//------------------------------// // Stitch by Stitch // Story: Needle and Thread // by Storm butt //------------------------------// Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It belongs to The Hub, Hasbro, Studio B, and Lauren Faust. I do not own any of these characters in any way or how, nor do I claim ownership to the pony franchise. These characters are simply my toys. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Gimme a Smile!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Needle and Thread Oneshot Smarty Pants felt the tears sting her lavender and blue eyes as she held back her sobs, running straight to her room and slamming the door behind her. It was only when she herself was leaning her entire body weight against the door, rump on the wooden floor, did she let the tears streak down her gray coated cheeks. She lifted her upper leg and began to wipe at her oddly colored eyes angrily. "I-I-I'm never going b-back..." She whimpered. The gray earth pony bit her lip as her own hoof glided down her body onto her side. She visibly winced as she applied the tiniest amount of pressure to the now large black spot from where the rocks hit her. She sniffled once more. "Never." She stated to the empty room she called her own. Smarty Pants let the straps of her saddle bag fall off of her shoulders, tears still clouding her vision. She shifted her rump slightly as the blue polka dotted pants she wore didn't move with her, them being several sizes too large for her. She wiped her eyes once more and tugged up the waist of the pants, her rough tail shifting inside of them. When the sound of a knock hit her ears, Smarty Pants felt herself jump and squeak out a whimper. She glanced behind her with a turn of her head. "Smarty, dear?" The voice of her mother came through the wooden door to her room. "Are you all right honey? You stormed right past me and your father on your way in." "Go away!" Smarty felt her voice crack as she yelled "I don't want to go back there ever again, not ever!" She shouted. "Oh sweetie, I know you're upset." Her mother spoke in the tone of voice that the earth pony had heard hundreds of times before, the kind that made it seem like everything was going to be fine. The kind of voice that made it seem like you didn't have to cry anymore. The kind of voice that made it seem like you weren't just bullied for seven hours straight. Smarty Pants stopped letting herself cave into the gentle sweetness that the voice entailed. "But everything's fine, I promise!" "No it isn't!" Smarty Pants found herself yelling, cupping her hooves over her abnormally large ears "All they do is call me a big eared, scruffy, filthy, stupid freak! I'm sick on it!" She bit her lip, her chest heaving with sobs she wouldn't dare let escape. She became grateful that her body was planted against the doorway, for she didn't want her mother to comfort her right now, she simply wanted to be alone. "I don't even have any friends, and I'm the only one there without my cutie mark, I hate this town!" Her mother was silent for a long time. "Smarty... I'm going to let you calm down for a while, alright?" Her mother asked. Smarty Pants didn't respond, and kept her lip bitten so not to let a sound of weakness escape. "We can talk later once you let yourself cool down." The sound of trotting hooves filled Smarty Pant's large ears as she lifted her head. She sniffled loudly and got to all fours, dragging her saddle bag across the room with a saggy hoof over to her bed with the same polka dotted pattern of her pants. She tossed up her saddle bag and then hopped up herself, burrowing her own face into the safety of the pillow, curling up in a small ball so she could let herself cry without letting out a sound. As usual however, the earth pony couldn't muster up a sob, for she knew it wouldn't help anything. She was able to cry easily, but only when she wasn't someplace where nopony could hear her, like her room or in the middle of the woods. It was only when in earshot of everypony else did she feel her emotions bubble up. Smarty Pants lifted her tear streaked face out of the pillow, her messy and rough mane was over her eyes. She ran one of her hooves down her chest, feeling each and every bruise from where her classmates had chased her with pebbles and stones lay. Her eyes stung, but she knew the tears would not spill, she had cried herself out already on the way home as she ran. The gray earth pony sat up slowly reached down a hoof and grasped her saddle bag, pulling it up to her side and opening it with a single hoof, fiddling with it for a good while before pulling out but two items. She held in her hoof a small notebook and quill. She flopped onto her back, wiping her eyes once more as she reached out her hoof to the bottle of ink that way always open on the small table next