Pinkie Pie and the Cursed Belly Jewel

by mayorlight

The Green Jewel

The Specter Halloween store at the Canterlot mall was one of the few stores of its kind that was open year-round. For many local Halloween enthusiasts, it was their one-stop shop for costumes, accessories, decorations, and props. Scary or silly, kitschy or cute, Specter had something for everybody.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie strolled in through the front entrance, eliciting a wicked cackle from a life-size figure of the store's eponymous mascot. They went directly to the costumes section, which boasted the usual assortment of classic horror icons, cartoon characters, and superheroes. Rarity proceeded to peruse the costumes of popular cartoon princesses. As an experienced seamstress, her eyes quickly picked up the minute imperfections of the mass-produced gowns.

"Hmm, some rather colorful selections this year," Rarity said placidly. "Alas, same quality as usual."

Pinkie cocked her head. "Isn't that why you always make your own costumes?"

"That I do, darling. Although it never hurts to see what else is in circulation."

"I still like Lemon Zest's idea of us all wearing our bedlahs for Halloween."

Rarity tittered. "I am deeply flattered by the notion, but do remember: our bedlahs are for performances only."

Rarity took great pride in her work as a fashion designer and seamstress. Her greatest achievements to date were the six ornate bedlahs (dance costumes) she had made for herself, Pinkie, and the rest of their friends in their belly dance class. The thought of any of those masterpieces suffering a single stain or rip was too dreadful to bear!

"I know, I know," Pinkie sighed. "But it would be so much fun!"

A faint wisp of magical energy silently sailed into the store as Rarity and Pinkie browsed the shelves. Neither the girls nor any of the staff or other customers noticed the wisp as it floated toward the middle of the store and came to rest in one of the aisles.

Rarity was now inspecting a shelf full of gaudy novelty costumes.

"See anything that tickles your fancy?"

Pinkie tossed aside a mermaid costume (complete with a seashell top).

"Nah, nothing's really grabbing me. I'm gonna go check out the accessories."

Rarity nodded to Pinkie as the latter sauntered off. Continuing down the aisle, Rarity came upon a small section of flimsy "belly dancer," "genie," and "harem girl" costumes. Rarity smiled to herself. Seeing these outfits reminded her of the time several months ago when she and Pinkie ran into Twilight Sparkle at a party supply store. That was when Twilight revealed to them her newfound hobby of belly dancing. Shortly after, Rarity would make her first bedlah - the one Twilight wore for her debut performance and still uses to this day. While Rarity never said it out loud, she did take a little pride in sparing Twilight the horrid fate of settling for one of those awful pre-fabricated costumes!

Two aisles over, Pinkie was trying on various wigs and prosthetic noses. After experimenting with a mere two dozen combinations (in under two minutes), she was already bored. There were plenty of silly, spooky knick-knacks, but nothing that she had not already seen before. After discarding a Cleopatra wig and clown nose, she began sifting through a bin filled with various pieces of costume jewelry. Then something in the pile caught her eye: a belly dancer jewel kit, containing a single green glass stone and a tiny vial of adhesive.

Pinkie marveled at the imitation jewel. Ever since she and Rarity took up belly dancing, they had both adopted the somewhat controversial practice of wearing jewels in their navels during performances. This would end up becoming a minor point of contention between them and Twilight. According to Twilight (and countless online articles Pinkie and Rarity looked up themselves), the jewel in the navel originated half a century ago in Applewood. It was a quick, easy way for movie and television studios to circumvent the censorship rules of the time - which expressly prohibited exposing one's navel. Thus, whenever a belly dancer, harem girl, or genie appeared on screen, their navels were invariably either concealed by high waistbands or obscured by a jewel.

After a few decades, this rule would eventually be relaxed. By then, however, the jewel in the navel had become such a familiar accessory that many professional belly dancers worldwide adopted it. Twilight regarded "belly jewels" as a relic of a bygone era and adamantly refused to wear one. Rarity and Pinkie, however, saw no harm in doing so. Rarity always took every opportunity to wear jewels of any kind. Pinkie reasoned that if her belly was the focal point of her dance, and her belly button the focal point of her belly, she would want to draw as much attention to it as possible!

