The Wish of a Filly

by BronyDad


An Unintended Harm

Chapter 2

An Unintended Harm

Several days later, Sweetie Belle was in the Sugarcube Corner with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom eating cupcakes.

Although she was curious how Rarity's order had turned out, she knew not to disturb her sister. Once everything was finished and the order was behind her, Rarity would come to her. She always did.

"What do you guys wanna do today?" Scootaloo asked as she licked the last of the icing off of her hooves.

Apple Bloom shrugged. "I dunno. It's too hot to do much, unless you wanna earn cutie marks for frying up food on the sidewalk."

Sweetie Belle made a face. "Ewww."

"Wanna go swimming?" Scootaloo suggested.

"That sounds way better than eating food off the sidewalk," Sweetie Belle agreed.

As they opened the door to leave the shop, they quickly stepped aside to make room for Golden Harvest and Junebug.

"Oh, hello, Sweetie Belle," Junebug greeted. "Do you know what's going on with the Carousel Boutique?"

"The Carousel Boutique?" Sweetie Belle cocked an eyebrow. "I haven't heard anything. Why?"

"It's been closed for the last two days," Junebug told her. "I was just wondering if you knew when it would be opening again."

The three fillies gazed at one another quizzically as Junebug joined Golden Harvest at the front counter.

Once outside, Apple Bloom asked, "Why would the Carousel Boutique be closed?"

"I don't know," Sweetie Belle answered worriedly.

"You wanna go check it out?" Scootaloo offered.

"No, you two go ahead to the lake," Sweetie Belle said. "I'll check on Rarity and meet you there."

Her two friends nodded their agreement, and trotted off for the lake while Sweetie Belle turned and headed for the Carousel Boutique.

Sweetie Belle frowned as she arrived at her sister's shop and spotted the closed sign on the door. Rarity never closed her shop, even when she had a large order of dresses due out the next day. What could have happened to cause her to close?

Checking the door and finding it unlocked, Sweetie Belle let herself in and was immediately worried by what she found.

She had never seen the shop so messy before. The racks of clothing that were usually against the wall and separated by color and style were instead pulled away from the wall, and several outfits were lying on the floor. One of the mannequins that displayed a featured outfit had been tipped over, and a drawer of one of the desks in the back of the room was hanging open.

Rarity would never allow her shop to fall into such a state. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

Terrified, Sweetie Belle rushed upstairs and burst into her sister's room. "Rarity, are you okay?!" she called as she flung the door open.

With a scream of fright, Rarity tumbled from her chair as the cup of tea that she had been sipping shattered on the desk.

"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity cried as she sat up. "How dare you barge into my room like some sort of uncivilized heathen!" She made a pouty face as she glanced at the mess on her desk. "That was my favorite teacup."

"I'm sorry," Sweetie Belle mumbled with her ears flat against her head and her eyes lowered to the floor. "The shop was such a mess that I was afraid something was wrong."

Immediately, Rarity's anger dissipated. "It's quite all right, Sweetie. I'm sorry I yelled."

As her older sister stood up, Sweetie Belle noticed the stains on her white robe and her disheveled mane and tail. Upon closer inspection, she realized that Rarity wasn't wearing her usual amount of mascara and her false eyelashes were missing.

"Uh, Rarity..." Sweetie Belle began hesitantly as her sister began soaking up the tea with a scrap of cloth. "Um, why are you so...so messy?"

Rarity simply shrugged. "What's the point in wasting countless hours trying to look fabulous when all anypony will see is a failure?"

"Huh?"

She walked to the corner of the room and stood in front of a large mirror leaning against the wall. "Just look at me. I used to be a bright shining star. Why, there were ponies in Canterlot that hung on every word I said. I had celebrities eating out of my hoof, begging me for new, original, stunning outfits that would dazzle their fans. But now...now..."

With a wail, she pushed the mirror and let it fall facedown onto the floor. "Now, my star has burned out! I'm a failure, a disgrace! Soon ponies in the fashion industry are going to warn each other to be careful not to 'pull a Rarity'!" Sobbing uncontrollably, Rarity collapsed and covered her head with her hooves.

