Rarity woke with a start. She sighed wistfully as she looked around her drab and small living quarters. It was so minuscule that her bed and table (the only furniture in her possession) filled the room beyond the 'cozy' standard. She got out of bed and put on her old, worn uniform. Once she was dressed she left her room, not bothering to lock the door. What was worth stealing in there anyway?
Rarity walked down the hall, lights flickering ominously, into the mess hall. The line already reached the doorway, and Rarity huffed and she stood there. She shouldn't have slept in. Eventually the slow moving line brought her to the table. She looked at the tired cafeteria pony, and asked for oatmeal. The pony fixed her oatmeal, put a few strawberries in the bowl, and put an orange beside it.
Hmm, an orange? Rarity thought to herself, shocked, as the usual fruit of choice was an apple. The farms must be doing well this season.
Using her magic, Rarity levitated her tray and took her meal to a table in the corner. She sat before the wobbly table and distastefully prodded her oatmeal with a spoon. She took a bite, grimacing at the stale oats and dried strawberries. Unhappily, she finished her oatmeal, and peeled to orange. No one cared about the conditions of the workforce.
Wonderful! she thought, Some fruit that isn't old and dry!
She greedily ate the orange, relishing each bite of the juicy fruit. They must have come from the farms just outside of Fillydelphia. She finished her meal and took her tray to another bored looking cafeteria pony. The pony took it, nodding at her in greeting, and immediately began to clean it off. Of course there wasn't much to clean. There never was. Food was not plentiful, and everypony ate everything they were given.
Rarity trotted out of the mess hall, and headed to the work floor. The elevator dinged, and she strode into the elevator. She pressed the grimy button for the 12th floor of the building. The 3rd garment floor. The lift took her up, and came to a slow, grinding halt. The doors opened with a creak, and Rarity waltzed out and to her work station. As usual her friend, Glimmer Shine was already at her station, working on a pair of white pants. She peered into her red bin to see a small stack of papers. It was Monday, so the papers were new. All the orders she needed to complete by Sunday, each written on the paper. Completed with color, material, location of shipment, and legion ID, the paper gave instructions for all the garments.
The first paper was for a white snow-coat, and was going to the front lines to the Cloud235 Legion. A sky base. One advantage Equestria had over King Sombra and his Crystal Empire, pegasi and unicorns. This particular jacket would have wool on the inside and golden trim. A commanders jacket.
Rarity went to the supply closet to pick up the wool, white fabric, white and gold thread. The held the objects in her magical grip, and trotted back to her work station. She set all her things out, organizing them and getting the order sheet out of her red bin. She began to sew the wool into the plain white fabric.
"So how was breakfast?" Glimmer Shine asked with a heavy Manehattan accent.
"Stale." Rarity replied bitterly.
"Sorry Rare." Glimmer replied. She knew how much Rarity missed fresh food from Ponyville. "What are you working on there?" she asked, trying to change the subject.
"A Commanders jacket for Cloud235."
"Ooh, that's nice."
"Yes, I suppose."
Glimmer decided to end their conversation on that note. She knew rarity better than anypony in Manehattan, and knew Rarity's favorite food was oatmeal. Eating the stale oats from the mess hall would get anypony down. She just wasn't they type of pony to adapt quickly. And to a war no less. Glimmer ignored Rarity's unpleasant mood for the time being to focus on her new stack of papers. Rarity did the same.
She had just finished sewing all the wool into the white fabric. She had more than enough, but kept the extra in case she made a mistake. Rarity walked slowly to the corner of the workroom to get a mannequin. She took the old, beat up mannequin to her station and set it off to the side.
"Can I use that when you're done with it?" Glimmer asked Rarity.
"Yes, of course." she replied as she went back to work. She used her mannequin to assemble the pieces. First the bodice, then the sleeves, and finally the hood. She took the pieces off the mannequin and began to put them together. She stitched the sleeves onto the bodice, then sewed the hood to the front of the jacket. To finish it off she took her golden thread and begun to sew the edges with gold. She did it on all of the outside edges, heavily on the hood. The coat was finished.
She looked at the order sheet to make sure all the requirements were met. She nodded in satisfaction as she read. Wool lined? Check. Gold trim? Check. With everything up to code she got her quill and ink to sign the document. As soon as her signature was written in fresh ink, she placed it in the green bin. Then took the new coat to the basket labeled "Rarity Week 96" 96 weeks at war. She thought with a sigh.
Her first garment of the week was complete. The whole thing took about an hour. She turned her head to the dusty clock behind her. It was 9:23. Her next order sheet was for a gray battle uniform, headed for Prairie2. Rarity passed her mannequin to Glimmer Shine, and went back to the supply closet. She grabbed the last roll of gray stretchy fabric. There was never enough of it to go around. Ponies always needed new uniforms.
As soon as Glimmer Shine was done with the mannequin, she took it back and begun to cut out the pieces of the uniform. Instead of the sleeves cutting off at the hooves, they wrapped around them. Rarity wrapped the fabric around the legs of the mannequin, and pinned them in place. Then she cut the piece for the main part of the uniform. As soon as she pinned it in its position, and bell went off in the workroom.
The bell meant lunch was being served in the mess hall. But because ponies were free to eat whenever they pleased (as long as they always finished their weekly orders) not many ponies went off to lunch.
