It was a warm, pleasant summer's day in Ponyville. A mild breeze rustled through the upper branches of the Golden Oak Library as Rarity trotted up to the red front door with its candlestick icon. The violet-maned fashionista glanced about, then rapped a hoof smartly on it.
"Come in, it's open!" called a mildly distracted voice from inside.
Rarity pushed open the door and peered in. Then she nodded. Of course, on a lovely day like this, where else would Ponyville's resident librarian and newly-minted Princess be?
Inside... reading.
The lavender alicorn was seated on a comfortable cushion in the middle of the Library's main room, spotlit by a beam of sunlight falling through an upper window. There was a heavy volume spread open on the floor before her, and others stacked in easy reach to either side. Motes of dust danced in the sunlight, and gently swirled in the air currents induced by her gleaming horn whenever she used her magic to turn a page.
"Hello, dahling!"
"Oh! Hey, Rarity!" Twilight looked up with a smile.
"Where's Spikey today?" Rarity glanced around. "Normally whenever I visit he's already opening the door before I can even knock. It's uncanny!"
"He and Rainbow are away at a comic convention in Fillydelphia." Twilight smirked. "I think Spike's desperate to find another of those enchanted Power Ponies comics. And Rainbow's just as bad... she's supposed to be going as a chaperone, but I think if Spike hadn't already wanted to go she'd have chucked him on board the train herself. She's still hunting for that final signed, first-edition Daring Do."
"Well, it's good they have such compatible interests, which have them out and about." Rarity trotted over to stand beside Twilight, peering down at the book she was reading. Then she looked at Twilight herself. "Whereas you, my dear... honestly, we don't try nearly hard enough to coax you out of your Library. Sitting in here, all by yourself!"
"I'm actually fine," Twilight replied. "I've always been okay with being on my own. I tend to feel a little on edge in social gatherings, unless it's with ponies I know. Probably because I have so much difficulty with small-talk."
"How so? With all the reading you do you have such a fund of knowledge. I'd think you'd have plenty to chat about."
"Oh, really?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Okay, you want to talk about thaumic field theory over lunch?"
"Er..."
"Or how about friendly, amicable, solitary, and hostile numbers? Oh, and there's always the interesting relationship between the invention of the hole-punch and the use of jam as a substitute for marmalade during the great Peanut Brittle Fracas of 526..."
"Well, I..."
"Or, how about something lighter? Like talking over recent discoveries in Somnambulan burial arcana? Or guessing the subject of the next Daring Do novel?" Twilight grinned. "Actually, those two have a lot of overlap."
"Ah. Well... yes," Rarity agreed, soberly. "I do take your point." Then she brightened up. "Still, it'd be good to get you out of your mare-cave, at least for a little while. And you know, we don't often have a chance to spend some quality time together these days. Tell you what, I'm working on some designs for my next show. Would you like to come over and take a quick preview? I'd love to hear your initial impressions."
Twilight was uncertain. "Well... I was kind of hoping to get in some solid reading time while Spike's away."
But then Rarity did the pleeeese look, tilting her head with her eyes wide. "It would mean so much, dearest. I've always appreciated your candor and analytical eye!"
Twilight half-suspected what Rarity really wanted was the cachet of having Equestria's newest Princess giving her imprimatur to the Boutique's newest line. But Twilight didn't mind. Rarity was a friend. And just because Twilight was comfortable being alone, it didn't mean she always had to be.
"Sure, I need a break anyway. Lead on!"
"Wow, Rarity..." Twilight turned slowly about, gazing in awe at the works of art being steadily assembled on the clothes-ponies ranged around Rarity's shop. The dresses were waterfalls of color and soft fabric, with accents of lace, golden clasps, gemstones, and dozens of other small items besides -- but never too much, never overwrought, always just enough.
It reminded Twilight uncomfortably of every time she'd attempted something creative. Even just making a salad for herself, somehow it always felt clumsy and unfinished when she was done, no matter how she tried garnishing it. Whereas Rarity could leave a garment half-finished and nopony would be the wiser, because it would still be perfect just as it was.
