//------------------------------// // A Fitting First Day // Story: Reversed Realities // by The1975Dash //------------------------------// Rarity welcomed both Sweetie Belle and I as we got to the carousel boutique. The both of us had been laughing on the way back and I had Sweetie tell me what seemed to be all of what she could remember, although we stopped once we got back. Rarity opened the door for us and we walked in. I gasped as I looked around; everything looked so well polished and exquisite. I looked and saw some of the dresses she had made and for some reason I felt like my heart was beating twice as fast. Back on Earth there was no way anyone would catch me wearing a dress. The only time I had worn a dress was when I went to my school’s prom, and I felt ridiculous. However, these dresses were simply dazzling. I could understand why others were amazed by Rarity’s talent, it was incredible. I shook myself from my stupor and tried to act normal. For some reason though I actually liked those dresses particularly the golden one with some rather stylish looking shoes that looked almost Herculean. “You like my clothes?” she smiled and lifted a smaller dress with what I now presumed was magic and guided it over to me. “On to your hind hooves for just a second darling.” She said and I found that I was able to. The dress slipped on into a perfect fit. Rarity came trotting over to me, carrying a mirror with her magic and she held it up to me, so I could see what the dress looked like on me “What do you think? Est-il beau?” she chimed and then looked over it, frowning quickly “Oh no. What was I thinking? That colour does not suit you at all, how could I have not seen it before?” The dress was quickly taken off of me and I soon saw that there were a range of coloured fabrics now floating around me. “Mm no. No that’s not it. No. No. I’m sorry my dear, but I seem to be having a little mental block for your own dress.” She chuckled as she searched through the other colours. However, all the fabric dropped to the floor when Sweetie Belle intervened. “No stop, she’s my friend Rarity.” Sweetie protested. “Aero, my sister as you probably tell makes dresses and stuff. I’ve tried to and I made the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ capes. I guess I’ll have to make you one soon seeing as you’re going to be one of us.” She smiled with large eyes and her horn sparked off a little bit of magic. “Rarity can I have more of that cool golden fabric?” she looked back to her sister and gave her a look of pleading. Rarity sighed heavily before nodding although I could see she was reluctant. “Okay let’s go.” I was suddenly grabbed and dragged away to her room. “C’mon, we’re gonna have the best slumber party ever!” she cheered and let go because we’d got into her room. It wasn’t as grand as when I walked into the boutique, but it was actually very nice. “So Aero what do you want to do?” she tilted her head to the side and waited for a response. I looked around the room as I tried to think of something. “Uh well I have never been to a slumber party before. I don’t really know what to do.” I laughed nervously, feeling a bit insecure about it now. Back on Earth I never went to slumber parties to keep up my reputation of not being ‘girly’; and I couldn’t see the appeal to them. What was the fun in them and why were so many girls I knew obsessed with having them? I could never work it out, but I thought that I might as well give it a go, just to be kind to Sweetie. She looked around as well; clearly we weren’t getting off to the best of starts because I didn’t know what to do and she didn’t know what I would like to do. “No matter, I’m sure Rarity can help us. She’s been to loads of slumber parties and she says that they’re great fun.” She sighed “I just wish that AppleBloom and Scootaloo could’ve stayed the night, but they both have other things to do. That’s why I was so happy when you were allowed to come over. I won’t mind so much when Twilight speaks to you. In fact I think she would let me help you.” She gasped and smiled ecstatically “Maybe I could get my cutie mark for helping others with advice.” She proudly trotted over to me “I think it would be best if you behave yourself whilst here.” She was quick to check her flank to see if it had appeared, but was disappointed to see nothing new appearing there. “I guess it won’t happen after giving you advice once.” She shrugged and went over to her bed, hopping up onto it and picking up her pillow. “I think Rarity said that she had a pillow fight at one slumber party, so wanna try that?” I nodded and she tossed me her other pillow. I don’t know how to explain it, but I was able to pick up the pillow with one hoof. I decided it was best to