Chapter 13
Making Things Modiste
Heartbreak looked at Rarity in stunned silence.
Rarity waited for a moment and then looked at her confused. “You...don’t seem as excited as I thought you would be, darling. Is there something else troubling you about the dresses?”
Heartbreak closed her eyes tightly and then bit her lower lip raising a hoof. She gasped and then finally took a deep breath. “Right. I wondered if this would be a problem or not.”
Rarity blinked and shook her head. “H.B., Darling, I’m confused. What did you think would be a problem?”
“Right, you’re going to have to excuse me for a second. I started in the middle of a thought.” She gingerly pushed the floating papers away from her. “You see Rarity, and this is nothing against you, after all: Dresses are what you do, they are your thing. It’s just dresses aren’t my thing.”
“Why didn’t you say so, darling?” Rarity asked giggling slightly. “If you’re worried about not knowing anything about design, I can gladly, ‘show you the ropes.’ We can even make all of them and you can try them on to see how they really look!”
Heartbreak looked horrified and then shook her head. “Right, maybe I should have explained myself better here.” She took a deep breath. “And you’re going to have to forgive me if I am blunt or a little offensive here. But,” She looked at the white unicorn in her azure eyes. “I don’t do dresses. Meaning that I don’t like them. I don’t wear them. At all.”
Rarity’s face broke a little and her lower lip quivered. “You...don’t like dresses?”
Heartbreak nodded slowly. “That’s not to say that these dresses aren’t well designed. You worked hard on them, you took time out of your very busy work schedule and actually designed something for me that you thought I would like. They are what I would expect from you, after all, you are the best dressmaker, er fashionista in Ponyville, n-n-n-neigh! In all of Equestria. It’s just...” She put a hoof on Rarity’s as to make her message as clear as possible. “I don’t wear dresses. Okay?”
Rarity bit her tongue. All that time and effort and energy, and she didn’t wear dresses?! What kind of mare didn’t wear dresses?! “If it’s a matter of money-” she began.
Heartbreak looked like she was fighting something back. “It’s not a matter of money,” she said in a calm voice. “It’s just, that I never liked dresses, and my mother never forced me to wear one. And I don’t see any reason to start wearing one. So,” she pulled her hoof back. “Thank you for the thought, thank you for the offer, but no thank you.”
Rarity sighed. “Are you sure you don’t want me to make just one?”
Heartbreak rubbed her forehead. “I am very sure. Look, if you want to make these for somep-p-pony else? I mean I’m sure there are a few out there that would very much enjoy these dresses!” She looked a little questioning at the last, ‘dress.’ “Even your risque one.”
Rarity frowned and looked disappointed. “I-I’ve never had anypony turn down one of my dresses before.”
Heartbreak sighed. “Look, Rarity, I actually enjoyed your artistic critique of my drawing style and you’ve been really helpful-”
“But H.B.! I want to give you something!” Rarity burst out. “After all, you’ve had so much taken from you!”
Heartbreak scooted back a bit. “It’s alright, Rarity. Really it is.”
“No it isn’t! I know that you keep saying that, but really, darling!” She put a hoof on Heartbreak’s shoulder. “It can’t be, not after what I remember hearing at the door.”
Heartbreak looked a little frightened. “W-what do you mean?”
Rarity looked at her sad, sympathetic eyes. “The night when you arrived...” her voice lowering to a whisper. “I heard whoever she was on the other side telling you...goodbye.”
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My eyes go wide before I looked down at the floor. “Oh.” “Great. Just great.” It’s bad enough I had to go through it, I personally didn’t want any of the others to have to hear any of that.
“Uhm, if you want to talk about what hap-” Rarity begins.
“No, Rarity,” I reply with dark sadness. “Like I said before, I was surprised by the fact that I did enjoy myself. We don’t need to...spoil it by bringing in my depressing and traumatic moments.” Fuck, my nose is getting all sniffly. “Though, I would like to apologize for what happened that night between us.”
Rarity attempts a casual laugh. “Well, after what happened, it’s perfectly understandable.”
I give her a questioning look. “Rarity, I smacked my head against yours and nearly stomped you under my hooves. Where I’m from? Those would be grounds for assault and battery. And seeing that I am not currently locked away in some jail cell, I’m going to just assume that you didn’t press charges. So please, allow me to apologize for it.”
“If you insist. But I still feel the need to make you something, or give you something,” Rarity replies.
“Ffffffine.” She’s not going to stop until she’s given me at least one thing. I look back at the clock. Almost two o’clock and I am starting to feel groggy. “If you feel the need to make me something... How about some tea? I’m pretty thirsty and I could use something to keep me awake.”
Rarity smiles and quickly walks to the kitchen. “Coming right up!”
Whew, dodged an awkward and rather unpleasant situation there! My eyes dart to the box. I nudge a small tag attached to the ribbon with my hoof to see who it is from. My eyebrows raise in surprise.