Unable to comprehend what her sister was telling her, Sweetie Belle asked, "But what about Photo Finish's photo shoot? Won't that help redeem your reputation?"

"No," Rarity gasped as she lifted a hoof away from her eye and peered up at her. "The photo shoot is what ruined me!"

Sweetie Belle's heart seemed to skip a beat as dread formed a hard knot in her stomach. Something had gone wrong at the photo shoot! In front of all those celebrities!

Before she could think of anything to say, Rarity went on. "I finished the dresses with plenty of time to spare. They were so magnificent, I was sure that everypony that saw them would want them. They should have propelled me into stardom!"

"So, what went wrong?" Sweetie Belle asked anxiously.

Rarity lowered her hoof back over her eye. "Oh, Sweetie Belle, it's so horrible. As the models were walking down the runway, the dresses...they...they..."

"It's okay, Rarity. You can tell me, I-"

"They fell apart!" Rarity suddenly wailed. "Just ripped right at the seams! Every last one of them! It's being referred to as the worst wardrobe malfunction of the century! Everypony who placed an order with me has cancelled! My career is ruined!"

Without warning, the blanket from her bed floated across the room and neatly enveloped her quivering body.

Sweetie Belle could do nothing more than watch the lump under the blanket shudder uncontrollably. Desperately, she tried to think of something that would cheer her sister up. She was willing to do anything to take Rarity's anguish away, but nothing came to mind.

Thoroughly depressed, Sweetie Belle flopped down on the bed as she listened to her sister cry. Suddenly, her eyes landed on a box of what looked like half finished dresses.

Wondering what Rarity had been working on, Sweetie Belle hopped off the bed and approached the box.

The dress draped over the box was a stunningly beautiful blue and white ruffle dress. Sweetie Belle gazed at it in awe as she lifted it off the box, and then gasped in shock as it promptly ripped right down the middle.

She turned fearfully toward Rarity, but then sighed with relief when she saw that her sister's head was still beneath the blanket. As upset as she was now, the last thing Sweetie Belle wanted was for her to know that she had just ruined a perfectly good dress.

As she began to look for a place to hide the dress until Rarity was a bit more under control, Sweetie Belle suddenly realized that she hadn't done anything wrong.

With a frown, she studied the dress closer, and noticed that it had ripped along the seam, just as the dresses at the photo shoot had.

All I did was pick it up, Sweetie Belle thought to herself. So how did it rip?

She pulled another dress out of the box and gently held it up. Seeing no visible flaw in the fabric, she decided to try it on.

Sweetie Belle stuck one hoof through the sleeve, but as she stretched to put her other hoof through she felt the dress rip. With a quick glance over her shoulder, she found that the dress had began to rip at the seams as well.

Although she believed that she already knew the answer, Sweetie Belle asked, "Rarity, what is this box full of dresses for?"

Rarity poked her head out from beneath the cover. "Oh, those were just my first pass for the photo shoot. The ones I ended up using were much better."

"And those were made of the same fabric as these...weren't they?"

"Yes..." Rarity cocked her head to the side. "Why do you ask?"

"I think I just found the cause of your photo shoot fiasco," Sweetie Belle stated, gesturing toward the box.

With a quizzical look, Rarity emerged from beneath the blanket and crossed the room to inspect the box.

"Watch." Sweetie Belle lifted the dress and promptly ripped it down the middle.

Rarity gasped in horror, then tipped the box over and began digging through the pile. After several moments of closely studying the dresses, her wide eyes found Sweetie Belle's. "This fabric is defective." She hurried across the room to her closet and pulled several rolls of fabric out onto the floor. Spreading them out over the floor and running a delicate hoof over them, she declared, "They're all defective! These could never be used for clothing!"

Sweetie Belle scratched her head. "I don't understand. If the fabric is so weak, why didn't it rip while you were making the dresses?"

