“Alright, so who’s got an idea?” Rich asked the group.
“I gotta ask, how do y’all come up with so many ideas?” Applejack asked.
“Well, ideas are inspired by something, that’s how innovations are made,” Smitty explained. He then pulled out his Journal from his extra pocket.
“What’cha got there?”
“It’s my Journal. It’s where I keep all the information I’ve collected stored to help with solving problems.”
He then opened up to a page, casting a medium-bright beacon as images floated out and above their heads.
“Woah, nelly.”
The first image was of a standard traffic light.
“The idea for traffic lights came from the growing number of cars on the road, and how dangerous it was to drive without precise directions.”
“Amazing,” Rarity gawked.
The next image was of a standardized farm tractor.
“The idea for tractors were inspired by the train—”
A classic steam engine appeared next to the tractor.
“To better haul all the heavy equipment and crops stronger than animals can,” Applejack finished.
“Yeah!” Smitty grinned.
Lastly, a pair of orange diving flippers appeared.
“And flippers were inspired by the way that animals, like dolphins and penguins, swim in the water.”
With that, Smitty closed his Journal and all of the images zoomed right back into the pages. Suffice to say, the girls were beyond impressed.
“Oh, that was wonderful,” Rarity smiled.
“You’re welcome,” Smitty replied.
“So, perhaps I just need to find new inspiration then? But where do I find new inspiration?”
“You can find it all around you,” Rich put in. “Just by looking at animals, the environment, or even in your own room you can find inspiration.”
“Come on, let’s look around!” Scott waved.
“Wait!” Rarity suddenly interrupted. Her eyes then settled on the Movers with an intense amount of focusing, specifically their jumpsuits. “The blue is standard but the slight plops of red complement it quite nicely.”
“Thank you!” Rich replied, smiling.
“And Smitty and Dave, each of your hats are quite a nice add on that distinguish yourselves without terribly neutering the color scheme.”
“Wow! I never thought of that!” Dave gawked.
“You have some amazing focusing,” Smitty complimented.
“Thank you.” Her thankful smile was brightening, and she felt that her stress was being relieved, then she brought a hand to her chin. “Why yes, yes I have something!”
“You do?!” Scott cried.
“Quick! I need some paper and a pencil!”
“Coming right up!” Dave replied, reaching into his hat and taking out a pencil and blank canvas.
“Thank you.” She immediately got into focus mode, peering her eyes over the blank canvas while tapping the pencil. “Now, let’s see…”
The Movers and Applejack watched over her with anticipation, hoping that she had thought of something.
She then traced a line, “Yes…,” followed by another across the midsection, “Yes…,” another line that traced a pattern of peaks and valleys, followed by a spiral pattern, “Yes…!”
It appeared to be that she had finally found a pattern of her design…until she hesitated for a single moment.
“Oh…no, that’s not right at all!”
And just like that, the idea had fallen flat on its face and died.
“I almost had it, it was right there! What went wrong?!”
Applejack was quick to comfort. “It’s alrigh’, Rarity. Just breathe in and out, in and out…”
Rarity did so, slowly but surely quenching her stress induced anger, though she almost nodded off during the routine but no one noticed. She rubbed her eyes. “Thank you, Applejack. I feel better.”
Dave snapped his finger in annoyance. “Bummer. I hate it when that happens.”
"I hate it when an idea just slips right out of my mind like that!" Scott frowned.
“Maybe we could try looking for another inspiration,” Smitty suggested. “Let’s go ask Warehouse Mouse.”
The girls followed the Movers over to the wall covered in giant gears behind the television. Applejack caught up to Smitty as he knocked on the wall where a hole in one of the gears was.
“Hey, little buddy?” he asked. “We kinda need your help for a problem.”
Immediately, the hole opened up as a giant door to reveal Warehouse Mouse. He waved at Smitty.
“Hi, ‘Mitty.”
He then noticed Applejack, who also happened to have a cowboy-esque hat.
