Rarity reached up a hoof and knocked lightly on the door. “Sweetie Belle, may I come in?”

“Sure thing, Sis! You wanna play dolls with me?”

She opened the door and saw her little sister sitting in the corner, surrounded by a small pile of toys. The room was a mess, but that was hardly anything new.

Sweetie Belle picked up one of the dolls in her teeth and tossed it over to Rarity. “Here, you can be Princess Wishlight, and I’ll be the big scary dragon. Rawr!”

Rarity let out a sigh and raised a hoof to rub at her forehead. “I’m sorry, Sweetie, but I’m not here to play with you. We need to talk.”

“Oh.” Sweetie Belle’s smile quickly faded, but she sat down patiently and looked up at Rarity. “What’s wrong?”

Rarity tapped her back hoof on the ground several times, resisting the urge to start pacing. “I just got back from having a very interesting conversation with Miss Cheerilee.”

Sweetie Belle’s ears flattened back, and she shrunk away slightly. “Is this about what I said to Diamond Tiara today? Because she totally started it.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “No, although we might come back to that later. This is about your grades.”

“Oh. What’s the big deal?” Sweetie Belle asked, pursing her lips.

“Sweetie, why haven’t you turned in any of your last three assignments?”

Sweetie Belle grimaced, then turned around and began poking at her dolls again. “’Cause it wouldn’t have mattered if I did or not.”

Rarity felt her eye twitch slightly, but did her best to keep her voice level. “What do you mean, it wouldn’t have mattered?”

“Because I’m the dumb one,” Sweetie Belle said, keeping her back turned. “The only ponies I scored higher than on the midterm are Snips and Snails, and even then it wasn’t by much. I’m just no good at school.”

“And so your solution is to just give up entirely?”

“What’s the point? I’ll get my Cutie Mark in something else soon enough anyway, right? Then I can just focus on that instead.”

Rarity ground her teeth together. A part of her wanted to react explosively, to yell at Sweetie Belle and tell her exactly how dumb she was being, but this was going to require a more nuanced approach. “Look at me, Sweetie Belle.”

Sweetie Belle mumbled something under her breath, but slowly turned around to face Rarity, keeping her head down.

Rarity reached out with a hoof and lifted her head to meet her gaze, and when Sweetie kept her eyes down, repeated, “Look at me.”

When Sweetie finally looked up, Rarity said, “Never give up, Sweetie. Never stop trying. That’s more important than anything else.”

Sweetie Belle pulled away, her lip trembling. “That’s easy for you to say! You always—”

“I mean it,” Rarity snapped, grabbing her sister with her magic and pulling her back. “You’re not good at school? That’s fine. Different ponies are good at different things. If you try something, try your absolute hardest at something, and you still have trouble figuring it out, then that’s fine. You go to Miss Cheerilee, or Twilight, or come to me. We will take the time and try our absolute hardest to help you.”

“But…” Sweetie Belle’s voice cracked, and she began trembling, eyes starting to fill with tears. “What if that’s not enough? What if I’m just stupid?”

Rarity let go with her magic and pulled Sweetie Belle in close for a hug. “It will be. And even if it’s not, it’s not the end of the world. We’ll be there for you, to help you find your way. But you can’t ever stop giving it your best effort, do you understand me?”

Sweetie Belle sniffed quietly, then wiped at her eyes. “I guess…”

Rarity smiled, then pulled back, patting her on the head. “Now, I think we have some long overdue assignments that we need to work on, hmm?”

“Bleh. Do we have to do that right now?”

“There’s no time like the present, Sweetie.” Rarity paused and then grinned, adding, “If we get the first one done before dinner, I’ll be happy to play dolls with you after.”

Sweetie Belle’s ears perked up, and her mouth broadened into a wide smile.

“Now, about this thing you said to Diamond Tiara?”

“Aww come on!”