“Pinkie Pie, stop your fidgeting!” Rarity scolded. “If your jittering messes up my stitching, I'll have to completely redo the pleating!”
The two mares were in the design room of Ponyville’s dress shop, Carousel Boutique. Pinkie Pie, atop of one of the many modeling stands, was trying her best not to move. She held her pose, tried to stay as still as a statue, but always found herself making some kind of small movement. Tapping her hooves, shaking her flank, bobbing her head to music only she could hear. Each time earning an irritated sigh from the white unicorn trying to sew the half-finished Gala dress Pinkie Pie was wearing.
“But I need to fidget.” Pinkie replied, shifting her weight from hoof to hoof. “If I stand for too long I get real antsy, and I’ve been on this modeling stand for three hours now. I need to run! I need to dance!” She emphasized her last statements with slight bends of her knees.
As the town's dressmaker, Rarity allowed for the occasional fidget. She would often fidget herself whilst working on a particularly troubling section of dress. She knew she couldn't expect her clients to stand still forever. That would be completely unreasonable as the nature of her business was mostly sedentary. Although she did expect her clients to stand still long enough for her to at least focus on what she was doing.
But for a pony as restless as Pinkie Pie, standing still for even five minutes seemed impossible.
“Well, if I have to redo your dress then you’ll have to stand for even longer.” Rarity reproached. “And If this takes any longer then I’ll be behind schedule for the other eight dresses I have to make today. And then we won’t be able to get our Gala tickets from Twilight tonight... So It would be better for everypony if you just held still.”
There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence between the two. Pinkie tried to occupy her mind by looking around the room, but found nothing of interest.
Rarity, of course, was beneath her sewing a hem into the dress. With her magic she held needles of various sizes, spools of thread, measuring tapes, and other sewing necessities. They hovered mere inches away from Pinkie's face, and she could hear tiny magical chimes as they hung in the air.
Dozens of equine mannequins occupied the space between the mares and the curved walls of the room. some of them wore dresses while others were completely unadorned.
Everything seemed so stationary. like an image trapped in time. There was no movement, no sound. It made Pinkie's hooves itch just thinking about it.
After a moment, the pink mare began to fidget again. Fighting the urge to leap from the stand and run around the room, she spoke up.
“Why do you have to make so many dresses today?”
“Oh, it’s just that the orders from my Fall Fashion line came in at the same time my Grand Galloping Gala orders did.” Rarity replied with a groan of tedium. “I’ll most likely have to work day and night if I want to finish them all in time for the Gala.”
“Couldn’t you just turn down some orders?” Pinkie Pie suggested. “Sometimes when I’m working at Sugarcube Corner I get so busy that I have to turn away a few cust-”
“I couldn’t possibly do such a thing!“ Rarity interrupted. “these fashion lines keep my business afloat through the entire winter. If I turn down even a single customer there could be disastrous consequences!”
“I-”
“They could tell everypony that my service isn’t reliable and then I’d lose customers.”
“ Yeah, but-”
“If I lose customers then I might not have enough bits to pay all my bills.”
“It’s just you-”
“Or I would be able to pay my bills but I wouldn’t have enough bits to buy food for me and Sweetie Belle, and I’d-”
“You look tired!” Pinkie shouted. “You look, tired...”
“Tired?” Rarity stopped sewing. “Why, I’ve been working for so long today, I hadn’t even stopped to consider my own health.” She trotted across the room and stood in front of one of the stand-up mirrors. “Oh my, I really do look tired.” The dressmaker turned about and addressed her friend. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner that I looked this bad?”
“You don’t look bad,” Pinkie lied. ”just tired. I’m sure you’d look better if you had a short nap and some time to relax.”
Pinkie tried to smile reassuringly, but it came out sickly. In fact, Rarity herself look rather sickly. Not exactly unhealthy, but strained. Her gestures weren’t as extravagant. Her voice wasn’t as regal. Even her eyes weren’t as bright as they usually were. Their color seemed dull and less sapphire, less deep-blue as they had been. And her hair, usually meticulously tidy and trim, was tangled and knotted from days of neglect.
Pinkie wondered exactly how long Rarity had been awake in her dress room. She looked as if she hadn’t felt a good night’s rest in days. But she hesitated to ask as to not put any more stress on the already overworked dressmaker.
