My Heart's Content

by Doctor Disco

Chapter the 13th

“I hate you.”

Rarity chuckles as she fits me. She now has a pair of work glasses, ones that simply screamed fashion designer, and I could only agree with the thought. The fabric clings tight to my new pony body and I’m forced to watch in a full body mirror to see myself get woven into a beautiful dress. There’s no denying Rarity’s skill, it’s better than any get up I’ve ever found myself in when I was… when I was still me, and it definitely complements my colourful palette. “Oh hush now, you really don’t,” Rarity tells me, and I sigh.

“No, you’re right. I hate everything about what’s happening right now,” I say to her.

Rarity clicks her tongue. “That’s not the attitude I’ve begun to know from my new friend. Don’t you think you look absolutely stunning?”

I shift uncomfortably in my textile restraints. “Yeah, well, your friendly neighbourhood Melody flew out the window at the mention of being used as a mannequin- er- ponyquin. I may look pretty, but I sure don’t feel like it.”

“It’s not that bad,” Twilight says from the side, “It might feel restricting, but Rarity knows what she’s doing.”

“Where’s Caroline when I need her…” I mutter under my breath, and nopony seems to notice. If only she were here right now, maybe I could tolerate this whole situation. As it were, she probably would have been laughing at me just as Rainbow Dash currently was: clutching her sides and dying from my misery.

No, not would have been. Would be. I can’t think like that. Not ever.

“Laugh it up, Skittles,” I growl, and Rainbow seems to shrug off the explicit name-call.

“Hahahaha! Th-this is golden! Hehehe hahaha!” Rainbow continues to chuckle, and I drop my head low.

“Now Rainbow, it may have been mighty funny the first six minutes, but you’re taking this a bit too far,” Applejack chides, and I smile at her appreciatively.

“Thank you!” I shout. I moved ever so slightly at the pronouncement and Rarity gasps.

“I said don’t move!” Rarity hissed, “I was this close to shearing the fringe!”

“Like I really care,” I shoot under my breath.

“You’re being much more difficult than you need to be,” Rarity coos and all I can do is shake my head.

“I have a right to be.”

“It’s only been fifteen minutes, darling. I’m already halfway done!”

I cast desperate glance at Rarity in the mirror, and she catches the look, her glasses glinting in the light. “Does that mean I’m done?” Rarity smiles, and I can already feel an inkling of hope that she will-

“Not by a long-shot, dear.”

Well you can go die in a hole for all I care (not really).

---

“Alright, Melody, you may come out now,” Rarity calls, and I huff with indignation. After another fifteen minutes of styling and the like and a half hour of touching up, Rarity had finally finished. With a flowing gown that would’ve put any I had ever seen or been grateful enough to be able to wear, I proceed from behind the curtain.

After Rarity had started the designing and styling, she had insisted that the others go wait in the lounge, so she could create her masterpiece away from prying eyes. Now, here I am, showing the girls (or mares, I guess) a dress I had not wanted to be a part of.

“Oh, wow…” Fluttershy whispers, and I smile painfully at her. I begin to walk towards them and Rarity smiles widely, a tear coming out of her eye. An honest to goodness tear of joy.

“You look beautiful, Melody,” Twilight compliments. You know, in hindsight, this was a great experience, to see Rarity at work. Her gracefulness, her effortless finesse, and her gentle precision were all well and good… But I still hate it. The process was painstaking and I hope to never do it again.

But one can’t complain about the results. “Okay,” Rainbow Dash starts, “Wow. You actually look really good.” Seeing the looks her friends are giving her, Rainbow quickly adds, “But not as good as me! Nope, not even a little!”

“Why don’t you accept the fact that you’re just as much a mare as we are?” Rarity prods, and Rainbow gasps in terror at the thought.

“What?” She flutters her wings. “Never!”

“Well I think you look as fantastic as a newly shined plow,” Applejack states, and I smile wryly at the comment. Thanks Applejack, always there to lighten the mood. Not saying the others aren’t as great, but Applejack’s comments always seem honest. Maybe it’s just me, but her words don’t ever seem to lie.

“You look wonderful, Melody,” Fluttershy remarks, “The red and green really contrasts with your own mane, tail, and coat.”

Rarity turns to look at Fluttershy with a measure of surprise, and Fluttershy widens her eyes. “Eep! Not that I know anything about fashion!” Fluttershy squeaks, and I can’t help but laugh a little.

