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// Chapter 3 A Dress Fit for a Queen 
// Story: Octavia x Rarity 
// by Ryan Hambrick 
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Chapter 3 A Dress Fit for a Queen
Rarity had been up all morning since before daybreak working on Octavia’s surprise dress, wanting to finish it as soon as possible, and making sure that she would love it. Different newspapers and magazines from all over Equestria were strewn about as Rarity looked at the styles that Octavia wore on the most special occasions, and surprisingly she rarely wore more than her bow tie except when it was necessary, so making a dress was a risky move as she may hate Rarity even more for using magic. She realized this and was now hoofstitching the dress so that she could relate to Octavia and hopefully apologize to her. It was tiresome work trying to use just hooves to stich something, Rarity had grown so accustom to using magic to get things from the other side of the room, but now realized how Octavia must feel without magic, and how much envy she must feel when unicorns take their horns for granted.
After a little while of working, Rarity heard the sound of a cello yet again, but she thought it must just be in her mind, encouraging her to work harder on the dress for the beautiful and eloquent Earth Pony. She had to complement her mane and body’s colors, as well as that beautiful pink cutie mark that adorned her flank. As of right now, she had not actually started on the base of the dress, and only selected a mannequin and the pink fabric that matched Octavia’s cutie mark. Rarity hated when this happened, Sweaty Bell had just organized her room yet again while she was gone to Canterlot and most of her inspiration had been lost, but she had to persevere through such trivial things. Rarity felt differently about this filly, of all her friends, she had only viewed them as just that, only friends and nothing more. The cello music concluded in her mind and she looked around a bit more seeing a purplish fabric that matched the darker portions of Octavia’s eyes. 
She went over and grabbed it, looking at it in comparison with the pink. Why wasn’t every pony so perfectly matching like this Earth Pony, it seemed some were mismatched and didn’t even look good with parts of their own body, but Octavia was different. Her symmetrical colors that complimented on another but didn’t over power any. Rarity didn’t think it was a good idea to drag too much attention to the eyes and cutie mark and wondered what other colors she could work with. She chose a white and went and picked up the fabric in her mouth, however, she slowly put it down.
“Would she think I was being a conceded snob of a unicorn using the same color that my body is?” she questioned herself on the decision. On one hand, it was a color that would easily match her and complement her colors, rather than using the colors she already had. On the other, being a white pony may make it seem that she thought too highly of herself.
“No, I can’t even think that it could possibly have anything to do with me, this is a dress for Octavia, not a way of saying that I’m better in anyway.” Rarity reassured herself and continued working. “Now, what would complement her dress more?” She thought aloud she picked up a black fabric while walking back to the mannequin. She tossed the white fabric over covering the entire pony figure and making it look somewhat like a deformed ghost who wasn’t sure how it should look. She then set the black fabric down on the ground and went over to get her scissors from the table she kept all her supplies at.
It wasn’t the first time Rarity would have to use scissors without magic, back before she could fully use her magic, she remembered having troubles using them with her mouth and hooves. After gaining the power of her magic, things started to go much quicker, but she would make do with what she had. She picked them up in her mouth, carefully putting the two handles so that she could open and close them with her mouth. Walking over, she slowly began to cut off the cloth covering the head. 
“There, that wasn’t so hard.” She told herself, not looking at the clock that had gone twenty minutes from when she had picked up the scissors. “I’m sure this will be fine.” She began to clean up the cuts as they were not exactly perfect and bits of cloth protruded here and there. After the cloth was perfect she began to look at what was already done, taking a step back to get more inspiration. “I wonder if I made sleeves, would it make it harder for her to play with it on?” she questioned herself briefly and decided that if the dress connected to cover her back legs, it would leave her other hooves free to continue playing.
Next she cut out the two front legs, an even more tiresome process without the use of magic, but she started to get the hang of it again. After fixing it up so it also looked perfect, she went and got some thread and a small needle.
“I was dreading this moment from the start.” She said, the needle precariously placed in between her teeth already attached to the thread. She began to sew a circle around each of the front legs making sure that the stitching looked very good to anyone who would look for it, but made sure that it wouldn’t be very visible to any of the ponies just looking at the dress itself. After getting the two leg wholes, she put in band of elastic and sewed them up inside so that they would be easy to get on, but wouldn’t fall off. Rarity had used this technique for dresses lately, finding many ponies preferred to slide their clothing on and off rather than having another pony tie knots to keep different parts of the garment in place. 
