It all started with a pair of big puppy dog eyes. Of course it did. Try as she might, Amethyst “Sparkler” Star could never resist the expression on her cousin’s face when little Dinky used that look. It was even worse when she added the trembling lip or when she recruited her friend Liza Doolots to double the potency.
“Please, Sparky? We need an adult and Mama is super busy making deliveries and this is the biggest fundraiser we will get until cookie season.” Yep, Dinky had it going full force today.
Amethyst sighed. Nope, she wasn’t getting out of this one. “All right, all right. Fine. What is it you need help with again?” Hopefully this would not take too long. She still had some shopping to finish before Hearth’s Warming not to mention all the…
“Gift wrapping! My filly scout troop is gonna have a booth set up in the market square this weekend to offer gift wrapping for ponies and make some bits for candy when we go up to Canterlot to see the play this year. We have enough saved for the train, but we need more if we want bullseyes and lemon drops and…” Dinky continued listing off all the candy she and her friends wanted to get from the fancy candy shop near the theater.
Amethyst chuckled at her cousin’s enthusiasm and raised a hoof. “All right, all right, I get the point. So what particularly do you need help with?”
“Well, Apple Bloom said her sister would help set up the booth and Scootaloo said Rainbow Dash would help take it down when we’re done. Sweetie Belle got Rarity to donate decorations and Pinkie Pie said she’d bring us wrapping paper and bows. All you have to do is teach us how to wrap!”
Oh… oh no. Amethyst wanted to facehoof. This was the Worst. Possible. Thing. Oh, the booth would be trivial, no it was teaching foals how to wrap presents in a way that ponies would pay for them (preferably with minimal tears) that made Amethyst’s anxiety spike. After all, she had a well-earned reputation. Until Twilight Sparkle moved to Ponyville, she had been the most organized perfectionist in town. Emphasis on perfectionist. Even Rarity on a bad day was little more than a speck of inconvenience when Amethyst Star went on an organizing tear.
Well, too late to back down now. She’d already said yes.
“All right, it’s this weekend, so how about you and your friends come over after school before market day and I’ll see what I can do. We’ll make a little party out of it.” Amethyst smiled as Dinky gave her a hug before dashing away to spread the word among the other fillies. With any luck, we’ll get through this with minimal tears.
***
Amethyst gathered the five foals into the living room of her house. All the furniture had been moved to the wall except for a large table that was now loaded with empty cardboard boxes, packing material, wrapping paper, ribbons and bows, tape and scissors. The boxes were all kinds of sizes and shapes, from small book boxes courtesy of Spike to an enormous round hatbox that Rarity had declared ‘too gauche’ to be displayed at her boutique and had offered it in lieu of throwing it out. There were cookies and hot cocoa in the kitchen for once the foals got tired or bored as well (Sparkler gave them fifteen minutes; Derpy had declared twenty when she stopped by on her rounds). Well aware of the potential for destruction, Sparkler had put away anything remotely fragile, leaving only the Hearth’s Warming tree in its place.
“All right everyone, gather around. We have everything we need to do some serious wrapping here.” The foals cheered. Amethyst admired their enthusiasm. She passed each of them a similar sized box and tools and explained the basics of gift wrapping. She let each of them make an attempt, then began offering pointers.
Trouble first flew in on pegasus wings. It turns out, pegasus feathers and wrapping tape don’t mix. Scootaloo managed to get more tape on her wings than on the wrapping paper, leaving her looking more like a mummy for Nightmare Night than a wrapper for Hearth’s Warming. Untangling that took more time than Amethyst wished, but she was quite surprised at how easily the pegasus dealt with the stickiness.
The three unicorn fillies had the easiest time at first, with scissors flashing as they cut the paper, but they soon tired. Magic couldn’t do everything after all, especially when you’re a foal still. By the time they were trying to fold paper around their boxes, they were doing it by hoof. And complaining, loudly. Sweetie Belle in particular seemed adamant that she did not want to be wrapping little boxes; she wanted to have a go at Rarity’s hatbox. Amethyst could feel the beginnings of a headache coming on, as Sweetie Belle, Dinky, and Liza all had the kind of high-pitched voices that could scratch like ice on a windowpane.
Apple Bloom seemed to handle it the best, probably because (she had confided to Amethyst) she had been wrapping gifts for her siblings and grandmother for the last two years. However, she was distracted by the smells coming from the kitchen and was too interested in what was on the table in there to be paying as much attention as she should.
All this was bringing on a headache that Amethyst knew would not subside for hours. Doing her best to quell their complaints took a better part of half an hour. By that point, Amethyst’s eye was twitching and she called for a break and ushered the little herd into the kitchen for snacks. She glanced back at the pile of partially-wrapped boxes and wrinkled her brow. Between the five foals, they had managed to completely wrap only a half-dozen of the boxes. She flinched a little at the messy folds and sloppy corners.
As the foals massacred the stack of cookies, Amethyst drank her cocoa and wished she had gotten some of Berry Punch’s Special to put in. Foalsitting one or two of them was usually no big deal, but teaching five of them how to wrap was pushing her limits. I owe Cheerilee a gift basket. And a bottle of wine. Or three. Amethyst shook her head. More shopping.
Then she started to listen to what the foals were planning. To her surprise, they were not discouraged by their lack of progress. Instead they seemed invigorated. Dinky and Liza were having a friendly argument that sounded like they were going to have a wrapping contest. Sweetie Belle was fantasizing about wrapping the hatbox and proving to Rarity that she could, indeed, wrap a present neatly. Apple Bloom was using a paper napkin to show Scootaloo how to make tiny gift boxes out of folded paper.
