The cold winter's air hung heavy in the late afternoon. Sweetie Belle and Rarity were just stepping off the bus, heading home. After Rarity had said her goodbyes to her friends, she had made it clear to Sweetie Belle what Rarity expected of her. To that end, Sweetie Belle headed upstairs to start her homework after getting home, with her sister heading into her workroom.

Sitting at her desk, Sweetie Belle took out her phone, plugged it into her computer, and pressed the ‘Download All’ tab on her computer. A few moments went by before the download was completed. After checking to make sure she had the entire confession downloaded to her computer, Sweetie Belle unplugged the phone, breathed out slightly, then started her homework. Once completed three hours later, she headed downstairs and soon found her sister in her workroom. Walking up behind her and placing her phone into her pocket, Sweetie Belle said, “You wanted to talk.”

Rarity looked up from her sewing machine and set her glasses down behind it, replying, “Yes, Sweetie Belle, I do want to have a word with you. Please go to the living room and wait for me there. I shall be there shortly.”

“Fine, whatever, Rarity,” Sweetie Belle snapped back in anger. “I’ll wait. It’s not like I have anything else to do, seeing as how I am grounded.”

“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity exclaimed. “You got yourself grounded because you tried to frame one of my good friends for your horrible actions.”

Sweetie Belle didn’t reply. She left and headed into the kitchen. As she was getting herself a sandwich from the refrigerator, she took out her phone again. Looking back towards Rarity's workroom, she sighed, then called up Apple Bloom.

The phone on the other end rang a couple of time before she got a soft but pleasant, "Hello, this is the Apple residence. Apple Bloom speaking.”

“Apple Bloom, it's Sweetie Belle,” Sweetie Belle began. “I was wondering if--”

“What in tarnation do ya want, Sweetie Belle? Ah'm still mad at you fer lyin' ta me about not havin' your phone earlier today. And about ya changin' the password on us like that. Not to mention threatenin' ta take us ta the principal's office fer this.”

“Yeah, well how does it feel to have your friend threaten you? Because that's how I felt when you tried to go after my sister.” Sweetie Belle smirked to herself, turning towards the hallway that led to her sister's workroom to make sure Rarity wasn’t coming. “I didn’t like how you tried to blackmail me into doing what you wanted, and I know I should've gone to the principal's office right then and there. The only thing that stopped me was our friendship, which is on really thin ice right now. So stop complaining, and listen to me.”

“Fine. What d'ya want?”

“I want to know when you're going to post the pictures that I gave you.”

“Ah’ll post them today. They should be up on MyStable in a few moments. Ya still need ta tell me why ya lied to us.”

“I lied because I wasn’t sure you would agree to my conditions. You also need to send me everything that you have on Rarity.”

“Ah’ll give that to ya at school tomorrow.”

“Alright, I’ll see you then.”

Sweetie Belle hung up her phone, then headed down the hallway back into her sister's workroom. Seeing that Rarity was still there, she took her phone out and placed it under several piles of cloth, saying to Rarity, “How much longer do you want me to wait, Rarity?”

“I’ll be there--”

Rarity stopped in mid-sentence when she heard Sweetie Belle's phone chime out, "One missed call."

Looking at the same pile of cloth that Sweetie Belle had just hid her phone under, Rarity picked up the cloth, retrieved the phone, and continued “Now that we--er, I--have found your phone, we can have our talk. Please head back to the living room. I’ll join you shortly.”

“Fine, whatever!” Sweetie Belle said, rolling her eyes, “just don’t take too long. I want to get this over with.” Before her sister could protest, Sweetie Belle turned around and headed back to the living room.

Looking at her sister's phone, Rarity pressed the Call Back icon on Sweetie Belle's phone. Holding the phone up to her ear, she got a pleasant,

"Hi, Sweetie Belle. It’s Scootaloo.”

“Scootaloo, this is Rarity.”

“Rarity? Uh, why are you calling me with your sister's phone?”

“I saw that you were trying call my sister. I think you should know that she is currently grounded for the next week, maybe even for the entire month. She won’t be able to hang out with you or with Apple Bloom until she has completed her grounding.”

“Ah, really? That stinks. What did she do?” Scootaloo replied.

“I am sorry, Scootaloo, but I would rather keep that between myself and my sister. I need to go now. Is there anything you would like to me to tell Sweetie Belle before I go?”

“No, I don’t think so. I’ll see you and Sweetie Belle at school tomorrow. Goodbye.”

Rarity hung up and headed into the living room, where she found her sister sitting on the couch. Walking over to a nearby window, Rarity pulled the blinds up. She looked out the window to the frozen streets and sidewalk in front of her home.

“Sweetie Belle,” she began, “I don’t know what has happened to you or why you think it is okay to do what you did to Sunset.”

“Does it really matter? You'll never understand what it's like to be bullied.”

“I do understand, Sweet--”

“NO, YOU DON’T!” Sweetie Belle screamed back in rage. “YOU DON’T KNOW HOW I FEEL! HOW COULD YOU?”

Sweetie Belle got up off the couch and headed upstairs to her room, slamming the door behind her. Rarity followed her, entering her sister's room. She found her sister on her bed with her face buried in her pillow. “I hate her. I hate her so much,” Sweetie Belle cried into her pillow. “I hate how she picks on me all the time.”

