06: Rare Revelations
With lidded eyes and her head resting on her palm, Wallflower looked over to Juniper, who was sitting on the other side of the table from her—
Wait.
This wasn't right.
Well, it was right, as in, she totally was okay with sitting at a table with Juniper, yes. But she specifically remembered the two of them leaving Sugarcube Corner.
Which this place looked nothing like, she realized, as she looked around.
"Bistro Canterlot" was inscribed across the window beside her in golden cursive—a window that showed a streetlamp-lit city at night. She looked back to Juniper, who was wearing a pressed violet blouse, even dressier than the one she'd been wearing at Sugarcube Corner. "Juniper?" she asked. "What's going on?"
Juniper blinked. "Well, if memory serves, we're on Date Number..." Her face scrunched as she tried to think, until, with an eyeroll and a scoff, she finally consulted her phone. "Eleven? Wow, I really don't have a memory to speak of."
Juniper looked back at Wallflower, and, with a smile, reached forward. Wallflower reached forward as well, putting forth her hands and allowing Juniper to hold them.
"Still totally feels like the first, though," Juniper said, sending ripples of flattery throughout Wallflower's body. "Is everything okay?"
"Y-yeah," Wallflower said, still bewildered, but sinking into the moment. "Just... just fine."
Before either of them could say anything else, an ivory-skinned waitress wearing a buttoned white blouse, black skirt, and purple hair tucked into an elegant bun arrived at their table. Wallflower thought she looked familiar, but couldn't place the face to a name no matter how much she tried.
"Here you are, darlings," the waitress said in a posh drawl, almost as if she were in a period piece. She placed two large bowls in front of both girls, teeming with dark green leaves, fruit and nuts, and topped with garnish and an olive oil glaze. "Two strawberry spinach salads. Enjoy, and let us know if you need absolutely anything else."
"Thanks," Wallflower said, smiling up at the waitress.
"Indeed, thank you ever so much," Juniper said, handing the waitress a couple of bills with a dramatic flourish. "Here's something extra. Treat yourself on us."
Wallflower saw the waitress strain to keep from squealing. "A hundred thanks, Miss Montage," she said. "Your patronage is always appreciated." She strode off with a spring in her step.
Wallflower raised her fork, ready to dig in. "You didn't have to go with my entrée suggestion," she said.
"Well, duh, of course I didn't have to," Juniper replied. "But like most of your ideas, it sounded awesome from the moment you mentioned it. Besides, what's the worst that happens if I don't like it? End of the world? I think not." She giggled.
"Uh, right," Wallflower said, fighting anxiety tooth and nail. "O-of course not."
"It's settled, then. Here's to plants," Juniper said, raising her fork higher. "Turns out they're more than just good to look at. Their sacrifice this night will not be forgotten!"
Wallflower giggled. "It's not like spinach is planted for vanity gardens. Or even strawberries."
"Fine by me," Juniper said. "More for us."
Wallflower watched Juniper dig into her salad, and bring the fork up to her mouth, almost cripplingly apprehensive of what she would think. In just a few seconds, she would know—
A massive wall flew in front of her eyes, and all was darkness.
Oh, no, not again.
This happened way too often.
---
Rainbow Dash pulled her hand away from Wallflower's eyes. "You guys? I'm, uh, starting to think she's not coming back."
"Wha..." Wallflower opened her eyes. The bistro wasn't there. Juniper wasn't there. Taking both of their places were the Canterlot High School cafeteria, and several of its students.
It took everything Wallflower had not to wail in anguish when it all clicked together: her restaurant date had merely been just another daydream, courtesy of Blush Productions, Ltd. On the bright side—if there even was one—she hadn't accidentally and painfully bumped into any walls this time. Or any people.
She huffed, looking around. She was still at the lunchroom table that Sunset and her six friends normally sat at—and right now, they were all staring at her with concerned expressions.
Also, her hands were locked around Rarity's. Wallflower yelped, and pulled them away. "Oh my gosh!" she said, cringing. "I am so sorry!"
