//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: The Day It Begins // Story: Days of Change // by Bellex //------------------------------// The Day it Begins Today did not start out like the day before. No, today the pegasus ponies had a storm coming in with strong winds and later on some moderate to heavy rain. Rarity did not like these types of days, if simply for no more reason then it didn't allow her to wake up peacefully. Even in a sturdy wood house, there were still the minor squeaks that came when it was windy. Not to mention lack of customers, but alas, these dull weekdays are great for getting work done unhindered and without interruption. As the wind picks up, it rattles the windows to her room. Rarity decides she won't be getting any more quiet sleep for this morning and lazily gets out of bed to head straight for the bathroom. A nice shower is a nice start to any morning. Now with the chance of customers being very slim, she doesn't have to go all out like she usually would. She still pampers her mane and tail, but the makeup will be light. After she finishes, she heads over to Sweetie's room and knocks. "Sweetie, it's time to get up." Nothing. Rarity gives an exasperated sigh and opens the door. Still happily sleeping in her bed is a messy maned filly, already half out of her covers. Smirking, Rarity makes her way over to her sister. Ever so quietly she leans in and nudges her. Sweetie's only response is a quiet grumble. Another nudge, a little harder this time, and Sweetie rolls over, putting her head under her blankets. Oh? So it's going to be like that today. Very well. Rarity leaves the room and heads down to the kitchen. Once there she charges her horn, opens the freezer and pulls out a good sized ice pack. With the perfect alarm clock in her grasp she heads back to her sister's room. Sweetie is still under the covers, warm and comfy to be sure. That is about to change. With skill matching that of her own mother, Rarity effortlessly pushes down the bed underneath Sweetie with her magic and slides the ice pack under her. She sits down and waits. 5...4...3...2...1. EEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!! "Good morning dear, it's time to get up. Now go wash and get ready for school. I'll get breakfast ready." With a poorly disguised smirk, Rarity retrieves the ice pack and leaves the room, purposely not seeing the glare being given her and heading back down to the kitchen. By the time she reaches the bottom of the stairs, she can hear her sister slam the bathroom door. She'll need to talk to her about slamming doors, but after she gets back from school. Rarity did the same thing when her mother first did that to her, but with ice water. Opening the freezer, she places the ice pack back in its place. That done, the fridge opens and she picks out a few eggs, butter, lettuce, sauce, cheese, apple juice and bread. From the cupboard comes a pan and a small sack of sugar. With everything ready, Rarity gets to making breakfast. Stove on and pan getting hot, she places a bit of butter in and twirls it around. One good thing about cooking as a unicorn is you don't need to use every utensil you have to cook, especially with a hot pan. With the butter melted the eggs are cracked and emptied into the pan and scrambled with a satisfying sizzle. Separating the bread from the rest of the food, she selects four pieces, places them in the toaster and turned it on. While those are cooking Rarity prepares the plates and glasses. Pouring the juice into the glasses, she checks to see if the eggs are ready for the cheese. They are. She flips the eggs over then adds the cheese to the top of the eggs, cooks them a moment then she folds the eggs, creating a cheesy center in the omelets. Ding! Toast is done. Taking the toast out she places them on the plates and adds a light layer of sauce and sugar to one and lettuce to both. Sweetie enters the kitchen greeting Rarity with a heartfelt "Good morning sis." "Good morning, Sweetie. I'm sorry you had to wake up like that but we can't have you sleeping in when it is a school day." "But couldn't you have woken me up with something less cold!?" Sweetie sits down at the kitchen table. She is still angry about that. "Hmm. Well I guess I could have tilted the mattress so you roll out onto the cold, hard floor." Rarity had gotten that too, though her blankets were taken first. Sweetie renews her glare momentarily at Rarity before turning away. "Is breakfast almost done?" "Almost dear." Rarity carries the cups of juice over to the table and checks the eggs, opening one to check if its cooked all the way. Perfect. Taking the omelets, she brings them over to the plates and places them both on their respective pieces of toast. Making an omelet sandwich. Using her magic, she cuts one into four pieces. The easier for a young filly to eat with her hooves. And sets both plates on the table. Sweetie was surprised. Usually Rarity would make something less messy, and more flair. Oh well, she'll think about it later, she's hungry. She grabs a piece of the sandwich and takes a bite. Sugar. Is that sugar? She takes another bite. It is sugar! She looks over at Rarity taking a nibble out of her breakfast. "I suppose I can forgive you for waking me up so abruptly." Sweetie takes the last bite of her piece. "I'm glad to hear that." Rarity looks over at the wall clock. "Hurry up Sweetie, you're going to be late getting to school." Sweetie glances at the clock and sees Rarity is right. She abandons all lady like behavior and scarfs the rest of the food down. Rarity did say to hurry up. With breakfast done she rushes to her saddlebags, then out the door, hurriedly biding Rarity a good day. With Sweetie gone, Rarity can finish her meal at her own pace in relative quiet. The only sounds being that of the wind and shuttering of distant windows. After cleaning up breakfast and everything was washed and put back in its place, it was time to start the day. Starting with inventory. Rarity is use to finding that a bolt of cloth has mysteriously disappeared, usually her crimson or gold bolts. Which is why she