Sweetie Belle recieved her script from Miss. Cheerilee. A quick glance at the papers told her that she had gotten a major part in the school's Hearth's Warming play for friends and family. Which wasn't exactly what she wanted. She probably should've auditioned for the role of "Tree One," or maybe even joined the cast. But no, she had auditioned for "Rarity" and had, unfortunately, gotten the part.
With a soft groan, she crawled back to her desk and skimmed some of her lines. It was everything she had expected: She just had to use a fancy voice and be generous. At least she got to sing the song she liked. As the last filly had gotten her part, the bell rang and dismissed all the school ponies. "Remember, tomorrow is going to be our first rehersal," Cheerilee shouted as everypony rushed out of the Ponyville Schoolhouse.
Sweetie Belle sulked outside and noticed Applebloom and Scootaloo waiting for her outside. As she walked over to them, Applebloom noticed her friend's glum expression. "What's wrong, Sweetie Belle?"
"Oh, I just got a part in the play that I didn't really want," Sweetie Belle explained, showing her friends the script.
Applebloom smiled as she read the paper aloud. "Rarity. That's great! We'll all be together for most of the play!"
Scootaloo nodded in agreement as she and Applebloom handed Sweetie Belle their scripts. "And the best part is," Scootaloo added, "we'll all be playing our older sisters! Well, our essentially big sisters, in my case."
Hearing this, Sweetie Belle cheered up a little bit. "I guess it'll be fun to do the play with all of you." She wasn't exactly excited to play a Guardian of Harmony, but Rarity got to sing a pretty song in the play. She was looking forward to that, and it was even better that she got to walk around with her friends on stage.
As they walked towards the clubhouse, Applebloom said, "I can't wait to see who the other Guardians of Harmony are going to be!"
Me too, Sweetie Belle thought to herself. And I hope I can work with them.
"We'll be having a guest performer in our play," Cheerilee announced. "Everypony, please welcome Spike! He'll be playing himself." As Spike walked into the classroom, everyone started cheering. Then, the class quieted down and Spike sat down in a corner of the room.
With that, Cheerilee started calling out the names of those who were in the cast. The Guardians of Harmony were first, and Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo had already been called and were currently standing with Spike. "Twist will be playing Pinkie Pie," Cheerilee announced, recieving applause from the classroom. "Our Twilight Sparkle will be none other than Zipporwhill!" After one more set of cheers, she announced, "And Coconut Cream will portray Fluttershy!"
Sweetie Belle looked back and forth between the other Guardians of Harmony. She wasn't close to any of them, but she knew they were all kind and would be easy to work alongside. She also knew that Applebloom used to be best friends with Twist, so that was a bonus. And the Cutie Mark Crusaders were decently close to Spike, as he often accompanied Twilight when she lectured the foals.
For the rest of the day, after Cheerilee finished announcing roles, each group of ponies practiced saying their lines and moving around as if they were onstage. Sweetie Belle was pretty happy with the way everything had turned out. She didn't fumble over any lines, she was a star to her classmates when it came to singing, and best of all, she had created a sort of bond between herself and Zipporwhill, Twist, and Coconut Cream.
With a smile, she headed home. She decided to hide any of this from Rarity, as she could give the spectacular performace to her as a gift—a surprise. At dinnertime, she steered the conversations away from anything related to the play. At night, she made sure Rarity was out of earshot before singing a song from the play as a lullaby. As anypony could clearly see, she wanted to keep the play, and her role in it all, a secret. Until Hearth's Warming Eve, of course. She couldn't wait until Hearth's Warming Eve, when she could show Rarity the play.
Cheerilee clapped her hooves as her students had finished a quick rehersal all together. "That was near perfect! All we need are the set, props, and costumes. And to think it's only been two weeks since we started!" She turned to Toola Roola, head of the designer crew. "How are we doing with those?"
"Well," she started, "We've already memorized our few lines and finished creating the props. We're almost done with the sets, too. All we need now are the costumes, and we were thinking that, if it's alright, Rarity could make the costumes for the play?"
Cheerilee smiled and nodded. "I think it's a splendid idea! Sweetie Belle? Could you ask Rarity if she could make costumes for us?"
Sweetie Belle was frozen there in a moment of silence. She didn't want Rarity to know about the play, but she didn't want to have the play turn out badly either. She nodded. "I'll ask her as soon as I get home."
