Lily Glamerspear

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Finding a good dress for Corporal Bound was turning out to be harder than Specialist Lily Glamerspear had thought it would be. It wasn’t for lack of availability -- there was still plenty of stock in the stores they were visiting. And the prices weren’t bad, either. The Corporal hadn’t actually balked at any of the digits on the price tags so far. No, the problem was... she's so brown. Ponies usually wore colors that matched their mane or their coat, or at least their eyes. But Honour was just brown, brown, brown -- and nopony seemed to make brown dresses!

Or, at least, not nice ones. But even if Lily could find a brown dress, she was worried it'd just blend right in.

A number of perfectly good and reasonably priced dresses had been tried and rejected, and any of them would have worked for Glamerspear, or Sparkshower, or Ebonshield, or just about anypony else with an ordinary, brightly-colored coat (well, it was just a bright mane in Eb’s case, but at least she had some violet going on with her coat). But set against Honour's triple-brown combo, they just looked... 'noisy.' Like she was trying too hard to catch everypony's attention -- at least in Lily’s opinion.

It wasn’t even so much that the outfits looked bad, it's just that, well, it's the Gala. Outfits for the Grand Galloping Gala weren’t just some clothes to throw on; they should be a statement about who wore them -- and about their place in Canterlot. For example, take Lily’s little black cocktail dress from that year's Louis Valise summer catalogue, paid for by her wealthy benefactor, Captain Mailedhoof. It said, 'Here is a well-kept mare with exquisite taste in both gentlecolts and in fashion; you can't afford me, darling, but look all you please.' Lily’s Silver Ram, if she chose to wear it -- it was traditional to wear those kinds of honors to the Gala, but she wasn’t sure if it would really 'go' with her outfit -- also said a thing or two about her position in society, too.

Meanwhile, Sparkshower's satin-and-tulle, tea-length, boat-neck dress in blush-pink from last year's fashions said, 'I am a modest mare of modest means, simple in wants and graceful because of it; I'm more than my dress.' Artemis didn't know it yet -- because Lily hadn't quite finished altering it to fit her brawny frame -- but she was going to be a knock-out at the Gala.

Heh, if she wasn't careful, she'd have young gentlecolts swarming all over her. Maybe even more than would be flocking to Lily! After all, Captain Mailedhoof would be there with his wife; the unicorn’s role to play was as the little piece of candy, tempting him for an after-dinner snack.

Lily licked her lips as she waited for Honour to trot out in the next selection. Bored, she glanced over at the Royal Engineer, sitting quietly with one leg crossed over his knee. Though Lily still considered his presence an intrusion, at least he wasn't getting in the way.

Anonymous was just wearing his 'everyday' suit with his red sash of office, but the one he ordered for the Gala said a thing or two about him as well, even though it followed the traditional three-piece pattern: 'On the surface, I am much like any other colt, but look closer and you'll see that I'm not; I have a fine eye for detail, a sharp sense of style, and a healthy respect for tradition.' An excellent statement for a colt to make, particularly at an event like the Gala. Lily would help him pick out a suitable calling-card that would make a similar impression later today. Just as soon as she could get Honour into something the specialist liked...

And that Honour liked as well, of course.

Over on the right, a brown hoof pulled back the dressing-room curtain, and the corporal stepped out wearing the latest selection. It was a fairly simple number in gold satin, with a little bit of ruching at the back, a waistband, and then considerable ruching at the front to give it some texture and a nice dark/light sheen as she moved around. Honour stepped up onto the podium and looked herself over in the mirrors. She didn’t look thrilled. Not that she'd probably show it if she were, but to be honest, Lily wasn't particularly excited about it either. It worked, but, again, it didn’t quite seem special enough.

Lily decided to test the waters. "That's a good color on you, Corporal. How do you like the design?"

Twisting her head sideways, the earth pony examined her flank in the mirror, stepping and stretching her back legs. "I don't know... It fits all right, I suppose..."

‘Yeah, she doesn't like it.’

Then again, maybe she did -- Honour seemed to be having a little fun bobbing her backside to and fro, watching the material swish around. She continued to twist and turn, looking it over. Well, if she didn’t like it, at least she’d paid it more attention than any of the others so far. Or maybe she was just starting to have her anti-dressing-up defenses worn down, now.

Good thing Lily had saved some of the better stuff for later.

Frowning, the corporal looked back at the Royal Engineer, who so far had sat patiently through the whole series of dress-up & look-overs. "What do you think, sir?"

Surprised to be addressed after all this time, Anonymous lifted his eyebrows and uncrossed his legs. "Me? You want my opinion, Corporal?"

Honour replied with a shrug, wearing a neutral expression on her face.

‘Well, she might as well get a third opinion while she's up there. Provided he doesn’t screw this all up by saying something inappropriate!’

