Connor
Three days had gone by after Connor received his check. And within those three days, Connor had done absolutely nothing; again. Rainbow Dash had given him some days off indefinitely as her own haphazard way to earn favors from Connor. He told Rainbow that he would be fine as the weather schedule for the days to come were pretty easy and he didn’t mind having the work. But Rainbow Dash insisted on him taking leave days for ‘Working so hard’ for her.
He eventually gave up with arguing and accepted the leave from work. He tried to think of things to do for the first day he was given off and eventually just went on a small shopping spree. He bought some hygiene products for his bathroom, an alarm clock for his nightstand, a pair of saddle bags of his own, and some snacks to store in his room. He browsed around the shops for any kind of knick-knacks that he may want, but found nothing of interest.
After stashing his new things in his rented room, he wandered aimlessly around Ponyville again. But it wasn’t like the previous times he had walked down the streets. Before now, it was to allow him to think while trying to plan out his game. And before that, it was to cope with his depression. Now, he did it to give the illusion that he was still moving, or that the world around him was still moving. He didn’t have any clear goals in mind and no random ideas were popping into his head. It was that phase of simply existing and waiting for something to happen.
For the next two days, it was the same routine. He would get up some time late in the morning, clean himself up before heading down stairs to make some food for himself before he would wander around town like a lost ghost or find someplace to sit and stare blankly at the masses. Despite having made a hit game, he couldn’t find the desire to ask somepony to start a game with him. He still enjoyed watching others play and it brought a smile to his lips every time he saw children and ponies of every age screaming and yelling in delight as one either scored a really good hit or made an epic dodge through a cloud of blue powder.
On the fourth day, Connor was sitting on a park bench that was recently repaired watching the grass grow and the water from the stream flow. Boredom radiated from Connor as ponies passed by happily talking about their day. He didn’t even notice Rainbow Dash trying to get his attention until she waved a hoof an inch away from his nose and punched him in the shoulder.
“Equestria to Connor, come in?” Rainbow chided in an irritated voice.
Connor yanked himself out of his trance to stare wide eyed at Rainbow before relaxing, “Oh, hey Rainbow. What’s up?”
“Uh, I just finished cloud busting for today. What’s up with you?”
Connor returned to staring at the fields again, “Uhhmmm, nothing much. Just, sitting here, doing nothing…”
“I can see that,” she commented, “Shouldn’t you be doing rich pony things, like buying mansions or something?” she waved her hoof in the air trying to come up with ideas.
“No, that would be boring…” Connor sighed.
“More boring than staring at a mare sniff some flowers?”
“Wuh??”
Rainbow pointed at a pony standing several meters away in front of a flower bed with an uncomfortable smile on her face as Connor realized that he was indeed staring in her direction without even knowing.
“Oh crab, sorry,” he quickly adverted his gaze in embarrassment.
Rainbow Dash stepped in front of Connor to get his full attention, “Alright, what’s the big deal? A few days ago, you were doing just fine with working and having time off. Now after you got that sweet pay check, you’re all mopey and zombie like. I haven’t seen you once in the air or playing your Paint Wars game. What’s going on?”
“I-I don’t know,” Connor admitted, “I can’t really think of anything to do. I mean, I don’t have anything to aim for and I can pretty much get anything I want, so…” he trailed off unable to explain himself any more.
Rainbow Dash stared at Connor for a second before sighing angrily, “Alright, come on you!” she grabbed Connor under the forelegs and started flying him back into town.
“Rainbow, what the hen are you doing?” Connor didn’t resist, but questioned her nonetheless.
“You and I are going to go a few rounds in Paint Wars! And I don’t want to hear any whining about it!”
“Well, my bags are at my place right now-”
“Great! Go get them and I’ll be back in a few seconds!” she dropped Connor and he skidded across the ground a little before coming to a halt.
“Hang on, wait!” Connor shouted after her. But Rainbow Dash was already gone to retrieve whatever she was going to need.