The dress Rarity had crafted for me is truly a piece of art. Gems and ornate designs riddle the entirety of the dress, each mineral having a hue that complements the fabric. It’s texture is all but superfluous, never chafing or feeling like a burden on the body. It’s many layers don’t take away, but add more to the feel of it, and though it was crafted to be somewhat simple as it was made in a short amount of time, one can’t help but think of the old phrase: Less is more. And in this case, it truly is.

“Ahem, yes. You simply look ravishing, though it could use a little work,” Rarity grins. Her glasses are now set aside as she appraises my attire. “A marvel to behold.”

“I’m not going to pay for the torture you put me through,” I put bluntly, and Rarity winces.

“Well, it is a gift from one new friend to another anyways. With the way you wear it, I wouldn’t dream of asking you to compensate. Seeing you in it is enough bits in it’s worth,” Rarity explains with a prim smile.

I can’t help but do a double take. “Come again? You don’t actually want me to pay you for it?”

Rarity chuckles. “Ah, I always seem to stumble upon this problem with first-time customers. As a friend, you’re already exempt from it right off the bat. As a customer, I offer to do the first order, free of charge. Think of it as a, hm, how to put it... a care package? Yes, a care package. It’s a business ordeal I don’t really think about too much.”

I blink at that. I’ve known many generous people in my life, but Rarity might take the cake. “But don’t these crystals cost a lot?” I inquire, glancing backwards. Each one has it’s own gleam and each seem to have a value of my-wallet-is-already-empty-just-by-looking-at-them.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Rarity nods, her horn igniting and opening a chest at the side of the room, “I have a lot more where those came from.” I move closer to take a peek at what she’s showing me and I pause for a second.

A chest full of gems. Hundreds of sapphires, rubies, emeralds, garnets and many more of different colours and opacities are tucked away in a little chest out for everypony to see. My mouth drops a little at the sight. “Wh-what?”

“Rarity’s cutie mark is a bunch of gems,” Applejack says, “Her specialty is somewhat, well, unique, I guess.”

“Yes, as Applejack says,” Rarity smiles. I move away from the chest and it closes once again. “I got my cutie mark from my own horn activating, sending me to this giant rock in the middle of nowhere. To put it shortly, an explosion rocked the sky and the boulder split apart to reveal a deposit of gems, and thus, I got my cutie mark!”

“It wasn’t just any old explosion,” Rainbow suddenly pipes in, “It was a sonic rainboom that I performed!”

“Yes, Rainbow, this is all about you,” Twilight rolls her eyes. “On that note, I got my cutie mark from that same explosion in the sky. I had an intense magical surge as I was attempting to join Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and Princess Celestia just so happened to be in the neighbourhood. She helped stabilize my magic and reverse all the damage I had done.

“To keep it simple, I became her protoge, made friends with these girls and saved Princess Luna from Nightmare Moon, and became a princess!” Twilight finishes. I raise my eyebrow at their coinciding stories, and can’t help but wonder.

“I also got my cutie mark from the rainbow explosion,” Applejack adds, and I turn to her in surprise. “Heck, all six of us, minus Pinkie at the moment of course, got our cutie marks from Rainbow’s sonic rainboom.”

“I’m just awesome like that,” Rainbow boasts, and everybody in the room groans, except for me. I look at all five of these mares now chiding Rainbow and can’t help but think: Damn, their more connected than I thought. More than that, I am still being surprised by this cartoonish new world. At this point, I shouldn’t even be surprised that I’m surprised anymore.

“This is not the Rainbow Dash show,” Applejack moans, putting a hoof to her face. “Come on, Rainbow.”

“What?” Rainbow asks shamelessly. Meanwhile, I am now getting hot in this dress, and I look to Rarity for help.

“Rarity, uh, a little help here?” I plead, and Rarity sees my blatant discomfort.

“Oh, of course! We’ve overstayed our welcome here anyways. Come one girls, let’s help get Melody out of her dress and we can leave the boutique proper.”

And just like that, I’m able to escape my fabric-y prison. Hurray for little miracles.

---

“May I ask you something, Melody?” Rarity starts, “If you would be kind enough for me to do so, of course.”

“Uh, sure,” I say.

“What does that necklace of yours mean to you? Or, if that’s vague, why do you have it? I couldn’t help but notice it as I was doing measurements, and how you occasionally touch your hoof to it. How did you come upon such a beautiful piece of jewelry?” I flinch at the topic of the inquiry and Rarity notices my discomfort. “You don’t have to answer, dear.”

“No, no, it’s… it’s fine,” I sigh, glancing down at my necklace.

