//------------------------------//
// Rarity: Rocker of Worlds 
// Story: Of Sound Mind 
// by Cosmonaut 
//------------------------------//


It had been nearly an hour since Rarity started her extreme make-over. She had to constantly remind herself what she was doing was breaking all her rules. 
“The whole point of a makeover is to look unlike yourself and right now Fluttershy you need to be somepony else,” she said aloud, trying to justify her actions. Rarity grabbed the blue eye shadow she usually wore and applied the tiniest amount over each eye. 
“Slightly off color but I’m sure it’s something nopony will notice. I’ve got to accentuate your beautiful eyes somehow,” she said suggestively giving them a flurry. Rarity had absolutely no idea why Fluttershy hid them behind her pink hair, but that question (amongst others) had been answered sometime earlier when Rarity had discovered the secret box under Fluttershys bed.
She stood back and admired her work, decidedly finished. Fluttershy had so much excessive hair she had no choice but to cut some away and it now draped over just one side of her head. Her tail too was such a tragedy being so long dragging on the ground all the time and Rarity ended up trimming that as well…making it a lot more manageable. Using the brush she had dyed a strip of Fluttershys pink tail turquoise, which she had matched on her hair leading attention back to those gorgeous eyes of hers.
“Oh Fluttershy you will be turning heads today,” she gushed putting a small light blue pendant around her neck “You’re simply dazzling! Absolutely marvelous!”
Rarity glanced at the cuckoo clock on the wall, “Quarter to four? I best be on my way to pick up Rainbow.”


	***


Back in her cloud castle Rainbow Dash was fidgeting in one of her dresses. She only had three and one was for the Gala that was coming up in a few months. Dash had eventually settled for an older dress of hers that still looked brand new due to lack of use. She was struggling with one of the straps when she heard Fluttershys voice calling her name.
“Rainbow DaaaAAAaaash,” called Fluttershy “Are you ready for our trek into town?”
Dash let out a groan, knowing she couldn’t back out because it didn’t work the first time. “Yeah yeah hold your horses I’m coming,” she said briefly, jumping to the ground.
“Whoa…is that you?” asked Dash, her eyes going wide.
“Why yes Rainbow Dash, I felt so bad making you get all dolled up for losing your bet I felt I should as well…to share the shame as it were.”
“You gave yourself a haircut? Eyeshadow? A blue stripe in your mane wow you really went all out.”
“Thank you dearie,” Fluttershy casually flipped her mane “Verdict?”
“You look…amazing!”
“It took a little bit of effort but I agree it turned out magnificent. Let’s get going shall we?”
Dash slowly trotted behind Fluttershy who was leading the way. A million different questions were swimming through her head right now. ‘Why is she all dressed up like this when she didn’t have to? What was with that bet earlier? Did she plan all this from the start? How did she know she was going to win that race? What are the other ponies in town going to say when they see us? What are they going to think? Is this a joke?’ 
‘Is this a…date?’
Rainbow Dash squirmed as awkward feelings flew through her body. ‘No way. Fluttershys not like that she’s…’ Dash held that thought for second, more confusing things creeping through her head ‘she’s Fluttershy, and I’m not like that I think. I know. I KNOW I’m not like that.’
Fluttershy winked at a passing colt who dropped the basket he held in his mouth. ‘Definitely not acting like herself today. I wonder what’s gotten into her…’ Dash thought mystified to herself.
Fluttershy turned and smiled at her, those big teal eyes lighting up at Rainbow Dashs unexpected blushing “We’re here.”


