ISS: SB excerpt + my best friend is awesome · 7:23pm Dec 20th, 2013
First off, an early Christmas gift from my best friend.
hnnnng! My collection grows! The more toys I end up with, the more I am devoutly thankful that I live alone. Wouldn't be easy to hide my bronyism otherwise.
It's funny, because he came over to bring those just as I was writing a scene that happened to involve both characters, so I decided to give y'all a little preview. You might recognize some of this scene, as some of it is a recreation of a scene from the first ISS, only from Rarity's perspective.
I'm Sorry, Sis: Sweetie Belle excerpt
Rarity approached her front door, sighing in exasperation at the insistent pounding of her visitor. “Hold your horses, I'm coming!” She gave a small grin at her own wit. Horses! Scrutinizing the door, she let loose a small door opening spell from her horn, tossing her mane as it opened.
To her great surprise, Ditzy Doo, more commonly known as Derpy Hooves, was panting on her doorstep. This was strange, as she had already had her mail delivered. The grey mare placed a hoof against the side of the Carousel Boutique, taking great gasps of breath.
“I... uh, I mean to say, great Heavens... Ditzy, my dear!” Rarity ejaculated, so taken aback at the state of her, the sweat on her face, that dishevelled mane. “Whatever can I do for you?”
“Miss Rarity!” Derpy gasped, having found her voice. “Something terrible and scary happened!”
“Oh, my...” Rarity uttered quietly, placing a hoof to her mouth. “You poor thing, please, come in, I must insist...”
“No, no, no!” Derpy cried quickly, shaking her head back and forth. “Not to me, Miss Rarity! The children were trapped, and Rainbow Dash was there, and she broke through the wall of the clubhouse by Sweet Apple Acres, and...”
“Trapped?!” Rarity exclaimed, feeling her knees rattle. In the back of her mind, she knew that Sweetie Belle had to still be in the clubhouse with her two best friends at this hour. “W-whatever do you mean? The clubhouse? I... What happened, dear?! Why did Rainbow—”
“A fire, Miss Rarity,” Derpy interrupted, looking wretched, “there was a fire!”
Rarity let out a scream. “B-but Sweetie was... Oh, no! Heavens, no!” Her insides had turned to ice.
“Come, we must get there fast to make sure they are okay! Rainbow Dash got them out, though!”
Rarity took off at a gallop, not even bothering to close her front door. She barely even registered Derpy's explanation that the Crusaders had gotten out. All that mattered was that she reached the woods as quickly as she possibly could. Horrible images raced one another through her mind as she rushed through the town, toward the outskirts leading to Sweet Apple Acres. She was quite certain she had left her insides sitting in her doorway.
Throughout the journey, Rarity had probed Derpy Hooves for as much information as she could, asking questions between frenzied breathes. How long ago had this happened? Did she know what caused the fire? How exactly did Rainbow Dash get them out? How did they quell the flames? And, most importantly, were the Crusaders alright? The grey pegasus answered as best she could, flying slightly behind Rarity, as flight proved a safer method of travel with her strabismus than walking when she was following a target so low to the ground and so closely. At least, according to Derpy, anyway.
Into the trees of the woods around the farmland they plunged. Rarity did not care as she cut a neat, direct path toward the clearing, branches whipping her face and twigs getting tangled within her glorious mane. None of it mattered. She had to reach her sister. Dodging around a large trunk, the trees began to thin and the faint smoke of the still smoldering treehouse floated through the air.
Finally, they were there. The moment Rarity caught sight of them, she let out a moan of relief. Stopping within ten feet of Applejack, Rainbow, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, she gave her mane a tremendous flip and dislodged what looked like the contents of a logging mill's waste disposal storage from her indigo locks. Looking as pristine as though she had travelled here within a stage coach, she bounded forward, snatched up Sweetie Belle with her magic, and pulled her into a stone-crushing embrace. Rarity fought tears as she twisted and turned on the spot, whispering sweet nothings to her little sister, as no words of comfort could match her own feelings of supreme joy at seeing her baby sister safe. Wonderful waves of relief continued to crash upon her. Not a burn on Sweetie Belle, she noticed. In fact, all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked physically fine. Thanking Princess Celestia, she set down the white filly and waited for Derpy to catch up.