He groaned and mumbled incoherently to himself as he trotted back to his apartment room to get his saddle bags. He briefly greeted Mrs. Meadows on his way up to his room to get his bags before leaving and travelling back to the place where Rainbow had dropped him. a minute passed by and Rainbow returned with her own saddle bags on and carrying two large, brown, paper bags filled with red markers and blue chaff balloons in her hooves. She set them down in front of her before barking another order.
“Alright, load up!”
Connor looked at Rainbow with his annoyance like he had so many times before, but started placing four of each into his saddle bags.
“Uh-uh, we’re not playing by your rules! I want you to fill those bags up to the top!”
“Rainbow, we really don’t have to do this,” Connor complained but Rainbow wasn’t taking ‘No’ for an answer.
“I said, START FILLING!!!” she bellowed at the top of her lungs.
“FINE, JEEZ!!!” Connor dumped the balloons in his bags until they were bulging. Rainbow did the same thing then tossed the bags to the side.
“Okay, we’re going to play until both of us run out of balloons.”
“Are you serious!?” Connor shouted in angry dismay while eyeing both his and Rainbow’s stuffed bags.
“On your mark, get set, GO!!” Rainbow Dash pulled out a blue chaff and pelted Connor in the face.
Connor coughed and spat out the blue powder from his mouth while waving a hoof back and forth to clear the air. When the blue cloud had dissipated, Rainbow was circling above waiting for Connor. He gritted his teeth in anger and glared at Rainbow.
“Alright, fine. I’m going to knock you out of the sky faster than you can count to twenty without using your feathers for help!” He pushed off the ground and followed after Rainbow Dash. She let out a smug laugh and headed for the fields.
The two fliers twirled around each other as they fought in the air. They dipped, sliced, weaved, looped, stalled, and rolled in every available space they could find. They flew through the open airs of the fields, danced between the clouds high above the town, and blasted down the town streets throwing markers and chaff with reckless abandon.
Since neither of them had to worry about balloon count, Rainbow Dash and Connor threw as much as they could hoping that one of the many balloons they threw would hit. Connor was pelted repeatedly with red paint and blue powder and his coat was becoming sticky with dried and powdered paint. But Connor was landing just as many hits on Rainbow as she was on him.
They fought with each other for several hours, only taking breaks to get drinks or snacks. By the time they were finished, the sun was starting it’s decent behind the horizon with the moon slowly peeking over the other side waiting for the sun to fully set. Rainbow Dash and Connor laid sprawled out on the grass lawn in the park gasping for air after they had finally called it quits for the day. Their bags were completely empty of any markers and chaff balloons and every part of their bodies were crusty with dried paint and blue dust falling off them with every movement
“Hah, not bad, hah, for my cadet-in-training, hah,” Rainbow said a little breathlessly.
“Yeah,” Connor gasped while trying to recover. He wasn’t quite as fit as Rainbow was when it came to endurance flying, but he was getting better.
They both began chuckling at each other’s fatigue before it rolled into hearty laughter. They laid there in the grass relaxing as a pleasant breeze blew across their bodies cooling them off. As their laughter died down to happy smiles, Connor stared up at the sky glad that he still had others around him to pull him up from those annoying static moments in life and brighten his day. He stared at the waning sunset colors streaked across the sky as he felt another pinging sensation of his mind taking off into another tangent. He face dropped to a neutral expression again as he laid there and followed this new train of thought.
Rainbow sat up to get a better view of Connor. She recognized that blank expression before and gave a worried frown.
“Hey Connor, you’re not about to go back to being all weird again where you stare into space, are you?”
“Huh? Oh, no, I was just thinking. I had another idea pop into my head again and I’m wondering if we might be able to do it.”
“Really?” she asked excitedly, “Come on, tell what you got! If there’s one thing I can do, it’s make things awesome!”
Connor sat up and smiled at her eagerness to hear his idea. “Okay, so you know how Paint Wars is becoming this huge thing everywhere in this world, right?”
“Yeah…”
“And you’ve heard how almost every pony around is starting up games everywhere?”
“Yeah…!” she urged Connor to hurry up and get to the point.