"Glimmer, do you wanna go eat after I sew these sleeves on?" Rarity asked her friend.
"Sure, Rare." Glimmer said with a smile, happy to see her friend in a better mood.
Rarity sewed all four sleeves with ease. Each one quicker than the last. When she finished, Glimmer and Rarity walked to the elevator. Once inside the elevator, Glimmer pushed the button for the 6th floor. As the lift slowly went down, Glimmer Shine spoke, "So what were you working in there?"
"Just a battle uniform for Prairie2." Rarity replied as the elevator stopped on the 6th floor. "Wonder what's for lunch today?"
"I don't know, let's go see." Glimmer said as they exited the lift. They walked into the mess hall together. Rarity sighed with relief to see that the line was much shorted than it was this morning. The line was short enough for them to see there was mac n' cheese for lunch. And a side of baby carrots and fruit.
As the line moved, they got closer to the table and each grabbed a tray. They pushed the trays forward, and a scoop of mac n' cheese was placed on both of them. Further down the line they received the carrots and an apple. After they both got all their food, they levitated their trays. They walked over to the closest empty table and sat down.
"Do you wanna do something after dinner tonight?" Glimmer asked.
"Sure! My place or yours?" Rarity responded.
"Mine." Glimmer said confidently, "I have something I wanna show you."
"Alright." Rarity said as she took a bite of her mac n' cheese. Glimmer decided to go for the apple first. Glimmer finished her apple quickly and moved on to the baby carrots. Once she had eaten most of them, but put two to the side.
"Are you gonna eat those?" Rarity asked as she finished her own carrots off.
"It's part of the surprise!" Glimmer said excitedly.
"Okay." replied Rarity. The two unicorns finished off their meals, but went their separate ways. Rarity went back to her work, but Glimmer went... somewhere else. Rarity didn't know. Instead of going back up to the workroom, she went to a lower floor. Maybe she went back to her living quarters for a nap? Rarity thought. It made sense too.
She moved quickly to her station, and began to put the finishing touches on the uniform. She took her scissors and cut out a circle on the flank of the uniform. The bare flank was so Commanders could identify their troops. It also helped for identification if a pony didn't survive a battle. Once the flank was bare, she sewed two patches on the chest of the uniform. The first one, identified a pony as a Private. The lowest rank in the army. The second was the Prairie2 logo. A green field with the number two in the lower right corner.
Two garments done already? At this rate I can take extra work by Thursday, and get a bonus on Sunday!
Excited at the prospect of extra Bits, she eagerly signed the order document. After placing it in her red bin, she trotted off to her basket and dropped the uniform in. Quickly she looked at her next assignment, and was immediately saddened. It was another battle uniform, but for Mountain12. Mountain12 was the front line. A pony was lucky to leave that unit with major injuries. The pony that received this uniform, would likely die in it. Luckily she still had the roll of material for the uniforms. As she rolled it out on her table, Glimmer came back to her own station. As soon as Rarity didn't say hello, she knew something was wrong.
"Oh no! You were in such a good mood at lunch, what happened?" Glimmer asked after her observation.
"This uniform is for Mountain12." Rarity said glumly.
That was all it took. Everypony knew about Mountain12. Nopony liked to talk about it, and why would they? Who wants to talk about ponies dying in a war that never should have happened?
She repeated the same steps from the last uniform. Sleeves, bodice, cover the hooves. She sewed all the pieces together, but she put a small purple star on the belly of it. She always did that for anything that was going to Mountain12. She didn't want whoever got the uniform to die in something exactly like the pony next to them. It was a little thing, and maybe her supervisor saw it, and let it be. Ponies were very sympathetic to anyone, and anything going to Mountain12.
She finished with the hole on the flank, and the two patches. One for a Private, and the other for Mountain12. The logo for Mountain12 was simply a mountain with the number twelve in the center. With another uniform complete, Rarity signed her sheet and put the uniform in her basket.
She was done for today. Too many battle uniforms, and with three orders complete, she had a good pace for some extra Bits by the end of the week.
"You wanna show me that surprise, Glimmer?" Rarity asked as she walked over to her friends station.
"Sure, Rare. Just.. Let... Me finish... There!" she said as she finished the hood on her raincoat. "Lets go to my room."
The ponies walked out of their workroom and pushed a worn elevator button. once inside the elevator took them to the second level. Glimmer Shine's room was right in front of the elevator, so they walked in quickly. When Rarity saw what was in Glimmer's room, she was awestruck. There was a green plant-light, and so many pots and cups underneath it. Off to the side was a larger watering can, and a book, titled Growing Your Food Indoors.
"Glimmer, is this- are you.." Rarity stammered.
"I figured, since the war was going no where soon, I would spend my money on something that could make me happy. So I went to a store and bought these things. I've been saving some of my food to start growing more." Glimmer explained.
"This is amazing!" Rarity said to her best friend.
A/N I really hope you enjoyed this chapter of The Crystal War. I worked really hard to make this chapter entertaining. If you have any critiques, please tell me in the comments, if not I would love if you just shared your thoughts in a comments. While I encourage constructive-criticism, please no hate. The next chapter will be in Fluttershy's perspective!