Author's Note
This starting chapter has been edited by Chrome Masquerade. I hope you enjoy it.
The Diamond discovers
The sound of hooves upon stone echoed about in an infinite loop inside Rarity’s mind, as she pondered upon the dress before her. She paid the sound little attention, except for a small smile that had graced her face. For she was expecting that sound.
A light, but audible, rapping could be heard at her front door. In a matter of seconds, Rarity had trotted, in a dainty way, towards the front door and opened it, revealing her expected guest.
“Fluttershy!” The alabaster Unicorn beamed with genuine happiness, “Thank you for coming along, despite this being on such short notice.”
The butter yellow Pegasus stepped inside and hugged her friend. “It’s okay, Rarity. I wasn’t all that busy at the moment, so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to help. I have done this kinda thing before.” Fluttershy replied.
Rarity put in “You’re the only one to actually agree to do it willingly. Do you remember when I dressed up Rainbow?”
Fluttershy thought about the question and suddenly burst into a fit of giggles at the revival of the memory “Yes, I do.” Fluttershy answered through small sections of giggles, eventually, slowly but surely she returned back to a calm state. ”So where is it?” Fluttershy asked her fashion-forward friend. The Pegasus mare was exceptionally curious, now that she had asked that question, taking small glances around the room and peering around the corners for the reason she visited Rarity in the first place.
The Unicorn in question wasn’t paying attention. She instead muttered something incoherent under her breath, possibly to do with fixing any errors in her design, but when she looked upwards to the pony directly in front of her, she realised that pony was staring at her expecting an answer to a question Rarity barely took into mind. Noticing her error, Rarity apologetically replied to Fluttershy, “Oh. Sorry dear, I was thinking about something else and I spaced out a little. Anyway...” Rarity tried to remember the question that she apologized for not answering earlier. Once she pieced key words back together, she was able to get the full question. “The... dress! Yes, that’s right. The dress is just right in here, darling.” Rarity quickly directed Fluttershy to the location of the dress.
As they entered the room, Fluttershy observed its cluttered contents. The room was littered with bits and pieces of cloth, small items such as buttons and several gemstones of varying types on the ground in a way that could've been deemed abstract art. Measuring tape and other tools were strewn across the work table, and directly in the centre of the mess was a simplistic but still beautiful dress.
“Rarity, i-it’s beautiful.” Fluttershy stared in amazement at the dress, Rarity grinned with pride at the praise.
“I’m glad you like it, but unfortunately your opinion isn’t what I’m after. No offense, of course. It’s the judges at the Canterlot Spring Fashion Show that I wish to stare in awe at this dress… not that I don’t appreciate yours, Fluttershy.” Rarity explained.
The outfit that Rarity had designed was her entry into the Canterlot Spring Festival fashion show. It wasn’t a prestigious event, but many aspiring individual designers like Rarity, would enter a design of their creation into the show and a model would parade about showing off the design to the judges. If Rarity won this contest, she’d be recognized by the highest tiered fashion designers in Equestria. It was a dream Rarity was determined to make a reality, and her friend Fluttershy was happy to do what she could to help with that.
“So do you want me to go put it on now?” Fluttershy turned to ask Rarity.
Rarity nodded. She levitated the dress off the ponnequin and dropped it into Fluttershy’s awaiting hoof. She expected the pegasus to put it on straight away, but instead she stood there, a light blush donning her face. Rarity was unsure why Fluttershy was so still, but she knew that it needed to be answered now.
“Umm Fluttershy? Why are you not changing into the dress?” the Pegasus in question shrank down behind her hair and muttered in her trademark inaudible shy voice. ”I-I..can’t…”.
Now, Rarity was no stranger when it came to Fluttershy’s less than quiet voice, but she still wasn’t capable of understanding the silent words she spoke. “I didn’t quite catch that, dear”
Fluttershy repeated it, a little louder this time “I can’t dress when you’re looking.” she said. Rarity repeated the sentence so she was getting the right idea. “You can’t dress when I’m looking?”
Fluttershy timidly nodded, her blush ever apparent. Rarity now had one herself. “Fluttershy, darling, we don’t normally wear clothes, it shouldn’t be a problem if I’m here, especially since we are both mares.” But Fluttershy was still nervous and she refused to dress.
“I just don’t like ponies staring at me when I’m doing something like this.” the timid mare replied.
The Unicorn now fully understood the reason for her friend’s stillness. “Ahh, now I get it. Absolutely understandable, darling, I shall wait for you outside the room and I promise not to peek.” Rarity giggled at that last part.
The alabaster Unicorn exited the room so that her butter yellow companion could pull on the dress. Rarity didn’t need to wait for very long. After what felt like a mere minute (a very short time for a mare to pull on a dress such as the one Rarity designed), Fluttershy was already calling Rarity back in.
Rarity entered the room once more. “So how did it go…” Rarity’s words trailed off into nothingness when she gazed upon Fluttershy.
