It seemed like a normal day at Carousal boutique. It felt like a normal day. Everything was fine. It was just like yesterday. Slow day of business, lots of relaxation time, Sweetie Belle out of Rarity's mane... Hay, even everything smelled right!
Rarity trotted along through her shop. She picked up leftover scraps of fabric and ribbon and tossed them into her "Leftovers trunk" as she cleaned up. She had just finished up a new dress, and it was the most beautiful one she had in stock. It wasn't in any particular line of fashion at the moment, but Rarity was positive that every mare in Equestria would want one.
After everything was tidy and neat, the floors were swept, and the remaining gem stones sparkled, Rarity trotted to her vanity where she spent many hours looking over her mane. After staring at herself for a minute or two, she decided that she should change her style today. Using her magic, she opened the drawer underneath the little desk her vanity had, and pulled out two pieces of pink ribbon and a brush. Rarity brushed out her mane and made two neat braids at the sides of her head and tied them with the ribbons. Then, she began eyeing herself again.
She liked the braids at first, but then she decided otherwise.
"This is ridiculous, Rarity. You look like a school filly with these braids," She said to herself. She often spoke to herself in the third person. Just when she was about to remove the braids from her mane, she heard the doorbell jingle which alerted her of a customer.
"Coming!" She sang as she began trotting towards the front room. "Welcome to Carousal Boutique! Where every en sable is chic, unique, and magnifique. How may I help you?" Rarity said with a giggle.
"Hey, Rarity! Ooh! Love the braids!" a familiar voice said.
"Lyra! Thank you! How lovely to see you again. How are you doing, darling?"
"Fine, thanks." Lyra said. "I have some very special plans tonight and I need a new dress, if you're up to it."
"Great! I just finished a new dress. Would you like to take a look at it?
"Sure!" Lyra replied. The two mares began trotting towards the display shelves. Rarity then gestured her hoof at the new gown.
"Oh, Rarity! It's lovely, but it's not exactly what I had in mind," the mint unicorn said,
"Oh. What do you have in mind? I might know just the thing! Would you mind telling me what you had planned this evening?" Rarity asked her friend.
"Oh, um..." Lyra swallowed and began to blush. "I was um.. going to tell my crush that I like them." She said nervously.
"Oh, well then, I know just the thing!" she said as she levitated a paper off of a nearby desk. She showed it to Lyra. It was a sketch of a beautiful dress. It had ribbons laced around the sides and gems along the hem. "I was going to save it until next week, but I bet I could whip it up today! Do you like it?"
"It's perfect, Rarity," Lyra said.
"Great! Come on by later this evening and with luck, I will have it ready for you,"
"Thanks!" Lyra said. She glanced at the clock on the wall and gasped. "Sorry, Rares! I gotta gallop! I was supposed to meet Bon Bon and Rainbow Dash at Sugarcube Corner ten minutes ago! Bye!"
"Bye, Lyra!" Rarity called after her friend. "Well, no time to waste! If I am going to get this finished by tonight, I must get right to work! I must create!"
Rarity pulled bolts of baby blue and white cloth that she thought would compliment Lyra's coat nicely. She draped a rather large piece of baby blue cloth over a mannequin and began cutting. Soon, the fabric fit nicely on the dress form with a skirt that flowed and draped down in the back.
"Lovely," Rarity told herself.
After she finished up with the baby blue cloth, she set to work on the white cloth, cutting it into many thin strips. She took one of the longer ones and sewed it around the waste of the dress, forming a sash. She took another strip and tied it into a big bow and sewed that onto the back of the sash. The dress looked beautiful now, but it still wasn't finished.
Rarity levitated a few more strips and arranged them in a line underneath the sash and sewed them onto the baby blue fabric. Now, the dress had stripes down the skirt.
"Now for some gems," Rarity said to herself. She trotted over to the box where she kept the best ones. She looked back over at the dress and counted the white stripes.
"Fifteen times two is thirty," she mumbled to herself. She levitated fifteen baby blue gems from the box and trotted back over to the dress. "Now comes the hard part," she said. Levitating a needle and thread, she sewed a small pocket onto the dress at the end of each white strip. Then, she carefully placed one baby blue gem inside each pocket.
"There. Now where is that fabric glue?" she asked her self as she stood up from where she was sitting on the floor. Rarity went over to the shelves of endless sewing supplies and looked around on them.
Yarn? No. Extra needles? No. Beads? No. Sewing machines, embroidery patters, colored pencils? No, no, no! Everything except fabric glue!
"Hi, Rarity!" Pinkie Pie said as she bounced through the dress shop. Rarity was so caught up in searching for her fabric glue that she hadn't even heard the doorbell.
"Oh, hello Pinkie Pie," she said glumly.
"Is everything OK?" Pinkie said as she stopped bouncing.
"Oh, yes, Pinkie. I'm fine. I just can't find my fabric glue is all. I was working on this dress for Lyra and it has to be done by tonight, but I need my glue so I can make the gems stay."
"Oh. Maybe I could help!" Pinkie said as she started bouncing again.
"Thank you Pinkie Pie. I appreciate it, I really do, but you don't have too-" Rarity got cut off as Pinkie began bouncing all around the boutique searching for anything that had the words "Fabric" or "Glue" anywhere on them. Rarity rolled her eyes at the pink pony and continued sifting through everything that was on her shelves.
"I found it! I found it! I found it!" Pinkie squealed. "That was fun! Can we play again?"
"Thank you for finding my fabric glue, Pinkie, but I really don't have time for-"
"Aww, come on, Rarity! Maybe you'll win this time! Best two out of three?"
"Pinkie Pie please. We can play later, OK? But right now I'm really busy."
"Ok, I understand. Your job comes first. Well, I'll let you be, then! Bye!"
