Plush Ch.1

Plush
Written By Closer-To-The-Sun (Joseph Noblit)
Chapter 1: Can't Hardly Wait

It was a bright and sunny morning in Ponyville. Celestia's sun was warming up the town and the citizens that were already outside. One particular citizen was dashing his way across the town excitedly. It was Spike. The dragon was given the day off from Twilight Sparkle and he knew exactly how he wanted to spend it: helping Rarity at her shop. The small dragon was running as fast as his small legs could move to the Carousel Boutique. Upon reaching the porch, he rang the doorbell and waited patiently yet eagerly.

The door opened to reveal a small white unicorn with a pink and light purple mane. It wasn't Rarity, but her little sister, Sweetie Belle. "Oh, hello, Spike. You come by to help with the dress-making again?" Sweetie Belle welcomed the purple dragon warmly.

Spike nodded, "Yup, since Twilight gave me the day off, I figured I could be of some help."

"I'm sure my sister would be happy to have some help, come on in," Sweetie Belle invited Spike in, "She's upstairs and 'in the zone' as she calls it. This is when I usually find something to do, but since you're here, maybe we both can help!" The filly was hopeful. She really did like helping her sister out, but she was only allowed when Rarity said it was okay.

The two youngsters made their way up the stairs towards Rarity's workroom. They could tell she was inside from the noises coming from inside. They heard Rarity's voice as they got closer, "Oh dear, this design simply will not do! I need something flashier. After all, this for Miss Sapphire Shores! Maybe if I put a few gems more on the back…."

"Hiya Rarity!" Sweetie Belle blurted out with a smile.

Rarity began speaking before turning around, "Sweetie Belle, what have I told you about barging in when I was working?" she began to turn around, "I have an important order to finish soon and I can't be pestered with you or anyp-" Her eyes saw Spike standing next to her younger sister, "Oh Spike! I'm sorry, dahling, I didn't know you were here. What do I owe this pleasure?" Rarity was quick to change her voice from annoyed to pleasant.

"Hey, Rarity," Spike waved, "I stopped by to see if you and Sweetie Belle needed any help with anything since I have the day off."

Rarity was a bit taken back, "Oh, Spike dear, you really don't have to work at all if it's your day off, especially for me."

Spike smiled, "It's no big deal, I like helping you out!"

"Like me!" Sweetie Belle chimed in with a smile.

A small smile of relief appeared on Rarity's face, "Actually that is quite noble of both of you. I do have a few dresses that need to have some gems attached to them for my client, and I simply don't have the time right now while I am trying to design her next gown. As much as I would hate to admit it, I do need help."

"You can count on us, Rarity!" Spike said with a noble tone in his voice.

"Yeah!" the white filly agreed.

With a sigh of relief, Rarity led the two youngsters to the next room, "Thank you so much, dears." She led Spike and Sweetie Belle to the room next to her work room, filled with many ponyquins wearing different styles of gowns from fancy to plain and everything in between. Spike looked around as they walked through, and it seemed Sweetie Belle was just as curious about the room, seeing how she was banned from entering certain rooms of the house.

"Alright, dears," Rarity stopped in front of two ponyquins with fancy looking dresses with marks on them, "Here are the two dresses that I need to have gems attached. They have marks on them where the gems would go. If you could finish applying gems to these dresses, it will be extremely helpful. Can you do that?"

"Of course!" the dragon smiled.

"Sure can, Rarity!" Sweetie Belle said to her sister.

"Thank you. I shall reward you for your hard work, but right now I do need to get back to work," Rarity quickly trotted out of the room and back to her workroom.

After she left, Sweetie Belle and Spike began working hard on the task they were given. There was some silence growing between the two, but Spike wasn't one for absolute silence, so he decided to talk with the filly he only got to know every so often.

"So why aren't you off playing with the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders?" Spike was curious. Normally they would be doing something by this time in the morning to get their cutie marks.

"Well, Applebloom is helping her family on the farm, and Scootaloo is grounded after she tried to get a fire-starter cutie mark. I told her it didn't sound like a good idea," Sweetie Belle explained as she attached another gem to the gown.

Spike laughed, "I don't think setting fires will help anypony get a cutie mark."

"That's what I said, but she still didn't listen!" Sweetie Belle giggled herself, "Also Spike, don't be eating any of these gems, or I'll tell Rarity!"

Spike was a bit surprised she said that, "What? You honestly think I would eat any of these gems?"

The filly giggled again, "You are a dragon after all!"

"I didn't even think about it! Though, now that you mentioned it, I didn't eat breakfast…." Spike looked down at his belly and his empty stomach.

"Then after this, we will go get some food, alright?" Sweetie Belle offered.

"Sounds like a plan!" the dragon agreed.

The two youngsters continued with their work and chatted away about different things. They talked about the other Cutie Mark Crusaders, the prissy ponies from school, Twilight's weird reading habits, and many of other things they couldn't remember. They wouldn't admit it, but Spike and Sweetie Belle were becoming good friends.