It was a well-known fact in Equestria that out of all three races of pony, unicorns were the most curious. Their inquisitiveness about life and everything that went on in it led many unicorns to pursue intensely studious lines of work and wherever some great discovery was made, there was bound to be a unicorn involved.
However, even when a unicorn was not interested in particularly scholarly aspects of life their curiosity often led them, and it was this natural curiosity, coupled with her own brand of tenacity that bordered on obsession, that drove Rarity forward in the days following Octavia’s visit. Over the next several days Rarity set about designing and refining the dress for her unusual gray client, carefully and artfully sketching gentle, flowing lines on paper that would eventually become soft, subtle waves of fabric. She poured herself into the design, agonizing over every stitch and fretting over every swatch of color as she had not done in a very long time, and it would not be until much later that Rarity realized that she had been slowly giving Octavia’s dress more attention than she had given any dress in her life, including her other current projects for her prestigious customers.
Yet despite the amount of attention that Rarity lavished onto the design of the dress, she still managed to find a way to work on a side project as well: the list of questions that she was determined to ask her mysterious customer when next they met. It seemed to Rarity that for every few minutes that she worked on the design for the dress a new question would pop into her mind and demand to be written down until the dressmaker soon had a stack of questions ten sheets thick, filled front and back.
Finally, the sketch of the dress was complete and as Rarity lifted her red glasses from her nose she had to admit that she was inordinately proud of it. The lines were absolutely perfect, as was the neckline and the drape. All in all, a wonderful addition to her portfolio of unique, amazing dresses for soon-to-be-satisfied clients! The unicorn tapped her glasses against her bottom lip as she gazed at the drawing, a small smile touching her face as her expert eyes swept it from collar to hem, ensuring it was just as perfect as she imagined it was. One cannot let overconfidence cloud the truth, after all, she reflected sagely as her horn lit up. Even one misplaced line can throw off the entire pattern. The picture lifted from the table and floated before her, allowing her to scrutinize it more closely. After several long minutes of following each and every line at least twice, Rarity allowed herself a moment of victory. She sighed and levitated the sketch to the other side of her desk, where she placed it at the top of her stack of sketches of the other dresses she had yet to make.
“A beautiful design, if I do say so myself,” she said proudly, sliding her red glasses back onto her nose. “I’m certain that Octavia will be more than pleased with it!” She sighed in contentment, allowing the warm glow of accomplishment to envelop her briefly. “Once it’s finished, she will never doubt that Rarity is the best at what she does!” She tossed her curled mane proudly, “as I most certainly am.”
She turned her eyes back to her desk where another stack of papers sat full of her questions for Octavia and her brow furrowed slightly as she frowned.
“Now, I just have to decide what to do with you,” she said accusatorially to the papers as she reached out and took them in her hooves. She tapped them lightly on the desktop making sure that they were all aligned before staring at the front page for what felt like the hundredth time. The paper was covered with not only words, but various symbols and scribbles that Rarity had made as she’d reviewed the questions she’d written. Check marks indicated questions that were definitely going to get asked and X’s next to ones that had, upon a second glance, fallen short of Rarity’s high personal standards. Then there were check marks with little circles next to them, showing that the question was not bad, but certainly not at the top of the list; then checks with triangles, to show that they were tertiary questions only to be asked if she ran dry of anything else. Then there were also squares, pentagons, hexagons and octagons, each meaning something different in the grand scheme of this question-asking adventure and the shapes had only stopped because Rarity couldn’t think of any more off the top of her horn. The shapes were supposed to make the list easier to decipher and make it easier for Rarity to choose between the multitude of questions she’d written down, but as her eyes roamed the pages trying to make sense of everything she’d scribbled she felt her ire rise and after several minutes of straining to try and remember exactly what the tiny decagon on page 4 was supposed to mean she growled angrily and dropped the pages back to the desk.
