A Renowned Reputation

by JordanJwoww

Ch. 6 Hurt

“AHHHHH! MY... HEAD!” Prestige started screaming. “RARITY! RARITY!”

It was the middle of the night. Rarity had fallen asleep in her study again. Prestige had come back home messy and glassy eyed again. It was starting to worry her because he was changing. He was becoming more aggressive and impulsive. One day he came back, and he had a large cut on his ribs. He claimed that he slipped on the riverbank and must have hit a rock. But Rarity knew something wasn’t right anymore. He was always restless in bed, and she couldn’t handle another night of no sleep. Rarity would wait for him to return home, and then sleep in the workshop. It was better that way for now.

“RARITY! PLEASE!” Prestige continued to shout. That final shout woke Rarity up. She was taken by surprise by this. This had never usually happened. Maybe it was her imagination. A loud crash came from the bedroom. Rarity knew that something was seriously wrong. She ran upstairs to see Prestige lying unconscious on the floor. He was sweating and his skin was clammy. His breathing was strained, but consistent. Rarity was becoming spastic. She had no idea what to do with him, other than throw him in a warm bath. The stressful situation was overwhelming for her and knew he needed some form of attention. But, if it was overcoming for her, she couldn’t get Fluttershy to help her. It would be too traumatizing for her. The only other real educated person she could think of was Cheerilee, her sister’s teacher and substitute librarian.

After a stressful hour and a half, Rarity was able to get Cheerilee to come to the boutique.

“Rarity…” she said silently, “why on earth do you need my help at this time?” Cheerilee pranced around boutique, but had a stern look on her face.

“It’s not me, its Prestige,” Rarity replied. Cheerilee stopped prancing. Her face went from stern to worried. “I don’t know what it is, but he woke up screaming, then fainted.” Rarity paused as she choked up over Prestige. “I think he has a fever, he’s burning up, but won’t wake up. I’m really worried about him.”

“Where is he?” she said quickly. Rarity pointed up to the bathroom. Cheerilee nodded her head, and bolted upstairs. Rarity slowly followed. From the bathroom, she could hear Cheerilee sigh, while Prestige made several pained grunts. Rarity watched Prestige thrash back and forth in the tub, and it scared her. She stepped out of the bathroom, and sunk to the floor. Cheerilee followed soon after. She looked into Rarity’s eyes sadly.

“He’s going to be alright. But…” she hesitated, “…but this is something more than just a fever.” Rarity looked up at Cheerilee to see that her expression was now a disappointed stare.

“Rarity, do you know what’s going on in there?” Cheerilee said boldly. Rarity shook her head. “Prestige…” she paused, “…he’s taken something. Something awful…”

***
It was about five in the morning when Rarity started to wake up. She woke up to the sound of talking next to her.

“Ma’am?” the voice said. Rarity peered over her shoulder to see two police officers standing over her. “Ma’am, are you Miss Rarity of Ponyville?” She slowly rose from the bench.

“Yes…” she slowly replied, “is there a problem?”

“Mister Cleft has requested us to escort you back home,” the officer said. His brown complexion accentuated the aviators he was wearing. Rarity could see her reflection in the glasses. Her make-up was smeared and her hair tossed. It had been a rough night.

“No, that’s quite alright,” she retorted, “I’m not going back to Mister Cleft’s house.” She jumped up from the bench and began to turn away.

“What?” said the officer. “No, he gave us strict orders to return you to your place of residence.”

“My…” she paused for a moment. He couldn’t mean Ponyville could he? No, she was not going to give in to his force. “I… live…” Rarity panicked and frantically tried to remember Sapphire Shore’s address. “I live in the Upper Garment District, by Horse Penn Station.” The officer peered over his aviators to look into Rarity’s eyes. He had a slight suspicion of her. Rarity grew the largest smile in order to convince him.

“We need to escort you back to your home. And you know that lying to an officer is considered a crime, Ma’am…” the officer began to say. Rarity took a nervous swallow of air, as sweat began to bead at the back of her neck.

