Ponies All the Way Down

Sweetie Belle eased the kettle off the stove with her magic. She still struggled with heavy things. Though she had only partly filled it, the copper kettle was a strain. It gleamed in the curtain-filtered sunlight, reflecting her own face back at her.

She’ll be here soon. She’s always punctual. Professional, punctual, perfect –

A loud knock rang through the kitchen. Startled, she nearly dropped the kettle.

“Hellooooo?” trilled a muffled voice. “Sweetie Belle, I got your message. Are you there, darling?”

“Coming!” She gave up, dragged the cooling rack over with her hooves and dumped the kettle onto it with a hollow slosh. Jumping down from her stool, she scampered to the door. Upon throwing it open, a perfumed hug immediately consumed her.

“Darling!”

“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle pawed at her sister. “Can’t breathe!”

“Whoops.” Rarity set her down. “Let me look at you. Have you grown? I swear you’ve grown since I saw you last.”

“You’ve only been gone three weeks!”

“Yes, but it feels so much longer.” She outstretched a hoof, trembling theatrically. “Canterlot life moves so fast, one would think a whole year has gone by at the end of each week.”

“Would … would you like some tea to recover? You could tell me all about it?”

“That sounds like a perfectly excellent idea.”

“I bought some ginseng specially. I-I know it’s your favourite.”

“You did?”

“Uh-huh!” Sweetie Belle pointed to the box on the counter.

For a moment Rarity’s eyebrows rose, creating fine wrinkles in her forehead. As if realizing this, she smoothed her expression into a beatific smile. “How thoughtful of you, darling. Um, how? The tea shop is … rather expensive”

“Mrs. Cake has been letting me do odd jobs around Sugar Cube Corner and Applejack paid me and Scootaloo to help Apple Bloom paint the new barn.”

“New barn?”

“Oh, yeah, you wouldn’t know. Last Thursday a wyvern accidentally knocked the old one down.”

“A wyvern?”

“Don’t worry, Spike called Ember and she chased it off but the barn got kind of smushed while they were, ah, talking.”

“Again? One would think by this stage the Apples would cut their losses and build an underground bunker.” One eyebrow quirked as if it wanted to rise but didn’t have the courage. “Then again, knowing their luck, Diamond Dogs would tunnel in and collapse the place.”

“Um, it’s really cold outside. You should come in so I can close the door.”

“Oh! Yes, how silly of me. Do forgive me, darling, the snow has made my boots all muddy. I’ll just leave these on the mat, shall I?”

Sweetie Belle looked down at Rarity’s hooves. Though the boots were fashionable their beauty was marred by a fine layer of brown ooze. A silent alarm wailed.

– whatamesswhatamesswhatamesswhatamess –

“Could … could you use magic to wipe them clean first?”

“Yes of course, darling.”

Clearly thinking nothing of the request, Rarity levitated a towel off the hook and made quick work of the muck. The hamper in the corner of the kitchen opened to accept the offering. Sweetie Belle concentrated and swung the front door shut with a soft green glow of her own.

“Very nicely done, Sweetie Belle! Have you been practicing?”

“Every day. Cutie Mark Crusaders could be called on to do pretty much anything, so I’ve been working on all my skills.”

“Such dedication.” Rarity delicately inched onto one of the kitchen chairs. “Would you like some help prepa-”

“No thanks, I can handle it.” Sweetie Belled hopped up onto her stool again to finish the task.

Behind her, Rarity cleared her throat. “I must say, darling, your kitchen skills have certainly improved. You’ve barely made any mess at all and the ginseng smells simply divine.”

The kettle barely hitched.

Barely.

“Like I said, I’ve been practicing. Twilight says the only way to get better at magic is to practice it every single day. Mrs. Cake won’t let me pour hot drinks or anything but she lets me sweep up and Pinkie Pie lets me ice cupcakes and things, so that’s almost as good.”

“Twilight is quite right of course. Goodness knows I wouldn’t have nearly the fine control I do now if I hadn’t practiced as a filly. You should have seen my early stitch work; truly ghastly. Making mistakes is what motivates us to improve, though.” Her voice tilted upwards, as if she was imparting some nugget of wisdom to a student.

Sweetie Belle poured the hot water into the teapot. “How was Canterlot?”

“Beautiful. Elegant. Stylish. Magnifique.” Rarity did not manage to keep the wistful sigh from her voice. “I sometimes wonder whether I made the right decision, leaving Sassy Saddles in charge there instead of remaining myself fulltime. The city is so wonderfully chic. Ponyville will always be home but it seems so … well, dull in comparison.”

The kettle hitched again. This time hot water slopped out onto Sweetie Belle’s forehoof. She bit down on a squeal.

“Darling!” Instantly, Rarity was beside her. Sweetie Belle felt the kettle plucked from her aura by a much stronger one and her hoof grasped between Rarity’s own. “You’ve scalded yourself!”

“I-It’s nothing-”

“It most certainly is not! Come over here, quickly. We must run it under cold water.” Setting the kettle back on the cooling rack, Rarity picked up Sweetie Belle bodily with her magic and whisked her to the sink. A glittering sliver peeled away, twisting the faucet. “Put your hoof here. Don’t fight me please.”

Sweetie Belle stopped struggling. The cold water was indeed a salve to the pain.

“A little more practice, eh?” Rarity said with an obvious attempt at good humour.

“I … I guess so.”

Rarity shot her an odd look but didn’t comment. The next few minutes were taken up with treating the scald with a healing balm extracted from her travel bag – “A gift from an admirer – an alchemist stallion, very nice but a little too intense for me.” – and wrapping the injury in gauze. If she had not become a designer, Rarity might have easily become a nurse, such was the precision of her movements and confidence with which she acted.

“Thank you.” Sweetie Belle held the bandaged hoof to her chest. “Sorry, Rarity.”

“Whatever is there to be sorry about, darling? It was an accident.”

“I wanted to impress you … to make your homecoming special …”

“Oh, but you did! I’m positively touched at your efforts; and right now, some ginseng tea seems like a wonderful idea for both of us. Do you still take four lumps of sugar in your tea?”

“I … I …”

The odd look reappeared. Sweetie Belle didn’t have a name of it, nor the strange tone of voice that came from her sister when she spoke.

“Sweetie Belle, is everything all right?”

“S-sure.”

“You do realise that I abhor liars, yes?”

She nodded slowly.

“And yet you’re lying to me. And since I know you are not habitually a liar, that means that you have another reason for doing so. Therefore, shall we try that question again? Is everything all right?”

Even slower, Sweetie Belle shook her head.

“Am I to pry it out of you? Hm. I see.”

“Like I said, I wanted to make your homecoming special.” Sweetie Belle swallowed hard. “You always talk about how much better Canterlot and Manehattan are than Ponyville.”

“Well, in some ways yes, they are, but Ponyville has its charms too.”

She lowered her eyes. “What if … one day … that’s not enough?”

“Is that what’s bothering you? Darling, you’ve no need to worry! I have no plans to move away from Ponyville – at least not long-term.”

“Maybe not now but …”

Rarity angled her head to meet her eyes. “Sweetie Belle?”

“You’ve … never been away this long before. What if next time it’ a whole month? Or two months? Or six? Or –”

The wailing sharpened into words that slashed through her thoughts. Sweetie Belle squeezed her eyes shut. They didn’t go away. Whatamesswhatamesswhatamesswhatamesswhatamess –

“Sweetie Belle, you’re shaking!”