Chapter 5: Wrinkle Resistance
Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever shopped here before, thought Snips as he stood outside the Carousel Boutique. The little unicorn pulled out the jewel that Diamond Tiara gave him. He could see his tiny, pink reflection staring back at him. I guess there’s a first time for everything. He stuffed the jewel back in his saddlebags.
The front door jingled when Snips entered. Ponyville’s premiere clothing store had everything and more to offer in the way of fashion. As somepony who had never given too much thought to his appearance, Snips was a little overwhelmed. Where do I start?
“Hey Snips, welcome to the Carousel Boutique!” Sweetie Belle said, appearing from behind the front counter. “What brings you by?”
“I’m here to buy a suit. I need a really nice one.”
“Well, you’ve come to the right place!” Sweetie Belle swelled with pride.
Snips glanced around the store for any other signs of life. “Is your sister home? I would like to see her finest work.”
Sweetie Belle’s head drooped. “Rarity’s actually not here today. She and her friends went to the Crystal Empire. They’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Oh, I see.” Snips did not even attempt to mask his disappointment.
Sweetie Belle stepped up her energy. “But don’t worry! Rarity put me in charge until she gets back. If there’s something you want, I’m sure I can get it for you.”
Snips placed his saddlebags by the entrance. “What can I get with this?” Snips whipped out the shiny pink jewel.
The white unicorn stammered. “Oh, my!” Rarity’s going to jump over the moon if I make this sale! She coughed as she regained her composure. “Well, our more expensive colt apparel is this way.”
Sweetie Belle led Snips to the back to the store. Along the way, they passed outfits of all shapes and sizes. Snips felt like a fish out of water. The more time he spent in the store, the more he realized just how little he cared about fashion. When he and Sweetie Belle passed through a short hallway, Snips stopped to gawk at several pony mannequins in the other rooms adorned with flashy sashes and necklaces. He could hardly believe that so many shades of color existed. The little colt felt his stomach begin to twist. “Uh, the colts’ wear is more toned down than this, right?”
Sweetie Belle giggled. “Relax. Those are Rarity’s commissions for some clientele from Canterlot. High society ponies have interesting taste, don’t they?”
Snips could not tear his eyes away from the dresses. “I just can’t see the appeal. Why would ponies from Canterlot want these?” Is this how Diamond wishes that she dressed?
Sweetie Belle straightened her posture and held up one hoof. “As Rarity often says, ‘don’t you know the client’s always right?’ Oh, before we go further, I need your measurements.”
The colt blinked. “My measurements? What do you mean?”
Sweetile Belle tilted her head and cocked an eyebrow. “You don’t go shopping for clothes very much, do you?”
Embarrassment drifted into his voice. “Not really.”
The white unicorn hid a smile. “Although we have lots of suits here, we need exact measurements for things like your waist, coat size, and a bunch of other stuff. You don’t just buy a suit off the shelf. We’re in the business of tailor-made clothes. We’re going to make a suit for Snips and Snips alone.”
This level of attention made Snips feel special, and gave him a glimpse into Diamond Tiara’s life. Now I can see why Diamond seeks out this kind of stuff. “What do we do first?”
Sweetie Belle went to work. “Stand over here.” Right before Snips’s eyes, it was as if Sweetie Belle started channeling Rarity. Each of her movements was instinctive. She placed him in front of a three-fold mirror. “Spread your hooves out, please. Make a rectangle.”
Snips obliged, stretching his legs and stiffening them. After giving himself a quick scan in the mirror, he noticed that Sweetie Belle had disappeared. Before he broke his posture, she reappeared with a measuring tape. “Hold still, please,” she ordered.
The white filly draped the tape around his neck. She gently squeezed and loosened it until it naturally wrapped around him. Snips remained motionless as each of his limbs were measured at different angles. At one point, he laughed when she wrapped the tape around his waist.
“I know it tickles, just a moment. I need to get this.” Sweetie Belle didn’t even crack a smile as she spoke with surgical focus. Her no-nonsense attitude startled him into keeping quiet. Once she finished, Sweetie Belle allowed the tape to automatically reel back into itself. “There! We’re done.”
Snips had to shake out his legs. “I don’t know how those Royal Canterlot Guards stand in place for so long. What do we do next?”
Sweetie Belle’s horn glowed. “Now we need to put an actual suit on you. That way we can then fit it to your measurements.” Using her horn’s magic, she summoned a suit from a collection rack. “I like this one because it’s wool. You can wear it for hours without wrinkling. With a jewel like yours, we can go for the finer pieces. What do you think?”
Diamond and I will be tearing it up on the dance floor. Wrinkle resistance sounds useful. “Hypothetically speaking, do you think this suit would be acceptable for a fancy filly, like, say… Diamond Tiara?”
Sweetie Belle crinkled her brow. Why would anypony want her approval? Though she could ponder over that question for many days, she could at least give Snips an answer. “Well, when she’s not calling my friends and me ‘blank-flanks’, she does seem to have a good sense of fashion, so, yeah! I’m willing to bet that this is Diamond Tiara-approved.”
Thank Celestia! Snips displayed his buck teeth in a mighty grin. “I’ll take it!”
In her excitement, Sweetie Belle thought out loud. “Awesome! Get ready to jump over the moon, Rarity!”
Snips didn’t understand what that meant, but he didn’t care. He was proud of himself for buying his Sadie Hoofkins getup. He envisioned himself twirling Diamond Tiara at the dance with everypony watching.
