Rarity and Spike rushed over to Starlight, who was leaning, gasping, and trembling against the wall with one hoof.
"Dear, what's wrong?" Rarity asked. "It looked like we'd hit a breakthrough!"
Spike nodded. "You looked like you were loving it."
Starlight tried to answer rationally. To explain it all away. To get back to the fitting, and walk out a new mare, as Rarity had promised.
But when she opened her mouth, she instead realized that she didn't have the energy to push the fear down any more.
The dam burst.
"I do, Spike. I love this dress so much. But now that we've seen it, don't you think it makes me look somewhat... " Starlight poked her head close to the mirror, and gingerly walked back in front of it. Her voice slipped back down to a whisper. "...villainous?"
"Rarity walked next to her. "Honestly? The word I would have used is debutante. A mare who would put Canterlot to shame, given the honor she radiates with her very presence."
Starlight blushed, then sighed. Her trembles slowly ebbed, but her mind was still a murky haze. It was still impossible to focus, much less figure out her next course of action.
Fortunately, once more, Rarity provided ample distraction, and a smile at no extra charge. "Firstly: black is beautiful. It's basic, it's slimming, it's the blank slate of the color spectrum. You are blessed to have been born with a coat that complements it better than most ponies. If I'm being completely honest, I'm rather jealous. The mime look doesn't quite work for me. You understand."
Starlight barely suppressed a giggle.
"Secondly," Rarity continued. "You chose the fabric and design. We spent two hours here, and there are a literal rainbow of discarded dresses around my boutique, in all colors and shapes. You could have gone with literally anything else. But you didn't."
"I..." Starlight nodded. "I know I didn't. But even then, I wasn't sure if I was making the right choice."
Rarity tilted her head. "The right choice for who?"
A knot formed in Starlight's stomach. She swallowed. "I... for..."
"You spoke from the heart, did you not?" Rarity pressed.
The trembles returned, with double intensity. "I-I did, but..."
"Just like you did when you told me you wanted to still be an influencer, even after running an entire town where you did just that?"
The replacement dam that Starlight's heart had been busy hastily constructing didn't stand a chance.
The tsunami hit.
"What I want doesn't matter!" Starlight exploded, her voice cracking. She threw off the dress. "Not anymore! Don't you think I might not want to let anypony else think I'm going back to to that?"
Rarity didn't answer.
"I spent my entire life being wrong and awful," Starlight sobbed, "and I hate who I was! I hate it so much! I barely like who I am right now! And I don't know what to do about it! But moving forwards instead of backwards... isn't that just logical?"
Starlight gasped for breath. "Isn't it the right thing to to do?" The knot in her chest dissolved, replaced by sticky, viscous guilt in the pit of her stomach. "I-I'm sorry, Rarity, I'm so sorry, I—"
Rarity shook her head.
"Don't be. My questions are never idle, Starlight, nor are they ever inconsequential. From the very first question I posed to you when you walked into my boutique, to my last question from a minute ago, I did whatever I could to get you to confront this exactly." Rarity placed a caressing hoof on Starlight's shoulder.
"But... but why?" Starlight choked.
"Because, thirdly: Carousel Boutique is about bringing out inner beauty. Naturally you have what it takes on the outside. Your coat, your mane, your voice—oh your voice is simply divine," Rarity chanted. But those things only take you so far. When push comes to shove, it is the inside of anypony that will validate what is outside."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Starlight said. "Really, really afraid of."
Rarity sighed, and squeezed Starlight's shoulder. "Starlight. it is absolutely okay to be all right with who you are inside, and what ideas speak to you."
"No it's not," Starlight said in a meek voice. "Rarity, not everything I might like, or everything I am inside, is..."
"Accepted? Appreciated? Safe?"
Starlight nodded.
"Excellent!" Rarity crowed. "Let it be, I say. I've served countless ponies who thought they were the absolute worst Equestria had to offer. Who thought they had no inner glow to be brought to the surface. Every single one of them has been proven wrong." Rarity winked. "And that's why I have the fashion empire."
Rarity gently tugged Starlight's hoof. Starlight followed, and Rarity led her to a nearby window. A light spring rain could be seen falling outside, with the sun still out. Rarity gestured outwards and upwards.
Starlight followed Rarity's gesture, and gaped as she saw a multicolored arc across the horizon, spreading beauty all across the town of Ponyville.
"Nopony is pure sweetness, or pure malice," Rarity said. "Nopony is completely 'normal', or completely off of the beaten path. Nopony is a saint, nor is anypony beyond redemption. Just like the rainbow that shines after every storm, we all occupy a spectrum of personalities, wishes, fantasies, ideals, vices. All have their uses to help others... and yourself."
