The solve-it-all machine

The sun was slowly being lowered under the horizon by Celestia as Rarity passed the door of her boutique.

It had been quite a day, a bit weird, but a very interesting one nonetheless. A pony like Rarity could already see some use for the solve-it-all machine. No more bad mane day. No more fear of the wrinkles. And no more loss of inspiration for her work. Not that she had ever run out of idea, but sometimes, or to be honest, most the time, her ideas were too confused or absurd to really put into a practical use.

Like the time she had tried to create a “shred” style, where the dresses would look like they had been torn apart.

The memory was coming back to her because she could see something that was looking like the prototype dress she had made back then just in front of her.

“I think it’s missing something, but I’m about to find what.” Sweetie Belle voice told her.

Rarity looked around and decided she was asleep, in the middle of her bed, because there was no way at all she would ever accept to acknowledge what she was seeing as being the reality.

“I’ve decided to help you make dresses now that I’ve got my cutie mark!” joyfully explained Sweetie Belle, who had wanted to make it a surprise to her big sister.

It was kind of hard to cope with the situation. On one hoof, Rarity could just ignore what was going on, close the door behind her and become a nun or something of the sort. On the other hoof, she could simply accept the idea that all of the dresses in her boutique had been “upgraded” by Sweetie Belle.

“This is going to be so great!” said the little filly. “Now that both our special talents are making dresses, we can work together forever and ever and ever!”

Those last words were more frightening than anything Rarity could remember having heard. They were echoing in her mind promising the worst fears would soon become reality.

“Are you okay? You look whiter than usual.” Sweetie Belle suddenly noticed, worried about her sister’s strange reaction.

Rarity was about to faint, but simply couldn’t. She had to take control and quickly. The first priority was to ensure the order for the next day had, by some miracle, escaped the destruction and could be delivered in time. That thought allowed her to regain some composure and her vision bettered itself. She saw the details of the dress in front of her and recognized one of the pieces for the order she had to deliver the next day.

Maybe fainting wasn’t such a bad idea after all…

“Rarity.” Applejack’s voice called her from outside the boutique. “I need to talk with you for a moment.”

That was the escape Rarity wanted. She didn’t even look back and rushed outside of the building under the very surprised look of her little sister.

“Do you feel okay?” Applejack asked, suddenly very worried. “You really don’t look good.”

Rarity didn’t. She was in the middle of looking like a ghost or some zombie pony.

“Of course I feel okay. Everything is great!” Rarity replied with a very hectic voice. “Why wouldn’t I feel great?”

She was breathing heavily and would have fallen on the ground if Applejack hadn’t been there to hold her up. But slowly, being outside, away from her the situation she had wanted to escape from, Rarity found the strength to forget about it and focus on her friend.

“So… what is it you wanted to talk about?” she asked Applejack.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?” her friend replied, still worried.

“No. I’m fine. Just please tell me what you want. Tell me anything. Just anything.”

Applejack thought about how she should react, but as Rarity clearly didn’t want to talk about what had happened to her and was regaining composure, she decided to go to the point that had brought her here.

“I wanted to talk about the machine.” she began to explain.

“What machine?” asked Rarity, who had forgotten about it at that point.

“The one that produces that weird dust that solves everything.” Applejack carefully replied, not sure how to interpret that sudden memory loss. “I was thinking about what we could do with it.”

“Oh that!” Rarity realized, feeling a sudden huge feeling of relief as it was allowing her to think of something that she was actually happy to think about. “I’ve been thinking about it too. Can you imagine it? I could never make any mistake anymore in my makeup. You have no idea how many times I had to start it all over!”

It was actually true. Rarity had always lost a lot of time with her makeup, as she would never tolerate anything but true perfection on that matter. Sometimes, a simple shiver while putting the mascara would trigger a complete redo until it would look nothing but gorgeous.

“It’s not exactly what I had in mind.” Applejack said, relieved to see that Rarity was reacting in a way that was more like her. “I meant what we could do with it for our businesses.”

