The very next day, the Cutie Mark Crusaders could be found making their way through the bustling Ponyville marketplace. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom walked side-by-side, carrying small woven baskets in their mouths. An extremely bored Scootaloo trailed behind, pulling an empty red wagon with her scooter at what she considered to be an agonizing pace.
"Why did we have to come along for this? All this slowness is giving me fits!" she groaned.
The unicorn filly at the front turned back and mumbled something the other two couldn't understand, as their looks clearly illustrated. Realizing suddenly that she still had the basket in her mouth, she spat it onto the ground and cleared her throat before speaking again.
"I told you already! Rarity has a shipment of fabrics coming in from Canterlot today, and she's too busy to pick it up. So you're both here helping me because I can't get it all myself. And because you're my friends and that's what friends do."
"But this is so boring! This must be how Tank feels all the time!" Scootaloo groused loudly.
"If you need another reason, you still owe me for that thing with the catapult the other day," Sweetie continued, coming right up and tapping the pegasus's helmet with one of her hooves.
"But you landed in the lake!" the winged filly shouted. "It's not like you hit a rock or a tree or anything! I told you I knew what I was doing!"
"And yet we went first," came the concise interruption.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo stopped glaring at each other for the briefest of moments. They both turned to look at Apple Bloom, or as much as they could of her. After the events of the previous day, Apple Bloom had basically barricaded herself at Sweet Apple Acres. Despite her friends' insistence, she refused to leave her home without one of her grandmother's largest, most head-covering sunhats. Her eyes would dart about nervously from time to time as they were walking, like she could feel the entire town staring at her.
"Look, would you relax, Apple Bloom?" Scootaloo sighed. "Nopony's looking at your mane-cut. And even if they were, so what? We keep telling you, it looks great!"
"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle piped up in response. "That's why I went right after you. I wanted my mane to look as nice as yours."
She turned around to peruse the marketplace. Eventually, her eyes landed on the stand for which she was searching; Mr. Looking Glass's Fine Mirrors. There was a large assortment of paneled mirror glass scattered around the stand, all of varying sizes. Sweetie walked toward the stand and examined the purple cloth draping the main table, quickly identifying a cleverly-hidden loose thread. The filly then reached out and gave the thread a tug with her mouth, causing the cloth to rise like a theater curtain. The young unicorn grinned at the sight of another one of her sister's emergency mirrors. And for possibly the fifteenth time that day, she paused to admire her amazing new mane-cut.
Sweetie Belle's traditional curls had been smoothed and fluffed to give them a lot more volume, in addition to adding what she assumed was about two inches to her height. Her bangs, which usually ended in a tight little curl, instead began with a silky-smooth wave on the left side of her head, cascading down to the right and ending in a swirly flip. She couldn't help but smile every time she looked at her reflection that day; to her delight, her entire mane seemed to sparkle along with her smile.
"It's...amazing," she sighed dreamily to herself.
"Hard to believe that something like that came from somepony like Snips," Scootaloo responded, with a casual lean on her handlebars.
"Girls!" Apple Bloom snapped, sounding extremely annoyed as she pulled the hat down even further over her head. "I really, really, really don't want to talk about this. Can we just do this so I can go back home, please?"
Scootaloo seemed mildly annoyed at the farm-filly's snap, but Sweetie Belle gave a knowing nod, and lowered the stand's cloth back into its proper position. She picked up her basket from where she dropped it and started off again. After another short walk, they finally arrived at the imported fabric stand located right next to the train station. The materials that were being delivered were extremely delicate, and the close proximity of the stand ensured as little chance for disaster as possible. The royal-blue unicorn shopkeeper finished polishing his table and laid a fine roll of satin on it, closely inspecting the fabric for any minute imperfections. He was interrupted by three small passing shadows cast by the morning sun. He brushed his sky blue hair back and smiled down at the fillies now occupying his storefront.
"Ah, Miss Belle! How very nice to see you again," he greeted in his thick Prancian accent. He punctuated that greeting with a playful wink. "You're looking especially radiant today."
"Hi, Mr. Garland Silk!" she chirped, after dropping her basket again. "Thank you so much! It must be my new mane-cut! You like it?"
"Of course I do, miss," Silk replied. "But it's so much more zan zat. It's more like your mane-style is a reflection of sa belle âme. I can tell that you are going to make some special somepony very happy someday."
