//------------------------------// // Day 2 // Story: Wonders of the Average // by Yozzoy //------------------------------// Day 2 Celestia woke up the next morning with the sound of her alarm clock, which she promptly punched with her hoof across the room, however, the terrible noise that woke her continued until finally she woke up and stood up. "I swear if I didn't enchant this thing I would never get up." She said in a voice slightly slurred by her tiredness. First she went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth, and due to the noise she was making it woke up Luna, who she heard stumble from bed, followed by "Ouch!" Luna had said after hitting her head on the top of the door frame. "Good morning sister, how was your sleep?" Celestia asked with her voice no longer affected by her sleepiness. "It was good, I'm going to get breakfast started." She replied after brushing her teeth. With that, Celestia returned to her room, went in front of the vanity mirror and cast the transformation spell, she was once again Solaria Bless. She magically lifted her vest and put it on, and finally headed downstairs. When she arrived she saw Luna, who was now Stardust Rose, mixing a pot of oatmeal they had bought from Applejack, along with cutting two apples for each sister. "Do you need any help Luna?" asked Solaria "If you don't mind could you set the table?" Stardust replied, while cheerfully making their simple breakfast. "Also your faithful student sent you a letter, sadly we were both asleep." she added while using her horns glow to levitate the letter from the coffee table in the living room. "Excellent, well lets read it." Solaria said taking over the letter with her magic and opening it in front of her. "Dear Princess Celestia, Tonight I learnt that while everypony you meet is at one point a stranger to you, especially those new to a place. The best way to greet them is with a smile, a good attitude and maybe even a Pinkie Party. Today I met two sisters that are new to Ponyville, and by greeting them in such a way, my friends and I added two new companions. I only wish I was as open to the welcome Pinkie and the others gave me. Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle "Well that’s a great lesson for them, trust before mistrust, without being naive. Honestly Solaria this student of yours and her friends just keep becoming wiser." Stardust said as she brought the breakfast to the table. "Indeed sister, but can you help me bring in the day its time." said Solaria after setting the letter down and looking at the clock. Stardust simply nodded and they walked towards the window, their horns began to glow and they saw the first few rays of sunshine fill the sky before heading back to the kitchen to eat breakfast. After an uneventful breakfast the sisters began to notice how empty the town was at this early in the morning, the only other pony they saw was a grey Pegasus with a blonde mane, bubbles for a cutie mark, and crossed eyes fly by. They eventually cleaned the dishes and put everything back before heading out to explore the town before they headed to Raritys dress shop. As they were walking toward the town square, they started notice more and more ponys come out. Eventually they looked at the clock in the square, it was 9:32 AM. "I think we should go to Raritys now." said Stardust breaking the silence they've maintained for most of the morning. "I'm not sure, she probably just opened up her shop and shes probably got customers to deal with." Said Solaria "Well what’s the worst thing that could happen? She'll just ask us to come later." Stardust said, Solaria could tell she was getting bored of not actually talking to anypony. "Fine we'll go check." Solaria said in a way sounding like she knew Stardust would be too hard to convince otherwise. The girls headed off, they were told where the shop was and what it looked like by Rarity the night before so they were able to find it rather quickly. However, as they approached the building all they saw was a silhouette of a unicorn running back and forth with some fabrics and other tools floating behind her. Solaria then spoke. "Looks like I was right, she is busy, but..." Solaria began to smile "She looks like she needs help, so hopefully we can." "Indeed sister lets go." Stardust said ecstatically as they approached the door. Solaria knocked the door with her hoof, which much to their surprise wasn't answered by Rarity, but by a little filly the large blue eyes, a white coat and a pink mane. "Hi there," she said in a cheery voice which just melted the heart, "Umm, my sisters a little busy right now, so could you come back