Wittgenstein's Seamstress

by Blank_Slate

Day 5

Lately I have taken to reading our letters to Celestia over and over.

Although, I cannot really read them for too long or else I get teary-eyed.

I also found the diary in which we wrote about our friendship experiences after we stopped sending letters to the Princess. I have it near me now as I stitch up a tapestry.

Well, obviously I was not stitching as I wrote that sentence.

Tapestry repair is a difficult, time-consuming process, I have found.

The one I am working on has Luna emblazoned on it. This one is moth-eaten, full of holes.

Or perhaps it is Nightmare Moon.

The color scheme is certainly very dark, and the shape of the mare’s body is elongated and strange, like Nightmare Moon’s was.

But on the other hoof, this pony has no armor, which seemed to be Nightmare Moon’s preference.

Even though she was my mortal enemy at the time, I thought her armor was simply fabulous, in an evil sort of way.

I learned to sew on my own. My mother had never been interested in such things, though she certainly encouraged me in my passion for fashion.

Though now that I think about it, she always did keep her mane done up in an immaculate beehive, which although I considered it gauche proved that she cared about her appearance, if in an outdated way.

Not that I mean to speak ill of my mother. I just mean that it wasn’t the style for me.

As I recall, for my cute-ceañera she gave me tickets to the Manehattan Fashion Week, which we went to together.

Of course, she had family still in Manehattan, so we visited them while we were there, but every moment I could I would spend at the Fashion Week events.

There was only so much relative cheek-pinching I could endure.

My parents were originally from Manehattan. They had come to Ponyville just after I was born, because by that time my father was a successful sports equipment salespony, and they had wanted to settle down in a quieter place.

The sporting goods store he started in Ponyville was similarly successful. I suppose business acumen must run in the family.

Though Dad was a little disappointed that he could only rarely see his home teams playing.

When I had started my own business, my mother warned me about the difficulty of it.

Were you moving to Manehattan? This was one of the first questions my mother then asked me.

I replied that I would stay in Ponyville and she chided me.

Oh you young filly, my mother said.

Nopony in Ponyville will care about fancy duds. Most of the ponies here are naked and seem happy that way.

I suppose I proved her wrong.

In any case, I had orders from all over Equestria once Sapphire Shores began wearing my outfits. Not that I had been doing poorly before that. But after her tour I sent away bundles of upscale fashion every day via the Equestrian Mail Service.

I used to watch those ponies flying away to all corners of Equestria with my merchandise.

I used to wave hello at one wall-eyed mare in particular who often took the packages from the post office, and she would wave back.

Though I was never close enough to speak to her, I feel we had a good rapport.

And by never close enough I mean in terms of physical location, as well as emotionally.

Celestia kept our friendship letters locked in a chest, deep in her wing of Canterlot Castle.

Carrying the letters down the staircase in that tower caused me to fall and nearly break my fetlock.

By the time I had slept and reawaken, it had swelled to twice its normal size and was very sore.

I had been holding the letters magically in front of my face, which means I had no way of seeing where I was going.

So of course for a long period of time I had to limp around the castle, which has so many stairs that I was practically trapped on the floor I was staying on.

Fortunately the swelling subsided with time.

Now and again the fetlock still pains me.

Generally this happens when it is about to rain.

It was around the time I found the letters that I also read though The Canterlot Tales, which I had read snippets of in school for assessment.

This was before I went to finishing school, obviously.

The copy I read was written on parchment and kept behind glass. Of course, I smashed the case open so that I could read the original print.

There was no alarm as I smashed the glass, but nonetheless I flinched as the glass shattered beneath my rock.

When I first started a car in the human world I was scared half to death by loud music blaring out of the car’s speakers.

I should have known better, considering that we ponies also have portable speakers and music players.

Nonetheless the pounding, bass-heavy music took me completely by surprise.

One minute I was fiddling with a key, and the next I had thumped my head on the car’s roof.

Actually, one learns to hope that music comes out of the cars one tries to drive, because it means that the car will normally start. The music-less cars almost never did.

‘Such dragyn that hath burnen mee.’

That is a line from one of the stories in The Canterlot Tales, I am sure, though I do not remember the other half of the rhyming couplet.

