"My goodness, Sweetie Belle!" Rarity gasped, "what is going on?"
Sweetie Belle tried to escape from the mess she had created but only her horn got out of the sheet of fabric she had trapped herself in.
"Rarity, it's HORRIBLE!" she squeaked.
Rarity levitated the sheet off of her sister and sat beside her.
"Whatever is the matter, dear?"
"It's my textiles project..."
"Textiles? Darling, you're magnificent at textiles!"
"You would say that! You're my sister."
Rarity giggled and stroked her sister's head softly.
"Darling, you can tell me whatever is troubling you about your textiles project."
"It's Quick Quilt again." Sweetie Belle sighed.
"Quick Quilt? You mean the awful mare who repeatedly made fun of your past...strokes of brilliance?"
Rarity shuddered. Sweetie Belle was right, Rarity only complimented her work because it made her feel better. She quite frankly has to resist the temptation to alter and improve them every time she looks at them. Despite this, Rarity used her magic to levitate a triangular cushion to her sister.
"This abstract piece of art is brilliant, Sweetie Belle. It looks just like the pony-pyramids!" she smiled.
"It's suppose to be an apple."
"Oh..." Rarity flung the cushion away with her magic, "Sweetie Belle, look at me."
Sweetie looked up at her sister and sniffed, wiping a tear away.
"No matter what that Quick Quilt says about your work, deep down you have the family's talent in your blood and heart. Now, what is the theme for this project? I will help in any way I can to make it your very best." Rarity hugged her sister.
"The theme is camping. I was thinking of doing a sleeping bag or something." Sweetie Belle tried to track her thoughts.
"We will make four," Rarity announced, "one for you, one for Apple Bloom, one for Scootaloo and one for Scootaloo's darling coltfriend."
"That sounds like so much work! I only have a week to do it!"
"A week? With me on your side you shall have it ready in a matter of a few days!"
"But Rarity..." Sweetie looked down,"I want to do this by myself to show Quick Quilt what I can do."
Rarity loosened the grip on her hug, she understood Sweetie's desire.
"Well, if there's any way I can help..."
"You could help me clean up this mess?" Sweetie giggled.
***
My Little Pony, My Little Pony, ah ah ah ah ah
My Little Pony! I used to wonder what friendship could be! (My Little Pony!)
Until you all shared it's magic with me.
Big adventure,
Tons of fun,
A beautiful heart,
Faithful and strong,
Sharing kindness,
Is an easy feat,
And magic makes it all complete! (Yeah!)
My Little Pony!
Did you know you're all my very best friends!
***
Early the next morning, at the Ponyville train station, schoolponies awaited the train to Canterlot High.
"So then the horse says to the donkey's marefriend, 'nice a-" Scootaloo was telling a joke to Shiner, but was interuppted by Apple Bloom coming up to the two.
"Have either of you guys seen Sweetie Belle? I knocked on her door but Rarity said she was busy." she asked.
"She's just over there..." Shiner pointed to a table where Sweetie Belle was hard at work drawing something.
"Oh. Right. Didn't see her." Apple Bloom gave a forced smile.
She walked up to Sweetie, but Sweetie stopped her from coming any closer with magic.
"Morning, Apple Bloom. Sorry we couldn't walk up together, I was getting this ready." she said, her head buried in her work.
"What is it?" Apple Bloom asked, still being held up by the magic.
"You'll see." Sweetie Belle said, releasing Apple Bloom.
Apple Bloom trotted back to Scootaloo and Shiner.
"She's workin'."
"We noticed," Scootaloo said, "Anyway, so the horse says to th-"
She was interrupted by the train arriving, ponies quickly began to board. Scootaloo and Shiner went on but Apple Bloom noticed Sweetie Belle frantically trying to gather her things into her saddlebags.
"Sweetie Belle! Hurry up!" she shouted.
"Almost finished! Now this goes in here...fold up this and...done!" she ran and got on the carriage just before the train blew the whistle and began to move.
They went and sat opposite Scootaloo and Shiner, who were rubbing muzzles.