“Well I was thinking that maybe-”
“Delivery for a Mr. Connor!”
Connor and Rainbow looked up a grey Pegasus mare hovering overhead wearing a mailmare’s uniform and a bag laden with envelopes and small packages. She gave a cheery smile as she looked at Connor.
“That’s me,” Connor answered the delivery pony.
The mailmare’s smile broadened and she dug in the bag to pull out an envelope and gave it to Connor.
He stood up tried to wipe some of the paint and dust off one of his hooves (which didn’t do that much) before grabbing the letter from her.
“Thank you,” Connor tossed the response at the mailmare while he was distracted with turning the envelope over in his hooves.
“Your welcome! Have a nice day!” The mailmare flapped a little harder continuing her last few deliveries for the day.
Connor flipped the letter over to look at its addresses and postage while Rainbow butted in to look as well.
“What do think it is?” she asked before Connor could finish reading.
“I don’t know. Why don’t I open it and find out?” he said mockingly.
Rainbow rolled her eyes at Connor’s teasing which made him smile slightly before ripping the letter with his teeth. He poured the contents out into his waiting hoof and was rewarded with another tri-folded letter and a small pile of tickets tucked inside the letter. He looked at the contents questionably as he felt the small pile of paper inside the letter wondering what this could all be. He dumped the tickets back in the envelope and unfolded the letter to read.
“Dear Mr. Connor,” he read out loud, “You are hereby invited to attend the party in celebration of your achievement of making the next biggest game in Equestria, to be held in the royal castle in Canterlot this Thursday at 7:30 PM.”
“What?! A party at the castle just for you?! Let me see!” Rainbow tried to snatch the letter out of Connor’s hooves, but he moved outside of her reach.
“Hang on! I’m not finished reading yet!” Rainbow growled to herself as Connor continued reading, “Okay, let’s see here... more congratulations… we would appreciate your presence at the party… ah, as for such a momentous occasion in your success, we have given you the opportunity to bring a party of up to ten ponies, including yourself, to join you in your great accomplishment; formal wear is required. So those things in the envelope are tickets for me to pass out to others to bring with me.”
He looked up from his letter to glance at Rainbow to his left and found her mere inches away from his face hovering excitedly. “Please, please, pleeeeaase will you take me with you to the party? It would be so cool to go and visit the castle again for a party like this one!”
Rainbow had her hooves clasped together in a begging manner while Connor leaned back to get some breathing room.
“Uhhh, I guess? I mean, I don’t have anyone else to give these to.”
“Yes!!” Rainbow Dash swooped up the envelope and dumped one of the tickets in her hooves while giving the rest back to Connor, “Wooohooo!! I can’t wait to have another party in the castle! And it’s only two days away!”
“Wait, only two days?” Rainbow paused in her excitement to answer Connor’s question.
“Yeah, today’s Tuesday.”
“Oh crate! I don’t have anything to wear that’s fancy enough for a castle!” Connor’s eyes shot wide as his mind started panicking.
“Oh don’t worry! I think Rarity wouldn’t mind helping you out with this.”
Connor stopped and listened to Rainbow’s words for a second to stop his mind from spiraling out of control. Rarity was good at making formal wear and was probably generous enough to do him a favor this one time. Connor slowed his mind and reassured himself that he had plenty of time to get ready for the show.
“Okay; do you think Rarity might be willing to make a suit for me when I ask her tomorrow?”
“Probably,” Rainbow shrugged.
“Alright then, I’ll see her tomorrow about getting me a suit. I’ll talk to you later, Rainbow!” he waved goodbye to her as he trotted back to his apartment in town.
Before he arrived at his place, Connor made a quick stop off at Twilight’s library to give her the news about the party in Canterlot. She was overjoyed to hear about the party and gave her own congratulations to him. He thanked her for the kind words before offering a ticket to her to join Connor at the party. Twilight told him that she would love to come along for the party. Connor thanked Twilight for joining him and asked if she could pass out the rest of his tickets to her friends since they were kind enough to help him during his first moments in this world. Twilight was more than willing to do that and even offered a ticket to Spike who gladly took it.