Forgetting about the beauty of the dress, Rarity was too fixated on Fluttershy’s beauty adding to the dress and not the other way around. Forget about the dress making the mare, it was the mare making the dress! Fluttershy fit the dress to an indescribable T, the colours of pink and green went amazingly well with her mane and her background interest in wildlife, which naturally meant that green was a thriving choice of colour. Her eyes seemed to sparkle and her added shy blush made her just that smidge more adorable. Rarity couldn’t take her eyes off of Fluttershy for even a second. She seemed to be in a dreamlike state and Fluttershy’s attempts to wake Rarity from them were fruitless.
Suddenly, Rarity took notice that she had been staring for quite a long time and instantly shook her head, sending her thoughts back into reality. Her face was redder than she thought possible. Fluttershy was standing before her looking worried, but sighed deeply when Rarity looked towards her with un-staring eyes.
“So sorry, Fluttershy. I was just caught up in how… stunning you look in that dress.”
Fluttershy and Rarity switched faces, Fluttershy now was blushing heavily once more and it wasn’t dissipating, Rarity felt like fainting at the sheer cuteness Fluttershy emitted.
But she needed to act professional. “Thank you, Fluttershy, for helping by trying my dress on. I couldn’t possibly get the same result if I wore it. I needed somepony who wasn’t the designer to give me an overview of what it would look like on somepony else.”
“I’m glad I could help.” Fluttershy gave the dress a brief once-over before continuing. “Is there anything else you need me for?
Rarity hummed to herself, thinking on that while she began to clear up some of the mess that lay on the floor. Eventually she came up short of anything and turned towards the shy Pegasus with a smile “I’m afraid that was all, dear, but if you want, we could have some tea.” the Unicorn offered to Fluttershy.
“Oh, that would be lovely, Rarity. Yes please.” Fluttershy nodded instantly.
“Wonderful! I’ll go get it started then. You just focus on getting out of that dress.” Rarity responded as she trotted out of the room towards the kitchen, her light humming echoing through the hall.
Later on, the Pegasus and the Unicorn sat at a table, sipping tea while chatting about nothing and yet everything at the same time. “So, are you still taking me up on my offer to come to the festival in Canterlot with me?”
Fluttershy gasped. “Rarity, I wouldn’t dream of declining it unless I had something that needed to be attended to urgently. Applejack insisted on taking care of the animals while I was gone and I trust she’ll keep her word. I’m happy to go with you for this event.”
Rarity sighed with relief. She was hoping that one of her friends could come. Twilight was too busy to go, Pinkie Pie would be a hoofful to deal with, Rainbow Dash, being Rainbow Dash, was out of the question and Applejack didn’t do -and Rarity quoted- “Frou Frou clothing”, so that left her with Fluttershy.
Setting her teacup down, Rarity spoke. “Well, just to let you know, Fluttershy darling, we need to leave tomorrow at the earliest possible time. Is that okay with you?” she explained.
“I don’t want you to agree to something you can’t hold up to on your end.” Rarity added.
Fluttershy nodded gently. “That’s okay with me. I’ll prepare everything when I get home.”
Rarity grinned. “Wonderful, darling. Just wonderful. Oh, we are going to have so much fun! Well, on an aesthetic level I’m probably going to enjoy it… but you, I’m not… so sure.” Rarity’s voice was getting lighter and lighter as she realised the lack of interest Fluttershy was going to have at the show. she felt embarrassed that she couldn’t think of anything that Fluttershy would appreciate and she turned her face away flushed red once more.
Fluttershy giggled lightly. It was melodic in its nature and Rarity was entranced by it. “I know I don’t know much about current fashion, but I’ll be happy just to be next to you when your face lights up at the sight of all the designs, including your own. It’s what friends do, right?”
Rarity’s embarrassed face was not going anywhere. In fact, after that comment Fluttershy made about her being right next to the Unicorn, it grew tenfold and she was worried that something on a health-based level was about to happen.
“Umm… Fluttershy, I hate to be rude, but... I wish to get back to the dress so…” she quickly came up with an excuse for Fluttershy to leave, “ I can do some... finishing touches. Yes, that’s it. I too need to get packing for tomorrow and I don’t want to delay it too much further.”
Fluttershy gave Rarity a rare raised eyebrow, followed by a response “Really?”
“Yes really!” Rarity yelled on reflex, unaware of her raise in voice and desperate nature.
“Really, really?” Fluttershy replied again, her tone slightly mocking.
Rarity mimicked it but in a different tone. “Really, really.” she pulled a sheepish grin, sweat beading on her face, she also began to rub her hooves in an effort to calm herself… simply put it wasn’t working.
‘And I thought Applejack’s eyebrow-raised stares were intimidating.' Rarity thought as she waited for Fluttershy to say something, anything at all, really. 'Hers could give AJ’s a run for her money!'/i]
After an intense staring contest, Fluttershy’s face returned to that of a simple smile as she got up from the seat and began to exit the Boutique.
“Thank you, dear, for doing this. Don’t worry, for tomorrow we will be heading off for Canterlot and there my design may just be recognized by the fashion elite!” the Unicorn jumped about with glee.
Her yellow friend giggled lightly, shaking her head at Rarity’s antics as she said goodbye and took her leave.
As the door shut, Rarity came down from her overly excited state and sighed deeply, turning around to look out the window at her departing friend. She asked herself “Have I really fallen for Fluttershy?”
