//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Sweet Gems and Silky Sugar // Story: Personality Pandemonium // by xStellar_Bubbles //------------------------------// As Princess Twilight saw Rainbow Dash fly off into the distance, the rest of her friends approached her. "Y'all heard Rainbow right there!" Fluttershy said to everypony. "If we reveal ourselves too much, them ponies are going to become jumping June bugs as soon as we all know it!" "Um, I'm pretty sure that June bags do not jump, but I could be wrong," Applejack timidly said. Fluttershy just gave her an annoyed glare and a raised eyebrow while Applejack made a sheepish grin and cowered, hoping that the now (kind of) intimidating Fluttershy won't pummel her. A moment later, Rarity and Pinkie Pie let out huge and exasperated gasps. "Let me guess, they're going into their crazy-fits?" Princess Twilight said. "Dressmaking,fabricsewing,stitching,gottago!" In a whiff, Rarity ran off to the Carousel Boutique. "Oh my Celestia!" Pinkie said. "I have to go to Sugarcube Corner as well!" she looked in the direction of the sun. "I need to finish arranging the sprinkles on my cupcakes, and I have so little time left!" While covering her forehead with one of her hooves, Pinkie Pie fell to the ground and let out a cry. "Aah! Wait am I going to dooooo??!" Fluttershy stared at Pinkie Pie and rolled her eyes. "Pinkie... you got the whole afternoon to work on those cupcakes, and shouldn't you be going to work right away instead of bein' a drama queen?" Pinkie Pie blinked and got up. "Oh, right! Well, I'll be on my way, then! Heh heh..." The pink mare then, like her freak-out never happened, trotted along to Sugarcube Corner. For a few minutes, there was nothing but complete silence... until Applejack spoke up. "... So, I believe we should be heading back as well... right?" "Uh... yeah, yeah. We could do that," Princess Twilight said. "But like Dash said, we need to be stealthy about this personality switch thing that happened." "Well, that seems mighty fine with me," Fluttershy said. "I'll be on my way, then," "Uh... me too," added Applejack. "Alright, I'll go chill with Rainbow and see how she's doing with how this can be cured. See ya, gals!" ------------------------------ At the very moment when she came to the Carousel Boutique, Rarity went upstairs, bounced to her workroom, and went right to finishing her line of dresses. She levitated the plug of the sewing machine with her magic and inserted the plug into the nearest outlet, along with making Rarity's red glasses rest on her muzzle. Rarity began to finish stitching together the two pieces that were left on the sewing machine before her temporary absence. Then, after she was done switching, she levitated the fabric to the nearest pony mannequin and equipped it with the pink fabric. Rarity glared at it and pondered. Hmm, it needs more pizazz, but what kind of pizazz? she thought. Rarity examined her whole workroom to see what kind of materials can "pizazz" her new dress. Then, she eyed-down a jar of purple glitter that was sitting on the middle shelf of the shelf of materials. "Aha! id-ea!" Rarity said to nopony in particular. With her magic, she brought the jar of sparkling glitter, opened the jar, and gently spread the material on the dress. But then, since she had a whole jar of glitter, she thought, Why not put all of the glitter on it? Sparkly is spectacular! So, Rarity just dumped the whole jar onto the mannequin, leaving a shower of a purple (but really shimmering) mess on the floor. Opalescence just happened to walk by at the glittery catastrophe and pointed one of her paws into her mouth, disgusted at what could be another disaster for Rarity's fashion carrer. Suddenly, the unicorn had another burst of inspiration. "Ooh, ooh! I could have candy on my dresses for its 'sweet' style!" Rarity giggled at her own pun. "Ah, I crack myself up sometimes. Oh wait actually... should I have candy? Or shouldn't I? Should? Shouldn't? Should? Shouldn't?" She tried to make up her mind for a few minutes. Then, Rarity finally led to her desicision and gasped. "Streamers, that's it! I should have streamers!" She, once again, examined her entire workroom and searched for some streamers that she could put on the dress... But, there's one problem: no streamers were in sight. Rarity carefully looked at her shelf of materials. There were spools of thread all assorted in different colors, sheets of the smoothest silk, and even a whole bucket of the many gems she collected with Spike. But, not a single roll of streamers were to be found. Huh, I could have sworn I had some somewhere, Rarity thought to herself. But, she contemplated some more and had a moment of realization. Of course! The super secrety-storage! Rarity then walked out of her workroom, down the stairs, and to the side of the steps. Beside the staircase was a light-purple hatch of the Carousel Boutique that blends into the floor of the shop in order to keep it secured and secret. And even if ponies do discover this hatch, nopony was allowed to go into it except Rarity, not even her family. So, the white unicorn opened the lock that was keeping the cellar door secure. It was enchanted and bound to Rarity (thanks to Twilight with a spell) so that only her magic can crack this lock open. After the vault has been opened, she trotted down the stairs and immediately closed it as she walked down the steps. Then, a few minutes later, Rarity reached the floor of the Carousel Boutique basement. This