat now sufficiently livened up.
“Why yes Miss, I’d LOVE more pie!” Aurora said, giggling and collapsing onto the ground, leaving a clean outline on the barrel when she peeled herself off and fell to the ground unconscious.
“Uh oh… I think I put too much Egg Nog in the explosive core… Well that’s not good.” Pinkie said seriously, sitting next to her friend and putting on her ‘thinking’ face. “Oh! I know what to do!”
Pinkie dragged Aurora up off the ground and laid her across her back. Humming a simple tune to herself, and walking down the street to leave the glitterbomb’d area for somepony else to clean up, Pinkie started off for Carousel Boutique.
“If anypony can help clean you up, it’s Rarity!” Pinkie said, apparently trying to make conversation with the unconscious mare across her back. “It’s okay you know, you don’t have to say anything! I’m always happy to help a friend!”
As they bounced down the street, Pinkie and the newest victim of her Party Arsenal attracted more than a few stares…
“You know,” Pinkie said, after reaching the halfway point to the boutique, “You really should have known better than to stand in front of a live glitterbomb. That’s just basic safety Rory. But, nothing we can do now… Say, do you like singing? I love singing! In fact, I think I’ll sing a song right now…”
And with that, everypony on the street was treated to the sight of a glitter covered grey Pegasus, unconscious and laying across the back of a bounding Pinkie Pie, who was singing a strange tune that nopony had ever heard before…
“It’s, not, EASY having yourself a gooood time!” she sang,
“Greasing up those bets and betters!
Watching out they don’t four letter!
Hug and kiss you both at the same time!
Smells like something, I’ve forgotten,
Curled up, dried, and now it’s rotten.
I’m not a baker tonight, don’t wanna BE a sad guy!
I’m just a loaner baby, and now you’re going my way!”
“Pinkie Pie, what in Equestria are you singing?” Rarity asked, having opened the door to the boutique and rushed out as soon as she saw her friend’s tell tale pinkie hair bobbing up the path.
“I don’t know Rarity! But it sounded fun!” Pinkie answered, dropping Aurora on the floor… face first… “I just brought Aurora up here because she got in front of a new glitterbomb I’m working on, and I figured that if anypony could help her look less……sparkly, that it would be you! You know how to get glitter off right?”
“Now see here Pinkie. It’s not very good manners to just barge in on me in the middle of work, and expect me to be able to just stop what I’m doing to help your latest victim to look less… shiny… Although, that shade of pink does go marvelously with her coat…” Rarity protested. “Now, if you want me to help, you have to ask politely. And since I highly doubt that Aurora was silly enough to jump in front of one of your ‘party favors’, then I expect you to apologize once she is awake again. Understood?”
“Okie dokie lokie…” Pinkie replied sadly, her hair deflating just slightly. “Rarity? If I interrupted you at work, I’m sorry… what were you doing anyway?”
Rarity blanched slightly (rather hard to tell, given her pale coat) and started laughing nervously, “Well Pinkie… it’s not that I was exceptionally busy… and not that I don’t love helping my friends… it’s just the principle of the matter you see?”
“So… you weren’t doing anything, were you?” Pinkie surmised, smiling coyly at her friend and plopping herself on a nearby cushion.
Rarity sighed and levitated Aurora onto a couch near the door, careful not to let any glitter fall off onto the floor.
“No Pinkie, I wasn’t… It’s not exactly Gala season, and with the exception of the odd dress order from Canterlot, business has been rather slow… You’re actually the first pony to be over here all day… I just feel like if something were to happen to put me on the map again, then I’d have more business, but I just don’t know… nopony in this town is willing to model for me after that first Gala Fashion Show incident, regardless of the positive review I received the second time around… and Fluttershy still has mild panic attacks when she’s around a camera.”
“Well why don’t you just tell your auntie Pinkie Pie all about it over a nice cup of tea.” Pinkie said, steering Rarity towards the kitchen, her friend smiling and leaving Aurora unattended in the main lobby.
V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V
Spike had finally managed to slip away from Twilight, not an easy feat when she was in the middle of a reorganizing binge, and was happily on his way to Carousel Boutique. There had once been a time that he’d had a crush on the shop owner, but then Twilight got him to realize that it was just a crush, and that he’d have more opportunities to find love as he got older. Still, the boutique held more than its fair share of memories. Besides, he understood that a business like Rarity’s wasn’t exactly booming in the small town of Ponyville. Luckily for him, this meant that Rarity would periodically empty her gem stash, and Spike was always more than willing to help her get rid of anything that wasn’t completely fabulous.
“Hello? Rarity? You in here?” he asked, opening the door to the boutique.
Hearing no answer, he decided to look around. It wasn’t like her to leave the shop unattended, so she was most likely upstairs or in the back… still, he’d learned a while ago not to go wandering in the shop, because the one time he had, he ended up getting whacked by a bolt of cloth by accident. And besides, the front room was nice enough.
“Mmmrrrhh….” Spike heard from off to the side. He spun on his heels and saw what looked like a large shiny bird sprawled out on the couch… wait, no… those were hooves…
“Oh my goddess… is that a glitter covered pony?!” he asked, trying not to fall down laughing.