"These are amazing!" Twilight went on. "It looks like Fashion Week in Manehattan has really given you some great ideas."
"Why, thank you, darling!"
Twilight shook her head ruefully. "I could never create anything this good. I'm great at organizing, sure. But inspiration, design, that's a whole different story."
"Oh, nonsense, Twilight! I'm sure given a little time and practice you could come up with something just as wonderful."
"That and a boatload of lessons." Twilight gently lifted the hem of the nearest dress, fascinated by the way the shimmer of the fabric simply flowed over its surface. "Still... it'd be great to be able to pull off something even a tenth as good as this. I'd love to be so creative, so... inspired!"
"Really? Well then, I have an idea," Rarity said. "I could give you lessons, while I'm working on finishing these designs. Business is always slow in the summer months and I'd love the company. You could work right here in the shop. We'll treat it as a private workshop on fashion. I'll have you designing with the best in no time."
"Uhhh... have you forgotten Winter Wrap-up, a couple years back? When you tried to show me how to make a perfect bird's nest? Yours came out looking perfect. Mine just looked like... well, a bird's nest!"
"Oh piffle, dear. You were inexperienced, that's all. And spending so much time around Celestia's court as Princess, you must have picked up a few notions of style by now, simply by osmosis."
"Well..."
"Go on!" Rarity encouraged her. "Treat it as a challenge... a working vacation. Go for the gusto, as they say!"
"All right," Twilight shrugged. "I'll try anything once. As long as nopony holds the results against me..."
Rarity quickly got Twilight set up in a corner of the shop's display room, with a clothes-pony and a bin of colorful silks to choose from.
"Now, we'll start you off with something simple, my dear, just to get you warmed up. Imagine you're crafting a headscarf for a sun-dress. Just try out different combinations of colors, different draping styles. Play around with the material for a bit, see what goes well together."
Twilight willingly set to work, using her magic to draw silks from the bin and drape and wrap them about the pony's head and withers. Her head tipped thoughtfully back and forth as she tried to decide what to use, swapping colors and textures in and out, and occasionally tearing it all down and starting over.
Rarity left her to it for a while, and worked on finished up some stitching on a gown. The general idea was to give Twilight some initial confidence in her ability to create, with no pressure to complete anything specific. And it seemed to be working. Rarity had to smile a bit when, true to form, Twilight summoned over a scroll and quill with her magic and then quickly sketched out a grid on which to check off the various combinations as she tried them.
After a while Twilight seemed to be reaching saturation point on the headscarf task, so Rarity smoothly moved her on to choosing color and fabric combinations for a simple sundress and bonnet. Again, not with an end result in mind but just as a way to build up her confidence in her sense of style.
And then, when Twilight seemed satisfied with her progress on that, it so happened that Rarity was starting on a simple pantsuit combination for a side-order. So she walked Twilight through cutting out the various pattern elements, and how the components were assembled. Rarity was a little uncertain at first about Twilight's ability with sewing, but found to her surprise that Twilight had already threaded a needle and run a passable seam on a trouser-cuff while they were talking. With some practice on seams that wouldn't show, and just a little hoof-holding now and again, Twilight was able to complete a second copy of the suit essentially on her own.
So Rarity moved her on to a pleated gown as a test of skill, using one of the dresses she herself had done as a model. And she was pleasantly surprised when Twilight was able to manage the pleats without much effort at all. Far from being clumsy or inefficient, it seemed that anything Rarity showed her, Twilight was able to readily pick up and handle with little difficulty.
And yet... Rarity could tell Twilight felt tense. The alicorn's work was adequate and quite competent, and Twilight faced every challenge with calm, steady determination, seemingly pleased with her own progress. Yet she seemed unable to simply loosen up, to enjoy creating.
Twilight herself recognized it. "I'm sorry, Rarity," she said. "I'm just so worried I'll get carried away, mess something up by going too fast. It's hard to just throw myself into it, the way you do... to just let go and be creative."
"But Twilight!" Rarity said, surprised. "How can you say that! You always put together such wonderful costumes for Nightmare Night! Even if I don't always recognize who they are, I'm impressed by the meticulous detail and craftsponyship of your work."
