He dropped the note, 'I should be able to remember that.' He thought to himself.
Stranger then turned his gaze on Twilight. He looked at her as if she was some kind of object he had to deal with …like garbage. Not with hate or disgust, not with grief or irritation, more like as if she was some kind of a responsibility he couldn't let down. He walked over to take a closer look at her; despite her troubled mane, she was a beautiful mare. The morning sun lit up her pony face trough the window; she looked so peaceful in the light, like nothing of this world would ever hurt her. Stranger moved his hoof slowly trough her mane, even though it was twisted from all the missing sleep and the stress caused by her frustrations, it was still quite soft and neat. Stranger was still putting on that serious face; he wasn't thinking about abusing her while she slept, he just wanted to feel her purple hair in his hoof.
'How did it come to this?'
He moaned frustrated and threw himself down on the floor beside Twilight. "Would you ever understand? Will I ever tell you the truth? Would you ever be ready?" he asked, well knowing she wasn't going to answer. After speaking to himself, he got back on his hooves but not before swiftly pulling out a pink hair from her mane. Afterwards he started to lift Twilight into bed. He carefully pulled the purple blanked over her and said, "Sleep well…and don't worry about your chores they will be dealt with."
Stranger saw that Spike was still asleep, snoring like only a dragon can. Stranger had to turn his mask back on before he could confront the little purple dragon with his questions. Being in act was tiring but he had to do it, if he wanted to keep his low profile. He took some seconds to stretch out his face, before he began the real transformation. He needed to rest it from time to time. It feels like putting a pencil in your jaw, it doesn't hurt that much but its irritating, and you feel kinda' ridiculous. Actually it's not even a real spell, just a little trick to change your charisma and aura. If done right, ponies would actually have a hard time recognizing you. After a little shiver and some blinking the more colorful and optimistic version of Stranger was back in the room. He conjured up a magic mirror to check his appearance, and as always he was satisfied with the result. He didn't want to risk waking Twilight, so before he woke Spike he carried him down to the library's main hall. "Spike, hey Spike!" Stranger said as he poked the little dragon to wake him up.
After a minute of constant and patient poking, the purple lizard slowly opened his eyes.
"Huh Twilight?"
"No as I said yesterday my name is Stranger, I need to ask you a couple of things." He said with his fake face.
Spike got out of his sleeping basket and yawned, "Why can't you just ask Twilight?"
"Because Twilight stayed up all night while studding, so now she has to make up for the sleep she lost while I do her chores." explained Stranger.
Spike didn't really want to answer right now; he had thought he could have a day off now when Twilight was going to sleep all day. But he knew Twilight, if Spike didn't help The Stranger, she would just blame him for being uncooperative. And so he figured the best way to avoid a lecture was to just help the pony. "Okay what do you need to know?" Spike asked with an up giving tone.
"I need directional help to where Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and…"
A devious idea just hit Stranger. "And Miss Cheerilee live, or might be at the given moment." He finished.
"Are you sure? I don't remember seeing Miss Cheerilee on Twilights schedule?" Spike asked.
"Yes that was the name!" The Stranger said and smiled. Spike didn't suspect a thing, he just thought Stranger was forgetful, but truth be told; the Stranger has yet to ever forget a pony's name.
The storm had taken its toll on Ponyville, a lot of the plants and flowers were ripped out of the ground, and roof tiles were randomly spread all over the place. Even though it was early in the morning, ponies were already out working to clean up the mess from the storm. The storm made by the Pegasus's had been scheduled, so they had plenty of time to prepare for it, yet this had been something else, something different, something special; like the pony that was now wandering through the street towards a certain "Carousel Boutique: a big high purple and round building, just over the bridge in the southeast end of town. It is formed like a carousel (whatever that is) with a little red flag at the top, easy to recognize, you can't miss it" Stranger said to himself, retracing Spike's description of the shop. He stropped to take a better look at the building before he continued.
"Home to the most…beautiful mare in Equestria" The Stranger was slightly puzzled about Spike's choice of words; it sounded like he had a crush on this pony.
