Mark of the Grail

by DJ TR33

Sewing

A yellow filly with a red mane, complete with a bow almost as big as her head, sat slouching in the center of Carousel Boutique. On a rack next to her, several dresses were hanging, complete and ready to be shipped off to Canterlot. Behind her, three mirrors stood facing a raised platform, ready if anyone wanted to see how a dress or a saddle looked on them. On her other side, a stage was cloaked, hidden from the view of the world by red curtains that were draped everywhere in the lower room of the building. In another part of the room, a red dress lay uncompleted on a white manikin, the stitching done, the fabric half covered in brilliant rubies. The dress was part of a new monochromatic scheme of dresses that the proprietor of the boutique, Rarity, was in the process of creating.

The room was silent but for a soft scratching sound as Applebloom swung her hooves on the hardwood floor. The filly was bored, as bored as she’d been since before she had formed the Cutie Mark Crusaders, when she had spent her afternoons alone. She turned to look around the room disinterestedly. She had already examined the room, looking at the various dresses on display, the ruby coated dress that was clearly a work in progress, and had even tried to interest herself in the overall architecture, which would be interesting to her, had she not been to the building many times before and had many previous attempts to examine the architecture. The filly sighed.

It had all started when Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, her two best friends and fellow crusaders, had gotten into a massive fight, with Sweetie Belle arguing that she was tired of almost dying whenever Scootaloo wanted to go out crusading, and Scootaloo saying that she was sick of trying the unicorn always trying to get lame marks. The earth pony had tried to mediate, but the argument had quickly been blown out of proportions, leading to the two ponies storming out of the clubhouse in anger, leaving the red maned filly behind, hoof still outstretched in an attempt to soothe the tempers of her friends.

Afterwards, the filly had tried to find Scootaloo in an attempt to heal the wounds caused by the recent fight, but she’d been unable to find the pegasus, despite looking in all her friend’s favorite haunts and asking around town if anyone knew where the orange pony was. She’d avoided Scootaloo’s actual home, though; for one thing, the purple maned filly hated the place, and for another, Apple Bloom had heard enough tales about the house, and in particular, Scootaloo’s dad, to know better then to go over there.

When she’d been unable to find Scootaloo, the filly had decided to go to the Carousel Boutique to find Sweetie Belle. She’d wanted to find Scootaloo first only because she knew that the pegasus was much more sensitive than her unicorn friend, and because while Sweetie Belle had Rarity, Scootaloo had no one to cry to.

At the boutique, she’d been startled to find her sister, Applejack, deep in a conversation with her friend Rarity. From what she heard through the door, before she came in and brought all conversation to a halt, it seemed like Applejack was telling Rarity about somepony she had a crush on, and was looking for love advice from the unicorn fashionista.

The yellow filly had been disheartened to learn that Sweetie Belle wasn’t at the boutique, but decided to stick around in case her friend returned from wherever she had run off to. She’d moved off into the main floor of the building, shutting the door between her and the kitchen where her sister had been talking with her unicorn friend. As she had closed the door, she heard them start up the conversation again, in a much quieter tone.

Now, however, she was beginning to regret her decision to wait for Sweetie Belle to return to the shop, as she was growing increasingly bored, and she still hadn’t thought of a way to repair the crusader’s friendship. Suddenly, she was struck with a flash of inspiration.

Applebloom had heard tales from her sister of how Rarity had made dresses for her friends as a labor of love. She thought that, maybe, if she made a Crusader uniform for her friends, they might forget about their argument and get back to going on adventures and having fun, like they were supposed to be doing. Also, the uniforms would be a good way to pass the time until her friend came back.

Tentatively, so as to not let Rarity or Applejack know what she was doing, the filly slowly made her way up the stairs to Rarity’s workroom, where she kept her fabric and sewing machine. The filly tiptoed up the stairs, being careful not to make any noise as she slipped inside the room.

As the pony silently shut the door behind her, she gave a quiet sigh of happiness. Applebloom had always enjoyed working with fabrics and paint; there was something intrinsically pleasing about creating something so that other ponies could use and enjoy it. She didn’t get the opportunity to work on such projects often, but when she did, like the time she took it on herself to fix up the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse and give it a new paint job, she always dove into the project with tenacity and enthusiasm.

Her eyes sought out the bolts of fabric neatly arranged on the shelves, the sewing machine set to the side, and the three smaller manikins that Rarity had yet to fill up. Looking around, she could also see Rarity’s current project, a half completed sapphire blue dress that was slowly taking shape around another manikin that she’d set out in the center of the room. The filly gave the in progress dress a quick glance before turning back to the task at hand. She wanted to create a unique uniform for each girl that would be tailored to fit her lifestyle, and, at the same time, be similar enough that it could be used to identify the three fillies as Crusaders. Her tongue stuck out slightly as she furrowed her brow in thought; then she got to work, pulling various rolls of fabric off the shelf and laying them out, cutting out of them the shapes she wanted.

Applebloom picked up the shapes she had cut out from the fabric. Setting them aside, she cut off the excess fabric, then rolled the fabric back up and returned it to the shelves where she had gotten them originally. Turning back to the shapes she had laid out, the yellow filly began to work on the dresses in earnest.

For Scootaloo, the young dressmaker decided to create something lightweight that wouldn’t smother her outgoing friend, yet at the same time, hard duty enough to withstand the rough and tumble lifestyle the pegasus lived. In the end she settled for a single layer of orange felt with a purple trim at the bottom to weigh it down and prevent it from flying up in her face when she performed stunts on her scooter. The dress would cover her whole back, with holes for her wings on either side. On the flank, where most ponies had their cutie marks, the dress had been embroidered with a small patch of purple cloth in a shield shape. In the middle of the shield stood the emblem of the Crusaders, a rearing filly with a cloak blowing behind her, stitched in golden thread.

For Sweetie Belle, the filly used a silver fabric with a silky look and feel. Sweetie Belle didn’t do nearly as many stunts as Scootaloo, and she would appreciate the dress more then the orange pegasus would have. The back was layered with a light purple trim, matching the highlights in the unicorn’s hair as the fabric folded down the hind legs of the manikin. Like Scootaloo’s dress, she sewed on two purple shields embroidered with the ensign of their club.

Finally, the yellow filly got to work on her own dress. She pulled out the yellow cotton fabric that she’d cut out earlier, and quickly got to work, creating a simple, understated dress with a red border, designed for hard work. Like the other two dresses, she put the badge of the three filly’s club where a cutie mark normally lay.

In front of her, on the three manikins she was using, stood three completed dresses, each made to fit a different style, but with an underlying similarity clearly evident between the three. The farm filly stepped back in satisfaction.

Behind her, the pony heard the door to the room slam open, and jumped around in shock. Rarity was standing in the empty doorway, eye’s wide with shock at the audacity of the young filly. Slowly, though, the mare’s brain began to process what had happened, and as her shock left her, rage began to set in.

“Uh oh,” Applebloom said to herself, and then braced herself for the coming storm.

Comments

[fallen starr]

This chapter is good too. I wonder where Sweetie Bell is, if she isn't at Rarity's...but I love how you're describing their love for what it is they are doing in each chapter, making it obvious what they will get their cutie marks in if they only accept it. :) I'll keep a watch out for chapter 3!

[PatRoison]

I really like her dress designs. They're cute.

I hope the storm isn't too bad.