It was almost dawn. Rarity always stayed up late with a project whenever she was aggravated or in an otherwise foul mood, but those words were for ponies who had been splashed by a passing carriage, stubbed their hoof one too many times or had their mane ruined by a bad haircut. Any one of those things would have cast a dark cloud over Rarity's average day, but what recently transpired in Canterlot had been the
worst POSSIBLE THING!
A high class fashion designer had been introduced to her through Hoity Toity during her recent stay in Canterlot. Hoity Toity had given Rarity his blessing and Rarity's new business associate had taken her under his wing, quite literally. Argyle Glaze was a pegasus pony, an oddity in the fashion world. He was very hoofy with a pencil and paper and had made absolutely gorgeous designs that were featured in magazines throughout Equestria. Rarity's previous endeavors in dressmaking had seemed to be that of a talented amateur in comparison. Hoity Toity assured Argyle that Rarity was a capable unicorn that could produce masterworks in the fashion world. Hoity Toity's word was enough for Argyle.
Argyle had commissioned Rarity to take some of his old designs and spruce them up. He had a catalog of literally thousands of dresses and suits to choose from. Rarity was to take ten of the designs, modify them, and return to Canterlot within one month and have Argyle appraise her work. Argyle would judge whether Rarity had a bright future in Canterlot or would just be a one trick pony that had made a small ripple in the fashion ocean of yesterday.
Rarity had worked tirelessly on modifying the designs. She had a fashion show her five closest friends, one baby dragon, and her sister. Yes. Her sister. Klutz that she was, Sweetie Belle was Rarity's sister. Helping her sister was all Sweetie Belle cared about, apart from getting her Cutie Mark, that is. There had been on incident on the first day of Rarity's monumental project and she had somehow convinced Sweetie Belle that ironing her fabric until it was smoking was not a good thing. A further shock, Sweetie Belle had actually listened when Rarity told her that she didn't need any help on this project. Rarity had hardly seen Sweetie Belle all month and found her work area to be quite refreshing without having to keep an eye out for her sister's foalish behavior.
Rarity had made her way to Canterlot, dresses and suits in tow, and met at her potential partner's fashion studio. Argyle Glaze was pleased with Rarity's punctuality. He had given her exactly one month to design and here she was, exactly one month later, with ten refurbished designs to show him. The disaster had started off well enough. Argyle had his assistants take out Rarity's outfits one by one, appraising each one. Upon seeing the first dress and accompanying original design, his wings flared up and his eyes sparkled. He praised Rarity's ingenuity with coming up with a brilliant color scheme to an otherwise bland but functional design. Rarity beamed.
Her smile soon turned into a frown when everypony let out an audible gasp. Rarity's eyes became saucers as she saw Argyle's disgusted look through a rounded triangular hole in the second dress. The edges were singed and Rarity knew at once recognized Sweetie Belle's handiwork. Argyle's unicorn assistants opened the remaining boxes of Rarity's dresses and raised out dresses and suits that were more charred than the last. Rarity hadn't noticed that she had backpedaled into the wall of the studio and that her hooves were still trying to push her further back. Without a word, Argyle Glaze had shaken his head at his assistants who promptly dropped the dresses and turned and left the room. He had a stern look on his face as he approached Rarity.
Surely this had been a nightmare. How could this be possible? She had packed her outfits the night before and they were in perfect condition...She then remembered finding Sweetie Belle asleep in Carousel Boutique that morning before she left but hadn't questioned why she was there. Her sister occasionally slept over but as she had marked earlier, Sweetie Belle had all but disappeared for the whole month. Sweetie Belle must have ironed her dresses the night before and had fallen asleep afterwards. Rarity hadn't heard what Argyle had said while she was processing Sweetie Belle's well meaning machinations.
"Beg pardon?" Rarity stammered.
Argyle Glaze sighed. "I rarely repeat myself so do pay attention this time. My dear, your first dress showed promise. I thought that I had finally found someone who shared my insight into the world of fashion. A mare who had that special something that knew what meant to walk with the elite of fashion designers. Hoity Toity seemed to think you had what it took to be the future of Canterlot's fashion scene, but obviously he was mistaken." He turned and began to walk away. Rarity managed a stammer. Argyle stopped and looked over his shoulder.
