//------------------------------// // 90 - Dress to impress // Story: A Penny for your thought // by Damaged //------------------------------// Pretty was delighted. Being so close to the planning of her daughter's wedding, she knew full well what any of the three mares had planned for most days, so she knew that Penny had indeed just dropped in, without a single obligation. "Come, sit down, how do you take your tea?" Penny smiled, it meant a lot to her that Pretty be not just her mother-in-law, but her friend. "A little sugar and if you have it, a drop of honey." The lunar unicorn let herself be guided and found a comfortable chair in the Cart's sun room. The ritual, shared on at least two worlds that Penny knew of, was under way. "So what brings my future daughter to visit?" Pretty looked relaxed but Penny could detect a hint of something more in the question. "Two vitally important things." Penny lifted her tea and sipped it, the taste of the dark brew complimenting the warmth of the drink. "Firstly, I wanted to spend more time with you. I love her to bits, I want to be a part of her life for as long as she will have me, and I can see she is close to her mother." Pretty tilted her cup in acknowledgment. "So I want to, at the very least, be friends." "Admirable. Not all ponies would think such a thing, let alone want it. What was the second reason?" "I am, without a doubt, hopelessly inept with fashion." Penny let out a held breath. "Hay showed me enough for me to realize there is a lot more to understanding this than she can teach me in an hour and, as well, that fashion is important to her. And I am fairly sure I know where she gets that. So here I am, a humble student approaching a professor and begging to be taught." To say Pretty was surprised would be an understatement. To hint the mare was a little proud would be sarcasm. But the main thing that Pretty felt right then, was delight. "Then tell me what you know, so I can learn what I must undo before I can train you." Penny started relating what Hay had taught her of colors and also what she found she herself liked. The older mare nodded. "But what about when you were growing up, when you were just a filly?" "I… oh I am marrying your daughter, I really should tell you regardless." Penny began on her tale, relating right from when she arrived in Canterlot. "So you were a human? A human stallion?" Pretty interrupted her and got a nod from Penny. "This explains so much, okay so you will have little knowledge of why things look good, but have some feel. I see you are wearing a nice light blue sun dress, did my daughter pick this for you?" Penny shook her head. "No, a friend made it for me, I asked her for some lighter dresses I could wear for less formal matters." The older unicorn smiled widely. "Your friend has great taste and knows fashion, I must meet her but first, lets discuss why it looks good." Pretty got up and directed Penny to do likewise. "See how the fabric falls over your flank, the few folds almost impossible to see but allow much easier movement than a more formal dress. I bet you could gallop in this." The words got a blush from Penny that told Pretty all she needed to know. "So you can, point proven. Now a good dress will conceal a mare in such a way that everypony can see her, but much more is left to their imagination than normal. It draws eyes because the pony clearly is keeping something hidden that must be worth looking at." Penny nodded to this. "I will be honest, I love the way my marefriends look at me in them." She blushed hotly, realizing the implication to the dam of one of those mares. "Just so. Now the color, as my daughter has explained, helps bring out the darker blues in your own fur. You seem quite focused on dresses, but have you explored jewelry?" Pretty's focus had been on the little stud Penny wore in her ear. "I… a little. When I was a human I had-" "You aren't human now, are you." Pretty cut to the core quite easily. "You have thrown yourself at being a pony, being a mare. Everything you weren't. So lets focus on now." Penny blinked and nodded mutely. "Good, so a nice necklace with some highlights for your mane to fall over, would enhance that lovely tone, as well…" Penny nodded and nodded, her mind working to soak up the knowledge that Pretty was imparting. It was grueling and at times made little sense, but Hay's mother was patient and found her future daughter-in-law to be a veritable sponge for information. Hay and Stick clopped into the house. "Mom? Dad? Anypony home?" Hay poked her nose into the usual rooms her mother was wont to be. "In the sun room dear." Pretty's voice called and the two changeling mares could hear the slightest peal of two giggles. "Thought we would drop by on our way… home?" Hay's words died in her throat. Penny and her mother were sitting there, both done up in full makeup, wearing the most amazing jewelry and each in voluminous dresses that would suit any high-society occasion. Stick was the first to manage to get her voice in order. "What are you two-" Pretty beamed. "I win, I knew my daughter would be lost for words the longest." "Stick, you just cost me a whole day." Penny didn't sound too upset, she was still smiling and looking, at least to the two mares who just entered, amazing. "Well, more words? How do I look?" The dress didn't hide her bulge like the other had, it was trim around her middle, but not tight. Hay