His kind and flattering words brought a healthy blush to Sweetie Belle's face, but Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were very quick to trade incredulous looks beside their red wagon. Sweetie and Silk shared a quick mutual laugh, followed by a little sigh to help them catch their breath.
"But enough of ze idle pleasantries," he said. "I assume zat you are here for Miss Rarity's order?"
"Yup!" Sweetie nodded. "She's too busy to get it herself, so she sent me! These new materials are really going to help with all the orders she's gotta finish. Is it ready?"
"It most certainly is," the stallion shopkeeper answered, as a soft white glow encompassed his horn. "Permit me help you load them into zat wagon of yours."
Garland Silk lifted a large basket from behind his stand, loaded to the brim with bolts of multicolored fabric. He motioned it carefully over to their red wagon. Unfortunately, the heat of that morning had caused a bit of sweat to gather on his horned forehead. Just as the stallion was about to lower the basket into the wagon, a tiny drop got into his eye, briefly ruining his concentration. A single bolt of fabric toppled out, ready to make contact with the ground to Silk's horror. But shockingly to him, the roll began to float just inches from the dirt, being levitated by a jade green aura. His eyes once again met the young white unicorn, who regarded him with a satisfied grin. He lit up with laughter at her quick-witted ability.
"Miss Belle, c'est merveilleux! You have been practicing your magic, I see! You become more amazing every day!" Garland Silk noticed that the strain of keeping the fabric levitated was beginning to affect Sweetie Belle. Rather than point it out, he courteously combined his magical power with hers to lift the fragile cloth back into the basket in the wagon. He then pulled out a smaller assortment of threads and ribbons, setting them gently into the smaller baskets which the girls had brought with them. "Now, you give my best regards to Miss Rarity, mon petit. Have a wonderful day!"
"I will, Mr. Silk! Thanks again!" Sweetie Belle called over her shoulder, as she took off running again. Her two friends followed closely behind.
Scootaloo, unable to tolerate their pace any more, buzzed her wings and shot out in front of Sweetie Belle, pulling the wagon around to effectively block her way. She removed her helmet and hopped off her scooter, trotting right up to the unicorn with a wry little smirk.
"Well, what do we have here?" Scootaloo inquired. "That stallion was being kinda sugary on you, wasn't he? Is somepony maybe not telling us something?"
"Oh, stop," Sweetie waved a hoof in response. "He was just being nice. Garland's been friends with my family for years."
"And are all your family friends that...affectionate?" Apple Bloom asked.
"That's just the way he is. Ponies from Prance are very...open with their emotions. Besides, it's not like he was being serious; it's just harmless fun...right?" she asked, a wash of realization coming over her face. "Although, now that I think of it, he did seem a bit more...flirty than usual today."
"I don't like it," the yellow earth pony stated simply. "This whole deal's starting to get...a mite strange. And I know exactly what's behind it."
Sweetie Belle's turn to be annoyed had just arrived, and with a particularly nasty look she returned to her basket. "Come on, we gotta take this stuff back to the Boutique," she said, gripping the handle in her mouth and walking around Scootaloo's wagon. Scootaloo gave Apple Bloom a quiet shrug before remounting her scooter and taking off for Rarity's shop as well. With another frustrated sigh, the number of which she had given up counting, the young apple-farmer gathered her basket and followed.
They finally approached the front door to the brightly-colored Carousel Boutique. The building was decorated in a very festive manner, ribbons and lace strewn up in every possible place. But Sweetie knew that however nice it looked on the outside, the interior must have been a disaster zone. Whenever Rarity had a massive set of orders to handle, that would always take the top priority, and everything else, cleanliness included, fell by the wayside. The filly had a sneaking suspicion that this was the real reason her big sister liked having her around on the weekends. But casting that thought from her head, she knocked on the door.
"Coming!" a spritely voice sang out from inside. Sweetie Belle faintly heard the rush of magical energy as it surrounded the door's handle. The latch turned and the door swung open to reveal the predictably disheveled workspace of Ponyville's top fashion designer. "Hello girls! Thank you so much for picking up the...."
Rarity appeared in the doorway from her private storeroom, stopping suddenly in her tracks as she saw her sister strolling casually through the front door. Her eyes widened in a combination of shock and elation.
"Sweetie Belle! When and where did you get that spectacular mane-cut?!" she nearly shrieked in surprise.
