//------------------------------// // The Enchanted Boutique [Comedy/Romance] // Story: The Enchanted Library: Sidestories // by Monochromatic //------------------------------// The Enchanted Boutique by Monochromatic *** *** Twilight Sparkle did not believe in fairytales. She believed in facts and figures, things science and logic could prove. She believed in knowledge too, which is why she spent endless hours in her library, reading and reading and reading as much as she could, and it was why she traveled to Canterlot Castle every other week to read all the books she didn’t have herself. It was because of her extensive reading, in fact, that she stumbled upon a very interesting — but certainly untrue — tale. A long time ago lived a mare as beautiful as the setting sun and elegant as the rising moon. A mare so beautiful, in fact, she’d attracted the attention of the immeasurably evil and fearsome Spirit of Chaos. He’d gone to visit her and test if her heart was as pure as her beauty. Unfortunately for her, her heart did not have the purity the Spirit expected, and as punishment for her ill-willed actions towards him, he cursed her. “... To live as a ghost inside her boutique, forgotten by ponies and time!” Twilight’s voice carried itself loudly despite the sound of crackling leaves under her hoof, as well as the Everfree Forest’s usual cacophony of noises. Timberwolves, manticores, and other beasts roamed about, but Twilight Sparkle was prepared. Prepared with magic, of course. Any respectable unicorn knew at least thirty-six self-defense spells. “Hoo!” Two owls followed behind the unicorn, her ever faithful companions. “No, Themis, of course it’s just a legend,” Twilight replied, rolling her eyes as she skipped over a rotten log. “Even if there was a forgotten house in the forest, it’s highly improbable that a spectral being lives inside it. For starters, there’s no such things as ‘ghosts’, and secondly, there’s no such thing as Spirits of Chaos either.” Twilight Sparkle, as mentioned before, did not believe in fairytales, but even so, she did believe in proving she was right. Despite her extensive search, she’d failed to find any records whatsoever of somepony proving if the Legend of the Mare was real or not, which meant that she had to do it herself — as she had to do most things, if she wanted them to be done right. Luckily, if Twilight found theory interesting, then practice was fascinating. “Hoo!” the other owl exclaimed, flying past Twilight. “What is it, Elara? Did you find something?” Twilight asked, trotting to keep up with her pet owl. Finally catching up to her, Twilight saw a white persian cat in the distance. It wore a purple ribbon on the top of her head, and the opal-studded collar it was wearing seemed to be glowing, beckoning Twilight towards it. Had the cat been waiting for her? It certainly seemed like it, considering it stood up upon Twilight’s arrival and now walked off further into the forest. “Wait!” Twilight called out, trotting after it. “Where’s your master?!” The cat did not stop, but it did look over its shoulder, meowing loudly before turning back towards the winding path. Twilight and the owls followed it, into the depths of the forest, until they finally reached their destination and the unicorn felt herself become short of breath. An abandoned building awaited her in the distance, bearing an uncanny resemblance to a merry-go-round, complete with decorative pillars and pony sculptures lining the lower and upper exterior of the building. It looked old — ancient, even — and there was something positively chilling about it. Though her terrified mind protested that ghost and ghouls simply did not and could not exist, she was having a difficult time shaking the feeling somepony was watching her from one of the windows on the second floor. Gulping down, Twilight followed the cat all the way up to the building. The door, decorated with two large diamonds, was closed, but that didn’t stop the cat from pushing on the diamond closest to the ground and revealing its purpose as a cat door. In the name of research, Twilight forced herself to approach the door. She lifted her hoof, intent on knocking, but… why do I have to knock? It's not like anypony's going to answer! Unless they did, in which case she might consider turning around and coming back with not thirty-six self-defense spells, but fifty-five. Bypassing common courtesy, Twilight carefully opened the door, her ears twitching at the creaking sound it made. She waited for her two owls to fly in before stepping inside herself, and what a sight it