and Stick were both lost for words again as their marefriend got up, turned this way and that. "It was one of mine, from when I was with you, dear." Pretty smiled to her daughter. The white dress on Penny moved easily with her, it was a little out of style, but both Pretty and Penny were delighted at the way it stole Stick and Hay's faculties. "It seems Penny is almost exactly the shape I was back then." "You look amazing…" Hay was overcome, but had gotten her voice back in order. She moved over to Penny and carefully reached around her mate's neck to hug her with her forelegs. "Uh, you will forgive me for not hugging back… it isn't really possible in this…" Penny used her magic, instead, giving a snuggle to the half-changeling. Not to be outdone, Stick moved up and pulled both into a tight hug. "Is this dress edible?" Her question was whispered. "Because I want to eat you out of it." Penny suddenly blushed through the makeup. "Okay, okay, give her some room. That getup isn't the most comfortable to wear, trust me I know, but she wanted you to see her in it." Pretty secured the pregnant mare some room. "You spent your day off here?" Hay looked surprised, in a good way. "Has someone caught the fashion bug?" Everypony could see how tickled Hay was that Penny was exploring her interest. As Pretty began to remove the jewelry, Penny nodded. "I wanted to learn more, so I came to the best teacher I could find in Canterlot, to teach me." There was a pause in the removal of shiny metal. "In Canterlot?" Pretty poked Penny in the shoulder, one of the few places she could and not risk damage to dress or mare. "There is a limit on that comment that I am now quite intrigued at." The words weren't cold, the pair had built up a warm friendship over the day, but clearly Pretty wanted an answer from Penny. "Sorry, but you remember the friend I said who made my sun dress?" Pretty nodded to Penny. "Well, she lives in Ponyville an-" "Rarity?" Pretty looked not the least offended now. "Oh I am sure of it. Of course with that design and cut, I really must meet her." "You know she just opened a boutique in Canterlot?" Stick poked her way into the conversation. "She needed a prime location for the shop and Fancy had just the place for her. He was too nice, gave her a discount and everything." "If I know Rarity, she would have fought him tooth and hoof for any concessions she could think of." Penny giggled. Then it hit her, the season must be really underway now. What with Moon Dancer becoming friends with Twilight again, and now this. "We simply must go, it would be delightful to see all the amazing one-of-a-kind things that talented mare creates." Pretty sounded quite worked up over the idea. Then Penny had a flashback to that episode, remembering how it soured. "Maybe we should give her a little time to get settled, let all the silly ponies rush in and cause a ruckus." Penny worked valiantly to keep her motive hidden, but both Stick and Pretty looked at her with slight squints. They knew she knew more. Stick just smiled, knowing she could pry the information from her mate in other ways, later, but Pretty had no such reservation. "I think my new daughter knows something and isn't sharing." Penny slumped, she could never keep a secret from Stick and now that Pretty proved to be just as canny as her changeling mate she would have no hope. "Well-" "I am sure it is nothing that needs to be explained, mother." Hay stepped in beside Penny and kissed her on the cheek. "Let Penny have a few secrets, but I think we really must visit, at least before the wedding." Pretty gave the shortest hint of a glare and then tossed her head. "Of course dear, of course. Perhaps we could visit next week, Penny, for our next little lesson?" It was a trap. Penny knew it, Pretty knew it and the other two mares present certainly knew it. "I would love to." Penny stepped into the trap with a smile, letting the velvet jaws latch on. "I wouldn't miss it for the world." "What game are you playing with mother?" Hay's eyes were glued to Penny as the lunar mare slowly stripped off the sun dress. "It isn't a game at all. I really enjoy her company and she is downright devious with her tips on fashion." Penny tilted slightly to one side, knowing Hay was following every move she made. "She expected me to try and squirm out of the next lesson-" "Lesson?" Stick cut in. "What exactly is she teaching you?" "Fashion, dress sense. I was a stallion, remember, I don't know a lot of things I really really need to know and…" Penny trailed off. "What?" Stick was squirming on her back, kicking her legs in the air. "I want to know, okay? There, I said it. I want to learn how to look good, how to dress nicely." Penny grumbled a moment until she felt the lips of Hay on her cheek. It shattered the embarrassment that caused her sudden downward mood. Hay helped her remove the last of the dress, drawing it free and setting it in the washing basket to be dealt with. "Well I love that you are liking it, we will be able to talk fashion together." "What about me? I can talk fashion!" Stick gestured with a hoof at the pair. "Stick, you are about as fashion immune as Penny was. You are such a stallion sometimes I want to peek under your belly to make sure." Hay leaped at the bed, getting a surprised 'eep' from the changeling drone as she landed atop Stick, standing over her. "But that doesn't stop me loving you for it."