“Oh Ya~ng” Rarity’s voice sang from the opposite side of my bedroom door.

“Come in, Rarity.”

Rarity entered with a number of boxes. “And those are?”

“The rest of your winter clothes. What are you doing in bed?”

“It’s my day off and I want to spend it in my warm bed.”

“But it’s almost six PM.”

“Warm bed!”

“You’re trying to avoid touching the floor, aren’t you?”

“That too. It’s chilly. And my current warm clothes don’t do quite enough against the chill.”

“Then it’s a good thing I made these.” Rarity floated out a pair of fuzzy slippers that matched my robe colors. “And these.” She also floated out a pair of pyjamas colored like my robe. The burning heart logo was emblazoned on the back of the top piece. “Comfortable, soft, and imbued with heating enchantments to keep every part of you nice and warm, even in the middle of the coldest nights.”

“Ooh, thanks. Gimme.” Rarity obliged my childishly worded request and after I got the new clothes, I covered myself with the blanket to change into them. After they were all on, I took the blanket off and did not feel the cold air that I had been with the robe, nor the chill of the floor on my feet. “I love them, Rarity. It’s almost like wearing the blanket.”

“I knew you would love those. You know, in all the time I’ve been making clothes, never before have I met someone who actually needed them like you do, especially around winter.”

“Hm?”

“Ponies usually only need a hat and scarf at the most, since our fur helps keep us warm. Other clothes are usually for showing off wealth or power.”

“Okay, I can see the hat for winter, covering the ears, but why would a scarf be necessary?” From what I could recall, pony scarves didn’t come close to covering the whole neck.

“To go with the hat, of course.” I decided not to ask any further on the scarves. “Most other winter clothes that ponies wear are worn by designated outdoor crews, though in your case, it’s more survival than anything. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like with your crippling weakness to the cold.”

“Yes you can.”

“Yes, I can. Anyways, I’ve taken a few extra steps for your new clothes. I made new hangers for them so you can just grab one and everything’s on there, aside from undergarments, footwear, and gloves. I’ve also added quick drying enchantments to your outdoor clothes so they don’t stay wet from the snow very long.”

“Wow. What prompted you to go so far with that?”

“You mean aside from my usual sense of generosity and how much you need them? I got a letter from Celestia telling me that, due to his actions leading to your hypothermia incident, Sir Safehouse would be the one paying for all of your winter clothes as part of his punishment, so there may have been a bit of vengeance mixed in there as well.”

“Vengeful generosity then. That’s certainly a new thing.”

“I also took advantage of the situation to completely restock on all my materials, add a little more storage for my materials, and have a good lunch at the Olive Branch cafe. Oh, that reminds me, I have something else to tell you.”

“Yeah?”

“There’s an event next month in Canterlot that Princess Celestia has requested that you attend. She made it very clear in the letter that you have to attend, and she won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

“What is it?”

“The annual Entrepreneur Awards Ceremony. Everyone who’s started a new business in Equestria is strongly encouraged to attend, not only in case they win something, but also to expand their connections.”

“Why does she want me to attend?”

“To annoy the nobles, I presume. The Canterlot Council always attends these events to try and absorb the new businesses to increase their wealth. Knowing what they think of you though, they probably won’t even try to absorb the Carne Den.”

“Really?”

“The only nobles who would even willingly approach you, let alone with any kind of business deals, are Fancy Pants and Fleur Dee Lis, and they’re very reasonable ponies, as I’m sure you know.”

“Oh yeah.”

“Now, a formal event like this will require a formal dress-”

“No.”

“You still don’t want to wear a proper dress?”

“Nope.”

Rarity sighed. “Yang, I know you don’t like dresses, but have you seen your wardrobe? Your work and winter clothes, both of which you had a hand in designing, are practically nothing but dresses, just with pants. Your exercise outfits and swimwear show off your body quite well. And I know what you said about the Nightmare Night costume, and I respect that, but you must wear a dress for this occasion.”

I studied Rarity for a moment. “You’re not going to let me get out of this, are you?”