floor held Rarity's worst creations such as the first gala dresses she made for her friends and some works of "art" that she probably made while having just way too much cider. But, at the same time, the basement held more assortments of materials Rarity can use for dressmaking on the many shelves that were in the basement. She walked and searched in every corner for the streamers. She looked in the shelves and in every crack and corner there is. Eventually, Rarity found a roll of blue streamers in the very back row of a shelf. "Ah, here it is!" she said to herself as she levitated the roll using her magic. "Time to make the dresses look super duper awesome!" Rarity proceeded to attach the streamers to the dresses by going up the flight of stairs, opening up the hatch, and ascending another staircase to go to her workroom. But, before she could go up the steps to the second floor to the Carousel Boutique, it was interrupted by Sweetie Belle, rushing down the stairs. "Bye, sis! I'm going crusading with my friends again!" Sweetie said as she ran across the room to the door. "Okie dokie, Sweetie! I hope you have tons of fun!" Rarity replied. "Of course I will have fu- Wait a minute..." Sweetie Belle said as her running slowed down to a walk, then a walk slowed down to a stop. Shoot, Rarity thought as she bit her lip. The filly looked at her body and picked up on what was wrong. "My cape! How could I forget that?" she said as she ran upstairs to her bedroom. Rarity made a sigh of relief and went right back to her task: making those dresses. ------------------------------ After she left from the meeting, Pinkie Pie was walkung to Sugarcube Corner. And once she arrived, Pinkie trotted into the kitchen. There was a lump of tinfoil that was resting on the table. So, Pinkie Pie quickly (but gently) removed the tinfoil and revealed the one unfinished cupcake she was working on. The cupcake only had the yellow balloon of Pinkie's cutie mark done, and one of the two blue balloons are only a quarter away from being complete. But, just as she was going to open the cabinets and grab the blue jar of sprinkles Pinkie Pie realized something different, something off with her cupcake: One tiny yellow sprinkle was too far at the edge. She let out a shriek, which sent Cup Cake and Carrot Cake running to the kitchen in a zip. "Is something wrong, deary?" Mrs. Cake asked, exasperated from the running and paranoia. "Did something break? Did you get hurt? Did something happen to our children??" Mr. Cake said, but with even more paranoia than his wife. He grabbed Pinkie's chest and drew her closer to him, making Carrot Cake stare at Pinkie Pie right in the eyes. WHAT HAPPENED?!" Just sitting right outside the kitchen door, Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake were spectating their parents and their parent's apprentice's freak-out by merely giggling. The laughing of the twins brought everypony's attention to the two foals and Carrot Cake to let go of Pinkie Pie's chest. "Okay, the twins are safe. Good. But still," Mr. Cake said. He tried to finish his sentence, but he was interrupted by a cough. "Excuse me, ladies," Carrot Cake added as he began to cough some more. Then, when Carrot's coughing fit was done, he finally cleared his throat. "Alright, there we go. Now," Mr. Cake said as he latched onto Pinkie Pie once again. "-WHAT IN THE HAY HAPPENED THAT MADE YOU SCREAM?!!?" he finally said as Pinkie swooned. "Oh, Mr. Cake, it was awful, just awful!" Pinkie Pie said as the Cakes leaned in closer to hear what she has to say. Even the twins were actually tipping. With one hoof covering her face, Pinkie looked to the right and flashed another hoof, pointing at where the cupcake is. Carrot Cake let go of her as he and Cup Cake leaned in closely, examining and trying to understand what was wrong with the pastry. After the Cakes' many minutes of looking, they couldn't really see what was wrong. "Um, Pinkie Pie?" Mrs. Cake said with a confused look. " I'm afraid we don't see anything wrong with your cupcake here. In fact, I actually like it, I love the details!" "Yes, so do I!" Mr. Cake added with a nod. "Can you give us a clue here on what exactly is 'wrong' with it?" "Don't you see?!" Pinkie Pie shouted as she pointed her hoof again at the exact part where the yellow sprinkle was. "Look! It's that sprinkle! That's what's wrong with this cupcake!" The Cakes exchanged glances and gave confused looks at Pinkie Pie. Meanwhile, the twins were still sitting outside the kitchen. But, instead of giggling, Pumpkin and Pound Cake just rolled their eyes and walked off, becoming uninterested at Pinkie's shenanigans. "Pinkie Pie, that's just a small flaw. You shouldn't really be worried about that, sweetheart," Mrs. Cake said as Pinkie Pie crossed her arms. "Hmph, fine! Be that way!" Pinkie said. Mr. Cake was starting to get irritated by the mare's actions. However, Cup Cake was just becoming more concerned. "Pinkie, are you alright, dear? You don't seem like yourself today. It's as if you're a different pony now," she said. "Let's just leave her alone, shnookums," Mr. Cake said to his wife. "I think if we can't help Pinkie Pie, maybe she can help herself." "Are you sure about that? It looks like Pinkie really needs our help," Mrs. Cake whispered. "Yes, I'm sure," "Oh, alright," "Yeah, besides, I think we should really check on Pound and Pumpkin now anyways. I'm just hoping they haven't broken anything," Carrot Cake said as he and Cup Cake left the kitchen.