When Rarity awoke the next morning she was surprised to hear the sound of a machine chugging downstairs. It sounded almost like somepony was using her sewing machine. But who would be using…
“Oh. He. Didn’t!” Even though she was sure that Hatter had a great sense of style those were her tools, she reasoned as she galloped out of her room and down the stairs, and nopony uses another pony’s tools. That was just common decency.
As she cleared the final few stairs and laid eyes upon the main room of the boutique her anger leaked away to surprise at the sight before her. It was…fabulous.
All of her ponyquins were now adorned with hats to match their clothing, each hat designed to enhance the clothes but not overshadow them. A black bowler hat complimented a tuxedo she had been designing for Fancy Pants whilst a wide-brimmed white piece sat atop the ponyquin who wore Fleur De Lis’ new summer dress.
In the middle of the room Hatter was sat at the work table, in the process of creating. From what she could see around his bulky frame, the hat that was taking shape in his skilled hands appeared to glitter and shine as light reflected off of it’s visible surfaces. The work stopped as Hatter looked up and turned around, noticing his pony observer.
“Oh…I am so sorry, dear Rarity, the urge to create was just too strong. I shall of course pay for any materials that I used, also I made you this in apology for my actions.”
He then held up the hat he had been making for Rarity to judge. It was a demure white top hat, much smaller than the one that adorned Hatter’s own head. Instead of encompassing the head as his did, this one was designed to sit atop the head and add just the right amount of style. It was a pearly white, much like Rarity’s coat, and was trimmed in a deep royal purple, just off hue from her mane so that it didn’t blend in to it. The hat seemed to glimmer with a strange sparkling effect giving it an ethereal feel, much like the manes of the alicorn princesses.
“How…how did you do all this? In one night? Is that for me? Oh my, it’s wonderful, thank you so much Hatter! How can I ever repay you for this? And how is it sparkling like that? Its beautiful”
“It’s an old trick from back home, its known as stardust…because it is exactly that. The remains of a fallen star are gathered up and ground down to create this wondrous dust that sparkles like the starry night. It’s a good thing I had some on me, the hat wouldn’t be quite complete otherwise. I hope you like it, consider it both a gift and an apology”
He crossed the room and placed the hat upon Rarity’s head then stepped back to examine it’s effect. He stuck his tongue out of the side of his mouth in concentration and formed a square with his fingers, as if trapping Rarity inside of a portrait. He then adjusted the hat so it sat at an angle on her head, giving her a jaunty look. He nodded at the slightly more casual effect and smiled in satisfaction.
She immediately rushed off to find a mirror, desperate to find out how the hat looked on her. Hatter’s smile of satisfaction was interrupted by Cheshire.
“Why didn’t you tell her the truth about the dust?”
“Well, I doubt she would have been quite as pleased with the hat if she knew that it’s effects were caused by pixie flatulence”
Cheshire was silent for a moment as he imagined the fashionista’s reaction to the disgusting truth behind ‘Pixie Dust’. He snapped out of it as he heard the sound of Rarity returning and quickly pretended to be asleep. Hatter, also snapping out of the mental image of Rarity being disgusted, smiled at her.
“Now then the day is young and so are we, well you are at least, I admit the years are beginning to weigh down on my. Anyways, I don’t expect my mode of transport to arrive until later so I believe we should go into town and meet the people…I mean ponies. So then, my Lady Rarity, may I treat you to breakfast?”
“Of course, I know this lovely little place, what do you eat anyways?” she asked, slightly nervous at the answer she might receive.
“Oh you know, cakes mostly” he answered as he opened the door for her.
“In that case, I believe I know just the place”
Ponyville was an entirely different place during the early hours. Ponies, almost used to his appearance and mollified by the presence of one of the Elements of Harmony, didn’t flee in terror at the sight of him and continued their early morning rituals. Many ponies were setting up stalls in the town square which had held their tea party the previous day whilst shops opened their doors to customers and mail ponies began their rounds.
Rarity and Hatter were deeply engaged in their conversation on latest equestrian hat fashion when they arrived at their destination. A shop built to look like a giant gingerbread house. Hatter looked at it with some surprise, initially this world had seemed far less crazy than his own but it appeared it still had some surprises up it’s metaphorical sleeves.
He was surprised once more as the entrance to the gingerbread shop burst open and, instead of the children-eating witch that Hatter was half expecting to emerge, a pink blur shot out and tackled him to the ground.
“Hatter! It’s so good to see you again! Even though we only saw each other yesterday it’s always nice to meet with friends, especially ones as fun as you and speaking of fun I was going to throw you a surprise party but then you went and surprised me by showing up so early which was really surprising and would you like some cupcakes? They’re freshly baked”
“I would love some, thank you very much” he managed to say. As soon as the words had left his mouth he found a pink hoof grabbing his jaw, somehow, and opening it as wide as it went. A cupcake was then placed inside his mouth and Pinkie manually moved his jaw, making him chew on the confectionary. He was about to protest this then all thoughts of complaint were ceased by the flavour he tasted. The cupcake had a wonderful texture, soft and moist, whilst the icing on top was rich and sugary. He reminded himself that he must find someway to repay Pinkie for this heavenly sweet, perhaps a hat or a song? Hmmm Ode to Cupcakes…could work.
