Fracture

Rarity clapped her hooves in delight. The dress she’d spent days working on was finally complete. Every last stitch had been stitched, every piece sewn. She stepped back and admired her work, the sapphires adorning the dress glimmering in the late afternoon sunlight that was flooding in from her bay window.

Oh, I’ve really outdone myself this time, thought Rarity. Miss Shores has worn sapphires countless times before, but I bet never like this.

A crash interrupted her thoughts, along with a spray of glass from her now defenestrated window. She instinctively closed her eyes, sparing herself the pain of looking at her finest creation being utterly destroyed by the fastest pony in Equestria.

When Rarity dared to open her eyes again, she saw not her immaculate design room, but a disaster area, the fallen shards of glass decorating every string of yarn, roll of cloth, and cyan pegasus. Rarity did a double take on the last one, and confirmed her suspicions. There was Rainbow Dash in the remains of Miss Shores’ gown, the sapphires that had once been stitched lovingly onto it now strewn all across the pegasus’ body, which was no worse for wear.

Rarity didn’t feel anger. She only felt complete and utter shock. She didn’t feel the pain from the many glass shards sticking to her in various places; couldn’t see how silly she looked with her mane blown to one side, her pupils like dots in a sea of white, and her jaw wide open. Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash could see all this as she got up, dusting off the few shards that had stuck to her. She was surprisingly unhurt, and her lungs unfortunately still had their full capacity of air.

“Bwah-ha-ha!” she laughed instinctively, falling back onto the floor again. For Rainbow Dash, it was like she had blinders on. She couldn’t see the absolute chaos she’d just created, or the dress she’d utterly ruined. All she could see was Rarity, looking as ladylike as mud.

Rainbow’s guffawing was what finally got through to the stunned unicorn. All at once, her senses came back to her. She could feel the glass poking at her in the sides, her mane heavy on one side of her body, her teeth clenched firmly together, and the proverbial fire in her eyes.

“Rainbow Dash, LOOK at what you’ve done!”

Dash sat up, glass that had stuck onto her as she was rolling around on the floor now harmlessly falling off. For the first time, she saw the mess she’d created. But this had become a routine experience for Rainbow Dash. Granted, this was pretty high on her list of the biggest messes she’d made, but she felt no remorse for something her mind now basically expected her to do.

Nevertheless, she brought a hoof to the back of her head, and tried to smile in a way that looked like she was embarrassed. “Uh...sorry Rares, my bad.”

Rarity snorted, a certainly unladylike thing for her to do, but frankly, she didn’t care in the least. “‘Sorry!?’ ‘Sorry!?’ Well, I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash, but ‘sorry’ won’t cut it.”

“Um...” Rainbow darted her head around, trying to find something to steer the conversation in a different direction. “I’m...really sorry?” She’d found none.

Rarity snorted a few more times, looking like a lioness ready to pounce. “Get. OUT.”

Something clicked at the back of Rainbow Dash’s mind, and she wondered why she hadn’t done so already. With another quick and half-hearted apology, Rainbow Dash was out the way she came in, leaving the distressed fashionista behind.

As Rainbow Dash got farther and farther away, Rarity’s anger lessened and lessened. Tears began to roll down her cheeks. Her work was utterly ruined, not to mention her shop. It would take weeks, no, months, to clean this all up, and a number of bits she didn’t even want to comprehend. If she didn’t know better, she would’ve asked Rainbow to give her the bits she now owed, but everypony knew Rainbow was only just getting by, and couldn’t even spare a single one. Another part of her mind told Rarity to write Rainbow Dash off as a friend completely, but the more rational--or perhaps less--part of her mind told her that she’d eventually forgive her. Rarity could never bring herself to hold a grudge with somepony for that long. Her mind resolved that what would probably end up happening is all six of them working together to clean the place up, with Rarity insisting she fund the new window herself. She was the Element of Generosity, after all.

But for now, she was sitting in a pool of glass, her life in shambles. She began to feel a few warm trickles going down her back, and realized she was bleeding. Realizing that she had to get to the hospital, she stood up, crying out in pain as the shards wiggled deeper inside her. She closed her eyes, trying to fight back more tears. One part of her mind told her she should run to the hospital as fast as possible, but another part couldn’t even bring herself to take a single step.

After just standing there for a few minutes, wallowing in her misery, Rarity finally brought herself to open her eyes again, ready to see what her shop had once again become. But what she saw instead was something that rendered her utterly speechless in a different way. Celestia’s sun had lowered just enough to cast the perfect light upon the room, and the shards that were stuck in every part of it were refracting the colours of the rainbow. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and Rarity found that her pain didn’t even register in her mind as she walked around the room, taking in every angle of it’s newfound beauty.

Rarity sighed. Oh Rainbow Dash, how I wish I could make beautiful things as effortlessly as you do. I just wish I’ll one day catch up.

Sniffing, Rarity picked up a fallen sapphire with her hoof, and chuckled as she came to another realization. Oh, what am I saying? You’re the fastest pony in Equestria. I could never catch you.

1,217 views