was. Despite the archaic decorative style, the interior of the building didn't look quite like Twilight would have expected of a building forgotten by time. A lit chandelier hung from the ceiling, illuminating the plethora of sewing materials, mirrors, and ponnyquins scattered about. In an almost absent-minded gesture, Twilight brushed her hoof against a nearby desk, and when she examined it, she found it to be free of any dust or dirt. Did… Did somepony actually live here? What if it's— No, Twilight! There's no such thing as ghosts. "Hello?" she called out. "Hello? My name is Twilight Sparkle! Anypony home?" No one replied, and Twilight would be lying if she wasn't relieved. Relieved? What was there even to worry about in the first place? There were no such things as ghosts, or spirits, or anything of the sort. "Meoooow!" Twilight's scream was quite impressive, enough to scare her two owls out of their wits. In the time she turned around, she'd already prepared her horn for five different defense spells, not to mention she'd already levitated a nearby full-size mirror to use as a weapon. When she spotted the unimpressed cat sitting on top of the display stage, she let out a sigh of relief and returned the mirror to its previous place. "Oh! A guest!" At the sound of the voice, Twilight immediately turned around and froze her eyes on a beautiful silver unicorn mare. Her first instinct was to look for any signs of etherealness, but the mare seemed, well, normal. Her long, purple mane seemed real, her body seemed real, and the magic she was using to levitate a piece of fabric seemed real enough too. "Oh! I-I'm sorry!" Twilight blurted out, inwardly chastising herself for not having knocked, "I thought no one lived here!" The mare smiled, taking a step towards a nearby basket, filled with silks of all kinds. The mare carried herself with an odd sort of timeless elegance, the likes of which Twilight saw in the nobles roaming around the castle, or in the Princesses living there with her. "That's quite alright," the mare said, placing the fabric on a nearby table. "I do apologize for my cat. Opalescence unfortunately hasn't much concern for polite behaviour. In any case, welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is chic, unique and magnifique!" Twilight smiled. "This is a very, er, interesting place! Though this location can't be very good for business, can it?" The mare sighed theatrically. "No, I fear not. One can only wonder how tragic ponies must look without my fine couture." She took another step towards Twilight, eyes narrowing slightly. "Though, I must say, you don't seem to be a mare very much into fashion. Am I right to assume couture is not the reason of your visit, Miss…?" "Uhm..." Twilight felt her cheeks grow hot at the idea of confessing why she had really come. "Well, uhm, it's… My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I don't know if you've heard of… I'm here because of an investigation on..." She gestured with her hoof. "... paranormal activities, and there were rumors that suggested a haunted building in these woods, so...' The mare smiled again. "Haunted building? How fascinating." "In theory, yes, but everypony knows there's no such things as paranormal beings," Twilight replied, waving her off. "Anyway, Miss..." "Rarity," the mare replied. "Miss Rarity! Why haven't you considered taking your business somewhere else? I'm sure you'd find more customers in Manehattan or Ponyville,” Twilight suggested, eager to move the topic away from ghosts and ghouls. “Manehattan?” Rarity slowly asked, and Twilight raised an eyebrow. Every fashionista worth their weight in gold knew what Manehattan was! “I…” The unicorn drifted off. “I fear relocating my boutique would be a rather impossible task, Miss Sparkle.” Twilight blinked. “Oh? How come?” Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. “Allow me to demonstrate,” she said, trotting towards a nearby table. Except rather than trot to it, she trotted right through it, and then Twilight understood. “Oh.” That was initially all she could say as she watched the unicorn ghost pass all the way through the table and stop at the other side, looking back at Twilight with what could only be described as a mocking smile. “Ooooooooh,” Twilight repeated, every hair on her coat standing on end, a nervous and slightly terrified laugh leaving her lips. “Oh. Oh. Uhm. Wow. Yes. Okay! Okay, uhm, okay, yes wow, uhm…” She teleported a notebook out of her saddlebag, opening it up right in the middle and staring at a blank page. “Right. So, yes, anyway, right—” “Are you going to keep repeating yourself?” Rarity asked, amused by Twilight’s shocked spectacle. Immediately did Twilight lower her book, and Rarity took the opportunity to trot closer, seemingly inspecting the terrified unicorn. “Hm, you’re not really the knight in shining armor I hoped for, but I’ll have to make do, I suppose!” she said, circling Twilight as though she were a dress to be inspected. “M-Make due?” Twilight asked,or squeaked, to be technically correct. Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Well, yes. You will help me, won’t you, Miss Twilight Sparkle?” she asked, and Twilight discovered that the classic puppy-dog eyes was indeed a timeless facial expression. “What happens if I refuse?” Twilight asked, the question leaving her lips before she could fully process the consequences of denying a spirit their request. Rarity’s pleading expression all but vanished, and she instead regarded Twilight with an air of indignation. “Refuse?” she asked, and the previously sweet tone in her voice dropped to frigid levels. “Am I to understand you don’t want to help me?” Twilight gulped down. “Well, Miss Rarity, in most fiction works as of late, whenever a character is confronted with an age-old spirit and its request, refusal of complying almost always ends up with the character being attacked by the spectre,” she informed, wishing she’d learned a hundred and twenty three defense spells. Rarity harrumphed. “Well, Miss Sparkle, I’ll have you know that though I would very much consider you an extraordinarily rude pony, I would never attack you. What do you think I’d even do? Throw you against one of my mirrors? My bookcase, perhaps? What, do I look like a barbarian to you? Honestly, etiquette must be lost to your generation!” “Wait, so, you won’t attack me?” Twilight asked, feeling herself relax ever so slightly. “As I said, attacking guests is not really my style,” Rarity tonelessly repeated. Twilight stared at her for a moment, assessing the situation. If Rarity wasn’t going to attack her, then… then this meant that maybe she’d be interested in an in-depth interview? “Uhm, okay!” Twilight blurted out, looking back to her notebook. She’d never interviewed a ghost before! This was completely unprecedented in Equestria’s history! She cleared her throat, teleported her quill out, and without a care for the world asked, “So, you’re dead, right?” Silence replied first. “Goodness, you really do lack manners, don’t you?” Twilight nodded, jotting something down on her book. “I’ll take that as yes.” Just as she finished, so did she rush over to Rarity, letting out a barrage of questions ranging from “did it hurt when you got turned into a ghost?!” to “if you eat something, does it go right through you?”, and not to mention “Can I put my hoof inside you? Oh, wow, that was weird, let’s not do that again.” By the time she was finished, Rarity looked like she’d been defiled, staring Twilight down with a mix of horror and fascination. “You know, I do believe we’re quite done now,” she demanded, levitating Twilight away several paces before the lavender mare had a chance to stick her paranormal detector device anywhere inside her. “I think I’ll take my chances with the next wandering visitor!” “Wait!” Twilight insisted. “You haven’t told me why the Spirit of Chaos turned you into a ghost!” Rarity looked taken aback. “Ah. Yes. Well, he asked me a question, and he did not like my honest reply,” she said at length, and even Twilight could tell she was avoiding a straightforward answer. “It’s hardly important, regardless, and—” “Yes, it is! You must have done something terrible for him to imprison you for a thousand years!” Twilight pressed. “ What did he ask you?” Rarity bit down on her lip, seizing Twilight up until she finally relented. “If you must know, he asked me what I thought of his external physique,” she replied. Twilight stared expectantly. “And you answered with…?” she prodded, gesturing with her hoof. “I…” A light flush decorated the unicorn’s cheek, which all things considered should have been impossible given that she didn’t have a body with blood in it to begin with. She cleared her throat and nonchalantly examined her hoof. “I may have told him that he looked uglier than a old dirty mule.” Silence fell again. “Wow.” “What do you mean by that?!” an indignant spirit demanded, flipping her hair. “He’s the one who wanted my honest opinion! Isn’t honesty supposedly the best policy?! Well?! Isn’t it?!” Twilight frowned. “Not when you’re facing the Spirit of Chaos, no.” "Well, it doesn't really matter now, does it? It's