later?" she said, surprising both the sisters with how mature and calm she was in front of two total strangers. "You must be Sweetie Belle, My name is Solaria Bless and this is my sister, Stardust Rose." Solaria said in a gentle and sweet voice "We're here to help your sister a bit." "Oh ok!" Sweetie Belle replied in a happy tone as she opened the door wider to allow the girls to come in, and as the girls came in they saw the true extent to which Rarity was working. There was fabric scattered all around the inside of the shop, there was paper littering the ground but the worst part was Rarity herself, her mane was a mess, her coat was as bad, and she had huge black bags under her eyes, she looks like she had not even gotten a wink of sleep. "Oh hello girls, sorry but I'm going to have to cancel our meeting today I have this order due in about two hours which i still need to finish." she said quickly as she continued to work, clearly stressed by the tone of her voice. "Well you look like you can use some help so we're here to give it." Solaria said walking toward Rarity. "Ladies’ please we just met, I couldn't possibly invite you here to just work for me that would just be rude." Rarity said as she was cutting some fabric. As she was talking to Solaria, Stardust walked toward a drawing table and saw a drawing of the dress, she magically brought some fabric and tools and for lack of a better turn, transformed it into the dress in the drawing with a magical poof of pink smoke. The poof got Rarity and Solarias attention, they drop their friendly argument over accepting help and turned around. "...How did you..." Rarity stuttered out as she saw a completed dress that took her five hours to make and Stardusts completed dress which took five seconds, they were the exact same. "So ready to accept our help?" Solaria asked a little smugly looking at the white unicorn that still had her mouth agape. "I suppose so," she said after a few moments in which she regain her cool. "I need three more in two hours. With that, Solaria and Stardust magically produced three more dresses, cleaned up all the leftover fabrics, and put away the tools. Rarity looked back up to the clock, the still had an hour and forty minutes until her client came to pick up the dresses. Rarity promptly fainted and fell asleep. "Poor girl, must have worked ever since Pinkies' party ended." Solaria said lifting Rarity with her magic. "Excuse me Sweetie Belle? Can you show me where Raritys room is?" she then asked toward Sweetie Belle who was still amazed by the amazingly fast dress making. "That was AWESOME!!!" she exclaimed, causing Rarity to jolt awake, and she started to kick around in the air. "Excuse me can you please put me down?!" she demanded. "Sorry." Solaria said as she gently placed Rarity on the ground. "Just give me a moment ladies, I'll be just a moment." she said as she bolted up stairs. All Solaria and Stardust heard from upstairs were Raritys’ hooves and the floor, the water flowing to her tap, a drill, a buzz saw and a chicken cluck, causing Stardust to tilt her head in confusion. Soon after that, Rarity walked down the stairs, she had cleaned her mane and coat, completely removed the bags under her eyes somehow and looked completely rested. "How did you..." Stardust said still with her head tilted and her confused look. "In my line of business, one must learn a few little tricks." Rarity said as she walked toward the kitchen. "Come now, what would you girls like to drink? Tea, coffee, water?" she asked as she led them to the kitchen. "I'll have some tea." Replied Stardust "And I would like some as well." added Solaria "Right then, just take a seat, and I'll be a moment." Rarity said as she said placing the kettle on the stove top. "So while we wait for that, tell me a little about yourselves." Rarity asked with the enthusiasm in her eyes. "Well as you know we're from Fillydelphia, and our father owns a small chain of flower stores," Solaria answered as she started to make up the details of their false back story. "He wanted to move to Ponyville to expand the chain, so he bought the house by the square that we're living in right now, but that plan never went through and we stayed in Fillydelphia. However we still owned the house, so we came here to try to sell it, but I think I might give up on that, we like it here.” “Well despite Ponyvilles small size it is a very charming town, and I will keep living here, despite the… lack of culture that somewhere like Canterlot has.” Rarity responded “Say, were did your sister run to?” Stardust asked looking around for any sign of the filly. “Umm, Sweetie Belle, where are