"Are you alright, dear?" Rarity asked, whereupon the thick voice, the hair and complexion, and the silky fabric Rarity often used for her clothes, allowed Wallflower to put together the rest of what she'd just experienced.
She groaned. This was what the Memory Stone had been made for. She would give anything, right now, to have it back. "I'm not sure anymore," Wallflower whispered.
"Normally I have no problem with people staring, or even a little hand-holding," Rarity said. "But you've been staring through me for the last five minutes." She chuckled. "I was debating whether or not to feel insulted. Surely I must be slightly more interesting than the cafeteria's back walls?"
Wallflower crumpled. "I'm really sorry, Rarity," she said.
Rarity's expression brightened. "Oh, absolutely no harm done." She leaned closer, lidding her eyes. "Especially since I now believe I know exactly what's going on here."
"You..." Wallflower squirmed in her seat. "Y-you do?"
"That look you wore when Rainbow snapped you out of things? I have seen that exact look, on a hundred girls at this school, all for the same reason," Rarity pressed. "If you'd be so kind as to oblige my curiosity—"
"Oh, hey, Wallflower," Sunset said, coming up behind her and grabbing her hand. "Got a few minutes? I've got a couple of yearbook questions I want to ask you."
Wallflower looked behind her, to a grinning Sunset, who winked so quickly that she almost missed it. She got out of her seat.
Rarity gasped. "Oh, no you don't," she said, standing up as well.
"Sorry, can't wait," Sunset said, walking out of the cafeteria and pulling Wallflower along with her. "Total yearbook emergency, for serious."
Wallflower followed behind Sunset—walking fast so as to not be dragged along the hallway floors by Sunset's pace—as the two made their way to the yearbook committee room. Once they were both inside, Sunset locked the door, and pulled the blind down over its window.
"There we go," Sunset said, leaning against a table. "Thought you could use an escape before Rarity started her interrogation. Once she gets wind of even a seed of gossip, she won't stop until she's got the full tree, branches and all."
Wallflower exhaled, then laughed and leaned next to Sunset. "Thanks. For the save, and the plant metaphor."
"Do those plant metaphors say anything about tangled thorns?"
Wallflower froze upon hearing Rarity's voice. The two of them turned to see the door open again, and Rarity standing in front of it, holding up her own key.
"Oh, how quickly they forget about the second-in-command," Rarity said, closing and re-locking the door behind her. She sauntered towards them. "The Yearbook Committee's Vice President certainly couldn't ignore a yearbook emergency, now, could she?" Rarity sat on a nearby stool, crossing her legs and staring straight at Sunset. "I invented the cut-and-run excuse, Sunset. Give me some credit."
Sunset sighed. "Well, guess that didn't work."
"No, it didn't." Rarity crossed her arms. "And while I certainly understand Miss Blush's plight, I am now officially hurt. I may love gossip, but I don't spread it with wild abandon—I use such knowledge for my own purposes. That being, to understand people, and those around them."
"To that end," Rarity continued, looking at Wallflower, "I merely wish to know what is ailing our newest friend." She smirked. "Usually it takes actually eating the school lunch to send someone into that deep of a trance."
"'Our newest friend'?'" Wallflower repeated. She understood Sunset, but why was Rarity of all people giving herself that label?
"Well, yes, of course. If you'll have me." Rarity got up from her stool and walked in front of Wallflower. "I truly apologize for being so forward," she said, placing her hand to her heart. "I champion fashion and expression, which means people are my passion, my profession, my life. So, sometimes I get... excited when a new one enters my field of vision. But the last thing I wanted to do was scare you."
Wallflower nodded. The story certainly checked out—she'd known Rarity to be one of CHS's top socialites. It was why Wallflower had consciously given her a wide berth for years, which had proven to be difficult when Rarity joined the yearbook committee.
Suffice to say, the Memory Stone had seen lots of uses on Rarity—far more than Wallflower cared to admit to herself, much less out loud. She looked to Sunset, in a silent request for confirmation.
"It's true," Sunset said, walking next to them both. "Rarity is a great friend. You can trust her as much as you can trust me, or Rainbow, or anyone else in our group." She fed Rarity a sheepish, slouched gaze. "Sorry, Rarity."
