The Popular Mare

Sweetie Belle slid her keys into the door of her apartment and walked in. Walking into her bedroom, she unpacked her books from her saddle bag and began putting them on her shelf.

She hated having to move away from Ponyville. It wasn't that she disliked Canterlot, she loved the city being the lover of culture that she was. It was that she had to leave the community in which she had been raised. A tightly knit sense of love and care for each other which the village had was what she was missing. She missed her sister Rarity, she missed her old friends, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, she missed so many ponies. Nearly every single pony living in Ponyville had contributed something to her life. Of course, there were some ponies that were nasty and whom she didn't get on with, but the sense of familiarity of everyone who lived in the village she had come to love.

Now that was gone. It was only Button Mash who she knew at this new college and to be fair, she didn't know him that well. They had hanged out a couple of times, and she had been excited to see a familiar face, but they were never close friends, and everyone else in the school were total strangers. She felt frightened, it had taken her years to find friends even at Ponyville Elementary, and there were only about 70 students in the entire school. This school had several thousand students. Would she ever hope to make proper friends? Would she ever find adequate substitutes for her friends in Ponyville?

The best thing to do for now would probably be to stick with Button Mash. Yes, he had been a little bit awkward and it had been so obvious that he had always had a crush on her, one she did not share, but he was the only pony she knew, and plus, he had matured a lot since he left for Manehattan. Gone was his over the top whining and annoying voice, and he seemed to be helpful and honest enough. Maybe she just had to give him a chance.

Sitting at her desk, she turned on her radio to here the latest news on Station 4. It was 2:00, and they always broadcast the latest at this time, as well as at multiple other times during the day. She liked Station 4 because it always told the news in a lot of detail and talked about the stuff that actually mattered instead of jumping celebrity gossip at the earliest opportunity.

"Hello, and welcome to Station 4 News," said the female broadcaster. Numerous political parties are heavily campaigning for the parliament elections, which are happening in a couple of months. Princess Celestia has said she is still deciding on who she will appoint as the new chancellor of Equestria after the sudden death of the long serving Golden Quill a couple of months ago. Finding a politician with his level of charisma, decisiveness, and leadership will certainly be a challenge. A couple of suggestions include Lord Fancypants, a well known entrepreneur, known to be very friendly with the queen, and Copper Coin, the previous finance minister, but yet it is still very much undecided.

As we all know, a few months ago it came to the realization of the Equestrian public that for many decades the Griffon businesses have been avoiding paying taxes. This was completely unknown to the public for so long. A research team has been looking into the details, and has come to the conclusion that a large amount of Griffons working for the Equestrian Border Control Agency have been engaged in bribery and cooperation between the avoiding businesses. To be working for the agency you must be a citizen of Equestria, which many of the Griffons are, however a lot of them have got round this by showing fake citizenship papers. As it is difficult to tell between loyal Griffon citizens managing and helping the government across the borders, and foreigners working with the evading businesses, only a few hundred on the conspirators have been charged and awaiting trial.

Princess Luna, acting as the provisional chancellor for the time being, has engaged in talks with both Emperor Juto and Chancellor Razorbeak about this issue. They say they will keep a look out for the griffons who have been avoiding taxes, although as of yet no businesses have been brought forward. The chancellor says they are unsure on which businesses have been avoiding, however many Equestrians believe he may be covering them.

In the polls of each of the parties, due to the recent issue which has resulted in 120 billion bits being lost over the years, the Equestrian Nationalist Party has come at the very top. Previously a very minor far right party, it has become extremely popular, having beaten both the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party in popularity. The agenda of this party wants Equestria to start manufacturing and industrializing on it's own without any griffon companies involved. Many people have claimed the party to be racist, however the party has denied these claims.

Sweetie Belle started to tune out as the radio started talking about more minor news, and remembered that she had promised to ring up her sister after her first day. She walked into the living room where the phone was, and started to dial her sisters number. She put the telephone to her ear and waited for Rarity to pick up the phone.

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Rarity had just finished sketching the design of the dress she had been hired to make for Hoity Toity Incorporated. After draft after draft, she was finally happy with what she had.

It was a massive privilege that she had been asked by the company to design their new line. When she had been a filly, she used to dream of being able to design dresses for massive Canterlot companies, and here she was now, doing exactly that.

Now she needed to make sure she had all of the materials she needed so she could make the prototype of the new dress. She had got Spike to collect some jewels, but she needed to check she had everything else. Getting up from her desk, she checked that she had everything else she needed, or if she would have order new materials. She walked to the cupboard near the door, the one where she usually put all of her raw materials, and began to look through it. Taking a lot of stuff out, she started to search for her supplies.