"My sister...she did this...she must have. When I first started, there was an incident with an iron, you see..." Argyle held up a hoof.
"My dear, you don't understand, do you? Your first dress was marvelous. It truly astounded me. I haven't been moved by a piece of art, dress or otherwise, in quite some time." Rarity flinched at the word art. "Regardless of who the fault lies with, these were your dresses. You had a deadline and you did not meet it. I'm most disappointed at this juncture..."
"PLEASE! I'll do anythi..."
"No. Rarity, if you can't meet deadlines in Canterlot than you will never make it here as a fashionista. Accidents happen but only to the common pony. That is why the elite are at the top, unscathed, and the poor and average citizens of Equestria never make anything of themselves: Accidents. Had you kept your sister in check this would have never happened and I could have seen what you were capable of. I don't think we will be seeing each other again."
Rarity bit her lip as the pegasus strutted out of the room. There were tears in her eyes. They rolled down her cheeks and into her mouth. Strangely, she tasted copper instead of salt, and she soon realized that she had bitten into her lip. She was crying not because she was sad but because she was furious. Sweetie Belle had done this to her. She had ruined her dream for the last time. Rarity left the remains of her charred hopes in Argyle's studio and ran back to the departure zone in Canterlot. The sooner she was home the better. Sweetie Belle was going to get the scolding of her life when Rarity got back. She would make sure her sister never interfered in her work again, whatever it took.
~ ~ ~
Cheek...cheek...Sweetie Belle's cheek had been so red after Rarity had struck it. It was purely an accident...Rarity had gotten in shortly after midnight and had went into frustrated creation mode. Sweetie Belle had finally woken up around 8 o'clock or so. She went into see Rarity and had begun to ask her how her trip was but Rarity silenced her.
"Quiet, Sweetie Belle. I'm still thinking of how best to deal with you." Her quiet tone betrayed nothing of her thoughts on how to discipline Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle kept silent and cocked her head in confusion. She approached Rarity and looked at her handiwork. This outfit wasn't nearly as beautiful as her last batch. Sweetie Belle began to wonder why her sister had to deal with her.
"Umm, Sis?"
"Hush, Sweetie Belle. Do not speak." Rarity was stitching a seam together at what appeared to be a deliberately slow pace. Sweetie Belle had hopped up onto a stool to get a better view of Rarity's work.
"Rarity?"
Rarity grated her teeth. "Sweetie Belle...please...be quiet."
"But..."
"I said BE QUIET!!!" Rarity swung her hoof in an exaggerated arc, meaning to knock fabric and spools of thread off of her work area in a dramatic display so as to frighten her sister. Instead, Rarity's hoof connected with the side of Sweetie Belle's face, knocking her off of her stool. Rarity gasped in shock. Sweetie Belle had bumped her head on the stool when she fell and a small trickle of blood spilled from a cut near her ear. Rarity approached her sister but restrained her emotions. She had wanted to get a point across to Sweetie Belle, and although she hadn't wanted to physically harm her sister, Rarity thought the pain Sweetie Belle had just suffered would hammer home her point even further.
"Sweetie Belle, you ruined my last batch of dresses. You burned holes through all but one of them! I have never been more embarrassed in my entire life then when that fashion pony compared me to common folk and that I would never be among Equestria's fashion elite! I don't ever want to see you in my work area or the selling floor proper again! Do you understand me?" There. That had surely gotten the point across. Rarity waited for her sister's response as she slowly lifted herself off the floor. Rarity didn't get the answer she wanted. In fact, she got no response at all.
Sweetie Belle's tears welled in her eyes and her bottom lip quivered. She let loose her emotion and ran out of Carousel Boutique. Rarity started to run after her sister, but stopped herself. She had to be stern. She couldn't run after Sweetie Belle and undo the discipline she had just dispensed. No, that would serve no purpose. She would have to apologize for striking her later, though. That had truly been unfortunate and unintentional. The shop doors closed and Rarity went back to her dress making, assuming she would see Sweetie Belle sometime later. The two sisters would have a good long sit down and discuss what had transpired and cooler heads would surely prevail.
Much to Rarity's shock and despair, the next time she would see her sister Sweetie Belle she was, quite literally, stone dead forever.