	***


Rarity quite enjoyed her walk to town, it was very breezy out and the sun though bright was not particularly hot today. She headed the way and out of habit of being prettied up had been making eyes to a few of the colts along the path into town, with amusing results. Rarity knew that Fluttershy hated attention, but she was getting so many compliments that she felt her spirits rising.
She turned to check on Dash who was blushing in embarrassment ‘Poor dear must be dying in that dress, she probably hasn’t worn it in ages,’ she mused to herself. “Ponyville is bustling today wouldn’t you agree Dash? Dash? DASH!”
“What! Huh? Yeah of course, where we goin’ again?”
“We’re going for a stroll around town remember?”
Dash nodded, they were starting to get looks from some of the other ponies, and giggling from a few weather team Pegasus. 
“Can I at least let them know why I’m in a dress?” scowled Dash.
“Yes you can. I won’t stop you. A word of the wise, if you tell them you lost a bet you’d better make up a better reason than losing a race to me.” said Rarity softly.
Rarity watched as Dash trotted over to the giggling Pegasus and she quietly slipped away. She was already regretting her bargain with Dash since it was going to interfere with the plans she had made during her makeover. Along the trail she figured Dash would quickly retreat home once she managed to separate from her. 
Unfortunately for her ingenious plan there weren’t exactly a ton of colts living in Ponyville, save for some married couples. She spotted a few she knew around town, there was Big Macintosh stoically minding the apple stand and that silly blue unicorn exiting Sugarcube Corner. Neither elicited any sort of gut reaction which irked her. While Rarity was absently looking into the window of Seasonal Delights she bumped right into somepony in front of her.
“Oh I am oh-so sorry I was not paying any atte-” Rarity stopped, a lump caught in her throat.
“I apologize it was my fault miss…Fluttershy? Is that you Fluttershy?” said the chestnut colored colt she had bumped into. He had a short cropped black mane and light blue eyes. An hourglass adorned his flank. “I haven’t seen you in ages.”
Rarity felt Fluttershys heart beating faster than it was during her race. Her breathing was suddenly quicker and she felt her legs lock up. ‘So this is your crush then Fluttershy? He certainly is good-looking,’ she thought swiftly, it was hard to think with her body freaking out so much.
“Well, you know how it is, just, the animals sure do keep me busy sometimes,” she replied in a choked whisper. Don’t lose your nerve here, not now
“Oh yes I’m sure, I’ve been busy myself lately, tons of work piling up here and there. You uh…out and about like this for any reason?” he said shifting on his legs.
Rarity perked up detecting some faint hope in there, maybe this colt held similar feelings? “None in particular. I was just looking at the dinner special for Seasonal Delights here. I absolutely adore the sautéed French onion shrimp salad platter.”
The colts eyes lit up “I like that dish too, I come here once in a while to eat precisely that, I uh, eheh...” his eyes cast downward as he fretfully pawed at the dirt.	
Oh goodness gracious he’s a nervous thing too; no wonder Fluttershy has a crush on him. I’ll have to coax him a bit
“I haven’t eaten a thing all day! I just might have to stop here later for dinner…” she said brightly, giving him a warm smile.
“I was planning the same thing too, um, Fluttershy?”
“Yes?”
“Since you and I seem to, er, seem to be having similar plans…”
“Yeeeees?”
“Would you…care to join me for dinner tonight?”
Fluttershy’s heart nearly exploded in her chest, but Rarity stilled herself “I would absolutely love to! Is seven o’clock an okay time?”
“Yes? Yes! Yes absolutely! I’ll meet you here in a few hours okay?”
“That would be swell!” 
“Hold on a minute!” He suddenly bolted into the restaurant and after a few silent seconds ran back out. “Sorry! Reservations, uh, I’ll see you soon Fluttershy!”
“See you soon….um….oh drat I have no idea who you are…”
Rarity trotted into the restaurant and asking politely got the maître’d to show her the list of reservations. She scanned the list and found the bottom.


14. Dr. Whoof x Fluttershy


“A handsome young doctor! Fluttershy dear you sure know how to pick ‘em,” she rejoiced turning the corner and smacking right into Rainbow Dash.
“Dash! Um…hello, I thought you went home…” chuckled Rarity tensely.
“No. I didn’t go home. I was busy going along with my accord. What was that all about anyway with you and the vet?”
Vet thought Rarity briefly perhaps that’s how he knew Fluttershy
“Well Rainbow Dash it’s really none of your business, but if you must know he just asked me to join him for dinner tonight at Seasonal Delights and I must return home to spruce up.”
“What?! Really? But why did-? What was the point of-? Why are-? Then what were we-?”
“Rainbow spit it out I haven’t all day…”
Rarity felt a gust of wind blow past her cheek as Dash disappeared into the clouds above her.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten her to wear that dress into town after all…” said Rarity bringing a hoof to her mouth “Well time to freshen up I suppose, after all Fluttershy you’ve got a date with destiny!”


