//------------------------------// // Muffin on a Pedestal // Story: Bass Clefs and Sapphires // by Crispn //------------------------------// For the first time in I don’t know how many years, I started to feel like a group of friends was finally starting to accepting me. The last time I felt anything close to this was with my adoptive sister, although I hadn’t talked to her in months. Last I heard she was doing well as a magician, touring the country. She was a talented illusionist, and some nights when our mother was just too much for us to handle, she would conjure us a couple of clones so we could escape even if it was for only a short while. My sister was really the only one that ever made me feel good about my wings, that is, before others came into my life. Vinyl, Dash, Twilight and Pinkie. They had all accepted me warts and all, but I was still not ready to be completely open with everyone yet. I barely knew AJ and Ditzy, I had run over Rarity and Fluttershy was a complete mystery to me. Lingering a little behind the group of girls in front of me, I fiddled with my straps, once again restraining my wings. I knew it had been a bad idea to use them. I’m just surprised that Rarity had gone from being incredibly pissed off about her involvement in the early morning crash to giving me this really nice scarf. It was really soft and it kept me really warm. Weird, she kept looking back at me, but kept darting forward when I looked her direction. Turning down the next street, we had finally reached the Corner Bakery and Deli, but we were all stopped from going in by Rarity. “Oooo, I just had another stroke of inspiration, and it deals with all of you, so if you would all please indulge me, I will purchase breakfast for everyone in return.” Dash was the first to speak up, hovering in front of Rarity with a look of mild curiosity “Is this going to be like the time I had to sit there for six hours while you decided fabrics or are you actually going to do something?” “Oh come now Dash, that was only one time. And if you remember, you tracked mud everywhere so of course you were sitting there for hours. I had to clean the floor before I could make a decision and I had such a good idea. But if you had been a little cleaner, I would have remembered what it was.” Rarity retorted, advancing on the slightly smaller peg in front of her. After a few seconds of a staredown between the two girls, Dash landed, turned towards the door and smiled, “Well, at least I’m getting a free snack out of this.” Ten minutes later, everyone had eaten their snacks, provided by Rarity. Pinkie tried to get all of us to get a cupcake instead of muffins, but I decided to have my blueberry muffin with cream cheese instead of trying some random thing. Rarity also had a blueberry muffin with cream cheese. She was the first one I have met that has actually wanted one, most think it to be...not great. Ditzy had a muffin as well, a chocolate chip one. Dash and Pinkie on the other hand, had a red velvet cupcake and a carrot cake cupcake each. While the girls were all talking about goings on in their lives, I stood off slightly to the side, silently eating my muffin, thinking about the morning so far. In all of an hour, I have revealed my wings to four girls, crashed into two sisters and somehow come out of it all with a scarf and a free muffin. Although it was kind of liberating to think that they were ok with my wings, I just wasn’t ready to have my wings handled. “Crisp?” I jumped slightly at the mention of my name from behind me. Turning around I saw Rarity standing there, with her muffin in hand and a slight worried look on her face. “You seemed troubled, dear. Is anything the matter?” “Hmmm? Oh, uh no. It’s just that I’m not used to being around such large crowds.” “Oh that can’t be all. I will get you to tell me everything. It will only be a matter of time. I do have you for the rest of the afternoon, do I not?” Rarity replied in a soft coo. All the while, she had encroached on me and walked her fingers up my chest. Feeling my face flush and my brain go fuzzy, all I could reply with was a slight nod. “Excellent, it will make up for you almost ruining my perfect ensemble. Now finish up, we are leaving.” She stated, snapping back from a slight seductive tone from earlier into her usual cadence and demeanor. Completely confused, I stared down at the last bits of my muffin and finally of deciding to think nothing of Rarity’s slight tease, shoved the remains into my mouth and followed out the door with the rest of the girls. “Now,” Rarity addressed the party as we gathered on the street corner, “the walk to the boutique that I work is not far. I must ask though that I please have a couple of minutes when we arrive for me to take care of some business. I also need to call Sweetie Belle and tell her to go along on her tour of the campus with Spike and Apple Bloom.” Quickly glancing over at Dash, she winked at me as I sighed in relief. We had managed to fulfill our promise to Apple Bloom. Dash had been completely right about how to distract Rarity from the injury, but it was just weird. Why did people need to run interference when she can distract herself from anything in about five seconds? About five minutes later, we stopped in front of a little boutique down a couple blocks from my apartment. Rarity had mentioned how she did some interning for one of the most famous designers of the age, Hoity Toity or something like that. I wasn’t really paying attention all to much this morning. Inside I saw a lot of mannequins with different dresses and suits, all quite stunning and some of them even seemed to glimmer in the morning light. Rarity lead us to the back into a large work space. In this room there were small areas so that models would have some privacy or that designers could hide their latest projects. The four of us were each directed to a different little area so that she could have individual time working on each of her ideas. In my room, mirrors were placed on each wall as to get a full view of the model. A small raised platform was in the middle and a chair off in the corner. Closing the door and stepping onto the pedestal, I spun around looking at myself. My coat was completely worn and almost ragged. There was a hole right above the left pocket and along the right side was a tear that I had tried to repair myself. It looked like incredible crap, but it did the job. My coat was a gift from my sister, she wanted to help me out and knew that I had a huge problem with my wings, so she went to a thrift store in town and got the heaviest coat that she could find. I wonder what she was doing now? A small click behind me alerted my attention to the door. Striding over to it, I opened it up to see Rarity standing there with tape, pins and swaths of cloth all in blues, silvers and blacks. There was one lavender roll as well, although it was significantly smaller than the others. Smiling, she walked in and placed the small pile of materials on the chair. “Now,” Rarity said turning to me, pointing to the pedestal, “I need you up there and please remove your coat and shirt.” “Why do I need to remove my clothes?” “Well not all your clothes. Just the shirt and coat. If you wear them while I get the measurements, then I just simply will not have an accurate measurement for this ensemble.” Sighing slightly, I removed my peacoat and placed it on the pedestal next to my feet. Hesitating with my shirt, I stammered, “Uh if you don’t mind, I kind of have a problem not wearing a shirt in front of people.” “Why?” Rarity’s face looked genuinely concerned, which was once again weird for me. “It’s complicated.” “It cannot be that complicated. Besides, it will not be for very long. All of two minutes at most.” “It’s not how long I have to not wear it, it’s not wearing it at all.” “Well, won’t you tell me what the matter is?” “Like I said, it’s complicated.” “That is not a real reason.” Rarity snapped back, her dagger eyes were back. “It will only be a moment.” She walked onto the pedestal behind me and started to lift up the back of my shirt. In a fit of panic, I turned and tripped into Rarity as I tried to run out the door. Tumbling to the floor, I grabbed Rarity in my arms and held her close and tried to make sure she wouldn’t get hurt. Crashing on the floor, I had landed on top of Rarity. Laying there on the floor of the small room, face to face. Rarity looked slightly dazed. Helping her up and sitting her on the pedestal, I grabbed my coat and promptly sped out of the boutique, running all the way back to my empty apartment and locking myself in my room. Trying to sort out why I had panicked so much, I finally stumbled on the reason as to why. It was revealing myself. With the others, it had been a complete mistake and or accident as to them finding out. Rarity, on the other hand, asked me to do something that would expose my secrets to her willingly, and then she tried to forcibly do what I said I was not able to. It wasn’t like she knew why, but still. I felt threatened. I just hoped Dash wasn’t going to kill me for accidentally pushing her friend, I had midterms all this week to worry about already.