“Oh for the love of Celestia,” she muttered. “There is just no way that I can ask her all of these questions, even if I DID have a filing system that I could understand!” The unicorn sighed dramatically and slumped in her chair, one hoof rising to her cheek as she stared up at the ceiling. “Tiny shapes and check marks will NOT help me get through this Pride and Pegasus-sized book of questions when she comes in! For pony’s sake, this is more questions than I could ask an entire assemblage of Octavias…” She sighed again and turned her head, allowing her vision to fall once more upon the stack of designs for dresses that she had yet to make. “Even if I was making all of these dresses for her, that wouldn’t be enough time to…”
Suddenly, her eyes widened as a solution bloomed in her mind like a bright tongue of flame, pouring light upon her previously darkened mood. She sat bolt upright in her chair, her glasses almost flying off her face as she banged her hooves loudly on the top of her desk.
“Ah-HAH!! That’s IT!” she exclaimed, drumming her hooves on the desktop gleefully. “I’ll just ask the other ponies I’m making dresses for about her! What better way to get to know somepony than to ask other ponies about them?” The unicorn giggled loudly in the silence of her shop as she dropped back to her chair, her curled tail fluffing around her backside as she settled against the backrest. “Oh Rarity, that’s absolutely perfect,” she said to herself, pushing her glasses back up her nose with the point of her hoof, the lenses flashing in the morning sunlight that poured through her shop’s front window. This way I’ll be able to get a better idea of what kind of pony she is before I see her again, and in doing so I’ll be able to narrow my questions not only by virtue of being asked but also by finding out more about her as a whole! Oh Rarity, you are quite the investigator! She tossed her mane once more in satisfaction before hopping down out of her chair.
“Very well then!” she said aloud as she trotted to the front of her store. “Octavia returns to me in four day’s time and on my honor as a fashionista I will be well-armed with information by then!” The unicorn reached up and deftly flipped the sign on her window from Closed to Open, her eyes determined and her smile resolute. “And then we shall see what secrets this pony keeps!”
~*~*~*~*~
If this pony actually has any secrets to keep, she is much more competent at keeping them than she should be.
The same thought ran through Rarity’s mind several times that day and the days that followed as she tried to the very best of her persuasive, conversation-leading ability to get her lovely, well-to-do customers to spill whatever information they had about the pony named Octavia. Of course she could not simply ask them about her, heavens no – to be so straight-forward was almost a violation of the code of conduct that all ponies in the fashion industry shared, from spa ponies to mane stylists to designers: If you want to know something, be willing to do the hoof-work to get there. Asking outright if they knew Octavia was out of the question. She would have to dance through each conversation, delicately steering her clueless customers towards the topic that the designer wanted. Unfortunately, from the very first customer it seemed like there was going to be more fancy hoof-work for less information.
Her first customer of the day had yielded no information at all. The Pegasus had neither heard of nor seen anypony matching the descriptions that Rarity had dropped and even when the unicorn had mentioned Octavia’s name specifically the other pony had drawn a complete blank. Obviously she was not a music aficionado. Her next customer, a unicorn, had seen a pony matching Octavia’s description in several concerts that she had attended, but she knew nothing beyond the fact that the earth pony “seemed to know how to play, at the very least.”
Her next customer, one of her few male clients, had been able to tell her a bit more than the last customer… and truthfully a bit more than Rarity had wanted to know.
“Oh I remember her,” the unicorn stallion had said, his smile more than a touch licentious. “She played a garden party that I attended last year. She was quite good on her cello, and certainly more than a match for any of the mares I saw attending.” He had actually blushed while Rarity had been measuring his chest. “Aah, earth ponies…” he had muttered wistfully.
Rarity had refrained from asking him any more questions.
The day after had yielded little more than customers reiterating the information that she already knew about Octavia: that she played the cello among other things and that she was very good at what she did. No matter how Rarity phrased her questions, no matter how eloquently she probed and prodded, she could get nothing out of them that she did not already know and by the end of the second day she had come to the conclusion that this Octavia must be a phantom of some kind, with no history or past or family to speak of. That is the only explanation for this lack of information. NOPONY can live in this town and have no reputation whatsoever!