But how could a dragon have a crush on a…. he stopped himself from thinking any further, and decided not to think too much about that.
"First on my list; deliver some books to a dress maker, it should be fair easy to get a conversation going"
Stranger had brought the books Spike instructed, including:
-A trip to fashion
-Pony style party dresses
-Why griffon dresses will never be this fabulous
-Warning! These dresses will attract dragons and… How they made them before the great winter. The Stranger gave that book an extra thought. 'The great winter could it be?'
Stranger was just about to look in his saddlebag when remembered the task at hoof. He shook his head to get out of the thought stream and continued towards the Boutique, in a slow tempo. As he walked into the store; a doorbell rang, signalling to the shops owner.
"Wait just a moment dear!" He heard a pony call out from the upper floor. Stranger didn't see the reason to wait, he wasn't a customer but he waited anyway just to be polite.
After a shot moment, a white mare pony came down to what she thought was a customer.
She was wearing red glasses and had a measuring tape hanging around her neck. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, I'm so sorry for the delays I had, and still have some work to finish. Either way is there any way I can assist you?" Rarity asked.
Stranger grinned. "No need, I am not a great shopper. I came here to deliver some books for Twilight Sparkle." Stranger said and pulled out five books and hoofed them over to Rarity.
"Oh the books I requested" Rarity looked the books through and found a book out of place.
"Hold on dear, there seams to be a mistake I didn't send for this one, it doesn't even have a title, and why is it locked?" Rarity asked.
Stranger's heart DID skip a beat; the shock was painted all over his face. Fortunately Rarity was too busy examining the book to notes the Stranger's expression, he was at the brink of changing back and drop out of his act.
Even with his incomprehensive willpower, it took quite some effort to say, "Sorry wrong book, I think this is the one you wanted." With a calm and controlled voice, and then he hoofed her, the right book.
"Ah wonderful, is there a reason why didn't Twilight attend herself? And by the way who are you if you don't mind my saying?" Rarity asked.
"Twilight couldn't attend herself because she stayed up all night studding; she was tired so I told her; the importance of beauty sleep. And me, I am The Stranger; you may call me Stranger.
I will be staying at Twilight Sparkle until I find my own home in Ponyville. You must be Rarity, It's a pleasure making your acquaintance." The Stranger said as he bowed, and put his precious book back to safety.
"Well then, what brought you to Ponyville?" Asked the charmed and curios Rarity.
The Strangers accent had completely disappeared, leaving Rarity no clue of his foreign background, in fact he started to sound a bit like a high class pony from Canterlot, using courtesies and speaking words he thought of as unnecessary. "Oh just some minor things I needed to attend to; I'm seeking inspiration for my work, and heard that this place has some of the more; beautiful landscapes in Equestria." Stranger didn't make eye contact as he talked, instead he would wander around in the Boutique, and admire the vast selection of beautiful dresses, made by Rarity. "But talking about beauty, I must say; these outfits are absolutely gorgeous." He turned his head, as he was done saying the last sentence.
"Why, thank you dear. But these are from my old collection, and are not selling very well at the moment. I am working a new selection right now, but… it is not going to well to say the least.
I got the idea of making old style dresses."
"Sounds interesting, might I see what you're working on? I might be able to help you with them."
"That would be wonderful, my ensembles is just upstairs." Rarity said joyfully, and trotted towards the stairs with her newly obtained books. "Twilights library has been most helpful, but even though I somehow can't seam to get the colors right, I have never been this frustrated with a dress before.
The design is so perfect but, oh the colors, you see back then when the designs were made, ponies didn't put colors in their books, and any record or description of the designs, is as good as lost forever."
