Prestige
Present…
Not another minute, not another second, not another heartbeat, not the amount of time it took to scribble a name and number onto a check longer, Rarity wanted to be relieved of this ordeal right now! She had distracted and diverted attention for enough in this one night to last a lifetime. All she wanted to do was keep her little sister safe from harm, was that too much to ask for? Was it?
Apparently it was.
As her guest recorded the transaction in his records, she could hear Sweetie Belle upstairs through the ceiling as if she was stomping around. Almost as if she was punishing her sister for trying to do the right thing.
But still, every step, every creak, every breath was slammed around the Carousel Boutique and into her head like the story of the telltale heart.
THUD
THUD
THUD
THUD
THUD
The Element of Generosity squeezed her eyes closed and begged to some higher power, “Please, just be quiet for a moment! Please?”
And to this higher power’s gratitude, her fleeting prayer was answered, the sound stopped.
She opened her eyes again. The pony before her flipped from his records to his checks and began put the pen to paper.
But, he did not immediately start writing. Instead, he looked up at her, and then shifted his attention up some more and to the left.
Rarity had found herself dumbstruck, why wasn’t he finishing his business? In all of his visits, he had never had to stop and think about anything… what was distracting him?
“Rarity.”
The called upon mare shot her head around at breakneck speeds and found herself staring at the same thing as her guest.
Sweetie Belle stood at the top of the staircase, pajamas on her body and a sleeping cap atop her horned head. She had a hoof to her mouth as she yawned with partially opened eyes.
“I’m going to go to bed now.” She stated.
All she could do was nod through her horrified expression.
“See you in the morning.” She finished as she slapped her tongue on the roof of her mouth and head off to her awaiting bed.
The owner of the store frantically turned around and threw on a pathetically fake smile before she slowly took a step back. The final customer of the night was still looking up at the access to the upper landing of the store, watching the shopkeeper’s sibling walk off to dreamland.
Rarity, with hooves shaking, her tail between her legs, and trembling lip, offered, “Y- You know.. . You’ve been such a… Loyal customer... H- How about We put this one on the house? Hmm? Just L- Let me absorb the charge. W- Would that be sat- satisfactory?”
Noticing that he was being spoken too, the finely dressed customer calmly looked down and put his host in the center of his attention. He did not answer, he did not try to intimidate her, he just took a moment to look her in the eye as she sweated away her makeup.
He slipped his checkbook back into his inner suit pocket, “I see.” He turned and walked across the shop towards the door. Slipped his weather resistant coat over his newly made suit, and stepped outside into the rain.
Another flash of lightning later, and he practically disappeared off the face of the planet.
Rarity collapsed onto the front counter. She caught her head in her hooves and let them rub into her eyes. She pressed and rubbed and smeared her eyeliner across her face and bridge of her snout. Anything, be it pain or pleasure, to remind her that she was alive.
The first time she had made his acquaintance, she had hoped that it would be the last time, to write it off in her mind that he was dead to her. But then he came back… and again and again and again.
At one point, she considered calling for the authorities or have a trap be set for him… but as she thought on it, what would they do? Arrest him for being for being shy, introverted, and what some may declare rude? He didn’t do anything wrong… especially to her. Even though the contents of his bags and the checkbook in his possession would set off a few alarms, it did not conclude enough to warrant any sort of action. He probably had- no, definitely had- some sort of license, excuse, story, or alibi to wave off anypony who questioned him.
All it really came down to was her word and crazy imagination against his.
She had not stopped there. As much as she wanted to forget about the crossing of their paths, she had to investigate. Call it a mare’s intuition or instinct, but she had to look into what she had found herself in. She could not follow him or could not ask other ponies about him because simply nopony else knew of a winged unicorn that lived or visited Ponyville regularly. After their first few engagements, she had found herself filing her free time with books and researching traits about the darker side of society.
Spy novels, horror films, psychological journals, news reports on the cognitive breakdowns of murderers and thieves, Equine Development pamphlets to presentations about the criminally insane; she had even enrolled herself into a community college course on the topic of personality disorders. All to try and find out what exactly made this customer tick and to hopefully give her some peace of mind over his visits to her store.
Rarity turned the lights off in the store and locked the door once more. She headed up the stairs and through the upper floor towards her bed. But instead of heading into the correct room, she stopped directly across the hall and at the door that was only partially opened.
As she expected, through the crack of the door, Sweetie Belle’s little head was poking out of the top of the sheets with a cute little stocking cap on top of it.
He was hiding something, it would take a fool to doubt that, but that was not the focus of her hunt. What was he hiding? That was also important, but still not point. Why was he doing such a poor job at hiding the fact that he had secrets? That was the key question.
Con stallions, crooks, thieves, frauds, those who have split personalities, all of those types of ponies were often great liars, some of them were so great at that aspect of their trade that they themselves believed their own lies. But this one didn’t. From the first time he came in, he could have put on a show, acted goofy and clumsy to explain why his outfit was in such a bad condition. He could have acted poor so that she would have helped him free of charge, and he could have bounced the very first check that he used to purchase something from her store and never return; selling it for 5 times the price on the street, but he didn’t.
He wanted to show who he really was, how quiet, reserved, cold, and grumpy the real him was. At the same time he could have just been a misogynist. But she doubted that.
Instead, he always came in when the store was nearing its close, to make sure that nopony else would likely be in there as well, to let the full effect on of his impression settle on her. He aimed to intimidate and scare her, but at the same time he obeyed the rules. He never did not pay her, he never threatened her, and he did not try to extort her like a bully. It was silly thing to say… but it was almost like he was trying to “Gross her out”.
