"You're sure you're OK, Rarity?"
Spike stood at the doorway to Carousel Boutique, looking up at Rarity, smiling serenely on the inside. "I assure you, Spike, I'm feeling much better," the unicorn said. "Still a bit...fuzzy, I suppose, but nothing to worry about. Just the aftershocks of that Inspiration spell, nothing more."
Claws shuffling nervously against each other, Spike snuck a quick look at the moon in the night sky before looking back to his friend. "Well...OK. If you say so," he said.
"I do say so," Rarity replied, patting him gently on the head. "Thank you again for looking out for me and walking me home, Spikey-wikey, but you should be getting back to the library at this point. It's quite late, and I'd say you've earned a good night's sleep after all of today's excitement, wouldn't you agree?"
Spike blushed a bit, a smile of his own slowly coming to his face. "I guess," he chuckled. "And you're absolutely sure...?"
"I promise you, I'm just fine," Rarity cooed. "Now run along, and have a good night."
The two shared a warm hug then, and with a nod, Spike trotted away from the Boutique out into the town. Rarity watched him go, chewing her lip for a moment. Just as he was about to round the corner, she called out, "Oh, and Spike, dear?"
He swiveled around to face her instantly. "Do apologize to Twilight again for all the mess I made," the unicorn said, still holding her smile.
Spike, however, simply waved her off. "Aww, don't worry about all that, Rarity, Twilight understands," he said. "You weren't yourself."
Rarity's ears went flat immediately, but her expression did not change. Instead, the unicorn gave a nod, and waved to her friend as he finally walked out of sight. The moment he was, she turned back inside, closed the door, and let out the sigh she had not realized she'd been holding in.
The boutique was eerily quiet. Even Opalescence was sound asleep, laying atop a ponyquin garbed in one of the innmuerable dresses Rarity had willed into being that morning. Normally, the fashionista would have been quick to shoo her pet off to a new resting spot, but as she entered the room, Rarity found she simply did not have it in her. Not tonight. Instead, she slowly made her way toward the stairs to her bedroom, all the while looking at the dresses...the colors, the shapes, the sizes. Remembering how they had looked in her mind when she...when the spell...had made them. It had taken a bit of time for those images to return; at first, Rarity had been unable to remember any of the day's events. Yet slowly but surely, the memories had started coming back...each and every one. Rarity's pace slowed as her eyes took all those dresses in, more and more, until she stopped completely, lips pursed and brows furrowed. "You weren't yourself," Spike's voice came back to her.
Blinking a bit, the unicorn gave a little "hmph!" and marched, firmly, up the stairs, refusing to stop until she had reached her bed. The sleeping mask and robe both floated onto her with their usual ease, but even as her magic fitted them on, Rarity paused as she lifted her sheets up. Looking down at their inviting red silk, smelling its familiar lived-in perfumes...it was all so inviting. And yet...her legs felt stiff. Her ears remained flat against her head. Taking a deep breath, Rarity shook her head. "A lady needs her beauty rest," she whispered to herself.
So she slinked beneath her covers, wiggling down inside, slipping her mask down, and closing her eyes. Breathing in...breathing out. Slowly...slowly sinking into the blackness of her closed eyes....
And then...a flash of green. A cry of familiar laughter. Images, forming and flowing and taking shape...!
The unicorn's breath caught in her throat as she sat up sharply, lifting her mask off immediately. It took her a few more moments of simply sitting there, heart pounding, staring out into the shaded corner of the room, before she began to calm. Yet...the pounding heartbeat remained. The tension in her shoulders remained. And even as she blinked a bit and lay back down, Rarity's eyes refused to close. "You weren't yourself," the memory of Spike again drifted through her thoughts.
Grunting, Rarity rolled to her side. Then her other side. Her eyes remained wide open. "So much for beauty rest...." she muttered, sliding out of bed.
For a moment, she simply stood there, staring at the window, before her hooves dragged her over to the mirror instead. The unicorn looked into her own eyes. Stared at them. Searching them...just to be sure. "You...you weren't...." she whispered, trying to repeat Spike's words. She found herself unable to finish.
"Not myself?" she said instead, "My dear Spike... that is precisely the problem. The more I remember, the more I see just how much myself I truly was." Her snout curled back, brows setting sharply against each other, and the mirror reflected their anger perfectly. "That pride, that vanity, that arrogance," she spat, "wasn't that just Classic Rarity?"
With a grunt, she shoved the mirror aside. Briefly she turned back toward her bed, but it only took a single step toward it for her to jerk herself away. Instead she simply looked up at the ceiling, her vision growing wet and blurry. "Classic, ugly Rarity...." she murmured shakily.
Blinking the tears out, she walked with sluggish steps to the top of the stairs. Looking down into the darkness below, she sighed...any other night, and she would know exactly what to do next. In all her life, the seamstress had never known a therapy better than throwing herself into her work. Tonight, however....
The unicorn chewed her lip, standing stiff and still, until her horn began to glow. Step by step, she let its light guide her down, step by hesitant step, until she found herself again surrounded by the fruits of her crazed labor. Dresses, dresses, dresses. "Classic Rarity...." she said again, gently running her hoof along each piece as she slowly passed it.
Her ears lifted slowly as she looked them over in the light of her horn. Classic...? Perhaps not. After all, she would never have let herself get away with a shade that drab for this vest...or a cut this dull for that skirt. Narrowing her eyes as she continued to explore, she began to spot flaw after flaw on each outfit. A boring stitch there, a woefully generic patch here...and with each one, her ears lifted futher, her lips tugging up, bit by bit, into a genuine smile.
Immediately she trotted over to the ponyqquin where Opal slept. "Opal, darling," she cooed, stroking the cat's back softly, "I need you to get up."
The cat opened one eye lazily, purring lowly, before hopping down. "Mommy has to work."
She blew a kiss to the cat as it trotted away before locking her gaze on the ponyqquin before her.
"You are inside of me, it is true," she said as her magic took hold of the ponyqquin's garb, "and you are woven into the things I most love."
"But you are still only a part of me. And as long as it is in my power..."
She looked to the window...saw herself reflected in its glass. And with one pulse of her magic, she pulled the dress apart.
"...I won't let you win."