The Stranger followed Rarity as she spoke, paying close attention to every word. As they walked inside Rarity's inspiration room, the Stranger could clearly see what Rarity meant; the colors on the dresses were horrifying, and totally destroying the potential of the fine designs. It wasn't the lack of color nor was it ugly colors; they just seamed out of place with the wrong composition. They were not as simple as the other dresses he saw downstairs, and had at least twice as many details, nibs and nabs; with a strong and outstanding nuance, but it was hugely overdone, with far too much variation, and far too few matching's. Despite the bright and cheery looks, the dresses were disgusting and ugly beyond ANY compare. Rarity sighed. She was clearly not happy with the result of her hard work and dedication. She fought it pointless to even hope for any kind of good or optimistic reaction from the Stranger, but to her big surprise; Stranger was smiling.
"Might I take a closer look at them?" Stranger asked.
"B-but of course." Rarity said in confusion.
The dresses were horrible; a blind pony could see it from a mile away, so why would anypony want to take a closer look? He walk over to examine the dresses further, He seamed to take it very seriously; touching the fabric, lifting small straps and overlays, and then walked around it and back to Rarity. "I may indeed be able to help you with this." He coughed, as preparing for a long speech.
"Apart from the color and the disastrous looks of these dresses, it really isn't that wrong, the design is actually perfect, and there is a good reason why the colors turned out so badly. You see, back when the dresses were designed; colored fabrics were extremely hard to come by. In fact even royalty rarely had gowns with colors beyond light blue, white, weak pink, beige, and light purple. But to your luck, you've chosen a very fine and vary expensive dress, to recreate, in contract to other dress by its time; this dress can be fitted to almost any color, as long as it is weak or light."
Rarity was astonished, by the Strangers knowledge, but let him continue. "The dresses were designed to have weak and pale colors, and that is why strong stylings will never fit it. Think vintage and imagine that dress with a white base and a light blue skirt. Remove the fake headdress and add a few accessories to cover up the naked parts; the details should be kept shining so throw a golden thread into the edges."
As Stranger explained, he illustrated by pointing out the flaws, as he would say what could be improved, apparently there was much to me done. Fortunately, Rarity didn't have to make a new dress as the Stranger could redo the colors by the use of magic; afterwards it would be easy to make a copy for selling. About a half hour had past before Stranger and Rarity were done recreating the first dress, it had been tiresome but in the long run, it was definitely worth it. The dress was now looking more beautiful, than Rarity had ever hoped to imagine, an elegant white and blue dress with fitting detail and astonishing finish, complete with a new headwear to match the shoes, the back had been flatten out to keep the wearing pony nimble, and thin looking. Around the neck was an outstanding, deep ocean blue sapphire necklace, sewn into the outfit to make it shine like Princess Luna's moon; giving it a magical and mystical aura of the night. But finally the dress was done. Stranger and Rarity took a step back, to admire their work.
"We most certainly came out lucky with this one." Said Stranger.
"Lucky?! It turned out fabulous, no less than a marvel. I don't have the slightest idea, what I would have done, if you hadn't come along. But I must ask you; how in the world could a pony like you know so mush about fashion?" Rarity asked.
"It is not so mush knowledge about fashion as it is history; you see I am in fact a historian, specialized in the time before The Great Winter." Stranger explained.
"You are an absolute delight; I just don't know how to thank you for this. If there is any way I can repay you…"
"No need to." Stranger interrupted. "Let us just call this; the beginning of a new friendship." Said Stranger as he smiled wide with a charming tooth in the end of his mouth.
"So I guess you'll be going now?" Asked Rarity; clearly disappointed of the short time she had spent, with this new pony.
"Yes, I still have a few tasks ahead of me, and I probably won't be free before this afternoon." Said Stranger, as he picked up his saddlebag and walked out of the room followed by Rarity. "But maybe we could have some tea tomorrow, if you are free that is" Stranger offered
"That would be wonderful I can finish the rest of the dresses by myself, so I will have plenty of free time. See you tomorrow dear." Finished Rarity and waved goodbye to her new founded friend.
'Clearly a pony of high importance.' She fought to herself, and she was right; Stranger was about to play a very important role in the history of Ponyville. For the better or worse, the Stranger in Ponyville was now heading towards an unfamiliar farm.
'One dealt with three to go. This turned out, fabulous.'
To be continued.