"Alright, so I've got enough silk," she said after finding a long roll of the fabric. "This should be enough, I would hope."

Just at that moment, there was a knock at the door. Walking out of her workroom to answer it, Spike came out with a reasonably sized basket of baby blue sapphires.

Spike had certainly grown up from when she had first met him. He was now much larger than she was, and had to bend down slightly when walking through the doorway. He also sprouted large wings that were tucked by his side, and had a friendly, majestic face which Rarity always knew she could count on. After the, well, fiasco all those years ago when he had forced her to go out with him, his immature crush on her that he had was all but gone, and had been replaced with a deep and close friendship.

"Will this be enough," the dragon said in his exceptionally deep but yet soothing voice. "I wasn't sure how much you needed, if this isn't enough then I can go and get more if you'd like."

Spike handed Rarity the basket, she peered at it, and then looked up.

"No, this will be perfect thanks Spike, thank you so much for your help," she said. "It's outrageous of me, I always ask you to do stuff for me and..."

The dragon laughed warmly. "Rarity please, you know I'll always help you out if you have something that needs doing."

"Oh Spike, you're too kind," Rarity said smiling.

Suddenly, she heard the phone ring.

"Let me just go and get this," she said to Spike. "I have a feeling it's Sweetie Belle."

She walked back into her workroom and picked up the phone.

"Hello," she said.

"Hi Rarity," said a voice which she instantly recognized as her sisters.

Rarity smiled. "Hello Sweetie Belle, how's Canterlot? Did everything go alright?"

"Well apart from Derpy getting 'lost' and not delivering any of my things to my apartment until three days after I arrived, I'm doing alright."

"Oh, that stupid mailmare," Rarity replied. "Three days without ANY of your stuff, it must have been dreadful. How were you supposed to wash your mane, or clean your teeth."

"I went and bought extra stuff like that and stayed at a hotel for a few nights. It was alright eventually but I got extremely worried, I rung up Dream Valley movers so many times complaining about it, and they kept on saying they didn't know where the mare who was sent out had gotten up to. Then three days later, they rung me to say that my stuff at been delivered and that Derpy had gotten the sack."

"Oh I can't help feeling sorry for her," said Rarity. "She tries so hard, it's not like she can help her eyesight."

"I know," replied Sweetie Belle. "I tried telling the movers that she had bad eyesight and to not fire her, but they said that they couldn't afford to have mishaps like that again."

"Well, at least you tried,"Rarity said, looking sympathetic. "How about your first day at school, has that gone alright?"

"Yeah, it's gone fine so far. I'm a little nervous because there is so many ponies there that I don't know, but remember Button Mash, the colt that moved to Ponyville for about a year and then back to Manehatten, he's there."

Rarity tried to remember who Sweetie Belle was talking about, but had no such luck. "Button who?" She said.

"Oh, remember the brown colt who always used to mess around in class, and who asked me out so many times that it made me feel incredibly uncomfortable and who I went out with that one time because I felt sorry for him, yeah, that guy."

Rarity suddenly remembered. "Oh, he was a right one. His mom was very nice, but he was, a slightly peculiar child it must be said."

"I think he's really grown up though now, he's actually kinda cool. He's learning to make games."

"Well I'm glad there's someone there you know," Rarity said. "Are you in the same form?"

"No, they separate us in terms of what cutie marks we have and therefore what courses we're doing. I see him at break though," Sweetie Belle answered. "How about you Rarity, what are you up to? Has that dress come along okay?"

"Well, I've just finished designing. Spike's just come back with some jewels, I was checking through my cupboard to see if I had everything else, I have a feeling I do, I just wanted to make sure."

"I'll look forward to seeing it once your done, " Sweetie Belle said. "You always do an excellent job with your dresses."

Rarity grinned at her sisters praise. "Thank you so much Sweetie Belle, I always do try my absolute best."

They continued to talk about trivial stuff, until they finally said their goodbyes. Rarity looked at the clock, and realized they'd been talking for about 20 minutes, and she'd kept Spike waiting all that time....

"Spike," she called.

"I'm in the kitchen," he called back.

Rarity walked quickly into the kitchen and saw him sitting down at the table.

"Oh Spike, I'm so sorry I kept you waiting," she said apologetically.

Spike laughed. "It's fine. I don't really have anything better to do right now anyway. How is Sweetie Belle, is she enjoying her new school."

"Yes she seems to be," Rarity replied. "Apart from minor mishaps, but she seems to be getting a long ago.

"Glad to hear it," said Spike.

Rarity finished off gathering her supplies, and then Spike left after she had given him a cup of coffee. She then started to make the dress, hoping that her little sister would get a long okay.