already done and now I'm stranded here for all eternity unless some dashing prince decides to save me!" Rarity theatrically shrieked, cheeks still flushed as she turned away with a pronounced harrumph. Twilight took another book from her saddlebag, specifically the one relating to Rarity's legend. "Hm. There doesn't seem to be an explanation on how to free you in my book." She took out another book, since any respectable adventurer knew to have at least five different sources. She flipped it open and revised the alternate variation of the legend. "This one doesn't have one, either..." "Of course it wouldn't! Really, Miss Sparkle, did you think the Spirit of Chaos would just give you the answer? Write out a detailed list on how to free me?" She paused and looked away. "Only I know the key to freeing me from my imprisonment." "Oh! Okay," Twilight replied, closing the book, offering the spirit her full attention and waiting, and waiting, and waiting even more as the Spirit continued to theatrically look away. "So, what is i—" "It won't be an easy task!" Rarity interrupted with a shriek, placing a hoof against her chest and closing her eyes, still looking away. "Only the bravest and noblest of ponies can even hope to come close to succeeding! I'm sure if you try, you might… manage..." Twilight frowned, trying hard not to dwell on the underlying insult. "Right. So, again, what is the way to free you, Miss Rarity?" Rarity finally looked at her, frowning slightly. "You must look for all the sacred chaos gems," she said solemnly, taking a step towards Twilight. "Only the retrieval of all of them can aid in my escape." "Gems?" Twilight blinked. That wasn't really what she'd thought it would be, but with a good gem-finding spell, it shouldn't be such a daunting task. "Gems," Rarity repeated. "Emeralds, to be precise." Twilight took out her notebook, already formulating a plan. "All right, well… First I'd need to know what type of gems they are, and… How many of these sacred emeralds are there?" Rarity didn't hesitate. "A million." Twilight slowly lowered her book. "A million?" *** *** "A million emeralds?" Inside the library, Rarity turned off her sewing machine and regarded her sister with a very incredulous look. "Sweetie Belle, darling, isn't that..." She drifted off, gesturing with her hoof. "A bit too much?" "A BILLION EMERALDS!" Sweetie Belle screeched, slamming her hoof against the mattress Rarity had brought for their sleepover at the library. "A jillion gems scattered ALL OVER EQUESTRIA, and then in the next kingdom, and in space, and—!" "Sweetie Belle," Twilight said, frowning at the filly. "'Jillion' isn't an existing numerical value. Not to mention the fact that you've changed the number of gems two times already. This isn't very consistent storytelling." The little filly harrumphed. "Fine! She needed to find, uhm, a… a thousand gems! All over Equestria!" she amended, which Rarity couldn't help but think wasn't a much better number than before. "And so then, Rarity asked Princess Twi— I mean, just Twilight if she'd help and..." She paused, no doubt trying to create an air of suspense. "And obviously," Rarity filled in, turning to look at the alicorn with a charming smile, "Twilight said 'yes, of course, dearest Rarity! Need you even ask, for your beauty has bewitched me, and I shall search for them throughout all the lands, no matter what it takes!'" She finished her sentence by swooning lightly, a hoof against her forehead and ignoring Sweetie's protests of it being her story, Rarity! Twilight playfully rolled her eyes. "Right," she said, turning back to Sweetie, and missing Rarity's offended expression. "It all sounds more like a nightmare." Trying not to dwell on the fact that her 'description' was a frighteningly accurate summary of her motivation for finding the books, Rarity turned to her sister with a frown. "In any case, it's getting very late now, and you, young lady, should go to sleep." "Sleep?!" Sweetie Belle gasped, clutching onto the bed covers bunched up over the mattress. "But, I'm not finished with my story yet! And Princess Twilight doesn't want me to go to sleep yet, right, Princess Twilight?!" Twilight smiled sympathetically at the filly. "Sweetie, you should listen to Rarity. As she said, it's already late, and sleeping is a very important process in the growth of ponies, especially in their foalhood stages." "But I'm not a baby pony! Why can't Rarity go to sleep, and I stay up?!" Sweetie continued protesting. "You said I'm your favorite, and so I should stay up!" Never one to miss an opportunity to tease, Rarity