//------------------------------// // 6. A Baby Sister // Story: Sweetie Belle Learns Rarity Is Trans // by cookiefonster //------------------------------// “Rarity, we’ve got some exciting news for you!” It was her father’s voice, all the way downstairs. He would put on this exact tone every time he announced he was going on vacation. Rarity was deep in concentration organizing her spools of fabric into a layout that would give her optimal levels of inspiration. Surely the news could wait another time. “You won’t want to miss this!” Mom shouted from a floor below. “Hmmm... would the teal thread go better with the blues or the greens?” Rarity mumbled to herself. “Or maybe it would be better off in its own category with the aquamarine. Now where did I put that spool again?” She opened a drawer and looked through all the threads inside one by one, hoping to find a good color to complement teal. “Come downstairs, Rarity!” Dad shouted. “There’s something we’ve been waiting for months to tell you.” “Two things!” added Mom. Rarity sighed, closed all her sewing drawers, and walked downstairs. This had better be important, she thought. When she met with her parents in the living room, they were both brightly smiling. “Did you call me down here just to announce you’re going on another vacation?” Rarity asked. “You don’t need to tell me each time. I can deduce from the hundreds of suitcases behind you that you’re going on a trip, without needing to be pulled away from my very important activities.” “Wait, Rarity,” said Mom. “Don’t go yet! We wanted to tell you that soon, there will be a new addition to this household.” “A new addition, you say... hm.” Rarity pondered for a few seconds. “Are you going to install a new restroom, perhaps? Or an extra room to store all your piles of luggage? I’m not sure why that would be necessary, but you did say a new addition to this household.” “No, silly. We’re not adding another room to this house,” said Mom. “We’re getting a new addition to the family!” “Oh... oh, dear. Is Grandpa going to move in with us? I’m not so sure I can handle that.” “No, Grandpa is not going to live here. The new addition to the family is a baby,” Mom said in the tone a teacher would use with a five-year-old student. “Oh! Did you find a baby pony who didn’t have a home and was up for adoption? Or a baby griffon? Or perhaps even a baby dragon?” Mom chuckled. “Rarity, there’s no such thing as dragons. They only exist in old fairy tales. But you are getting close!” “Let me handle this, honey. I don’t think Rarity’s getting the hint,” said Dad. He cleared his throat and spoke slowly and clearly. “Rarity, in four months, you are going to have a little sister.” Wait, a little sister?! Did Rarity hear her father right? No... this couldn’t be. She must have misheard something. “It’s true, dear!” Mom said with a cheerful laugh. “I talked about it with your dad, and since we both knew you wanted a sister so badly, we decided to take a go at it!” Rarity’s brain was still catching up to the news. This was an odd reversal coming from her parents—how many times did they tell her they didn’t want to have another kid? And didn’t Mom tell her once that Dad always wanted a son? Wait a minute... “I know, you’re probably a little surprised,” said Dad. “We held off telling you until we knew whether you’d have a brother or a sister, because we didn’t want to give you false expectations.” “And I don’t suppose I gave you any false expectations by turning out to be a girl?” Rarity blurted out. Without saying a word, Mom and Dad stepped back and exchanged some knowing glances. “Just admit it,” Rarity continued. “You’ve accepted that I won’t blossom into the stallion you envisioned me as, so you decided to try again. Even though you knew you might give birth to another filly! All you ever care about is having a son, and I am SO. TIRED. OF. IT!” “Rarity...” Mom muttered. “We really thought you would be more excited about this. I’m looking forward to having another daughter, and I know your dad is too.” “Mhm,” said Dad with a few tears in his eyes. “I did hope our second kid would be a boy at first, but... when we found out she’d be a girl, I thought of how thrilled you would be.” “Wait... Mom. Did you say you were going to have... another daughter?” Rarity asked. “Does that mean... you think of me as...” Mom nodded. “Rarity, dear, that was the other thing we wanted to tell you. You’ve made it clear to both of us what sort of pony you want to be, and if you want to live your life as a mare, then... it wouldn’t be right to stop you from doing so. Even if it’s not what we expected at first.” “So what do you say, Rarity?” said Dad. “Are you ready to say hello to Sweetie Belle?” “Sweetie... who?” Rarity asked. “I’m afraid I don’t know who that is, but... the name does sound a little familiar.” “That’s the name we decided on for your little sister, of course!” said Mom. “But I’m curious... why does the name sound familiar to you?” A memory resurfaced in Rarity’s mind. Two days ago, she overheard her mom mentioning the name “Sweetie Belle”, and something about that being the most obviously feminine name they could think of. She now knew where this was going: her parents thought that if they named their daughter something girly enough, she wouldn’t ever start wanting to be a stallion. She was quite certain that wasn’t how things worked, but it was unlikely for her parents to have two transgender children anyway. But of course, she couldn’t tell any of this to her parents... so she had to come up with a fake reason. “Is something the matter, dearie?” Mom asked. “We know having a baby sister is a lot to take in.” “Oh, no, no, no,” Rarity said. “When I said the name sounded familiar, I simply meant... um... that it would be a perfect name to give our new family member! I didn’t mean anything more than that.” She smiled awkwardly, hoping her parents didn’t notice her sweating. “Well, I’m glad you agree!” said Dad. “Though... we thought you would get a little more bouncy and excited about becoming a big sister. Isn’t that something you wanted for a long time!” “Indeed so,” said Rarity. “Although I am quite pleased with this familial development, a proper lady like myself expresses excitement through subtlety, like so.” She smiled gently and tapped each front hoof on the floor twice, barely making a sound. