Rarity giggled as she hopped into the room, a very skeptical-looking Twilight Sparkle following after her. Colts and fillies alike greeted her, turning to each other after to speculate about the new comer in their secret school. The curly maned unicorn guided the lavender filly towards the front desk, where she was met with a mess that could only be described as ‘organized chaos’, the wooden piece of furniture being covered in various fabrics, scissors, needles and pattern sheets.
“Mrs. Lace?” Rarity called, leaning down so she was able to see under the desk, where an orange mare crawled under it, desperately in search of something.
“Oh dear…where did I put that…? It’s not—”
The young filly cleared her throat, causing the teacher to hit her head on the underside of the desk in surprise. She tried to hold back a laugh when the mare resurfaced. She was an earth pony, bright yellow eyes and a red mane that was cropped short. The adult mare chuckled to herself before standing before the two.
“It’s nice to see you again, Rarity.” Her eyes flickered over the new face. “And you must be Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight nodded, extending her hoof, meeting the teacher’s halfway in a friendly hoofshake.
“Welcome to Fashion class, Twilight. Well, it’s really called Disguise Arts, but ‘Fashion’ sounds so much better, don’t you agree?” Her laugh rang out just as the bell did, signaling the beginning of the session. Students who were up found themselves in their seats, and those chatting soon quieted as Royal Lace prepared to speak. Rarity joined her classmates. “This is our newest student, Twilight Sparkle. For the rest of the day, she’s going to shadow Rarity. So please, be nice to her. We’ll all be working together some day, after all. You don’t want to make enemies at such a young age, right?” As Royal Lace chuckled under her breath, as did her students. Twilight, however, seemed a bit shaken. Catching on to this, she patted the purple filly’s shoulder. “Just a bit of light spy humor. You’ll get used to it. Now, why don’t you take a seat?”
Nodding, Twilight scanned the rows for an appropriate seat for the first day. It seemed that the further back from the teacher’s desk, the more occupied the desks became. She finally settled on a desk, second row, a bit off to the side of the class. She sat attentively, ready for whatever lesson she would learn for the moment she was in class.
The orange earth pony walked around her desk as she spoke. “We’ll give a little recap of what we’ve learned so far for Twilight. Can anyone tell me what the first rule of Disguise Arts is?”
A colt responded quickly. “Small changes, big differences.”
Royal Lace acknowledged the colt, and proceeded to pace around the room, absent-mindedly looking at the clothes on the mannequins. That week’s assignment had been to create an outfit that would be suited for a party, such as the Grand Galloping Gala, that would be easy to change in and out of and could keep a few things hidden. A particular one she was looking at was a suit, one simple in design that no one would suspect that it could hold a knife just under the flap with ease, and had a small patch for a bug in the bowtie.
“What does a good operative always carry them in the case of a quick change?”
This time it was Rarity who answered. “A miniature sewing kit, and a change of clothes stashed in a discreet location.” She giggled and winked at Twilight, who was just in awe of this new information, and was wishing she had borrowed a quill and scroll while they were in the dorm room.
“An enemy agent is in pursuit while you are at a carnival, what do you do?”
“Oh…you lose them in a crowd, and um…quickly change your disguise.”
“That’s right! Twilight, those are the basics, though I’m sure Rarity would be able to help you catch up, no problem.” Rarity beamed at the compliment, and Twilight was ecstatic to be able to learn.
Royal Lace wandered back to her desk and hopped in the chair behind it, only to yelp out in pain the moment she did. Getting on her feet, she looked down at the chair, seeing nothing, and then craned her neck to see behind her. She walked in circles a bit as she tried to see just what had caused her pain. Twilight, glancing at her future classmates who were giggling at the teacher’s expense, decided to save her the humility and levitate the tiny needle out of her backside, and in front of the mare’s face.
“Oh! So that’s where you went, you stupid thing…” Her face flushed with embarrassment as she took the needle between her teeth and set it down in a sewing kit. She smiled at Twilight and gave her a silent ‘thank you’ for sparing her any more. “Anyway. It’s time to get back to your assignments. Remember, it has to be easy to get in and out of and be able to hide at least one gadget or weapon!”
The once-silent class became lively once again they the students rose from their seats and scattered to all corners of the room, either to mannequins, or to shelves that held supplies, or t their saddlebags to retrieve their own things. Rarity herself seemed more than happy to get back to work her dress.
There was one filly who stayed in her seat, a light yellow Pegasus who nervously played with her hooves. Twilight recognized her as the one who answered the teacher’s final question without the confidence of the other students. Twilight didn’t even see her when she first walked in. Slowly, the purple filly approached the Pegasus.
“Hello there—”
“EEP!” The Pegasus jumped, wings flared in fear as she hovered a bit over the floor. Twilight, in turn, jumped back a bit herself until she was able to compose herself.
“I’m sorry to scare you…My name is Twilight Sparkle. What’s yours?”
The yellow filly hid behind her pink mane, her head lowered so Twilight couldn’t see her eyes. Her mouth moved, but something barely audible came out of it.
“Um…what was that?”
“I’m…”
Twilight learned closer to the curtain of pink, trying to best to hear. “One more time?”
“I’m…Flutter—”
“Fluttershy!” A voice rang out, causing the unicorn and Pegasus to squeal and bump their heads into each other before scrambling back. A cream-colored filly with a two-toned pink and blue mane appeared between the two of them. “Fluttershy, do you have any blue ribbons? I can’t find any in the box, and you were the last one to use it…”
With a nod, the filly Twilight assumed was Fluttershy, dug in her saddlebags and pulled out a roll of shining blue ribbon, and handed it to the earth pony, who nodded graciously before returning back to her project. Fluttershy blushed and avoided eye contact with Twilight, who just smiled as to not frighten her any more.
