October 20th, 1000 Domina Solaria
“Hey, Rarity~!” Doug calls into the Carousel Boutique, his voice raising at the end with a hint of pleading. Of desire and expectation, a certain level of longing. The store is closed for the day, the lights off in the front but still on in the kitchen, awaiting his arrival. Doug sluffs off his backpack, crouching to restock the pantry as hoofsteps echo down the stairs.
“You used that voice,” Rarity says cautiously, stopping in the doorway. Her eyes trace over the light jacket and pants, the same ones he wore to Cloudsdale. “I didn’t think it was that cold already. I suppose Cloudsdale has started Winter production, and we’re acceptable casualties.” Doug nods as Rarity slips closer, running a hoof along his back. “How have they been holding up?”
“Oh?” Doug says, his hand pressing Rarity’s hoof into his side. He lifts her up as she grins, standing on hind legs while her forelegs reach up to his shoulders. His hands drop to her flanks, lifting her up and resting her on his hips. “Well enough, I suppose. Might need to break out the winter ones pretty soon, though.”
“Mm, well, if you need help coordinating, or accessorizing, I may know somepony who can help.” Rarity rests her head in the crook of Doug’s neck, a smirk breaking through despite her attempts. “She’s an ace at assisting anypony’s attire.”
“I shall have to consider her generous offer.” Doug’s hand folds one of Rarity’s ears back as he cups her head, thumb scratching the base of her horn. “Did you need any more help around here, or things mostly taken care of?”
“Mm, well, there’s one spot in particular that keeps getting dirty,” Rarity coquettishly suggests, her hooves rubbing past his shoulders.
“Again?” Doug grunts as he hoists Rarity onto the counter. “I thought I took care of that the last time I was here.”
“Well, it seems to have a habit of coming back.” Rarity pulls at Doug as he tries to back off. “And do lose the pants this time, I would hate for them to get dirty. You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to get those kind of stains out.”
“I believe it. Same spot as last time?”
“Yes. Jacket too. Now, here, let me help you slip in; I know you had some difficulty last time.”
“Hey, it wasn’t that bad. I managed.”
“You complained for hours. I nearly bit myself holding my tongue.”
“No I didn’t. And you weren’t silent, you were whining about it nearly the entire time.”
“That was not whining! This is whining! ‘Why are you taking so long?’ ‘You’re making a mess of everything!’ ‘I’m sure that doesn’t belong there!’”
Sweetie Belle pauses at the top of the stairs, her hoofsteps muffled by the thick carpeting. She would be nearly silent, except for her stomach rumbling loudly. Her ears twitch back and forth, her small mouth twisting to a grimace. Another loud grunt comes from the kitchen, this time with the scrape of metal on metal. The fridge is really close to the door, and maybe she can just sneak in and out before they even realize she is there. She gets to the bottom of the stairs, spotting her quarry, her tongue practically tasting the treats inside.
“No! Don’t pull that out yet, or it’ll spill everywhere!”
“Sorry, Rarity, but I don’t see a way around that!”
Sweetie Belle skids to a stop, her hooves clopping against the wood floor. She looks into the kitchen as Rarity turns from the table, spotting her. Her dam’s heavy sigh turns to a smile as her horn lights, a cloud of blue forming in the room. Doug is halfway underneath the sink, only his lower legs sticking out as he bangs on a bit of piping. Almost immediately comes a splash of liquid, a foul stench filling the room. Rarity nearly gags as she concentrates for a moment, her blue haze bursting into hundreds of small explosions of freshness.
“Hey, I need that light,” Doug says, the drip of water replacing the sound of tools under the sink.
“Hello, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity says calmly as her horn lights again. “Did you finish all of your homework?”
“Yup,” Sweetie Belle cautiously replies, not wanting to get any closer to the sink that Rarity made her help clean up earlier that day. “Just getting a snack.”
“Of course. Don’t mind us.” Rarity turns back to peering under the sink. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“No. I told you I’d figure it out as I go along. It can’t be that hard, right?”
“Yes, but I feel like I am the one paying the price as you learn your way around.”
A long exhale comes from under the sink as Sweetie Belle walks up to the fridge, finding one of the berry yogurts and a hoofful of hay. Her horn lights, a pale green aura surrounding one of the plates and levitating it to her back. She glances back into the kitchen as she leaves, a sigh and shake of her head.
Her parents are weird.
“There,” Doug says as he tightens a fastener back on. “I think that should do it.”
“That’s what you said the last time,” Rarity says as a blue aura surrounds Doug’s feet, dragging him out. “Now, what was it that you were so happy to see me?”
“I can’t just be happy to see my darling wife?” Doug says as he brushes his hand against the large grease stain on his chest.
Rarity slowly shakes her head, her eyes drawn to the discoloration.
Doug sighs. “Fine. I wanted to know how the Nightmare Night costumes are coming along. Oh, and you had asked about what kind of fancy things I would wear.” He motions to his backpack, “I’ve got something in there, but I thought it might be easier to describe to you and have you draft something.”
