The faint noise of Opalescence meowing in the background made itself heard, much to Rarity's chargrin. She had been working on this dress for a month now, and that was only the final part. From the drawing table to these last stages it had been since Twilight had arrived in this town. She had taken her time with it, too. Every day she would sit down and do but one stitch, one perfect stitch on a perfect work. The greatest dress in the whole world, her magnum opus, her best piece yet. Rarity licked her lip as she tried put the needle once more into the fabric, a rare one from the far corners of the world. It didn't even have a name in the equestrian language, that's how rare it was. The trim she was doing now was made of gold and the gold had small rubies in it, giving it the faintest glitter. There was a life's worth of savings in this dress so it just had to be perfect. That's why, as the meowing repeated, she immediately stopped, sighing.
"What is it now, Opal?" she asked, sounding more annoyed than the cat, who simply pushed her feeding dish forward. Rarity rolled her eyes but levitated the dish up to her level. "Well, if that's how it is then come on out," she said, pointing to the door. They both went out and the mare looked back once more.
The windows were closed, as were the curtains pulled up in front of them, and the room was empty save for what she needed to work on the dress. It all had to be perfect and if just one distraction came along, well. "Looks like you will have to wait until tomorrow." Rarity spoke, giving only the faintest of smiles.
She turned out the lights in the room and closed the door, leaving her greatest piece of art once more. She looked at the door then, a sigh unconsciously leaving her mouth, her thoughts drifting. The feeling of Opal scratching her leg immediately moved her out of her trance and she looked at the cat.
Opalescence was a proud thing, a bit vain maybe but so was her owner. Rarity could acknowledge that much. She gave a smile at the little cat who had so much of herself in her. "I haven't forgotten you, darling. Don't worry," she said the words she herself had heard a thousand times in the past. However Rarity was a pony of her word and wouldn't just mutter something pointless. She moved across Carousel boutique, her silent castle, towards the kitchen to fulfil Opal's demands while her cat walked quietly beside her. As she moved, Rarity simply took the silence in. It was dark outside with clouds obscuring the nightsky and nopony was but herself was here. Sweetiebelle was staying over again, but she was sleeping.
The silence was only broken by the sound of a can opening and food spilling into the dish, a noise answered by the purring of Opal who rubbed herself against Rarity as a sign of thanks as the food was put before her. The pony gave a smile. "Don't eat too quickly, we don't want to repeat what happened on thursdays," Rarity warned but Opal was to engulfed with eating.
Opal was an ice queen with a heart of gold, so to speak. She could be as stiffy as that Prince Blueblood if she wanted but she was a good friend, too. The cat understood what the dress meant to Rarity, or so Fluttershy had told her. Really, that girl was the best roommate a pony could wish for. With that thought in mind she left the kitchen and went back to the front of her boutique. The lights were still on in here. A dozen dresses stood at all the corners, the finished ensembles on the front with the windows, the good looking, nearly finished ones positioned so they would be spotted first and the not-quite-good-but-still-above-average-which-was-pretty-bad-by-her-standard dresses were hiding in the dark corners her guests would hardly ever look. She walked around and seated herself in the middle of the room, examining at her work.
At the front were the Gala dresses that had been requested this year. There weren't many. Roseluck was going, with her new coltfriend from Canterlot, so she had asked for a dress. Rarity had told her she'd do it only if Roseluck were to attain a certain flower for her. It had appeared a cruel demand, since that flower would only be found in the depths of the dragon wastes. Roseluck had gotten it, even though she had come back with bruises and a lightly charred mane, and now a red dress stood there before the window, with green trimming and roses for a theme. Roseluck had loved it and had already bragged about it to Lily and Daisy. They wanted dresses to, for 'some important dance that is exactly the same date as the Gala but so much better'. Rarity had judged from the burn marks the two had on them as they requested the dresses that they had helped Roseluck on her journey so she had done the dresses for free. She just hadn't managed to tell them that, yet.
Then there were the dresses for her friends. She smiled at them. Everypony had agreed that they were a testament to her skill. She had taken the old designs her friends had made for the first gala and somehow managed to turn them into appropriate dresses. Twilight had asked her if she had used dark magic to do that. Rarity still chuckled at that comment. It was really sad that one of those dresses wouldn't be used this year.
There was a silence followed by her giggle. A long, drawn out silence that would never, ever stop again. Rarity was on her own. "Just me."
Another sigh left her and her ears lowered themselves unconsciously as she looked at the door, waiting for it to happen. It didn't. It never happened.
She turned away from the door and walked back to where her other dresses were, the WIPs and there she sat down and as the silence remained, Rarity started her work once more, like she had done a thousand nights before. She had long since figured out why she worked so hard through many a night. She hated the silence and the loneliness. It wasn't that hard to get it, too. Back when she was just a filly she would always sleep well, the distant snoring of her father always making her feel safe. She had told herself a million times that having her own house would be better, since she wouldn't be kept awake but after but a few months a little Opal had been playing with yarn. That was it, though. All she needed was some noise in her home, there was nothing else. As she worked her needle and string through the fabric that was what she knew, that ultimately all she needed was a companion for these long and lonely nights.
"You still up, sis?" she heard a tiny voice by her side, yawning loudly and she looked to her side. Sweetie Belle looked even more adorable than usual, with her bedhead and all. The mare gave a smile before she turned her head back to whatever dress she was currently working on.
