Like I Imagined
Chapter 1: The Boulevard
The elegant wooden door swung shut with a bang. Rarity's rumpled, cake-stained dress flew against the wall and fell to the floor, where it sat out-of-place in the otherwise immaculate bedroom. The mare had kept her poker face up around her friends and acted content under the pretense of friendship, but now that she was alone, the ladylike demeanor that everyone knew and respected was peeling away at an alarming rate. She seethed. She growled. She stomped around the room. She went to kick the floor lamp beside her window, but stopped.
"No, no. Not the lamp," She panted, and flopped onto the bed in resignation. Something small and furry padded from its hiding spot and sat beside her head.
"Oh, Opalescence," Rarity whined. "I was this close. This close! I thought for sure that stallion was the one I was looking for. A true gentlecolt. But what do I get?" She snorted. "A ponce! A frilly, greedy, spoiled rotten, narcissistic ponce!" Each word was accented with a hoof against the mattress.
"Meow," Opalescence said with a blink.
"Oh my, you're right," The mare paused and took a deep breath. "That was... Very unladylike of me. But still, you can't understand the frustration. He was a foal. A buffoon! And of course, all of my friends were actually having fun. And I can't complain to them, because they wouldn't understand. Applejack lacks the sophistication. Rainbow Dash definitely lacks the sophistication. Twilight wouldn't know romance if it hit her in the flank, the poor darling, and Pinkie Pie, well... She's Pinkie Pie. And Fluttershy, oh my. Let's just say that I'm not risking making her upset for a long time." She shuddered.
Opalescence curled up next to her with a purr.
"Well yes, those are good reasons, but still!" Rarity huffed. "What about me? I'm all alone. And you know this isn't the first time this has happened. Time after time, I keep thinking I've found him, and time after time, they're nothing but a bunch of shallow, ungrateful, prissy... Urgh!" Exasperated, she pressed her face into a pillow, coming up for air after a few seconds. "Why is this so difficult for a lady of my stature? I just want... I need..." She paused to catch her breath. "I really need some air!" She huffed, and stormed out of the room.
Opalescence blinked again.
It was colder than usual for an early summer evening, and as Rarity half-sauntered, half-stomped her way down the boulevard, she couldn't help but shiver at the breeze biting into her fur. She continued despite it. Her aggravation not just at the spoiled prince but at everypony she had dared to connect with drove her on, her breath fogging into the air in short, moody bursts. She passed a house where a foal watched curiously from the window, and magicked the curtains shut with a frown. Who would imagine fair Rarity of all ponies parading down the street in such a foul temper, for all to see? She stopped and glanced around, just to make sure. Nopony else was awake enough to spy on her at this hour. Simultaneously relieved and annoyed at her solitude, she pressed on. Idiots, all of them. Scoundrels. Foals. No respect, no admiration for any but themselves!
She walked, and walked, until her legs ached in a way that she had not felt in some time. Broken out of her mental rampage by the soreness, she looked up from the ground. Darkness. Not a single building in sight. Crickets chirped from the grass around her, and the wind carried the scent of earth and trees. She had been so focused that she had left Ponyville entirely. She was in the wilderness. Out of her element. Alone.
"Oh dear," She murmured. Her heart began to race. Alone, in the dark, with no idea where she was. Her quick bout of turning had even deprived her of knowing which way she had come from. She could scarcely see in the moonlight to tell that she was on a road.
"D-don't worry, Rarity," She whispered to herself. Her breath clouded rapidly in front of her, like puffs from a steam engine at full tilt. "It's alright. I'll just... I'll... Oh my, what will I do? I don't know anything about the wilderness, and it's late, and I-"
"Miss Rarity?" A deep voice asked.
"AAAH!" The unicorn spun, screaming, then promptly stopped. Staring sleepily back at her was a broad-shouldered, red and freckled stallion, an oil lantern at his hooves and a canvas jacket around his torso. "Oh!" She panted. "M-Macintosh! I didn't expect you here."
"I could say the same for you, miss," Macintosh replied in his low southern drawl. "You never struck me as one for the outdoors."
"I-I'm not, really," Rarity gave a short, timid glance around her. "I was in the midst of walking, and, well, I suppose I didn't stop. Why are you out here in the middle of the night?"
"I don't sleep well," The stallion said simply. "Walkin' helps me think."
"O-oh, I see," The unicorn nodded. An awkward moment of silence passed with the breeze.
"D'you need help gettin' back to town?" Macintosh offered.
"Oh, alicorns above, yes," She sighed relieved. With a nod, Macintosh picked up the lantern in his mouth and started down the road, the mare in tow. The breeze blew through again. Rarity shivered.
"You alright?" Macintosh asked through the lantern's handle.
"Hm? Oh, yes," Rarity gave a quick nod, then hesitated. "Well, maybe. Actually, not at all. You see, your sister and our friends and I went to the Gala this evening, and I thought I was going to meet the love of my life, but he wasn't at all like I imagined!" She gave a short sigh. "And I wouldn't be too terribly disappointed, but this is umpteenth time this has happened! I finally think I've found the perfect stallion, and then they turn around and become a complete imbecile! And to think they consider themselves well-mannered! It drives me mad, and furthermore- Just what are you smirking at?"
Macintosh stopped and set the lantern down. "I meant you looked cold," He said.
"Col-Oh," Her white-furred cheeks flushed with mild embarrassment. "C-come to think of it, yes, it is awfully chilly."
"Well then, here." Rearing to his hind legs, the farm stallion shrugged his jacket off and caught it in his mouth.
"Oh no," Rarity said. "That's not necessary." But Macintosh had already draped the heavy canvas over her shoulders. She was about to protest about how rough and unladylike the fabric was, but held her tongue. The jacket was massive on her, but it was warm. Comfortably, wonderfully warm. And lined with fleece, she discovered.
"Th-thank you," She stammered in surprise. Macintosh gave a small nod and picked up the lantern again before continuing. The two walked on in silence.
"I apologize," Rarity said after a while. "About my tirade, that is. I wasn't thinking, and... Well... I'm usually not that fussy, I swear."
"S'alright," Macintosh said.
"It is?" She blinked.
"I live with two fillies and an old mare," He replied. "Listenin' to other pony's troubles doesn't bother me at all."
"Oh," She gave a little giggle. "I suppose I hadn't thought of that."
The lantern's light seemed to diminish as the streetlamps of Ponyville came into view once more.
"There's the town," Macintosh set the lantern down again and nodded. "Can you make it back from here?"
"I think so," Rarity nodded, and shrugged the jacket onto her extended hoof. "Here," She said.
The stallion shook his head. "Keep it. You need it more'n I do tonight. I'll just pick it up tomorrow."
Rarity was about to insist, but the temptation of warmth was too much. "Thank you," She said, draping it back over herself.
"Eyyyup," He said.
"See you tomorrow then, I suppose," The unicorn gave a small curtsy and started walking home.
"Oh, and Miss Rarity?" Macintosh said.
"Hm?" She turned, head tilted.
"Don't think so hard on what you want," He said. "You'll know when you find it." With that, he picked up his lantern, turned, and walked away.
It was even colder now on the main street of Ponyville than when Rarity had left, not that she noticed. Sure, the design was woefully simple, and the fabric was coarse and rugged, but somehow, the jacket around her shoulders made her feel... Safe? A strange sense of awkwardness washed over her, and she found herself inexplicably blushing as she opened the double door to the Carousel Boutique. She fell asleep that night with the jacket draped over her bedpost, and her head full of contemplation over what the laconic stallion had told her.