“If I have to ascend to make sure you look nice for this event, Celestia help you I will.”

I saw that there was no way out, so I resigned myself to my fate. “Let’s see what you’ve designed.”

Rarity floated out three very thick books. “As with pony fashion, there are lots of choices when it comes to dress designs, and if the books Twilight has given me are any indication, there’s more styles available for women than mares. She thinks it’s because of anatomy, what with the bipedal posture and all. I think it’s because humans need clothes, so they got more and more creative with the designs. In both our species, there’s a magnitude more variance for the females than males. What do you think?”

I picked up one of the books, seeing only an up arrow on the front cover. “I think it might be because there’s more money to be made there. What’s this book?”

“That one has various upper halves of dresses, all on the right pages. Its partner is this one, containing various skirt designs, all on the right pages.”

I got the partner book with the down arrow and looked at the two. “So this is a mix and match thing then?”

“More mixing, less matching. They are all just black and white sketches with no colors. And the books can link together as well.” Rarity took the books in her magic and put them together with the arrows pointing away from each other. I opened the books and saw the first pieces, which were so small that I’d describe them together as barely legal in approximately 300 countries back on Earth. “How are these organized?”

“Smaller stuff in the front, larger stuff in the back.” I flipped to the last pages of the books and saw a dress that was so big and fancy, it looked like it would take every bolt of fabric in the boutique to make it. “I may have gone a bit overboard with those halves.”

“I can’t even tell how I’m supposed to put it on, or use my hands while wearing the thing.” I flipped to the middle pages where things were more reasonable. “This is better. What’s the third book?”

“Whole dresses that I’ve sketched out just for you. I’ve even colored a few of them in.”

I skimmed a few designs, fairly easy with a mix and match pair of books and a few pages from each. “How much do you spend on art supplies?”

“Exactly enough. Oh, I do have an opinion question on human dresses for you.”

“Yeah?”

Rarity flipped the top book forward to some basic long sleeved designs and the lower book to the shorter skirts. “What do you think of this kind of design?”

“Confusing, to be honest.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“It just doesn’t look quite right to me. Probably a matter of proportions, but long sleeves and exposed legs just doesn’t work for me. It looks weird, and if you go into a cold area, sure your arms and body are covered, but your legs are exposed and there’s no equivalent of a jacket for your legs. If you flip it around, exposing the arms and covering the legs, it just looks better, like you put on more than just an oversized shirt and called it done. That, and you can put a jacket on if you need to.”

“You’ve put a bit of thought into that, haven’t you?”

“For whatever reason, probably because of how weak I was, pretty much all my friends where I’m from were girls, so I was exposed to more of the female side than most guys were. I’ve even got more male friends here than I did back there, and by a significant margin, though I do admittedly work with most of them here.”

After a few minutes of browsing and crossing ideas, Rarity broke the relative silence. “So, getting off of what seems to be a bit of a negative road, how’s business?”

“Pretty good. Even with the 7.5% tax that I’m now paying, I’m still making a lot.”

“What are you doing with all the profits?”

“Keeping them in the bank. Everyone here is paid by the hour, even me. My money is seperate from the Carne Den’s, and I still have a good chunk of spending money. It helps that the water and power bills cover both the restaurant and my house.”

Eventually, after a few hours, Rarity and I had come up with no good dress ideas from the mix and match books and she had to leave. “Well, it has been a good evening with you, Yang, but I need to get home since it’s - oh my, it’s almost ten. I’d better get some supper and head home. Oh, are you going to the Running of the Leaves tomorrow?”

“No, I’ve got work. What is that anyways?”

“It’s a race that goes through Whitetail Woods and around Ponyville to shake the leaves off the trees to prepare for winter.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. Twilight did really well in her first race, coming fifth place and not very exhausted, all because she paced herself. The four pegasi that finished ahead of her were very exhausted, and Rainbow and Applejack came in last because they were so busy competing against each other. As I recall, that was also the year they decided to start giving out chocolate medals instead of metal ones.”

“Why?”