However, on the third day her luck finally took a turn for the better. Her very first customer of the day was a sky blue earth pony mare with a pale brown mane and tail. She was very polite, extremely well-spoken and articulate, and claimed to not only know Octavia, but had apparently played with her on several occasions and even went so far as to refer to the gray pony as “a friend”.
“Oh yes, I know Octavia very well,” the mare said, her lavender eyes shining brightly. “We’ve played several concerts together!”
Rarity felt her eyes light up and her magic flared sharply enough to make her levitating measuring tape snap taut near the other mare’s flank with an audible twang.
“So you DO know her?” she asked casually, trying to keep her tone as neutral as possible. She took a deep breath and let it out silently before applying the measuring tape to her customer’s back, taking extra care to ensure that she didn’t get swept up in her excitement and actually wrote the measurements down in her book. “Well, that’s curious, isn’t it – what a small world we live in!”
“I’ll say,” the mare mused. “Who would have thought that Octavia would come here to have a dress made?” She shrugged her shoulders gently. “Oh well, I suppose wonders will never cease!”
Rarity arched an eyebrow at her as her measuring tape flitted to the mare’s flank alongside her purple bass clef cutie mark. “Wonders?” prodded Rarity, her voice light and airy. “Why, whatever wonders would have to occur to make this… Octavia come and get a dress? Surely a mare such as she – and such as you, of course – would have ample occasion to wear beautiful dresses!” The unicorn laughed lightly, “I’m terribly sorry, my dear, I just realized that I forgot to ask you your name.” Inwardly, Rarity cringed. Come to think of it, I’m not certain that I asked the names of my last two clients yesterday, but if the blue mare took offense, she did not show it.
“My name is Beauty Brass, Miss Rarity!” She said with a smile, bouncing once on her hooves. “And as you say, there are plenty of reasons for musicians to wear dresses like you sell here, but Octavia…” Her nose crinkled slightly as she frowned. “Well, truthfully I’ve never seen Octavia in anything but the pink bowtie she wears to our rehearsals and concerts. Even when we were asked to perform at the Grand Galloping Gala two years ago, she wouldn’t hear a WORD about dressing up!”
“The Gala two years ago..?” Rarity asked, her pencil slowing slightly on her book. “Why, that was the first Gala that I attended.” She turned her eyes to Beauty Brass, her eyebrow arched. “And your group played there?”
“Oooh yes,” Beauty said with a chuckle. “I remember it specifically because… well, firstly it’s the Grand Galloping Gala – not just any musician gets asked to play for the Princess! But I also remember it because that was the performance that got interrupted by that whirlwind of pink pony who ended up on stage with us!” She put a hoof to her mouth and giggled lightly. “The look on Octavia’s face when that mare touched her cello..! Oh, it was priceless!” Beauty sighed wistfully and put her hoof back to the platform upon which she stood. “And then that same pink pony requested that we play the Pony Pokey, of all things! I’m certain you remember!”
Rarity felt a gentle squeeze at her temples at the memory, but she simply smiled a bit wider and hoped that she didn’t look as suddenly uncomfortable as she felt.
“Why yes, I do seem to remember that,” she said as her notebook floated between herself and the other mare, hiding her face so that she could relax into a grimace of distaste. “I… remember it quite well, actually…” And I gave Pinkie Pie quite an earful about it after the fact!
“Aaah, such fun memories!” Beauty said with a smile. “It’s not often you get asked to play something like that at such an important event. Octavia was horrified that I wanted to go through with it, but it would look unprofessional if one quarter of our quartet decided she wasn’t going to play. Although to be fair, she’d been acting strange for a good piece of that evening. Almost distracted, I would say.” The mare looked pensive for a moment, but as quickly as it had appeared the look vanished with a shrug. “Oh well, two years is a long time to try and remember these things! Best not to dwell on them.”
