The gentle touch of a bright blue aura opened the door to the designing room of Carousel Boutique. Holding up her muzzle, with a content smile plastered over her face Rarity gracefully trotted into the room. “Once again, thank you for helping me with the fabric, Applejack” the white unicorn said over her shoulder. “It really is an awfully long way from the train station here.”
Following the owner of the boutique, the orange country mare entered. Each of her steps was heavy, the strain evident all over her face as the nearly dozen rolls of fabric on her back weighted her down. “N-no problem… Rarity” Applejack huffed, forcing a smile on her face. Under her breath she mumbled: “Though it sure would’ve been nice if ya took at least ONE roll …”
“Just drop it near the door” Rarity told her, walking along the walls of her room to her working desk. “I’ll put it into the closets later myse-”
THUMP!
Rarity was shaking slightly along the whole room as Applejack dropped all her cargo at once. The instant the weight was off her back Applejack let out a huge sigh, dropping on her rump and wiping the sweat from her forehead.
“Oh, I’m so sorry” Rarity said, blushing slightly. “I-I shouldn’t have let you carry it all by yourself…”
Applejack took off her hat, fanning some air to her face. “No no, tis okay” she assured her. Smiling, she put her hat back on her blonde mane. “Besides, Ah still owe ya and Twilight one for helpin’ me realize the nonsense Ah did on the farm.”
Opening a drawer of her desk, Rarity waved it off. “Oh, please! That is what friends are for. Also, the day we spent together at the spa was more than enough to make up for it.”
Getting back up on all her four legs a slight blush crept onto Applejack’s cheeks. “Ah still can’t believe how much time Ah wasted with this nonsense!” she groaned, walking to the side of her friend. “Lookin’ back, Ah was really actin’ mighty silly.”
With a chuckle Rarity pulled out the entire drawer from her desk, letting it hover in the air. Applejack could see the contents of the drawer, several cotton reels aligned in the colours of the rainbow. “Applejack, darling, there is no need to feel embarrassed” she told her. Turning the drawer upside down, she dropped its entire contents on her desk. “You got stuck in some old habits. That can happen to all of us.” As she rummaged through the cotton reels she whispered: “Though I do have to say, opening and closing a squeaking door you had actually fixed yourself was a little weird...”
The blush on Applejack’s cheeks intensified. “Ah was just…” She pulled down her hat, covering her face with it. After taking in a deep breath she pulled it up again, her blush less prominent. “Ah wanted to fix that darn gate right away, but work just kept pilin‘ up, so Ah had to put it back again and again. And by the time Ah finally got to fixin’ it, the whole ‘open and close gate’-thing had pretty much become routine.” As she spoke, uncomfortably rubbing her hoof on the carpet, Rarity had put a purple cord of yarn aside, and began to neatly put the others back into the drawer. “It was a lot of times like this, actually. Some problem popped up, but Ah didn’t have time to fix it because there was so much other stuff to do, so Ah had to make up some make-shift solution. But those make-shift solutions took up more and more of mah time, so Ah had to postpone other stuff, forcing me to improvise more, leadin’ to even MORE work…” She rubbed the back of her head. “Kind of like the whole steam and towel thing at the spa, if ya think about it.”
After putting the drawer back into her desk Rarity turned around. “As I said, it is easy to get stuck up in old habits” she stated, walking along the walls towards the closet on the other side of the room. Watching her cross the room in a wide arc Applejack raised an eyebrow. “That is why it is important to always observe your action from a critical perspective, and see if they are really necessary.” Arriving at the closet she opened a drawer with her magic, closed it, then opened the one beneath. “Naturally, one shouldn’t take efficiency optimization TOO far” she continued as she lifted a large roll of fabric, similar to the ones Applejack had been carrying out of the drawer, and placed it on the floor. With her magic she unrolled it, the smooth, silky fabric spreading out through half the room. “But it can really be downright shocking how much time these little things can take away from us” she spoke while walking over the plain fabric, making relatively heavy steps with her four hooves. Silently Applejack watched her go the fabric up, then back down, before starting to roll it up again. “I don’t want to sound lecturing, Applejack, but in the future, I do hope you will look over your own working routines with a more keen eye for detail” Rarity suggested as she walked back to her working desk with the fabric hovering behind her, again making a wide arc and staying close to the walls. Placing the fabric on the desk she lifted a needle and the purple cotton reel with her magic. She was about to put the thread into the needle’s eye, but then paused. Taking a look over her shoulder she noticed the rather perplexed look on Applejack’s face. “Is there anything wrong, darling?” she asked.
Applejack stayed quiet for a moment, just looking at her. “Rarity… what exactly are ya doin’ there?” it finally came out of her mouth.
Confused Rarity turned up her muzzle. She looked at the material and tools lying in front of her, then back at Applejack. “Why, I’m making a dress, of course!” she replied.
Applejack shook her head. “No, Ah mean…” She paused for a moment, then pointed at the drawer of her desk. “For starters, why did ya empty the drawer onto the table?”
Rarity’s gaze followed Applejack’s hoof, and the look on her face softened. “Oh, that. I know it looks weird, but it’s the only way to really find anything in this mess.”
Applejack scratched her hat. “Well, it looked to me like they were layin’ neatly ordered ‘nside it.”
A wide smile formed on the unicorn’s face. “Because my dear sister Sweetie Belle organized them!” she squealed, rubbing her hooves in delight. “I was angry at first, but I quickly found that real organization is a lot easier to handle than organized chaos!”
Applejack turned her head to the closet on the other side of the room. “And why did ya first open a drawer, then close it again?” she asked.
“I needed the fabric from the drawer below” Rarity explained. Turning back to her work she pulled the thread through the needle’s eye. “It’s warped, so I have to open the drawer above it first.”
Cocking her head, Applejack mumbled: “Didn’t look warped to me…”
Rarity rolled her eyes, at the same time unrolling some of the fabric. “Applejack, have you forgotten I asked you to fixed that for me?” As she began to sew a pattern into the fabric she murmured: “Though I admit, being a couple of months ago, it’s understandable you’ve forgotten by now.”
Applejack watched the needle move in and out of the fabric, before speaking up again: “And when you walked over the fabric…?”
“Just flattening it a little” Rarity said, focused on her work. “All the fabric I receive from this company has dents – probably a mistake in the transport.”
“It looked okay to me…”
“I guess they fixed it.” Rarity chuckled lightly. “After all, it is pretty embarrassing for a fabric deliverer to regularly deliver fabric with dents.”
Turning her head left and right Applejack examined around the room. “And why are ya always going round the room, never through the middle?”
“To avoid the huge stash of fabric” she answered.
Applejack winced. “What stash of fabric?”
“The one for the huge order from Saphire Shores.” Rarity put needle and fabric down, massaging her temple. “And I assure you, as much as I love to work on her outfits, I am so glad I finally got it done last week! You could practically not walk through this room here because the fabric was stapling up to the-”
Suddenly, Rarity froze. Her eyes wide she glanced at the drawer of her desk, then turned her head to the closet, before gazing upon the wide, empty floor in the middle of the room.
With a lock of shock and embarrassment on her face she looked at Applejack, a hoof in front of her mouth. “Oh my…”