"You're forgiven as usual," Rarity said, shoo-ing the issue away with her fingers, then taking both Sunset's hands and Wallflower's. "Even after you told me the whole story about the Memory Stone, it still took me a while to process. But I believe I at last have the gist..." She sighed. "And understand the motivations. From what Sunset has told me, Wallflower, the social waters have been murky for you for years. Believe me, I have absolutely been there."
Suddenly, Wallflower felt as small as a shrub. "You... you have?"
Rarity laughed, let go of Wallflower and Sunset's hands, and paced around the room. "Of course! Mind you, most people have forgotten now, so if you tell anyone I'll deny it, but there was indeed a very long stretch of time where even Rarity was known to be decidedly un-fabulous." Her voice sobered. "That stretch of time being, my birth up until a scant few years ago."
Rarity stopped, and stared at the door. She reached for her pendant, twirling it between her fingers. "So many days, so many years, I would wake up, but not even want to get out of bed, because I would fail to see the point. Because I knew that the moment I did, I could look forward to a day of being ignored at best, or ridiculed at worst. As far as I saw it, attending school was hardly worth the trouble—to say nothing of trying to share any of myself on a personal level. Honestly, that was what always got me into the worst trouble."
Wallflower gasped, flashing back to her Gardening Club presentation. "That's exactly how I've felt," Wallflower said softly, as Rarity walked back towards her. "For so long, now. It's not that I hate people, but..."
"But receiving scorn and stonewalling, for the simple crime of proclaiming that you are who you are, is insanity-inducing." Rarity took both of Wallflower's hands, and looked into her eyes.
Unable to form words, all Wallflower could do was nod in acknowledgment. Out of the corner of her vision, she saw Rarity and Sunset's pendants glow—the same pendants she now remembered having seen glowing around their necks when she fought Sunset the others with the Memory Stone.
She felt Sunset gently clasp her arm—and all at once, visions flooded Wallflower's mind, of a younger Rarity being given smug looks of disdain by other younger girls she passed in the hallway. Being splashed by casually-tossed water cups in the girls' bathroom as she experimented with her makeup. Her assignments being tampered with in home ec class—with outfit-ruining results.
Wallflower opened her eyes, and looked back into Rarity's. For the first time since she'd ever come to know Rarity as a schoolmate, she saw a piercing sadness within them. If not for the last five minutes, Wallflower knew she would have been shocked at the revelation. Instead, there was only understanding.
"The social end of the scholastic experience is uniquely trying for any girl you care to name. And those for who aren't lucky enough to end up in the prestigious circles, or who are unable to claw their way into them through sheer dedication..." Rarity closed her eyes and sighed. "Contempt breeds. Whether you wish to or not, it so understandably breeds. What you did was wrong, Wallflower. But I understand why."
If Wallflower had been a shrub before, she was the tiniest of sprouts now. Rarity truly did understand. How many more, then, had Wallflower not even given the chance to do the same? How many more people's memories had she erased just because... just because she'd been so angry?
Wallflower exhaled, pushing her guilt down, down, as far down as it could go, as forcibly as she could. "How did you get past it?" she whispered. "The contempt, I mean."
"It's different for everyone, because everyone has to find their own way to do so," Rarity said. "No one can simply reach into your heart and make it so you can handle the pressures of trying to be socially visible. Making friends is hard, keeping them is harder, and you have to find out what works for you."
Rarity picked up a copy of the yearbook from the nearby desk, opened it up, shuffled to a page, and handed it to Wallflower. Wallflower took it, and found herself looking at Trixie's full-page poster.
"Some people love the spotlight, regardless of its risks," Rarity said. "Other people prefer to play it safe. Neither way is wrong at all. Though, if you're asking about me, specifically..." She stared off again. "One day I simply woke up and said, 'enough is enough'. I decided I would be who I wanted to be, to share that with others, and whoever didn't like it was worse off. I had to make that decision, if for no other reason than all signs pointed to my career dreams depending on it."