“Wha-huh?” the pony said, lifting it’s head. It was weird… half of the mare’s face was covered in the glitter, and the other half was completely clean… in fact, there was a clear line around her body where the glitter just stopped.
“Did you get dipped in a giant tub of glitter?” he asked, leaning in to get a closer look, trying to figure out why the pony
looked so familiar.
“No… I got hit by one of Pinkie Pie’s ‘party favors’.” She replied grumpily, rubbing her forehead with a wing.
“Oh geez! Is that you under all that stuff, Aurora?” Spike asked, his jaw dropping.
“Yeah… it’s me… freaking great. I get a break from work for a couple days, and the first thing that happens is a glittery explosive to the everything!” Aurora griped, sitting up and looking around. “How the hay did I get here anyway?”
“Dunno dude.” Spike answered frankly, “Maybe you sleepwalk?”
“Ha freaking ha… I’m already freaking out about my mane, don’t make me paranoid too…” Aurora griped, shooting a venomous look at her draconian friend.
“…What?”
“I don’t even know… I just feel…. Weird…”
“Maybe that spell is starting to change the way you think?” Spike guessed.
“Well, whatever. Right now I just want to be less… shiny…” Aurora said, rubbing her temples with her wingtips. “And here I thought that getting run over by Rainbow would be the most painful part of my day…”
“Aurora? Are you awake darling?” Rarity called, opening the door to the back room and walking through. “Oh good, I was beginning to worry. And Spike, you’re here too. When did you arrive dear?”
“I just walked in Rarity. Found Aurora like this… we were just talking.” Spike answered, smiling kindly at his unicorn friend.
“Well, could you please help her up to the bathroom? I need to get out my heavy duty beauty kit to get all that glitter out.” Rarity instructed, walking into a side closet and rummaging around.
“Right… come on Aurora. You haven’t really been upstairs here, have you?” Spike said, helping Aurora to her hooves and leading the way.
“Can’t say I have…” Aurora answered, following the drake up the steps and down a hall lined with admittedly gorgeous scenery paintings.
“Well, here we are. This is Rarity’s room. The bathroom’s in there, pretty easy to figure out. I’ll leave you two alone now.” Spike said, opening the door for Aurora.
“You’re not sticking around?”
“I learned awhile ago that mares tend to get angry if I stick around when they’re trying to clean themselves up or really anything involving the bathroom.” Spike said, scratching the back of his head with a claw and blushing.
“What happened?” Aurora asked knowingly.
“Nothing! I just heard Rarity scream one time when I was downstairs, rushed up to help, and got pegged in the face with a shampoo bottle… It turned out that she just thought she saw a spider while she was grooming herself, and that’s a bad thing to walk in on apparently…” Spike answered, trying to skim over the parts where he’d been chewed out by not just Rarity, but Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash as well… well, Rainbow had mostly laughed at him, but still.
“Well… okay then… anyway, I’ll see you around later. I have a couple days off, so we could hang out if you want.” Aurora said, smiling at her friend.
“Sounds cool Aurora, I’ll see you around.” Spike replied, turning around and leaving her on her own.
Aurora looked around the room awkwardly… True, she was technically a mare at the moment, but still… she’d never really been in a mare’s room besides Fluttershy, and that was a unique situation anyway. It was a little odd too… Rarity was so meticulous about things, and especially her appearance. But her room was actually rather messy… there were clothes tossed on chairs and stools, and socks clumped in a drawer that was open and its contents revealed. She knew it wasn’t polite to go snooping in other’s things… but it was hard to resist that little voice in her head telling Aurora to see what kind of socks Rarity wore. One thing she’d learned recently, was that socks were the pony equivalent of lingerie.
There were other things as well of course, but the most common piece of risqué clothing in Equestria were socks. And just like with different fabrics having different meanings, the fabric of a sock could mean something different. He knew that Applejack wore cotton socks to sleep in sometimes, because Aurora had stumbled across them while doing some laundry. That had also been when she got her lesson in Equestrian clothing, but that was irrelevant.
Just as she was rifling through the sock drawer, and finding an interesting mix of cotton, silk, and lacey pieces, Rarity opened the door to her room. Aurora froze, and Rarity’s magic flickered momentarily around the kit levitating next to her before dropping it completely to the floor and spilling the contents while she stood there with her jaw hanging open in shock.
V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V
Rarity felt she was doing a rather good job of not freaking out given the circumstances… After all, she had just had a minor therapy session with Pinkie Pie, who was currently left downstairs unattended in her kitchen, and was about to help her newest friend (and minor crush) to clean a rather large amount of glitter off. And what should she see when she walked into the room but said friend (and crush) standing there next to Rarity’s bed with a lacey sock hanging off of a wingtip… and blushing!
“………Well darling, if you wanted to try those on, why didn’t you say so?” Rarity said, an evil glimmer in her eye as she stared at the glittery Pegasus.
“I… I need an adult?” Aurora said hesitantly, her eyes growing wide.
“Sweetie…” Rarity said, closing the gap, “I AM an adult…”