Rarity was awoken by a series of knocks on her door. She noticed it was quite early for customers, only 7am. After her fight with Sweetie Belle, she had continued to make her dress well on into the evening. She went to bed just before sunset and was in a deep sleep when the banging began. Surely one of her regulars knew her store hours, and even if it wasn't a regular, there still wasn't any reason to be up this early just to commission her. Even if she had been awake, she wasn't interested in seeing any clients after the debacle in Canterlot.
"Yes, yes, I'm coming..." The pounding continued. Someponies simply had no patience, she thought. As she entered the parlor proper she passed one of her cheval mirrors and noticed what a disaster her hair was. Horror suddenly gripped her. Her hair was in shambles. Surely, if this anonymous door banger was a new client, then they most likely would turn away at the site of her. She thought this over for a moment, her previous idea of not wanting new clients for the time being flashed through her head. She quickly dismissed this when the knocking began to shake the door on its hinges. She looked around frantically for a something to put on her head to cover up her bird's nest of a mane and finally settled on a small veiled hat; nothing else was available.
Rarity opened the door and was immediately stricken with mild annoyance. It was a molehill compared to the mountain-sized headache Sweetie Belle had given her yesterday, but two-thirds of the Cutie Mark Crusaders was a bad way to start any day. Rarity sighed and rolled her eyes. "What is so important that you must do so at the crack of dawn?" The girls, Applebloom and Scootaloo, were panting and there was worry on their faces. Rarity also noticed their hooves were red and swollen. She guessed from all the beating they had been giving her door. Applebloom spoke first.
"Rarity...please! You've got to help us!" She threw herself forward, grabbing Rarity by her hooves. Rarity winced and slowly lifted her hooves away from the young filly and took a step back.
"What has Sweetie Belle done this time? I assume she's to blame for this current state of panic you're in." Rarity scoffed. "The three of you really need to be more careful when you go on adventures. What if you were to get lost or...hurt..." Rarity's eyes widened as the words came out of her mouth. Sweetie Belle hadn't come back to see her after their fight the previous day, and the Crusaders never went anywhere without a member, and if Sweetie Belle wasn't with them now...
It was then Rarity noticed that Scootaloo was towing a small wagon behind her scooter. Rarity passed Applebloom and went to investigate. Scootaloo hopped off her scooter and went to Applebloom who's tears had started to flow freely. Scootaloo wrapped a hoof around her shoulder and rubbed it comfortingly, tearing up herself all the while. Rarity, intrigued by the two fillies' tears, looked down at the contents of the wagon.
"Rocks..." She stammered. "These are a bunch of rocks." Rarity turned towards the two young fillies and noted that it was quite strange to be crying over rocks; their faces were drenched in tears. "Tell Sweetie Belle that I'll look at her rock collection later. I'm still upset with her so please inform her..."
"Rarity! Those rocks ARE Sweetie Belle!" One of Rarity's eyes had developed a tick.
"D-don't be silly, girls." Rarity laughed nervously as she turned back towards the wagon and began nudging the rocks with her hoof and examining pieces with her horn's magic. "How can these rocks be..." A floating rock stopped her mid sentence. She spun it around when she noticed a small spiraling protrusion. It was a horn of a unicorn. Half of Sweetie Belle's face was staring at her in the form of gray, lifeless stone. Her unicorn magic faded as her legs buckled and she began to push herself away from the wagon. Sweetie Belle's stone countenance fell but was caught by the lithe Scootaloo before it impacted the ground. Rarity's eyes were wide with terror and confusion.
"Alright, girls. Joke's over..." She just managed to choke out. "Where's Sweetie Belle? Really? I'm not foaling around, anymore. If this is some elaborate prank to get me to worry about my sister, you have succeeded, so please tell me. Where is Sweetie Belle?!" She emphasized each word of her last sentence with a raised tone in her voice that indicated she was as serious as serious could be. Scootaloo, cradling Sweetie Belle's stone face, didn't meet Rarity's eye but spoke up first.
"Well, we went on another adventure to find out Cutie Marks as usual. Sweetie Belle said that the two of you had had a big fight and that she wanted to stay out all day and night trying to discover our special talent because she wasn't going to come back home until we did..." Scootaloo had said this last rushed verbal exchange in under five seconds. Rarity could hear the panic in her voice and it added to her own growing fear that this was not, in fact, a prank. "We tried all sorts of things but eventually went into the Everfree Forest. It was the daytime so we figured we didn't have anything to worry about. We found a cave but Applebloom said we should go back for flashlights before we did any skunkpeeling..."
