"Oh? And how did that plan work?" Twilight was trying hard to control her tone and mannerisms, as her teacher had instructed. She lifted the cup of tea smoothly with her magic, taking a small sip of the liquid and barely allowing herself to even think on the taste. She was focusing all of her attention into making sure that she was properly remembering Rarity's instructions.
"Unfortunately, it did not. The dear is talented, but his lack of confidence stifles him. What he drew seemed original, but he revealed that it was just an old historical site in Fillydelphia." Rarity daintily set her own cup down on the saucer, letting the magic fade away at the slightest contact. "He has a gift, certainly, but he does not know how to take advantage of it."
Twilight looked as if she wanted to laugh, but quickly stifled it with a false smile. "He sounds... I mean," she paused for a moment, considering the words she wished to use. "Your sister has a similar problem, doesn't she?" As she spoke, Twilight lifted up a small spoon of sugar to add to her tea.
"Yes, Sweetie Belle also has difficulty accepting her gift. By the way, you should not use the serving spoon to stir your tea after drinking from it." Rarity looked up to Twilight with a grin and the alicorn looked startled for a moment, before becoming aware of what she meant.
"Oh ponyfeathers," she muttered, earning a scandalized gasp from Rarity.
"Oh my! Such strong language, Princess Twilight." Rarity's expression quickly faded to one of humor. "I think that is enough for today. You are still learning, after all."
Twilight nodded, slouching in her seat as if some invisible weight had been upon her the entire time. "Whew, I don't know how you do it Rarity. All those rules, conditions, and ways to speak are exhausting to remember."
Rarity waved a hoof through the air. "Nonsense, darling. I've just been doing this for much longer then you have. The nobility are raised their entire lives to act a certain way. If you could copy it in one day, it would be one impressive miracle."
"Speaking of nobility," Twilight began, looking up at Rarity with an odd curve to her lips, "how is the show window in your studio?"
Now it was Rarity's turn to be embarrassed, though her smile remained. "Oh, it is fine now. There was just something very distasteful in front of it that I needed to remove, very quickly." Her pleasant smile never faded, almost defiant in its style.
"I thought you might like to know," Twilight began, "Princess Celestia nearly lost her composure when she heard about that. I thought she was about to burst out laughing. I'm sure if Princess Luna was there instead, she would have without a second thought."
Rarity let out a small giggle, allowing herself to relax from the strains of her high-society mask. "I figured it wouldn't cause too much trouble. Though I am sorry it had to come to you at all. He claimed he was a 'friend' of my student, though I cannot see how. They are like night and day."
Twilight thought to herself for a moment. "I imagine it's like how you and Rainbow Dash are friends. Totally different in almost every way, but nopony would dare say you wouldn't watch out for each other."
Rarity considered what Twilight was suggesting. "The Prince is a total brute. I cannot imagine someone like Portrait befriending him. Why, the young stallion practically worships his uncle! To associate willingly with someone who acts so against that just does not make sense."
Twilight shrugged. "Maybe he sees something that we don't. Anyway, what happened next in your plan to teach creativity?"
Rarity's smile never faltered. Even though her first plan had failed, she had plenty more to try. "Well, we spent most of yesterday trying different variations of it. I asked him to draw many things he could not have seen. I think my personal favorite was asking him to draw what he thought his son would look like. Today he is trying something new, something he doesn't need my help for."
"Which is what I owe this visit to, I suppose. So what is he working on now?"
"A model," Rarity answered. "With his family, finding a model to volunteer for him was a small matter. I told him that I wanted a picture of the model on some landscape he has seen." Rarity looked immensely satisfied with herself over this idea.
Twilight just looked confused. "How will that help? Won't he just copy the model in the studio and then add the background? That doesn't sound original to me."
Rarity nodded. "That is because it isn't, directly anyway. So much of the drawing changes when you add something else to a picture. Shading, the makeup of the ground, and the very way the background looks can be changed drastically. He needs to be aware of these small changes before we can move on to the big ones. I honestly feel like I am teaching him how to draw from scratch, because he likely never learned. He knows how to hold and move the brushes, but not how to compose a scene."