“I don’t follow.” Rarity replied.

But then it hit her. She hadn’t even considered it, but now she could picture all the difficult clients she had met, all those who would criticize her artistic choices, those who wouldn’t pay the full price, those who were demanding the impossible or those who were asking for something without explaining what exactly.

And also, in a more short term view, she recognized she had quite a problem to face into her boutique right at the moment.

Applejack was even more pragmatic. She revealed to Rarity that things weren’t going very smoothly at the farm. Nothing that couldn’t be managed, but difficulties that were making the life way harder that it had any reason to be.

She mentioned one event that, more than any other, was worrying her.

It was a month ago. Applejack was waiting in the farm with Granny Smith and Big Mac for Filthy Rich to come and discuss the next big delivery of apples. None of them were feeling very worried about as it had always been more of an occasion to share a pie together as a real negotiation. Filthy Rich had always been satisfied with the Apple family and the Apple family had never found any reason to complain about Filthy Rich.

“Hello there partner!” greeted Applejack as a pony opened the door of the farm.

But to the three ponies’ surprise, it wasn’t Filthy Rich who entered but a pony none of them had ever met.

“Good morning.” the pony said. “My name is Buyer Bye I’ve come to discuss the price and quantity of the apples you’ll provide us.”

The three Apples looked at each other, sharing the same surprise, but Granny Smith was the one who asked:

“Where is Filthy Rich? He is the one we usually talk with.”

“He didn’t tell you?” Buyer Bye asked, feigning to be surprised too. “He sold the retail company that you do business with. So now, you are doing business with us.”

Once again, the three Apples looked at each other, but silently agreed that it wasn’t of any concern of them who exactly was buying the apples. Filthy Rich was free to do whatever he wanted, so they had no complaints on that front.

“Now that this misunderstanding is settled, let’s get right to the point.” mister Bye said. “Here is our offer.” he said, holding a piece of paper out to them.

Granny Smith took it and began to read it, as did Applejack and Big Mac. Then the hammer fell down.

“Wait. This can’t be right.” Applejack said. “You made a mistake with the price. It’s almost two third of what we agreed on with Filthy Rich.”

Buyer Bye assured them there was no mistake.

“We have studied our relations with you and have noticed your apples are the most expensive we acquire from all the producers. This is merely a correction to ensure an equality of treatment.”

Applejack never said what happened after that point, but Rarity, knowing Granny Smith’s character could imagine the flow of complaints and the bitter turn the conversation with that mister Bye must have taken.

“We haven’t signed that contract yet.” Applejack explained. “But I was thinking that… maybe… you know.”

“You think that the dust could solve that problem for you.” Rarity replied.

“Not exactly.” defended herself Applejack. “I just think it might be a good plan B, just in case.”

“And why is it you came to me about it?” Rarity asked. “Twilight has decided none of us would use the machine anyway, so it’s not like it’s an option.”

Of course using the machine wasn’t an option. Not only was twilight their friend, but she was a princess of Equestria, and her decree was therefore a royal one. It was something that had a lot of weight for ponies.

Rarity thought of the inside of her boutique, shivered with anxiety and suddenly said:

“Or were you thinking of stealing the dust?”

Applejack didn’t respond, but it was clear she had thought of it.

“It’s forbidden!” Rarity almost shouted, before realizing she didn’t want to attract any attention. “I mean we could get caught.”

“We?” Applejack asked.

She had only come because she had thought Rarity would convince her to abandon that project. She would have promised her to wait until Twilight would have reached a decision and called it a day. But things were going in a way she hadn’t imagined.

“You’ve got a problem you need to solve, right?” Rarity asked her directly. “Well: so do I.”

And Rarity took Applejack inside the boutique, where Sweetie Belle greeted them and asked what they had been talking about that was so important.

But Applejack simply replied:

“I’m no expert on dresses, but I do agree: you have a problem alright!”