“Y'all wanna jes' go wait over yonder?” Applejack requested to the Crusaders with what Rarity felt was a wholly unwonted level of abhorrence in her tone. “Grown'ups gotta talk.”
As soon as the fillies had walked to sit on the grass some twelve or so yards away, Rarity turned to beam at Derpy, whom Applejack was already thanking so passionately for her role in assisting Rainbow Dash with the rescue.
“Ditzy, hun, I cannot thank you enough. If you had not saw the fire...” Rarity hesitated, taking a steadying breath. Images of her sister's charred form had already haunted her on the way over; she would not permit any further horrors to sweep across her mind. “Thank you. From the bottom of my heart.” Rarity gave her a swift kiss on both cheeks, causing the grey mare to blush slightly.
As Derpy departed, Rarity proceeded to drown Rainbow in similar throes of gratitude so powerful, that her haunches shook. Rainbow tried to explain that it was nothing, but Rarity would hear none of it.
“No, no, you shall not humbly shake this off! You are a true hero today, Rainbow Dash. I owe you Sweetie's life!”
“Rarity, it's cool!” Dash assured her, grinning. “You shoulda saw the moves I pulled off to get them out, totally nuts, I was just happy to show off, that's all! That's why I saved 'em.”
Rarity smiled warmly. “You're so full of it, Rainbow!” Dash laughed.
“Okay, okay, fine, but I only said that because this was beyond playing the hero. I woulda gave my life for any of those fillies, even if Scoots wasn't in there with Bloom and Sweetie. I'm just as happy as you are that Derpy was able to find me.”
Rarity gave her a swift hug, albeit one just as bone crushing as the embrace she had bestowed upon her little sister.
“Rarity...” Applejack began once the unicorn and pegasus had parted, “there's sommat more...”
There was definitely something strange. Applejack was looking sour, and there was definitely some other attributes to the day's events that were making Rainbow Dash scowl so badly as the blue pegasus raised a hoof and beckoned the Crusaders to rejoin them.
“Well, Sweetie Belle?” Applejack said, her voice stern as the Crusaders made their approach. She was frowning down upon her. “Tell yer sister what happened.”
Rarity continued looking her confusion at Applejack before putting her attention back to Sweetie Belle. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Scootaloo sinking low to the grass with her ears drooped as Rainbow Dash positively glared a hole through her. What was going on?
“Rarity...” A sigh escaped the filly and she looked most reluctant to speak. “We caused the fire.”
Rarity could have laughed. Was that honestly what was wrong? Of course they caused the fire! It didn't just wander into the clubhouse and ignite it all on its own. Rarity decided to explain this, partly to Sweetie, and partly to the group at large; if Applejack and Rainbow Dash were looking so upset over a simple accident, she would show them sense.
“Sweetie, darling! How can you not guess that I already knew that? Who else could have?” Rarity bent low and stroked Sweetie Belle's face softly. “Accidents can happen sometimes, and nobody can help that. How could you possibly expect me, your sister, who loves you, to be belligerent with you?” Rarity shot a glance at Applejack, who did not look ashamed.
“Uh...” Sweetie mumbled, closing her eyes after staring at the grass. “Probably because we... kinda... sorta did it on purpose.”
“Wait,” Rarity began in a hoarse voice, “you mean to say...” she removed the hoof from her sister's face and stood tall again. An eruption was going off in her chest, “that you girls caused a fire? ON PURPOSE?”
She felt a tap on her flank. Looking around, she saw Rainbow Dash jabbing her hoof at three plastic watering cans, partly melted with the intensity of the blaze. They were laying in the grass near the tree of the clubhouse.
“I pulled those out of the clubhouse while we were waitin' for you to show up. Went to see if anything could be salvaged... and found those.” Rainbow's voice was bitterly cold as she threw up her arms in a sarcastic gesture, supporting herself with her wings. “'Cutie Mark Crusader Firefighters! Yaaay!'” She lowered her hooves again, positively spitting with rage. “Watering cans! We don't even know how they started the fire, but it doesn't even matter, 'cause it musta been just as stupid as their plan!”