"Um, yesterday?" Sweetie Belle replied, confused. "It's the same mane I left the house with an hour ago."
"Oh, well I have been working too hard, haven't I?" Rarity sighed, mostly to herself. "Thank you girls again for retrieving my supplies from the marketplace. If you'd please just leave them there in the corner? Yes, that's perfect. Now before you run off 'crusading' or...whatever you plan on doing today, I'd like a word with Sweetie Belle in private."
"Okay, sure," Scootaloo nodded in Sweetie Belle's direction. "We'll be waiting outside when you're done. I'm sure Apple Bloom would like to find a nice bush to hide in or something."
Completing the annoyance trifecta, Apple Bloom found a stray spool of thread on the ground and chucked it at the pegasus, earning a satisfying 'clunk' against her helmet. She slipped through the open door without another sound. Scootaloo soon followed, pushing her vehicle beside her. Rarity closed the door with her magic and moved over to her plush purple couch beside the window.
"Come sit with me, dear. Let's talk, sister to sister," she said, climbing into one of the seats and offering Sweetie the one next to her.
"Um, okay," the younger sister replied with a nod. She jumped onto the pillow, sinking just a little into it. She looked intently at her sister, trying her best to prepare for whatever Rarity wanted to say.
"Sweetie Belle, I want you to tell me all about this new hairstyle of yours. How did it happen?" Rarity asked softly. She lifted a hoof to Sweetie's perfect mane and swept it gently away from her eyes.
"Well, it all started with our chemistry experiment yesterday after school. Things...kinda went bad, and long story short, Apple Bloom got covered in tree sap."
"Oh, again? Why didn't you come to me right away like you usually do?" Rarity inquired in a mock scolding tone.
"We were going to, but there was a colt there who was able to help us out by cutting the sap out of her mane." Sweetie said, mimicking the way the scissors moved through Apple Bloom's mane with her hooves.
"Who would that be, darling?" Rarity asked, her eyebrows belying her disinterested tone.
"It was Snips, one of the colts from my class. He's really, really good. So good, that I decided I wanted him to style my mane, too. And here we are," the filly said with a small smile. Rarity gave a self-assured nod and got down off the couch.
"I see. There's just one thing more thing, dear; have you gotten into any...let's say 'trouble', with any other colts in town?"
"Well, Garland Silk was really nice to me at the market today. Like, really nice. The other girls thought it was kinda strange, but I didn't see anything wrong with that." Sweetie replied, jumping down from her own seat.
"Oh, they just don't understand, Sweetie. The world is a very different place through the eyes of beautiful ponies like us. Sometimes, stallions will go out of their way to compliment or assist an attractive mare; it doesn't mean they want something from us." She paused briefly as she thought over what she just said. "But you should be careful out there, because sometimes they are after something."
"Something like what?" the younger unicorn asked as innocently as she could.
"Oh, that's a conversation for another time, dear. For now, tell me more about this Snips of yours." Rarity said, trotting into her kitchen. "I'm still listening, Sweetie. Just getting us some tea."
"Well, he's just amazing. He usually has this air of...colt-ishness about him, him and his friend Snails. Just looking at him, you wouldn't think he'd be very good at anything. But...when he's cutting manes, when he's engaged in his special talent...he does it so effortlessly. It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen."
Rarity emerged from her kitchen levitating a silver tea set. She gave her sister a quiet smile as she set down the tray. Sweetie Belle always tried her best to sound more mature around her big sister. And though such a refined manner of speaking didn't sound right at all coming from her little sister, Rarity still appreciated the gesture.
"Well, that's a common occurrence, dear," Rarity explained. "Performing our special talents is second nature to us. In some cases, we don't even have to think about it; it just comes naturally. When you get your cutie mark, I know you'll understand."
The elder sister sensed that she'd said the wrong thing even before she heard the little sniff behind her, the precursor to a fit of sobs that would be impossible to control.
"Oh Sweetie, don't cry. You have a beautiful new mane, you shouldn't ruin it. Why don't you tell me more about it?" Rarity suggested, giving Sweetie a comforting hug. The little filly nodded with a smile, though she still retained a bit of moisture in her eyes. "Tell me, dear, when this 'Snips' was styling your mane, how did you feel in that moment?"