looked at Twilight, ears lowering and eyes growing wide. "Twilight, you… you said that? After… After all we've gone through?" The reaction was immediate. "Rarity, stop that!" she said, narrowing her eyes. "You know I don't—!" She noticed the forlorn Sweetie Belle, and stumbled over her words. "I mean, of course, I'm very fond of you, Sweetie, but you know that—! And—!" And rather than finishing her flustered mess of a reply, she resorted to not finishing it at all by teleporting herself away from the problem. Rarity giggled. Clever princess, she thought, making her way towards Sweetie and levitating the covers into a much more sleep-worthy state. "She didn't answer because she didn't want to hurt your feelings," Sweetie said with a determined nod, letting out a surprised squeal when her sister dropped the covers on top of her. "Yes, I know, I know! Simply terrible," Rarity said theatrically when Sweetie wiggled her head from behind the covers. She tucked her sister in and sighed. "No matter what I do, I simply can't compete against your endless charms, little sister. If I were Princess Twilight, you'd be my favorite too!" Sweetie Belle giggled. "Well, you're her second favorite," she offered, a way to heal Rarity's terribly wounded heart. However, as fast as it came, so did her smile vanish. "Do I really have to go to sleep?" "Now, darling, however do you expect to impress Princess Twilight tomorrow if you're falling asleep in the middle of her lessons, hm?" Rarity asked, brushing Sweetie's bangs back. "Actually! Now that I think about it, if you fail to impress her, then maybe I'll have a chance to dethrone you from her favorite list!" "No, no, no! I'm sleeping!" Sweetie Belle quickly said, covering herself up all the way to her head, the covers failing to muffle her giggles. "Goodnight, Sis." "Goodnight, Sweetie," Rarity said, stepping away from her sister and looking up towards the floating chandelier. "Star! Star, be a dear and dim the lights, will you?" As asked, the magic chandelier dimmed its thousands of candles, leaving only enough light to allow Rarity to see properly. That done, the unicorn trotted off into the rows of bookcases, keeping an eye out for Twilight and eventually finding her organizing the shelves of a bookcase. "So, Princess Twilight the First, Your Royal Highness, Ruler of the Library Kingdom, I've finally managed to convince your very favorite loyal subject to go to sleep," she said, drawing the attention of the alicorn. "I do apologize for my outburst. I was rather hurt by the revelation, admittedly." "I hope you enjoyed yourself with that," Twilight said, playfully raising an eyebrow at the unicorn. "Oh, tremendously!" Rarity replied, sitting down and watching the alicorn organize the books. "And I hope you enjoyed her story! Or, as you put it, nightmare." She paused, seizing up the alicorn and then a perverse idea made its way into her mind. "Speaking for myself, my absolute favorite part was when you asked me if I was going to attack you." A red tinge decorated Twilight's cheeks, and she seemed more intent than ever to stare at her books. "Funny, I must have been distracted during that part. I can't remember it." "No? Darling, it was the absolute best thing! You asked me if I'd attack you, and then I replied that of course I wouldn't throw you against a bookcase because I'm not a barbarian!" Twilight finally turned to her friend. "Rarity, I already apologized for that! At least fifteen times! You… You..." A flash sparked from her horn, and a small book appeared in front of her, titled 'Don't Burn Your Bridges: Idioms and You'. After a moment of looking it over, she found what she wanted, announcing it with a victorious "Ah-hah!" She teleported the book away, her smile fading and her frown returning. "You're never going to let me live that down, are you?" she asked, and Rarity couldn't help but smile devilishly. "Darling, I'd love to let bygones be bygones, but how can I let you live that down when you aren't alive in the first place?" she asked, and how she delighted in Twilight's pronounced blush. "Well—! But—!" Eventually, Twilight quieted down. "Good point, though technically I'm not dead. I'm in a magical stasis where my body is displaced in time and— I am not a barbarian!" she added before Rarity could revel in winning the argument. Rarity giggled. "No, you're not a barbarian, darling. Nor are you a knight in shining armor, and you're hardly a princess," she said, and before Twilight could protest, she let out a theatrical sigh and gestured towards the bookcases. "Honestly, all day