“But Rarity, I need it!”
“Look Sweetie, when I was your age I used to say the same thing about every exotic material or new machine I saw in a magazine.” Rarity churned through stacks of fabric as she produced dress after dress. The Hearths Warming rush was in full swing and Rarity chugged away attempting to meet demand. The bags around her eyes were a testament to her plight.
“But Rarity, if I don’t get some, I’ll be made fun of for weeks.”
“I understand that fillies at school are not always the nicest bunch. But you have to understand a lot of that is meaningless nonsense.”
“Applebloom said her sister was getting some too!”
“Applebloom?” Rarity paused her work. “Why is… what even is it?
“Animal Bands.”
Rarity removed her glasses and gave Sweetie sharp eyes. “Animal Bands!?”
“Animal Bands, they’re like rubber bands but shaped like animals.”
Rarity paused. “Excuse me?”
“I’m serious.”
Rarity let out a deep sigh. “Fine, fine, we’ll go to the mall tomorrow and see what we can find.”
With a big smile, Sweetie darted forward and hugged her sister. “That you so much, sis.”
— — —
Ponies swarmed the mall, creating a sea of all colors and kinds of ponies. A buzz of chatter filled the halls ornamented by the occasional scream and cry. Loose bags and drink cups scattered across the ground as the mall endured the stampede of last-minute gifts. It was beautiful, unchecked Hearth’s Warming chaos.
Rarity was not a stranger to the spotlight, but the crowd was a different story. She loved the mall on a normal day but today was different. While she didn’t consider herself “presentable” at the moment, the crowd was a minefield for any mare trying to keep up her appearance. Long crowded lines of ponies squeezed together, tons of foals who don’t know how to keep their hooves to themselves, and panicked parents barreling through crowds to swipe the last gifts off the shelves; shopping today was a full contact sport and Rarity couldn’t buy in. But after glancing at Sweetie beside her, she understood there were more important things in life.
The two of them wiggled across the wall, squishing through groups of ponies hanging out in front of each store. Luckily for them, Animal Bands were the only gift on the list. The hope was for a quick in-and-out trip. But that looked less and less likely by the second.
Rarity squeezed through a family of eight before rolling on the ground. She blew her hair out of the way, stood up, and brushed off her fur. Thank Celestia she only made dresses and didn’t show them off. “Gah, where do they even sell these things?”
Sweetie Belle, still short enough, weaved through the ponies’ legs before stopping beside Rarity. “Jack’s Knacks ‘n Things.”
“Jack’s what?”
Sweetie pointed across the mall to a knick-knack and pop culture shop. Figurines of movie and comic book heroes lined the shelves while key rings and penny toys filled the bargain bins. Cards for whatever game Big Mac liked to play “with the boys” were displayed prominently in a display case. Behind that case was a chubby stallion with freckles, messy hair, and god-awful ugly glasses. In normal circumstances, Rarity would be found dead before she would step foot into a shop like that. But another glance at Sweetie reminded her there were more important things in this world.
She crept into the shop, careful not to draw any attention to herself in case somepony might recognize her.
“Whatcha lookin’ for, miss?” the stallion asked.
Rarity jumped, caught off guard. She steadied herself, brushed any remaining dirt off her chest, and spoke cleanly. “Do you happen to have any Animal Bands?” She over-enunciated “animal.”
He pointed behind her. “Sure right over…” There sat an empty table with only one small pack of Animal Bands. Before she could move, another stallion swiped the pack, tossed the cashier two bits, and left the store. “Ooo, tough luck miss. We don’t get another shipment until the next morning.”
Rarity paused, frazzled for a second. “Wait, what!?”
“Sorry miss, we have what we have.”
“But, don’t you have any in the back?”
“We’ve burned through the whole stock today. What was on the table was the rest we had.”
“What… but… you peeving…” Rarity held herself back and breathed. Now was not the time to make a scene. “Give me one sec.”
She dashed out of the store and after the stallion with the last pack. Tapping his shoulder, she hoped had enough bits to pay him off. “Excuse me, mister.”
He turned around, his eyes heavy and tired. “Yeah?”
“May I, um… may I ask about that pack of Animal Bands?” She tried to keep her voice clean and confident.
“These?” He pulled the pack out of his shopping saddle bag. “My daughter has been raving about these for weeks. I don’t know what the big deal is, but whatever makes her happy.”
“Yeah, can I buy them off of you?”
He paused, taken off by her offer. “Huh?”
“Well, I have the bits. I can pay double.”
He pulled the pack away from her. “No deal.”
Rarity pressed. “How about triple?”
He glared at her. “Your bits aren’t worth my daughter’s happiness.”
“Excuse me, mister but they are worth my sister’s,” Rarity scoffed back with a hint of sass.
“And my daughter is worth more to me than your sister.”
Rarity sat on her back legs and raised her front hooves. “My sister is worth five times that!” In the process, she knocked over another stallion's coffee and spilled it over a middle-aged mare and her shopping bags.
Rarity froze upon noticing the mess.