Twilight grinned, standing up and stretching out her legs. "And you said you wouldn't be a good teacher. Seems to me like you're doing good so far." The alicorn walked over to the window, her magic opening it slightly. A nice breeze moved into the chamber, fluttering through their hair as it twirled about the room. "While I think about it, what made you start wearing that again?"
Rarity knew instantly what Twilight was referring to. Not her hat, or her new dress design. Twilight could only be referring to the familiar necklace nestled against her coat. "Just a reminder for me. I don't want another incident like with your birthday; I must keep myself under control." Twilight looked concerned, but Rarity waved it off. "Now don't you worry about me, darling. I'll keep my hooves on the ground while I'm here."
Twilight seemed bothered by something else, however. "You still don't trust yourself, after all this time? Rarity, you don't need to prove anything to anypony. We all know how amazing of a friend you are." Twilight moved back over to Rarity, placing a hoof on her shoulder. "Why can't you forgive yourself? We've already forgiven you; we all make mistakes sometimes."
Rarity smiled at her friend; polite and supportive as always. "I know, and I am so thankful to have friends like you. Friends who have gone out of their way for me, and accepted all the pains I put you through. But this is more personal, really. We forgave Spike for what his greed made him do, but that was not the end of the story. He constantly has to fight his greed, every day of his life. You all forgave me for my mistakes, but the temptation is there. This helps me to remember that self improvement is not a single action. It is a long, constant struggle to change yourself."
Twilight's eyes sparkled with something that looked a lot like cunning. "Oh, I never realized how much you respected Spike. I'm sure he'd be thrilled to hear it."
Rarity was no fool; she could see where this topic was heading. 'Sorry Twilight, darling, but I am not ready to head down that path yet.' "His greed is not a part of his personality, it is a part of his biology. That he fights it, on a daily basis, is quite commendable. I've known few ponies with that much strength of character. At any rate, I think I should return to the studio before it gets too late. Portrait should be finishing up, and I have a feeling we have a long way to go."
Twilight noted how quickly Rarity ended the conversation once Spike came up, but decided to let it go. "Fair enough, I've been slacking off on my work too, and I still need to read those books of etiquette you recommended. Oh, and I should send a message to Spike asking if he has an extra copy of Manners for Mares, Volume 3; someone has the copy from the library here." Twilight was off in her own little world again, which Rarity used as an excuse to get up and head on her way.
Twilight didn't even notice the doors close as her friend slipped out.
Rarity trotted down the road, her mask once again in place. She moved at a quicker pace then most of the other ponies, betraying the fact that she had a destination in mind, but not so fast as to seem graceless and unrefined. The sun was beginning to set as she moved into the Virtuoso's Garden, the name that had been given to this area of Canterlot. It was filled with many artistic studios, music halls, and anything else to do with things of a fine craft. She was quite sure she'd seen the large chimneys of a glass blower or a metal sculptor among the streets.
There were a few ponies on the streets as she continued her trotting. She was not trying to eavesdrop, but she could pick out bits and pieces of what they were saying. From the sound of it, they were talking about some kind of a commotion. Rarity kept her head down. They had talked about her removal of someone the other day, but perhaps they finally had a name to put to the story. That would cause the resurgence for certain. Something seemed wrong with that conclusion, however. The bits and pieces she heard sounded like there had been some prolonged noise. Her incident with the prince had been one action, barely a few seconds. Had something else happened?
Now curious enough to be a gossip, Rarity approached a pair of mares who were speaking with each other. The two white-coated mares looked up to her as she approached. "Excuse me, I am terribly sorry to interrupt. Has something happened in the Garden?"
If the mares were offended by her interruption, they got over it with the prospect of someone else to gossip with. The older one, with a cream-colored mane, spoke first. "It all started a few hours ago. There was a lot of shouting from one of the studios on the main road. That isn't anything to get concerned about; those artists can be temperamental. Before long, however, there were all manner of violent noises! It sounded like someone was being thrown around inside! A few minutes later, a young pegasus mare came out of the studio looking quite cross. She seemed fine, but nopony wished to see what had happened."
