What would fit with the orange? Nothing rhymed with orange, then again Rarity had never been a pony of words.

Well, that was a lie, she was most excellent with them, as evidenced by her vast collection of resources.

What she meant was that she had never been a pony for wordplays. Flattery, deception, flirting, drama, lure, those were the kind of things she was good at. If she needed rhymes, well she had a perfectly good alicorn for those. Though no need to bother her old friend with that, not until she needed purple. Actually, nothing rhymed with purple either, did it? Rarity made a note to ask the alicorn the next time she went into that corner. She probably would't get an answer, but it was important to keep up the polite small talk, ponies couldn't help how they were made after all.

Actually, did the alicorn still have a tongue? Rarity tried to recall. No matter, it would just be another thing to ask her former friend about. She put that on the list as well. It really was a long list, which made Rarity frown, she never liked untidyness. A long list must mean she was running behind, where was she?

That's right, the orange leather…

She made a most unladylike face as she recalled the colour wheel theory. Orange went with... teal?

She wasn't sure she had any teal. A quick search around her workshop showed that there was no teal.

There was cyan, but that was a coat, not a mane, and the pony was an adult…

Rarity let out a scream of frustration. She had found the most beautiful orange leather, and there was no thread to go with it! It was most vexing, as if Karma herself was scowling down at the fashionista.

Rarity could accept, from a logical standpoint that what she was doing didn't follow conventional ethical lines, but you couldn't let that stand in the way of crafting the perfect ensemble, no?

She could dye, but that felt like cheating, no she needed natural fibre. What else would go well with that beautiful unmarked orange?

All this thinking of the alicorn in her basement gave Rarity an idea though, what if she did use purple? It felt a bit like cheating as that had been the resources original colour combination. However nature sometimes made the most beautiful of patterns. Rarity looked at herself in the mirror.

White.

White, with just a dash of saphire blue. She'd had purple once, but that was before she realised there were other resources she could... tap? Oh that wordplay made Rarity positely titter. She didn’t care if it was droll and dorkish, it sounded so perfectly vulgar, yet so accurate at the same time. Her first resource had been acquired by a tap on the head. Well, who could blame her? Fluttershy had made it so easy, and Rarity could hardly have gone to Pinkie Pie, that mare was crazy. Rarity could swear there was a distinctly metallic taste to the 'raspberry' cupcakes she'd recieved last week.

She'd had them tested for poison, of course, and both Opalescence and Sweetie Belle had yielded the most lovely of white coats. Rarity was wearing both of them right now and they complimented her own colour perfectly. Thank Celestia there had been two of them in the same shade, or there wouldn't have been enough fur.

Rarity did not like what that said about her own waistline.

Now as for Sweetie Belle's friend… The unmarked orange was flawless. Rarity loved getting her hooves on a blank flank, no mark to marr the material, only solid colour,. Perfection lay in a blank canvas, and then an artist like Rarity could pick the right thread to pull, the right to add, and take away, a dash of colour here, a splat of red there..

No red!

It never worked, it made things look untidy, and it always went away when you washed it. You had to wash it too, or it would turn an ugly brown and start to smell. Rarity had gotten used to those kinds of smells, but the stiffnes just ruined the garment. Why couldn't ponies bleed bleach instead? Anything went with white.

Wait, could that be it? White wasn't the only base colour, everything went with black too. As Miss Pommel had said before Rarity harvested her, 'You can never go wrong with a simple black dress'.

Yes, that was it, she could dye... no you couldn't dye orange, it'd bleed through. You had to bleach it first, and Rarity was all out of Bleach after making Pommel's coat match her own…

This was taking so long, she would have to settle for something complementing, like Pink or yellow. She'd already disposed of pink, that'd been the first to go, but wasn't there a bit more yellow?

The mare was long dead but the red male had yellow mane too, she tried to recall.

"Eyupp!" Rarity chuckled to herself, as she grabbed a pair of scissors. It's mane and tail had been short, but a skilled seamstress like her could work wonders even with scarce material. It ought to be enough, the orange blank flank hadn't been that big after all.

If she got some left over she could even use it on the resources younger sibling. That unmarked yellow would be perfect for a light jacket, and Rarity had ideas for a few hidden seams. Yes, the yellow would be invisible, and she had the alicorn for the visible seams. Purple on yellow would be perfect.

Rarity shook her head, if she lost focus she’d never get anything done. Tonight's shade was orange, she chided herself as she strode down to collect from the stallion, belladonna was for tomorrow.

Author's Note

I guess we're back on the homicidal path, this time Rarity gets the axe job, or maybe she's holding the axe.

I'm just kidding, like Rarity would ever hold an axe, those are for brutes. Mrs. White used scissors, and/or possibly the candlestick in the library. Twilight did have that lovely pink stripe in her mane after all.