“What in the Tartarus is going on here!” the middle-aged mare yelled.
“Her!” The stallion pointed at Rarity. “She’s acting like her sister is more important than my daughter.”
“And what about my grandkids!” the middle-aged mare snarked, holding up the soaked shopping bags. “Look what you two did to their presents.”
“What about my coffee?” The other stallion pointed out. “I needed that after a long day of work to get my kids presents too.”
“Oh, now this is about your coffee!?” the first stallion yelled.
The three ponies argued, their voices blurring together as the argument heated up.
“Oh dear,” Rarity mumbled. “Can we talk this out for a moment?” she called, her voice drowned out. She felt a tug on her tail. Sweetie stood behind her, nudging her head toward the mall’s exit. Rarity nodded. Sweetie was important but she didn’t want this.
Right as Rarity nodded, a brawl broke out among the ponies. Rarity dived away and covered Sweetie as a blend of gift wrapping, tree ornaments, and various drinks filled the air. The two of them crawled underneath some bystanders as the brawl grew. By the time they reached the wall, the whole hallway of the mall erupted into combat. Plushies flew from wall to wall as a puddle of various drinks coated the floor. Rarity herself took a smoothie to the face, coating her in an icy mix of banana and strawberry. What was once a beautiful display of organized capitalist chaos had been replaced with a battlezone full of artillery and suppressive fire.
Rarity and Sweetie shimmed across the wall, dodging projectiles of food, clothes, and fragile trinkets. By the time they reached the door, a few police ponies and the whole mall security hurried to the scene.
The two of them tumbled through the mall door, panting from the stress. After a moment, Rarity sat up and looked at herself. “Look what they did. Now I need a long bath, rigorous brushing; I might even need to color my hair after this.” She took a scoop of dry snow and covered her face, removing the melted smoothie. “I can’t believe that just happened.”
Sweetie looked at her with puppy eyes. “I’m sorry, Rarity.”
Her apology caught Rarity off guard. “Sweetie, it’s not your fault.”
“Does it matter? If I would’ve known a huge fight would’ve broken out, I never would’ve asked for it.” She looked down. “All for a pack of stupid rubber bands.”
Rarity smiled. “Oh Sweetie, fads come and go. Everypony wants to be in style and keep up with the trends. But half of the time they take a gorgeous dress I worked on for hours, wear it once, and then banish it to the corner of the closet. All of these ponies want to stick out but they all end up looking the same.” She put a hoof on Sweetie’s back. “Word of advice: if you want to stick out, get the present you actually want. You might even find other ponies following you.”
“I would but…” Sweetie looked back to the mall. “I think it’s a little late for that.”
“How about we come back the day after Hearth’s Warming?” Rarity winked.
“Deal.”
— — —
“So, Applebloom, did you get any Animal Bands?” It was the week after Hearth’s Warming and Sweetie anxiously tapped the top of her desk. She didn’t care that much about Animal Bands anymore but a part of her still didn’t want to measure down.
“Pfft, no. What do you think my sister got me?” Applebloom snarked back.
“Something apple-related?”
Applebloom leaned back. “Duh.”
She shifted her eyes to Scootaloo. “What about you?”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Who would buy it?”
“Rainbow?”
“Come on, anything she gets me is always Wonderbolt-related.”
“Fair.”
The door at the front of the classroom slammed open revealing a pissed-off Cheerilee. She stomped her way in front of her desk and held her head up high.
“After several discussions with your parents over the break, it has come to my attention that some of you still don’t know how to treat each other with respect over measly little trinkets!”
She stomped her hoof on the last word, causing half of the class to jump in their seats.
“Until you all can learn to act like adults, from this point forward Animal Bands are hereby banned from school property!”
The whole class sat silent for ten seconds only broken by a quiet “wha?” from Diamond Tiara (whose forelegs were covered in Animal Bands).
Sweetie Belle tried to repress her smile. But in the end, she couldn’t help but let out a small snort of laughter.
Author's Note
This was a story I kept telling myself I would get to but a combination of family surgeries and depression kept me pushing it off. Thank god for deadlines. Yet, I found myself fairly happy with what I produced. It's simple, sweet, and indicative of how I write stories. There isn't much else I could ask for.
When I was a kid, there was a year when Silly Bandz was the rage. Since I was poor, I never got any other than a few I probably picked up off of the ground. Thing is, kids can be nasty towards each other and I think playground conflicts ended up getting them banned from the school. I never really cared. I didn't have time to care. But I find it fascinating that kids can go at each others necks and parents can bend head over heals over just shaped rubber bands. The fad died fast, probably in a couple of months. But it was replaced with another fad, and then another, and another.
I haven't posted that much here for two reasons. 1. My life kinda sucks right now. 2. I'm actually working on my first original IP (or at least the first that actually materialized into black-on-white). Progress on that has been slow for reason number one but also because I don't really know where to put it. I might make a blog about it if there's any interest here.
Oh, and thank you Omegathyst for getting me writing again. Doing Jinglemas every year reminds me that I like writing and need to do it more often.