***


Twilight Sparkle was sitting on her balcony enjoying the cool evening air and flipping through the nameless spell book she had found the mind swap spell in. Most of these spells were difficult to read and some actually seemed dangerous.
“Who would ever want to create a spell that would make somepony explode over and over again?” she said sipping some iced tea in puzzled amusement “Probably a joke, but testing spells on Spike is always kind of funny….” It was dinnertime and she was just heading in when Rainbow Dash landed on her balcony.
“Rainbow Dash! How nice of you to drop in! Can I help you with something?” Twilight was eyeing her friends formal wear “Nice dress.”
“Thanks Twi, I want to talk to ya about something,” said Dash raspily “Something private I guess…”
Twilight was gradually noticing the miserable look on Dash’s face “What’s on your mind Dash? Something happen?” she asked taking another sip of her drink.
“Well, it’s about a lot of things that happened. I woke up late and missed out on my early morning warm-up and then I went and lost a race AND a bet in front of Scootaloo and her two friends to Fluttershy of all ponies who made me-“
Twilight spit her drink out “Wait, you just said you were racing Fluttershy?”
“Yeah, and I lost in front of the Crusaders, but that’s not all that happened eith-.”
“PLEASE! Come inside and tell me all about it,” interrupted Twilight glancing over to Raritys shop “I want to hear everything about what’s happened from the start, every last detail.”


***


Rarity was busily brushing her teeth, well Fluttershys teeth at her cottage. She had spent nearly ten minutes deciding whether to use the toothbrush in her travel bag or the one already sitting by the sink. After much deliberation she had figured that since it was Fluttershys teeth she would be brushing it would make sense to use her toothbrush.
“It shtill doesn’t feel right though,” said Rarity aloud between brushes. She gargled and spit into the sink.
Rarity hadn’t forgotten about Fluttershys animal friends either, which all regarded her with an air of caution as she fed them. ‘They could probably tell I’m not really Fluttershy,’ she thought suspiciously as Angel bunny snatched a carrot from her hoof and hopped away.
Looking into the mirror Rarity began putting some light blue earrings on, it wasn’t really necessary to add anything else to the way she looked considering this could be a first date for both parties. Being too formal on one could make her partner needlessly uncomfortable.
“Clip-ons are so juvenile but I suppose it’s expected that you wouldn’t care to get your ears pierced,” said Rarity clipping the second one in. She gave them a flick and both earrings held firm “It’ll have to do.”


	***


The sewing machines gave off a monotonous thumping drone in the otherwise hushed fashion shop. Despite drinking multiple cups of tea Fluttershy had found herself occasionally nodding off during her work, ruining a garment or two in the process.
“I’M HOME SIS!”
Fluttershy jerked her head up as Sweetiebelle ran upstairs past her.
“Hello Sweetie! Um, how have you been? I haven’t seen you all day you know,” Fluttershy asked tenderly as she ran back down the steps with her crusader cape.
“I’ve been crusading with my friends! We’ve had a really neat day so far and we want to wrap it up with a super cool crusader race! You should come watch!”
“Oh I couldn’t possibly leave right now Sweetiebelle. I have a very big order to fill for my friend for tomorrow and I wouldn’t want to disappoint her because the last thing I would want is to let her down and this one little stitch right here is driving me absolutely crazy!” she growled, furiously tugging at a small sleeve with her teeth. Little things like that stitch wouldn’t normally bother Fluttershy but being trapped in Raritys attentive body all day was pushing her own desire to make everything pointlessly faultless.
“It’s supposed to be your day off, why are you doing another big order today when you just did one yesterday?” asked Sweetiebelle innocently.
“I already told you sis-“
“But WHY?”
The front door of the shop slammed open as the other two crusaders burst in “LET’S GO ALREADY SWEETIEBELLE! It’s gonna be dark out soon and we wanna make the most of our day!”
Sweetiebelle waved her sister goodbye and rushed out the door with her friends.
“……Why?” Fluttershy slumped forward on the table and let her heavy eyelids fall shut “Why would be a pretty good question to answer Sweetiebelle…if I ever had the courage to do so…” 
Fluttershy didn’t have an answer for the question that crossed her mind every night before going to sleep in her bare little room. Answering her question would just make her feel worse than she already did, so she chose not to. She knew the first big step to facing that question was always supposed to be the hardest and Fluttershy was fearfully dodging it. She still had her books, her friends, and her animals. Taking a big breath she pulled her head off the bench with enormous effort and steadfastly resumed her work.

“At least I have something to do.”