"Well... to be honest, that's mostly because I just dig up every possible reference work I can find that has a drawing or painting or description of the subject, and then duplicate the design and details from the images and text. That's easy for me to do, just copy what I see, but that doesn't really teach me much about creating something original, about being spontaneous. I can trace the lines, so to speak, but I can't really draw much on my own."
"Hmmm..." Rarity nodded. "Well, I always say one should go with what works. Why don't you try using the same technique for ordinary fashion? Work from drawings of period dress, and assemble one or two complete outfits just for practice. Get yourself used to the process of creating. And then try throwing in a few custom flourishes. Once the process starts to click for you, you should be able to come up with some original design ideas of your own. I can help you pick and choose elements that work well together. Assuming, of course, that you even need help along those lines."
Twilight readily agreed, excited by the prospect of having a clear recipe to follow. And then she quickly excused herself, hurrying off to her Library to look up some reference works. Rarity smiled to herself at that, a little sadly, thinking she'd lost Twilight at last, that she wouldn't be returning. But before she knew it Twilight was back again, dumping a pile of coffee-table-sized books of paintings and drawings on the worktable in the middle of the room. Quickly riffling through their pages, she found some likely period outfits to use as references. And then she turned to the supply shelves, looking through the bolts of cloth for the right colors and weights to use.
Seeing that Twilight was fully occupied, Rarity turned back to her own work again. She moved from clothes-pony to clothes-pony, adding and adjusting and replacing, with occasional glances at her own sketches on the worktable as a reminder.
She was momentarily stuck on the collar for one dress, looking at it from one angle and then another, trying to decide between a high, stiff collar and a soft, ribbed neckline...
... and then she found Twilight beside her, glancing from her to the dress.
"You... uh, probably want the stiff collar with that, right?"
"Oh! Why, yes, I suppose I do! Thank you, Twi!" Attaching the collar, she moved on to the next outfit, an elegant pleated ball gown. She carefully attached gemstones to the puffed sleeves, and added a silken train.
Suddenly she found Twilight looking over her shoulder again.
"Um... there should be gold scrollwork stitching on the side-seams, shouldn't there?"
"Ah." Rarity stared. Twilight was absolutely right. It was the perfect accent. "Of course... er, thank you for reminding me."
She completed that, and then moved on, to something a little more modern, more risqué. A party frock, in a sharp-edged black and gold harlequin design, with lace and flounces, and high-cut seams. After some thought she added a flat, broad-brimmed hat with an encircling golden ribbon that was just a hair redder gold than the rest of the dress.
She suddenly tensed, feeling she was being watched.
It was Twilight again, looking up from one of her books on the worktable. "Oh! That's what was missing... there should be little silver fleur-de-lis accents around the cuffs, right?"
"Er... yes... I see..." Rarity covered her nervousness by rummaging in a drawer, looking for a stencil to use to make them. For a moment she felt mildly annoyed. After all, she was supposed to be teaching design to Twilight. And here Rarity felt like her work was under a microscope.
Then she realized she was being silly. Twilight was merely displaying a grasp of fashion sense that none of them had ever suspected, because they'd never dug deep enough to find it. "Twilight, my dear," she said, brightly, "I don't know what you were so worried about. You're so knowledgeable about fashion. Truly, you have hidden talents!"
Twilight bit her lip nervously, but said nothing.
They kept working, Twilight finally having settled on a heavily detailed pre-classical court gown, and Rarity putting the finishing touches on her own dresses... and gradually finding herself hoping that Twilight would venture yet another opinion on them. She was finding the librarian's laser-like style sense to be astonishingly eye-opening and inspiring.
Finally, Rarity felt there was nothing more she could add, tweak, or take away from the new line. The dresses stood in a row on their clothes-ponies, shimmering and stylish. She sighed with relief, and began organizing her drawings and cleaning up some of the discarded scraps.
She noticed that Twilight seemed to have finished her gown as well, though she was casting a critical eye over it, and repeatedly comparing it with the source painting she'd been working from.