Cheerilee and the designers crew smiled at her. "Thanks for doing this, Sweetie Belle," Toola Roola said with a smile. Sweetie Belle returned the smile but inside wondered how she was going to give Rarity the surprise of the play now.
Sweetie Belle knocked on her sister's bedroom door. After waiting for a response and not hearing one, she opened the door and peeked through. Rarity was busy sewing, and Sweetie Belle quietly slipped in. She flopped onto Rarity's bed, messing with words and figuring out how to break the news to her sister.
After a while, Rarity noticed her sister sitting on her bed. "Welcome home, Sweetie! Sorry I didn't see you there sooner. Did you need something?"
She bit her lip, then nodded. "So, our class is putting on a play. And, um, Miss Cheerilee was wondering if you could make the costumes for us."
Rarity smiled. "Is that all?" After a confirmation from Sweetie Belle, she inquired further, "What type of costumes?"
"I don't know," Sweetie Belle half-fibbed. She knew what her play was supposed to be about, but she wasn't sure what the costumes where supposed to look like. "You'll have to ask Miss Cheerilee." With a nod from Rarity, Sweetie Belle hopped off the bed and went into her room. The play was almost ready, and it was only going to be a week until she had to perform her play. Not to mention her big role. She sighed and fell asleep, awaiting the day of the play.
First up, the crew team, who were also playing the more minor parts of the play, told a short narration on how an alicorn princess had to banish her sister, who had turned into Nightmare Moon, to the moon for 1,000 years using mysterious artifacts called The Elements of Harmony. After that, they showed a live young unicorn who loved studying but not friendship. She read books and believed that Nightmare Moon was going to return this year. But she was sent to Ponyville by Princess Celestia, and she had two duties: to check on preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration and, unfortunately, make friends.
"Come on, Twilight," came from Spike. "You can make some friends. Just try!"
Zipporwhill, dressed as Twilight Sparkle, walked forward, closer to Twist (a.k.a. Pinkie Pie). "Uh, hello?" Twist did her best impression of Pinkie Pie's gasp, and then zoomed away. Zipporwhill wore a serious Twilight face. "Well, that was interesting."
Spike sighed as he followed Zippo- I mean, Twilight across the stage.
As narrator, Toola Roola stepped onto the podium as Pip Squeak closed the curtains, allowing everypony to shuffle around behind the curtains and change the sets. "After the strange encounter, Twilight and Spike decided to arrive at their next stop: Sweet Apple Acres, where banquet preparations would take place."
As the curtains opened, three characters were revealed. Twilight sighed. Introducing herself, she found that the pony standing by her, who was known as Applebloom in real life, was named Applejack. Twilight was very reluctant at first, but eventually gave in and sampled a lot of the Apple family's cuisine.
Another curtain close, and the spotlight moved back to Toola Roola. "So Applejack and the rest of the (very large) Apple family fed Twilight. She and Spike soon left Sweet Apple Acres and went to check on the weather. Though the sky was supposed to be clear, there were clouds everywhere."
"There's a pegasus pony named Rainbow Dash who's supposed to be clearing the sky," Spike said as the curtains opened again.
Twilight glanced at the sky and retorted, "Well, she isn't doing a great job, is she?" Just then, a pegasus rushed into the scene. It was Scootaloo, with her mane colored in a rainbow and her coat painted blue. She chuckled and zoomed around Twilight and Spike a few times, messing up her mane. Twilight seemed very irritable, as she was soon challenging Rainbow Dash to clear the sky in ten seconds flat. That's how much she wanted the job to be done; the sooner, the better. After all the preparations were perfect, she could go to the library in Ponyville and learn more on the Mare in the Moon and the Elements of Harmony.
Anyways, Rainbow Dash did manage to bust all the clouds, which were big balls of cotton levitated by unicorn magic, leaving an awestruck Twilight Sparkle and a laughing Spike.
She groaned, she and Spike walking away and the curtains closing. "Their next stop was Town Hall, where they would check on decorations." As the curtains opened, the audience got a view of the amazing decorations, as well as Twilight and Spike admiring them. Although, Spike seemed more focused on something else.
"Beautiful!" he exclaimed.