You know, some things you just can’t really answer in full thought. The description evades you, the thought persists in it’s nature to remain alone. My necklace came with me through this portal, and it means a lot more than just some fashioned piece of jewelry. For some reason or the other, it’s with me, and I’m grateful for that, but this raises the question as to why. Why did it survive my fall through an aether, when not a single other thing did?

“I found this. I can still remember playing in a park while my mother watched, singing and laughing as I explored the park. I just…” I scrunch my muzzle as I try to remember. “I found this… this shiny radiant rock. A rock that seemed to glow when I first saw it. When I picked it up and showed it to my mom, she thought it was just another normal rock, albeit very coloured and glossy.

“We were able to fashion it into this necklace. It could very well have been a bracelet, as I seemed to be entrenched in bracelets at that point in my life, yet my dad insisted I have a necklace.” I pause a little to get some breath. We’re now nearing the edge of some sort of fenced off forest area, and I can’t help but think of Applejack living at a farm. It makes sense, now that I think about it.

“Well, I’d say you’re father knows what he’s doing,” Rarity smiles, and I can only smile back.

“Yeah, well, it’s the reason I became this sort of explorer. I got new shiny things to play with, going to find new shiny things that needed to be found. I told you I was a singer, right? Well, I got a lot of my stuff from going to gigs and stuff. I earned a lot of it. I was able to see so many things, was able to go travel a bit. And in that time, I always had my two rocks in my life. My two best friends…

“This reminds me of everything I’ve done,of all the people in my life, and of everything that’s possible. And with it, it reminds me of the… of the people I’ve lost.” I finish. “I guess… you could say it’s my ‘good luck charm’.”

“Don’t you mean ‘ponies’?” Twilight asks me. I look her in the eye, and see her curiosity peaking at my word choice.

I’m not ready to tell the truth. Not yet. I shake my head as a ‘yes’ and Twilight frowns a little. I can’t blame her. I’m really a terrible liar.

“Well, here’s my home,” Applejack finally says as we enter the path between the apple-riddled trees. “The good ol’ Sweet Apple Acres! She’s certainly been weathered down over the years, but she’s still kicking like the day she were born!”

I smile at the barn and pens, seeing the moderately sized field separating the barn from the orchards. “It looks lovely.”

“This here is where Equestria’s best apples have been harvested since Ponyville was started,” Applejack starts proudly. “It all started with Granny Smith, and now it falls upon my brother, sister and I to do so for the next generations to come. Wherever we Apples live, we make it our home. And anypony that is a friend is as much a part of the family as the apples of our land. You’re always welcome here at our place, Melody. Just remember that.”

I begin to look at Applejack with all the incredulity in the world. I can’t believe this. We’ve only known each other for a couple or so hours and these ponies are already taking me in as one of their own. Even with Derpy, I was stuck having to get to know her in the hospital, and yet, I’ve known these ponies for a tenth of the time. Tearing up slightly, I now just realize the magnitude of how far these new ponies will go to help a new pony out, to make them feel welcomed and to make them feel good.

“Thank you, Applejack,” I whisper, brushing away a stray drop of water that had landed on my face. Yes, a very specific stray drop of water that landed right underneath my eyes. I then look around, and see Fluttershy smiling along with the rest of the gang.

“Wait, weren’t we going to go to Fluttershy’s first?” I ask, and Applejack glances at Fluttershy for a moment. She then shifts her gaze to Rainbow, before chuckling.

“I don’t think Rainbow here can wait any longer,” Applejack motions, and I turn to Rainbow. I widen my eyes as I can almost literally see the dreams she’s having right now about cider. “Besides, a quick drink here and a snack is all we’re really going to get here. You might even get to see some of my family. In any case, we can all drop by Fluttershy’s after.”

Fluttershy gasps at the thought. “Oh!” she exclaims, a little louder than she usually spoke, “Then you can meet Harry and Fuzzy Legs and Angel and Elizabeak and the little cove of snakes near the Everfree and…” Fluttershy giggles a bit as she slowly realized she may have overstepped herself a bit. “Oh, sorry…”

“It’s alright, Fluttershy,” I smile, “Don’t ever say sorry just because you’re passionate about something.”

“Okay,” Fluttershy smiles back.

“What are we still doing out here?” Rainbow cries, just now realizing that we haven’t moved in the past five minutes. “Last one there is an egghead!” And just like that, Rainbow disappears in a literal burst of colours, a rainbow contrail left in her wake.