“…and…‘Mitty?”
The brown mouse zipped his eyes between the two hatted humans, absolutely gobsmacked at what he was seeing.
“‘Mitty, and ‘Mitty, and ‘Mitty, and ‘Mitty, and ‘Mitty, and ‘Mitty, and ‘Mitty—WAAAGH!!!!”
Poor Warehouse Mouse was so startled that he lost his balance and fell out of his observatory in the wall, but Applejack managed to catch the critter just in time.
“Woah there, little fella. Ah gotcha.”
The brown mouse looked up at the face of his rescuer, startled at how she had almost the exact same hat as his best buddy Smitty. He shook with fear and could not form a cohesive sentence, he was that scared.
“It’s alright, little buddy,” Smitty calmed.
“‘MITTY!!!” Warehouse Mouse zipped right out of Applejack’s hands only to crash right into Smitty’s familiar chest, babbling incoherently.
“That’s Applejack,” Smitty calmly explained. “She’s here with her friend Rarity to help her with her Creative Block.”
Warehouse Mouse dared to peek at the cowgirl, who gave a friendly, “Howdy.”
“H-H-H-How…dy,” the mouse hesitantly waved. He looked back to Smitty. “Insmeration?”
“Yeah, we were hoping you could help Rarity get inspired by something,” Smitty smiled.
Warehouse Mouse thought for a moment, then made an “Aha!” before zipping back into his home-in-the-wall. Looking around, he pondered at the various furniture and appliances he kept, then he looked in the fridge and smiled. In an instant, he zipped right back outside while holding a plate of fresh swiss cheese.
“Cheese!” he smiled.
“Ya brought out some cheese?” Applejack raised a brow.
“Yeah!”
“Wut could’ya make with cheese?”
Warehouse Mouse angrily spat out words in his mousey language that she could not understand, to which she held out her hands in defense. Instead of getting involved, she turned to Rarity.
“Feelin’ inspired by somethin’?” she asked.
Rarity brought a finger to her chin in a focused manner, then rubbed her temple before clutching her head in what appeared to be physical agony. “Oh, I had something…and then I lost it again!” she wailed, dropping to her knees. “I am sorry, Warehouse Mouse, but I just cannot find any inspiration in your cheese.”
Warehouse Mouse lightly sighed, then said, “Okay,” before darting back into his home without another word.
“This is getting me nowhere,” Rarity cried.
“It’s alright,” Dave consoled. “It just means we haven’t tried out the right idea yet.”
“Where else could we find some inspiration?” Rich asked.
“Hmm, maybe we could ask Knit Knots?” Scott suggested.
Rarity was confused. Knit Knots was a semi-normal sounding name by the standards of Canterlot City, but it wasn’t by much compared to the names of the Movers. “Who is…er, Knit Knots?” she asked.
“Knit Knots is our neighbor,” Rich explained. “He makes boring things.”
“Borin’? Are ya serious?” Applejack asked.
“No really,” Scott put in. “He likes everything to be entirely boring and nothing exciting, like boring clothes…”
“Boring cereal,” Dave added.
“Boring books,” Smitty added.
“And even boring music,” Rich finished.
“We even threw Knit Knots a birthday party, and it was the most boring thing I have ever done,” Scott said, “but it was worth it just to celebrate his birthday!”
Applejack could only take in the information dump with a calm but forced face. “Sounds like Pinkie could git along with these fellas,” she whispered.
“It certainly appears that way,” Rarity whispered back, then she spoke to the Movers. “Well, let us go meet Mr. Knit Knots.”
“Yeah!” the Movers cheered.
“Come on, his office is just down the hall!” Scott led the way.
Enraptured in the enthusiasm, Rarity followed the Movers to wherever they were leading her, while Applejack struggled to comprehend the environment around her, especially the white backdrop that was dotted with all sizes of colorful dots. She soon realized the group was leaving her behind and quickly rushed to catch up.