He got up and dusted himself, idly noting that this was twice in as many days that ponies had knocked him to the ground, he hoped it wouldn’t be a running theme around here. Having finished the cupcake that had been force fed to him he found himself wanting more, so he entered the store alongside Pinkie and Rarity to acquire exactly that.
The interior of Pinkie’s workplace was just as candy-coated as the exterior. The walls were decorated with sweets and cakes of all sizes and descriptions covered the every available surface. The pillars that held up the gingerbread roof appeared to be partially made of candy-canes and there was even candy-canes in a vase to one side of the door, kept there as if they were umbrellas.
Pinkie hopped ahead of the others and leapt over the counter at the other end of the shop, going through a pair of swinging doors into what Hatter supposed must be the kitchen. She returned a couple of moments later with a plate of cupcakes and cookies, which she placed on the counter before the hungry duo.
“Here you are, fresh out of the oven” she cheerfully bounced back into the kitchen to continue her baking. It wasn’t long before they heard singing coming from the back room, evidently Pinkie liked to sing whilst she worked.
Rarity and Hatter looked at the plate before them, full of delicious treats, then at each other, then back at the plate. Their awkward pause was interrupted by a hungry growling that came from both of their stomachs. All pretence abandoned as they realised that one was just as hungry as the other, they dug into their breakfast.
Looking up for a moment, he noticed Pinkie had returned and she had brought…was that a cannon? Staring down the barrel of the weapon that might bring his doom Hatter made a split second decision. Pushing Rarity out of the way of the cannon, he leapt to one side himself and prepared himself for battle against his pink adversary.
-Canterlot-
Celestia was walking through the Royal Gardens, her wandering hoofs walking the route by memory. To any observer it would be obvious that the Princess of the Sun was not concentrating on her path. Her eyes stared off into the distance, and her face was set into a completely neutral expression.
The meeting with Hatter had brought up some memories that she had been trying to let go of for centuries. Memories that pained her more than any physical would ever could. Memories of her only friends in the entire world.
The first was obviously Luna. The two alicorns had grown up together and had been as close as two sisters could be. True, they occasionly mocked each other and their was a couple of pranks that had got out of hand but they were sisters and they loved each other. That was until the Nightmare Moon incident had forced Celestia to banish Luna to the moon for a thousand years. Her own sister, and she had been forced to lock her away to protect her subjects. And because of this she had lost one of her few friends for a thousand years.
The next was certainly unusual and not a friend any princess would have expected to have. Hatter. A creature from another world who brought madness and fun wherever he went. He had cheered the sisters up whenever they had been upset and would often amuse them with his tricks and unusual dances. However he had an ally in the entertainment of the alicorn princesses. An ally that nopony in Equestria would ever expect the Princess to consider her friend.
Discord, known throughout Equestria as the spirit of Disharmony and Chaos. He, along with Hatter, had been an unstoppable force of pranks and parties for the Alicorns. Whenever the events at court got them down, whenever the stubborn stupidity of the noble houses made them want to facehoof, they were always there to cheer them up.
Together the four of them, two alicorns, a draconequus and a human had been inseparable. Although the princesses had a busy schedule they would often find the time to meet with their friends. The noblest of ponies, who came to court to complain to the princesses about whatever issue had upset their silver-plated world, would often find themselves dyed embarrassing shades of pink by Discord or receive a impromptu tea party by Hatter.
This all changed when Discord’s pranks began to get mean. His jokes would take darker and darker shades until his friends could not ignore it anymore. He would teleport entire villages across Equestria or make a Hydra appear in the middle of a city to scare its populace. The final straw came when he began to change ponies. He would steal away a pegasus’ wings or a unicorn horn to see how they would react. The princesses could no longer claim that he was their friend, he was now a threat to their subjects. They had been forced to use the Elements of Harmony to end his tyranny, and in the process had lost a friend.
Hatter had been devastated by the loss of Discord, even though he understood the necessity of it. He grew more and more distant from Celestia and Luna until one day he received a summons to return to his old world. It was with a heavy heart that he left Equestria and his friends, but he expected to return soon and help them through their emotional troubles over what they had had to do to Discord. However he had not returned. The gate between worlds had been closed and they had not opened again until recently.
Although she was glad to have one of her oldest friends back with her, she was not glad to have old, painful memories back. She snapped out of her reverie to find herself at the foot of one of the statues that she had been avoiding for a thousand years. The statue that served as the prison for Discord. She felt a presence next to her and looked over at her sister. The nuzzled each other before looking back up at the statue.
“Oh Discord, whatever are we going to do with you…”