Sweetie Belle sat down at the table, taking one of the cups between her hooves. She took a sip and gathered her thoughts. "It was...a really good feeling. I felt so pretty, and...special. When he was running that comb and those shears through my hair, I felt like I was the most important mare in the world. I...."
Abruptly, she set down the cup and looked at her sister with an extremely flustered gaze. "Oh, no. You don't think...you know, I...and he...?"
When the full extent of what her sister was asking finally hit Rarity, she shook her head violently with a very awkward laugh.
"No, no, no-no-no. Goodness, no. Sweetie Belle, I was hoping that I could save this talk for our first trip to the spa together, just the two of us. But I think now is as good a time as any, so I'm going to let you in on a little secret."
Rarity lifted her cup of tea and took a quiet sip. Sweetie Belle leaned forward in anticipation, ready for her sister's special brand of wisdom. Finally, the teacup floated back down to the table, and Rarity took a deep breath before continuing.
"You see, little sister, the bond between a mare and her stylist is...well, it's one of the most important things in the world. A stylist is a pony on whom you can always depend. They're there to take all the stress of the world away, to be there for you when nopony else is. A stylist has the amazing ability to take all the beauty buried deep within you, and bring it up to the surface for all of Equestria to see."
"That sounds a lot like a coltfriend to me," the younger sister observed.
"Dear, it's not quite like that. The stylist's bond is not a bond of love; it's a bond of trust. There's just something about the aura of a stylist; you aren't afraid to show them who you really are."
"That's exactly how I felt yesterday with Snips!" Sweetie Belle squeaked.
"I thought as much. It's the same reason I go to the spa so often. Lotus and Aloe are just so wonderful. They see me at my worst on a regular basis, yet they've never once been judgmental. They just work their special brand of magic, and in no time at all, I'm back to my own fabulous self." Rarity gave her mane a little flip as an accent.
"But what about Apple Bloom? Why doesn't she feel that way, too?" Sweetie asked, moving to the window. She spotted her friends waiting by the tree right outside. Scootaloo was leaning against her scooter, looking ready to nod off from shear boredom. Apple Bloom stood beside her, looking around nervously. Every few seconds, she would adjust the hat she wore to try and cover more of her mane. After a moment, Rarity joined her at the window.
"She's just confused right now, dear. She was exposed to some new emotions she's most likely never experienced before, and she isn't sure how to react to it. Just tell her what I told you and everything will be just fine." Rarity left the window and went back into her storeroom. A little rummaging noise could be heard as she shifted a few things around. "It's a shame, really," she said to herself. "If only I could show her, and everypony else, just how great it is to..."
All of the air inside the Boutique could've been taken away by Rarity's gasp. Sweetie Belle knew exactly what that meant: Rarity had just gotten an --
"I-DE-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
She burst out of the back room and sped right back to Sweetie Belle's side. "I know exactly what to do! Sweetie Belle, I want you to invite that amazing little colt to dinner tonight. I have a proposition for him. Do that for me while you're out with your friends today, would you?"
"Uh, sure. Okay," Sweetie answered with a weak smile.
"Oh, thank you so much! This is going to be just the best thing I've ever done!" Rarity exclaimed. She gradually regained herself and gave her little sister a quick hug. "Now, go and play with your friends, darling. It's the weekend and you should be enjoying yourself. Just...try not to do anything too dangerous. I know you enjoy your whole 'crusader' business, but I worry."
"We'll try, Rarity. And thanks for your help!" Sweetie Belle chirped. She trotted back to the front door but Rarity placed a hoof on her shoulder to stop her. A gorgeous tan sunhat floated from the backroom and landed on Sweetie Belle's head. The thin, wide brim was edged by fine pink silk, and the band shone with gems and feathers.
"Be a dear and give that to Apple Bloom. Granny Smith is a delightful mare, but Celestia bless her, she's hopeless when it comes to giant hats."
Sweetie Belle took the hat off to preserve her fantastic hairstyle. "I'll give her the hat, but I'm not telling her what you just said. I'll see you at dinner, big sis."
After giving her sister another hug, Sweetie Belle exited the Boutique. Rarity shut the door behind her and returned to the table. She gave a contented sigh as she cleared the table and levitated the tea set back into the kitchen.
"Mr. Snips, I have got some big, big plans for you. For both of us. But that can wait for later. It's time to do a little...research. And I know just the mare to see..."
