Sleep did not come easily for Rarity that night. She tossed and turned on her mattress which refused to yield a comfortable position. Thoughts of the mysterious diamond swirled in her head, as well as several drinks which clouded the edges of her thoughts, which made her cling that much harder to the memory of the enchanted jewel lest she lose them forever. She tossed and turned several more times before giving up her pathetic attempts of sleeping and decided to start work early today.
She busied herself with packing the Apple’s work clothes. Rarity carefully packaged each one into a white box, which featured a dark purple bow tie and had her cutie mark in the bottom left corner. She left the manikin room with her boxes levitating behind her, a tranquil smile appeared on her face when she saw the first glint of the sun. Rarity placed the boxes in the back of her small cart and struggled for several moments to hook herself up without magic. The whole thing felt overly frustrating and tedious but eventually she heard a slight “click.” To her it was one of the more satisfying sounds in the world.
She set out at a slow but reasonable pace towards Sweet Apple Acres determined to make amends with Applejack. Rarity didn’t mind pulling the cart as much as she thought she would yet her vanity was glad it was early and nopony would actually see her.
It wasn’t long before the cobbled streets of Ponyville gave way to well worn dirt roads. Rarity walked the familiar path and kept her eye on the tall barn that loomed in the distance. Even this early the faint sound of apple bucking could be heard in the distance. She paused for a moment to catch her breath and make herself presentable again and tried to find the source of the bucking. Her ears twitched slightly as they struggled to listen. Rarity began to shuffle a bit but soon picked up the sound of apples falling and trotted off in that direction. When she reached the top of the hill her forehead was covered in sweat and her mane wasn’t exactly perfect, but she could see Applejack and Big Mac bucking apples in the orchard below her. She smiled and trotted out to meet them.
As Rarity got closer she could see Applejack positioning the baskets under the trees and taking the full ones to the apple cart. Rarity couldn’t help but admire Big Mac’s technique. She watched as he bucked two trees at the same time and she was doubly impressed when all of the ripe apples fell neatly into the half barrels. Her heart gave a slight flutter when his head snapped up in her direction. Rarity quickly got her feelings under control, not wanting to blush so red it would match his coat, and announced her intentions. Big Mac and Applejack looked at each other in a somewhat shocked manner. It wasn’t too hard to figure out Rarity had probably made them some kind of clothes as a way to apologize for her behaviour on the farm a few days ago. Truth be told, they were kinda expecting something like this although not this soon. They gave each other a series of looks as they wordlessly communicated their surprise but stopped and stared when they saw Rarity struggling to get her harness off.
“Oh this stubborn thing, I had it all figured out when I left home. I can’t imagine why it’s not working now.”
Applejack looked at Big Mac and he offered a slight shrug in return. They looked up in surprise when they heard the sounds of metal against wood, punctuated with soft taps from the leather harness strap. The two stared in bewilderment as they tried to figure out what in the hay Rarity was trying to do. Big Mac put two and two together and walked up to the back of the cart. He applied a little pressure and the harness lifted enough for Rarity to slip out. Big Mac just smiled and offered a quick nod and walked back towards Applejack.
“Well, shoot... why didn ya just say ya’ll needed help getting out. Now that I think of it, why didn ya just use yer magic?”
“Well, you see, I wanted to apologize for using magic on the farm and it wouldn’t be appropriate if I simply used magic, would it?”
“Eeynope.”
Feeling that her point was mad, Rarity cut to the chase and put on a quick smile, guiding her friends to the back of the cart where the alabaster parcels waited. Her eyes lit up with excitement and anticipation while Applejack and Big Mac gave each other a quick smile and sat on the ground and waited patiently for Rarity. They sat in such a way that Rarity was blocking the view to what would no doubt be a fabulous yet portable display. After several minutes of waiting and no indication of progress, the two began to wonder what was taking Rarity so long.
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Meanwhile, across town in a certain bakery a particular pink mare’s tail, left hind hoof, and eyes started to twitch in a most peculiar and strange manner. Suddenly, the pink mare literally dropped everything and rushed upstairs knocking over several finished racks of custom order cupcakes in the process. She ignored Mrs. Cake’s confused and angry shouting and yelled back “NO TIME... PART-.” Mrs. Cake only sighed and poured herself a generous helping of Sweet Apple Acres cider and sat in the ruins of her once proud kitchen. Taking a drink she decided that now would be as good a time as ever to take a break.
“Confound it Pinkie, you drive me to drink.”
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“Hey Rarity? What’s takin so long?”
“Just putting the finishing touches, won’t be a moment longer.”
Applejack sighed and turned to Big Mac, “She’s said that before.”
“Eeyup.”
The two sat and waited patiently for a few minutes and suddenly the banging and haphazard noises coming from Rarity’s cart ceased. The two sat a little straighter and leaned forward a bit, anticipating Rarity’s display. Rarity looked out to her captive audience and moved aside from the cart, milking the moment to the fullest. Applejack just looked to her friend with an “what the hay is that” expression to which Rarity responded by biting a corner of the purple cloth with her teeth.