“So um…are you finished with your project?”
“Oh…no…I’m not…”
Twilight cocked an eyebrow. “Then…why are you just sitting here? Shouldn’t you be working?”
To this, the Pegasus pulled out a sketch of her dress. She pointed to various placed on the paper as she spoke. “I can’t decide whether a blanket stitch or a cross-stitch is better here to hold what it should hold. And here, if it will get too revealing if…” As she talked on, Twilight just started at the paper, confused for she had no idea what she was saying.
“And here, what if…”
“Fluttershy?”
“Oh…Yes, Twilight?”
“I don’t understand a word you’re saying.”
Fluttershy’s cheeks turned a bright pink when she realized she had just been rambling on. “Oh! I’m so sorry…I didn’t…I just…some of the girls think I have a ‘freaky knowledge of sewing’…”
Twilight laid a hoof on her shoulder and gave her a friendly smile. “Don’t worry about it. It’s okay, really.”
“Twilight, darling? Why don’t you come and help me with my dress? I could use an extra set of hooves here!” Rarity called from across the room, glancing over her shoulder only for a moment to see the purple filly before returning full attention to the mannequin before her.
Twilight shrugged and moved away from the Pegasus, smiling a bit. “You’ll do great on your project, I know it.” She then trotted over Rarity, leaving Fluttershy to look after her, and then glance down at her design, renewed confidence flowing through her. She grabbed her sketch, fabric and the start of the dress from her bags, and trotted to the mannequin that was next to Rarity’s.
As they worked, all three girls chatted and enjoyed each other’s company until the bell rang.
----------
“I have to admit, Rarity, I never thought clothes to be…interesting, but that was a very nice class. The possibilities are endless!” Twilight rattled on as she and Rarity exited the classroom side by side. “What’s the next class?”
Rarity rolled her eyes and waved a dismissive hoof. “Nothing that fun. Just Research and—”
“Research and Development?!” Twilight practically flew off the floor in excitement. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Rarity, can I borrow your notes? And your quills? Oh oh! And your textbook, of course!” She bounced around the halls in excitement, much to the chagrin of the students she continuously bumped in to.
Rarity could only stare at the excited filly. “Twilight? Twilight, darling? TWILIGHT!”
Twilight stopped mid-take off, and flushed bright red when she realized what she had been doing. “Heh…Sorry, Rarity. It’s just that the Princess gave me a pre-tour, and that class seemed so amazing, and I just love to study and…” Rarity looked at her expectedly. “…Well, we should go, right?”
She nodded as she levitated her saddlebags on to Twilight’s back. “We actually have a test today, so you can take a look through my notes as we work. I’m sure Mr. Data would like that than have you sit around.”
Twilight nodded, having met the unicorn teacher earlier that day. He seemed friendly enough, stern, but obviously did not tolerate procrastination nor free-time. Twilight squealed as she all but ran inside, Rarity trotting in behind her just as the bell rang.
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After hanging out with a spastic and overly-excited Twilight Sparkle, Rarity more than welcomed the break that occurred after classes and before dinner. What she didn’t welcome, however, was an even more spastic Rainbow Dash that greeted them by practicing her P&E exercises on a naked mannequin. Both unicorns screamed and ducked as the model flew through the door and into the hall way.
“Rainbow Dash! Just what in Celestia’s name are you doing with my mannequin!?”
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m training.”
Rarity growled as her aura enveloped the mannequin as she stomped inside their dorm room, glaring her roommate down. She set it gently down in the corner without even taking her eyes off Dash. “On my model?! I need this for my project!”
“Yeah well, dresses are stupid! Fighting is much more important to being a spy than dressing the part.”
The violet-maned unicorn gasped. “That is NOT true!”
“Is so!”
“Is not!”
“Um, girls?”
“Is so!”
“Is not!”
“Girls?”
“Is so”
“Is not—”
“GIRLS!”
Twilight yelled, causing the two to cease fighting and turn to her in surprise. The filly moved between the two, glancing between them before she spoke.
“I know I’m new, but we all have to get along. You are roommates--We are all roommates. Just how did you two get along before now?”
Rainbow Dash scoffed. “We didn’t.”
This earned a nod from Rarity. “Yes, we tolerated each other but not without fights. Oh you should have seen her on the first day!”
“Rarity…” The Pegasus warned.
“She absolutely had no sense of self-restraint! When given a tour of the school she—”
“Rarity.”
“—And then when we went outside she—”
“Rarity!”
“—It took five teachers just to get her unstuck!” Rarity sighed in pity. “Talk about embarrassing!”
“THAT’S IT!”
The rainbow-maned Pegasus hopped off the ground and lunged right at the unicorn. Rarity held up her hoof in fear, bracing for an impact that never came. Rainbow Dash paused in mid-air, only held by her tail that was in a red-violet glow. Twilight pulled her back and lowered her on the ground.
“I told you, we have to learn to get along, or else this is going to be a really bad experience for all of us. Can we do that?”
The two grumbled in acceptance, and reluctantly gave each other a hoofshake.
“Now that that’s settled,” Twilight trotted over to her bed and climbed on top of it, looking at her roommates. “Tell me what you know about this school.”