“Oh! High Hat!” I nuzzle the little card to the other side. It’s kinda difficult to do with flat hooves, but hey! I have my mechanical pencil! “‘Thank you for giving me the creativity to inspire me to move on. In return, here is a simple hat.’” “Huh. Cool. Free hat,” I snicker. “Again.”
I can hear Rarity’s hoof steps...hoof beats? Whatever hoof sounds are called! Fuck I need some fucking tea.
“I don’t know what tea you like, so I made what I had. Jasmine with a bit of honeeeeey!” She gasps behind me and I can hear the teacup clatter.
I turn my head back and look at her shocked expression. “What? Did you see a mouse or something?”
Her eyes dart to and fro and she removes her hoof from her mouth to show a very hard blush along with a rather silly smile. “Uhm, no darling,” she replies walking over to me. “Tell me, this is just a bit of curiosity about your former species...”
“You know what they say about curiosity and cats. Speaking of which, where is Opal? I would hate to think that she is locked upstairs because of me,” I reply trying to steer the conversation away from, ‘home,’ as it were.
“Well, good thing I am a pony, Darling. Opal is with Fluttershy, so you need not worry.” She flips her mane and sets the tea down next to me. I push my sketchbook aside. No need to repeat it getting soaked all over again. “But I was just wondering, and I could be wrong about this, but does your former species wear any sorts of clothing at all?”
I ponder the wording of this question. I seems to have some sort of meaning that I’m just not getting. I look at her, puzzled. “Rarity, no offense, but for me to know that I don’t like dresses, I would need to know what one was and-”
“I’m just asking a question,” Rarity says in a pouty manner.
“Yes, but...why are you asking this question?”
Rarity’s eyebrows raise and she looks back and forth again. That blush returning to her face. “Well, I’m not sure if you know this or not, it’s just that, well you see, darling...”
I want to take a sip of my tea but Rarity’s dancing around the issue makes it so that I don’t want to ask until she has fully explained!
“You see, it’s just that, when I was walking back from the kitchen-” What the hell has gotten her so flustered?! Damn it! I want my tea!
“Rarity!” I shout. “Right, I don’t mean to be rude, or sound angry, but could you just ask the fetting question!”
She frowns. “There’s no need for swearing, H.B. And I would kindly ask that you not do so.”
I take a deep breath. Fuck, all this build up better pay off for something! “Right, I didn’t mean to, it’s just that you’re tapdancing around what you want to talk about more so than I do around subjects that I just want to avoid. So.” I look at her directly. “Ask your question already, why don’t you?”
“Alright, if you’re going to be that way about it.” She clears her throat. “Do you realize that you aren’t modest?”
I blink hard. “Huh?”
“You aren’t modest. You aren’t wearing anything, darling,” She says curtly.
I shake my head and blink harder. Either I am really dense or just plain stupid. “Rarity, I know you make clothing and almost go nowhere without wearing at least something, but-” I bite my tongue with the sarcastic quip of, ‘news flash,’ “-ponies don’t normally wear clothing.”
Rarity rolls her eyes. “I know that, darling. But-” She looks in the general direction of my tail. “-you aren’t wearing anything.”
Alright, I am getting really sick of this guessing game that she is playing. “What?! Rarity, I don’t have a fff-,” I take a deep breath to fight the urge to, ‘swear.’ “Flipping clue what you’re talking about.”
“Right, you aren’t wearing anything to cover up your...” She lifts a hoof up to her mouth and coughs. “More private areas.”
I try to process what she just said. “Wait...What?”
She finally gives me a direct look to the eyes. She looks like she’s trying to explain this as simply as she can. “Darling, you aren’t wearing any overwear.”
I look at my flank and then back at her. “What’s, ‘overwear?’”
She jumps a little at the question and replies with a silly, almost embarrassed smirk. “You don’t know what overwear is?”
“No!” I snort. “And my tea is getting cold because of it!”
“No need to get upset, darling.” She lifts up a hoof. “Overwear is what ponies wear to cover up their intimate areas.”
I can feel my face twitch as I realize what she is actually saying. Fuck, I feel like such a nitwit for not getting it. But it’s boggling my mind so much that maybe I was just refusing to get it.
“Wait,” I look at her directly. “Ponies wear underwear?”
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Rarity had a look of astonishment on her face. “Let me see if I understand this correctly. You know practically everything about Equestria, its inhabitants, even moments of our lives...”
“Yes...”
“But you don’t know about overwear?” Rarity asked.
“Where I am from we call it, ‘underwear,’ because it is worn, ‘under,’ your regular clothes. They are also called,” she started to cough and look nervous. “Intimates, delicates, and, uhm, p-p-panties,” Heartbreak explained taking on a hard blush.
“There’s no reason to get embarrassed, darling!” Rarity said. “It’s just overwear, everypony wears them. Even I wear them.”
Heartbreak reluctantly found herself peering at Rarity’s flank. She looked confused and shook her head. “But I don’t see anything, no fabric lines, no change in...anything...”