now has a hidden compartment with her more valuable cloth hidden within. Hmm. Cobalt, indigo, sunshine yellow, evergreen. Good, those are here. Lace is undisturbed, my needles and thread are in their drawer. My ponequins are still standing. Seems Sweetie didn't raid my workspace overnight. With everything where it should be, Rarity brought out the design of the dress she was commissioned to create for a pony in Las Pegasus. Placing it on her podium, she studies the design and determines hoe much cloth and time she'll need to complete the dress. While doing that a strong gust of wind shakes the house slightly. Looking up and over her shoulder she waits for the gust to subside. "Goodness, that was a-" Crash Before Rarity can finish, the window in her work room shatters and a winged grey and yellow pony passes right in front of her and into her cloth-filled shelves, breaking one shelf. The pony gets wrapped up in cloth of gold, yellow, and some lace, falling to the floor. Rarity can't believe what she's watching. The unknown pony is struggling to get out of her clothe prison, ripping a few strands in the attempt. "Stop!" The unknown pony stops her struggling, breathing hard. "Don't move. I'll get you out of there in a moment." Rarity brings herself closer to the bundle of pony and cloth, studying the best way to get the pony out and save her cloth. After a look over, Rarity uses her magic and begins to unwrap the cloth away from the pony's head. A grey muzzle appears, then the rest of the head. A mare's head. But who is this pony? There are a few grey pegasus mare's around town. As Rarity continues her unwrapping a lock of pale yellow is freed. Ah, Derpy. I should have known. "You can open your eyes now, Derpy." Ditzy does so, bringing her head up close to see Rarity standing there with her horn aglow. Rarity has a bit of red on her cheeks and steps back. "I'm so sorry Miss Rarity. I didn't expect strong winds this early." Rarity sighs, continuing to help Derpy. "It's alright, Derpy. I can get Twilight to help me fix the window." At this a remnant of the window flew into the room a few feet before crashing down. "Or perhaps shield the window til the storm is over." Ditzy looks back down. Rarity has gotten the lace and yellow bolts off of Derpy, saving most of both and placing them temporarily next to her shelves. Looking down she sees Derpy still covered in gold silk. But she doesn't take the cloth off, instead she looks at the still trapped pegasus. Ditzy looks back up to Rarity to see her standing there, with a look of deep thought. But before she can ask what's wrong, Rarity suddenly gasps and call out "Idea!" Before Ditzy knows whats happening, she finds herself free of the cloth and placed on a raised platform with Rarity a few feet away drawing. Confused, Ditzy steps down and looks around Rarity to see a dress being drawn. Rarity is in the zone. She hasn't had a chance to design a gold dress in quite some time, and to find a mare whose eyes match perfectly with the color. What are the chances? She finishes her design, happy with the way it looks. She turns around and almost presses her face against Derpy's, not expecting the pegasus to be right behind her. Bringing her head back with a blush on her cheeks she tells Derpy to go back onto the platform. Derpy complies and Rarity gets started with the measuring. She has never had Derpy in her shop before, so she doesn't have her measurements. "So Derpy, what were you doing before you came to my shop?" "Oh! I was delivering today's mail...where are my saddlebags anyways?" "They're over there." Rarity says pointing in the direction between her work desk and bolt shelves. Ditzy viably relaxes. "Now hold still or I won't get accurate measurements." Ditzy didn't realize she was moving. So she stops and stands still. It didn't last very long til she started to look around. She's only ever seen the inside of Carousel Boutique from the front door and a flyby across (and now into) a window. Everything was tidy, placed for easy access. And the colors. So many colors! She couldn't name many of them. Before she could get to excited she felt something roughly hoof shaped smack against her flank. "Stay still," says a slightly annoyed Rarity. It wasn't very hard, more like what you would give to a pet for disobedience. It was more of the act than the actual effect. So facing forward, Ditzy stayed perfectly still. Unbeknownst to Rarity, Ditzy eyes starts to water. What did I do? I was only looking at her shop, she didn't have to hit me. "Thank you. I'll be done in a moment." Rarity says while jotting down numbers in a notepad and moving the measuring tape around the pegasus. "And done." Rarity hovers her notepad, pencil and tape over to her desk. She'll get started on this project after today's orders. She comes around to face Derpy, finally noticing the water in her eyes. She brings over a hoofkerchief and begins dabbling at Derpy's eyes. "Oh Derpy, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hit you that hard." "It's okay Miss Rarity, I know you just wanted to get done quick." "I'm sorry all the same. It wasn't right of me to do that to you." Ditzy nods. She looks over to her saddlebags. Rarity looks over, seeing the saddlebags as well. Grasping them with her magic she bring them over and give them to her. Ditzy begins to shuffle through the mail. Finding Rarity's mail, she bring them out and hoofs them over. Being thanked for the mail, Ditzy slings her bags onto her back and turns her back on Rarity to leave. Before she could get far, her front hooves slip on a bolt of cloth. Her front falls forward while her backside stays up. Embarrassed, Ditzy rushes out of the building without hitting anything, flying off to the next house. Rarity is now left alone in her workroom stunned with a deep blush on her face. Had she just seen what she thought she saw? Best not to think about that. I have to get Twilight before the rains come. It's going to be a long day. With that thought, Rarity gives one last glance at her new dress design before putting on a scarf and leaving her store, heading for the library.