Rarity sat alone in Ponyville's only fine dining establishment. She was a regular, the wait staff knew her by name, and had brought out her usual drink and meal within minutes of her sitting down.
The empty plate and glass sat off to one side as she looked through one of the sketchbooks she had brought with her.
Across the restaurant she heard them chuckling, trading tales. She stole a glance at her friends, and was grateful that she fit in so well in the atmosphere that she was practically invisible.
She knew what they were doing, it had been an idea that Twilight Sparkle had suggested. They all meet up for dinner once a week, and they'd take turns picking out a location. Twilight would always bring them here.
Periodically, somepony would have to pass on the meeting. Applejack if it was harvest season, Rainbow Dash if she had storm watch duty or there was a show coming up for the Wonderbolt rookie team, Fluttershy if she had an urgent care patient. Sometimes it would just be Twilight and Pinkie Pie together.
Rarity frowned at herself. She should be over there with her friends, but she had skipped out on nearly every meet up, citing some last minute rush job order. Sometimes it would even be true.
None of the others ever gave her grief about it either, such was the life of a dressmaker that sudden orders or repair requests could happen at anytime.
She quickly shook her head, refocusing on her friends. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were getting ready to leave, as the earliest risers in the group, they were always the first to leave. Fluttershy would be next, she'd have to feed all the animals in her house before she went to bed, no small task to be sure. Then Pinkie, she'd need to get up to work her shift at Sugarcube Corner at some point. Leaving Twilight alone, she'd stick around for another hour or so, reading and enjoying a drink or another course.
Rarity herself would always leave shortly before Twilight did.
She stole a glance at the clock above the door. She had time still, so she returned to glancing through her sketchbook. Page after page of dress designs. Casual, formal, detailed, minimalist... it didn't matter what occasion they were for, or what style they were in, they were all the same trio of colours. Dark blue, purple and pink. The few that had a clasp or some other decorative attachment would all use the same overlapping starburst design.
Even the pony wearing them, instead of being a nondescript figure with smaller sketches made for additions or alterations required to make the design wearable by pegasi and unicorns, was the same unicorn in each sketch. There were no alterations to make them wearable by pegasi.
Rarity chuckled softly to herself. She had originally started this particular sketchbook with the idea that it would hold all the designs her friends inspired in her. Instead, it had become a book of designs purely for one other pony. She'd had to buy a third sketchbook which would hold the designs for her five.. no six, six other friends. She kicked herself mentally for forgetting about Spike, even momentarily. While it was rare, she had sketched suits and other outfits for the young whelp.
Another glance at her friends, only Twilight and Pinkie were left now, chatting animatedly with each other. Oh what Rarity wouldn't give to be over there right now. The pink mare was quite a chatterbox, but a wonderful source of gossip and other goings on around town.
She threw a quick glance at the door, spotting the tip of Fluttershy's tail vanishing into the night air. A small feeling of pride welled up inside her, she had managed to glimpse the canary yellow pegasus as she left, no easy feat.
As she continued through her sketchbook, she reached the point where the designs changed, some were revisits of older designs, but made for somepony taller, and winged, but still in the same trio of colours and with the same overlapping starburst motif where applicable, others were more regal, designed to accompany first a tiara, later a small crown, the measurements were slowly getting taller too. Longer as well, she noticed.
She quickly glanced at where the two mares were talking still, the pages of her sketchbook flipping rapidly to the latest page where she quickly picked up a pencil with her magic and began writing down measurements, comparing them with the last page she had drawn on. They were slightly different, by a centimetre or less, but they were different.
Another glance at the clock. She had time, plenty of it, to start sketching. Her pencil scratched against the paper quietly as the familiar figure took shape, followed by a grand, intricate dress. As she sketched, she felt her heart start to beat faster, the tips of her ears warmed up. Same page, a second sketch, a familiar set of measurements, her own, another familiar figure, hers, another grand dress, intricate in its simplicity compared to the other.
After twenty minutes, the image was complete. Ten seconds later, the page had been torn out cleanly, the paper was crumpled into a ball and bouncing off the table as she slammed the sketchbook shut, the pencil still inside it as she let her head fall against it with a soft thud. She was quick enough to angle herself so her horn didn't hit the table.
She sat like that for a good ten minutes, wallowing in her own disappointment towards herself, berating herself under her breath.
When she looked back at the table, only Twilight was left, a book held in the amethyst glow of her magic as she idly nibbled at the remaining two slices of mud cake that she had pulled close to her.
An idea formed, was quashed, then resurged, and before it could be quashed again, was being acted on, her horn glowing once again as she unfurled and straightened out the crumpled paper ball, folding and unfolding it neatly as she slipped the pencil out of her sketchbook, elegantly scrawling a sentence below the sketches, and writing the lavender mare's name on the blank side, thanking her lucky stars that she had managed to sketch a page with nothing on the reverse.
She held up her hoof as she packed everything up, paying for her meal as she stood. Another quick spell and she turned invisible. A necessary spell for when she needed to skitter behind the scenes of a fashion show toot sweet.
As she made her way to the door, she detoured, passing by Twilight and slipping the folded piece of paper between the next page of her book, before continuing out of the restaurant in one fluid movement.
She paused, glancing through the window as Twilight turned the page in her book, her eyebrow raising as the slip of paper fell out.
Rarity felt her heart skip a beat as the other mare unfolded the paper, the tips of her ears turning red above the sheet as she quickly looked around the establishment.
A slightly guilty feeling welled up as she trotted into the night unseen. She had essentially just pulled the old school yard tactic of leaving a note on your crushes desk. Unlike the foals that had coated her desk in her youth however, Rarity had signed her note. She knew that Twilight would respond the next time they saw each other, it gave her time to brace herself, for either reciprocation, or rejection.
It was going to be a restless nights sleep, or maybe not. She felt.. antsy and restless, but at the same time, like a weight had lifted off her heart.