you?” Rarity asked in a nervous voice as she darted her head around looking for her. “I’m right here sis.” Sweetie Belle said in her cheery voice which was coming from the pantry, Rarity galloped across the kitchen towards, it and saw Sweetie Belle trying to use her magic to lift, of all things, a lemon. "Sweetie Belle what are you doing, here?" Rarity asked through her huff of breath. "Well I wanted to help by getting lemons for the tea, but every time I tried to lift them with my magic, they would... Umm turn brown..." she said sounding more nervous and near the end as she looked at the smoldering remains of all the other lemons she tried to lift. Sweetie Belle then looked back up to Rarity as she braced herself for a good scolding. "Sweetie Belle, when life gives you lemons, you can either make lemonade, or make life take the lemons back, and sometimes it's the fact that you keep making life take its lemons back that surprises." said Solaria as she approached the pantry. "Look, we know your trying to help, and believe me while Rarity may not always say it doesn't mean she doesn't think it. From having a younger sister I would know that." "Look Sweetie Belle I know you want your cutie mark, but sometime you've got to slow down, and not take on anything that's out of your skill level." Rarity added as she picked up the lemon with her magic, placing it on the kitchen counter. She then looked back to Sweetie Belles adorable large eyes and said. "Your my, sister and just like I said after the Sisterhooves Social, we are apple pie." as soon as she said that Sweetie Belle hugged her, catching her off guard. "I love you to sis, wait that's right I'm supposed to go to the tree house to try a bunch more stuff to see if we get our cutie marks, CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS GOLDFISH WHISPERERS!!!!" she shouted straight into Raritys’ ear, and with that she said "Bye Solaria, bye Stardust, bye Rarity!" With that she bolted out the door, slamming it behind, her passing the mare on the other side so fast it caused the mare to spin a few times. The mare recovered from the spinning and raised her head in pride as she knocked the door. Rarity quickly answered the door, it was her client, Emerald Shores, daughter of Sapphire Shores. "Hello there Miss Shores, you're early." Rarity said as she looked back at the clock, Emerald was an hour early. "Well I got bored now lets see the dresses I commissioned, they had better be worth it, although I doubt they are coming from this shack." she said in an extremely smug tone. "Well, come in and take a look." Rarity said keeping her rage under control, Solaria and Stardust had overheard this from the kitchen. Rarity walked Emerald across the shop to her curtain which she opened revealing the dresses. "Ok now where are the real dresses? Oh wait those are them, HA those are terrible, I can't believe my mom bought a dress from you, you should just close this place and start a burger joint." Emerald scolding Rarity in a cruel and cold tone. "But what’s wrong with them? They have everything your mother wanted, they're subtle yet stand out, and they don’t make you look fat, they, they..." Rarity trying to justify her dresses to the snobby drama queen. "I think they look lovely." said an elegant yet familiar voice, causing Rarity to look back at the door she left opened. "Please, what idiot thinks these dresses look good, it must be some ugly friend of yours" Emerald said looking to Rarity who was bowing, she felt her stomach drop, and she slowly turned around, it was Princess Celestia. "Ohh, umm Princess, I, umm..." she quickly sputtered out as she was bowing down. "So I'm an ugly idiot am I?" asked Princess Celestia smugly as she looked directly into Emeralds eyes. "No, I, umm, I'm sorry, I'm sorry please forgive me!!" Emerald replied with her pride and cockiness completely broken. "I'll forgive you on one condition, you buy these dresses that my good friend Rarity had worked so hard on, and you agree to be more like your mother, she never let her fame get to her head as badly as you." Celestia said calmly. Emerald nodded her head and grabbed her check book magically, and wrote a check for Rarity, and ran out the shop with her dresses. "Princess, thank you so much, I mean that was incredible I just want to say I can't thank you enough. Also how did you know I was in trouble?" Rarity said. "Lets just say a friend if yours gave me a tip." Celestia replied with a wink, her horn began to glow and she was gone. "Rarity are you alright?" asked Solaria from the kitchen. "Yes everything is fine, I'm just... Never mind the tea should be done." Rarity said as