not question how, because the laws of irony would then state that I would be unable to actually pick anything up because I would think about it too much. I narrowed my eyes as I held the pillow in my grip “Game on sister.” I gave a small war cry and charged forwards as she leapt off of her bed and whacked me with her pillow. I could hardly say that hurt but I still grunted a little on the impact anyway. I tried to hit her even though she was behind. I fell down as my hoof knocked over my other forehoof. She struck another blow and I couldn’t help but giggle. “Not bad, but now I’ll start trying.” I taunted and got up, running to the other side of her room. I turned around and saw her charging at me. Out of nothing but pure reaction, my wings flapped and I was lifted into the air out of her reach. She stopped below me and frowned. “That’s no fair, I can’t fly.” She whined and I soon went back down, landing just fine. I made a mental note to remind Scootaloo of my success next time I saw her. How I didn’t see that coming down was a bad idea I don’t know because as soon as my hooves touched the floor I was whacked in the face again by Sweetie. She giggled and ran away, anticipating a comeback from me. I glared playfully at her and charged forwards; able to catch up to her and I gave a hefty hit to her back, although because it was only a pillow it didn’t really do much. “Wait.” She called, stopping my assault with the pillow in its tracks. “We need more pillows.” She dashed out of her room and left me in there by myself. I dropped my pillow and waited for her, sitting on my haunches. I couldn’t understand why we would need more pillows; I personally couldn’t see myself being able to hold a bipedal stance for more than a minute. It was quiet other than the scuffling sound that I could hear from Sweetie who was obviously retrieving more pillows. She came back with three pillows on her back and one in her mouth. She dropped it and smiled “Problem solved.” “What exactly was the problem?” I questioned, causing her to giggle and then turn around, facing away from me. I couldn’t work it out, but I was forced to understand when I saw her buck the pillow as best as she could. I wouldn’t imagine it was anywhere near as strong as if AppleJack did that, but I could still feel the force behind it when it made impact with my face. “Oh that’s why you wanted more pillows; so you could do that.” I grinned and dived for her, catching her left forehoof and grabbing a pillow with my free one. In one quick motion I swiped the pillow into her face and moved quickly enough to pin her down. “Surrender.” I smirked and gently hit her again with a pillow as we were both giggling hysterically “Well do you surrender?” I lifted the pillow up high. She shook her head and rolled us both over so we were both on our sides. As she did this she grabbed a pillow and we both hit each other’s. we dropped our weapons and kept on giggling at each other “Oh Aero I wouldn’t give up, besides I was going easy on you because it was your first slumber party.” She pouted, winking at me. I scoffed and nudged her “It’s my first slumber party, not my first pillow fight.” She rolled her eyes and nudged back. I swung my pillow, but she caught it and shook her head. She stood up and gathered all of the pillows “Y’know what we could do?” I gave a look of bewilderment and she smirked “We could build a fort out of the pillows. I’ll get my sister’s; she has too many anyway. What pony needs four pillows?” she questioned before quickly looking back at me almost as if she knew I was going to answer back with a sarcastic and blunt comment “Apart from my sister. And I don’t even think she needs all of those pillows. Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll be really impressed with the for that we make.” She giggled and walked out the door. This time I followed her and went into Rarity’s room. It was grand and had many more designs for dresses, although it was clear they were still works in progress. I was about to question if we should be in there, but it seemed as if Sweetie was able to see what was on my mind “Don’t worry, Rarity won’t mind as long as we don’t touch her stuff.” I frowned a little bit and tilted my head questioningly “Isn’t taking her pillows touching her stuff.” Sweetie gave a small look of distaste and went back to taking all but one of the pillows. However, she soon dropped them onto the floor when she saw the various bits of fabric assembled around the room. “Sweetie Belle what are you thinking?” I felt a little bit worried to say the least and it wasn’t helped when she turned to me with a smug smile. She stepped closer as I took a step back “Aero Crown. I am going to give you a makeover, and you are going to look