//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Sweetie Belle Makes a Drawing 
// by TheTobacconist 
//------------------------------//

       Sweetie Belle sat in front of the table in the kitchen of Carousel Boutique. Her parents had dropped her off at Rarity's yet again. She was never quite certain what they did while on vacation, but her mother always refused to show them any pictures they had taken. Her father would always turn red around the cheeks when she asked. She no longer worried about the reasons they dropped her off, but chose to enjoy the time she could spend with her sister.
Which was next to nothing, regardless of how often she was there. Rarity was constantly busy, constantly rushing about to complete a last minute order, and almost always trying to promote her business. Sweetie Belle still loved her sister though, and Rarity would always do her best to make time for her. Once again though, it was not an option. Rarity was in her workshop, making significant progress on a new fall line. Sweetie could hear the humming of the sewing machine and the occasional snip of pinking shears.
She was left to her own devices for now. With Scootaloo and Applebloom unavailable, Sweetie chose an activity that was unlikely to cause collateral damage. She set her stack of paper on the table, made certain she had all of her colored pencils, a gift from her sister, sharpened, and had an eraser in good condition.
She started by drawing Rarity's mane. Had she more experience she might have understood the importance of guidelines, but at this point in her life she was still young and had received no tutelage that might have made her aware of that. Sweetie selected her most vibrant purple and began with a hard outline. She filled it in with a lighter purple. She then raised a light pink pencil to her mane and compared the color out of the corner of her eye. She used that and the purple to create a smaller mane next to Rarity's. She rummaged through her pencils and thought for a minute.
She sat her pencils down and went into Rarity's workshop. Rarity was currently hoofstitching welted pockets onto a vest. She looked up at Sweetie and raised her red eyeglasses.
"Do you need something, Sweetie Belle?" Rarity asked.
"No," Sweetie Belle began walking back to the kitchen, "I got it."
Sweetie selected a blue pencil and began coloring in her sister's eyes. She selected a black and scratched in the eyelashes. She took her white and pressed down hard on the paper. She frowned and pressed harder. Sweetie looked at the smeared white over the purple and realized that she would not be able to draw a horn over the hair. She sighed, crumpled the drawing into a ball, and tossed it into the wastebasket.
Sweetie grabbed another sheet of paper and chose to start with the eyes this time. She reorganized her colored pencils and separated the blue and green from the rest. She made circles first, and filled them in quickly. She dotted the center with a pen, and made lines around the eyes. She marked off the horns with a white pencil and picked up the purple one. She paused.
Sweetie walked back into Rarity's workshop.
"Yes, Sweetie," Rarity set her needle aside.
Sweetie Belle raised the colored pencil to Rarity's hair and frowned. She walked back into the kitchen and selected a slightly darker one. She practiced a few loops on a scratch piece of paper and then made the same movements on her drawing, all the while being careful to leave blank space for the horn. She smiled and raised up the paper. She picked up a grey pencil and began drawing an oval for the body. She frowned at it. She drew a few sets of parallel lines for legs. She scowled at these. She raised her own foreleg and observed it. She bent it back and forth a few times, and sighed. She tossed the paper in the wastebasket.
She looked over to a family picture and studied it for a moment. Sweetie grabbed the white pencil and marked out two bean shapes, one smaller than the other. She added a few curves to the legs this time, looking at her own as she did so. She marked out the head next, colored in the eyes, and drew the hair on top of the head. She looked down and smiled. Then her eyes narrowed as she noticed that some of the purple had bled into the horn. She cried out and tossed that paper in the wastebasket as well.
"Sweetie!" Rarity stopped her sewing machine, "Are you all right in there?"
"I'm fine!" Sweetie Belle answered.
Sweetie Belle waited for Rarity to say more, but the only response was the hum of the sewing machine. Sweetie slapped another sheet of paper down, and chose a plain pencil for her drawing this time. She drew her beans, made her curved lines, placed circles above the beans and connected them to the beans with more curve lines. She drew triangles on the circles, and ovals in the circle. She made her wavy lines above and around the circles, and began pressing the pencil down harder to make certain lines darker. She smiled, and began erasing unnecessary parts of lines. She frowned at the paper, and began rubbing the eraser across the paper with increased force and motion. She looked back and sighed. She had been too heavy on her initial pass, and the old lines were still embedded in the paper. Sweetie  tossed the paper into the wastebasket.
She slammed another piece of paper down and picked up her pencil again. This time she made sure to pass over lightly until she was ready to make the lines permanent. She then began going over it with her colored pencils, using the colors she had selected before. She looked back at it and smiled. Then she frowned again. She walked back into the workshop.
"Rarity?" She asked and waited for her sister to finish interchanging her machine's standard foot with a felling foot, "Can I borrow a pen?"
"A pen? Yes of course," Rarity said as she threaded the machine, "They're in the third drawer in that cabinet."
Sweetie picked out a pen and walked back into the kitchen. She went over the pencil lines with the pen and smiled at the drawing again. She raised the drawing up to the light and frowned. She could still see the pencil lines through the ink. She sighed and tossed that one in the wastebasket as well. She picked up another piece of paper.
By the time she was sent to bed the wastebasket was overflowing, her colored pencils had been worn down to nubs, and any pencil that originally had an eraser no longer had one. She tossed and turned during the night, and she awoke earlier than she had wanted to.
She brushed her teeth, combed her mane, and skulked downstairs. She reached into the fridge for the milk, closed the door, and opened her eyes wide. Every drawing had been pressed back into a reasonably flat shape by a firm hoof and placed on the fridge. The entirety of the door was covered by all of them, even the one she had been using as scratch paper. The only thing on the fridge that was not one of her drawings was a note.
Sweetie,
Never think of something you have made as unworthy of notice. If you have made something, then you should take pride in it. These are beautiful, and I can think of many places they should be rather than the dump.
Sweetie Belle smiled at her drawings.