“To save a few bits. Mayor Mare was under quite a bit of budget pressure at the time, so she switched the medals around. It’s been that way since then because everypony liked the chocolate medals, and it’s actually increased participation substantially, making it a much faster event now, both because the increased number of ponies makes more leaves fall with each pass and the drive for a large chocolate medal pushes everypony to go faster.”

The premise made a bit more sense, but was still absurd. “Yeah, I’m still not going to it.”

“Fair enough. I’ll leave these for you to go through on your own time.” After Rarity left, I closed the door and set the books on my desk.

Since I was now able to move without feeling a chill from the air, I decided to put all my new winter clothes in the closet and move the lighter warm weather ones to the dresser. I decided to make it a permanent arrangement as well.

Once the clothes were neatly put away, I looked to the books of dress designs on the desk. After some deliberation, I decided to put it off for another day. It was dark, and as soft and warm as the new pyjamas were, they couldn’t match the feeling of comfort that a bed brought.

After an unpleasant trip to the bathroom and a glass of water, I curled back up on the bed. Looking at the dresses could wait a while.

One week later

“Yang.”

“Rarity.”

“You haven’t chosen a dress yet, have you?”

“No, I haven’t. I’ve been busy with work.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Rarity’s horn glowed a couple times. Then it glowed again and she had the dress books with her. Then, in a flash, she was replaced by Twilight and another flash later, I was in Twilight’s room. I could smell apples. “Yang, do you know why you’re here?”

“Because I haven’t chosen a dress yet?”

“Yes. This is a forceful intervention. It is absolutely necessary that you get a dress for the Entrepreneur Awards Ceremony. Twilight dear, I’ll let you explain what’s going to happen.”

“Thank you, Rarity.” Twilight unnecessarily cleared her throat. “Right. Yang, you and Rarity are going to be locked in here until you come to a decision on what kind of dress you want. The bathroom will be available to both of you. Also, once you choose a dress, I’ll have Spike whip up a serving of chicken alfredo pasta for you.”

“That stuff’s good.”

“And he knows it too. Anyways, I’ll let you sort this out while I take care of some other Princessly business. Bye.” And with that, Twilight teleported away.

For a while, all we heard was the ticking clock. I eventually interrupted it. “So, dresses.”

“Yes. Now, I’ve been thinking that maybe we’ve been looking at this the wrong way. We shouldn’t try to find a dress that you’d like to wear, but one that you’d like to have others see.”

“Come again?”

“I think you’ve been looking too much at how you feel in a dress. That is important, but let’s think about how you would look in one. Try distancing yourself a bit from the pictures, don’t think so much about how you would feel in the dress, but how the dress looks to you. If I recall correctly, you were turned into what is a fictional character from your world, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Imagine that you’re with the writers, and they’ve selected you to choose or help design a formal dress for her. Whatever you choose, they will go with. What would you like to see her wearing?” Rarity floated the dual arrow book in front of me and I opened it. “Now, I did try to make these dresses work with her bracelets’ shapes and colors so that she can keep them with her and still look good, but if she decides not to wear them, the dresses still look good.”

Rarity’s change of wording did not escape my notice, but it really did make it easier to consider the dresses. The short dresses were quickly passed over, as I knew those were right out. “Are there any bookmarks around here?”

“Not that I’m aware of, but you can just fold the corner of the-”

“NO!” Twilight cried as she teleported in. A moment later, she teleported out, then teleported back in with a whole rainbow selection of bookmarks. “Phew. That was close. Back to work.” With another flash, she was gone again.

“Exactly as planned.”

While Rarity put the assorted bookmarks in order by color, I continued browsing the dresses with the premise she had given me. It really made it easier for me to appreciate the designs. I wound up marking about 20 different dresses.

“Alright, these are some good choices, Yang.”

“That isn’t difficult with these choices.”

“Thank you dear, I do appreciate the compliment. Now then, let’s make things a bit easier.” With some concentration, Rarity cleanly pulled the marked dresses out of the book and set them between us.

“Oh, I just thought of something important.”

“Hm?”

“I have no idea how to, well, relieve myself while wearing a dress.”

