Rarity had an unspoken agreement with her friends; if the door is open then you are welcome to come in. If it is closed, then you are still welcome, but you will be interrupting design work. When this selfsame work was disrupted by a persistent knock at the door, she carefully rolled up her measuring tape and muttered, "Oh do please be a paying client." Business had been a bit slow over the summer months and she was using the down time to arrange her fall lineup. She was seldom in a visiting mood when she was in the zone. If it were her friends, she would be forced to engage in shallow pleasantries. She might even have to maintain an elegant air of magnanimous tolerance thinly overlaying injured vexation. How tiring!
She quickly coiffed her mane back into shape with a hoof and composed her expression before she approached the door. As she walked, she quietly rehearsed a pleasant brush-off for her friends. "What an unexpected surprise! It is delightful to see you, dahlings, and if I had the time, I would love to show you the line of fall fashions I have been working on today." If it was a customer, the responses flowed automatically. Rarity was a natural born salespony who, in her father's words, "could sell dirt to an Earth pony if you put her mind to it."
When she opened the door, she was slightly relieved to see Twilight Sparkle on the other side. Of all her friends, Twilight was the least likely to demand a lot of her time. As the least gregarious of her friends, the young unicorn generally had paying business in mind rather than idle chat when she stopped by the shop. Spike was perched high on her back, and as usual he was obviously first dressing and then undressing Rarity with his eyes despite his best efforts not to. Before she could utter her rehearsed greeting, Rarity noticed the state of Apple Bloom.
The filly was standing – barely – by Twilight Sparkle's left forequarter. Her mane was a tussled mess, and where her bow should have been was a hastily knotted ball of fabric. As the filly wobbled on her feet, her pupils were alternately dilating and contracting to pin dots. Rarity gasped.
"Oh my goodness," said Rarity, aghast, "dahling, what happened to your precious little bumpkin bow?"
"NOT THE ROOT CELLAR AGAIN, GRANNY SMITH!" yelled Apple Bloom in alarm, unfocused eyes staring vacantly into space.
"I really, really hate to impose," said Twilight Sparkle, shimmying hastily in front of the teetering filly and donning the self-effacing grin of one who really really hated to impose. "Apple Bloom stopped by the library for a visit this morning, but something urgent just came up, and I wondered if you would mind terribly watching her for a bit." She flinched at the sound of a rumble and crash in the distance, biting her lip and dancing from hoof to hoof as she glanced furtively over her shoulder. "Also, something landed on her head and I think she might have minor brain damage."
"Mind? Why, I would be delighted," said Rarity, whose keen brain had already spotted an opportunity in the situation. "I was hoping to work on my fall filly fashion line today, and now I have a perfect model. Come Apple Bloom, we'll have you looking fabulous again in no time." She extended an invisible magical tentacle and gave the filly a little nudge in the rump, pushing her toward the open door. Rarity turned and called back into the shop, "You can take a break if you like. I've got a real filly now." She was answered by a meow of relief, and the sound of a cat jumping down from the work table.
"Whoever you are, I've always depended on the kindness of strangers," slurred the filly as she tottered unsteadily into the shop. Rarity quickly followed her inside, and shut the door.
"Maybe I should stay too and hel…" Spike started to say, but Rarity did not hear the rest over the latching of the door.
In short order, Rarity had the young filly looking proper and presentable again. The little yellow pony was less wobbly, but still seemed to be a bit more dazed than usual. The mare coaxed the young pony up onto the fitting stand and immediately launched into a flurry of cutting and measuring. She kept up a constant banter as she draped fabrics over the filly and cut them into shape.
"You're a lovely model – you complain much less than Sweetie Belle. I wish you were not yellow and red though, it makes it such a challenge to match colours that don't clash. Still, you have your sister's full flank, which will help me flesh out my more voluptuous fits."
There was a sound in the distance, reminiscent of rending wood and breaking glass. Rarity paused. "Oh dear, I hope city hall isn't collapsing again," she said aloud, with the hollow concern that came of practice. She contemplated heading outside for a look, but once you had seen city hall collapse enough times, it all started to look the same. "Where was I? Oh yes, let's just pin this here…"
"Ow!"
"Oh dear, I am sorry!" said Rarity sincerely. "You stretch out the fabric more than I was anticipating. I take pride in not injuring my models. Pray tell me you are all right."
