As they walked out of the hotel, Ornate began to calm down. She had realized that Sombra might have seen her blank flank, but she had noticed that he said nothing about it. It could be that he didn’t see it to begin with. He was too wrapped up watching her rather than noticing that she didn’t have a cutie mark. She didn’t want to ask to see if he saw it for fear of him not seeing it in the first place and beginning to become nosy. She remained quiet.
While they trotted down the street, she noticed him looking around at the stores. She wondered what he was looking for. It wasn’t until they stopped in front of a shop before she realized what he was looking for. The shop was a small and quaint little store with a big window in front. She looked at the sign for the shop, which read:
Miss Tailored Velvet’s Dress Shop
“A dress shop?” she wondered. “Why are we going to a dress shop?”
“You’ll see,” Sombra responded, smiling.
He opened the door for her, allowing her to walk inside. When they entered, they found the shop full of dresses. The walls were crimson red with touches of black. The dresses were all hanging on racks everywhere. The colors of the dresses consisted of all the colors of the rainbow and some in between.
As they walked through the store, a velvet red unicorn approached them with a smile on her face. Her black hair was long and shimmered a bit in the light. Her dark purple eyes were enchanting.
“May I help you?” She asked.
“Yes,” Sombra began to explain. “This young lady is looking for a dress.”
“I am?” Ornate asked, a bit confused.
“I think I can help her with that,” the unicorn answered.
The unicorn grabbed Ornate by the hoof and whisked her to a room in the back. She sat Ornate down in a chair and began to search through dresses that had been stored there. After she found a few dresses, she pushed Ornate into a dressing room with them so she could try them on. While she changed, the unicorn began to strike up a conversation.
“So,” she started, “what are you and that fellow you came with planning?”
“What do you mean?” Ornate asked.
“Most people only come to buy a dress for special occasions. What’s your occasion?”
“I wasn’t aware there was an occasion.”
Ornate came out of the dressing room. She was wearing a black dress with many pieces of red silk hanging from the skirt. The unicorn looked at her with an intense look, inspecting the dress she was wearing. After a minute, she shook her head and sent Ornate back into the dressing room.
“There must be a reason,” the unicorn began again.
“Maybe he’s just buying me a dress,” Ornate explained. “I don’t think he was buying it for any special occasion.”
“Suit yourself, but if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was planning something.”
She came out of the dressing room again, this time she wore a dark blue dress with pink ribbons tied to it. The unicorn made a look of disgust, muttered something about how crazy she was to have her try the dress on, then sent her back into the dressing room.
“Maybe he’s planning a wedding,” the unicorn suggested.
Ornate blushed intensely.
“I-I doubt it,” she responded. “We’ve only known each other for two days. There’s nothing serious between us. We’re just friends.
“Uh huh. ‘Just friends.’”
Ornate came out of the dressing room once more. She wore a dark green dress with bits of light green embedded in the fabric. The unicorn’s face brightened with excitement as she saw her.
“You look fabulous, darling!” she exclaimed.
Ornate blushed at the compliment.
“Thank you,” she said shyly.
“Go on and change out of the dress. I’ll ring it up at the front when you’re done.”
Ornate nodded and got back into the dressing room. She changed quickly and gave the dress to the unicorn. She smiled as she took the dress back into the previous room. Ornate followed her and met up with Sombra. He smiled when he saw the sight of her.
They paid for the dress and left the store with it. As they walked back to the hotel, Ornate broke the silence.
“So, Sombra,” she began. “Why did we buy that dress?”
“I just thought you needed one,” He answered. “After all, who knows when we might need it?”
She sighed at his response. It wasn’t quite what she wanted to hear, but she took it anyway.
They approached the hotel, when something caught Sombra’s eye. Without warning, he gave the bag to Ornate. She looked at him with a little confused look on her face.
“Just go to your hotel room,” he told her quietly. “I will be there in a second.”
Ornate nodded and ran inside. Sombra began to walk past the hotel and towards the castle itself. He thought he saw something suspicious, but he couldn’t tell what it was he saw. As he walked past the castle, he saw something dart into a nearby alleyway and he immediately followed it. He stopped and looked into the alley.
It was darker than a usual alley and no signs of life lingered between its walls. He began to slowly walk into the alley, looking for anything that might attack him. The deeper he went, the more he wanted to run away. Then, something behind him fell. But it wasn’t something, it was someone.
He turned around to look at the mysterious pony that led him there. He was shocked to find it was Princess Luna.
“It’s nice to see you again, Sombra,” she said. “Too bad our conversation had to end here.”
She lowered her head and her horn began to glow. She shot a magic beam at him, forcing him to slump to the floor and lose consciousness.