Everypony in business knows that a regular customer is often as good as a friend. And when that regular customer is a legitimately likable pony, a business pony will go to considerable lengths to accomodate that customer.
Rarity's good regular customer is Rugula: a Canterlot noble (by marriage: she's a Tangle native) who's actually been there since the Boutique's very first day. Rarity will do a lot of things for Rugula. But when Rugula asks Rarity to try her horn at designing a completely new form of shoe, one intended for a species with very different piece of locomotion anatomy, well, things get a little... out of hoof.
Read it here
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Tropes found in this story include:
- Continuity Nod:
- Twilight references the last time she had to levitate Rarity away as a result of her getting too obsessed with her work.
- Word Of Fanfic Author, in the form of a comment on the story, reveals Rugula was Rarity's first commission from Cut, Color, Carat, Clarity, and also the noble who hosted Rarity's failed fashion house party Rarity One-Tenth Bit.
- Fantastic Racism: Played for laughs; Rarity reveals she finds feet rather creepy; they're like hooves that have been split at the tip. Into fragments which wriggle. (Of course, this may just be the natural result of her having a minor hoof fetish.)
- Furry Reminder: Pony shoes are forged metal pieces that are either nailed onto the hoof or magically attached — although fabric "boots" are also sometimes worn as well, usually to prevent hooves from scuffing the floor or for extra warmth in the winter. Rarity semi-sarcastically notes that she doesn't do much with shoe design due to lacking the necessary anvil and forge.
- Here We Go Again!: Having recently met and befriended a female minotaur, the fic ends with Rugula apparently asking if Rarity would be willing to consider designing bras.
- Lighter and Softer: Invoked; Word Of Fanfic Author describes this fic as a deliberate attempt to do something Continuum related that is completely free of the usual drama or controversy, more akin to their rare stand-alone joke-fics.
- Logical Weakness: The anatomical limitations of a pony quickly scuttle sandals as an idea; even a unicorn with high dexterity like Rarity can barely strap on her prototype sandals, and forget about any earth pony doing so. Even the notoriously triple-jointed Lyra wouldn't manage it.
- Right Behind Me: While in the library, Rarity goes into great detail about how and why she believe feet to be disgusting — which possibly wasn't the best idea for somepony within earshot of Spike. Her hasty save of "But walking claws are perfectly lovely!" doesn't exactly save the day.
- Sanity Slippage: Rarity becomes so obsessed with figuring out how to make sandals work for pony anatomy that she forgoes sleep and gets increasingly loopy as the fic progresses.
