//------------------------------// // Gourmet Schmormet (Slice of Life) // Story: Varia Visive // by journcy //------------------------------// Prompt #505: "How Do I Make It Up To You?” "Four ways I've let you down." Twilight trotted happily out of her library. She was on her way to Carousel Boutique; Rarity had asked her to come over to be remeasured. Twilight suspected a group gift was in the works, but if Rarity wanted to be generous, Twilight wouldn't stop her. Making her way across town, Twilight bathed in the bright, sunny day. Really a lovely early autumn afternoon, it was a shame the weather ponies would be bringing winter along before she knew it. She walked past a cart salespony, who waved at her. Twilight waved back, noticing that the pony was selling chocolate. Coming up on the Boutique, Twilight was confused to find the "Closed" sign hung up on the door. Rarity was never closed this early in the day; it was only just past noon! Twilight shrugged, and, supposing that as usual the "Closed" sign didn't apply to friends, knocked. And knocked again. And again. And again. Putting her hoof to the door for the fifth time, Twilight was beginning to get just a little bit worried. She walked away from the door and tried peering in the windows of the Boutique. The curtains were all drawn. She trotted further back, to the back door. Closed as well, and once again the window curtained. Twilight tried knocking on this door. Still nothing. Twilight found herself weighing Rarity's privacy against the suddenly present fear that something had happened to her friend. She might've gotten a big order, Twilight reasoned. Something that would make her close up shop. And she'd be concentrating so hard that she wouldn't have noticed my knocking. But that still doesn't account for not informing us of anything! Twilight responded to herself. Rarity is always very good about telling ponies when she has to cancel an appointment. Twilight looked at the sun. She found that the time she had spent standing outside the Boutique had already used up a third of the time she had budgeted for this appointment as it was. That only added to her panic. Coming to the (admittedly rather rushed) decision that Rarity's theoretical safety should be put first (not to mention what this misuse of time was doing to her schedule), Twilight mustered her magic into her horn, and disappeared in a flash. + + + Reappearing in the center room of Carousel Boutique, Twilight found the interior to be just as darkened and mysterious as the exterior. "Rarity?" she called. No response. "It's not like there are that many places she could be," Twilight muttered, starting up the stairs. It occurred to her that perhaps Rarity was not in at all; after all, she could've run out into town for a piece of cloth or the like, it wasn't like she was locked in her boutique-- Twilight's thoughts were interrupted by a faint sound echoing down the stairs. It sounded like... Music? And not any music... Moody music. Twilight suddenly felt like she understood the situation tenfold. She clip-clopped up to the door of Rarity's room, sure that behind it she would find a friend with a problem in need of a solution. Twisting the knob, she was met, sure enough, with... Twilight's jaw dropped. Before her, both sitting on Rarity's massive bed, were Rarity and Pinkie Pie. The former appeared to be giving the latter a shoulder massage, and several candles burned, the scent of their incense strong. Rarity's gramophone sat on a side table, the music that Twilight had heard pouring forth. Pinkie had curlers in her mane. Pinkie was saying something to Rarity. Twilight stuttered. Pinkie stopped what she was saying, and both ponies turned towards the new noise. Rarity, seeing Twilight standing uncomprehendingly in her doorway, simply exclaimed, "Oh! Twilight! I'm ever so sorry, I forgot about our appointment entirely! Though, if I may ask--what are you doing in my house?" Twilight's mouth simply opened and closed, and she began to back out of the doorway. "Oh! No, do come in, Twilight, dear. It's my fault for not informing you that I would not be available for our engagement. You see, Pinkie Pie came to me most distressed, and-" "Oh, it was just AWFUL, Twilight!" Pinkie exclaimed, falling backwards into Rarity. Twilight still looked much more like a critter caught in the glare of a cockatrice than a pony capable of understanding words. Rarity got up, setting Pinkie down and scooching past her, and walked over to Twilight, putting a hoof around her back and leading her over to the bed. "As I was saying, Pinkie arrived at my boutique having suffered a simply awful trauma, and I felt that it was my duty to tend to her." Closing her mouth, Twilight's eyes refocused for the first time as the idea of one of her friends being upset made its way into her brain. "Oh-oh. What... What's wrong, Pinkie?" Pinkie lifted her hooves up into the air. "Did you see the chocolate pony on your way here, Twilight?" "...Yes?" Twilight responded. "Well, she's what's wrong! Or her chocolate!" Pinkie turned over onto her side. "...Huh?" [Time] "I just wanted to have some chocolate! Just a piece! And it looked so good..." Pinkie said, her voice quivering with anguish. "So I bought a piece, and I ate it. AND IT WAS AWFUL!" she cried, completing her 180 and smooshing her face into the plush sheets of Rarity's bed. "It was bitter, and nasty, and I think it might have been filled with coconut! I love coconut, but not in my chocolate! Who puts coconut in chocolate anyway!" Twilight opened her mouth to reply, but Pinkie was not yet done. "And worst of all? Worst of ALL!? It. Was. TINY! Like seriously, it was smaller than my hoof! How anypony could ever smile after eating that... That THING... I just don't get it, Twilight. I just don't," Pinkie said, sounding in real and true pain at the thought. "As you can see, Twilight, Pinkie was most disturbed by Sees Candy's most recent batch of gourmet chocolates," Rarity said. "While I may not agree completely with her point of view--I simply love her work--I can see the sense behind it. Gourmet chocolate is not for everypony, I'm afraid." Twilight simply closed her mouth.