I believe the story is about a young romantic, lothario-type pony who wishes to seduce an old craftspony’s wife.

He is burned on the derriere at the climax of the tale, which is why the line talks about a ‘dragyn.’

The three sirens Starswirl the bearded banished, by the way, resurfaced once Sunset Shimmer brought Equestrian magic into that world.

I only mention that because among the letters I found letters from Sunset Shimmer, both before and after she had been Celestia’s student. It seems that she resumed sending Celestia letters from the human world.

And the letters jogged my memory.

How funny the mind is.

Many other parts of my memory have deteriorated. For instance, I cannot recall off hoof whether it was King Somber or Sombra we defeated.

I say we, but I think that Spike was the hero on that day, bringing the crystal heart back to its rightful place.

And Shining Armor and Cadence, for helping him while Twilight was trapped.

Nonetheless I was amazed just how powerful Twilight had become.

Later she showed us the gravity spell she had used to climb the Crystal Palace spiral staircase, which made us all stand on the ceiling of Golden Oaks Library.

Before we came down, Pinkie Pie pulled a tea set and some cakes out of thin air, and we spent some time inverted and laughing.

To us it was a magnificent experience, but I think Spike was annoyed because he had to clean the ceiling after we left.

I can picture him muttering and swinging a broom from the top of a ladder, though I was not around to see him do so.

Then again, perhaps Twilight had helped him out. In fact, I’m sure she would have.

I considered inflating Twilight’s hot air balloon and travelling to Cloudsdale.

But when I found the balloon I noticed the canvas had burst at several points along the seams.

I did not think it wise to try to repair that one.

Perhaps someday I’ll find another balloon.

Despite the dire circumstances, one must not put oneself at more risk than necessary.

I had only briefly considered walking further north than the Crystal Empire, or wandering deep into forests I didn’t know.

I can walk on clouds, by the way.

Meaning after the time I had fallen from the sky and Rainbow Dash had saved me, Twilight used the cloud walker spell on me, too.

All six of us could visit Cloudsdale as we liked. Spike also had the spell cast on him, so he could come with us.

In the Canterlot gardens, bird feeders hung from string and there were empty nests everywhere.

There was no trace of the fracas that Fluttershy had caused when we went to the Grand Galloping Gala.

Near the garden is the courtyard with all the statues.

Discord’s statue is noticeably absent, although its pedestal remains.

One has to wonder why they didn’t find a replacement statue.

Or even why Celestia had not simply asked Discord to snap a statue into place there.

Perhaps she had, but he had produced increasingly chaotic statues.

All around the courtyard were the diamonds I threw from the parapets.

I took our diary into the cellar and I read it before I go to sleep.

I use my horn to light up the room, normally, though I also use candles sometimes.

Occasionally I will mix mud packs and facial treatments for myself, which I affix before sleeping.

I once spent a few days carting beauty products from Canterlot to Ponyville: creams, lotions, mascara, all kinds of things.

Some had dried in their packaging, but most of them were fine, actually.

Once I tried to treat myself to a day at the spa.

I heated water for the bath and mixed some fresh mud.

I even found a frilly dressing robe in somepony’s locker.

Nonetheless the spa seemed enormous and abandoned, exactly as it was.

The whole day upset me more than anything, and I haven’t used the spa again.

Now I bathe in the river when I go to fetch water.

Comments

[SolangeEggbert]

Very different - and interesting and enjoyable premise and execution.

[Honey Mead]

5232750
I get that. What I'm talking about are the effects it has on the environment, like the watchtower being spooky at night.

[Blank_Slate]

5236474
Oh, right. I missed that one. Thanks for the help!

[Wacky]

5237619 Enjoying the goodness.

[journcy]

This is very fun to read. Rarity sounds like Rarity while also being more mature than the pony we know, and the delivery is excellent. I look forward to wherever you take us!

[howard035]

This is a great read, though it seems to me it should have a sad tag. Rarity remains upbeat, but you can tell how much it is costing her, how tightly she's now holding on to her sanity to keep in control.

[Blank_Slate]

5238581
Done - tagged as sad. Thanks for the tip.