“A nap sure does sound lovely...” Rarity looked contemplative for a moment. “... But I just simply don’t have the time. I have to finish sewing the hem and not to mention start the top half of your dress. If I were to take a break now it would most likely put me behind schedule for the rest of the day.”
There was another silence as Rarity trotted back and continued working on Pinkie’s dress. After tying a confident knot in the string, she stepped back to examine her handiwork.
In its current form the dress was nothing more than the average A-line. Narrow shoulders and a bodice made of fitted pink fabric with a skirt that flared from the waist. But the skirt, with it's silk and chiffon pleating, showcased the elegant imagining Rarity had planned for it.
“Hmm...” A small line formed between the dressmaker’s eyebrows as she eyed the dress. “It’s missing something.”
“Maybe a bunch of candy like my last Gala dress?” Pinkie suggested playfully.
“No, nothing like that.” Rarity pondered. “It needs something to compliment all the pink I used. Something gold, or green.”
Pinkie was silent, but nodded.
“...I’ve got it!” Rarity exclaimed with a flicker of inspiration. “Emeralds!”
“Emeralds?” Pinkie Pie asked. “You mean those little green shiny rocks?”
“Gemstones, darling.” Rarity corrected in an indulgent tone. “Gemstones all along the bottom of the skirt. Not enough so they distract from the rest of the dress, but just enough to accentuate the pleating!”
Rarity maneuvered through the maze of mannequins with exaggerated care and retrieved her jewel case from the other side of the room.
“Maybe even on the middy collar or as a pair of earings, or...” Rarity let her sentence trail off as she sifted through the various gems in her jewel case. “Oh no. No, no, no.” Rarity poured the contents of her jewel case onto the floor and began to rigorously sift through them.
“Ruby, diamond, diamond, malachite, sapphire, diamond, melanite... I’m out of emeralds! How am I going to complete your dress without emeralds?”
My dress doesn’t really need emeralds.” Pinkie attempted to compromise. “It’d be fine withou-”
“Doesn't need emeralds?!” Rarity interrupted. “Pinkie darling, the emeralds pull the entire dress together. Why, it would just be a piled-on mish-mash of pink fabric if I didn’t include the emeralds!. ” Rarity began to pace back and forth between Pinkie and the pile of gemstones. “Oh, but how am I going to get more? The gem store is all the way on the other side of town and I’m behind schedule as it is. If I leave to go get more I’ll most definitely have to cancel some orders ... Oh, what am I going to do?”
“What about Sweetie Belle?” Pinkie suggested.
“Sweetie Belle? What about Sweet- of course, Sweetie Belle!” Rarity exclaimed. “I can have her go to the gem store for me and I won’t have to miss any of my work. Oh thank you Pinkie, you may have just saved my entire business!”
As Rarity galloped to the door to call for her sister, Pinkie simply smiled. Pleased that she was able to help her friend out of a crisis.
“Sweetie Belle? Sweetie Belle!” Rarity called from the doorway. “Can you come up to the dress room please?”
“What is it, Rarity?” Sweetie Belle asked as she came up the stairs.
“I need you to go to the gem store and pick me up some more emeralds.”
“Do I have to?” Sweetie Belle asked defiantly. “I’m busy today too.”
“Well, yes you have to.” Rarity stated. “I’d go myself but I’m up to my horseshoes in orders and I simply don’t have enough time to make the trip myself.”
“But I have homework to finish,” Sweetie Belle protested. “and I promised Scootaloo and Applebloom that I’d meet them for lunch at Sugar Cube Corner.”
In lieu of a response, Rarity used her magic to float a coin purse over towards her sister. “There should be enough here for forty emeralds with some bits left over. You can use whatever’s left on you and your friends as an apology for missing lunch.”
“Oh my gosh, that’s almost twenty bits.” Sweetie Belle said as she looked through the coin purse.“Thanks Rarity!” She hugged her sister, feeling embarrassed for her previous defiance.
“You’re welcome, Sweetie,” Rarity said as she returned the hug. “Now go get your saddlebag and hurry along to the gem store. The Weather Team has a storm scheduled for later today. I won’t have enough time to take care of you if you end up coming down with a cold.”
Sweetie Belle nodded and went to retrieve her saddlebag. She closed the door behind herself as Rarity returned to the unfinished dress.
“What did I tell you about fidgeting?” Rarity scolded.