to her bed where she kept her books and schoolwork. As she dipped the quill's end into the ink and brought it back to the notebook, she began to scribble out random doodles. Drawing things was one of the many ways the earth pony spent her time, it was also one of the ways she could calm down after crying, or cheer herself up if in a rotten mood. She drew out random things, anything that popped into her mind really. Spaceships, glasses, houses, sometimes even ponies always ended up on her notebook. As she finished her quick sketch of a bird, she flipped to a new page, reaching over to re-new the quill before bringing it back to the paper above her as she began to mindlessly draw. Smarty Pants didn't exactly think when she drew, it was more of random things coming to mind as she was drawing. She blinked a few times as the drawing she was halfway through doodling began to look... like a doll to her. The earth pony blinked several times, and sketched out the rough body of the doll. It was in the shape of a pony, a unicorn by the looks of it. Smarty Pants stuck out her tongue in concentration as her quill moved furiously as she drew out the mane with a single stripe in it. She quickly sketched a random design of a cutie mark onto the flank of the pony. It was a large star surrounded by several smaller ones. She stared at the sketch of the doll for a while, mostly the cutie mark. It reminded her of the ending of a day, just as twilight began and the sparkly stars entered the sky. She drew her quill to above the sketch, scribbling out the letters that spelled out the words "Twilight Sparkle." That was a pretty name... much better than "Smarty Pants" in the earth pony's opinion. She reached down her hoof to turn the notebook to the next page, but was only greeted with a number of random doodles. A groan escaped her throat as she realized that she had run out of pages. She let the notebook slip from her hooves and land next to her as she turned to her side on the pillow, tossing the purple quill aside and grumbling quietly. Now what was she supposed to do? Her oddly colored eyes shifted to the drawing of the doll on the paper in front of her. She suddenly began wishing the doll itself was real, and that she could hold it in her hooves and talk to it, pretend she had a real friend for once. Even if it was simply pretend... Smarty Pants chuckled. The real world was mean, meaner than she liked to think at times. There was so many ponies who she didn't like at all, and who didn't like her back. She sometimes wished more than anything she could escape somewhere. Somewhere far away, perhaps another world itself. The gray pony didn't know why nor how the idea sprung in her head, but as those thoughts passed through her mind, something either clicked into place or set off on track. She still wasn't sure what possessed her, but as she glanced at the drawing of the doll in front of her, a simple thought passed her mind. It contained no more than seven words. "What if I built my own world?" She mumbled aloud to the empty room. The earth pony sat up, grasping the drawing in her hoof as she got off her bed, trotting quickly over to her closet and opening it, fumbling around for several moments before pulling out a small box. She popped open the lid and found several utensils, scissors, needles, thread. She remember when her mother attempted to teach her how to sew and bought her her own kit years ago. Smarty Pants herself had never become interested with sewing up blankets or anything of the sort, so she let the kit run loose into her closet to hide from view, hoping it would never surface again. Smarty Pants still wasn't sure what was coming over her as she fumbled around through blanket after blanket before finding a color that she liked. She yanked out a soft lavender blanker she had as a foal. It was old, yet still held the same tender love a foal needed in the stitches. Tender love... Smarty Pants yanked the scissors out of the box and stabbed them at the blanket as hard as she could. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Finished!" Smarty Pants cried out in joy as she lifted the lavender doll into the air. She had no idea what possessed her, but as she sat in the darkness of her room covered in ripped blankets and pillow stuffing admiring her work, she realized that she herself could hardly care as she brought the doll into her arms and cuddled her. It didn't occur to her that it was likely only a few hours before she had to wake up for school. The gray pony set the doll in from of her. It was rough around the edges, and the stuffing was lumpy in places, but she had made it herself, and was beyond happy with it. As she stared into the button eyes a smile on her face only grew as more time passed. She had done a good job if she did say so herself, it looked almost