The two ponies left the fitting room and went back to the front of the store. Snips went to gather his saddlebags as Sweetie Belle went behind the cash register. Once more, Snips pulled out his jewel and gave it to her. She weighed it before disappearing under the counter to pull out the store safe. When she came back up, she rested the safe and jewel next to the register. “Jewels as valuable as this don’t belong in the register. That’s one of the first things Rarity taught me when I started out.” The white unicorn twisted the safe’s knob until there was a metallic click.
When she put the safe back, she looked as if she had something on her mind. “I don’t mean to be nosey, Snips, but do you mind if I ask what the occasion is for this suit? I mean, it’s something colts would wear for the Grand Galloping Gala, and we’re too young for that.” The white filly printed out his receipt and handed it to him.
He took the receipt, and his eyes flared as he caught the total at the bottom. “Well, okay, if you must know, I need to get this suit for the Sadie Hoofkins Dance.”
Sweetie Belle’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious?! Who are you going with?”
Before their conversation could proceed any further, the front door jingled again. Entering the store were Sweetie Belle’s best friends, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. “Hey Sweetie, we’re here!” said the orange Pegasus.
Apple Bloom saw Snips right away. “Snips! What’re you doing here?”
Before Snips could say a word, Sweetie Belle yelled out “Girls, Snips has a date to the Sadie Hookfins Dance!”
The two fillies’ eyes lit up. Snips noticed that Sweetie Belle had come out from around the counter and stood behind him. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo quickly advanced, leaving him with no escape.
“Who’s the lucky filly?” Apple Bloom asked.
Snips crammed the receipt into his bags. “I’m sorry, but I’m not allowed to tell.”
“Oh, come on! You can tell us.” Scootaloo planted her hooves on the floor as if she were about to take off for a race. “Who is she? Is it Twist?”
Snips shook his head. “No, it’s not Twist.”
Sweetie Belle rubbed her chin. “Hmm, Cyan Skies?”
The colt shook his head again. “Not her either.”
Apple Bloom hesitated before taking a wild guess. “Dinky Doo?”
“First of all, Dinky is Rumble’s fillyfriend. Second, no.”
Sweetie Belle walked past Snips to be on her friends’ side. “Why can’t you tell us? Have you been sworn to secrecy or something?”
Snips paused, and then spoke. “Actually, yes.”
Scootaloo’s little wings buzzed with excitement. “Okay, now we have to know. Really, what’s the big deal? We’re going to find out at the dance, so what difference does it make if we know now?”
A little thought prodded his mind. You did tell Snails already. “Okay, I’ll tell you,” he took a deep breath. “I’m going to the Sadie Hoofkins with Diamond Tiara.”
There were no words. The silence was so deafening that even the chirping birds outside could be heard through the glass windows. The three fillies’ eyes were the size of dinner plates.
Scootaloo spoke first. “Say that again, Snips?”
“Diamond Tiara. She’s my date to the dance.”
“We heard you, but… what?”
Snips stood his ground. “I already told you. Diamond Tiara asked me to the dance and I said ‘yes’.”
A mischievous grin flitted across Sweetie Belle’s face. “Hypothetically speaking, eh?”
Snips blushed and couldn’t think of anything to say.
Apple Bloom took the floor. “How long have you and Diamond been together?”
Snips’s stance wilted. “Uh, she told me yesterday that I was taking her to the dance.” Upon saying the word “yesterday,” the little colt could see the outbreak of skepticism on their faces.
Each filly had her own horrible opinion of Diamond Tiara, but Apple Bloom continued with her questioning. “Snips, it’s really none of our business, but you and Diamond Tiara? I’ve never seen her be nice to anypony but Silver Spoon.”
Snips was not going to go down this familiar road. He took one forceful step forward. “Look, Diamond and I just spent the afternoon together hoof-painting, and I need to get home. I appreciate your concern, but Snails and I already had this conversation. I know the world has it out for Diamond, and that she rubs ponies the wrong way, but she deserves a chance to be taken seriously. I’m tired of all the neigh-saying.”
None of the fillies had a response. They wanted to pry, but Snips’s mood showed them that it would be unwise to test his patience. The colt threw the topic right back at them. “What about you three? Have you fillies asked anypony to the dance?”
Sweetie Belle smiled inwardly. “I did. I asked Featherweight.”
Snips gave a nod, “You and Feathers? Nice.” He turned to Apple Bloom. “How about you?”
The little Earth pony brightened up. “Yeah, I’m taking Lance.”
Snips’s mind drew a blank. “Lance? Who’s that?”
“I fenced with him when I had the Cutie Pox. After I got better, he wanted to keep fencing, but I couldn’t, since, well, that’s not my thing! I promised to make it up to him, so I figured I’d take him to the Sadie Hoofkins.”
Snips thought harder, but he still could not put a face to her date. “Does Lance go to our school? I’ve never seen him before.”
Apple Bloom “He doesn’t go to our school. In fact, I’m sure the only time he’s been around was during my Cutie Pox. Still, I asked Miss Cheerilee if it would be okay to bring him and she said it was. So, yeah, I’m going with Lance.”
Snips turned to Scootaloo. “And what about you?”
“Rainbow Dash is going to be a chaperone, so I’ll just hang with her.”
Figures. Snips tightened the strap around his saddlebags. “Right, I’m out of here. Thank you again, Sweetie, for all your help today.”
The white filly perked up. “It was my pleasure! Come back in a few days and everything will be ready.”
“Will do!” Snip trotted off and left the store. When the door closed behind him, the three fillies remained unmoving in the center of the store. Snips and Diamond Tiara. Never did any of them expect to see the day those two would get together. They were left with so many unanswered questions.
Apple Bloom broke the silence. “Hoof-painting? Isn’t that for pre-school ponies?”