The Mare in the Frou Frou Dress

     It was a quiet time in Ponyville. Everypony was working together to get things done. Rainbow Dash was sleeping as always in a cloud, Fluttershy was tending to her animal friends (that is, feeding the bunnies and getting attitude from Angel), Twilight Sparkle was reading, Pinkie Pie was making sweets with Mr. and Mrs. Cake, and Applejack was knocking some apples down off trees from the first batch of Spring.

     Meanwhile, at Rarity’s boutique, Rarity was stitching a dress alongside Sweetie Belle, who was trying to spend some quality time with her sister for once by making herself helpful. The two weren’t working on any specific order, they were just putting some ideas on paper and making them come to life. Gemstones making white gowns sparkle, bow ties completing the perfect tux for an aspiring businesscolt, and other great designs stood completed around the second floor of Rarity’s boutique.

     Rarity was using her magic, her horn glowing to pick up a sewing needle and weave it through the eye of the needle with perfect harmony and grace as she moved to continue sewing the dress. She had her eyes closed through her specs and a smile on her face, gleefully sewing a dress with her sister who was running from table to table to make smaller designs such as boots and capes. Sweetie Belle especially liked to make the capes.

     As Rarity continued to sew and stitch her latest creation, humming a sweet tune, there was an approaching pitter-patter. At first, Rarity decided to brush it off, assuming it was merely Sweetie Belle rummaging through the house. Out of curiosity, she opened one eyes and looked to her side, still sewing. She noticed Sweetie Belle standing there, her tongue sticking out sideways as she concentrated and focused on weaving the needle back and forth through a small cloth that she didn’t notice had no other fabric with it, so in reality she never was sewing anything together. Rarity closed her eyes again to resume working, but the pitter-patter began again. This time it was louder, drawing closer. The harder she tried to ignore it, the more she found herself almost messing up her design.

     Suddenly, as she decided to completely ignore it with a brief moment of silence, the door slammed open and made Rarity jump, dropping her supplies accidently.

     “Sweetie Belle!” yelled Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, their yells resonating through the room as the door slams against the walls. Sweetie Belle ran towards Apple Bloom, her white body skipping in a rush to her friends who helped her make up the group known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Scootaloo was carrying a stack of paper on her back, keeping it supported with her light brownish coat.

     “Scootaloo! Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Belle greeted as she stood in front of them. She didn’t pay much attention to the stack of papers, nor did she remember to neatly stack the fabric she was sewing before she left. She ran too fast with impatience at her friends to remember doing so. “What’re you guys doing here?” she asked.

     Apple Bloom picked up a paper off of Scootaloo’s back and held it up to Sweetie Belle. It was a news article of maybe a week old or more.

     “Cutie Mark Crusader Mailponies!” Apple Bloom shouted. She took one hoof off of the paper and gave Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle a high-hoof. For the Cutie Mark Crusaders, this was just another day of trying to find out what their special talent is.

     Rarity looked over at the small group of crusaders who were all happily cheering about finding an opportunity to earn their cutie marks. She left her fabric alone and walked over to the three, her eyes focused primarily on Sweetie Belle.

     “But Sweetie, I need you here to help me with the dresses.” Rarity pointed out, believing that work comes before fun.

     “But Rarity!” Sweetie Belle complained, her voice squeaking through her words. She looked sad at Rarity, her eyes giving a sign of anger and false sadness. If anything, Sweetie Belle felt that Rarity was holding her back.

     “No buts, Sweetie Belle!” Rarity said. “I’m sorry girls, but you’ll just have to leave.” she said, walking towards the door and going to close it. As she walked elegantly to the door, her eyes glanced over at the stack of papers Scootaloo was holding. There were envelopes upon envelopes and news papers upon news papers. They looked to be older material. Rarity’s eyes observed the papers until she noticed an envelope with her name on it. She stopped herself from shutting the door just in time for her to grab the envelope harshly instead.

     “Where did you get this? Were you going through my mail?” Rarity asked, her tone giving a dead giveaway that she demanded an answer. Apple Bloom looked up at Rarity with a guilty look on her face as she frowned and looked away.

     “Um, well…” Apple Bloom started. Scootaloo jumped in the way of Apple Bloom, a wide smile crossing her face.

     “Yeah! We did!” Scootaloo said. The moment she said that, Apple Bloom hit herself in the face with her hoof. “We gathered them all so we could deliver them to who they were meant for!” she finished. Rarity became frustrated and annoyed, looking at the letter. She let out a hefty sigh and looked at Apple Bloom.

     “Well, no harm no foul I suppose.” Rarity gave in, remembering what her friends taught her about how to forgive and forget. She opened the letter, realizing it is much too late to respond to it, and began to read it out loud.