“You’ve had to go while working before, yes?”

“Yeah.”

“Seeing as your top piece is effectively a dress, all you really have to do is apply similar motions. Depending on the size of the skirt portion, you may have to further extend the motions or come up with another method.”

“Such as?”

“Yang, I’m a mare, not a woman. What works for me and my dresses might not work for you and yours.”

“Great.” With the new problem in mind, I was able to easily eliminate a quarter of the designs, which Rarity neatly put back in the book with her magic. A few others joined them, leaving me with mostly knee length dresses to choose from.

While I was looking over the dozen remaining pictures, I found myself focusing more on one design than the other eleven. “You like that one, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I kind of do.”

“Then I guess we’re done here.” The smell of apples suddenly vanished.

“Wait, how’s this one going to work? What are the pieces to it?”

“Well, there’s the white dress, the black one over it, and the lace that goes across your shoulders. It should be easy enough for you to use the mare’s room with that on, even I can tell.”

“Take off the black one, hang it, and take care of business. Wait, what about footwear?”

“I’ll be sure to make you a nice pair of heels and special socks to go with the ensemble.” Rarity floated out some paper and pencils and started drawing an outline of a stiletto heel.

“Uh, can I pass on the heels?”

“Why, Yang? Do you have something against these too?”

“I have no idea how to walk in those kinds of shoes.”

“Oh. Well, I suppose I can see the problem there. That being said, I can’t let you go there without some kind of elegant footwear. You need a heel of some kind, otherwise it just won’t do.”

“If I may?” I got the drawing supplies from Rarity and drew a rough outline of a shorter shoe with a larger heel. “This would be easier for me to walk in. No more than two inches tall, and with a thicker heel, it would be easier for me to get used to walking with them.”

“This idea is so simple, it’s amazing.”

“Shouldn’t this have been in one of those books Twilight’s given you?”

“I’ve never seen one like it. Or at least, it never caught my attention if there were any in the books. I’ll have to double check them. Also, I’m going to have to put some serious heating enchantments in this set. I’ll check with Celestia about the event temperature to see if she can have it kept around, what’s a good temperature for you?” Rarity packed up her stuff and we left the room.

“I can tolerate 70, maybe 65 at the lowest with that dress. Wait, where is the event?”

“Inside Canterlot Castle next month.”

“The same castle that’s on the side of the mountain in the distance?”

“Yes, are you getting at somethi- oh, right, the temperature.” Rarity’s face scrunched a bit in thought. “Okay, how about this: you take a pegasus chariot there, along with a suitcase, get a room at the castle, change there, go through the event, stay the night, and come back the day after everything’s done?”

“Aside from simply how much cold there’s going to be, I think that sounds good.”

“Well then, I’d better get home so I can at least make one part of your new dress before going to sleep. Speaking of which, I find it kind of amazing that your body hasn’t really changed shape. All your measurements are still the same.”

“You can tell that?”

“Remember when I got your measurements?” A chill went down both our backs at that memory. “There’s a reason I don’t use that spell very often.”

“It’s not pleasant. Anyways, have a good day, Rarity.”

“You too, Yang.”

Rarity went her way while I joined the short line for Twilight’s court. It was a weekday and with winter approaching, most ponies were out there getting ready for it.

Fortunately, it seemed like the few ponies ahead of me were simply asking for advice and were done quickly enough.

Before I went in for my turn, I spared a glance behind me and saw no line. “Well Twilight, I made my decision.”

“Please don’t tell me what you chose. I’ll see it at the ceremony, and since Rarity designed it, I’m sure it will look amazing.”

“Yeah, how do you get the pictures for those books you give her anyways?”

“It’s a secret. Spike’s already making the alfredo chicken pasta for us, and it looks like you’re the last one here for the day. Would you like to have lunch with us?”

“Sure, why not?”

Author's Notes:

Go ahead and place bets on how the Entrepreneur Award Ceremony might go wrong. If I keep writing at the pace I've got going, the answer will come soon. Otherwise, it will simply come less soon.