"I'm fine," said Apple Bloom slowly. "I've had much worse down on the farm." While she spoke, she was blinking in confusion and looking around the shop. "If you don't mind me askin', Miss Rarity, what am I doin' here?"
"You are helping me to design my fall fashion line," soothed Rarity. She quickly basted two pieces of fabric together with a couple of flourished stitches and draped them over the filly. She eyed her handiwork, wrinkled her muzzle in disapproval and flung the fabric into the growing pile in the corner.
"Oh," said Apple Bloom. She was silent for a long while before she spoke again, enunciating slowly as if thoughts were still coming hard for her. She winced, and rubbed her head gently with a hoof. "I think I must have hit mah head somewhere. It hurts somethin' fierce, and mah memories are kind of scrambled. The last thing I remember, I was heading up to talk to Miss Twilight about mah cutie mark, and then suddenly here I am."
"Well, I know a thing or two about cutie marks," said Rarity. "Now chin up dear, I need to fit the silk neck piece. You are very good at this. Perhaps this is your calling."
Apple Bloom was quick to voice her disapproval. "I don't reckon I want to be a pin cushion when I grow up," she said sadly. "Ah have aspirations. I want to be… eep!" She finished with a squeak of surprise as Rarity whisked all of the fabrics away from her and stacked them on the table.
"All done," said Rarity, spinning her measuring tape into a roll and laying it on top of the pile. "I will sew it together later." She turned and wrapped her right foreleg around the filly, pulling her in for a reassuring hug. "Cutie marks don't work that way, Apple Bloom. You cannot just order your cutie mark to appear; it has to come to you naturally. It may not be what you expect, but when it comes, you will realize that it is what you wanted all along." Rarity extended her left hoof and pointed it in an arc around the shop. "It could be anything."
"Anything?" breathed Apple Bloom in excitement as her wide eyes followed the sweep of the mare's hoof.
"Well, within reason, dahling," said Rarity quickly. "Don't set your sights too high; after all, you're just an earth pony."
The filly looked like she was trying to muster up a suitable reply when she felt the ground tremble slightly. She exchanged a quick glance with Rarity, and assumed her expression probably matched the mare's puzzled look. "You felt that too?" she asked.
The two ponies stood in silence for a moment, staring toward the front door. They could now clearly hear the sound of shouting and screaming outside. There was another crash, closer this time.
"Whatever is going on out there?" wondered Rarity with a tiny tremor of concern in her voice, but neither of them made a move toward the door.
"Spike, get away from there!" came a familiar shout from the other side of the wall. A moment later, there was a tremendous thud, and a noise that Apple Bloom would later describe as like the sound of Big Mac running the apple cart over a wooden crate of milk bottles, but being played backward. "Put that down," shouted Twilight Sparkle again from the other side of the wall. "I command you to put that down."
Now the two ponies did head over to the door. Rarity flung it open and then shrieked as a milk cart crashed to the ground a few feet from her shop, spraying glass, milk, and wood splinters in an arc in front of it.
"I said to put it down, not throw it," yelled Twilight Sparkle, glaring up at something out of sight to their left. "You're a bad golem!"
"It must be that that thing she was buildin' in her library," said Apple Bloom with a quaver in her voice as she backed further into the shop again.
Rarity looked back in puzzlement. "What thing ?" she asked.
"Th… that thing," whimpered the filly, rearing up and pointing out the door with her left hoof.
Rarity looked outside as the "thing" walked into sight. This time she did not shriek. She screamed. Three heads turned toward the sound; Spike, Twilight Sparkle, and the golem.
"Rarity, no!" said Twilight Sparkle frantically. "Get back inside and close the door. It's attracted to noises. It feeds on fear."
The white pony tried to obey. She tried to step back into her shop, but she had locked eyes with the thing, and suddenly her legs did not want to work. Its crimson gaze was the end of joy, life, love and everything that made life fabulous. In a distant, less paralyzed part of her mind she heard somepony screaming and realized that it was her. She also heard another shout from nearby.
"Spike, get inside!" A moment later, something heavy and purple tackled her head over flank back into the shop as the door slammed shut behind them.
Rarity stood, panting now that the spell of the creature's gaze was broken.
"Twilight Sparkle," she demanded between gasps, "what is that horrifying, yet strangely alluring gem-encrusted thing?"
"Rarity," replied the other unicorn, "I think I may have done a bad thing."