She knew there had to be a better word for his behavior lately, but no matter how much she searched her mental thesaurus, the one she kept returning to was weird. Dapples was acting weird. Twilight had to admit that she had not seen a lot of him in the almost three weeks since he had started helping Rarity with her modeling project, her first attempt at creating a fashion line for stallions. However, on the few occasions where they had been able to rendezvous, often meeting for lunch at the cafe, he had always seemed to be just a little... off. No complaints, no scars, no glaring defects of any kind, but his behavior had some subtle variance that she was able to recognize, due to the sheer amount of time they had spent together before the modeling gig.

The example that most perplexed Twilight was his new eating habits. During breaks in writing, Dapples was usually famished and scarfed down a full meal for lunch, hay fries included. On one of the occasions that Spike had come with them, Dapples had spent the bulk of the meal stealing fries from the purple dragon's plate. The male unicorn's refusal to acknowledge the theft in spite of overwhelming evidence had frustrated Spike and amused Twilight. And when Dapples ordered coffee, he loaded it with sugar, sometimes causing it to reach a sickening syrupy consistency. But not today. Today he was taking his coffee black. He put his hooves on the plate holding his grass sandwich, cut diagonally. He pushed it across the table in Twilight's direction.

"Do you want half?" He gave Twilight a small, enigmatic smile. She smiled back. She wished she could see his eyes. The most obvious difference in Dapples was that he had taken to wearing very dark sunglasses whenever he was outside. His excuse had been "to protect my retinas from the harsh ultraviolet rays." It was a good enough explanation, and the science was sound, but she suspected that there was a reason his answer was so technical. As if he had written it specifically for her.

"Thank you very much," Twilight said while nodding, and added his half to her plate. Plain grass sandwiches were not very filling, which was fine for her. She had enough food to fill her up. But there was no way that measly slab of bread and foliage would fill the black hole that was Dapples' stomach. She coughed. "So how have you been this week?"

Dapples seemed to snap out of some sort of reverie. "Wha-oh. It's been pretty crazy at the Boutique. I really look forward to these little breaks, whenever I can get them."

Twilight smiled. She had been surprised by how much she missed his company over the past few weeks. "Tonight's the big night, then?" She was equally surprised when she looked up and saw a frown on his face.

"Eeeyup," he said tersely, sounding very much like the brother of one of her best friends. She could only guess as to what was going on behind the shades, but his face was twisted up into a way that made him look almost lost. He sighed over his dark cup of coffee and took a sip.

"HEY GUYS!"

Startled by the loud voice and its accompanying pink form that seemed to have appeared at their table from nowhere, Dapples choked on his drink.

"Oh... sorry about that! I promise I'm not trying to kill you! Quite the opposite, actually! Well, maybe not the opposite, because the opposite of killing you would be bringing you back to life! And you're not a zombie!" Twilight considered interrupting Pinkie Pie to suggest otherwise, but the earth pony was already on a roll. "No, I'm here to spread some smiles with a project I've been working on for days! See, Twilight? Not only brainy ponies can have projects!"

Twilight smiled at her hyperactive friend. "I guess you're right, Pinkie. So what's your big project?"

Pinkie produced a large pink box, again, seemingly out of nowhere. She opened it up to reveal at least a dozen small baked goods in all kinds of colors. "Cupcakes! The frosting on each one is made for a different pony in Ponyville!" Sure enough, there was a purple one with a pink streak down the middle. On the very top was a pattern of nonpareils done in the shape of her cutie mark. Right next to it was another cupcake whose pattern was more subdued, but was no less familiar.

Twilight looked up at Pinkie. "Should I just grab them?"

Pinkie laughed. "Well, you can't eat them in the box! You might get crumbs on Fluttershy's!" Twilight's horn glowed, and her magic lifted the tiny cakes out of the box, sitting hers next to her plate, and the gray cupcake in front of Dapples.

He stared at the cupcake. Behind the sunglasses his eyes narrowed. What do you want from me, cupcake? Do you want me to eat you? You think that you can show up here, copying my patterning and my cutie mark, and I'll be so enraptured with how delicious you look that I'll eat you? Dapples could feel his mouth watering and his stomach churning. The cupcake was winning.

In the meantime, Twilight had already started on hers. It was astounding. Pinkie Pie was a wizard in the bakery, but she had never tasted something so delicate before. "Wow, Pinkie... you've really outdone yourself! What's in these?"

"Rainbow Dash..." Pinkie's eyes rolled upwards towards the sky.

Twilight choked. "What?"

Pinkie snapped to. "Oh, sorry! My train of thought derailed for a moment there. Rainbow Dash brought me some clouds from Cloudsdale! The rainbows might not have been good eating, but ever since the visit to the weather factory, I've been aching to see what I could do with some nice fluffy clouds! Oh, that reminds me!" She looked backwards and yelled "THANK YOU, RAINBOW DASH!"