"Well, I'm an adult, adults often suffer from lack of sleep. You however, are a kid and kids normally sleep pretty well into the day," Rarity noted looking at her sister with a hint of a smile. The tiny filly looked back at her and the elder sister noted how she looked a bit sad.
"I had a dream," she said and just the way she said it, like she was about to cry, was enough to make Rarity stop working and look at her sister again. Her eyes were red from tears, she noticed immediately.
"Sweetie," she started and gave a smile. "It's been at least a few weeks since you and your friends tried to get Cutie Marks in ghost story telling-"
"It's not that," her sister interrupted, her voice sounding heavy. "It's about mom and dad."
Rarity's eyes went from her sister to the front door. It would never happen. Then she looked back, trying to give an encouraging smile, "What about them?"
"They-, they-," Sweetie looked like she was about to cry. "They yelled at each other yesterday. They said that they hated each other..."
Rarity looked at her sister for a moment, a blank expression on her face. "Don't worry about it Sweetie, everything will be fine."
That didn't help much. "How do you even know that?"
Rarity turned around and walked across the carousel, getting a blanket, levitating it over to her sister. "Only one stitch per day, Sweetie, just one perfect stitch. That's how it goes." She took a needle and started working again on that dress of hers. Sweetiebelle looking at her confused.
"What?"
Rarity gave a smile. "Father told me that when I was your age. He said that good things can happen if a pony tries hard enough, sometimes just by chance. Perfection however is something that takes a lifetime to achieve and it only works one stitch per day. Not more, not less. One stitch to which you have to dedicate yourself to. It's hard, impossible even. That's why it's called perfection however. He told me that he hated our mother in the beginning, when they first met. She was the most spoiled brat you'd find in their hometown and she would let everypony know that, too, while he was just a humble colt at the time. She had a cutie mark, he didn't. However, while they vowed after their first meeting to never talk to each other again life forced them together time and time again. They inflicted wounds on each other in the beginning, lots and lots of painful wounds and then, one stitch at a time, once a day, everyday they fixed them."
Sweetiebelle looked at her sister. "So, they're gonna fix this, too."
"Yes," Rarity answered. She had said enough. Times were hard right now and there was little chance for a pony and their parents especially. Equestrian fish were known as a delicacy in the griffon lands and her father had made solid money over the last few years, however some kind of economical crisis over there had pretty much put international business to a halt. Rarity didn't really care, the only thing she knew was that the situation was stressful for her parents. Sweetie didn't have to know any of that, though.
"Rarity?" the younger of the sisters asked.
"Yes, Sweetie?"
"Do you mind if I sleep by your side tonight?"
Rarity smiled and pointed towards the back of the room, "There should be some blankets over there, I finished them some time ago and they have yet to be tested. Maybe you'll even get your Cutie Mark."
Sweetie Belle smiled and hopped happily, albeit a bit clumsy due to her being tired, towards the back of the room, singing: "Cutie Mark Crusader Blanket Tester!"
A few moments later Sweetie Belle was lying on the floor beside her sister and the soft sound of her breathing in her sleep could be heard throughout the house. Opal had long since finished her meal and did what she always did around this time of night: Stalking through Ponyville. Rarity herself was still working on that dress, her eyes moving towards the room with her masterpiece in it every few seconds. After a few more minutes she took a deep breath and looked at Sweetiebelle.
She simply sighed and moved towards the door, opening it, closing it behind her, turning on the lights and then doing what she should have done some time ago. One stitch at a time she pulled the thread through holes punched by the needle, slowly creating a larger picture, her own masterpiece.
One stitch at a time, she decided, was for things of her own. If something perfect could be done for another pony, then that was easy. They needed the time and so they would get it. Stitch by stitch she worked through it and every single one of them was just right. Sure these were hard times but she had put so much time into this, so much thought. Everypony had wondered why she had given so little as of late and taken so much, how vanity and egocentrism had taken over. She had demanded a flower found only in the most dangerous place in the world from a pony she hardly knew. She had asked Twilight to weave ancient magic into the rubies. Rubies that could have been used to fix up the town hall again after one of Derpy's escapades. However all those sacrifices had been needed and Rarity didn't care how much her own name would get dragged down, she would finish this one dress, perfectly and before the Gala started.
The faint noise of Opalescence meowing in the background made itself heard, much to Rarity's chargrin. "What is it now, Opal?" she asked, sounding more annoyed than the cat, who simply pushed her feeding dish forward. Rarity rolled her eyes but levitated the dish up to her level, still. "Well, come on out," she said, pointing towards the door. The light of dawn creeped up on them and Rarity could only smile. The door behind Opalescence was wide open. The cat was quite good at opening things, Rarity had to admit. She looked at the cat who had been given to her by her parents after she had run away from home.
She remembered how the first thing her mother had said as she had first seen the, back then, rustic boutique Rarity had made herself home in. "Such a huge place, you sure must get lonely here," and without further ado they had introduced Opal to the rebelling teenager.
Yes, as she saw Sweetie Belle stirring outside in the main hall, moments away from waking up she turned around to the dress. A rare flower adorned it's headband and the fabic was finest that could be found in the world. It had a golden trim with small rubies on it and many patterns woven into it. Truly it was her greatest masterpiece and it was for her mother to wear at the Grand Galloping Gala. Rarity couldn't help but giggle, that plus the hat she had planned for her father were totally worth giving up her ticket to a trader who had actually managed to make this dress possible.
It might even help the two, going out together again. Once stitch at a time, they'd fix this and Rarity wanted to aid as much as possible. They were all family, after all.
~The End~