Sequins

It was an ordinary day for Twilight Velvet. She had woken up, fully refreshed and ready for a day of work, had enjoyed her morning cup of tea, and had situated her mane in an acceptable fashion. It was just like any other day for the gracefully aging mare, mother of two lovely mares, and grandmother to two more.

Or, rather, it was supposed to be an ordinary day, but something unexpected had turned up. Her granddaughter, Party Pop, had come over, obviously upset, and after an awkwardly silent cup of tea, had burst into tears in her arms upon being questioned as to her reason for her visit. Twilight Velvet soon found out that Pop's mother had, in her competitive spirit, stolen her idea for a new garment, and it had become popular practically overnight. Velvet was very concerned, obviously. She had always known that her eldest daughter, Rarity, could be very competitive, but she had never realized that she would go so far as to steal the hard work of her own daughter for the sake of her career. She stroked the fluffy purple mane of her daughter soothingly, trying to think of something she could do to fix things. Her daughters weren't fillies anymore, after all. It wasn't like she could ground her full-grown daughter, for Celestia's sake! The only viable course of action she could decide upon was to send her granddaughter to her aunt, Twilight Sparkle. Pop and her aunt had always gotten along nicely, so surely Sparkle would be able to come up with something. Meanwhile, however, something was going down in Ponyville.

"Darling, aren't you going to say something? You haven't said a word for three hours!"

Pinkie sat in the corner of the room, ignoring Rarity. Rarity was quite alarmed at this point. Her wife had always been the most talkative pony she had ever known. Usually, she had to tell her to pipe down, especially when their daughter had been little, and had trouble sleeping as an infant. Now, however, Pinkie had stayed silent for hours on end, a glare seemingly permanently etched into her face. She wouldn't look at Rarity, wouldn't touch her. She even ignored being offered a dozen cupcakes. Rarity was at the end of her rope. She had to do ~~something~~, for the sake of their marriage, for the sake of her sanity!

"Pinkie, dearest, whatever is the matter? I can't understand why you're upset. Why are you ignoring me?"

"Why? WHY?!?" Pinkie practically exploded, no longer able to stand it. "YOU KNOW BUCKING WELL WHY!!! How DARE you treat our daughter that way?!? I trusted you, Rarity!!! I thought you cared about making others happy, like I do! But you don't! You only care about YOURSELF!!!" She screamed, tears streaming down her face in her rage. Rarity was shocked. Until just now, it had never occurred to her that she had acted in a selfish manner. She had thought that it was the nature of the business, her trying to get ahead of the competition. She hadn't thought that she would be potentially upsetting anyone other than her daughter. But now, the mare of her dreams had broken down into a sobbing mess, and it was all her fault.

"Pinkie... I'm so sor-"

"GET OUT!!!" Pinkie bawled. Rarity saw that Pinkie couldn't handle being near her right now. She bit her lip, trying to hold back her tears, and walked out of their home, knowing their marriage was probably over thanks to her selfish pride.