Rarity rolled her eyes behind her book as she moved around to Beauty’s other side. She sounds like she could get on very well with Pinkie Pie- all this talk about “fun” and “not dwelling on the past”. With a quiet sigh the designer tried to make her smile as casual as she could before allowing the book to float to her left side and bringing the tape measure back to the forefront, her eyes darting between her measurements and the mare before her.
“So how long have you worked with your quartet?” she asked lightly. “It sounds as though you know them all fairly well.”
Beauty nodded emphatically. “Oh we’re all quite close. The piano player Frederick and I are actually renting an apartment together, though we’re quite staunch on the lines of our friendship. We’re roommates and friends, but nothing else.” She rolled her eyes, but her smile stayed in place. “Octavia and Harpo, the fourth pony of our group, both had serious misgivings about him and me staying together, but we both needed a roommate at the time and had little other choice!”
“And why did they have misgivings?”
“Oh, Frederick and Harpo are old friends and they look out for each other as best they can. Harpo just doesn’t want Frederick getting into any kinds of situations that may hinder his music.” She chuckled under her breath. “Octavia was worried about appearances, of all things! She didn’t want it to seem as if we were all living together under the same roof like a group of street performers.”
“Well, I suppose there is a certain point to maintaining an image of propriety, at least,” said Rarity as she measured Beauty’s chest and forelegs. “I cannot fault her for that, but if she was so concerned with that, why didn’t she offer to be your roommate? Surely two mares staying together would raise fewer eyebrows, at least one would imagine.”
To her surprise, Beauty actually snorted softly and rolled her eyes.
“Please take no offense, Miss Rarity, but you don’t know Octavia the way that I do. If it came down to it, Octavia would sooner give me the money to rent an apartment on my own before she offered to take me into her home.”
“Oh?” Rarity blinked in surprise, allowing the measuring tape to fall slack in her magic as she took a half-step back from Beauty, her eyes inquisitive. “Well, I suppose that taking one’s friends into one’s home is not for everypony. Perhaps she lives in a very small home or apartment that would make such a living situation uncomfortable?” She asked as she turned towards her desk, her supplies floating in tow. Her measurements were complete and now there was simply the task of scheduling the next appointment… once she’d gleaned all there was to get from Beauty Brass, that is.
“Well, the truth of the matter is I don’t know where she lives,” admitted Beauty, her shoulders rising and falling in a shrug. “She never said and I never asked. None of us have ever seen her home – I don’t even know if she lives on the north side or the south side of Canterlot. Truthfully, I don’t even know if she lives in Canterlot at all.”
The unicorn plopped her notebook, pencil, and tape measure down onto her desk a bit harder than she’d intended and she felt the cool tickle in the back of her mind as surprise blossomed there. She turned back to face Beauty Brass with an arched eyebrow trying her best to keep her incredulity hidden beneath a mask of politeness.
“You… don’t know where she lives?” she asked as calmly as she could.
“I do not,” Beauty said with a shake of her mane. “I even asked her once, because I was trying to decide where we could hold a birthday party for Harpo, but she had said that we should look to renting a venue and not bother visiting one another’s homes.”
“But… but she’s your friend,” Rarity said, her surprise leaking through her carefully-placed barriers to tint her words. “I mean… surely you have made social calls to her, spent an evening with her…?”
Again, Beauty shook her head. “No, Miss Rarity, I’m afraid I have not.” She sighed softly and offered the unicorn a gentle, understanding smile. “I know that it may seem cold to have never visited a close colleague’s home, but it is not my own boundaries that keep me from doing so – Octavia has very set boundaries for herself and they do not come down easily.” The blue pony hopped down off the raised platform she had stood on and sighed, a sound that carried more than a touch of resignation to Rarity’s highly-attuned ears. “If I had to choose one word to describe my colleague, Miss Rarity, it would simply be professional. Octavia Melody is professionalism made pony and I have had to accept her as such.” Her brow rose and fell quickly as if she were accepting that very fact all over again before she turned her eyes to Rarity, her kind smile in place once more. “And when shall I return for the next fitting?”