Anonymous looked her over. "...I-I don't really know what to say."

Lily chuckled and waved a hoof up at the Corporal. "It's not a trick question or anything, sir. Does she look good enough to walk into the Gala alongside a member of the Blue Chamber? After all, we're all going together, aren't we?"

He smiled. "I suppose we are, but I don't know much about Equestrian fashion."

Lily scoffed. "That's surprising to hear considering how you've got classical colts' style down pat." He gave Lily a confused look, so she continued on with a smile. "I remember how you effortlessly rattled off that order for your very fashionable Gala outfit, sir. You must know more than you think."

Curiously, her statement seemed to dampen his mood.

"That was a special case, Specialist. I've bought that exact suit before."

Lily furrowed her brow. "Wha..? I thought this is your first Gala?"

He licked his lips and sat back in his chair, his mood darkening. "It is. But that was my wedding suit. Back in my world."

‘Oh, crap.’

Corporal Bound's jaw and shoulders dropped, as she blurted out. "You were married, sir?"

‘Bucking Tartarus! She's supposed to be the one to tell me to shut up when I’ve opened my mouth too wide! And there she goes, digging into Anonymous' past on another world!’

Lily may not remember every single boring detail Lieutenant Temper Violetta had said in her briefing about the Royal Engineer, but she sure as buck remembered her admonition not to bring up that sort of thing! Involuntary exiles in Equestria usually didn't like talking about their homelands much, especially when there wasn't much hope of them getting back -- and in Anonymous' case, the L-T had said there was practically no chance at all.

Surprisingly, the Royal Engineer shook his head. "No. I was only engaged."

He got zapped to another world before he could even get married? Separated forever from his sweetheart? Celestia's tears, that's tragic -- and Lily wasn't the mushy type, either. Sparkshower would probably already be bawling if she was there for this.

The corporal's eyes went wide. "You left a fiancée behind?!"

‘Oh great, way to step deeper into it, Honour. Really mash your hoof in there.’

Anonymous swallowed and adjusted himself in his seat. "No. It didn't go through. I, uh..."

He smacked his lips and stared down at the ground for a moment.

"... I called it off."

‘Wow.’

‘That's not the kind of thing that's very frequent around here.’

And from the way he said it, it was obviously not frequent over there, either. As much as it contradicted the Lieutenant's instructions, Lily wasn’t sure her curiosity would let her go on without hearing the rest of this story. And Honour, standing in utter shock, looked unable to continue as well. Hesitantly, Lily opted to see if the Royal Engineer was willing to part with the rest of the details.

"What... happened, sir? If you don't mind us asking?"

Anonymous cast his eyes around the room, then shrugged. "I don't mind. It was a couple of years ago, now..."

Lily got the sense that, even after two years and getting dumped on another world, he wasn’t really completely over it yet.

Anonymous cleared his throat, placing his hands together in front of him. "...There was a breach of trust."

Honour took a step forward, wearing a concerned look. "She cheated on you?"

That was Lily’s first thought as well, but Anonymous shook his head. "No. It was a different problem."

Now it was Lily’s turn to blurt something out. "Money."

Both the Royal Engineer and Corporal Bound looked over at her quizzically. And looking at his face, Lily knew her guess was right.

She shrugged. "Infidelity or money; it's almost always one or the other that breaks up couples."

Anonymous nodded. "In this case I suppose you could say it was about money, yes..."

He paused a moment to take a deep breath and clear his throat. "...She was fairly heavily in debt when we first met. Student loans from school, credit bills from a spendthrift post-graduate life, that sort of thing. Myself, I'd been in the black for a while, living at home with my parents, but her debts didn't really bother me. She had a decent job and a good career ahead of her which would easily let her pay things off. And she was taking care to do just that."

Dipping his head, he lifted one of his hands up in a dismissive gesture, then let them both drop down onto his knees. "...At least, that's what she always said. And when money ever came up, she acted like things were going well, too -- buying expensive things, like a brand-new pricey car instead of a used or simpler one, making it seem like her previous debt was down to almost nothing."

Sucking on his lips, he lifted an eyebrow. "After a year and a half of dating, I proposed. She was thrilled. We were happy. She wanted a big, extravagant wedding. I decided I wanted a fancy bespoke tailcoat, so I did my research and came up with that wedding ensemble."

A fleeting smile appeared on his face, then disappeared just as quickly. "About half a year before the wedding, the housing market was getting pretty hot in our city. I thought it would be a good idea if we tried to get in on some property sooner rather than later. A nice condo midtown, or maybe a house in the suburbs. We made an appointment to get a mortgage pre-approval at the bank; she still pretended like everything was going well and that her credit rating was doing fine."

Shaking his head, he started to look a bit depressed. "But when we got there, it became clear that it wasn't."