"Don't stress, dahling," Rarity reassured her. "It looks fabulous!"
Twilight made a face. "It's... adequate. It might pass for a background costume in a movie, but I doubt it would pass muster at a real Gala of the time."
"Oh, nonsense! I think it's wonderfully period, and so precise in its execution. I'd be more than happy to display it alongside the rest of the collection here, since the style is nicely complementary. The contrast between the detail and elegance of the past, and the brash, bold ideas of modern times!" She proudly gestured to her new line. "Everything's so fresh and original, it'll be sure to impress the critics at my next showing."
Twilight looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"Um... yeah. Absolutely, Rarity! I think it's all... marvelously creative, and... uh... well..." She bit her lip.
Rarity gave her a puzzled look. "What is it, Twi? Oh, please, don't be nervous about expressing an opinion! I've always trusted in your judgment in other things, and having worked with you today I've learned to value your opinion on style as well. What's the matter?"
"Well..." Twilight pointed to one of the clothes-ponies. "Take that one... it's very similar to a court dress style of the early Celestial era. Here, I think I can find the reference..." she rapidly paged through one of her books, then pointed. "There, you see?"
Rarity looked at the pony rearing proudly for her portrait. And looking at the gown draping her withers and back, she saw what Twilight meant. The specific colors and fabrics were somewhat different of course, but the overall look was a very close match.
"Oh, well," Rarity waved a hoof. "Pfft! Probably just coincidence, no need to worry about that."
But Twilight still looked uneasy. She pointed to the party-frock ensemble. "And that has a color scheme that was popular in the fifth-century Prankish court. When they were into harlequin designs?" She found an artist's sketch in one of her books. "See? And that one there..." she pointed again, and now Rarity was wincing as if someone had stabbed her. Twilight was pointing to her favorite of the whole collection, an elegant flowing chiffon gown with silver-thread accents. To Rarity's eye it would be like wearing a summer cloud.
"That one's pretty much a line-for-line recreation of a sacerdotal garment from the pre-classical era. Here, have a look."
Rarity didn't want to. Out of a sense of artistic integrity, she forced herself to look. Yes, she could see what Twilight meant. Her wonderful creation... there it was, on the page in front of her.
"It's just, well..." Twilight shrugged. "These designs aren't new. Every one of them has a source from history. I might have to dig a bit to find all the references, but I recognized them while we were working together." She looked mournful. "I just... didn't want you thinking you'd created something new, when it clearly already existed."
"But... but..." Rarity stammered, "I know I rely on ideas from the past, in all my designs. Material and weaves, shapes, colors, patterns, design elements and accents. I thought I was combining them in fresh, new ways... adding a modern touch, developing my own unique style..."
Her heart sinking, she picked up one of Twilight's books with her magic and paged through it frantically. Now that Twilight had pointed it out, she could see it. Her most inventive ideas... there they were, right there, in every painting, every sketch, every photograph... from a museum display.
Nothing she was doing was new. It had all been done before.
Twilight grimaced unhappily. "I'm so sorry, Rarity! I was working on a period dress, and I thought your works were deliberately calling back to historical designs as well, so..."
Rarity's heart hit bottom. And something snapped.
"... so you... encouraged me?" Rarity fired back, outraged. "All your little hints, your little 'style tips'... you were leading me on! You... you... prompted me to copy past work! All my effort, all my designs! Sabotaged! I'm going to have to start all over, from scratch! From scratch!"
"But, Rarity..."
"No, no, I won't hear another word!" Rarity looked away, waving a hoof. "It's going to take me forever to undo all this damage, to redo all these ensembles. Forever! I can't let myself be seen as... as... derivative! I just can't! I would be ruined! Ruined, I say! A laughingstock!"
"Maybe I could..."
"What?" Rarity glared at her, in rage and nearly in tears. "Don't you think you've done enough already! Humph!"
Twilight gaped. She struggled for something to say, something that wouldn't make the situation any worse than it was. Then, abandoning her books on the worktable she hurried out of the shop, almost in tears herself.
The door swung closed behind her, its bell jangling forlornly.
And Rarity just stood where she was, sobbing.