like something one would buy in a store that was hoof made... or at least close. The mane of the doll matched her own, rough and curly, even though she imagined it to be straight while making it. The pink stripe was still there, and the unicorn's horn wasn't stuffed and not saggy in the slightest. "Hello Twilight," Smarty Pants said "Welcome to your new world!" Smarty Pants felt her grin shrink as she stared at the pony for quite a while. She seemed... lonely. Sitting there alone made the doll seem alone, shut out from the world. Smarty Pants thought of herself, how she didn't take the chance at a young age to make friends and now had none. She didn't like the idea of even a doll being alone. A smile returned to her face. The entire world couldn't just contain one pony after all, now could it? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Smarty Pants for once didn't return home every other day almost in tears, nor did she complain about her days. In fact, not even her parents heard much from her, for she spent almost every waking moment outside of school in her room for the next week. She only surfaced for dinner and the occasional bathroom break, neither of which she brought up what she was doing in her room for so long rather than play outside like a normal filly. It wasn't until a squeal of joy was heard around the house did either of her parents know why their foal was locked up. The sound of galloping hooves was heard. "Mom, Dad!" Smarty Pants squealed, running out of her room to meet her parents, both of them sharing the same coat color as her, albeit straighter hair. "Look, look!" She cried out, sliding into the living room where both of her parents sat on the floor, making causal small talk with each other about their work day. It took both of the pony's a moment to notice their daughter wasn't wearing her normal pants, they were simply too distracted by the armfuls of dolls she was carrying around with her. However their attention was altered to their daughters flank. "I got my cutie mark!" She squealed out. She flashed her flank to her parents, showing the thread and needle on her flank. "Smarty Pants, you really did get a cutie mark!" Her mother cried, tears brimming in her eyes with joy. "Where on earth did that come from... and what are all these dolls?" Her father asked, cocking up a brow. "Oh, I just got bored after school and decided to start doing something, so I just made a doll, and after I made one I just couldn't stop!" The filly cried out. She lifted up the lavender one. "This one is Twilight Sparkle, she didn't have any friends when I made her, so I decided to make a bunch!" She said, pointing to the several ponies surrounding her body. Her hoof snapped to an orange one with a cowpony hat and freckles "That's Applejack, she works on a farm!" Her hoof than snapped to a yellow one "That one is Fluttershy, she works well with animals." Than to a cyan colored one with a rainbow mane and tail. "That's Rainbow Dash, she has a big ego and wants to be famous one day!" She than pointed to a marshmallow colored one "That's Rarity, high up in the fashion business." And finally to the final one "This one is Pinkie Pie, she loves parties, her friends, and anything with sugar!" "You made all of these?" Smarty Pant's father asked, reaching out a hoof and carefully lifting up Fluttershy, the butterflies on her flank the same color as her mane, her wings sticking out as if she were flying. "Yeah, they all live in a kingdom run by a princess who lifts the sun every day, she has a sister who raises the moon every night. I haven't made them yet, but I already named them Celestia and Luna!" "Who's that?" Her mother asked. Smarty Pants was silent for a few moments as her gaze drifted down to the doll she was cuddling at her side. She lifted up the red body of the stallion with a horse collar around his neck. "This is Big Macintosh, Applejack's big brother, he's my favorite!" She said, smiling happily "As soon as I made him, I got my cutie mark, I only made him today after finally finding a red blanket in my closet! He's the first stallion I made, and I love him more than anything!" She cried, cuddling the pony back to her chest. "Big Mac is really shy, but he's also strong and can protect his family when the time is right!" She said. "I can't believe my little foal has her cutie mark already!" Her mother cried, reaching out both hooves and hugging her daughter tightly. "Moooom!" Smarty Pants complained. The filly managed to break her way out of her mother's arms and bounce back, picking up all of her dolls in her arms. "Sorry Mom, Dad, I have so many more ponies I wanna make!" She cried out, happily galloping back to her room. Smarty Pants still had an entire world to expand on and adventures to tell with her new friends, she had a lot of work in front of her!