"NO PROBLEM, PINKIE!" came the pegasus's voice from the distance.

Dapples gritted his teeth and starred deep into the top of the cupcake, which is where he assumed was the place to stare when confronting a baked good. No. I'm onto you. I know what you're about. You're about milk and sugar and butter and more sugar. Oh, somepony will eat you all right. But it sure as hay won't be me! "Thank you so much, Pinkie Pie," he said calmly to the baker, "but I'm quite full and simply can't eat another bite."

Twilight cocked her head to the side in confusion, but Pinkie Pie just shrugged. "Okie dokie lokie!" she exclaimed and popped the whole cupcake in her mouth. She smiled at the taste of her concoction. "Mmm! I was worried that the grey icing might not taste as good as the others, but I'm glad to see I was wrong! See you guys later!" And with that, Pinkie was already bouncing down the street looking for more tasters. Twilight turned back towards Dapples to see him breathing heavily, seeming to be following Pinkie's movements. His face held a scowl.

Twilight Sparkle used her magic to snatch the sunglasses off of Dapples' face, just in time to catch his furrowed brow, before his face became one of embarrassment. "What is wrong with you?" she snapped.

His face got serious again. He pointed after Pinkie with one hoof. "She eats ALL THE TIME. Why doesn't she gain any weight?" He recoiled a little when he turned back to Twilight and saw her eyes narrowed and her mouth hanging open.

She shook her head in an attempt to compose herself, then sighed heavily. "Well, Dapples, she runs everywhere. And she does it all the time. So for as much sweets as she puts in her body, she is probably more active than any pony in Ponyville, possibly including Rainbow Dash." Then she put both hooves on the table. "But getting back to my question, what the HAY is wrong with you? If you want to act weird with your stupid sunglasses, that's fine by me. But if you want to starve yourself, that's not fine." Dapples dropped his head. "And I'm also not fine with sitting around and listening to you talk manure about my friends!"

Dapples didn't immediately respond. Instead, his horn glowed and two sugarcubes emerged from the sugar bowl and landed in his coffee, where a spoon stirred them in. He lifted the cup to his lips and took another sip. "Oh Celestia, that's so much better." He tried giving Twilight a sheepish smile, but her expression was resolute.

"I'm waiting."

"I hate being a model, Twilight."

Why did ponies keep telling her that? How does Rarity always manage to grab ponies with no experience in the fashion industry?

Dapples took another sip of his coffee. He muttered under his breath. "You would think after how long I did it, it would have been easy to remember how miserable it made me."

"Well, I guess that's just how WHAT?"

As it turned out, Dapples had been a model for years. He came from a Manehattan family which had always had one hoof in the fashion industry. His father was an entrepreneur, his mother was a socialite, and his older brother was a model who turned designer when the notion had taken him. Stepping into the world of modelling was just a natural step for young Dapples. And though his unusual patterning had caused him some pause before accepting his first gigs, his family name opened all the right doors, and he found himself on a fast track to success. There was even a writeup of him in an old issue of Gentlecolt's Quarterly, praising him as a rising star in the fashion industry. He thanked Celestia that Rarity seemed uninterested in fashion magazines aimed towards stallions. But despite the inevitability of success, he had quit.

"Why?" asked Twilight.

Dapples gestured to himself and the table. "This is what it does to me. It turns me into a pony I don't even recognize. I starve myself, drift away from good pony company, and start acting like a grade-A jerk to everyone I meet! All I did when I wasn't modelling was smoke constantly and sleep with anything on four legs." Dapples realized too quickly what he had said when Twilight turned her head away from him and blushed. He tried desperately to save face. "Twilight, I'm not like that anymore." He hung his head in shame. "I was shallow and self-centered like everyone around me. And that's why I quit and started writing."

She turned and faced him again. This time her face was one of concern. "So what are you going to do? The show's tonight, and you've both been working so hard."

He nodded. "Too hard. But I have to see this through. I've made my promise to Rarity to get it done, and I'd be the worst kind of colt to bail on her now. But after this, I'm done. No more of this nonsense. I'm not made of strong enough stuff for it."

• • •

In truth, Rarity had some suspicions as to Dapples' background. As she had assumed he was completely green, she was occasionally surprised when he displayed an unusual familiarity with the technical terms she used on a daily basis. One day she asked him for her loupe to view some slides, and before she could finish mentally berating herself for not explaining herself, Dapples was there with the small magnifying glass in his hoof. However, these thoughts paled in importance to that of the actual show she was preparing. Hoity Toity would be there at any moment.

As she walked backstage to check on her model, she smiled to herself. When she entertained the possibility of Dapples having a fashion background, she felt even better about keeping the visiting designer's identity a secret. If he had even a glancing knowledge of the importance of the guest of honor, he'd probably trip all over himself in nervousness and literally break a leg.