Rarity felt a lump forming in her throat. "A pegasus, you say? Did you see what she looked like?" Rarity hoped that her guess was wrong.
"I remember she had a red mane, almost like a line of wild roses, and a grey coat."
Rarity did not excuse herself from the conversation. She did not thank the mare for her help, nor did she continue her trotting down the road. Now she broke into a full gallop, giving no consideration to how uncouth she looked. She was mentally berating herself for being so foolish. Of course someone would volunteer to work close to Fancy Pants' family; that was a great way to rob them. She'd let a thief into the studio, and she had injured the poor artist. She could only hope the situation was not as grave as her imagination was making it.
As she galloped down the road, she felt a wind pick up and steal her hat from her. She glanced back and paused for a moment. That hat was a one-of-a-kind design! She'd made it out of the finest silk, something that would be unlikely to see outside of the big cities. She debated grabbing it, but she knew that wasn't right. That was just fabric; she could make a hundred more like it. This was something irreplaceable.
She found the door of the studio ajar as she came up to the building. The thundering of her hooves died down as she slowed to a stop at the frame of the door. Her magic pushed it the rest of the way open, and the state of the studio was something from her worst nightmares: paints and fabric strewn about, chairs overturned and canvas split clean in two, though that was not even all of it. Several of her new designs lay about the studio, torn and ruined. It looked as if there had been one impressive struggle in here; no pegasus could do this alone, except maybe Rainbow Dash. Portrait must have resisted.
"Portrait! Are you here? Speak up now!" Rarity struggled to remain in control, but her voice betrayed her concern. She heard something from the other end of the room that made her ears shoot up. Somepony was over there, but it sounded like they were mumbling. With agility one might not have expected from her, she nimbly leapt across the piles of debris towards her goal. There, with a sense of relief, she came upon who she was looking for. Portrait was huddled in a corner, looking more like a scared child then a noble stallion.
"You're all right! Oh what a relief; can you stand?" She instantly started into questions, using her magic to aid him in getting to his hooves. It surprised her quite a bit when he resisted her magic, deciding to stay slumped in the corner. Now that she was close, Rarity could see that he seemed uninjured. Hadn't the mares said the model fleeing the studio looked uninjured as well? Had he scared her off with a blast of magic? That would certainly explain the mess. "Talk to me; what happened?"
He managed out a few broken words, but nothing Rarity could really consider a sentence. She waited, certain that if she was patient he would reveal the truth to her. Finally, the words did come.
"I did this."
Rarity nodded to herself. Had he thought that was a secret? She allowed a small smile to break her lips, only because he was not looking at her. "Well clearly, darling. I only know one pegasus who could make this much of a mess. What happened, though? Did she attack you? Rob you?" she began questioning, trying to get to the bottom of this.
His response almost chilled her blood. "She... she did nothing. I did all of this." Before Rarity could recover from her surprise, the stallion was on his feet, looking about the destroyed studio again. "I...I need to go." He bounded across the shop, not quite as gracefully as Rarity had, but he only stumbled once.
"Ah! Wait a moment!" she called, to no avail. He galloped out of the studio and began heading down the road. Rarity sighed in annoyance. She could chase after him, but if he was galloping he was likely fine. Besides, he knew his way around Canterlot. She looked about the ruined studio and grumbled. Maybe he had been taking lessons from Sweetie Belle on how to avoid cleaning up his own messes.
The sun was well below the horizon when the door of the 'Triple Crown Finish' swung open. Rarity had gotten pretty good at cleaning up apocalyptic messes after a few weeks with her sister. She didn't turn directly, as she was in the middle of moving a stack of refolded fabrics. "I am sorry, we're closed right now."
"Yes, I imagined as much after my nephew told me the tale. He sends his apologies by the way."
Rarity spun around again, nearly dropping the fabrics she was levitating. She managed to set them down as she moved over to greet her guest. "Fancy Pants! I was not expecting to see you so soon." She really didn't know what to say now. Less than a week here and this had happened. She had been a fool to assume she could do this job. She settled for speaking about her student. "I am glad he is alright. He seemed very upset, but I am not quite sure what happened in here. I wish I could tell you more."