“I suppose, but I’m afraid I must insist on you getting cleaned up first.” Rarity levitates the backpack, playfully darting up the stairs.
“I don’t even get a thank you?” Doug says as he reaches for his jacket, wincing as Rarity slaps him away.
“What did I just say about you being filthy?” Rarity beckons with her horn, “I do not want to have to get another stain out of those!”
“Fine,” Doug says as he heads upstairs, his greasy hand brushing against Rarity’s back before scratching her ears.
Rarity’s eyes widen, then narrow, as Doug takes off up the stairs. “Oh! You did not! You ruffian!”
Several minutes of chastising and one long shower later and Rarity and Doug are in her master bedroom, looking over four ponnequins displaying the costumes Rarity created. “Now, normally I don’t like working in dark blues and purples. Far too much negativity gets associated with their use, but I did like your idea.” Rarity pauses at the small dragon costume, the design a bit different from the others, really emphasizing the spikes and armored, barbed tail.
“Well, I don’t know that it was so much my idea, except that I dreamed it.” Doug goes up to the suit of armor designed for him. The same as his dream with Nightmare Moon, perfectly recreated by Rarity. Lavender gauntlets, interlocking steel plates for fingers. Boots, his steel toed stompers he wore to the Badlands, recolored and extended, coming up to just under his knee. A teal cuirass that leaves his shoulders bare, with faulds coming down to his lower thighs. A black sallet completes the armaments. “Is it functional?”
Rarity snorts. “Darling, I pride myself on authenticity. When you suggested that I create you something out of your Nightmare, as a way of terrorizing the town yet again in the name of supporting Princess Luna, I had to go all out. Good thing the Diamond Dogs are such wonderful smiths, and didn’t mind working on the cheap.”
“You paid them in diamonds, I guess?” Doug says with a smile, lifting the breastplate to his front. He gasps as the metal warps, forming to him. “How did you do that?”
Rarity sighs. “I didn’t. Twilight got ahold of one of the spells the Royal Guard uses. Nasty bit of Betrayal magic to make the metal twist on its own. She’ll need to reinforce it, now that it has contoured to your body, but it is far easier than getting those mutts to take your dimensions perfectly. And she should be along shortly, I believe, once she has finished whatever work she is doing at the library.”
“Well, even so, this looks amazing,” Doug says, turning around as Rarity secures the back half of the cuirass. “Did you do the same for the rest of your costumes?”
“Well, there were only so many bits in the budget for Nightmare Night costumes, I’m afraid, so I am merely making the rest from cloth, shaped to give the appearance of armor.” Rarity runs a hoof along one of the mare outfits, depressing the intimidating spikes. The rest resembles metal barding that covers from withers to flank, a sharply contrasting teal and purple. Nightmare Moon’s cutie mark is inscribed on the chest, a cloth helmet with an opening for a horn.
“Rainbow is going as a Shadowbolt. I figured that would fit the theme, even if she isn’t wearing the armor you wanted for her.” Rarity looks at her closet. “I haven’t finished that one yet, but I think it will still look the part. She has yet to bring me a Wonderbolt costume she can bear to see transformed.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s fine,” Doug says as he pulls the last of the armor on. He grimaces as he lifts seven metal bands. Orange, white, cerulean, yellow, pink, lavender, and azure. He turns to Rarity, a sharp, “I didn’t tell you about these.”
“You didn’t?” Rarity pauses, glancing between the bands in Doug’s hand and his narrowed eyes. “Are you sure? I thought they fit the costume perfectly.”
“But they represent-” Doug cuts himself off, inspecting the bands again. He pulls the azure band away. “This one is new.” He looks around, “And one is missing. Or, it should have been there, but wasn’t.” He turns to Rarity. “When did you decide to do this?”
Rarity sighs. “If you must know, Princess Luna came to me during a dream. I was having the hardest time coming up with the design for you, based on only your hazy recollection and piecemeal description. She… she showed me the dream in which they originated.” She lifts a hoof to Doug, “I’m sorry that you went through that. And continued putting yourself through worse, even after it was all done.”
Doug sighs, pulling Rarity in for a hug. “Thanks, Rarity. I really appreciate it.” He breaks away, looking at the filly costume, complete with black collar, though no name is inscribed. “I hope it lets me, and everypony, put what happened behind us.”
“Doug, I think a lot of us already have.” Rarity smiles up at Doug as the mare costume teleports onto her. She puffs her chest up, looking every bit the elite guard in Nightmare Moon’s army. Except for the styled mane coming out the back of the helmet, and her tail poking out the back and spiraling down to the floor. “Now, General, what would you require of a lowly guard like me?”
“General?” Doug says, snapping the bands just under his shoulder before he folds his arms in front of him. “Okay, that one you would have gotten from Celestia.”
“Oops,” Rarity says coyly, a wink of her eye at Doug as she stands at attention. “I suppose I deserve some sort of discipline for that slip of the tongue.”