When the plate was empty and the cocoa mugs put away, Amethyst ushered the foals back into the living room. This time, she did her best to coach them into a sort of assembly line. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle measured and cut the paper while Dinky and Liza wrapped. Scootaloo took over ribbons and bows. By the time the foals’ guardians had come to pick them up, there was a stack of wrapped boxes under the tree and Sweetie Belle proudly rolled Rarity’s hatbox to a place of pride in the window.
Those boxes would come in handy on market day; Amethyst brought as many as she could carry to the booth to use as a display of the fillies’ skills. She scattered the rest around the market to add to others’ displays and advertise for the gift wrapping. Sweetie Belle even convinced Rarity that the hatbox would look nice in her boutique with a note directing clients to the filly scouts gift wrap stand.
And now it was time. Zero hour. Amethyst Star’s magic sparked in agitation as she made her way to the market with the cash box. She arrived in time for holiday chaos. Pinkie Pie had arrived with a wide assortment of paper and bows and it was taking the efforts of her, Rarity, Applejack and all five fillies to get them lifted onto racks that would make them easy to cut. Stacks of empty boxes for those who did not have their own were scattered all around and it seemed that half of their tools were missing.
Amethyst sighed, expecting nothing less. The best laid plans… Saying little, Amethyst took charge, using her magic to hoist the last couple paper rolls into place. She then directed the foals into stacking the boxes and straightening the displays. A word to Pinkie Pie resulted in the party pony vanishing into Sugarcube Corner and returning within seconds with a stash of foal-sized scissors for each of the fillies and enough tape to cover Canterlot. The pink pony then disappeared to help with the bakery’s sales and left a Pinkie Promise that she would be back later to help out.
Then the market day began. Ponies came and went, but most barely spared a glance at their booth, with the five hopeful fillies and one weary Amethyst Star. A few stopped and looked, but none approached. It did not take long before the fillies began to be discouraged. And bored. A dangerous combination. Amethyst scowled. What was wrong with ponies? You’d think they would see an opportunity to have someone do something to make their shopping easier and would jump at it… wait.
Amethyst turned to Apple Bloom. “Watch the cash box for a few moments, won’t you? I forgot something at home.” Apple Bloom nodded and Amethyst slipped out of the stand and galloped home. She opened the door to the cellar where she had stored the gifts she had bought for her friends and family so far, leaving only the hoofful of items she had for Dinky and the other foals. Carrying the items in her magic, she then approached the gift wrapping booth.
“Good morning, fillies. I just so happen to have some presents that need wrapping. Do you know anypony who might be able to help with that?” She held up her bags and winked.
Apple Bloom was the first to catch on. “Why sure, Miss. I reckon we could help y’all with those.” She then listed off the prices the fillies had agreed on and Amethyst let her go through her sales pitch, allowing the filly to get louder and louder as she got more excited at the group’s first sale. As expected, it got the attention of other shoppers. Amethyst paid for the wrapping, then walked away before slipping back into the rear of the booth to supervise.
“Are you sure you want us wrapping all of your gifts, Sparky?” Dinky asked, a worried expression on her face. “I know how you like everything to be just so.”
“Fillies,” Amethyst placed a hoof on Dinky’s and Liza’s shoulders. “I have complete confidence that you will do an amazing job. Just do your best and make these presents look pretty and I’ll guarantee you’ll be able to get enough candy to last through the whole play next week. Now go ahead and wrap. You have a customer waiting!” She winked and the fillies scrambled to their places. Amethyst watched for a while, to make sure everything was running smoothly before ducking back out and doing a little bit of shopping on her own.
Eventually she trotted back to the booth to check on the fillies, a large gift basket for Cheerilee in her magic. Scootaloo waved her down with a smile. “Miss Amethyst! We have your presents ready!” She waved a hoof towards a neatly wrapped tower of presents. Amethyst looked them over. Yes, there were a few slightly tattered corners and off-center folds and you could tell that some frantic taping had been involved here and there, but over all. “Why, fillies, I’d say you did a wonderful job!” Amethyst all but shouted across the marketplace, turning heads. “Say could you do one more thing for me?” She hefted the large gift basket onto the table. “Could I buy a lovely bow and ribbon for this? It’s for Miss Chreerilee so make sure it looks nice.”
Scootaloo’s face lit up. “Sure thing! Here, her favorite color is yellow, so let’s use this ribbon here.” The little pegasus deftly wrapped the ribbon around the basket’s handle and tied it in a festive bow. Amethyst smiled. She couldn’t have done it better herself.
Amethyst turned to the other shoppers in the marketplace. “These fillies are great wrappers! I’m proud to have some of their handiwork under my tree this year.” She smiled and lifted the pile of presents in her magic to bring them home. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw other shoppers forming a line at the booth with parcels in magic or hoof to be wrapped. Sometimes having a reputation as a perfectionist is a hefty thing.
***
“How in Equestria did those fillies manage it? They practically cleaned out the whole shop!” Lyra asked Amethyst as the two of them chatted at Berry’s adults-only Hearth’s Warming party. “Bon-bon was there helping out and was absolutely floored. The five of them had bursting saddlebags by the time they were done.”
Amethyst Star swirled her drink in her magic and watched as the light caught on the rim of the glass. She had seen the fillies on their way to the station accompanied by their chaperones. Their gift wrapping booth had been so successful that they had opted to do it the following market day as well, earning enough to buy supplies for a camping trip when the weather warmed up.
Amethyst shrugged. “Oh, you know. A bit of gumption, a push in the right direction” and a perfectionist putting her reputation on the line.