Her horn glowing with a bluish light, Rarity lifted a dress into the air. "When I lift one, my magic is equally distributed over every inch of it. There isn't any strain, so it doesn't rip. I always create them with magic. I rarely touch them physically. That's why they didn't rip until they reached Canterlot." Flinging the dress across the room, Rarity flopped down on her rump and raised a hoof to her brow. "And that's how they've ruined my life!"

Suddenly, Sweetie Belle's heart sank as she remembered her wish.

"This is all my fault," she whispered.

Rarity quickly stood up and patted her little sister on the head. "Oh, Sweetie, don't be silly. This has nothing to do with you. I bought these rolls of fabric when I visited Trottingham several week ago." She turned away and staring out the window. "It was just bad luck that I chose to use them for the most important work of my entire life."

"No," Sweetie Belle shook her head, determined to make her sister understand. "You're wrong. It is my fault. I made a wish that you would be able to find more time to share with me."

Rarity laughed bitterly. "Well, you certainly got your wish! We'll have plenty of time to spend together now! All you'll have to do is come find me on the street! Because that's where I'm going to be living!" With a cry, she let herself fall backward and landed hard on the floor. With a sniffle and a pouty face, she said, "I thought my bed was behind me..."

Sweetie Belle contemplated dropping the issue, but knew she couldn't. She had already learned through her experience of writing for her school's newspaper under the alias 'Gabby Gums' that it was always best to come clean.

"No, Rarity, listen," Sweetie Belle insisted. "I found a rare flower after our breakfast together. Twilight was there and she told me that it was called a Wishing Flower. She told me that, according to legend, whatever I wished for would come true." Watching her sister as a look of outrage began to spread across her face, she quickly concluded. "So, I made the wish and blew on the petals and they flew into the air and turned into golden dust and floated off toward town and I think it came here."

"You what?!" Rarity demanded, quickly sitting up.

"I'm sorry," Sweetie Belle sniffed as her eyes began to brim with tears. "I was just upset that you cancelled our sleepover, and I made the wish without really thinking about it."

Rarity stared at the filly intensely as one of her eyes began to twitch. "So...all of this is because you made that stupid wish?" She stomped a hoof in anger. "All of the insults and humiliation I've had to endure were because of a stupid wish?!"

"It wasn't stupid!" Sweetie Belle shouted back.

"It wasn't stupid!" Rarity repeated, exasperated. "Then what was it?! Because it most certainly was not clever!"

Glowering at her sister, Sweetie Belle screamed, "Well...well I wouldn't have made it at all if my sister cared about me!"

With a loud gasp, Rarity placed a hoof over her heart as she flopped down on her rump. "If I cared about you," she whispered as her eyes grew wide. "Sweetie Belle...do you really think that I don't care about you?"

Sweetie Belle turned her gaze away from the pained expression on her older sister's face. "I...well...no, Rarity. I don't think that."

Without warning, Rarity smiled warmly as she blinked away her tears. "Good. Because I do care for you, Sweetie. You are the most important pony in my life." As she stood back up, she continued, "I'm sorry that I cancelled our sleepover, and I'm sorry that I don't make as much time for you as I should."

"It's okay," Sweetie Belle mumbled, feeling awful for what she had just said.

Rarity stepped forward and swept her sister up in an enormous hug. "It really isn't, darling. It's wrong of me to make you feel as though you come second to my work. That isn't at all how I feel. As much as I want to achieve my dreams of moving to Canterlot and becoming a top fashion designer, I want you to be happy even more."

"Really?" Sweetie Belle asked uncertainly.

"Of course!" Rarity answered sincerely.

"And...and you're not mad at me?"

"No, Sweetie, I'm not mad," Rarity stated as she released her. "You had every right to make that wish."

Sweetie Belle wiped her eyes. "And you're better now?"

With a sniffle, Rarity crawled into bed and pulled a pillow over her head. "No, my career is in shambles and my life is ruined." As the blanket floated over the bed and neatly enveloped her once again, she added, "I really want to be alone right now."

Not knowing what else to say, Sweetie Belle slowly backed out of the room and shut the bedroom door. As she descended the stairs, she began to cry.

"What have I done?" the little filly whimpered to herself miserably. "What have I done?"