Last Ditch

by MaxKodan

The Hottest Fashion

Last Ditch
Chapter 9:
The Hottest Fashion
Max Kodan

Late into the night on the day the ponies had met in front of the statue of Discord, Rarity worked tirelessly. She was determined, now. That uncouth brigand had dared to threaten her so brazenly, and with such a ridiculous claim! Even if the dress she was working on did magically light ablaze, to say that it would burn down the entire town was utterly ridiculous.

“There.” She sighed, tugging the large ribbon along the back into place manually. Magic was great, but sometimes a little physical alteration was just the touch that was needed. “Ah, perfect!” She crooned, admiring her own handiwork. The dress flowed beautifully, and the bow was just oversized enough to be fashionable. But ah! Of course, how could she forget! Turning and walking daintily over to her desk, she lifted the large gem that she had been saving. She bit her lip. Carefully now, carefully...

The large ruby was cut into a perfectly symmetrical pentagon. It gleamed a translucent red in the sunlight. It was an unbelievably perfect stone: the likes of which one did not come across every day. With some magical threading, the jewel set itself quite nicely in the knot of the bow, the ears shifting a little, but settling into just the right position. She smiled to herself, stepping back to get a wider view of the dress. “Perfect! Absolutely perfect!” she gasped, almost envying the one who would wear the fruit her labor.

Unbeknownst to the seamstress, an unwanted voyeur hung on the outer sill of the unicorn’s window, eyes wide and aimed straight at the gem on the back of the dress. With a nearly-silent chattering noise, it dropped down and scampered away.

-----

The next day, Rarity was trotting about like a filly. She had a grin from ear to ear, and nothing could wipe it off her face. Her dress was finished, after all, and it was her newest pride and joy, her masterpiece. In fact, she already had two ponies in Canterlot vying for it. The way the bids were shooting up, it looked like she’d be able to get herself a nice vacation. But of course, not before her parents’ anniversary gift. She had been eyeing it for weeks, and every time she thought of it her mind wandered back to her foalhood. Sometimes, when she was about to fall asleep, it even brought a tear to her eye. Memories like that deserved to be cherished.

As she came to an intersection, she glanced both ways. She didn’t have any particular destination, but the choices forced her to start thinking about where she was actually headed on this walk. She’d slept in so late she missed breakfast. Perhaps lunch at the cafe? Or she could drop in on Twilight and share her successful news. Oh, but Twilight had been so wrapped up in her books lately, she’d hardly be able to appreciate the scope of her accomplishment. Fluttershy was always a safe bet. Though her critiques could be a bit...harsh. Applejack wasn’t one for fashion, and Rainbow Dash was-

“Oh, Rainbow Dash!” She was shaken from her ponderation by the appearance of the rainbow-maned pegasus. She was walking, which in itself was odd, rather slowly, which was even odder. She looked completely worn out, and one of her wings was hanging just a bit limp at her side. “Oh, my! Dear, whatever happened! You look positively dreadful! Are you alright? Did you hurt your wing?” She rushed over and started walking alongside her friend, blinking rapidly as she spoke.

“Yeah, I’m alright, I just sprained my wing a little.” The speedster yawned. Had she been kept up all night by something? She looked like she’d only gotten a couple of hours of sleep “Wait, did you not notice?” She stopped and looked up, quirking an eyebrow.

“Notice? Notice what?” Rarity returned the bewildered look. “Did Pinkie Pie throw one of her all night parties again? I’m rather surprised she wasn’t banging down my door. Though I may well have slept through it...”

The cyan pony sighed. “You slept in and missed it? Well, that’s alright, I guess. It was pretty scary stuff. The whole sky went black! It was some ancient cloud curse thing. Me and Twi took care of it though!” She puffed her chest out proudly for a moment, then let out her breath and sagged again. “Took a lot out of us, though.” She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. “Can’t...really fly anywhere. I was napping at Twilight’s, but her bustling woke me up. I don’t know how that pony does it...” She yawned widely.