“     To the proprietor of Rarity’s Boutique in Ponyville, Equestria,

You have been cordially invited to attend this year’s Winter-Spring Royal Fling during the night of the end of the fourth week of Spring here in Canterlot at the Royal Dance Hall. Attached to this letter is a silver ticket of authorization in which you may use to attend the event hosted by Prince Blueblood, nephew of Princess Celestia herself. We would appreciate it very much if you could come and apologize for only being able to send you one ticket. We look forward to seeing you in one of your beautiful gowns.

Yours Truly,

Anonymous     “

     A look of astonishment beamed upon Rarity’s face, giving her a wide, unexpected smile. Her face began to light up from hearing that she was invited to a royal event.

     “This is…” she started, looking at the letter again. The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked at Rarity, not sure what her reaction was going to exactly be. “…the absolute most single amazing thing that could ever happen!” Rarity cheered, taken over by the thrill as she looked at the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

     “The end of the fourth week of Spring? That’s tomorrow!” Scootaloo pointed out to Sweetie Belle, trying to keep a hushed tone. However, her attempts at hiding the fact failed as Rarity’s ecstatic smile turned into a worrisome expression as she gasped, startled at how little time she had.

     “Oh no! No! No! This simply will not do!” Rarity said, running over to her selection of dresses. “I need something absolutely perfect! A one of a kind beauty that will be sure to garnish the dance hall!” she said, talking mostly to herself as she opened drawers and cabinets, looking for anything she could use. As she sifted through her selection in organized chaos, the Cutie Mark Crusaders used that moment to slip out of the room one after the other, hugging the wall. Rarity let out a gasp as a sudden thought crossed her mind.

     “Yes! It’s perfect!” she said, looking inside of a recently opened drawer. Inside was a red, frilly dress. It swerved in, giving the nice attractive curves that Rarity felt would make her look astonishing. However, as Rarity pulled it out, she noticed several tears in the fabric. There were rips along the seam, wrinkles on the dress, and other sorts of miscellaneous problems that Rarity began to throw a hissy fit about.

     Rarity pulled the dress along with her and went straight to the sewing machine, laying the dress down just how she wanted it with the seam aligning with the needle and she began to fix the dress, stitching the dress back together. As she did so, several thoughts crossed her mind about the event. She wondered who was going to be there and more importantly, who the mysterious pony was that invited Rarity. The letter was marked anonymously. she recalled in her mind. She tried to disregard it, too excited that she would be going to a royal dance!

     The sewing needle wove through the fabric with grace that rivaled that of Rarity herself. Tame and yet knowing that nothing will get in the way of their goals. All they needed was a little bit of pressure to get things done. She no longer noticed that Sweetie Belle had disappeared with the others and there was a moment where she didn’t even care that she was gone. She knew that Sweetie Belle did that often enough.

     The seam on the dress was nearing completion. She spent the final moments patching it up and making the final      adjustments on it to make it perfectly sewn together. Next, she ran over to her mirror, wondering how to keep her mane. She tried many styles, mostly looking to give her mane a little bounce but looking elegant and good enough for royalty. In this, she changed her styles, experimenting in the mirror until she found one perfect design. She circled the design on a magazine in front of her that she had been using to find out what design would work better. Her mane was kept in almost a series of circles, being held high and giving her that feeling of importance as if she, herself, was royalty.

     Finally, she needed to iron the dress and make any final preparations. As she ran towards the heating iron to get rid of the “unruly wrinkles” as Rarity called them, she noticed herself becoming exhausted. She was excited and tired from all of the work she was putting into getting ready. Make-up she tried to keep to a minimum to achieve that level of personal beauty with only some slight touching up, the ironing she utilized until there was not a single wrinkle on the dress, and she even added a couple of personal classic Rarity touches to the dress such as adding a single row of rubies that created a circle around the lower part of the dress.

     “One final touch.” Rarity said, walking back towards her mirror and pulling open a drawer near it. Inside the mirror was a necklace with a sapphire in it. She felt the nice dark blue complimented well with her red dress. It also matched her mane, which she saw was a plus.  She put the necklace on as well as the dress, finishing her look and admiring herself in the mirror. “Perfect!” she said, her eyes sparkling with joy.

     It took her a moment to take everything off. She kept the necklace next to the hair styling magazine on the table in front of the mirror, she put her hair back to its original form, and she put the dress on a pony-shaped manikin in her room. As she looked around the room, everything seemingly looking perfect, she walked towards the door and shut off the lights, walking out of the room and closing the door gently behind her.

     Rarity gently made her way through the house, noticing Sweetie Belle had returned from her adventures and without her cutie mark still. At first, seeing Sweetie Belle caught her by surprise as she realized just how long she took on the dress. She continued walking through her hallway until she entered her room, looking hazily at her bed. She walked closer until she remained at the head of the bed and gently slipped herself inside, being careful not to pull on the blanket that was tucked ever so carefully into the bed itself. She closed her eyes, giving a wide smile on how perfect she imagined the dance would be. With a faint, cute smile crossing her face, she slowly drifted off to sleep.