With the rest of his tickets taken care of, Connor headed home to end the day and get ready for his talk with Rarity in the morning.
~~~
The next morning, Connor’s alarm went off at around 9:30. He fumbled around with the off switch on it for a second before silence finally graced his ears again. But he couldn’t fall back to sleep because he had things he needed to get done by the end of the day. After a quick cleaning up of himself and some food, he left the home of Mrs. Meadows and set out for Rarity’s shop, Carousel Boutique.
His plan was to arrive sometime after 10:00 to give the shop some time to open up. He didn’t want to arrive as soon as the store opened so he wouldn’t look desperate, but he didn’t want to arrive too late and not have the suit ready to go by tomorrow. If Rainbow Dash and Twilight’s word were anything to go by, Rarity was capable of pumping out multiple outfits in a single day.
The shop came into view and pushed the door open to enter. The door chime rang overhead as his eyes fell upon the somewhat familiar shop floor. The racks filled with various clothes still took up a portion of the room while the other was filled with mirrors and stands. But Connor was looking for Rarity amidst all the high class clothes.
He spotted Rarity come down the stairs from across the room wearing a welcoming smile.
“Welcome to-, oh Connor!! It’s so good to see you!” she trotted up to give him a brief hug. Connor froze from the strange affection and peered over his shoulder hoping to not see a furious purple dragon behind him.
“I’m so glad you stopped by when you did. I just wanted to thank you for your generous investment in my shop! Who knew you could be such a gentlecolt.” Rarity had thankfully ended the hug long before she stopped talking and Connor stared at Rarity in a daze.
“My investment?”
“Why yes! You put quite a lot of bits into Carousel Boutique that I was able to get some more quality string for some well-paying customers’ outfits.”
“Oh, yeah, that. Yeah, no problem Rarity.” Connor faked a smile of appreciation. He was going to need to speak to Twilight afterwards and get a report on just how much his ‘Investment’ was divided amongst the businesses in Ponyville.
But he shook his head and refocused on what he needed to do, “Rarity, I need to ask a favor of you.”
“But of course, dear! What I can I help you with?” she smiled warmly.
“Well, I have a party at the castle in Canterlot tomorrow, but I don’t have anything formal to wear. I was wondering if you might be able to help with that in return I could give you a ticket to join the party.”
“Really? You would give me a ticket to your party at the castle?” Rarity gaped in amazement.
“Sure. I mean, you were willing to give me a second chance when I first got here so I guess this is my way of saying ‘Thank you’. Do you want to come?”
Rarity bounced with joy, “Oh Connor, I would love too! And all you need is a suit to go, correct?”
Connor nodded, “Yes.”
“Then right this way, dear. Oh, it’s always exciting when there is a party at the castle no matter what’s it’s for! Would you please stand on the display pedestal over there please while I get my note pad?”
Connor nodded again and took his place on the stand while Rarity levitated out a pencil and a note pad to draw ideas on. She paced around the stand muttering ideas to herself as she drew out a couple of quick sketches of ideas.
“Is there anything in particular you would like to have with your suit?” Rarity asked as she made her third trip around Connor.
“Well, I would like this to be a full piece suit with pants and everything. But I would like the suit to be cut a little bit on the relaxed side; not baggy though.”
Rarity hummed to herself in concentration, “Hmm, well I still have your measurements from the last time you were here… I think I can manage a request like that! Why don’t you come down here and see which design you would like.”
Connor gladly hopped down from the pedestal and looked over the drawing Rarity had on her note pad. As his eyes drifted over every detail on the drawing, his smile grew broader and broader until he was grinning from ear to ear.
“Wow Rarity! That looks amazing! Yeah, that will definitely work!”
Rarity gave her own confident smile, “Excellent! Then I will start on it this instant and have it ready before sunset.”
Great! Thanks Rarity, I’ll see you this afternoon then!” Connor turned like he was about to leave the shop when Rarity shouted to stop him.