Rarity watched Beauty Brass carefully for a long moment, as if simply by staring at the earth pony she could discern truth from fiction, but there was no untruth upon her client’s face or eye and after her long pause she allowed her tightly compressed lips to melt once more into a polite smile.
“I’ll schedule you for one week out exactly, darling. When you return I will have something magnificent for you to try on and we shall make certain that you will make quite an entrance to whatever event you are attending.”
Beauty smiled happily and nodded. “I shall see you in a week, then!” she chirped before turning and trotting to the door as she hummed a soft tune to herself. Rarity waved a hoof absently after her as she left, but truthfully she didn’t even see the earth pony depart. Already her vision was turned inward to her carefully laid plans and questions and with a despairing sigh she watched them disintegrate before her eyes.
If one of her closest colleagues knows next to nothing about her, what chance do I have? She thought miserably as she penned Beauty Brass’ next appointment into her calendar. She doesn’t even know where Octavia LIVES, for pony’s sake and if she can’t even get that information out of her… Rarity placed her quill down next to her calendar as the weight of predestined failure settled squarely upon her delicate shoulders, slowly and inexorably pressing her spirit downward.
But as her gaze slid across her calendar to the next day, where her own carefully curled script told her that Octavia’s visit was nigh, her eyes narrowed and she felt a warm surge of energy in her chest, forcing the crushing weight of doubt up and off of her as she straightened her shoulders.
“I do have a chance,” she said aloud, curling her foreleg before her and posing proudly. “I have a chance because I am Rarity and there has yet to be a pony in all of Equestria who can withstand my brilliant words, my divine conversational dueling!” She raised her head and tossed her mane, her eyes sparkling with the determination that surged through her, filling her with confidence and strength. “Octavia is the embodiment of professionalism, she said. Well, there is nopony more professional than Rarity, I say!” She closed her eyes and lifted her nose into the air as high as she dared as her glasses levitated from her desk and settled onto her face.
“Tomorrow, Octavia, you and I shall match wits and words once more, and you shall find that your commanding presence and mysterious eyes shall not sway me from my goal!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
And so it was that the next day, as the sun slowly began to set over the city of Canterlot, Rarity found herself seated upon the upraised platform in the center of her shop, her mane up in a ponytail, her glasses seated firmly on her nose, and a pencil tucked securely behind her ear as she watched the windows of her shop expectantly. The rays of the setting sun slanted into her shop giving the entire room a beautiful orange tint the likes of which made a pony think of warmth and happiness, but to Rarity it simply put a lovely colored spotlight onto her discomfort. The confidence that she’d had the day before about her all-but-certain victory over Octavia’s defenses had waned greatly, but the traces of it still floated atop the bubbling miasma of unbridled curiosity and an inexplicable nervousness that filled the unicorn to her horn. Rarity fiddled idly with the notebook in her hooves, her sapphire eyes glued to the street outside her shop windows. Just calm down, Rarity, she told herself for the thousandth time. If you’re going to do this, you’re going to need to be cool, collected, and aloof! You cannot be worrying about this if you’re going to succeed!
The unicorn forced herself to take a deep, cleansing breath and let it out slowly, attempting to soothe her jumpy nerves. One step at a time, Rarity… she’s not a Princess or royalty there is no reason to be so nervous…
And yet she was. She could not deny that this appointment above all her others had taken root in her mind and worried away at her. She thought about this appointment and the pony it was for almost constantly and she’d had to force her hoof away from Octavia’s dress to work on the others during the past week simply so she didn’t get behind in her already-tight schedule. Rarity took another deep breath in and began to let it slowly out. Just be calm, Rarity… just be calm and collected like Twilight and everything will be just-
At that moment, a familiar gray silhouette slid before her shop’s window and Rarity felt her whole body freeze, her cheeks puffed out like they were full of marshmallows as her eyes followed the demure mare who made her way unhurriedly across the wide shop windows, taking in the changes that Rarity had made as she did. With careful grace Octavia opened the door of the shop and entered, her eyes falling on Rarity immediately. She blinked once and the tiniest hint of a smile quirked her lips.