so pretty.” She took a step closer and I found myself up against the wall. “Rarity said how pretty you could be with just the right clothing. Can you imagine just how impressed she will be when she sees that I’ve made you a dress that’s perfect.” Her eyes twinkled and she quickly got her sister’s measurer. I tried to get away, but she was so determined it was impossible; I’d never known something to move so fast other than Rainbow Dash. I was pushed against the wall as she clumsily took the measurements and then she got to work as quick as she could. The colours she picked out actually would suit me, but they were also the same colour as my fur, mane and tail. After a few more minutes of watching her work on the dress she was done. I knew that if a piece was done that quickly then it couldn’t be that great, and seeing as Sweetie wasn’t actually known for her excellence in fashion like her sister, I didn’t expect it to be a masterpiece. “I’ve done it. Now let me put it on. Close your eyes and no peeking. You will be lost for words.” I chuckled in my head. I was sure I would be speechless, but I wasn’t sure it would be for the reason she hoped for. I felt her shuffle me and lift my legs as she put the dress on me. From what I could feel of it, the fabric was fine and it didn’t feel like an uncomfortable fit. So far, I was amused and pleasantly surprised by her piece. However, when she cooed “Open your eyes now.” I nearly fainted from how it compared to one of her sister’s pieces of work. It wasn’t that it was bad; it’s just that it was so striking that it caught me off guard. Unfortunately, the way she used the colours of me just seemed to make them clash when I wore them. The stitching was a little bit less professional looking, but I smiled to her nonetheless. I posed for her and nodded “Yeah, I like it. You look like you could follow in your sister’s footsteps, although not without any practice.” She grinned and I could see that is what she wanted to hear. However, I felt a pang of guilt rise in my gut because I just fed her some false hope. I laughed nervously and spoke up again “But wouldn’t it be cooler to be unique from your sister? So that you two could work together when you’re older.” I hoped she would take it and accept my offering. She stopped and stared around the room. “You’re right. When I am travelling the world to give everypony advice, she will be my costume designer. Ugh Aero you’re so right!” she squeaked, hopping up and down on the spot happily. The mood went from euphoric to desperation within a second as she stopped and gave an upset look to me “Oh no, Rarity’s coming upstairs and we made all of this mess.” She panicked and paced around the room. “Quick! Get the dress off and go distract her whilst I clear up everything.” She ordered and nearly ripped the dress off of me, proving the slight lack of quality her amateur project had. I nipped out the door and walked towards the stairs. I was greeted by the sight of Rarity coming up the stairs, her purple mane in the same style as it was always seen. “Oh hello there Aero. Do you know where Sweetie Belle is?” she asked and I shook my head at her, smiling as innocently as I could. I looked around for her and then shook my head again “I think she just went to get something.” I heard a small thud come from rarity’s room and was thankful that Rarity didn’t notice even though I visually twitched in time with the thud. “Uh, Rarity could you tell me what the best things to do in Ponyville are? I guessed that if I am going to live in the town now, I should probably know what all the good things are and where the best places to go are.” She just chuckled as I waffled on at her. “What?” I pondered my left wing twitching as I became self conscious. “Don’t worry darling. I was just laughing because you speak as if you’ll have time for all of that. Why at your age you will be at school with Sweetie Belle and your new friends. I suppose there are some good things to do at the weekend. Well there is a bowling alley and then if you ever want to have some fun I’m sure that Pinkie will be more than happy to assist you. That girl acts like she’s just a young filly anyway.” Rarity laughed and shook her head at the thought of Pinkie. I was too busy being annoyed that I would still have to go to school. It didn’t matter what universe I was in it seemed; I would still have to go to school and because I was now even younger I would have even longer in another education system. “Excuse me Aero, I need to quickly get something from my room.” Immediately I snapped into my thoughts and actually flew in front of her. “My goodness. You’ve learnt to fly already. Why, Rainbow Dash will be overjoyed.” She bit her bottom lip “And might I add that your