“You hate who, Sweetie Belle? Please, tell me so I can help you.” Rarity sat down on the edge of her sister's bed. “I don’t want us to fight. I want us to be a family. Please, will you just talk to me?”

“Go away! You’ll never understand how I feel, so just--just go away.”

Rarity fought back her own tears, reaching out to take a hold of her sister and gently pulling the distraught thirteen-year-old into a warm hug. Sweetie Belle couldn’t contain her tears any longer and began to cry into her sister's shoulder while Rarity held her warmly in her arms. After a few moments, Rarity said, “Sweetie Belle, I can’t help you unless you tell me who it is that you hate.”

Pulling away from her sister, Sweetie Belle sniffed, wiping away her tears. She looked away from Rarity. “I hate Diamond Tiara.” Sweetie Belle shuddered a bit, holding herself. “I hate how she thinks that just because she has money, she can treat me like dirt.” Wiping her eyes, with her hands Sweetie Belle continued, “It’s my fault that she's bullying me. I must've done something to cause her to pick on me.”

“Sweetie Belle, listen to me. It is most definitely not your fault that little brat treats you so badly.” Rarity once again took a hold of her sister, laying her down into her own lap while the thirteen-year-old fought hard to contain her tears. “People with power and money will always look down on those that have neither. Diamond doesn’t hate you Sweetie Belle. I...I think she actually hates herself and wants to be friends, but due to how she was and is being raised, she more than likely doesn’t know how to express herself other than making life miserable for other people. But one thing is for sure: Her actions towards you are not your fault.”

“I know, but it still doesn’t make me feel any better. I go to school each day hoping that I won’t run into her and that she’ll just leave me alone."Rarity sighed, stroking her sister's hair through her fingers, “Come downstairs, Sweetie Belle. I’ll make us some dinner, and you can help me fix Coco's dress.”

Sweetie Belle sat up, wiping away the last of her tears. She hugged Rarity tightly, then slowly climbed out of bed. She headed downstairs with Rarity. As Sweetie went into Rarity's workroom, Rarity went into the kitchen to plug her phone into the wall outlet.

As she turned away, she heard her phone chime out, "Incoming post." Remembering she had set her phone to MyStable earlier that day to help keep an eye on the Anon-a-Miss page for Applejack. She looked at the new post. Her face went six times whiter than normal when she saw what was posted to the website.

“No,” Rarity gasped in shock when she saw her picture on the website. “How could she do this to me? I thought she was my friend.”

Rarity immediately dialed up Applejack after thumbing through the pictures. Thumbing through all eight pictures, she saw that each of her friends also had their photos displayed for all the world to see on MyStable. After a few moments, Applejack answered, “Well, howdy, Rarity. What can Ah do for ya?”

“Darling, have you seen what was just posted to MyStable?”

“Uh, no. Why?”

“You need to see what Anon-a-Miss posted. You're not going to like it.”

Rarity heard Applejack cluttering around on the other end. Rarity waited for a few moments, then suddenly pulled the phone away from her ear when she heard a very loud scream.

“WHAT IN TARNATION!?”

Rarity decided that it was better to switch the phone to speaker rather than hold the phone to her ears and risk going deaf. As Applejack swore up a storm, Rarity tried twice to calm the angry farmer down, only to fail.

Unbeknownst to either Rarity or Applejack, Sweetie Belle was standing in the hallway, watching the spectacle before her unfold. While Rarity tried a third time to calm Applejack down, Sweetie Belle smirked to herself as she easily guessed what Applejack had just seen. Her smirk very quickly faded when Rarity turned around, saw her sister standing in the hallway, and hung up on Applejack.

“I am sorry you had to hear that most unladylike behavior, Sweetie Belle.”

“What happened?” Sweetie Belle asked trying to look as innocent as possible. “That was Applejack, right? She sounded really upset.”

“Uh, nothing really happened, Sweetie Belle. Why don’t you go back to your room. I need to talk to my friends, and I might be a while.”

Sweetie Belle headed upstairs, smiling to herself as she thought, “Yes, it worked! Sunset's finished.”

Rarity watched her sister go. Once she was sure her sister was back in her room with the door closed, she called the rest of her friends, getting nearly the same response she got when she called Applejack.

Rainbow Dash swore up a storm at the top of their lungs, causing Rarity to pull the phone away from her ear once more and place the phone on speaker again.

Fluttershy replied with a very meek but understandably shallow, "Oh, my."

Pinkie replied with, "Sunny couldn't have done this," causing Rarity to point out that the photo of Pinkie was the same one as was taken during the sleepover at her home.

Once everyone had been called and all was said and done, Rarity hung up the phone, balled her hand into a tight fist, and headed into her workroom. She remained there for the rest of the evening, working on Coco Pommel's dress. Tears filled her eyes, making it hard to work. While working on the dress, a single thought crept into her mind.

"Why, Sunset? Why would you do this to us after all we've been through together?"

Next Chapter: Reconciliation (Edited by and Titled by Icecreammac) Estimated time remaining: 18 Hours, 36 Minutes