I didn’t need anypony.
It has been about three weeks since the Gala, since I returned from having the best night with my friends. They had been there for me. That night had been nothing like I had expected. Everything had turned out alright in the end, but there was still something that had hurt. Rarity would understand, she knew exactly what it was that I had gone through.
That night was the destruction of an illusion.
Maybe I need to stop paying attention to the shows, the tabloids, the fans. I mean, I should have known best of all that ponies put their best selves out there in front of the camera. Ponies let everypony else see the best them, because that’s what they want. Part of me wanted, right after that night, to go talk to her. She might have been the town gossip, but she would have known the hurt of knowing exactly how it felt.
Then again, Soarin just ignored me. Her date was the one that proved to be a horrible pony.
There no reason why I shouldn’t go see her, though she told everypony that the Gala had held up a large number of orders. That might have been a reason, but there was always a solution for something like this. The solution that I had thought of, though, was something that was definitely not going to be something that I was going to brag about.
I had to help her.
I couldn’t sew, I couldn’t get materials, I couldn’t give her advice. She always knew better, our Gala dresses had proven that one spectacularly. My face scrunched up, the thought of what I was going to do wasn’t my favorite thought. Rarity had always told me that she hated using those … I forget what she called them. It was something with quin on the end, I remembered that. She always told me, well all of us, that they couldn’t let her know what it was like for a pony to move after the dress was made.
The only way I could think to get her to talk to me was to do the unthinkable. I was going to have to let her use me as one of those model thingies. I was going to have to stand there, get measured again, and then move certain ways when she was done. This was going to be the worst day of my life, and if anypony saw me it would be horrible, but I couldn’t think of any other way.
If I wanted to talk to Rarity about this, I was going to have to sacrifice this. Man, this had to be the most uncool thing I had ever thought about doing. It was a good thing that Scootaloo wasn’t going to be around, that would make everything about a hundred times worse. She looked up to me, not some prissy pony who put on dresses.
Good thing I don’t tell Rarity, she’d never help me if I said that.
Part of me felt like knocking, but I knew she was busy. Besides, I was coming in to offer my help, as much as it hurt to even think. I opened the door, took a few steps in, and was promptly hit by a flying cat.
Okay, I was either dreaming or Opal really didn’t like me. The pain told me that it was the second one. “AHHH! I’m under attack!” I tried to be as dramatic as possible, probably eliciting a glare from Rarity as she pulled her feline friend away. I didn’t look too bad, hopefully. It wasn’t like that demon-cat had tried to draw blood, or at the very least I couldn’t feel that she had succeeded even if she had been going for that.
“Is there something I can help you with, Rainbow? I’m awfully busy, just as I told you girls.” I could see that she wasn’t that happy to see me, or likely anypony, while she was trying to fill the backorders that had come up. At least the Gala had helped out one way, her dresses had gotten a lot of attention from a lot of ponies in Canterlot. She was going to be busy for a few weeks just to get all of the orders done.
“Actually, I was gonna offer to help out, Rares.”
That look, of shock and curiosity, was the one that I had expected. “And just how can you help me, Rainbow Dash? Did Fluttershy teach you sewing? I’m afraid I don’t need anypony to get supplies, I can do that part myself.” It hadn’t actually dawned on her, that was somewhat good. I would be able to surprise her with something for once.
“Actually, you always told us you hate those model things you use … right? What if I … errr … let you make the dress on a real pegasus instead of a model?” Was it wrong that those words hurt even more to say than think? I couldn’t even look her in the eye, this whole thing just felt weird. “Unless you’d rather I ju-”
I could feel myself being pulled over, that was obviously my answer. “Oh, I just knew the Gala would help you see the beauty of a good dress. I knew that you’d come here, that you would want to look beautiful again. Not that you don’t have your own natural beauty.” It was always the same with her, I knew exactly what she meant. She had a certain idea of what beauty was, and I wasn’t it.
I was okay with that, she wasn’t really my type either.
“I was hoping, after we work for a while, I might be able to get some advice from you.” That had actually hurt more to say than the other thing. I hated the idea that I would have to go to somepony else for advice, especially about this. I should have been able to solve this problem on my own, but something about it was just too hard.
This was more complicated than anything else I had done.
“Of course, but after. With you here, I should be able to get the work done on the pegasi dresses even quicker. You don’t know how much this means to me that you’re helping, Rainbow.”
I knew what it meant to me. It meant that I was going to have to stand still for the next few hours. I didn’t think that anypony could die from standing still, the Royal Guard seemed to be capable enough of standing still for long periods of time, but maybe I would be the first.
-Later-
I didn’t know how many hours passed, or maybe it had been days. I hadn’t seen the sun rise again, though the moon had come up. Rarity had drank some coffee, but offered none to me. She had told me that it might get on the dress and that we’d have to start again. It was a good thing that I had taken a nap before coming here, and that tomorrow was going to be one of the few days off from Weather Patrol, because it felt like this would never end.
“Three days worth of dresses made in only eight hours. I do say, Rainbow, you were an amazing assistant.”
Had she said that we had only been here for eight hours? It felt like forever, all I could do was simply yawn and nod in response.
“I do believe, though, that neither of us are in any shape to be doing any talking. Please, believe me when I say that I will talk to you tomorrow. But a lady needs her sleep.”
I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t. I didn’t have the strength to do anything other than simply nod. I was barely even standing at this point, it wasn’t easy. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Rares.” With that, I started to walk away. The last dress had been removed, I had hoped. It seemed that I was more tired than I thought, when I jumped up to fly away I simply fell back down and hit the floor.\
And then sleep came.