Rarity smirked. A good part of her was perhaps taking more amusement in this than it should. “That’s the whole point darling! To remain invisible but give you cover up where it matters most!”
The confused, conflicted and astonished look seemed permanently plastered to Heartbreak’s face. “And you ponies didn’t tell me about this...because?!”
Rarity blinked and frowned a bit. “Well, for one, you didn’t ask. Which is understandable seeing that you had no idea that they even existed...Then there is the fact that you barely leave the library and you hold your tail so close to your self that most likely nopony even noticed!”
Heartbreak’s left eye was now in a state of constant twitch. “Alright, all valid points, but how the hay does... it... work?” She asked pausing on each word fearfully.
“Magic, of course!” Rarity explained.
Heartbreak face hoofed. “Ponies wear...magic underwear.”
Rarity gave Heartbreak a bright smile. There was something a little fun about this. She wasn’t sure if it was her lack of knowledge about this subject or the fact that Heartbreak had been continuously blushing the entire time in this explanation. “Yes.” With a glow of her horn she tugged on the white line of her own pair of overwear. “See?”
Heartbreak gackled and squirmed looking at what she saw. “Stooooop it! I believe you! Geeez!”
Rarity fought off a giggle as she prepared her next question. “Would you like me to make you a pair?”
Heartbreak’s entire face was now a harsh blush. Her eyes darted back and forth frantically. “YES! NO! MAYBE! I DON’T KNOW! CAN YOU REPEAT YOUR QUESTION!? I....” she covered her face with her left hoof. “I don’t know about having something that weird that close to my body!”
Rarity put a sympathetic hoof on the utterly embarrassed pony. “Part of the magic used in the overwear is that you don’t even notice or even feel that they are there.”
Heartbreak’s face scrunched up. “So, they’re deus ex machina underwear.”
“Would you like me to make you a pair? After all darling, if you are wearing some coverup, you’re less likely to get odd looks from strange ponies,” Rarity explained.
Heartbreak’s left hoof uncovered her face and she stared at the floor. Her eyes finally darted at Rarity. “And it won’t feel like I’m wearing anything?”
Rarity lifted a fabric measuring tape. “You have my word.”
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After Rarity took her ...measurements, she set out to work. Leaving me to gripe about how she could have been a little less precise with her...ugh measuring. She claimed that she had to be that close to ensure a good fit.
I felt like retching and slightly violated on some level. And by slightly I mean something else. But meh. Anything to make it so that some random pony that I don’t know, don’t have any interest in, doesn’t just randomly walk up to me and eluding to wanting to do things that I don’t want to think about.
Fuck, stop thinking about this crap. Focus more on drawing and drinking your exquisite tea. That’s another good thing about Rarity that I can chalk up in my mental scoreboard. Anything she gets is the highest quality.
After about ten more minutes and a few drawings later, she comes back into the room, horn aglow and with a pair of what could be called, ‘pony underwear.’ I swallow hard and cough. All this fuss over a simple scrap of cloth! A scrap of cloth that-SHUT UP. No thinking about that! Nope! Nein!
“All done! What do you think?” She asks showing them off to me. All I can manage to do is whimper while looking at the article of clothing floating in front of me. “Is there something wrong?”
“Are you sure I’m not going to feel them?” Fuck, stop it! You’re adding unnecessary fluff to this situation!
“As I said, they are designed not to be felt by the wearer. But do they look alright?” She continues to flutter them in my face.
“Stop that! I don’t know... I have never seen, ‘overwear,’ before and I don’t know what they are meant to look like!” I sigh taking out my pencil and standing up. “How about I put them on and we get this over with? Uhm, can you please help me with that?”
Rarity is most likely pleased with the fact that she has actually gotten me to wear something she has made, despite the fact that she has no idea how uncomfortable I feel about putting on pony-panties. She hovers the things near my backside. “Not at all, please lift one leg... And now the other.” I can sorta feel the things slip past my legs and then...
Nothing.
“All done!” She says gleefully.
“Wait? What? Really?” I look around and blink.
“Yes. And I must say that they look quite lovely on you!” Rarity replies.
“Uhm... despite them covering me up, please don’t look at my posterior. It unnerves me.”
“Oh yes, because of the mark. Please do forgive me.”
“Uhm... don’t think anything about it,” I reply absentmindedly. Yeeeeeah, the mark. I think I will let her keep believing that is the reason. I do a quick walk around in a circle. “Wow, seriously. It’s like I’m wearing nothing at all!”
“Uhm...yes, that’s the whole purpose of-”
I pause and shift my flank back and forth. “Nothing at all.” I trot back and forth across the room. “Nothing at all!” Rarity kinda gives me a funny look. I realize how fucking ridiculous I must be looking. “Right!”
“I take it then that you approve?” She asks me.
“Very much so, Rarity. Thank you.” Alright, this wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. They even seem to cover up any other parts of myself that, once again, I wouldn’t like to think about. I give myself one last look in the mirror.
Rarity comes up next to me. “Now,” She flicks my mane a bit. “If we could only do something about the rest of you.”