Fancy Pants walked into the studio, looking left and right. "My word! From the way he described the damage, I was expecting to find it in shambles, but it barely looks lived in now." It was true; the studio was mostly recovered from the incredible disaster earlier. She knew a few good tricks to getting paint stains and the like out, and she was never afraid of a little hard work. "Also, I do feel I owe you an apology."
"An apology?" Rarity was clearly confused. Why would he owe her anything? She was the one that had made the mistake.
"Yes, I should have warned you about this. But I do not wish to discuss it here. Would you mind accompanying me to grab a quick something to eat?" His offer seemed polite enough, but he still put Rarity on guard by asking. "Consider it a business meeting. Nothing inappropriate, I assure you."
Rarity considered for a moment. Fancy Pants had never lied or been rude to her. If he insisted that it would be professional, then she would believe him. "Well, it is a bit late to start cooking now. So I suppose it would be fine."
True to his word, Fancy Pants had been a complete gentlecolt. Normally, Rarity would have felt insulted that he did not pull her chair out for her, or any of the usual superfluous acts. Tonight, however, she found that she enjoyed the casual atmosphere of their meeting. He'd suggested a small outdoor cafe, and moved to a table slightly removed from the rest of the restaurant. At this time of the evening the cafe was sparsely populated. They had placed their orders, and now were sunk into the waiting that came with any place of real class. It always seemed the wait was a measure of the class: the longer the wait, the higher the class of the restaurant.
Fancy Pants started conversation with an unusual topic, and one the mare had not been expecting. "I must say, that is a lovely Fire Ruby you wear. Did you find that in town?" His eyes settled on the gem and its necklace, seeming to appraise it.
Rarity had not expected the question, and the answer she gave was not practiced. "Oh, no, it was given to me as a gift."
Fancy Pants' eyebrow arched in surprise. "A gift? My word, you are gathering some wealthy admirers since we first met." The unicorn laughed a bit, but did not continue with his statement.
Rarity, however, felt the need to correct him. She did not want to hide the truth of this gift. It was too important to be made light of like it was just a bauble purchased by a noble. "Not at all. This was a gift from a friend back in Ponyville." Rarity smiled with a small amount of satisfaction when Fancy Pants nearly lost his magical grip on his glass of water.
"From Ponyville you say? How marvelous! Your friends never cease to amaze me, Miss Rarity. To give away something worth a thousand bits or more, how generous they were! I wonder how much they had to pay for it? It has clearly been wrought by an expert."
Rarity's smile only grew brighter. "He did not purchase it. He wrought it himself, and for himself may I add. He desired it, but gave it to me anyway. Besides being beautiful and priceless, it is an excellent reminder of the joy that giving to others can bring us." She looked down at her necklace fondly, recalling the moment the gem had come into her hooves.
Fancy Pants looked impressed. "A colt, hmm? Keep an eye on him, Miss Rarity. Any stallion like that is cut from a finer cloth then most of Canterlot." He leaned a bit closer to her, as if he were about to whisper some great secret to her. "I'd like to meet him one day; we small town stallions must stick together after all."
Now that was a comment Rarity simply could not ignore. There seemed to be so much more hidden behind it. "Small town stallions?" She had always assumed that Fancy Pants had been raised in Canterlot. Now that she thought of it, she'd never known of any of his family. He just came into Canterlot society one day, and in a decade became the pony to know in the center of all of Equestria.
He grinned in response to her, his eyes taking on a very cunning look. She got the briefest of looks beyond his own mask. "Dodge Junction," he said with a wink.
The revelation floored Rarity. She was so shocked that she didn't even censor her thoughts before speaking them. "Dodge Junction? Somepony as respected, cultured, and kind as you came from someplace as... rough as Dodge Junction?"
Fancy Pants looked around, making sure that nopony was eavesdropping. It seemed that his birthplace was a secret, and he intended to keep it that way. "Oh come now, ponies are ponies. And if you put hard effort into fitting in, you could even come from someplace as simple as Ponyville." He grinned a bit, almost like a child.