"Goodbye Pinkie!"
Rarity levitated her fabric glue and began to stick the gems on. Now, they should stay for sure. She glanced at the clock. It was six thirty already. She was almost done with the dress, but she had to work really hard if she was going to get it done. She didn't know exactly when Lyra was coming to get it, but she still wanted to have it done a little while before she came.
Rarity levitated gold ribbons that matched Lyra's eyes and began weaving them through little holes on the sides. When she reached the end of the skirt, she tied the ends into pretty golden bows and sewed them so that they would stay tied.
Almost done, she thought. Just have to make sure there aren't any mess-ups and clean it up a bit.
Rarity set to work. She took her scissors and began snipping away at loose ends and threads that were sticking out in some places.Then, she stitched up a small hole in the hem she found and voila! The dress was finished. She began to pick up little scraps she didn't use and toss them into her leftovers trunk. Then, as if on cue, she heard the doorbell.
"Rarity?" It was Lyra. Rarity trotted out to the front room after putting the fabric glue back on the shelf where it belonged.
"Good evening, Lyra! I finished your dress! Want to come see?" Rarity asked the mint unicorn standing in her doorway.
"Of course! I've been so excited!" Lyra trotted behind Rarity as the mares entered her creation room.
"Here it is!" Rarity told her friend as she gestured towards the dress.
"Oh, Rarity, its even more beautiful than I expected!" Lyra said as she galloped to her new dress. "May I try it on?"
"Of course, darling!" Rarity replied. She levitated the dress and led Lyra to the dressing room. When she emerged, she was simply beautiful. The dress had turned out far better then Rarity or Lyra could ever have imagined.
"If you have a moment, Lyra, would you like me to style your mane as well?"
"Sure!" Lyra replied.
"Wonderful. Let me tell you, you look simply divine." Rarity said as she led Lyra over to her vanity and sat her down in the chair in front of the mirror.
"Why, thank you Rarity. I love this dress."
"I'm so glad," Rarity said as she levitated the brush and began to style Lyra's mane. "So, if you don't mind me being a little nosy," she said with a giggle. "Who is it you are going to confess your love to on this beautiful night?" Rarity caught Lyra's eye in the mirror as the mint coated unicorn said a single word.
"You." Rarity immediately dropped the brush.
"Um... Pardon?"
"You, Rarity. I... I love you." Rarity did not know how to react to this. She had known Lyra for as long as she could remember! They had always been such good friends! How long had she felt this way? Besides, they were both mares. It would just be too... strange. Lyra turned around in her chair to face Rarity. She did look beautiful. But still. Rarity couldn't except. Could she?
"Lyra," Rarity said slowly. She was about to explain to her that she simply didn't feel that way, and she would like Lyra to just stay her friend, but she couldn't bring herself to say that. She couldn't break her friend's heart. "I love you too."
At that moment, Lyra smiled and kissed Rarity on the cheek. Then, through her enormous smile, she said a few words that Rarity dreaded.
"Will you be my very special somepony?" she asked. Sadly, Rarity had no choice but to say yes. The two mares talked long into the night until the clock struck ten. It had been three hours since Lyra had come to pick up her dress, and two and a half since she became Rarity's special somepony. Both of the unicorns yawned and then Lyra decided it was time for her to go home.
"I will come back tomorrow morning, OK Rarity?"
"OK. I'll be looking forward to it," she said through a smile that was as fake as Auntie Applesauce's teeth.
"Great," Lyra said. "Goodnight." After a moment of silence, Lyra kissed Rarity's cheek again.
"Goodnight," Rarity said. Then, Lyra turned around and began to walk into the darkness. After a few steps she turned back to look at her special somepony who was still watching her leave. After a moment, she turned around again and continued on her way.
Rarity, however, closed the door, slumped onto the floor, and began to cry because she had lied to her best friend.
...
Lyra walked through the dark. She could't see anything. It felt like she should have passed her house a long time ago, but she didn't see it. She couldn't see anything at all, really. Then, she ran into something. She turned to the side and continued walking. That didn't last long; she just ran into something else. This time when she walked around it, however, she tripped. She fell a long way down a slope and felt her arms get scratched by sticks and jagged rocks. When she finally stopped tumbling, she stood up. After looking around and deciding once again that she couldn't see, she remembered her flashlight spell. Duh! Why hadn't she thought of that before?
All of a sudden, Lyra's horn began to glow a beautiful shade of gold. She looked around herself because now she was able to see. She looked down at her dress; her beautiful brand new dress that Rarity had made just for her; that was now in tatters. She sighed. Perfect. While she was looking at her dress, she saw something sparkly in the ground. She went over to it and saw that it was a gem. She didn't know what kind because most of it was still in the dirt. After a minute or two, she finally finished digging the gem up. She levitated it in front of her and decided that it would be a perfect gift for Rarity; if she washed it off first. Then, Lyra remembered that she was kinda sorta lost at the moment.
"Great," she said aloud. She looked around and saw trees. Nothing except trees. "How am I going to get myself out of this one?" she asked nopony in particular. She remembered that she had fallen down a slope, so she decided that going back up the slope would be the best idea.
She began to walk up the slope, which was much more difficult than she had expected it to be. After a while, however, she finally reached the top. She navigated through the trees and after what felt like an hour of tripping and walking in circles she made it out of the forest. Judging by the fact that she could see Fluttershy's cottage, she had been in the Everfree forest.
"How in Equestria did I make it out of there alive?" she said aloud. Then she began walking in the direction of her house. Lyra looked back at the forest one last time and said "How did I get there anyway?" It was a confusing set of circumstances, but she ignored it and went back home so she could make a necklace out of the gem she found and give it to her very special somepony.