"Dumb fabric," she heard him mumble as he struggled into his first oufit, a coat that covered him from head to flank, but fit rather tight around his torso.

Rarity tutted. "Don't get mad at the clothes. You look absolutely smashing. You look like quite the dapper Dapples." She giggled at her little joke. Dapples smiled back. Every designer thought they were the first to make it, but Rarity was definitely his favorite of the lot. Her face became serious as she approached him. "How are you feeling?"

"A little nervous, but I'm ready to get this show on the road. How about you?"

She put her hoof to her chin, and looked thoughtful. "Honestly, inside I think I'm losing my mind. But I'm sure with your help this whole thing will go swimmingly. And after its all over, maybe you can tell me HOW you know so much about seersucker." Rarity punctuated this last whisper with a wink.

Dapples swallowed. "Well, I..." He was interrupted by Rarity's hooves waving in his face.

"Nothing right now! It will wait until afterwards. For now, we stay focused!" The sound of a bell ringing at the front of the boutique caused her face to light up. "He's here!" She reached in and gave Dapples a quick embrace. "You'll be marvelous! Make me proud!" As she moved to return to the front, she turned back towards him. She licked her hoof and slicked a stray lock of Dapples' hair closer to his horn. "Try to keep it out of your eyes, darling."

• • •

Before he walked out on stage, Dapples tried to get a peek at whom his audience consisted of. Unfortunately, Rarity had already turned off all the lights in the boutique, except for the very bright ones on stage, that made seeing anything other than white impossible. He could hear a little bit of quiet conversation between Rarity and the mystery guest, who seemed to be the only spectator, unless this was a particularly quiet crowd. Suddenly, the Junior Colts song that was his cue started, and he made his way on stage.

He suppressed a smile at the audible gasp that seemed to come in stereo from below the stage. Not only had the designer been impressed, but Rarity had been caught off guard by how well he wore it on the stage. There was some mumbling back and forth between the two as he completed his turn, and headed backstage for his costume change.

The second outfit was another long jacket, less fitted, but complete with a tie whose patterning managed to offset Dapples' own coloring, a suggestion that Rarity had both loved and been intrigued by. She wasn't the fan of pink that her sugar-ingesting best friend was, but he wore it very well, and the murmurs from the audience indicated as such. The only thing that gave him pause was when he was sure that he heard the designer, clearly a male, say something that sounded like "Wait... that can't be..." Dapples chalked it up to idiosyncrasy and went back for outfit #3.

This was an ornate vest that Rarity had crafted, similar in style to the ones worn on Winter Wrap Up, but made with a much more delicate fabric and featuring hand-stitched patterns. It also included a black cap that he was particularly fond of. This was one of the shorter outfits in the ensemble, and it only reached as far as Dapples' waist. When he stepped on stage this time, it was quieter. He wondered if he had put it on wrong. If the designer thought Rarity had designed a dud, then he was an idiot. His thoughts were interrupted as he made his turn and a male voice said, "Oh, Celestia, no. STOP."

Dapples froze in place. He wasn't sure what to do, but continuing on with the show felt ridiculous. Rarity spoke up from the darkness. "What's wrong?"

The voice seemed to ignore her. "You on stage!" Dapples pointed to himself. "Yes, you! Take that hat off!" He immediately sweeped the cap off his head and clutched it tightly to his chest, trying not to wring his hooves together. Had he just ruined Rarity's show? But something about that voice was so... familiar.

It spoke up again. "Turn on the house lights!" There was some brief hesitation, but soon enough the stage lights went off, the house lights went on, and Dapples found himself staring at a gray pony with a silver mane. Hoity Toity.

"Oh no," Dapples and Hoity said at the same time.

"I knew I recognized that cutie mark," the designer pony said, rubbing his hoof against his forehead in frustration. "What are you doing here, Dapples?"

Dapples chuckled nervously. "Modeling?"

Rarity wasn't sure how to react to any of this. Her show had just been unceremoniously cancelled, and it turned out her fashion idol and her supposedly everypony model were on a first-name basis with each other. "What is going on here? Do you two know each other?"

Hoity Toity looked over at Rarity and did something she had never seen him do. He removed his sunglasses. He pinched at the space between his eyes with his hoof as if fighting off a major migraine. "You might say that, Rarity." She looked up at Dapples, who still had a stupid grin on his face. The wheels in her head started turning.

"Oh Celestia... you're not..." she choked out the next words. "...exes." Hoity's frown turned to a small smile, and she could see him stifling a laugh. "Are you?" she continued, looking up at the grey unicorn.

"Not quite," Dapples said, and sighed heavily. Then he pointed a hoof towards Hoity Toity. "Rarity, I'd like you to meet my brother." Next Chapter: Chapter 3: Final Estimated time remaining: 13 Minutes