Puffing his cheeks, Anonymous blew out a breath and looked down. "She didn't want to admit the truth. She said she was afraid I'd get upset. And in the end, I suppose I did. Not about the debt, which was bigger than she'd ever admitted, and being paid off far more slowly than she'd claimed..."

He looks up, fixing each of them in his gaze, one at a time.

"...I got upset about the lies. The constant claiming that her finances were completely under control. The attempts to cover things up by spending big, when small would've done fine, and when she couldn't really afford it. And how she didn't even say anything before the mortgage meeting."

Anonymous looked wistfully off away from them again. "Face to face with a banker who knew everything about her financial situation, but couldn't spill the details in front of me without her permission, even then she couldn't bring herself to tell me the truth -- not until the car ride home, where she broke down in tears."

Finally, he shrugged. "What choice did I have? I couldn't trust her after such an extended, concerted deception, no matter her apology. Two years of fakery and lies. You can't marry someone you don't trust. So I called it off, and bid her farewell."

The Royal Engineer slouched back in his chair. "I forfeited the deposit on my suit, but that wasn't important. It was the build up and let down of the whole thing; it took something out of me, something much more significant than just money."

A sly smile crept back onto his face. "You know the punchline, though? Half a year later, the bottom fell out of the property market. If we'd bought back then, our mortgage might've wound up uncomfortably underwater. As it was, I made a move and picked up a nice house in a good neighbourhood, all on my own."

The smile disappeared.

"... That was a few months before I wound up here."

‘Damn.’

Lily didn’t really know what to say to all that, and from the look on her face, the corporal didn’t, either.

There was a long, awkward pause, broken only when the Royal Engineer clapped his hands on his knees. "Sorry. I hope I haven't knocked down the mood too much. Anyways, that's why I was able to 'rattle off' the order for that suit so easily, Specialist Glamerspear. I'd spent a considerable amount of time researching things and learning a lot about traditional suits." He chuckled. "Since I never wound up using or even getting the original incarnation, I'm looking forward to wearing it to the Gala here."

Shrugging, he spreads his palms. "As for 'coltish fashion' in Equestria, I think I'm just fortunate it happens to be so much like the traditional formal menswear on my world. It's startling, really. But, when it comes to female attire... Well, I suppose there are a couple of similarities in techniques, but the styles are quite different. Equestria seems to prefer much more big, flamboyant outfits than were common where I come from."

Smiling, he looked Corporal Bound up and down, and the Corporal stood stark, appearing almost embarrassed by the attention. "I think that dress looks good. The gold color works well."

‘Interesting!’

‘And what will Miss Bound do with this third opinion, now that she's finally gotten it?’

Honour nodded, then turned to look herself over in the mirror again. "Let's... put it as a 'maybe', OK?"

‘Really?’

‘That's the first 'maybe!’’

Lily still wasn’t one-hundred-percent satisfied, but it was growing on her a bit. And a lot could be done with accessories, after all.

Honour glanced back at the unicorn. "There's still a few more to try on."

Lily thought quickly.

‘If she liked this one, which one's the next best bet?’

Something came to mind.

"Why don't you try on the red one? With the lace?"

With a nod, the Corporal trotted off to the changing room, drawing the curtain shut.

Lily took the opportunity to lean over and whisper at her VIP. "Psst... Sir, can you do me a favor?"

Anonymous hunched over and down to her level and whispered back. "Certainly. What is it?"

Lily nodded towards where Honour was changing. "It's the corporal, sir. I don't think she's got a lot of self-confidence about her looks, if you know what I mean? And I could use your help with that."

The Royal Engineer arched his eyebrows. "What do you need me to do?"

Lily grinned. "Just now, you complimented the outfit -- that's great, and I'm sure she appreciates it. But next time, if you like the way she looks, make sure to phrase it so it's about her, ya know?"

Waving a hoof around for emphasis, the unicorn continued. "... Like, instead of, 'That dress looks good', say, 'You look good in that dress,’ get it?"

The Royal Engineer nodded and sat back up. "Sure, I'll do that."

‘Great!’

Because that red thing was something special, and Lily really wanted Honour to like it.

Funnily enough, she’d managed to strip off the gold one and get suited up in the red much faster than any of the previous costume changes. The look on her face when she opened the curtains, and the way she opened them -- slowly, like she didn’t want to be seen -- told Lily that she had an uphill battle ahead of her to get Honour into that particular outfit.

"I don't know about this one, Glamerspear."

‘For Celestia's sake! She hasn’t even stepped out of the change-room!’

Lily rolled her eyes. "What, did your 'drinks-with-just-a-friend' friend happen to walk into the store? Don't want to spoil next weekend's surprise in case he sees you in here?"

That earned her a nasty frown.

‘Touched a nerve with that one!’

‘Guess Mister Mystery Colt still played it slow last night.’