“…is everything alright, Miss Rarity?” she asked quietly, her familiar oral cadence filling Rarity’s ears over the pounding of her own heart and stirring up the roiling soup within her, sending what little confidence the unicorn had left over spiraling down to the pit of her stomach.
After a moment, Rarity managed to relax enough to let the breath she’d held out in one loud, rather undignified whoosh. She winced and coughed exaggeratedly a time or two before doing her level best to appear calm and collected, raising her hoof to brush her mane out of her now-red face.
“Why of course! Everything’s just fine,” she cooed, her voice as smooth as warm honey. “I was simply… relaxing while I waited for you!”
The other mare’s eyebrow arched over one cool violet eye.
“That didn’t look very comfortable or relaxing to me…”
“Well, that’s as may be,” Rarity hurried on, leaping down from the platform. “But my physical calisthenics are not what you’re here for, correct?” She smiled as broadly as she could, her shame making the motion feel as forced as Applejack in a frilly dress. “You’re here to see the dress, are you not? Let’s waste no more time, then!” She hurried to Octavia and circled behind her, pressing the other mare forward to move deeper into the shop. “Come, darling – time waits for no mare!”
Octavia gasped as Rarity’s shoulder met her flank and for the briefest moment the unicorn hesitated, but to her relief Octavia said nothing and allowed Rarity to push her towards the dressing area. And now, Rarity thought with a sly grin, the REAL show begins!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Well? What do you think?” Rarity asked, hoping her voice didn’t betray the apprehension that simmered at the back of her throat. “I do hope that you’re as pleased with it as I am!”
Octavia’s face was impassive as she looked at herself in the mirror, her violet eyes sweeping coolly over the folds of black and gray cloth that covered her. The dress was what she had asked for – simple and elegant with very little of the showy frills that many of the other dresses Rarity designed had – but the designer had taken several liberties that she was not sure Octavia would like. Instead of simply sitting across the pony’s shoulders it sat across one, covering her left front leg in a long gray sleeve not far removed from Octavia’s coat color. The other leg and shoulder were left bare as the black body of the dress slanted across the pony’s chest and ended just below her right shoulder, where it connected with the back and continued down the bodice. A slash of the same gray as the sleeve slid across the back of the dress just above Octavia’s hips, following the same slant that the neckline did – a slant that was mirrored in the hem of the long skirt that flowed over her tail and finished the ensemble. It was a simple yet effective twist on a classic design, but as she watched her client agonize over every inch of fabric Rarity felt an uncomfortable twisting in her stomach. She doesn’t like it.
Octavia slowly turned first her head, then her whole body from one side to the other, eyeing the way the dress settled across her back and flank as well as how it draped along her legs and the longer she took the more Rarity had to fight to keep from nibbling on her hooves in a fit of fretfulness. Nopony else has ever looked at their dresses so long, she thought anxiously. It’s always been ‘Oh they look lovely!’ and then off!
The unicorn did her best to give the earth pony her space, but in spite of herself she was slowly inching forward as the minutes ticked by, as if proximity to Octavia would suddenly make Rarity able to read her thoughts. Rarity didn’t know if she had any real, practical knowledge of dresses or dressmaking, but the intense way she was studying every seam and stitch was putting the unicorn on edge. If she doesn’t say something soon, I’m going to eat my measuring tape!
Finally, after almost five minutes of Octavia viewing the dress without saying a word, the earth pony turned to Rarity, her eyes still unreadable. Rarity smiled broadly as her client took a breath, opened her mouth… and sighed once before turning back to the mirror. Rarity felt her eye twitch.
Oh dear Celestia give me strength.