Twilight smiled. "Right? Well, the decorations seem to be perfectly beautiful already. Now lets-"
"Not the decorations," Spike said. "Her!" On the stage was a white-coated unicorn with curly hair. She seemed to be decorating the room with all sorts of beautiful things. Her name, at least in the show, was Rarity. The pony in the costume was Sweetie Belle.
"Out of my mane?" she asked after Twilight had wanted to leave after seeing that the decorations were just fine. "What about your mane?" And so Rarity brought Twilight into her boutique, Carosel Boutique, to fix her mane, give her an outfit, and befriend each other. The first moment, she got, Twilight escaped with Spike, not willing to make any friends.
Another set change, and Twilight and Spike were in a rural area of Ponyville to check on the music with somepony named "Fluttershy." In reality, the pony with fake wings on was named Coconut Cream, and she was perfectly kind but shy, just like Fluttershy. They had all learned that in their time rehearsing with her. It didn't go very well, as she was very timid the entire time. That is, until Spike revealed himself. After that, she followed Twilight and Spike all the way to the Golden Oak Library, where she was assigned to stay.
When they arrived, they had a short "Welcome" party for Twilight thrown by Pinkie Pie, which she refused to attend. After that, everyone in Ponyville went to Town Hall to celebrate the thousandth year of the Summer Sun Celebration. But, surprisingly, Princess Celestia wasn't there! Just somepony that Twilight recognized as The Mare in the Moon—Nightmare Moon.
She went into the Everfee Forest to follow Twilight and the others who were retrieving the Elements of Harmony. There were six: Kindness, Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter, and the sixth was unknown. With them, she could be defeated, and she definitely didn't want that. So the six mares, with hesitation from Twilight, stepped into the forest, Nightmare Moon watching their every step.
They encountered many obstacles along the way, the first being a huge cliff (kinda-small on set)! Everypony almost fell over, but was able to safely make it to the ground or stay in place. Twilight, on the other hoof, hung off the edge, kicking her legs in desperation, trying not to plummet.
Applejack, in front of Twilight, saw her. Sliding down, Applejack grasped onto Twilight with her front hooves and held onto a branch behind her with her tail. "Applejack!" Twilight shouted. "What do I do?"
Applejack bit her lip, looking up, and then locked her gaze with Twilight. "Let go." Twilight was relucant to, but then Applejack assured her, "I'm telling you the honest truth." And so, after much hesitation, Twilight let go.
She screamed until two pegasi caught her, placing her onto the ground safely. She looked into their eyes with a grateful gaze. "Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, thank you!" They smiled at each other and then shared the smile with Twilight, who turned around. She saw Applejack safely climbing down the cliff. She smiled, glad that Applejack had saved both Twilight and herself.
They all traveled further into the forest, Rainbow Dash gloating about her heroic deeds the whole way there until they all heard a loud roar that stopped them in their tracks. It came from a mantacore—a lion with the tail of a scorpion. Everyone but Fluttershy got into a fighting stance, and then charged at him. They expected the mantacore to charge at them, but what they didn't expect was Fluttershy to yell at them, "WAIT!"
She had gotten their attention, stopping them where they were as they could only watch in awe at what she did next. Walking up to the mantacore, she gently nudged him, calling him sweet names. After she had earned his trust, he revealed his paw, showing it to be a thorn. Fluttershy consoled him, then suddenly took out the thorn. For a second, he roared at Fluttershy; the next, he was licking her as she giggled.
Her friends were all amazed but grateful for her skills. "How did you know about the thorn?" Twilight asked her as she managed to join her friends.
"I didn't. Sometimes, though, we all just need to be shown a little bit of kindness." This made Twilight smile as they headed towards the next area. The curtains did a quick close, and all the spotlights went out, leaving the audience in confusion and fear. Then, a few spotlights shone to reveal scary faces, created by the crew, which everypony screamed at. Everyone except Pinkie Pie (a.k.a. Twist). She was giggling at the faces, much to everyone's shock.
"Pinkie Pie? What are you doing? Run!" Twilight shouted. Surprisingly, Pinkie started singing instead, trying to convince them all to "giggle at the ghostly" instead of fear them. And it worked! After everyone had embraced the laughter, the scary faces had gone away.
