Designer's Block

by jamofthetoe

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rarity
Length: 1006

Rarity can't find the inspiration for some new dresses she has to come up with, what will she do?

A short story about how to find inspiration. Rarity is struggling to come up with a good dress idea and consults Twilight for help.

Published 2012-10-12 20:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-10-12 20:00:01 UTC

Chapter 1

Rarity slumped onto her couch and sighed. Today was just not her day. She rolled onto her back and glared at the ceiling. She had a pile of orders, but couldn’t get the inspiration to do them.

Maybe I can ask Twilight for help. She thought. Twilight, after all, was a very smart pony and would probably know what to do.

Falling off the couch, she slowly rose and made her way to the door. She mostly only decided to visit Twilight because she wanted to take a break from getting ultimately nothing done. She pushed open the door and was greeted by the crisp evening air.

Oh! You really should get out more Rarity!

It had not really been that long since she went outside, but she felt cramped in her workplace and needed a breather. She trotted through the streets of Ponyville, waving to the occasional passerby, and breathing in the happy atmosphere.

Such a friendly place. I’m so lucky to be here.

The library was only a short walk away and she found herself at the entrance soon. She knocked three times on the door and waited, looking around Twilight's garden and admiring her flowers.

“Oh! Hello Rarity!” an enthusiastic voice welcomed her “What brings you here?”

Twilight was in a good mood today, it cheered Rarity up slightly.

“Well I was having a little trouble focusing on work and thought I should pop over for a little visit.”

“Neat! Come inside then. Spike's just made some tea for me, would you like some?”

Rarity smiled at the thought of the cute baby dragon. He was always so eager to aid her and she thought he was a lovely gentleman, so kind and helpful.

“Sure. Tea sounds nice.” She nodded and walked through the door in her characteristic manner, swaying her flank almost flirtatiously.

“Spike! Rarity is here! Could you whip up another cup of tea?” Twilight called up the stairs.

Spike ran from the kitchen with a look on his face that would cheer anyone up.

“Rarity! Gladly!” He shouted and zipped back into the kitchen.

Rarity chuckled. “Funny little dragon isn’t he?”

“Yes he is.” Twilight giggled. “So how’s your day been?”

“Not the best, actually. I have so many orders to fill, but I can’t seem to find that touch. You know what I mean?”

“Yes, I wrote a few stories a while ago because I wanted to be a writer,” She scratched the back of her head “Wasn’t any good at that, but anyway I could never find the right motivation for anything, nothing stuck.”

“Exactly. Do you possibly have any advice for getting that motivation? You are the pony for advice after all.”

“Oh! Well… I don’t know” She said tapping her chin “We could consult my books!”

Twilight beamed at the prospect of any new knowledge, especially when gained from a book.

“I suppose…” Rarity hesitated.

“I got the tea!” piped Spike, rushing to the two conversing mares.

“Thank you, Spike.” Rarity smiled, levitating the cup and saucer up to her lips.

Spike looked up with awestruck eyes.

“No problem at all, Miss Rarity!” He grinned and ran off to do whatever chores needed to be done.

Maybe I just need to clear my head a bit. Rarity thought as she idly sipped the tea.

“Here!” Twilight shouted suddenly as she brought up a large book titled simply ‘Famous Quotes’.

She flipped open the book and scanned down the page.

“Um, Twilight. What are you doing?”

She didn’t respond, instead she pointed to a line in the middle of the page.

“Found it!” She exclaimed.

“Found what exactly?” Rarity said, curious.

She crouched down to look at the line Twilight was pointing at. It read: ‘The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.’

“That’s great Twilight, but I can’t seem to find any ideas.”

Twilight glanced at the page. She shook her head and pointed to the quote below that one.

“If you write to impress it will always be bad, but if you write to express it will be good.” She read aloud.

Rarity paused. She began to mull this over in her head. She had recently been forcing herself to design to the liking of the ones around her, but if she thought back, when she first opened her shop she would design her clothes to her liking. She would design them around the mood she was feeling. She would try to make a point, make something unique, something that stuck out. She could never stop the flow of ideas when this happened. Often times she would be so swamped that she would jot her ideas down so she didn't forget them.

She smiled. “Thank you Twilight, I think you may have greatly helped me.”

She finished off her tea. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have excellence to make!”

“Glad I could help.” She walked up to the door and opened it for her.

“Thank you, Twilight.” She dipped her head and sprinted to her boutique.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This isn’t quite what I expected.”

“Do you like it?” asked Rarity hopefully.

Her customer paused. Rarity bit her lip nervously.

“I think it’s excellent.” He finally said.

Rarity felt like jumping through the roof in joy. She suppressed it to a small nod and smile. The customer paid, took up the dress he ordered, and left. Rarity jumped around the room squealing in excitement.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” She would have to thank Twilight more thoroughly the next time they met.

“Rarity!” called a voice from downstairs.

Rarity recognized it as Sweetie Belle.

“Coming, Sweetie!”

She rushed down the stairs and took up Sweetie Belle in her hooves.

“Ulp! Um, hello Rarity. I need help with something.” Sweetie said, ignoring her sister’s sudden outburst.

“What is it?”

“We need to write a paper for school about our favorite thing to do, but I can’t think of anything!”

Rarity grinned “I think I can help you with that.”