“It… it’s not finished yet, of course,” said Rarity desperately, her voice high and tight. “Anything you dislike can be altered, of course – this particular meeting isn’t about finishing the dress, it’s simply about making sure it fits absolutely perfectly… a-and it does fit perfectly, doesn’t it?” she finished weakly, her smile wavering. “A-and of course if it does NOT fit perfectly I will spend every moment of my day ensuring that it-!”
“It fits perfectly,” Octavia interjected, her soft voice cutting Rarity off abruptly. The unicorn choked on her words and somehow managed to swallow them as the earth pony turned and gave her a small smile. “Everything is cut just as it should be…” She paused, and for the briefest moment her eyes twinkled with something that came very close to mischief before she turned her face back to the mirror. It may have been a trick of the light, but as the gray pony shifted her weight, her flank moved beneath the fabric and stretched it in a most flattering and appealing way that drew Rarity’s eye directly to her shapely backside. “Everything,” Octavia repeated softly as she gave her mane a flick, inspecting herself in the mirror.
Unbidden, the memory of her measuring tape running slowly over Octavia’s smooth rump leaped into Rarity’s mind with such striking and vivid detail that the unicorn felt her face color insistently. She blinked at the other mare as her ears began ringing from the rush of blood to her cheeks as she stood frozen in place.
She…she couldn’t possibly… Rarity thought, her eyes narrowing. Surely she isn’t…
Then the moment passed and Rarity smiled as she took a few steps behind Octavia to hide the blush that lingered irritatingly in her cheeks.
“Well of course the cut is perfect! Not even the tiniest measurement escapes my notice!” She said smoothly as she levitated a pin cushion to herself from a nearby table. Once safely behind Octavia and out of her line of sight, Rarity took one deep breath, then another, allowing the pin cushion to take as much time as it possibly could to cross the open space and get to her. When she was satisfied that her cheeks had once again returned to a normal temperature she turned back to Octavia, pin cushion in tow. “But for the sake of prudence, I must ask anyway: is there anywhere at all that needs to be altered, darling?”
Octavia’s eyes danced to her in the mirror and for a moment Rarity thought she might actually have somewhere that she wanted to have taken in or let out, but the moment swiftly passed and Octavia gave her the tiny smile that was slowly becoming her trademark.
“No, Rarity – everything is perfect.” She sighed softly and looked at herself once more, turning minutely to the side so she could view the violet sash around her midsection. “As you said, no measurement escaped your notice.”
The unicorn’s ear perked, twitching in her indigo mane. She sounds… almost disappointed, she thought as Octavia moved away from the mirror and towards the ponyquin that would hold her dress. But if the dress fits perfectly, why in Equestria does she sound disappointed? Rarity felt her ears droop slightly as she hurried to Octavia, her magic flaring around her horn and coating the dress in a soft sapphire light. If anypony should be disappointed, I should be… she thought, unable to keep a slightly sour taste from the back of her mouth. All of her carefully laid plans, all of her pages upon pages of written questions, had gone completely out the window because she had made a fool of herself. And since when did that stop you, Rarity?! She asked herself as she carefully assisted Octavia in removing the dress. She delicately levitated each piece from the pony to the ponyquin, ensuring that everything was perfect even as she raged at herself. You’ve walked through socially awkward situations before with nary a cringe! Forged the very depths of shame and come out smelling like a rose! For Celestia’s sake, you attended a Garden Party with a pony who thought that she actually had to PULL WEEDS there! THIS should be no problem for you! Her eyes narrowed in determination and she turned her gaze back to Octavia, who was once more glancing about the shop as if she had not a care or worry in the world. That’s it- she is NOT leaving this shop until I get my answers! I’ll… I’ll make a reason up to keep her here if I have to!
Then the gray pony’s eyes found a mirror on the far wall, her reflected gaze met and locked with Rarity’s own and, just as it had the week before, her amethyst gaze captured the unicorn. Rarity felt her eyes soften at the strange sadness that filled Octavia’s eyes, a melancholy that quieted Rarity’s thirst for information for the second time that evening. The last piece of the dress floated to the ponyquin and settled atop it as the white pony took an unconscious half-step towards Octavia, unable to take her eyes from the mirror that served as a conduit between them.