Regardless, Honour grumbled, found some courage, and approached the podium.

‘Now, this is a pretty one.’

The red color, Lily felt, wouldn't really work on a lot of mares -- though it definitely worked on a brown one, now that she saw the corporal in it. The fabric was very nice: a darker red floral lace on top of a lighter beige, translucent backing material. That was all reasonable, but it was the cut that was probably making her the most uncomfortable. The cut at the back, to be specific.

Suspecting that Corporal Bound preferred more conservative choices in outfits, this was the only mini dress Lily had picked out for her, but so far, she liked what she saw. Sleeveless, low-cut for a sizable amount of exposed tuft, and with a stiffened chest to form the body, the back ended in lacy frills that just barely covered the curvature of her plot below her tail. The effect would be striking on any pony, but the red color went perfectly with Honour's brown coat and mane 'n' tail -- the backing layer seemed to blend right into her body, so that only the lacy outer layer was really visible. It was almost as if she were wearing the lace alone! And that's part of what made it look great, in Lily’s mind.

Corporal Bound hesitantly looked herself over in the mirror. "It's... pretty short back there. I don't know if this is really appropriate for the Gala."

The specialist scoffed. "Pfft, are you kidding me? Take a look at last year's Canterlot Match magazine; some mares wear dresses cut so short you can almost see everything they've got going on in the rear. You're well above that crass level."

What Lily said was absolutely true. The Corporal didn’t look that convinced, though, so she kept going. "Look, if you feel that uncomfortable, just wear some beige panties underneath it. They'll blend in with the underlayer fabric, the lace'll hide any panty lines, and you won't have to worry about any 'accidental reveals,' ya know?"

That seemed to help; Honour didn’t look quite so skeptical about it anymore. Lily decided to stand up and close the sale, stepping up behind the corporal and watching her go over her reflection in the triple mirrors. Like with the gold one, she bobbed her plot around a bit -- except this dress had a lot more bounce in the back, with the way the bottom splayed out playfully. And that extra bounce in the fabric seemed to be encouraging her to let loose a bit more with her derrière. She was even grooving with her shoulders, too!

‘Damn, maybe the Corporal wasn't always such a grim-faced killjoy.’

‘If so, could this derby-downer brown mare still tear it up on the dance floor?’

Lily was getting a bit curious to find out. Honour wasn’t quite ready to say 'yes' to the dress, though...

The corporal looked up at the Royal Engineer's reflection in the mirror. "What do you think about this one, sir? Compared to the gold one?"

‘C'mon, VIP, don't let your quaternion down. Give Honour the final push over the edge!’

Anonymous took just the right amount of time to appear to be giving a measured response. "I think you look good in it. The color works well against yours, and the lace print has an attractive texture. It looks like you can dance in it, too -- there's dancing at the Gala, isn't there?"

He looked over at Lily as the authority on the G-G-G, and she grinned. "Oh yeah. They start off with the old-fashioned stuff first, but once that's done the DJ lets loose with modern club tunes. The party goes aaaallllll night -- and sometimes night can go on a little longer than usual, too! 'Cause sometimes Her Majesty is a bit late in raising the sun the next day, ya know?"

He smiled. "I think it'd work very well for high-energy dancing. But if you're worried about dressing too aggressively for the rest of the gala leading up to that, why not get something else to wear on top as a layer? Like a shawl or cape?"

‘Buck, that's a good idea.’

Lily looked slyly over at Honour, who was nodding -- with her usual frown on her face, but at least she was nodding.

"I saw a few over in the accessories section, Corporal. Wanna trot over there and take a look?"

She nodded once more. "Yeah, okay."

‘GREAT SUCCESS!’

As she headed out into the main room, Lily gave an appreciative nod to the Royal Engineer. "We'll be right back, sir." Winking at him, she whispered as soon as Honour was out of earshot. "...And thanks for helping seal the deal."

Anonymous smiled. "Any time, Specialist."

‘Yeah, any time you want, big colt.’

‘Heh, maybe the batpony had the right idea about him after all...’

Lily stepped out of the changing area after Honour.

Oh, this was gonna be the best gala ever; her VIP and the quat' were kitted out like a full-on squaaad. They were gonna kill it on the red carpet. Anon in his sharp custom tailcoat. Sparks in that cute little sweetheart dress. Honour's dressing up to party hard. Lily rocking the LV badge with a black summer dress and some killer pumps. And Eb...

‘Wait, what was the sergeant planning to wear?’

‘Oh, well. Questions for later.’

One she’d consider once she was done with the corporal. After all, this is the military! Things've gotta go up the chain of command properly, haha!

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Suggested interlude music: Madonna - 'Vogue' [1990]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJQSAiODqI

Next Chapter: Chapter 88 Estimated time remaining: 19 Hours, 44 Minutes