wings look so striking, yet so delicate. Tu es magnifique.” She whinnied and then just walked around me and was about to open the door. I sighed in relief as I heard the door getting knocked and Rarity turned around “Well I suppose I’ll have to go see who that is.” She looked over to me “I would imagine that it’s Twilight. She wants to speak to you about; as she called it ‘life plans in Ponyville’. I shouldn’t worry my darling. I shan’t be long.” She disappeared from my sight as she descended down the flight of stairs. I scampered over to her room and opened the door to see the horrible mess that Sweetie Belle had accidentally made. She smiled back at me timidly. I closed the door behind me and started to move things. “Come on we’ve still got time before she gets here. I think Twilight is at the door. We just need to be quick.” I asserted and forced her to get up and start putting the pillows back on Rarity’s bed. We both started to panic and speed up as we heard the hoof steps up the stairs. Sweetie Belle opened one of Rarity’s closets and gestured for me to go to her “We can hide all of it in here if we’re quick. Let’s hurry.” We collected all that we could and shoved it into the closet. Sweetie gave the signal to close the door and we both grabbed each door, closing as quickly and as quietly as we could before we both rushed out of her room and made it back into Sweetie’s room before we were seen. “That was too close. Do you think she’ll notice that we’ve been in there though?” Sweetie Belle thought for a moment before smiling hopefully “Well I don’t think so. I think we did a pretty good job of it all. I mean obviously you were great at getting everything away and then I had the genius plan of putting everything in her closet. Maybe you and I will….no never mind.” She giggled. I soon joined her and without knowing, the door had opened and there were the two mares smiling as they watched us. I froze when I saw the two unicorns and went on the defensive “How long have you been watching?” I snapped although Sweetie Belle was still giggling to herself, smiling to the older two ponies. “I mean…sorry.” I lowered my head, knowing I jumped to the defensive way too quickly. Twilight shook her head and smiled “Well Aero Crown I see that you’ve gotten along and made friends already. I know from experience that friendship is a great thing to have.” I nodded, actually knowing exactly how she discovered how great friendship was. “It’s great to see you settling in, it really is. Would you like to discuss the plans now?” she asked. I nodded. It was better to get it out of the way than delay it for an even worse time. “Great. Rarity is it okay if Aero and I can discuss these plans alone. It will probably get Sweetie Belle bored and someone’s got to keep her company.” She looked to Sweetie “Sorry. I’ll just be borrowing Aero for a little bit. She’s going to be staying with m” “Yeah yeah I know. Rarity told me earlier.” She trotted away with rarity following her. I could tell that Sweetie Belle was a little bit upset that she didn’t get to try out her new cutie mark idea, but I would find a way to cheer her up later. Twilight plopped onto the bed when we were alone and I sat next to her. She sat up and looked at me “Hey don’t look so scared. I’m not exactly difficult to live with. You’ll just have to ask Spike that.” She pouted and gave a proud pose. I tried to hide a giggle, having seen on the show that Twilight can be rather high maintenance at time, in my opinion at least. “Right. The ground rules; you will get up when you are told. You will eat all of your food that Spike will have prepared for you. You will respect my studying hours, and seeing as you will also be at school I expect you to study at the same times as me. I expect you to have done all of your homework on time. If you’re finished reading a book then put it back exactly where you found it. If you can’t remember just give it to Spike and he will be able to work out where it goes. There will be no staying up late, especially for a young filly such as yourself. You will help out with the various chores that Spike and I will also be doing. I expect you to respect studying time as a silent time; how else can you concentrate on what you’re doing?” my eyes got larger as the list continued. I didn’t know there could be so many rules. Back on Earth the rules I had were less strict and more like ‘make sure you don’t do drugs’ and that was about as extreme as it got. “Those are the house rules.” She smiled “Now on to the rules if we are in public..” I silently groaned as she began again; I was hoping for a smaller list than this. “I expect you to be polite to anypony. If they aren’t polite to you just tell me, but I still expect you to be