***

Rarity was slowly flexing her wings again returning to town. They were still sore from her race earlier with Rainbow Dash and she hoped they weren’t sprained or anything. That would only make her feel worse when Fluttershy returned to her body later that night and discovered what Rarity had been doing with it. 
“You’re in too deep Rarity, it’s all or nothing now.” she mumbled pushing open the door to Seasonal Delights. She stood waiting in the lobby for about five minutes when Dr. Whoof entered the restaurant. 
“Oh! Fluttershy! You’re here early.” His hair was spiked back and he now wore a small green tie around his neck.
“Fashionably,” she replied tilting her head “I like what you’ve done with your hair.”
“Oh you like it? I thought I might have been messing with it too much…let’s take our seats shall we?” he replied nervously, trotting over to the candlelit booth in the corner.
The waiter sat them down and handed them some menus “Would you care for drinks?”
“Just water please,” squeaked Rarity.
Dr. Whoof returned the menus “Same here thank you. For dinner we would like two shrimp salad platters.”
The waiter took off with the menus as another filled their glasses “Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes.”
Rarity sat across from Dr. Whoof with a strained smile frozen on her face, underneath she felt Fluttershys body undergoing emotional turmoil. Her heart was pounding in her chest again and sweat was forming behind her wing-feathers. To top it all off her jaw was clenching itself shut. You just can’t relax can you she thought shakily nosing her napkin open Not with your crush sitting right in front of you on your first date Her heart skipped a beat on that last thought.
“So…um…did you just become a doctor as you said?” she whispered.
“Er correct, I’ve told you before about my shop, well my fathers shop, I’m running at the moment. Watch making and photography was his profession, so it was a bit startling when I discovered how much I actually cared for animals rather than miniature machinery after you let me take in that little bunny.”
“Oh…I remember that… t’was a lovely day.”
A pet Fluttershy let him keep? So she has met him once before.
“Yes, it was a real shame when Roger died…we didn’t have a town vet you know? So I took it upon myself to go and learn the trade. It’s not entirely dissimilar to my current job; fixing small pieces and putting things back together,” he frowned “maybe that’s a bit callous of an analogy?”
“No…makes sense,” peeped Rarity, voice cracking “Pardon me, I’m going to wash up before the meal arrives.”
She slid away from the booth and hurriedly walked over to the ladies room. Rarity soaped her shaking hooves, running them under cool water while gazing into the mirror “This is a lot more difficult than I could have imagined. Everything is fine. I’m not messing anything up. Just calm yourself Fluttershy. Even I wasn’t this panicky for my first date.”
She wiped away some sweat on her brow and returned to her seat. The shrimp platters were already steaming on the table.
“Hey there you are! Looks delicious doesn’t it?” Dr. Whoof said shifting in his seat.
“Quite delicious, can’t wait to dig in, you were just saying about medical school…isn’t that quite difficult for an Earth pony?”
“Staggeringly, but I’ve been diligent in my studies and practice,” he said taking a small bite of his dish “It’s not terribly difficult for me and although I’m now completely qualified I haven’t opened a clinic here yet, given that I still need to run the shop.”
Rarity eyed the shrimp platter warily; she wasn’t really fond of seafood but hadn’t eaten all day, with her stomach rumbling she took a hesitant nibble.
“This is absolutely scrumptious!” she exclaimed taking a bigger bite ‘I didn’t know you liked seafood Fluttershy,’ Rarity thought wiping her mouth.
“So you come here often then Dr. Whoof?”
“Only on special occasions really, my certificate arriving in the mail was cause for a stopover.”
“I’m glad I was there to bump into you today or I would have never known where to go for help with my sick animals.”
“Well I suppose I caught a lucky break then, I certainly wouldn’t have spotted you from afar with your striking new look.”
Rarity felt a heated blush run across her cheeks “Stop! You’re embarrassing me…”
“No I mean it! You look like a completely new pony! I-I mean you still look like yourself, but you’re just stunning now.”
“Oh aren’t you the sweetest thing,” she gushed taking another bite of the platter. The succulent food had calmed her down vastly, and her date’s pleasant compliments were having an upbeat effect on Fluttershys mood. ‘This shouldn’t be such a bad evening at this rate now that I’ve got a conversation going’ she thought with renewed morale.