“Well, I’m rather appalled that you do not respect what I say as the truth!” she blurted out in a Manehattanite way. “I am the designer for Sapphire Shores. You have obviously heard of me.” She flicked her matted hair behind her head, revealing her face and smudged make-up.

The officer leaned over to the other and whispered something. He then turned back to look at her again. There was a thickly awkward pause, and Rarity’s anxiety began to grow more and more. Finally they turned around.

“Well, we can obviously see that you are her designer! Look at your sense of style,” the officers mockingly said. Rarity’s dress was wet and discolored. Her hair tangled and obvious old make-up. “To me, Ms. Shores is a new Pony Gaga.” They proceeded to laugh while she gave them a stern look. After a slight pause, the officers agreed to take her back to the Garment district.

Upon returning to Sapphire’s loft, she walked through a completely trashed living room. The snoring of sleeping guests could be heard throughout the loft, while a single movement was heard. Somepony was attempting to clean up, but not to any success. A clamor could be heard from the kitchen, she had to assume it was the same pony cleaning up. Rarity edged her way to the living room where the sound system and the mixing board were located. She slumped down on the couch and tried to fall asleep. Reflecting upon the day’s events, she solemnly stared out the window watching the city waking up. Rustling came from behind the mixing board, which took Rarity by surprise. She slowly lifted herself off and trudged over to see what it was. DJ Pon-3 was fast asleep on the ground. She tried waking the DJ up, yet it failed. The DJ was out cold. Rarity looked around and ended up finding a blanket to cover up the electric artist. Afterwards, she placed her hooves on the turntables and looked at the system. How could somepony play this, she thought to herself. Then she saw the screen monitor, it was still on. She was feeling nosy, and decided to see what was on there. She touched the screen, and the playlist pulled up. It was a promo for the new album DJ Pon-3 was dropping, and a large portion of it was featuring Prestige, One Trick Pony. He finally did it, she thought. He finally was able to make something of his life, at least one of them had. She flipped through the other playlists and started to notice that ever since he had left her, he had been busy. Prestige was living the life he had wanted, or at least thought he wanted. The titles of the tracks were nothing important, or at least irrelevant to Rarity’s interests. It was trivial names; Ponies ‘n Stuff, To Be a Champ, Sabotage. She was about to abandon her quest, until she saw a certain song. It was titled “A Ruby in the Sea of rarity.” She stepped back in awe.

“The Sea of rarity?” she pondered. He couldn’t have written a song about her, could he? And even if Prestige had, would she want to listen to it? He did walk out on her, did he really deserve her time?

A crash came from the kitchen again, snapping Rarity out of her daydream. A murmured voice could be heard cursing them self. Rarity meandered towards the kitchen to figure out what the morning frenzy was all about. She saw a frazzled stallion running back and forth. His ruby mane caught the light of the sun, giving a vibrant shine into Rarity’s eyes. His white coat was covered by a black leather jacket.

“Prestige…” Rarity said. He turned around to see the royal purple unicorn. She stared at him, and he paused everything that he was doing. He had a straw in his mouth, yet she stared right through him. Waiting for him to make his first move. He lowered his head and put the straw down.

“I thought that you had been escorted home.” He blatantly said.

“You do not have the right to force me to leave,” she returned with just as much bitterness. “Besides, I wasn’t the one who hurt you, why should you be in control?”

“Rarity, I-“ he was interrupted.

“Don’t you “Rarity” me! I didn’t come here for you,” she returned violently. “If I had known you were here, I still would have come. I am doing this for me!”

There was a heavy pause between the too of them.

“And that’s exactly why I left,” he replied quietly. She raised her head to see a destroyed Prestige. He kept his head hung low. “Excuse me, I have things to attend to.” The stallion exited the scene, rustling though a satchel that he had brought with him. He pulled a Ziploc bag out of the jacket and threw it into the satchel. Prestige caught eye of Rarity watching him, but did not care about hiding his actions anymore. He caught a look at himself in the mirror and saw a white trail just underneath his nostril. A hard sniff, and a quick wipe of the hoof, and the trail was gone. Prestige then threw a quick smile at himself in the mirror and continued out of the loft. Rarity stood leering at what Prestige was. He hadn’t quit, he couldn’t. Not after what he’s become, a stallion of the masses. Then she thought, what did he mean by “that’s exactly why I left?”