"Spelunking..." Applebloom said halfheartedly, immediately crying a fresh wave of tears as she did so.
"Sweetie Belle insisted that we go in anyway and that's when it happened..." Rarity's eyes widened as far as they could go. Her lower lip quivered and she made a big gulping noise.
"When...what...happened?" Rarity was slowly losing her composure.
"Well, I don't know what it was, but a big creature with a long body and a mane made of snakes came out of the cave. Me and Applebloom only saw it for a second and we ran but Sweetie Belle just stood their. I guess she was scared...That's when she started to turn to stone." Rarity had started to tear up. She was slowly shaking her head.
"But then how did she end up like...like..." Rarity motioned to the wagon with her hoof. She had recalled Twilight had been turned to stone but she said that she was in one piece when Fluttershy found her. Applebloom spoke up this time.
"Whatever that snake thing was swatted Sweetie Belle away with its tail. Sweetie Belle flew over our heads and hit a rock and she...she...just shattered!" Rarity had begun to hyperventilate. She had moved well past panic and headlong into hysteria. She pounced on the wagon and started trying to sort the pieces of Sweetie Belle. She didn't have a plan or rhyme or reason, she just knew that she had to put her sister back together again.
"Is she all here?" She practically whispered.
"What?" Applebloom sniffed. Rarity shrieked.
"IS MY SISTER ALL HERE? IN THIS WAGON?! DID YOU PICK UP EVERY PIECE OF HER?!" Suddenly, Rarity turned to the two quivering fillies and let out an onslaught of accusations. "After that thing turned my sister to stone, what then? Why didn't the two of you turn to stone? You just ran and LEFT her there, didn't you? You abandoned your friend and saved yourselves, didn't you?! You left my SISTER! MY SISTER!!!" Rarity promptly collapsed after her exertion and Applebloom and Scootaloo, absolutely terrified by this white mare just seconds before, rushed to her side. She had had a fainting spell, and who could blame her? Rarity was still muttering in her unconscious state and the two remaining Cutie Mark Crusaders could just sit there with the rubble of their friend and her sister, crying in the early morning hours.
Humming could be heard moments later, breaking the deafening silence after Rarity's slew of outbursts. Spike, the baby dragon and assistant to Twilight Sparkle, came strolling up the lane with a small picnic basket in his hand. He was wearing a big smile on his scaly face. It wasn't often he got to eat breakfast with his crush, Rarity. His cheeks became red when the thought of serving her breakfast in bed crossed his mind. He opened his eyes and saw his beloved lying on the ground in the street, two of the Cutie Mark Crusaders looking down at her, tears coating their faces. He threw the picnic basket away and ran to Rarity post haste. Eggs and jam jars could be heard breaking behind him as he arrived at the scene.
"Rarity! What's wrong! Rarity!!!" He started to shake her in an attempt to wake her, but she remained motionless. Spike turned to the two fillies and demanded an explanation.
"Its a long story, Spike. What we gotta do now is get both of em to see Twilight. She'll know what to do...Ah hope..." Spike regarded Applebloom.
"Both of them? What do you mean?" Applebloom looked down at the ground, as if she was ashamed of what she had to say. She pointed at the wagon.
"Those rocks? That's Sweetie Belle." Spike looked at the rocks in the wagon and soon saw a portion of Sweetie Belle's face.
"But that...that she...and her..." The baby dragon looked back and forth between Rarity and the stone remains of her sister and then he, too, fainted.
Scootaloo shook her head and showed remarkable composure considering the situation. "Ugh...I can't believe how bad this has gotten. Wait here, Applebloom. I'll go get Twilight. I'll bet she can fix this." She put on her helmet and unhooked her scooter from the wagon. Applebloom's face was still as sad as Scootaloo had ever seen it. "Cheer up," Scootaloo ventured. "Twilight's a genius. She can figure out anything. Everything will be okay..." She began to flap her small wings to give her momentum and she was off to Twilight's. When she was out of earshot, she muttered "I hope..."