“Oh, no no no no, where do you think you’re going?!” she said accusingly.
Connor flinched as he realized that they still needed to discuss pay. “Right, sorry Rarity. I guess I forgot to talk to you about how much this whole thing is going to cost.”
“Cost?” she said in a confused voice, “Oh, no no no dear. This has nothing to do with cost. This is my little favor, remember?”
Connor tilted his head in his own bewilderment, “Okay, then what is this about?”
“Well Connor, dear. You simply can't go to the castle looking like that!” she gestured to all of Connor’s appearance.
“What do you mean?” Connor retorted slightly hurt.
“I simply cannot allow a pony go to the castle looking like he was raised in barn! Your coat is all, igh, dirty and your wings could easily do with some care; and your mane! Your mane could use a bit of a touch up and some brushing at the very least!”
Connor frowned at Rarity’s critique of his hygiene, “I shower every morning, thank you very much.”
“Well dear, you could use a bit of help,” Rarity pointed out, “Tell you what, why don’t you go down to the spa in town and get freshened up for the castle while I work on your new suit. Just tell them ‘Rarity sent you and that need to get ready for a party in the Canterlot castle’. The lovely attendants will take care of everything else.”
Connor grumbled to himself, but turned back to the door to leave for the spa. Rarity waved a graceful goodbye before she walked back into her work room. Connor thought this whole ‘Spa’ thing was going to be a waste of time, but he wanted her help and he guessed this was part of her help. Just one problem; he had no idea where the spa was in Ponyville, or if it even had one.
After asking several ponies for directions, Connor eventually found the spa in Ponyville. He had fabricated an excuse to tell ponies who asked why he wanted to go to the spa as a couple of them tried to hide their snickering. His excuse was to pick up something for Rarity and he tried to scold them with his glare whenever they failed to hold back a snicker.
Now that he was standing outside of the relaxing exterior of the day spa, Connor was viewing it as like an evil castle he had to plunge into its depths to retrieve a pointless artifact that seemed more trouble than what it was worth. Plus, the whispers of a few ponies snickering behind his back was only making the situation worse for him. He tried to glare at whoever was laughing at him, but Connor couldn’t see anypony staring at him. Maybe he was going crazy.
He huffed one last time as he tried to hide his embarrassment of his first excursion to a spa in his entire life.
“This is soo stupid!” he complained to himself.
“Why do I need to go see a spa when a shower and some quick work on my hair will do just fine?”
He stepped into the lobby to find it empty to Connor’s relief. The less witnesses, the better. The lobby had the design of a children’s underwater adventure with baby blue and pink being the primary colors. It reminded Connor of the pediatric hospitals for children from his own world and how they were designed to be as relaxing and friendly as possible. The lobby itself was pretty small with only a couple of chairs to sit in and the reception desk at the other end with a doorway next to it leading into the back where the treatments were performed.
At the reception counter, a pink mare with baby blue hair smile softly at him.
“Greetings, and welcome to the Ponyville day spa!” the mare spoke with an accent that Connor could not place, “My name is Aloe. How can I help you?”
“Hi,” Connor stepped up to the counter, “My name is Connor and, um, Rarity sent me here to, ahem, get ready for a party in the Canterlot castle…” He adverted his gaze trying to hide his nervous and embarrassed feelings. He was praying that no pony was going to spot him while he was doing this.
The spa pony gave a gentle chuckle at his embarrassment, “Oh don’t worry. This is nothing to be ashamed of. Ms. Rarity has sent plenty of ponies here for one reason or another. Please, come this way and we’ll get you ready in no time!”
She waved a hoof to the side door inviting Connor to come through. On the other side of the door, the building opened up into a large room where everything from bathing to hair grooming happened. A second earth pony mare was waiting on the other side wearing a kind smile of her own. She looked like the flipped colors of Aloe where her coat was baby blue and her hair was pink.
“Good morning!” the second mare greeted warmly, “I’m Lotus and I’ll be helping with your rejuvenation process today.”