	
***


It was nearing ten o’ clock when Rainbow Dash finally finished her protracted story. Twilight had been listening intently without any interruption, which Dash had taken for typical Twilight behavior.
“So…what do you think?” Dash asked tentatively.
‘I think next time I see Rarity I’m going to strangle that pony’ thought Twilight hiding her anger from Rainbow Dash ‘Why would she do all these things to poor Fluttershy? It’s her life she’s meddling in’.
“That’s very interesting…” she said absentmindedly, thoughts still on Rarity.
“WHAT?!” yelled Dash
Twilight recoiled “What did I say, I’m s-“
“I practically spill my GUTS to you and all you have to comment about is how it’s interesting?”
“That’s not what I meant! I mean it is, but you didn’t let me finish!”
“Well can you PLEASE talk to me then? You’ve been listening to me ramble about my day for an hour now and…it took a lot of nerve just to come here ya know…” moped Dash slinking back to the floor.
Twilight sat herself down a bit closer to her; she hadn’t meant to brush Dash off like that, “Okay, so just, when did you first start feeling all…weird?”
“After I flew up to the cloud and Fluttershy was putting me on the spot for trying to wimp out on the bet. Ugh why did I do that? She was right too, if I had won I would have totally made her take over my weather duties,” she said flicking her tail, “the way she scolded me like that was just, I didn’t know what to say to that, noponys ever been like that to me.”
“Okay and when else?”
Dash turned her head, obviously embarrassed “After I put my dress on and saw Fluttershy outside, she was all prettied up like I told you. Pretty necklace, eyeshadow, haircut and she put this wicked blue stripe in her hair too. I thought she was doing it to make me feel better about waltzing around town in my dress.”
“Then what happened in town that you sped away from her?”
“Well that’s the thing, since we were hanging out together it was less embarrassing for me, and when I went to go and explain that I lost a bet to my friends in the weather team I turned around to find out Fluttershy ditched me!”
Twilight felt really bad for her now; apparently Rarity had been humiliating her all day…and toying with Dashs feelings in the process.
“So then what?”
“I poked around for her and when I found her in front of Seasonal Delights she was all like ‘Oh I have a date Rainbow Dash hurry up’ and I just…left.”
Twilight sat there in awkward silence for a bit, ‘This is definitely a question I can’t answer for her. I’ve got to get her to say something herself,’ she thought biting her lip “Dash, I’m going to ask you some questions. You don’t have tell me anything but you need to think about your answers, or whatever springs to mind first.”
Dash gulped before nodding her head “Alright….shoot”.
Twilight took a deep breath “Are you jealous of Fluttershy? Do you want to go on a date with somepony too? Are you mad at yourself for being rude to Fluttershy earlier? Did you want to apologize to her? Do you want to get all pretty yourself?”
Dash said nothing, her rosey eyes darting rapidly back and forth.
Twilight lowered her voice, “Dash, do you…want Fluttershy?”
Still silence filled the room, only broken with the sounds of their breathing. A minute passed.  Then two.  At three Twilight delicately placed a hoof over her friends. 
“Dash?”
She suddenly leapt at Twilight, wrapping her hooves around her neck.
“OH TWILIGHT! I think I, I guess I, I just-“ she hiccupped “-just want somepony to like me!” she buried her face in Twilights mane, softly sobbing into it. 
Oh Celestia just what have I gotten myself into? thought Twilight fretfully as she stroked Rainbow Dashs mane What do I say to her now? I don’t know enough about these things to even begin to give her a proper answer.
“Noponys e-ever even, even GIVEN me a s-second glance before a-and to just s-see her going and d-doing what I’ve never g-gotten to do just-” she hiccupped, “-it hurts Twi…”
She held that embrace with Dash as her sobs slowly disappeared and the hiccupping eventually faded. Twilight always regarded her friend as a rough tough no-nonsense kind of pony, never really giving a thought about her soft side. Deep down, Rainbow was a lovesick pony who just unexpectedly discovered that she had one.
“Rainbow Dash, listen, just because you’ve never had romance in your life before doesn’t mean that it won’t happen,” spoke Twilight softly, picking her words with care “but maybe your um, awesome attitude just doesn’t click with other ponies.”
“So,” Dash sniffled “So what should I do then?”
‘What should you do indeed?’ thought Twilight as she paced back and forth. Pacing always seemed to get her brain working. “Well…completely changing your mindset would be kind of drastic…but changing it a little, or pretending to, shouldn’t be too hard for you. It’s not like you’d need to go through a huge makeov-“
Twilight shoved a hoof in her mouth. Makeover was the last thing she wanted to be talking about. Makeover was precisely what kicked off this whole situation. She just hoped that Dash wouldn’t jump to that dec-
“I should get a makeover too! If I change my style even a little bit I’ll surely get noticed by somepony!”
“Uhh, hehe, yeah, a makeover. Maybe instea-”
“I know! I’ll go ask Rarity about it! She knows all about fashion and girly stuff like that! Thanks so much for hearing me out Twi!” Dash leaned over to her, hesitated, then pecked her on the cheek and running over to the balcony. Twilight paused, putting a hoof to her face Did you just give me a kiss? Dash loudly shoved the balcony doors open, snapping Twilight out of her momentary daze.
“Wait! You can’t! Dash! DAAAASH!” called Twilight frantically as Rainbow Dash sped into the inky night sky. Twilight fruitlessly slammed her hooves against the railing and hung her head over the side.


	“This is not going to end well…”