Then Octavia turned away and once again Rarity felt as though she’d had a door slammed in her face. Her shoulders sagged minutely as the gray mare took several quick steps towards the front of the shop.
“Thank you for your amazing work, Miss Rarity,” she said quietly, the gentle rhythm of her words filling the silent room. “It’s more than I could ever have imagined and I’m certain that I will be just as pleased with it when it is finished.” She looked over her shoulder, her eyes once again realms of calm and tranquility as she offered Rarity a small, delicate smile, “until next week, then?”
Rarity stared at her openly for what polite society would call “a moment too long” before giving her head a brief shake then nodding.
“Oh, y-yes, of course. One week it is! I shall have it sewn together properly, and then it’s all yours!”
Octavia’s smile widened slightly, but again there was that flash of melancholy through her eyes, the barest twinkling that tickled the edges of Rarity’s mind as if she should know what that look meant.
“Perfect. Until then.” Octavia gave her a deep nod before turning towards the door, her hooves clopped slowly upon the tile then paused as she reached up to push the door open and as Rarity watched her she felt something build up in her chest, something that she had only felt a few times in her life, but knew immediately that she could not stop even if she’d wanted to. It was a firm, insistent pressure that forced its way upwards, past her heart and into her throat before she could even blink. Before she could think twice about it she stepped forward, her own hoof extended.
“Wait! Please… please wait,” she said, her voice trailing off. Octavia paused and turned around, one eyebrow arched quizzically. “I… um…” Rarity opened her mouth then sighed softly. “I don’t suppose… I mean… it IS dinner time and I haven’t eaten yet… and assuming you eat dinner, which, I’m sure that you DO…” The unicorn sighed again, more sharply this time. “What I’m trying to ask is if you would like to go and get some dinner together? Unless… unless you have a prior engagement..?”
Silence once again wrapped its tendrils around the pair and it stretched on for several moments as Octavia’s eyes widened in an impressively vague manner. Rarity for her part managed to smile, even though she knew without the shadow of a doubt that the corners of her mouth were twitching from the effort of holding it in place. This is without question the stupidest thing you’ve ever done, Rarity! Fairly chasing the mare to the door, accosting her with silly questions… she probably thinks you are the WORST kind of pony now! The unicorn felt her smile slip minutely as Octavia turned back to face her squarely, her eyes broad pools of unreadable amethyst. She’s not only going to tell you leave her alone, she’s probably going to tell you to cancel her order and never talk to her again! Why, you’ll be lucky to avoid having the Royal Guards place a restraining order against you!! Oh RARITY you impossible, hopeless–
“I think I’d like that.”
Rarity’s train of thought came to a sudden thunderous crashing halt as Octavia’s smile became infinitesimally warmer, though the change may have simply been a trick of Rarity’s now half-scrambled mental faculties.
“Wha… what?” asked Rarity, her voice an octave higher than it was normally. Octavia let out a sharp breath of laughter through her nose and shrugged.
“I think I’d like that,” she repeated casually. “I am quite hungry and I suppose I wouldn’t mind some company.” Her smile quirked and as she spoke her words came a bit faster than before, as if she were reading them from a book instead of simply saying them. “I know a very nice, casual little restaurant that has an excellent menu.”
“I… ah…”
“I can take you there, if you’d like.” Octavia’s eyes sparkled in the soft evening sunlight as she turned back towards the door, her gaze never leaving the unicorn as she nodded towards the street. “Shall we?”
“Well, ah…” Finally, Rarity felt the propriety section of her brain reach out and slap the rest of her mental faculties into line, allowing her to return the smile to her lips. “Of course… lead the way.”
Octavia stared at her a moment longer, as if she hadn’t heard Rarity’s acceptance, then she turned without a word and opened the door, leading the bewildered and befuddled unicorn out into the city as Rarity tried her best to piece her sensibilities back together.