“Thanks, I just need to get ready for a party in Canterlot castle per Rarity’s orders.” Connor was ready to get this whole thing over as quickly as possible.
“Ah, of course. We know exactly what to do. Aloe?”
The two mares quickly set to work by first circling Connor several times while they babbled to each other on the treatment plan.
“Where do you think we should start first? The mane?”
“It could use a little work; some trimming here and there.”
“We are definitely going to need the softening shampoo for the coat.”
“The wings need some work and be preened; I can see dried paint on some of the feathers.”
“Do you want to work on the hooves while I work on combing out the mane and tail?”
“What do you think the ratio between the shampoo and conditioner should be?”
Connor could follow along with most of what the two spa ponies were saying, but he was just hoping that they wouldn’t keep him waiting too long before he lost his nerve and just did it his way. But the two stopped their circling and joined Connor on either side of him and guided him over to the first station of his treatment.
~~~
The treatment as a whole wasn’t an unpleasant experience for Connor. If he really wanted to be honest to himself, he might admit to enjoying it. The spa ponies started with his hair first. They trimmed up the dirty blonde trailing down the back of his neck to a neat spot. After the neck, they spent a good amount of time cutting the rest of his hair to a uniform length so it looked tidy instead of unkempt with random strands of hair sticking up. After the haircut, he showered then bathed in a bath filled with special shampoos and conditioners.
When he climbed out of the bath and dried off, the spa ponies led him to the final station in his rejuvenation process and had Connor lay down on his side on a bench. One of the spa ponies worked on filing his hooves and combing his tail while the second one preened his wings. This was the funniest feeling part of his trip. Even in his own world, Connor would always trim his own nails so having someone else do it was strange experience; coupled with the pulling and plucking of his feathers, Connor twitched in pain and shivered from the vibrations in his hooves several times.
Once that was all done, the spa ponies took one last moment to style his hair. Connor like the idea of having a cool haircut, but he didn’t want something that was over the top. He wanted to stand out just enough to seem interesting, but not obnoxious. Thankfully, the spa ponies came to the rescue and had the perfect haircut for him. With a little bit of styling gel, they took the front bangs of hair and slightly raised them so they were sticking up into the air at an angle. Now that the hair was in place, one of the ponies took a pair of scissors and cut the hair a little bit to a shorter length. The end result was a rather good looking Ivy League style haircut.
He thanked the spa ponies and asked how much it was going to cost. To his surprise, they told him it was no extra cost. They had a deal with Rarity that whenever she sent a pony to their spa before they tried on their outfits, the spa would get a portion from the sale of the outfit to cover some of costs of prepping her customer. He asked how much it would cost if a pony came in of their own accord and got the same service and did a double take when he heard the amount. He made a mental note to leave Rarity a nice, big tip for her work.
He thanked the spa ponies one last time before stepping outside to smell the fresh air. He felt like a new pony with his coat radiating in full color, his fresh haircut already catching the eyes of a few passersby, and his feathers primmed and cleaned to perfection. He still caught the whisper of a snicker of some pony nearby. He glared the direction of where the snicker came from, but decide to drop it.
“Aw, forget them. I’m actually feeling pretty dawn awesome right now!” he smirked to himself and headed back for Rarity’s shop.
The sun was already touching the tips of the horizon when he got back to Rarity’s shop and pushed open the door. Rarity was currently humming to herself as she finished putting away a few sewing supplies in a drawer. Rarity looked up from the drawer and marveled at the new and improved Connor.
“Oh, my, goodness, darling!! You look absolutely stunning now! I told you that spa treatment would do wonders for you!”
Connor spread his wings and bowed from her appraisals as he approached Rarity, “Alright, I’ll admit that you were absolutely right about the spa treatment. I look and feel pretty dang good right now. So, is the suit ready?”
“Yes it is,” Rarity answered, “Why don’t you go into the changing room and I’ll pass it through for you to try on.”
Connor grunted in agreement and trotted over to the room that was hidden behind curtains. He closed the curtains and a small pile of neatly folded clothes floated in over the closed curtains and landed gently on the table nearby.
