The Rise of Passion

For the past week, Rarity had been running herself ragged, with Yona and Sandbar operating as her aides. For Sandbar, this meant an opportunity to close in on Rarity, and for Yona, it meant extra credit in her design class and extra lessons after insect studies. It turned out that Rarity had started teaching Fluttershy's class that she thought was about gardening, but was actually about insects. The plants they were taking care of were supposed to, and did, attract a whole swarm of dragonflies. A small one, as many of the students had let their projects fall to pieces, but a swarm, nonetheless.

After her initial screaming fit, she had taken note of the patterns on their wings and the delicate structures of their bodies, and even their big, adorable eyes, and had taken a liking to their likenesses, designing a dragonfly-inspired hair pin, which she gave to Yona for all of her help.

It was after this long week of stretching herself thin that the neoprene finally arrived. Rarity called Yona into her office after a long day of handling the workload of two ponies. She'd recently taken to wearing her mane in a bun to keep it out of the way.

"Now, Yona, we have the materials available to construct the suits you wanted to make. I know we were focusing on basic design and simple stitching techniques, so this is going to be the steepest rise in difficulty you'll ever have in my classes. In fact, your final assignment for this semester is probably going to be easier than this, but you know better than any of the other students how difficult this last week has been."

Yona nodded along. She'd been grading the other students' paperwork during this time to ingratiate herself to Rarity. This was not only true of the fashion class, but also for insect studies.

"Did you manage to take measurements of your friends as I asked?"

Yona reached into her bag and pulled out a notebook. Six pages had crude drawings of her friends, as she wasn't exactly great at replicating them, along with accurate measurements.

Rarity looked over them, nodding along. "Well, first of all, we're not going to need a suit for Silverstream. It is her home, after all, and she can take the form of a seapony to alleviate all of the issues with diving below the sea. As sweet as it is to make sure she's not left out, we're already making several others simply as utilitarian. If we still have time and materials, we'll have hers done last. While it is generous to make sure your friends are all included in your gifts, it's generous enough that you opted to make it possible to spend the necessary time together."

"Right, sorry..."

"Don't be. Your heart's in the right place." She moved through the next few. "Did you tell your friends that they would need to keep their wings tucked in for this venture?"

"I did."

Rarity turned around the design. "Smolder has her wings out for this one."

"Yeah, but the measurements written down are with her wings tucked in. I just couldn't convince her to stand still on the ground long enough to sketch her wings closed."

"Mhmm... I used to have the same problem with Rainbow Dash. Right, then." Rarity left her drawings on the table and went over to the cabinet to pull out the material. "Now, I was able to come away with three colours of the material: tangelo, raven, and azure. Can you believe they tried to sell me persimmon and ultramarine for this?"

"Well, I don't think persimmon would be a horrible choice. It's a bit closer to Smolder's scale tone."

"Yes, but dear, then it looks like she's not wearing anything from a certain distance. You really want to strike a balance with your colours, rather than letting them blend together. For example, other colours my provider has are oceanic blue, coral orange, and kelp green. While they are indeed very much in tune with the concept, if your friends were caught in a bed of coral, an oceanic current, or a tangle of kelp, they'd blend right in. In those situations, their very lives could depend on you being able to spot them from a distance, so we want bright, vivacious hues." She patted Yona's head. "It's all for safety, dear. Remember how we were talking about visibility a few days ago?"

Yona nodded. "Where do we start?"

"Best to do Sandbar, first, dear." Rarity pulled out a dress form in the shape of a pony. "Because I already have something in his body plan and size. I'll need to prepare builds for the rest of your friends."

"Right. Walk me through it."

Despite being stretched thin already, Rarity found her vigor in making the outfit. She was tired when they began, but an hour of hard work had her pumped up and feeling alive again. Having Yona help, even with her skill level being lower than Rarity's, had sped up the process significantly, and it wasn't long at all before they had the first suit in orange and black all stitched up and ready to go.

"Oh, my word," huffed Rarity, slumping down in a chair. "That was truly exciting. I haven't put this much effort into an outfit in quite some time. Normally, there would be countless revisions leading to long nights at the sewing machine, but... Oh, I think I shall enjoy working on the others' with you."

Yona blushed. "I had a good teacher."

"Normally, I'd decline such praise, but your work sings for you."

"You mean, it speaks for itself?"

"No. Better. Beyond the buttressed balcony, this beautiful banding bellows "Yona Yak!" I daresay, everypony will want something so divine!"

"Oh, it's nothing, really..."

"Nothing?! Look at that fabulous shoulder joint! That is a beautiful shoulder, and you should be proud! Most of my more advanced students have trouble with shoulders! Truly, if you perform this well at the final exam, you'll be a shoo-in for the next course!"

"Th-thank you, Miss Rarity."

"Now, then, we're almost finished. We just have to apply a coat of liquid sealant to make sure that the seams are waterproof. This stuff is basically liquid rubber and smells terrible, plus the fumes can be quite the irritant. Would you mind going to open a few windows while I mix it up?"

"And once it's dry, he can try it on, right?"

Rarity smiled broadly and nodded, trying and failing to hide her excitement.