"Get a room." Apple Bloom laughed.
"We're in a carriage, it's close enough." Scootaloo sniggered.
"So guys, I bet you're just itching to know what I was doing back there!" Sweetie Belle wore a huge grin.
"Go on." Scootaloo laughed.
Sweetie fumbled in her bags and pulled out several A3 sheets of paper. She unfolded them and placed them on the table.
"My textiles project!" she beamed.
"Well...the desgins are neater than your other ones." Apple Bloom complimented.
"Oh...Rarity drew them, but the ideas were all mine! Look, it's four sleeping bags! One for each of us!" she pointed at the diagrams.
Apple Blooms was a pale yellow much like her coat, with a fluffy white lining at the top and small apple shapes running along the bottom. Scootaloo's was her coat's orange with purple round the sides and the mark of a pegasus wing on the base. Shiner's was big and grey and fluffier than the others. And finally, Sweetie Belle's was white with purple and pink stripes striking diagonally across it with a line of diamonds along each purple line.
"Now that looks cool!" Scootaloo smiled.
"Cosy!" Shiner laughed,
"Fashionable!" Apple Bloom added.
"Beautiful, right?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Everypony nodded in agreement and then a very sarcastic laugh was heard. A unicorn walked up to the four. She was a very pale light blue and had a red mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a sewing needle. She looked over at Sweetie Belle's designs and whinnied.
"Sweetie Belle? Like, oh my gosh, are those YOUR designs?" she was trying not to laugh.
"Yes they are, Quick Quilt," Sweetie said the pony's name with disgust, "what of it?"
"You didn't make those," she finally laughed, "like, that's way too neat to be yours."
"I got some help from my sister."
"Oh, you mean Rarity? Like the Rarity? Oh my gosh, I'm like, so totally jelly." she wasn't even trying to be subtle with her sarcasm.
"Go away, Quick Quilt." Scootaloo hissed.
"None of you are like even worth my time anyway." Quick Quilt walked off, her head raised high.
"I. Despise. That. Mare." Sweetie Belle glared at her.
***
There was an unusual case of the pony-flu going around. Much to both their disliking, Sweetie Belle and Quick Quilt were the only ponies in their textiles class. Their teacher, Mr.Stitcolt (a yellow unicorn with a black and white mane and tail and a black moustache), was looking at Sweetie Belle's designs, oblivious to the faces that the two mares were making at eachother. He looked up to see Sweetie's tongue sticking out; she noticed and retracted it quickly, Quick Quilt sniggered.
"These are very good designs, Ms.Belle! Have you started work on them?" he asked.
"Of course, sir!" she fumbled through her bag and brought out several large pieces of cloth in the colours of the sleeping bags.
"Very well done. If I were you I would start by making the bags themselves. Use a sewing machine this lesson, then get to work on the décor tomorrow."
"Yes sir."
He then went over to Quick Quilt who, without a word, pulled out a cylinder from her bag.
"And what's this?" Mr.Stitcolt asked.
She rolled it out onto the table, making a large light blue square, then it sprung up into a small tent with a red flag waving on the top.
"Magnificent! Quick Quilt, this is amazing! Are you ready to turn it in?" he asked.
"Nope. It needs way more work! Even Sweetie Belle will be finished before me. For once." she smirked at Sweetie Belle, hard at work on a sewing machine.
Sweetie growled back, then concentrated on her work.
***
Sweetie Belle ran into the botique and instantly into Rarity's idea room. She layed out the finished bags on the floor.
"Rarity!" she called, "I finished the bags! Now we just need to work on the décor!"
Rarity slowly trotted in, brushing her mane using magic.
"Well done Sweetie, I-AUGH!" she screamed at the sight before her.
The bags did not look like sleeping bags very much. They were just two pieces of fabric poorly stitched onto one another, the stitches weren't in a straight line either.
"Do you like them, or do you love them?" Sweetie smiled.
"I...they...that is...they're good." Rarity forced a smile.
Sweetie Belle jumped for joy, "I'm gonna go and get the fabric for the décor!", she galloped away to her room.