“Go ahead and try them on dear, then come out and let me see how they look on you.”
Connor moved over to the clothes and unfolded them before putting them on. Despite being very skilled in putting his own clothes on, it was frustrating process of fumbling with his hooves while trying to grasp the all the pieces of the suit and putting them on. He eventually got all the pieces to go on and figured out what some of the holes were for like his wings and tail.
Once everything was on and in place, he stepped out from the changing room for Rarity to inspect. The suit was in fact a tuxedo outfit complete with a white button up shirt, black coat, and black pants. The clothes fit well to his slim form yet still felt comfortable to move around in. however, the eye catching detail to the suit was its design stitched into the black fabric.
The colors were like those from the northern lights from Connor’s world; the aurora green and blue intermingled and danced with each other in a kind of flourish design starting from the front on his chest, across his shoulders, and down his sides ending around his hip. The bright aurora green was vibrant at the front and shone proud on Connor’s chest before drifting around Connor’s body and twirled around with the bright aurora blue before the green slowly disappeared and was replaced with just the blue completely to end the tendrils of color at the hips.
Connor had smartly removed his red bandana so that the red wouldn’t clash with the tuxedo’s design. He ran a hoof over himself trying to smooth out any wrinkles in the clothes before looking up and gave a laughing smirk at Rarity’s reaction.
“Well, how do I look?” Connor asked but already knew the answer from her gaping mouth.
“My word! This is definitely something new, but it’s dazzling all the same; and yet, the colors have a subtle feel to them like a hidden gem buried at the bottom of a chest. It’s not something that grabs your attention with force, but coaxes you to gaze in with awe and subtle persuasion. Oh, I really have outdone myself with this one!”
Connor grinned more broadly and trotted over to a mirror to look at his reflection. He rotated this way and that to view himself at different angles. A half goofy half confident smile was plastered on his face as his eyes soaked in the spectacle.
“Gob, SPAM, do I look good!” he said to himself as Rarity smiled behind him, “This is awesome Rarity!”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“This will do perfectly for the party. Thanks so much Rarity; I can't wait to wear this tomorrow.”
“That’s lovely, now why don’t you go change out of your tuxedo so we can save it for tomorrow.”
Connor nodded again and returned to the changing room to take his outfit off. After a few minutes of bumbling around with removing the clothes Connor returned with a semi-neat folded pile of clothes in one hoof. He hoofed back to Rarity who took it in her magic.
“I just wanted to say thanks again for all of your help, Rarity. And I just wanted to double check with you on how much this is going to cost.”
“Oh Connor,” Rarity huffed at him, “I told you before to not worry about it. This my favor to you as a good friend and for the investment in Carousel Boutique.” She gave him a wink.
“Are you sure?” Connor asked one last time.
“Positive. I’ll take care of the outfit and you just make sure not to get dirty by tomorrow evening, agreed?”
“Agreed,” Connor smiled and waved goodbye, “I’ll see you tomorrow then!”
“Goodbye Connor!” Rarity called out as the door shut close and she heard the sound of wings carrying Connor away.
She smiled to herself and got back to cleaning the rest of her shop. She put away all the spools of thread and fabric and organized all the scissors in their appropriate drawers. She made one final check around the shop floor checking every spot for anything out of place. She looked above and below all the clothing racks to find nothing wrong. She sighed as she made her final check in the changing room where Connor was last at.
She pulled back the curtains and let the floor lights shine into the dim room. Rarity smiled at the immaculate room and the perfectly clean floor but did a double take when she noticed a bag on the table with a note. She walked over to the table and picked up the note curiously in her magic to read.
“Dear Rarity, I found out about your little deal with the spa and figured this would help pay for the trip. Enjoy, Connor.
P.S. if you still can't take the money, than just view it as another ‘Investment’ or ‘Donation’.”
Rarity’s eyes darted to the bag and hefted it in her magic to gauge how much was in it.
“Oh, Connor! I told you not to worry about it!”