Rarity returned it, the both of them showing the briefest of cracks in their disguises. "I suppose you are correct, but it still surprised me." Rarity lifted her own glass, taking a sip of the water before returning to the conversation. "I do believe we have gotten off topic, however," Rarity said as the waiter came by, setting two plates down on the table. Rarity let her plate of alfalfa sit for a moment as she carefully worded her next question. "So, you mentioned earlier that you suspected something like this coming?" He hadn't used those words, but he had suggested that he knew more then he'd told her.
"Portrait is an odd one, that is certainly so. He is a polite and kind stallion normally, but when he starts drawing something just seems to take hold of him. Have you ever distracted him while he is working?"
Rarity knew where this was going. It was so obvious now, she could not believe she had not seen it before. "No. When I am creating, I tend to be very aggressive upon being interrupted. I imagine most artists are the same way." His zone sounded volatile to her. That would be something she would have to deal with.
"Well, when he is distracted while working, he becomes incredibly violent. I am not sure if it is on purpose or by accident, but his paints and brushes will normally go flying. He will also shout and yell; it is not uncommon to be able to hear him from the other side of the house. The few times we had him work with a model, it usually ended with them running out in tears after one of his fits. I did not think to warn you of it, so I must apologize." He seemed genuinely upset by this, and Rarity grabbed a bit of her food with the proper fork as he spoke again. "I would understand if you couldn't work with this. I had hoped he would grow out of such outbursts in time."
Rarity placed her hoof down on the table with a bit of force, drawing his gaze. "None of that now. I gave my word that I would help him, and I am not a pony who goes back on her word. Now, at least, I know another problem that needs to be fixed. His 'zone' is not stable." She acted as if what she said was the single most obvious statement in the world.
"His... zone?" Fancy Pants was clearly confused by her terminology.
"Every creator has this state of focus when they apply their art. They become so engrossed in it that they filter out all distractions. They usually respond with hostility if it is interrupted. I've done so myself a few times. One thing is different from what you suggested, however. The model in this case didn't fear him, if what I heard was right. Those who saw her leave said she looked angered, annoyed even. Not upset, and certainly not in tears. Perhaps what he needs is one who can stem his anger." She placed her hoof on her chin, as if she were deep in thought.
"You intend to keep trying, even after all of this?" He was clearly impressed by her dedication.
"Of course, darling! Failure is not the end, it is merely the start of the second attempt. Besides, he has too impressive a talent to simply let it fall away into nothing. I simply must find some way to nurture his gift. Could you tell him to return the day after tomorrow? I will need some time to set everything up." Her mind was going full speed now. For some reason, this quaint dinner conversation had given her a few grand ideas to help this artist.
Fancy Pants looked worried for a moment. "I don't understand. How would making him work with someone he fought with help him? It seems like the conflict would distract him."
Rarity smiled, a cunning and devious expression, as she answered. "Well, two reasons. For one, it removes him from his comfort zone. He has been pampered and comfortable his entire life; exposing him to something that he dislikes, but cannot escape, may create something in him. Second, I am hoping she will distract him with anger. Art is emotion, Fancy Pants. Perhaps what stifles his growth is that he has never been exposed to real emotion. A hard day's work, wanting something that is beyond your reach, any of the feelings that make up life. After what you told me, I am sure you understand that." She waved her hoof about, a sweeping motion covering the entire cafe. "Canterlot is fake, as we both know. A collection of rules and regulations, of false friends and guarded emotions. Why do you think I said I could not stay here for long?" She stopped there, before she told a total lie. She could create fine in Canterlot, she just feared what it would do to her.
The elder stallion laughed a bit. "So, you think he needs a good days work to inspire him?" He flexed his forearm in a way Rarity would have expected from some manual laborer.
"Perhaps not, but he needs to be exposed to the part of life that is real. The pampered fake that resides here does him no good. Also, if I may indulge myself for a moment, I don't think there is a better pony qualified to do it." Rarity allowed herself a bit of ego stroking.
Fancy Pants laughed. "I always did have an eye for quality."