Rarity looked and sighed at the horrible sight before her. She began to use magic and redo what Sweetie had worked hard on.
Moments later, Sweetie came down with a box of fabric of different colours to see that Rarity had perfected the bags. Her mouth dropped to the floor.
"Oh, Sweetie Belle. I...er...thought I would just make some adjustments." she smiled.
"Adjustments? You could just say if they weren't to your liking," Sweetie roared, "they were fine before!"
"Oh, sister, if I'm honest with you there were lacking in quality before."
"Lacking? Oh, I see. Because I made them? I can do all this by myself! I'm under pressure here from that Quick Quilt! Her project is already halfway done and it's going to look even better by tomorrow! It may even be finished!" she began to cry again.
"Oh...Sweetie Belle...I'm sorry." Rarity began to cry herself.
Sweetie Belle took the sleeping bags and fabrics and stormed to her room.
***
She loked through her past projects and sighed. She set aside the 'apple' cushion and brought something else. It was supposed to be a scarf with her sister's cutie mark but it just looked like the arm of a sweater with an angry face on it. Then she looked back on her door to her old Cutie Mark Crusaders cape. The only one of them she had help from Rarity with. Then she perked up. She did need her sister's help! But she didn't want Rarity to take central command. Sweetie Belle had managed to gather the gemstones and fabrics to decorate her sleeping bags and cut them almost perfectly to do so. She needed her sister's help.
***
The next day in textiles class, Quick Quilt was demonstrating her tent to Mr.Stitcolt.
"And if you press this, this awesome windmill thing comes out!" she bragged, pressing a button which caused a pinwheel to pop out from the side.
"And what purpose does it serve?" the teacher asked.
"I dunno. It just like, looked cool." she spun the pinwheel with her hoof.
"Okay...what else is there?"
"That's about it. The flag, the cool little windmill."
"Alright. Do you know if Ms.Belle is in today?"
"Pfft. Why would I know?"
The door then opened; Sweetie Belle and Rarity walked in.
"Oh, Ms.Belle. And Ms.Rarity?" he said, confused.
"I want to present to you our finished project," Sweetie Belle said proudly, "there was no rule against my sister helping out. I did all the handiwork, of course."
"I suppose you're right...I didn't give too much on restrictions. Lets see what you've got."
Sweetie Belle unwraveled the sleeping bags. They looked even better than the designs originally showed and definitely outshowed Quick Quilt's tent.
"Magnificent! This is absolutely marvelous!" Mr.Stitcolt exclaimed.
"They're not that good. Do you have a windmill?" Quick Quily mocked.
"Nope. We just have sisterly love and some generosity!" Rarity smiled.
Quick Quilt instantly got off her high horse and frowned. For the first time, Sweetie Belle had bested her. She stormed out of the class room to go and cry in the toilets.
***
That night in Sweet Apple Acres, the four friends were laying down under the stars lying in their new sleeping bags, pointing out which stars were brighter than others. Then, they saw a shooting star.
"I made a wish." Apple Bloom announced.
"Yeah, like what?" Scootaloo asked.
"Probably that you and Shiner get a room!" Sweetie Belle laughed.
The two were snuggled up very closely in their seperate sleeping bags
"Nope, not that." Apple Bloom said.
"That we can do this more often?" Shiner asked.
"Close enough. I wished that we could start up the Cutie Mark Crusaders again."
"Apple Bloom, that sounds like a great idea!" Scootaloo exclaimed.
"Isn't that the game you played as kids?" Shiner joked.
"No way. That was no game. Besides, we're fifteen and still have blank flanks! We must be on the verge of getting our cutie marks now!" Sweetie Belle said.
"Well Shiner has his cutie mark. How'd ya get it?" Apple Bloom asked.
"I just took what I was good at and enjoyed and I realised that was my special talent." he explained.
"Shiner works in a café in Cloudsdale." Scootaloo continued.
"So, what do you say? Teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders?" Sweetie Belle put a hoof out.
The other two put their hooves out too.
"Let's do it!" the three said.