“Thse, Afflejack,” she paused letting the tension build for a moment and then tugged the curtain away, “are you’re new work duds.”
Several seconds passed before an all too familiar yet vaguely described bubble gum pink mare appeared behind a tree and unleashed the party cannon while yelling at the top of her lungs “SURPRISE!!!” The timing was perfect, the confetti glittered and the streamers streamed, yet Applejack and Big Mac sat in the dirt dumbfounded. Even Rarity was taken aback by the sudden appearance of this cotton candy maned mare. Pinkie smiled one of her trademark smiles, jumped onto the barrel of the cannon, yelled “NAILED IT!!!” and did a hoof pump simultaneously. After which she promptly packed up her cannon and began to wheel it home, muttering something about taking the scenic route home.
Applejack stepped forward, followed closely by Big Mac, and examined the four boxes. It was immediately apparent that a massive amount of work and thought had been put into these clothes and it seemed to her that each one was custom made to help each of the Apples with their unique challenges on the farm. She looked to Rarity who was begging them to try them on. Applejack hesitantly pulled her duds out of the box and held them up to see how they would look without actually trying them on.
“Well, what do you think?” Rarity’s eyes reflected her pride in her creations. Her voice betrayed the amount of work that she put into them and her heart soared when she saw the dumbfounded looks on their faces.
‘Any moment now,’ thought Rarity ‘they will come back to their senses and admire the fine details.’
“There uh... nice?” Rarity couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s ignorance of fashion. Almost without thinking she leapt at the chance to brag about her work while still being sensitive to Applejack’s unkeen eyes. They were, after all, friends and customers, and ‘a lady is always patient and polite.’ Those words echoed in her mind as she spoke to her friends.
“Aren’t they? That’s custom hoof stitching on the legs and I took extra attention in mak-”
“I need to stop you right there sugar cube.” Rarity’s mouth shut and her eyes went wide as her pupils shrank a little. From her experience, it never bode well when a customer stopped her mid sentence, and she could feel her heart begin to pound ever so slightly in her chest.
“I appreciate the effort and all, but we can’t accept these.” The slight pounding turned into a sinking feeling and she tried to hide the beads of sweat that were slowly beginning to form on her brow. Rarity decided to make an unrefusable offer and tried to keep the shock out of her voice, trying to play this as if she expected it.
“I understand Applejack, I would never charge full price for one of my friends. For you and your family, half price.” There was an uncomfortable silence that hung in the air. Big Mac shuffled his hoofs and found an unusually interesting flower to stare at. Applejack tried to hide behind her hat, but looked up at Rarity after a few seconds, unable to bear the guilt. Her eyes wandered over the clothes Rarity made, searching for the right words. When she finally looked back up at Rarity, she couldn’t bear to look her in the eyes and instead settled for half way up her forelegs.
“I reckon this is gonna be a heartbreaker, but we still can’t accept these. It’s just not necessary.”Applejack tried to casually pass it off, but the words sounded hollow when she remembered the amount of effort that must have gone into the clothes. Rarity tried to understand how Applejack refused her unrefusable offer, and decided to go for broke with another.
“How about quarter price?” Rarity tried, but it was painfully obvious the begging tone in her voice was not lost on the Apples. Big Mac was hoofing at the dirt, doing his best to avoid Rarity’s gaze while trying to make himself as small as possible. Rarity felt her heart beat faster as the pit in her stomach turned into a sinkhole. She tried one last time to point out the special features but was again cut off by Applejack mid sentence.
“I’ma sorry hun, but we just can’t.” Applejack knew that sometimes the truth hurts, especially being the element of honesty and all, and tried to let Rarity down gently, not wanting to make more of a problem for not only herself but for Rarity as well. “ Thank ya mighty kind for the offer an’ all, I appreciate it, ah really do but we can’t accept.” Her words felt flat and lame in her mouth and when she glanced up at Rarity she immediately looked down and found an interesting blade of grass to stare at. She felt bad for doing so, but didn’t know what else to do except keep saying no, and that was getting harder to do all the time.
“You’re really not going to take them, aren't you?” Rarity asked with a sincere yet tired voice. Rarity knew that she was going home with her clothes and the fire that was once present in every aspect of her was gone and replaced with something akin to a heavy cloud.
“Eeyup.” One word pierced the awkward silence and seemed to set the three on an irreversible course akin to passing the event horizon of a black hole. One word drove the final nail into the coffin, and Rarity visibly flinched when she heard it, all of her effort for nothing. One word compelled Applejack to stand by her brother’s side to wait out the storm.
“Oh, well... in that case I suppose I best be getting home. Nice seeing you all again. Tell Apple Bloom and Granny that I said hi.”
Rarity packed her cart, saddled up, and decided to take the scenic way home too.