Rarity took Starlight's hooves. "But the pony who denies who they are, is the pony who denies all they can be—meaning that they will never be at their best. Or their most beautiful."
Starlight turned Rarity's words over in her mind. They... were new. Comfortingly so.
She decided she wanted to believe in them.
A third dam could wait. At least for the moment.
"So what you're trying to tell me is that... it's really all okay?" Starlight whispered. "All of myself is okay?"
Rarity nodded and smiled. "So long as nopony gets hurt, of course." Her eyes twinkled. "But it looks like you're past that phase."
Starlight could feel the weights lifting off of her chest, one by one. She giggled. "I... I wish I had you to tell me this years ago. Instead I forced conformity and sameness on so many ponies. I forced them to push in their inner beauty. And I feel absolutely terrible about it."
Rarity rolled her eyes. "Honestly? You're hardly the first in Equestria to employ the methods you did. But fear not, Starlight. I refuse to pass judgment on the current you based on what I saw or experienced the very first time we ever met. Quite honestly, it sounds like you're pretty good at doing that to yourself.
"But I can give you one piece of advice: love yourself, as you wish for others to love you. Genuinely, and without force. And don't worry, that's never something that comes easily or instantly. It takes hard work and a huge heart to not compare yourself to others, or to forgive yourself for past mistakes."
Rarity kissed Starlight on the cheek. "But all of Eqeustria, including you, me, and Spike here... we are all works in progress, every day of our lives. And even when we pass away, those works are never 'finished' or 'perfect'—merely the best they can be at that point in time."
Starlight sniffled, wiping her eyes. "Thank you, Rarity. I'll... I'll do my best to remember that."
"Wonderful. I'll be back in a few minutes--I need to put away the dresses and supplies we didn't use." Rarity went to the back room, several dresses magically floating behind her.
---
Starlight watched Rarity disappear behind the back door. She put her hoof to the cheek Rarity had kissed. "She certainly is... passionate... about her work."
"Heh, yeah," Spike replied. "Passion's her middle name. Especially when it comes to favored clients."
Starlight failed to avoid blushing for the third time that hour. "Of which I am one?"
Spike shrugged. "Looks like." He paced around Starlight, claw to his chin, and letting out several "hmm"s. After a minute of this, Starlight couldn't take it anymore.
"Something the matter?" she asked. "Is there something on my face?"
Spike shrugged again. "Nah, nothing like that. I was just thinking: this is the first time we've ever really been... just in once place for any length of time. And just... talking normally."
Starlight picked up Spike's ball, and sighed. "Right. Because..."
"...yeah."
Both fell silent, their gazes apart.
"So yeah," Spike said again after a short while. "I wasn't sure what to think when you got here. Especially given our, uh, 'adventures'."
Starlight nodded. "I understand completely."
Spike walked in front of Starlight, into her field of vision. "But Rarity's right. You don't have to be sorry about everything twenty-four-seven. They already know you are. They've been in that same place. I've been in that same place."
Spike gestured out of the window. "I almost destroyed this whole town once because I was totally fixated on one thing. And unlike you, I wasn't in enough of my right mind to know that what I was doing. To be able to be talked out of it like you were. I give you credit for trusting in Twilight, and in friendship. Celestia knows I've had to.
"So yeah. Where I'm standing? At least, now that you're not trying to unmake the universe?" Spike shrugged. "You seem fine to me. No crazier than any of us, anyway."
Starlight's limbs moved on their own, and in moments, she found herself hugging Spike. "I really appreciate it, Spike. Thank you so much."
"Not a problem," Spike said, hugging back. "Besides, Twilight can tell you the stories a lot better than I could, but you're also not the first girl we've met who was totally nasty one time but then managed to turn herself around and become one of our best friends." Spike pulled back. "And knowing Twilight's luck, you probably won't be the last, either."
"Well," Starlight said, "if that happens in the future, maybe I can turn whoever it might be around. Pay it forward."
Spike grinned. "Heh. You'd be our best bet."
Hoof met claw in a jubilant collision.
Rarity emerged out of the back room. "Did I interrupt something?" she said, looking at the scene before her.
"Not at all, Rarity," Starlight said, beaming and walking over to her. "Thank you both so much. I've... made a decision."
"Splendid!" Rarity said. "By all means, let us hear it."
I've decided..." Starlight took a deep breath. "...that I love the dress. I love that it makes me feel powerful just by putting it on. And I do like the attention. But at the same time... I'll also work on myself. So that I'll be able to use both of those things wisely. If I'm going to wear my heart's desire?"
She looked at Rarity, Spike, and then the sparkling dark ensemble. "Then I want to be worthy of it. In my heart."
Rarity's grin went from ear to ear. She picked up the dress with her magic, and placed it in Starlight's hoof.
"Now that," Rarity said, "is a statement born of true beauty."