She had seen it once on the playground at the elementary when she would walk Sweetie Belle to school. There was a little colt that would jump around in mud and get all dirty. He would shake his coat ‘clean’ while trying to get everypony else dirty. He would find worms in the dirt and eat them in front of everypony else with his mouth open and long, drawn out, grindings of his teeth.
This little pony wanted to be the center of attention by being as obnoxious and sickening as possible, he craved the attention and would do anything to do it. As similar as it was to this one customer at the Carousel Boutique, it was strangely different.
The schoolyard colt eating worms was actively trying to get attention by being outlandish. This other pony was doing it by, strangely enough, not trying to get attention. By being so bland and uninteresting that Rarity was attracted to it. Strangely, it worked like a fish to live bait.
Satisfied that Sweetie Belle was safe, Rarity walked across the hall and into her own room. She did not bother with the light, or prepare herself for beauty sleep, she climbed into her bed and grabbed her pillow like a stuffed animal. Her makeup was staining the pillowcase, but she did not care, she could clean it later.
She did not know what he did for a living, what he was a “Professional” of, but her gut told her it was not to be shared. As strong and as independent as she tried to be, she was like property to him. Like a farmer weeding crops or a wolf fighting off another to protect the sheep that it frequented, she was being protected from herself. She had a use, and she would be safe as long as she kept doing that. Her discretion and confidentiality was what kept her from knowing too much, and he wanted her to learn that by showing just the tip of the iceberg of who he was.
He had nothing invested with her, if she tried to turn on him he would leave and never look back. There was no doubt he could find another tailor, but she was worried as to how their business relation would be broken up.
She was just one pony, one liability, one tailor. There was one suit and he was just one customer to her. If she kept everything as simple as that, she should be fine.
She curled her bottom legs up and snuggled the pillow tighter in her embrace. She closed her eyes and rubbed her cheek on its soft form.
But she could not fall asleep yet. As she closed her eyes, she could see the outline of his image, looking at her the moment he knew that Sweetie Belle was upstairs. She had been too frightened to notice it at first, but there was something different to the way he normally conducted himself.
His lip was a little curled, almost as if he was smiling… albeit evilly. His brow was a tad bit straighter and more confident, and his irises were smaller and more determined.
The image and body language, no matter how subliminal and small, spoke volumes to her.
“You’re right to be afraid. You should hide your sister. I am not something to trifle with. I’m a rattlesnake hiding in the grass. You can’t see me, but I’m rattling my tail to make sure you know how dangerous I am. Don’t ever forget that, or you might get bitten.”
Hisssss
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The end was a bit trippy. Hisssss. Pass! The grammar seems to get better as I go, that's a good sign.
Silver out!
This was a great chapter, we really see how much Rarity cares for her little sister. I'm surprised that she didn't curl up next to the filly out of a desire to keep her safe! You do a great job of showing her dramatic side here, and now we know that she's been filling her head with all kinds of terrible possibilities from spy movies and novels. Doesn't she know the truth never gets put in print?
And we get to see some action out of Mister Corpse! He's a mean motor-scooter and a bad go-getter all right, as a matter of fact he... he... threatens a kind shopkeeper who just waved a nine-hundred bit tab. But it was totally justified, she didn't tell him her younger sibling was upstairs. So, he's gotta remind her who holds the whip, by making a vague insinuation that her little sister might be anything less than perfectly safe in his company. Yeah. There's a Hero of Equestria all right.
He doesn't care that Rarity's a valuable member of the Elements of Harmony, he's a loose cannon who plays by his own rules! Heck, maybe he's actually the drug dealer, wouldn't that be a plot twist! 
Either way, he's out of the shop now. Let's see how he ruins this suit!
Of course we all know that he is just really enthusiastic about baking. Bon Bon has nothing on this guy, he carries his own cutlery everywhere. He's totally Princess Celestia's personal muffin-maker.
The reason he's so cold and stiff is because he knows that Rarity wouldn't be able to keep it to herself, and he'd never be rid of Pinkie Pie challenging him to baking contests. 
Nice job describing the crazy schoolyard colt too, that image really sticks in my head. I wonder, Dancewithknives, were you ever that schoolboy who would eat the worms to frighten others?
A nice bit of insight into her head and how she thinks of Mr. Esproc.
3225540
Did he ever threaten her?
3327469
At the absolute minimum, Rarity believes that she has been threatened. Corpse might be dangerous, but there's a big line between "Keep your sister away from me, I have sharp edges." and "I'm DANGER MOUSE, I'm the rattlesnake in the grass! Hide your kids, hide your wife, because if I find out they're there, I'll make an example out of them to keep you in line!"
Yes, this could all be an exaggeration from Rarity's point of view, but her point of view defines our perspective of him. She is "The Tailor", and we are privy to her thoughts about her "Recurring Customer". If the thoughts you are showing us are that she believes he is a threat to her sister, to the point that she believes if he even finds out about Sweetie Belle some harm will come to her, what other conclusion can we draw? She is not worried that Sweetie Belle is getting underhoof and being a nuisance, she is afraid that he will "bite" her little sister like a wild animal who does not know better. We are shown also that she does not even wish to tell him that there is an innocent child upstairs, and instead blames some noises on Opal.
DAT POE REFERENCE!!!
Hiiiiissssss indeed.
Not much to say but, that it was intense!
Love always and forever,
-Ghost