“B-but, Sis...” Scootaloo mumbled, her voice drifting up to them from the safety of the grass. “Water can put out fires, and—”
“Seriously, Scootaloo?!” The older pegasus' voice was fierce. “DID YOU FILLIES REALLY THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?”
Now that the truth was out, Rarity found herself full of raucous approval for Rainbow Dash's reaction. “I cannot believe my own sister could act so foolish!” Rarity used a a puff of magic to grab a firm hold upon her sister's ear. “Just you wait until I get you home, young lady! How could you be so irresponsible? Sweetie Belle, I thought you had faaar more sense than this!” Rarity's voice rose shrilly as she stamped her hooves. “You could have lost your life! You all could have!” she continued storming, eyes shooting between Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, who had so far remained quiet. “You never stopped to think about that, did you? Sweetie, imagine if I had to tell Mother and Father that their little angel had died? Do you have any idea what that would do to them? DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOUR DEATH WOULD HAVE DONE TO ME?!”
“But-but...” Apple Bloom mumbled at last, trying to defend Sweetie. “We thought we had it all planned out, honest! It weren't all Sweetie's fault, neither! She said she thought it might be dangerous...”
“Who's idea was it?” Dash snarled, glowering at all three of them.
Scootaloo gave an almost comically loud gulp as she gazed back into Dash's angry eyes. “It w-was... me.”
“It doesn't matter who's idea it was,” Rarity snapped. “You were all stupid in the extreme! We're going home, Sweetie. I am very disappointed with you!” Moving the field of her magic from the ear to the rest of Sweetie's body, she levitated her up and carried her away from the group. Depositing her none-too-gently upon the grass several feet away, she dispelled the magic. “Get moving, missy!”
Sweetie Belle gave a theatrical sigh and threw a sad look back at her friends. Facing forward again, she started to walk away from the clubhouse, head hung low, as Rarity marched at a close pace behind her, finding it very difficult to contain her anger. At any moment, she knew her reservation at keeping her composure would break and she would not be able to resist the urge to start shouting at Sweetie Belle. It would not be a pleasant walk home.
Forgive any spelling errors and the like, this obviously hasn't been preread or anything yet. Been making really good progress on this one. though. Could be longer than ISS: Scootaloo if I'm not careful, but there's maybe five or six full scenes like that, so it shouldn't TECHNICALLY come anywhere near 18-20k words. But this is me we're talking about. Look at poor Zugzwang.
Anyways, some of you might be curious as to why I'm so anxious to complete this one over the Apple Bloom fic. Well, as I've hinted, this one will definitely be a little different from the other two, so I'd like to get it out first. It's also the one I can't stop brainstorming over (otherwise, I'd continue writing WRTMI or the Manehattan Project, goddamn I love that name, too bad it won't be the official name). And finally, the Apple Bloom one will easily be the most emotional of the three stories, and I'll be incorporating some planned elements from the Apple Orchard idea into the second draft. As much as I loved the Scoots one, I think the AB one will be the best in the feels department. Hopefully, ISS: Sweetie Belle will come close 
Look forward to it!
Nice preview. Can't wait for the full thing!
Sweet preview man. You know, I really miss seeing your ass on Skype Krishna. You should try to get on there a little bit more.
~SolidFire
Thanks for the preview, can't wait tell it comes out. Merry Christmas Krishna
Take care...
1628986
Thanks. It'll be good :D
1629218
I'll chat ya up more often. You feed my ego, which is the source of my arrogance/power.
1629411
Thanks
Merry Christmas to you too 
1630315
I can live with that. Every author needs some crazed fan to stroke their little ego... and give them compliments to boot.
~SolidFire
>says "excerpt"
>is almost 2k words long
Why don't you just give us the whole story? XD
Wow. I'm not a fan of Rarity (she's such a rude bitch) or Sweetie Belle ( she is SO obnoxiously loud), but that was amazing. I have only read WRTMI, so I'm thinking about going through your other stories. ISS seems really good.
Stay Awesome
RDD