"But make that decision I did, and after much time putting it into practice—searching, again, over the course of years? I found friends willing to stand with me." Rarity squeezed Wallflower's hands, and looked to Sunset, who smiled. "As I see you have, if perhaps in the unlikeliest of ways."
Wallflower smiled back at Sunset, then to Rarity. "Looks like, yeah."
"You never plan for these things, darling, believe me," Rarity said. "But, as I said earlier: if you'll have me, I wish to stand with you, too."
Wallflower blushed with warmth. "At this point, I'll take all the help I can get."
"Excellent," Rarity said letting go of Wallflower's hands, walking away a few steps, then turning around and casting Wallflower a sly, slanted smile. "Because there's still the matter of the episode in the cafeteria. Unless you thought you were going to get out of here without spilling every single bean possible."
Wallflower gulped.
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Rarity really wants Wallflower's beans. She sure is a gas!
... I should be ashamed for that, but I'm not.
9035200
THIS ISN'T THE BEANIS CINEMATIC UNIVERSE! Bookish is too wholesome for that.
Ooh, Rarity has a shiny new backstory! =P
Forgot to mention that I love what you did with Photo Finish. =)
9035283
That's a shame, really.
9035283
What? NO! I wasn't even thinking about that, honest! I was seriously just making a bean joke!
Ah, high school crushes. Memories.
Rarity has sage advice.
I'm not sure if you googled this first but it seems to be highly appropriate.
Little quote alignment issue: |...chuckled." I was...|
Why do I get the feeling that Blush Productions, Ltd. will be a major media company in this worlds future?
In any case, wonderful showcase of Rarity at her best by showing her at her worst. Good to see Wallflower realize just what she was missing out on because of magic abuse. Now to see how Rarity takes the news...
I have no doubt that there will be squeeing.
9035438
One does not joke about the Beanis. One only...beans.
9035283
You fool! You know not what you have wrought! ...For that matter, neither do I. Forgive me, Bookish!
9035438
Don't worry, you're just being teased...I hope.
yep i don't like the timeskip.
This is Rarity again probably believing she knows exactly when someone is in love.
Why was she suddenly there?, does she has some time travel problems or something like that? I'm not entirely sure how that stone worked yet if I see something like this.
I don't think I liked this chapter that much, just to be sure I read it again after my first coffee. I mean if that should help me understand it better today.
9036014
Its not 11 dates. It's a daydream. She was imagining it.
Wallflower's key learning today is this: She has never been as unique in her isolation as she thought. The key difference is that the Memory Stone enabled her to stagnate in her bad situation and made it easier to overlook opportunities to change things.
Meanwhile, I wonder if Wallflower is going to end up doodling 'Juniper <3 Montage' in her writing books and the like!
9036246
hhmmm okay, still not exactly what I prefer, I mean that she is already that deeply in love, but at least now I know what was going on in that part.
9036460
Crushes don't really follow rational or realistic trajectories.
...especially so when you're a massive introvert and the subject of said crush is actually friendly in return.
9036315
Or even drawing a heart with their initials in it!
W.B. + J.M.
9037058
I'd love to see that.
9037088
You're the
Princess of Friendshipauthor! You can make it happen!9036684
uuuuhhhhh I'm pretty sure I said it's how I prefer it. That and I know that it can at least happen a few times like that.
Other times I think they maybe mistaken love with what they feel in that moment a bit. Of course I can't really speak for other people, it's just my experiences, be it my own or what I learned from other sources.
Yeeaaaahh well no, I don't really want to treat that like a rule, this sounds pretty much like one of those stupid cliches. "always the quie once".
It's mostly like that because they are just not used to those people acting different once they either are more comfortable and probably act more freely because of that.
9036460
From my perspective (meaning not facts, just opinion) usually in High School you go all in pretty quick. So, you think you're head over heels in love, but usually it's just heavy infatuation. Doesn't mean people don't fall in love fast and jump in 100 %. Just that in High School it's always the One! When it ends your life is always Over! So, they could be all in love that fast and it could be true love or it could be the usual try before you buy, lol. Emotions are high as teenager. Hell as an adult you still go all in pretty fast sometimes.
9035459
...now I wish I had. I'd've gone even more all in.
Thanks