perched up on your bookcases, stalking ponies from above! You must be a vulture!" "Last time you said I was like a cat," Twilight pointed out. She then shook her head and with a teasing smile added, "You know, this is why Sweetie Belle is my favorite." Rarity gasped, pushing herself against the bookcase, hoof against her forehead. "Twilight Sparkle! Oh, you wound me with your words! I'm not your favorite?!" She dropped the charade for a moment. "This is obviously because you lack any taste whatsoever, as exemplified by your outdated manestyle. I mean, honestly, darling, what are you? From a thousand years ago? But oooooh!" She sniffed once. "How will I go on?!" "Aren't you laying it a little thick?" Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow, only to then quickly teleport back her idioms book, giving a little nod after seemingly making sure she'd used the expression correctly. "That's it! I shan't look for your books anymore! No, it's too late, don't protest! You can't sway me any longer, Princess!" Twilight smirked. "That's all right. I'm sure the Cutie Mark Crusaders will go look for them in your place." Rarity was silent at first, her dramatic façade disappearing. "You know, it's frightening to think that they probably would," she noted, and when Twilight giggled again, she finally drew herself up with one last sigh. "Fine, you've swayed me! You're just lucky I'm not a spirit trapped in my boutique, and you won't have to go through with the nightmarish task of retrieving gemstones throughout the land." "That wasn't why I said that, Rarity," Twilight said, concern washing over her face. "I'd go look for the gemstones if you were trapped, even though it would be much more difficult seeing as gemstones can be grounded up and used to create a wide array of items." Rarity blinked. "Then whyever did you say that? It was honestly rather hurtful." Twilight stared at her, as though she couldn't believe Rarity had even asked that. "Rarity, I said it was a nightmare because just the idea of you being stuck in my place… I don't think..." She shook her head and turned to her books. "I don't even want to think about it..." Rarity fell silent, and again did the butterflies in her stomach come alive. She wasn't sure how long she stayed there staring, but she assumed it must have been quite some time considering Twilight turned to look at her with a disconcerted expression. "What's wrong?" she asked, ears dropping. "Twilight, you..." She drifted off before allowing her lips to be graced with the single most teasing smile she could muster, taking her necklace in her hoof. "You do care! Awwwwww—mmph!" Her muzzle magically shut close, Rarity blinked at the flustered alicorn before dutifully continuing to 'aw' despite Twilight's magic. "Are you done?" Twilight asked eventually, and when Rarity nodded, she finally released her magical grip on the unicorn. "Anyway, we need to start on your teleportation exercises if you want to be able to do it before your trip to Rainbow Falls." Rarity's smitten smile immediately vanished. "Oh no..." Twilight didn't flinch. "Oh yes." "You know, darling, I'm starting to feel tired, and it's been quite the long day, and I—" "Really need to stop making excuses and bring the teleportation book from the desk, please," Twilight finished, relentless in her pursuit of teaching Rarity the art of disappearing all over the place. "I'll finish organizing the books, and we can get started." "This is the nightmare," Rarity mumbled, reluctantly turning around. At the back of her mind, she told herself that she didn't really have to do as Twilight said, but how could she say no to the alicorn's cute yet desperate attempts to miraculously teach Rarity teleportation in less than a few weeks. "No, it's not," Twilight chastised as Rarity trotted off, drawing back the attention of the unicorn. "Luckily for me, you don't have to look for a thousand books like I'd have to look for a thousand gems if you were in my position." "Luckily for you? Don't you mean 'lucky for me'?" "No," Twilight replied, looking to the unicorn. "You wouldn't look for a thousand of my books, would you?" Rarity regarded Twilight in silence for a moment before tilting her head slightly. "You surprise me, Twilight Sparkle." Twilight frowned. "What do you mean?" "The things you say sometimes… It's as though it has yet to cross your mind that perhaps I care about you, too. In any case, teleportation it is!" she said before turning around, not having missed Twilight's flustered expression. Sometimes I wonder if I care too much about you, Twilight Sparkle.