“Well, I’m not an egghead,” I say nonchalantly. As everypony begins to look at me once again, I grin widely before bolting as fast as I can after Rainbow.

“Hey, that ain’t fair!” Applejack cries, now following me and gaining speed.

Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy, meanwhile, glance at each other before Fluttershy shrugs a little. “I don’t want to be an egghead…” she whispers, before flying at a moderate pace behind us.

“I’m not dirtying my coat, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Rarity remarks, settling at a brisk trot.

“So I’m the egghead, huh?” Twilight smirks. Charging up her horn, she disappears in a flash, reappearing in front of me and beating us to the door.

“Cheater,” I say, and Twilight sticks her tongue out.

What the hell, magic?

Author's Note:

A chapter, one day early! Enjoy

Comments

[Texus]

I maybe should have mentioned it a bit better and easier to understand, but I'm not really happy with Raritys scene there.
1. I reread my first comment for the chapter before this one and mentioned that it was weird for me that Rarity could do what they want with Melody, while I would have been happy if Melody would have had some things where she can say just no if she don't wants something. It is important to me that the main char has his own opinion and can defend it as well.

2. I was a bit dissapointed that it looked like, 1. Melody wasn't able to really make them understand that she isn't happy about the dress or 2. that they maybe just ignored her.
I always hope that the character can defend his own opinion or that he manage to make others understand how he feels about it.

It is a nice chapter otherwise, I'm just never to happy about it if th main char looks like other characters plaything.

[Doctor Disco]

7938317 Well, I tried to play my cards subtly, but here they are somewhat laid out before you.

Melody is still very appreciative of Rarity's work. She just hates the notion of being a pin cushion. If the dress had been pre-made, Melody would have been fine, but as she saw the ponyquins, she expected to be fitted for the dress and used for the creation of it. It's pretty simple, in that Melody loves her new dress, but hates the technical part.

See where I'm getting?

Melody was perfectly content with being Rarity's model. She just didn't like how she had to have scissors and pins flying around her to make her her dress. She understood that it was necessary, but that doesn't mean she had to like it. I know that I would do something like that for a new friend, even though I would hate to have to stand around, in what I define as wasting time.

For Melody, it's much the same. Thinks it's a waste of time, hates having to stand around doing nothing but stay still, the base of it.

[Chrome Masquerade]

“Rarity’s cutie mark is a bunch of gems,” Applejack says, “Her specialty is somewhat, well, unique, I guess.”

“Yes, as Applejack says,” Rarity smiles. I move away from the chest and it closes once again. “I got my cutie mark from my own horn activating, sending me to this giant rock in the middle of nowhere. To put it shortly, an explosion rocked the sky and the boulder split apart to reveal a deposit of gems, and thus, I got my cutie mark!”

“It wasn’t just any old explosion,” Rainbow suddenly pipes in, “It was a sonic rainboom that I performed!”

“Yes, Rainbow, this is all about you,” Twilight rolls her eyes. “On that note, I got my cutie mark from that same explosion in the sky. I had an intense magical surge as I was attempting to join Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and Princess Celestia just so happened to be in the neighbourhood. She helped stabilize my magic and reverse all the damage I had done.

“To keep it simple, I became her protoge, made friends with these girls and saved Princess Luna from Nightmare Moon, and became a princess!” Twilight finishes. I raise my eyebrow at their coinciding stories, and can’t help but wonder.

“I also got my cutie mark from the rainbow explosion,” Applejack adds, and I turn to her in surprise. “Heck, all six of us, minus Pinkie at the moment of course, got our cutie marks from Rainbow’s sonic rainboom.”

“I’m just awesome like that,” Rainbow boasts, and everybody in the room groans, except for me.

well, Applejack would've gone home later, at the most.

[Chrome Masquerade]

“Well, here’s my home,” Applejack finally says as we enter the path between the apple-riddled trees. “The good ol’ Sweet Apple Acres! She’s certainly been weathered down over the years, but she’s still kicking like the day she were born!”

I smile at the barn and pens, seeing the moderately sized field separating the barn from the orchards. “It looks lovely.”

“This here is where Equestria’s best apples have been harvested since Ponyville was started,” Applejack starts proudly. “It all started with Granny Smith, and now it falls upon my brother, sister and I to do so for the next generations to come. Wherever we Apples live, we make it our home. And anypony that is a friend is as much a part of the family as the apples of our land. You’re always welcome here at our place, Melody. Just remember that.”

That brings to mind....
http://ytcropper.com/cropped/dE589339393cef9