It was still a warm, pleasant summer's day in Ponyville. The mild breeze was still rustling through the upper branches of the Golden Oak Library.
But to Rarity, it felt like a cloud hung over her as she sadly trudged up to the red door, and reached a hoof to knock.
The door swung open freely at her touch.
"Ahem... dahling? Are you in?" Rarity peered around the door.
And then she winced.
Twilight was sitting on her cushion in the middle of the floor again. But she was facing away from the door, and had buried her snout under another cushion, shoulders hunched, breathing heavily. Around her, her books lay scattered in disarray, as if a small explosion had sent them flying in every direction.
Rarity cautiously trotted up to her. She gently put a hoof on her shoulder.
"I'm so sorry, Twilight. I lost my temper and said things I didn't really mean. That was wrong of me. I don't really believe you would ever try to sabotage my work. You noticed the truth and you tried to tell me, but I just wasn't listening. Will you please forgive me, my dear?"
Twilight pushed the cushion off her head, and looked up with a weak smile. "Sure, Rarity. I forgive you." She laboriously sat up, and then glancing around at her books, began using her magic to collect and restack them. She glanced sideways at Rarity as she did so. "I thought," Twilight cautiously said, "based on your suggestion about following historical sources in the dress I was working on, that you were doing the same in your own designs. So when I noticed things that didn't gibe with what I recalled from my books, I pointed them out. I absolutely didn't intend to mess up your work. I just didn't properly understand what you were trying to do."
Rarity nodded. She gave Twilight a gentle hug with a forehoof. "I understand, dearest. And I really did appreciate all your suggestions. They were so spot-on and helpful!" She shrugged. "I just didn't understand their source. And that was entirely my own fault. I mean, I do read the glamour magazines to stay informed, and occasionally dip into the odd historical retrospective, just to have insight into modern trends. But I don't have nearly the in-depth historical background you have access to here." She gestured with a hoof at Twilight's library.
"Yeah," Twilight muttered, downcast. "Me and my books! Sometimes I think I read too much, that I know too much. It always seems to backfire on me, gets in the way of talking with other ponies, dealing with other ponies!"
"Oh, don't talk like that, my dear." Rarity shook her head. "It's part of who you are, like your magic, or your mane-style." She gently flicked a lock of Twilight's unruly bangs back into place. "And we're all endlessly impressed by the depth of your knowledge and experience. For example," she added, "I'm still amazed at how quickly you recognized and sourced all those different designs. You must have photographic memory!"
Twilight shook her head. "There's no such thing as true photographic recall, in the sense of re-seeing an exact image. It's more of a skill with organizing and efficiently recalling details, and it's subject to errors and distortions like any other form of memory, unless you're very careful."
She gestured to the innumerable shelves of books herself. "In my case, it's because I've spent so much time around libraries. I can recall I've seen a phrase, or an image, or a snatch of poetry or music, even if I don't know where I've seen it. Most ponies stop there. But I'm different... I have the library skills to find where I've seen it, and thus reinforce and bake in the memory of the source. And the more memories I have, the more I can use them as shortcuts to remember other things. It all feeds on itself! And given all the reading I've done, I have a lot of baked-in memories... everything I see reminds me of something from the past. And hence nothing seems original anymore because I know where it all comes from."
"I understand, dear. But even so I'm still impressed by your diligence and capacity for remembering details." Rarity shook her head. "It was just a bit of a shock, being forcibly reminded how the present continually rediscovers the past."
Twilight winced. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to give you the impression that your work wasn't fresh and creative, because it is... for the modern era. It just brings to mind as well all the times it's cropped up before, over the millennia."
"You're sounding more and more like Princess Celestia these days." Rarity gave her a playful nudge. "Though to be fair, Celestia has only lived her memories. You've had to work hard to acquire them all, dahling, in far less time."
"Maybe I just shouldn't have said anything." Twilight shook her head. "I keep opening my big mouth and shoving a hoof in it."
"No, no, my dear! You were quite right to bring it to my attention."