walked into the kitchen. "By any chance have any of you met Princess Celestia?" Rarity asked hesitantly as she poured the tea for everypony. "No, why exactly?" Stardust answered innocently. "Well never mind" said Rarity so where were we before I was tied up with my client? Something about combustible lemons?" "Oh we were talking about why we're here in Ponyville." Solaria said "Oh yes, so why exactly did you decide not to expand your flower shop you Ponyville?" Rarity asked regaining her train of thought. "Well the plan sort of fell apart, and anyways we're still doing great in Fillydelphia." Stardust said after a sip of tea. For the next few hours, the three mares talked about their businesses, some fashion, and about Ponyville. Solaria had extensive knowledge on fashion, and she managed to make up a few stories before Stardust had finally looked at the clock. "Well Rarity it was great to chat and hang out more." Stardust said as she got up from the table. “What? You’re leaving so soon? Are you sure you don’t want to stay longer and chat more?” Rarity asked, as she stood up. “We thank you very much but we don’t want to tie up all your time, and besides we’ll always be able to hang out some other time.” Solaria replied as she walked towards Rarity. “Alright then, we shall schedule something for a later date!” Rarity said gleefully as she led the girls to the door. “It was great getting to know you Rarity, we’ll see you later.” Solaria said as she and Stardust headed out the door. Suddenly as soon as they exited the door, about ten ponies rushed into the shop. “Miss Rarity is it true Princess Celestia liked the dress you made for Emerald Shores?” asked a steel grey stallion with a Manehattin accent. “Yes, yes it is, how can I help you.” Rarity said in her partial; stupor from having some many ponies rush in. The grey stallion spoke again “I want twenty, by next week.” “I want seven.” said a mare behind him “I want eight teen.” said another stallion “I want to use the bathroom!” some other stallion shouted Soon enough they were all bickering their demands at once, becoming inaudible, Rarity tried to get them to settle down, “Ladies and gentlecolts please.” it’s not very effective... “Ok everypony form a single file line and tell me what you want, everypony will get a chance.” everypony promptly rushed at Rarity and began barking their demands once again. “Oh dear...” ---------------------- The sisters had just arrived home, closing the door behind them and taking a seat on the couch. They still had plenty of energy left and they knew exactly where they wanted to go after their break, they sat their silent, both of them thinking. Solaria thought about the meeting they had with Rarity, and how normal it was, she loved it so much, just to be the mare behind the crown all the time. Tears ran down her face. “Celestia, what’s wrong?” Stardust quickly asked looking concerned for her sister. “It’s...” she used her magic to grab a tissue and proceeded to blow her nose. “It’s so wonderful, I’ve never felt anything like this.” she replied, her voice chocking up from her crying. “I know, me neither.” Stardust said embracing Solaria in a hug "Lets just rest up for tomorrow we've done quite a bit today." adding as they both stood up. It was early in the evening so Solaria decided she would prepare dinner while Stardust took her shower. About an hour later she was done, the table was set and they sat down. "Solaria what kind of salad is this?" Stardust questioned while looking at the odd salad. "Oh this it's called tabule, I learnt about it in a cookbook, it may look odd but it's delicious." Solaria cheerfully replying as she began to eat, which was enough of an answer for the usually picky Stardust, so she took a small fork full, it was good. "Wow this is pretty good, yet it looks so simple." Stardust stated after swallowing, it was a simple salad with some diced tomatoes and onions, along with parsley and it was sprinkled with lemon juice. "More than meets the eyes, just like us." Solaria said as she looked out the window at the street seeing ponies of all kinds live and learn amongst each other. Once the sisters finished they went through their usual routine of cleaning and getting themselves ready for bed before bringing in the night. Finally after all that was done they headed to the upstairs bed rooms and reverted back to their original forms. "So sister what do you think we should do tomorrow?" Celestia asked Luna. "I was thinking of meeting Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy." Luna replied lazily as she was lying in her bed. "Pinkie it is, goodnight Luna." "Goodnight." END CHAPTER