Author's Note
This story isn't going to be very relevant to Rarity Takes Manehatten. The part of the story where it takes place from a moment in an episode isn't going to be 100% accurate to the show as far as dialogue goes. Thank you The Princess Rarity for inspiring this story by making the Grace Manewitz group.
Get Me Out Of Here
Grace busily pecked keys on her typewriter, pushing strands of her blonde mane out of her eyes occasionally.
The door burst open, causing her to accidentally misspell a word on the typewriter. She grunted, "Now I have to start all over again!"
Grace's expression was still sour when she looked over to see who had interrupted her writing, "Oooh, are those your entry for fashion week?" she peered over the desk, admiring the beautiful fabric.
"Indeed," Rarity said confidently.
"I just looove that fabric, where ever did you get it?" Grace was still leaning over her desk, using one hoof to hold herself up and the other to keep her glasses from falling off.
"I made it myself!" The unicorn said with even more confidence than before, "It's stretchy, but not cling--" she was interrupted by the sound of another pony in the other room saying the exact same lines. Rarity angrily marched off into the other room, leaving Grace confused.
"Eh," she said as she pulled out the paper from the typewriter and started typing again on a blank one.
Manehatten News Presents
Fashion Week
Fashion week - the seven days where ponies from all around Equestria design their own dresses and compete against other designers for first prize. The evevv--
"Argh!" she shouted, stomping her foreleg onto the wooden table.
Grace harshly pulled the paper out of the typewriter, crumpled it up into a ball and threw it into the trash beside her.
Moments later, the door swung open again.
"I'm here for fashion week." the gray pony said with barely an enthusiasm.
"You don't seem very enthusiastic," Grace said with her eyebrow raised. "What? Don't wanna compete?"
"I am excited," the mare informed her. "Is that not easy to tell?"
Her eyebrow was still raised. "Uh-huh. Anyway, what's your name? I need to write it down for the competition."
"Maude."
"Maude who?"
"Maude Pie."
Grace looked over at the rack of dresses Maude had beside her, "May I see your designs for the competition?"
"Okay." Maude carefully pulled the fabric covering the dresses up, revealing seven mud-colored plain dresses. "I made them myself."
Grace winced, "Oh... they are very, interesting." she chuckled. "Don't they come with... a little bit more, uh, color?"
"I have a scarf." Maude informed her, pulling a dishtowel out of her pocket. "Is this not colorful?"
Grace looked at what the pony called a 'scarf' for a moment, trying her best to paint a smile onto her face. "Uh... I have to get back to work."
"Okay." with that, Maude left the room, pulling her rack of dresses behind her.
Grace let out a sigh of relief. That was... interesting, she thought to herself. Now, back to writing.
Her pinkish purplish hooves pecked carefully on the keys, and with each double-space she typed a small smile spread on her lips.
"Ah-ha!" she shouted, pulling the piece of paper out of the typewriter and into the air in celebration. "Finally it's finished!"
Unfortunately, another fashion week competitor entered the room, startling Grace enough to the point where she accidentally dropped the piece of paper and it landed on the ground.
"Where'd it go?!" Grace panicked, then got up from her chair, pushing it backwards. Her eyes widened when she heard crinkling of paper come from behind her.
"Really?!" she growled, bucking her chair against the wall.
Grace quickly calmed herself down, then smiled gently and said, "How can I help you?"
The pony before her looked surprised by Grace's behavior, but quickly dismissed it and said, "Hey! I'm here for fashion week, where do I enter that thing?"
The pony had an obviously dyed blue and darker blue mane, and glasses that did not look like anything Grace had ever seen before.
"Uhm, name?"
"Vinyl Scratch," she set her glasses atop her head, "DJ-Pon3 is my stage name, though."
Grace raised an eyebrow once again, "You don't really seem like the 'fashion' type of pony. What are you doing here?"
Vinyl grinned, "You're right, I'm not really into fashion. But I made a deal with Tavi, she said that if I win, she'll let me play dubstep at her birthday party this weekend!"
Grace had a confused expression on her face, "Who is Tavi?"
She took a peek at the rack of clothes Vinyl had beside her, looking through the hole in the fabric covering the dresses she saw overly shiny, overly colorful, full-body suits. "Well, that certainly is a change from the last pony to talk to me."
"Soooo, how do I enter?" Vinyl asked, placing her glasses back into place.
"Over there, take two lefts until you find the stage. Prim should tell you what to do at that point."
Vinyl left without saying anything else, relieving Grace. Do any of these ponies have a sense of true style?
For the next few minutes, the room was silent, much to Grace's amusement. "Peace and quiet..." she muttered, then quickly growled at the door before her. "Don't you dare open!" she shouted as the doors shook from the wind and storm outside.
She took a break from typing and closed her eyes, enjoying every second of silence. Until the door burst open, revealing a damp Sapphire Shores.
"Pony of Pop coming through!" she said with her muzzle to the air, "Make way, make way for the Pony of Pop!"
Grace snorted at Sapphire's boasting, she had written news articles about her whenever she toured in Manehatten before, so she wasn't surprised by the boasting.
"Hello, Sapphire." Grace said, trying to keep all sarcasm out of her voice. "Let me guess, you're here for fashion week?"
"You bet it!" she looked around the room, "Where's Prim Hemline? We went to elementary school together! Oh, she'll be surprised when she sees me." she chuckled, "I can't wait to see her face!"
Grace glanced at the rack of dresses, and Sapphire noticed. "You wanna see the dresses I designed?!" she said with enthusiasm.
"Well, sure."
Sapphire chuckled as she unzipped the fabric, "Here it is; Sapphire Shore's first ever line designed by yours truly,"
What Grace saw wasn't dresses. It was an arts craft by a five year-old filly. What she saw was fabric with glued-on plastic sequins, cheap fabric from Ponymart, and glued-on multicolor feathers on the flank. This was, by far, the worst design Grace had ever seen. "Uh..." she scratched the back of her head, "It's... interesting,"
Sapphire sighed. "You don't like it, do you?"
"Well, I don't love it..."
Sapphire Shores began to make high-pitch whine noises, "I know! I know! I should of stuck to dancing and paying other ponies to give me songs to sing! Fashion is not my passion!" she grabbed onto Grace's foreleg, "Please remove my name from the fashion week list!"
Talk about melodramatic... "Okay," she took the pencil eraser and erased Sapphire's name. "There, done."
Sapphire hugged Grace, "Oh, thank you! I almost ruined my reputation forever!"
Grace gasped for air as the hug tightened, "O-okay... glad to help... could you let me get back to work now?"
"See you later, what was it again?" Sapphire grabbed her rack of clothes and quickly hid them.
"Grace Manewitz."
With that, Sapphire left the building. "Thank you!" she called out one last time before she was out of sight.
Grace glanced at the clock, then let out a sigh of relief. It was five thirty-two, just two minutes after she got off work.
"Thank Celestia." Grace said as she gathered her things, got up from her desk, and left.