Beyond Twilight expressing her disapproval of belly jewels, she never attempted to dissuade Rarity or Pinkie from wearing them. Despite this, Twilight did not seem to take issue with Lemon Zest wearing her belly button piercing during performances. As such, Pinkie did not think much of it when, not too long ago, Sugarcoat asked to try on a belly jewel. Neither of them ever expected Twilight to stare daggers at them the way she did!

While most of the belly jewels in Pinkie's collection were blue to match her bedlah, she made it a point to collect many different colors (a little variety never hurts). The jewel in the kit before her was a bright shade of green - different from any of the greens she had collected. Most notably, its minute facets gave off a beautiful shimmering sparkle - the likes of which she had never seen before. Pinkie made up her mind then and there - she snatched up the kit and headed straight to the checkout counter.

After completing her purchase, Pinkie went over to a full-body mirror at the front of the store. There, she tore open the kit and rolled up her shirt. After dabbing a tiny bit of adhesive on her new belly jewel, she blew on it once for good luck and pressed it into her navel.

She squealed with delight as she gave her hips a little shimmy. The jewel was so sparkly! But why stop there? she thought to herself. She could take things a step further by adding some glitter. Or maybe henna! She began imagining how her tummy might look with different designs painted on it: a spiral, a starburst, maybe even a mystic eye with her belly button as the pupil. So many fun possibilities!

Just then Pinkie felt a sudden twitch, a tiny involuntary shiver in her stomach. What was that just now? she wondered. Maybe she was just so excited about the new jewel that she...There it was again - a tingling feeling around her navel and gradually spread to her ribs and hips. Soon, she felt the tingling throughout her entire body. Suddenly the jewel began to glow like a green nightlight. One hip twitched. Then the other. Before she knew it, she was shimmying in place.

Pinkie gasped. What was happening to her? Before she could ponder the question, her arms began to undulate out to her sides in a snake arms motion. Her hips still shimmying, she took a step. Then another. She cried out in a mixture of fear and confusion as she shimmy-walked toward the store entrance. The mascot's cackle seemed to mock her newfound predicament.

Rarity had been trying on a wide-brimmed boater hat when she heard Pinkie's cry. She poked her head out of the aisle just in time to see her friend dancing out the door. Several other shoppers and store employees had also taken notice.

"Is she okay?" asked a puzzled clerk.

A shopper shrugged. "Probably just goofing off."

"Pinkie, wait up!"

Rarity rushed to the entrance. In her haste, she forgot that she was still wearing the hat. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the loss prevention alarm blared. She hastily doubled back to leave the hat on the mascot's hooded head. After an equally hasty apology to the cashier, she darted out the door as fast as she could in her high-heeled shoes.

Author's Note:

It has been a while, hasn't it? I've had this silly little scenario in my head for a good while. After running into walls with other story ideas, I finally put this one down on figurative paper.

As many of my readers may already tell, this story is sillier in tone than the previous installments in my Equestria Girls belly dance series - befitting for any tale featuring Pinkie Pie.

My inspiration for Pinkie's predicament came from the "green shoes" scene from the Porky Pig cartoon The Wearing of the Grin, as well as the Dungeons & Dragons spell Otto's irresistible dance.

Pinkie's memory of Sugarcoat trying on a belly jewel is a nod to this drawing I did a little over a year ago: https://www.deviantart.com/mayorlight/art/Turncoat-886032877

Comments

[Macsek69]

Can I ask a questin?What kind of drawing program did you made these drawings in?It would be a really helpful for me,because I want to draw the cover art of my fanfic and I don't know which program I should use.If you answering this,thank you for your answer.

[mayorlight]

11422851
The app I use for my digital drawings is ProCreate, which, as I understand is exclusive to the iPad Pro.

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

I'm loving this so far. Poor Pinkie. XD