polite regardless. If I give you an allowance to get something; the allowance is for the month, so don’t spend it all in one go…” I could feel my eyes start to droop a little bit as she pressed on with her regimental rule setting. “…Finally,” my ears perked at the sound of that one word, it was nearly over “if I say no to anything; it means no. Comprende?” I simply nodded and smiled as I found that it was finally over. “I have already told Miss Cheerilee that you will be joining her class as soon as you’re ready and she’s made extra space in her class just for you.” I yawned after hearing all of that. “I think I’ll be ready tomorrow I guess.” Twilight smiled “Great! I will meet you after school tomorrow. I’ll be waiting out the front so I can show you where your new home will be.” She clapped her hooves together excitedly “This is gonna be so much fun. Having you around will be like having a little sister I’m sure.” She suddenly sat up straight and looked down upon me “This does mean that you and Sweetie Belle will have to get a decent night’s rest, okay?” I smiled and nodded, knowing full well that we wouldn’t be sleeping much; we’d barely got started. “I guess that’s everything we needed to do then. Uh…” she paused and looked around for something to say, making the atmosphere feel a little awkward “welcome to my family I guess.” She quickly back tracked “Well not my bloodline, but you’re living with me and…never mind. I look forward to spending time with you.” I giggled “Twilight I knew what you meant. And thank you. I look forward to staying there. You said it’s a library, right?” she smiled and nodded “Yeah I like libraries. Can’t remember the last one I went to though…I can’t remember much since waking up earlier actually.” I frowned, just to keep up an impressive lie. I couldn’t tell them I wasn’t actually from this universe; it would have blown their trust of me right away. “I’ll be on my way then. I’ll see you tomorrow Aero. Have a great slumber party, but make sure you don’t….” she was interrupted by the loud scream we heard from just the next room. It was Rarity; I cringed as I worked out what had happened. I felt sorry for Sweetie Belle because she was with Rarity when her ‘discovery’ was made. Twilight and I went to her room and saw Rarity practically hyperventilating with the dress that Sweetie made on the floor in front of her. “What’s going on in here?” Twilight calmly asked. Rarity could only manage to point feebly at the fashion ‘faux-pas’ that she was looking at. “What is that?” “It’s a dress I made for Aero.” Sweetie said quietly, waiting to be scorned. I lowered my eyes as I’d now been dropped into it. “I just thought that because Rarity said she couldn’t find the right colours that maybe if I did then she would like it and let me help more often. Isn’t that right Aero?” all heads turned to me and I froze on the spot. I didn’t know what to do; I could see that Rarity was likely to get worse if I accepted what Sweetie was saying. However, I didn’t want to lose somepony who considered me a friend so quickly. I took in a deep breath, nodded and spoke up “Yeah it’s true. She only did it because she was trying to be like Rarity, honest.” My voice sounded so small and so weak when I said that. It felt really strange to be almost influenced by the fear I had of being punished; I’d got over that many years before…in my human body. Rarity calmed down, but kept her eyes on the ‘dress’ “Twilight. Can you put these girls to bed please? I need some time alone.” She took deep breaths and tried to calm down, but her voice was shaky and she seemed a little bit unhinged; was it really that bad? Twilight nodded and gently guided us out of the room and into Sweetie Belle’s. She made sure we were in bed and turned out the lights as she walked out. I whispered to Sweetie Belle “What do you wanna do next?” I was a little bit nervous to her response and I felt my tail twitch as I waited. She sighed heavily and turned to face me on her side “I dunno Aero. I think this time we should go to sleep. My sister looked pretty upset. It’s probably best that we go to sleep rather than cause more trouble.” She sighed again and went back to cuddling her half of the blanket, lying on her back. I turned to face her again “Okay then Sweetie Belle. Before we go to sleep can I ask you one more thing?” she turned to face me again although she still looked worried. “Okay. One thing though.” “Can I sit next to you in class tomorrow?” I blushed, feeling embarrassed that I’d even have to ask such a question. “I think Miss Cheerilee would let you if we asked nicely.” I smiled and we both then began to drift off into a peaceful sleep. At least, it was for me despite the worry of Rarity’s reaction in the morning.