"I mean," Twilight went on, "I only noticed because I'm such a book nerd, and because our work together prompted me to think about it. The fashion critics at your shows... well, no disrespect meant, but they probably would never realize it. Or care much if they did."
"Oh, not at all," Rarity countered. "One of them would be bound to notice it, eventually. And then they'd noise it about that my work is just a rehashing of old ideas. And there's no harsher criticism in my business. Even being called clumsy or naive means you have room to grow. But being considered as played out, repetitive... that's death to a designer."
Rarity sighed.
"And maybe it's the truth. I have to be honest. Maybe I've just been deluding myself all this time."
"Now you're being silly." Twilight prodded her with a hoof. "Your designs are amazing. I still think that. We just need to find a way to keep them from being pigeon-holed as derivative of one or another style from the past." Twilight frowned, turning ideas over in her mind. Frustrated, she pounded one hoof on the other. "There's got to be a way to fix this. If I notice there's a problem and call it out, I ought to be able to do something about it. I hate it when ponies complain about things but do nothing to fix them. There's got to be a solution here!"
"But what?" Rarity asked, hopelessly. "There's so much of the past to deal with. It's bound to win in the end. No matter what style I try, it's bound to look like something from history."
"You're right," Twilight said thoughtfully. "There's a lot of the past, a lot of styles, of fashions, of periods..."
She suddenly sat bolt upright, eyes lighting up. "Aha! I may have an idea!"
"Oh really?" Rarity said, eagerly. "Do tell! Is it some new approach, some new design that hasn't been done before?"
"Not exactly. Are you familiar with Canter's Diagonalization?"
"Uhhh, not... as such," Rarity replied cautiously. "Which period of design was that in?"
Twilight giggled. "The 890's... um... Aesthetics and Sportswear I think. But Georgia Canter wasn't a fashion designer. She was a mathematician."
"Er... a mathematician?" Rarity looked uncomfortable.
"Right. Canter came up with a marvelous proof that real numbers are uncountable!"
"Un... countable. Ah. Yes. Well, dahling, that's all well and good, but what does that have to do with our design dilemma?"
"Simple. A real number between zero and one can be written as an endless string of decimal digits. Now imagine a list of such numbers. Each number represents a unique fashion design. Say the first digit encodes color, the next shape, the next sleeve length, and so on. You can use multiple digits to encode things, and you can use as many digits as you like, since a real number is unbounded in length."
"Okayyy... each number represents a fashion, got it..."
"Now, if fashions were countable, any fashion would be represented by a number somewhere on the list. But it's easy to find a real number that's not on the list. Just pick a number that differs from the first number on the list by its first digit, the second by the second digit, the third by the third, and so on. Since you're essentially taking digits from the diagonal of the list of numbers, it's called diagonalization. And since the new number clearly differs from every number on the list by one digit, it's clearly not anywhere in the list, and hence represents a fashion design that's not included in the list. And even if you add the new number to the list, you can do the same trick again. You can do it for any proposed list of all possible designs."
"I see! So the list of fashion designs is uncountable!" Rarity blinked. "Wait... I actually got that." She looked doubtfully at Twilight. "But are fashion designs really uncountable like that?"
"Well, only in theory! The number of designs in history obviously isn't infinite. Still, for a large list with enough diversity in its mapping from numbers to items, the same sort of diagonalization trick could be applied to produce a new item that's demonstrably different from everything already in the list. You'd have to choose the encoding such that any choice of digits produces a reasonably valid style, and changing any digit has a significant impact... but that's just bookkeeping details. The point is, you make the process exhaustive and mostly mechanical, so there's little possibility of subconscious bias creeping into your design choices."
Rarity nodded. "So... you're basically saying I take a list of all the fashion styles, in all the historical periods, and from each style I take one thing -- fabric, weight, length, color, pattern, accessories, and so on -- and change that property for the new style, and... voila! A design no pony can call derivative, because it clearly differs from every historical style in at least one distinct way! Brilliant! Oh! And you're right, I can do it again and again! I could design an entire new collection this way!"
Her face fell. "Ah. But wait a moment... how in Celestia's name am I going to keep track of all those different styles, all those features and details, to be sure that my new designs differ from every single one of them? I'm sure to mess up somewhere!"