Rarity shrugged off his absurdness and went back to the turntables. She plugged in the headphones and started his track “A Ruby in a Sea of rarity.”

***
Before Prestige had started disappearing unexpectedly, Rarity would always be in charge of what was going on. She always wanted to go on morning walks, have a romantic breakfast overlooking the river, having Prestige model for her male line of clothes. Anything she wanted, he gave it to her. And that’s what he thought she would give him back.

One day, the colts at the moving company were going to go to the racetrack, and they asked if Prestige would join them. He said that he was free that evening. When Rarity found out about his plans, she wouldn’t have it. She had planned a dinner for them at the classiest place in Ponyville. Rarity refused for him to go. The colts tried time and time again to get Prestige to do other things with them; they really enjoyed his company. The problem was that Rarity always had something planned for the two of them. He was starting to become limited with his free time as well. The time he spent practicing his music was filled with him helping Rarity around the shop. Whether it was modeling, construction or repair. He was becoming less of who he was, and more of a shell. He was under complete obedience of Rarity. Prestige felt more and more alienated as the days progressed. So alienated that one day, he needed a break. He had to cave. Only certain things can break a pony’s spirit, especially as one as strong as Prestige’s. He left Manehattan to escape his past. It haunted him, but there was nothing he could do now. He felt more alone in Ponyville than he had there.

“NO!” he thought to himself. “I am stronger than this!” But truly, Prestige was not. He couldn’t focus on the pain anymore. Trying to kill it away, he found the only thing that he took comfort in. That burning sensation, that warm feeling it gave him, that old familiar sting. It wasn’t before long that Prestige was back to old habits. Old, destructive habits, forcing his feelings to disappear.

“I am still right here…” he whispered to himself. But alas the world gave unto him. Losing himself in this blissful moment, euphoria filled him to the brim. But it was short-lived, panic began to fill him. He had ruined everything. What had he become? What was he to do now? He had no control over anything. There was no way to repair him now. Prestige fell unconscious, unaware of where he was.

Several hours later, Prestige woke up in a bank just besides the Evergreen forest. His body looked tattered, and was in need of cleaning up. But he was still in no condition to clean himself up. All he needed to do right now was to return back to Carousel boutique and pass out on the couch. Prestige finally made it back to the boutique, and Rarity was there pressuring him about his whereabouts. He tried to push her aside; he needed to lie down, that’s all he cared about. Her voice became condescending, judgmental and forceful. He began to see Rarity as someone else, a filly of control. A filly that wanted him just to herself, never letting him free. Prestige couldn’t handle it right now.

“I saw the apartment catalogue…” she stated. Her tone finally threw him off the deep end.

“Its nothing!” he shouted. His tone startled Rarity, “LEAVE IT ALONE!” He stood up and started to stare her down. She jumped back in surprise.

“WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?” she yelled. “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? WHY ARE YOU SO MESSY?”

A long pause was present. Prestige’s rage started to build and build, but then he saw Rarity. She was trembling. He had never been like this before. His actions were becoming too front.

“I-I’m sorry…” he said in an undertone voice. “I’m… just not myself right now…” He barely made his way up the stairs. It had been a long time since he had done this, and it was throwing him around mentally and physically. He wanted to hide it from her. She deserved better than this from him. But he couldn’t help it, not anymore. His past had run up and caught him. Had he not learned anything from Manehattan? That city was a monster. It would entice you in, but eat you alive, and only leave such a distorted version of yourself, it would barely be recognizable. It all became too overwhelming for him. His knees gave out and he passed out on the bed.

Comments

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Oh my gawd! Write more this is so damn good!