After following the Movers through the hallways of bricks, they arrived at a plain beige door. It was really the stark opposite compared to the colorful zaniness that the Idea Warehouse presented.
“Here we are: Knit Knots’ office,” Rich present.
“The door certainly gives me ideas of what is inside,” Rarity replied.
“That’s the spirit!” Scott grinned.
Inside the office, a middle-aged man in glasses and a fully beige business suit was busy stamping beige forms with his beige stamp, perfectly content with the boring uninteresting atmosphere. Then he heard a knock at the door, startling him. He turned to a young girl filing beige papers in the beige filing cabinet. “Nina?”
For all intents and purposes, Nina was the complete opposite to the boring beige environment. She wore a bright white shirt and matching bright red pants and jacket with black pigtails and cherry red hair-ties. “Yes, Uncle Knit Knots?” she asked.
“Could you please answer the door,” Knit Knots asked, “and please tell them to politely not disturb me while I’m working?”
“Okay,” Nina smiled, ignoring her uncle’s annoyed sigh.
It was very well-known that Knit Knots, the entrepreneur of all things plain and boring, did not like anything that was remotely exciting, but he was polite about his dislike, because being upset about it would be much too exciting.
And speaking of excitement, practically the repeating irk of his dislike was just outside his office door.
“Hi, guys!” Nina smiled.
“Nina!” the Movers smiled back. “Knit Knots!”
“Hello, Movers,” Knit Knots replied back, struggling to keep calm and boring.
“What are you guys doing here?” Nina asked.
“We got a customer with a problem,” Rich explained.
“So we thought we could bring Rarity over here to find some inspiration to overcome her Creative Block,” Smitty finished.
“Creative Block? Oh, that sounds much too exciting for me,” Knit Knots grimaced.
“Oh, I hate it when that happens,” Nina agreed.
“We were hoping that something in your office could help Rarity get an idea,” Dave added.
“Please?” Scott begged.
While Knit Knots didn’t get along with the Movers, or enjoyed how his niece would tag along with them on their exciting adventures in the Warehouse, it was considered rude to refuse help when people asked politely. Politeness was just the right kind of boring: where everyone agreed on its boringness.
“Very well, come in,” he relented.
“Yeah!” the Movers cheered.
“But please, try not to make such a fuss,” he added.
“Yeah…” the Movers tried again with less enthusiasm.
“Much better, thank you.”
With permission granted, the Movers stepped aside to allow Rarity to step inside the office. It was exactly as she expected: everything was a dull and boring beige, the perfect anti-Pinkie Pie environment. Hardly anything was round, most of everything in sight had straight lines to them…
“Hmm…”
And yet…everything was consistent. There was a theme to the room, and everything complimented that theme to the letter.
“Yes…”
If only…perhaps maybe…if…if…
“Ugh…no.”
She admitted defeat.
“No?” Scott asked, repeating.
“As much as it is lovely that Mr. Knit Knots’ office is consistent in reflecting his…personality…”
Knit Knots brightened up at the compliment. It wasn’t often that a complete stranger would say anything nice about his love for all things boring.
“But I just don’t see how it could inspire me.”
The Movers were also not happy with her revelation.
“Aw, man. Bummer,” Dave sighed.
“Well, thanks anyway, Knit Knots; Nina,” Rich said. “We’ll just be heading back to the Warehouse.”
“Goodbye, guys!” Nina waved.
“Goodbye, Nina! Goodbye, Knit Knots!” the Movers waved. They soon left, leaving the door open.
“They could have at least closed the door,” Knit Knots grumbled.
Just then, Applejack arrived at Knit Knots’ opened door, out of breath. “Hoo, did y’all see the giant dots?” She was given no response, noticing that the others were absent. “Nevermind.”
"If you're looking for the Movers, they went back to the Warehouse," Nina explained.
"Thanks," Applejack nodded.
She then left, leaving Knit Knots to shake his head, stamping another boring form.