She found Twilight practically bumping snouts with her, staring her right in the eyes. "Rarity, are you kidding me? Hello? Organizing and keeping track of complicated stuff is what I do best!"
"And you wouldn't mind, my dear?"
"Why the hay would I mind! It's the perfect way for me to help!" She beamed. "Let's diagonalize fashion!"
"What are we waiting for?" Rarity said. "Let's get to it!"
Twilight used her magic to scoop up several blank scrolls and quills from her desk, and together they hurried out through the door and back to Rarity's shop.
At the Canterlot Fashion Weekly show, before an audience of style taste-makers, fashion-rag critics, aficionados, and those merely present in order to be seen expressing an opinion, the model ponies paraded Rarity's creations down the runway. The buzz from the fashion-pony audience rose palpably. The designs were a hit.
Twilight and Rarity were seated at the front of the audience, next to the end of the runway. Rarity was hugging herself, over the moon. She could barely contain herself listening to the reactions:
"Stunning, a distinctly original take on the traditional frock!"
"I would never have considered stripes on that gown style -- it works!"
"Breathtaking! Avant-garde! Mold-breaking!"
Rarity giggled excitedly, and nudged Twilight. "I've never heard them talk up my work like this before! Oh, Twilight! My reputation as a designer is safe! And I owe it all to your brilliance and organizational skill!"
"Coupled with your design skills and creativity," Twilight reminded her. But she smiled happily. "I'm really glad I could put my nerd skills to use helping you out. And you've taught me so much about style and design while we've worked on this. I might just try my hoof at designing more often!"
"Well! I hope you won't end up competing with me, Twi!"
"Not much worry of that. Not with my plodding, copy-cat style."
As the last of Rarity's designs made their way onto the runway, the style-meister Hoity Toity, who was hosting the show this year, stamped his hooves for attention.
"Bravo!" he called. "Bravo! An astounding presentation! Let's have a round of applause for Ms. Rarity and her Diagonal Collection!"
The audience willingly gave it up at length, stamping and cheering.
And then they fell silent as the last dress came into view...
... Twilight's staid, traditionalist, copy-cat effort.
A little nervously, the model wearing it moved to join the others, through an imposing silence.
Hoity Toity was the first to break the shocked stillness. "Now there's something you don't see every day!" He looked around, smirking. "Don't you agree? I mean just look at it! Absolutely unbelievable!"
Rarity readied herself to console Twilight against the onslaught. Then she heard the audience's further reactions.
"Indeed! An inspirational throwback!"
"Such a technically accurate period look! I mean, it's like it's commenting on the entire thrust of modern design!"
"What brilliance! A stunningly avant-garde retroversion!"
Rarity stared around at them all, in utter shock and disbelief. And then she turned to look at Twilight. Who was sitting there, equally stunned, her eyes wide, her mouth hanging open.
"Who's the designer?" called out a fashion critic. The shout was quickly taken up around the room. "The designer! The designer! Who is she? I want to know who she is!"
Twilight's mouth slammed shut. She started to back away. And was stopped by Rarity's hoof landing on her shoulder. Gritting her teeth, the fashion pony shoved Twilight bodily up onto the runway. The models hastily backed away to make room for her, and the one wearing her creation nervously stepped forward to stand beside her.
"Princess Twilight!" Hoity Toity cried. "Amazing!" The crowd went wild. "The royals have unexpected design talents! Well, of course -- they're immortal, after all! They've seen everything! Brilliant! Bravo! Bravo!"
Twilight stared around at the cheering audience, the flash and pop of cameras. She gritted her teeth in an attempt to smile, though it looked more like she'd just stepped on a tack and was holding in the scream. And then she looked down at Rarity.
Who sat where she was, forehooves crossed. Scowling up at Twilight.
Twilight sighed.
Horsefeathers, she thought. When will I learn to keep my geeky mouth shut?
The End
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, its characters and indicia are the property of Hasbro.
No infringement is intended. This story is a work of fan fiction, written by fans for fans of the series.