“There, that should do, now I just need to work on the back legs and flank.” Rarity said.
A few days had gone by and Rarity was very tiered. She had never worked on one dress for such a long amount of time, even ones that were five times bigger and more complex. It gave her an even deeper understanding to how hard Octavia must work to accomplish what she had, and what she would. She had been so caught up in her work that she didn’t hear her doorbell ring 3 times before that until somepony bang their hoof against the door and a voice rang in.
“Rarity! Open up in there!” Rarity slightly jumped, dropping the needle she was working with out of her mouth.
“Oh, I’m sorry! I’ll be right down!” She shouted at the door, running down her stairs and almost tripping over Opal. When she reached the door she pushed it open and almost fell out on Twilight Sparkle, who had been standing there for about five minutes.
“Rarity?! What happened here? It looks like you haven’t brushed your mane in weeks!” Twilight commented on Rarity’s unkempt mane. Rarity stood up and brushed herself off looking at Twilight. “You haven’t been out of your house in days;someponies are getting worried about you. Is everything all right?” She asked sympathy in her eyes.
“Oh no dear, nothing’s wrong here, as wonderful as ever I assure you!” Rarity said in a hurry, hoping that would resolve the conversation and allow her to get back to work, as the deadline was nearing for Octavia’s next concert. “Now, if you don’t mind I’m very busy and need to work.” Rarity said, starting to close the door on Twilight. Before the door was completely closed Twilight walked in, stopping her from closing it.
“What could be so important that you wouldn’t even brush your mane? And why in Equestria are you using your hooves for everything? It’s not like you.” Twilight said looking around. “Is whatever you’re working on upstairs?” Twilight asked.
“Oh please don’t Twilight, it’s not finished, and I want her to be the first pony that sees it when it is.” Rarity pleaded to her friend as Twilight began climbing the stairs.
“Who are you talking about?” Twilight asked, stopping halfway up a step.
“Octavia!” Rarity said wondering why Twilight didn’t know of the dress she was making for her, as she was becoming somewhat delusional from all the constant hard work.
“Did Octavia ask you for the dress?” Twilight asked “Because she normally doesn’t wear anything as large as a dress, in fact, I don’t think I’ve seen her with much more than her bow tie on.” Twilight explained. Rarity jumped up from where she was and hurried up the stairs past Twilight. 
“Of course the bow tie, how in the name of Celestia could I have forgotten her bow tie!?” Rarity ran into the room taking the scissors in her mouth and cutting out a perfect space for her bow tie. “There, all better now.” Rarity said backing away.
“I guess I’ll just come back later then, goodbye Rarity!” Twilight shouted up, hoping that her friend had heard her. Her words drifted through Rarity but didn’t pierce her subconscious. No, Rarity had become too obsessed with finishing this dress for Octavia before it was too late. She had also gotten approve by Princess Celestia to get another train ride to Canterlot once again so that she could go to the next concert Octavia was playing at. She had already purchased her tickets, and had quite a hassle making sure she was in the front row. 
“There, it’s finally finished.” Rarity stated as she finished sewing the trim along the back. It was very elegant, a white dress that was sleeveless in the front but long and flowing in the back. The dress had a delicate black trim all along it, front and back and was very complementary to the dress. Small music notes in pink cloth dotted mainly the back of the dress but on the underside there was a bass cleft that had an upside down treble cleft which formed a heart where Octavia’s heart would be. “Oh, I do hope she likes this.” Rarity said as she went to take a quick shower.
“I’m glad I finally finished that.” She said, “There was only today left for me to get that finished and I almost didn’t have time to get my own dress picked out.” She looked around and picked a rather pinkish dress without a hat. She looked at herself with it in her mouth, forgetting that she could use magic to hold it up to the mirror to see what it would look like on.
“I guess all this work has really gotten to me; I suppose I should get some rest for tomorrow.” She thought aloud yet again. She crawled into bed, almost unable from the exhaustion her body now faced, curling up next to Opal and trying to fall asleep. The darkness of her room was soothing as she slowly drifted into sleep. At first, no dreams came to the unicorn’s mind, just a black space where her body was able to rest. Then, the dreams began to flow into her mind.
She was at the concert, and went backstage to give Octavia her dress, or at least ask if she would consider wearing it. Then, something unthinkable happened; Octavia took her glass of wine, which Rarity presumed she drank, and poured it not only on the dress Rarity had made her, but also on Rarity and the dress she had brought for herself.