Still laughing, the curtains closed and reopened, tranferring them to their next scene: a rocky river. "How are we going to get across?" Twilight wondered. That's when they realized that Snips and Snails, in a sea serpent costume, were riffling the water. After a bit of questioning, they all discovered that Steve (yes, that's his name) was crying over his lopsided mustache. One side was cut, making him look "hideous!" The girls were all irritated by this other than Rarity, who stepped forward and cut off her tail. She used her tail to replace the mustache, much to Steve's delight.
"Are you sure about this, Rarity?" Applejack asked her, unsure.
She nodded in response. "It was the most generous thing I could do, darling. Besides, doesn't he look fabulous now?" After this, Steve created a bridge across the river, allowing everypony to cross. They were almost at The Castle of the Two Sisters, where the Elements of Harmony were supposedly kept. Unfortunately, they had to encounter one more obstacle before reaching the elements: the bridge had disconnected from one side of the cliff, meaning they couldn't quite yet cross.
Luckily, Rainbow Dash had wings and knew how to use them. All she had to do was fly to the other side and secure the bridge. Easy. Except, it wasn't. Three ponies from the crew team were wearing dark outfits, and they called themselves "The Shadowbolts." They were elite fliers, just like the Wonderbolts. And the best, maybe worst part, was that they wanted Rainbow to fly with them! Only catch was that she couldn't secure the bridge for her friends.
Between a rock and a hard place, Rainbow Dash had made her choice. "You," she announced. "Thank you, but I'm afraid I must say no." She flew over to the bridge, secured the knot, and flew back through the fog to her friends. The Shadowbolts, infuriated, burst into a glob of blue smoke. With the help of a spotlight change and special effects. When Dash arrived on the other side, she said, "I'd never leave my friends hanging."
Twilight smiled. "I'm glad you'd choose loyalty over fame." Rainbow nodded in agreement, and everyone trotted towards the Castle of the Two Sisters, where the elements were sure to be found. When they reached the castle, Twilight immediately spotted the elements. Recalling what her book had said, "When the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth to appear," she gathered the five visible elements. Applejack had told everypony to stand back and let Twilight focus.
Twilight strained herself, trying to use her magical abilities, plus the magic in the elements, to create a spark that would reveal the sixth element. Soon enough, a bright spark lit up the room. Unfortunately, the spark disappeared, and Twilight went with it! The girls looked outside and saw a light shining from the tower next door. They agreed to follow the light into the tower next door.
Inside the tower, Twilight kept trying to create the spark that would supposedly help them defeat Nightmare Moon. But it was no use. Soon enough, Twilight was exhausted. Not only that, but Nightmare Moon had destroyed the elements! This devastated Twilight until she heard familiar voices from the hall leading to the room she was in. She grinned. "You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that? Well, you're wrong, because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right here!" Nightmare moon could only watch in confusion and fear as Twilight explained. Rainbow Dash represented loyalty. Pinkie laughter, Fluttershy kindness, Applejack honesty, and Rarity generosity. As she announced each element, the broken pieces of each element floated to their bearer.
There was still doubting amongst them, though. "But what about the sixth element? Where's the spark?" asked Nightmare Moon. "You can't-"
"I can. The spark did occur. A different kind of spark; one in my heart. One that I felt when I realized that you are all my friends!" Twilight said. With that, another element appeared above her head: The element of Magic!
The curtains closed after rainbow beams had filled the stage, transforming Nightmare Moon into Princess Luna, younger sister of Princess Celestia. All the schoolchildren took a bow after Toola Roola had announced the happy ending. The audience gave them a standing ovation, and Sweetie Belle hopped offstage to find Rarity.
"It isn't exactly a surprise like I wanted to give to you for Hearth's Warming, but I hope you liked it anyways," she said.
Rarity grinned. "I loved it! Whether it was a surprise or not, I know that you worked hard on it. All of you." She motioned to Sweetie Belle and the rest of the CMC's, who had just appeared behind her. "Who's up for a bit of hot cocoa?" They let out a little cheer and watched as snow started to fall down.
I guess this night wasn't bad after all, Sweetie Belle thought to herself with a smile.
Author's Note
Due to limitations for Jinglemas, I tried skipping over some of the dialogue and details to make some parts as short as possible. Keep in mind that, in the real show, they have much more dialogue. Sorry if you wanted this to be more in-depth.
Hope you, like Rarity, enjoyed this story!
