When the Circus Came to Town

We reached the carraige and trotted in. There were some sights to behold in there, including a vast amount of rooms for the ponies to rest in, a large rack with clean outfits hanging from it, and a group of ponies over in the corner (mainly Euphories, but there were others there) passing an elaborate smoking apparatus around. She turned a corner and went into one of the rooms, I followed and she closed the door behind us.

"This is my room" She said with a proud look on her face.

I looked around and saw colors, orange, light blue, light green, yellow, happy colors. It looked nothing like what I expected, it was so warm and bright, so unlike the outside of the carraige.
"You like it? I painted it myself!"
"I love it!"
"Thanks, now about getting you dressed up."

She pushed me toward a chair in front of a large mirror on the wall to our left that had carnival lights all around it, traveling in cascading circles around the frame. I sat in the chair and she trotted out the door. I waited, wondering what she was doing, but I didn't have much time to, because soon enough the door flung open again and she was pushing a rack loaded with different outfits through it. I got up and tried to help her push it.

"I got this, why don't you go get washed up, you smell... funny, and not the good kind of funny."

I noticed that I hadn't taken a bath in almost a week, so I sniffed myself and wondered how she wasn't gagging. I smelled awful.
"I'll be right back, I know a good pond right near here"
"Through that door is a thingy called a bathtub."

She smiled a little while pointing and I returned the smile. It was so long since I had a bath in a tub I almost forgot they existed. sure enough there was a wooden door with "In House" painted on the front where she pointed. I chuckled at it as I turned the handle and walked through.

It was a sight to behold, that bathroom. There were little trinkets here and there, rubber duckies, a set of opera masks hanging on the wall, a brass tub and sink, another mirror with lights all around it, and a pipe organ at the end of the tub, the keyboard of which was just within reach if one was in the tub. I turned the brass handle and the spout started to pour it's water into the tub. Soon enough the brass basin was full and I climbed into the warm water.

It was a long time since I had a warm bath, and I sunk in up to my nose because it was just so relaxing. After five-ish minutes of just enjoying myself in the warm water I decided I should clean myself, and I searched for soap. I found it lying on a little table next to the tub. I made sure I was as clean as I could get before I got out. A good ten minutes passed, and I pulled the plug and hopped over the lip of the tub out of the now slightly murky water.

There was a towel on a little towel-holder, so I pulled it off quick and gave a loud cry of surprise, followed by a shower of laughter from beyond the door. Dawn must've put the picture of one of the smiling dead on the other side of the towel. I yelled out so that she could hear "Ha Ha very funny!" I chuckled a little, and toweled myself off. Before I opened the door I turned to the picture and stuck out my tongue. The door swung open and I walked out.

She was sitting on the bed.
"Took you long enough." She got up.
"Sorry, I was really dirty."
"I'm sure you were." She walked past me and brushed her tail across my face. My face turned a shade of red.
"So are we gonna get you dressed or what? The initiation is starting soon."

I shook my head to get out of my current state of mind.
"Yeah, what kind of outfit did you have in mind?"
She hopped over to the rack and grabbed the first thing she saw. It was a tight pink suit with white frill.
"Nope."
At my word she tossed it aside. Next was a clown outfit, big horseshoes and all.
"Nope."

The pile grew, it went like this for a little while until the pile in the corner of her room was almost as tall as the dresser next to it. There were about 7 things left on the rack when she pulled out one that particularly caught my eye. It was a black jacket with weathered red cloth patches where it tore and somepony patched it up. It came with a jester's hat quite like her own, just without the bells, and a lightly dirty white undershirt.

"That one. I like that one." She jumped once and gave a squee of delight through teeth clenched around a clotheshanger holding the outfit. She darted up to me and gave the outfit to me, I set it on the arm of the chair.
"Try it on!"

"Okay, one second." I started to put on the outfit, the undershirt slid on like a glove and the jacket came next. It was a perfect fit. I started to pull the buttons together.
"That's enough!" She stopped me before I could button any of them. "It'll look better that way." I shrugged and stopped buttoning. Last to go on was the hat, It hugged my head and was soft on the inside. I turned and liked what I saw in the mirror.

Dawn stood there, next to the zebra that now wore attire quite like her own. She looked beautiful, my heart fluttered and I got butterflies in my stomach.
"It looks good on you, now for the paint." She smiled a little and opened a drawer next to her bed, pulling out a palette of facepaint.

I sat back down in the chair, butterflies flapping away, and she walked up to my side.
"Do you have anything in mind?"

I ignored the feelings for a second and replied.
"Surprise me."

She smiled ear to ear and dabbed her brush in the paints.
"Close your eyes."

I let my eyelids relax and slipped into darkness. Every stroke of the brush tickled my face.
"Okay, you can open them now."

Slowly the mirror came into view, blurry, but it soon focused. She painted a red diamond vertically over a horizontal black one on my right eye.
"This design looks familiar."
"I know, I'm a sucker for that look." She said with a little giggle. "Now hold still, I have a little more to do."

She took a bottle out of her drawer.
"What else do you have in that drawer?" I inquired jokingly.
"A better question would be what Don't I have in here." She stated, giggling some more.

The contents of the bottle were squeezed into her hooves and applied to the tips of my mane. It was red dye.
"Do you like it? I thought it would go well with your eyes."
"I love it."
"Now for something every zebra needs."

She reached into the drawer once more and pulled out a bunch of golden rings.
"Well then, what don't you have in there?" I inquired, curious about the answer.
"I don't have an alternate universe in here, I'm pretty sure." Another round of chuckles.

She walked up to me in the chair after our breath came back and started putting the rings on me. One on my arm and three around my neck (they clipped in the back).

"This might hurt for a second."
"Wha- OW!"

I felt a sharp pain in my ear, then another just above where the first was.
"What was that?" I shouted as I was holding my ear.
"Hold on, I'll help with the pain."

She trotted over to miniature pipe organ near the wall and started playing. The sound weaved into my ear, into my very core. The pain went away and I felt drowsy. My eyelids got heavy and closed. The music stopped.

"Better?"
"Huh Wha- Oh, yeah, it's better, thanks."

She walked up and put two more rings into the new holes in my ear.
"There, now you lookin' like one of them classy mares." She smiled, so did I.

"We should get to the initiation ceremony."
I nodded in agreement and we left the room.