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I must return to organizing all my fabric.” Rarity walked upstairs, entered her bedroom, closed her door, and took a deep breath in. Then her face lit up and she jumped up and down while shouting to herself. “I’m going to have a sister, I’m going to have a sister, I’m going to have a sister!” She didn’t care how many drawers and spools of fabric she knocked over—now that she was alone, she had to let out all her excitement. “And I’m going to be a sister, and she’s going to know me as her big sister, and I’m going to teach her everything I know! Oh, this is the most delightful news EVER!” Sweetie Belle hummed to herself as she ran a sheet of chartreuse fabric through her sister’s sewing machine, stitching a blue patch shaped like a dolphin onto it. Though she hardly ever had been allowed to touch Rarity’s devices before, she felt at ease helping out with this dressmaking gig. She had been taking turns with her sister for half an hour now, as Rarity provided some tips and shared stories of her youth. It felt like this was something the two of them were always meant to do. “You’re doing excellent, Sweetie Belle!” said Rarity, causing her sister to blush. “Now, would you mind staying in this room for a few minutes?” “Sure. Why?” said Sweetie Belle. “I need to go buy us a few extra sewing supplies. Just be sure to stay right where you are! I promise we’ll resume sewing together soon enough.” “Um... alright.” After Rarity walked the door, Sweetie Belle took a deep breath in and a deep breath out. She stared at her hooves and began to ponder on her existence. “I only exist because Rarity is transgender,” Sweetie Belle muttered to herself. “And that is just so incredibly rare! Um, no pun intended.” She ran her eyes across the room she was in—a huge assortment of sewing machines, blinds carefully arranged to let in optimal degrees of sunlight, intricately organized drawers, and a mess of assorted scraps that Rarity once got angry at Sweetie Belle for cleaning up. Sweetie Belle touched her face, feeling a living, breathing pony who would have never existed if not for unlikely circumstances. “It’s kind of weird... no matter how hard I try, I can’t ever imagine myself being a boy instead of a girl. It just sounds so absurd to me!” She looked into a window and saw a faint reflection of a filly with soft round cheeks, bright green eyes, and a flowing purple and pink mane—unmistakably feminine all around. “I really like being a girl... and I can tell that Rarity does too. But for her, it didn’t come easy at all.” The filly laid on the floor with her back down and sighed. “For my whole life, I always thought Rarity was way luckier than me. She goes on cool adventures with her friends where she saves Equestria, she’s traveled around Canterlot and Manehattan and the Crystal Empire, she makes outfits and designs for all sorts of fancy events, and she gets tons of attention and praise for everything she does. But now I’m sure she feels jealous of me, because I got to be born with the body of a girl, while she was stuck in a boy’s body and had to figure everything out herself! Ugh, and it’s not like I can just stop being a filly or anything.” She closed her eyes and sighed again. “Rarity has always been a hero to me. Now that I know she had to transition on her own, she’s even more of one. She’s smart, she’s observant, she’s generous, she’s got a creative mind, and she’s really pretty. I’ve always wanted to be all those things, and I like to think I am, but... am I really?” Sweetie Belle got back up and walked around the room in a circle. “I wonder if I mean anywhere near as much to her? Did I live up to her old foalhood ideas of a good little sister? Maybe I’ll never know.” She hopped back into the chair where her sister graciously let her sew, and she let out one last sigh. Rarity opened the door, and Sweetie Belle leaped out of her chair. “Sweetie Belle! I have a surprise for you!” Rarity said. She was carrying a shopping bag. “A surprise?” Sweetie Belle asked. “But you’ve already given me so many good surprises today! How could you top any of them?” Rarity giggled. “Oh, you’ll see.” She pulled two sharp sticks out of the bag... wait. They weren’t just any sticks. They were little pieces of metal colored green at the tips, labeled with the letters S and B. “Rarity... are those... did you get me...?” “I bought you your very own pair of sewing needles! That way, we can sew dresses at the same time, and you’ll always know which needles are yours. That’s why I told you to stay put, because I didn’t want to spoil the surprise. Do you like them?” Sweetie Belle looked at the needles and a huge smile grew on her face. They were colored olive green at the tips, engraved with the letters S and B. “Rarity... I LOVE them! This is the coolest surprise EVER! You really didn’t need to do this for me. You could’ve just passed me your old needles and bought new fancy ones for yourself, since I know you like to have everything perfect.” “Oh, but Sweetie Belle, I just know how much you adore the color green. I persuaded the owner of the sewing shop to make custom designed needles, which they had stopped offering five years ago.” “How... did you do that?” Sweetie Belle asked, her eyes transfixed on her new needles. “Oh, it was easy,” Rarity said with a smile. “I simply told him it was a gift for a very special somepony.”