“Oh, you won’t be flying anywhere at all, not on a wing like that! You just come with me, you can rest at my house. You look like you need a good, comfortable place to get some beauty sleep.” She wheeled around and hooked one of her legs around one of Dash’s, tenderly pulling her injured friend towards her home. Roughly halfway there, they both stopped upon hearing a familiar voice shouting, accompanied by the sound of thundering hoofsteps.

“Get back here, you little thief! Return that gem, or your remaining life shall be brief!” As they watched, a tiny creature crossed their path. It looked like a blue raindrop, about the size of a hoof. In its hands it held an emerald about the size that it was. Behind it, charging full speed, was an exceedingly angry looking zebra. Rarity watched in confusion for a moment, but then she narrowed her eyes. Her horn glowed and the gem lifted up away from the creature’s hands. It cheaped out a protest and stopped, turning as it did. Even as the emerald was lifted away from it, it looked at Rarity and spat out a shockingly high-pressure stream of water, hitting her just hard enough to make her lose her focus and drop the jewel. It ran underneath it, opened its mouth wide, and in one surprising chomp it devoured the jewel whole. It swallowed its prize and changed color, turning a green to match the object it had just eaten. It cackled at Rarity’s confusion and Zecora’s annoyance before looking down and burrowing quickly into the ground, disappearing without a trace.

“Wh-what was THAT!?” The unicorn wiped some water off of her cheek. Rainbow Dash gurgled something in response, but she seemed to be half asleep on her hooves.

Zecora kicked the ground where the creature had disappeared aggravatedly. “It was what is called a Schucker. ”It is a thieving, cruel, heartless little-”

Rarity laughed nervously and cut across her friend’s rhyme. There were foals around everywhere, after all.

Zecora had needed the emerald to grind into a particular potion. As such, Rarity offered one of her own to make up for fumbling the gem. While on their way back to her home, both of them now supporting RD, she asked Zecora to explain the little creature. She explained that the Schucker were tiny, jewel eating creatures that had a special connection to their food source. When they ate a jewel, their magical abilities changed based on the color of the gem. Sapphires allowed for the previously seen water-spitting mechanism, while emeralds allowed them to move around earth, usually used for burrowing. The larger the gem was, the longer they kept their abilities and the more powerful they would be. When their power ran out, they would turn grey and remain more or less powerless until they ate another gem.

Back at the boutique, Rarity dug around for a moment, coming up with a small variety of gems. She smiled and bowed slightly, floating them over to Zecora’s bag. Not being one to look a gift pony in the mouth, the zebra accepted the gems and gave a deep thanks. She turned and left to return to her potion making. When Rarity closed the door behind her, she sighed and began to turn around. “Rainbow, dear, you can nap where-”

The mare was no longer in the room. The bedroom door was open, however, and upon peeking inside, Rarity found her friend already passed out on the bedspread. She smiled to herself and glanced at the dress that she was displaying near the window of the bedroom. A moment needed to be taken once again to appreciate how her hard work had paid off. The dress was truly splendorous. The colors worked perfectly together, and the bow stood out enough to make you the center of attention. It would be seen from anywhere in a Canterlot ballroom. And finally, the piece de resistance. The enormous red ruby just perfectly nestled in the knot of the bow.

The more she stared at it, the more the reality of the situation settled in. Her face managed to blanch even whiter, and her mouth slowly came agape. A giant ruby. And now, a creature was on the loose that ate gems. Zecora hadn’t said what powers eating a red jewel would do to a creature, but she hadn’t needed to. It wasn’t much of a jump to assume. Immediately, she galloped over to the dress and unattached the ruby, then pulled an ornate wooden box from her bedstand nearby and closed the gem in it. She then clicked a small lock over the opening, wrapped it in several layers of ribbons, and stuffed it in the drawer. In her excitement, she slammed the drawer shut. With a wince, she glanced over at Dash. She was still sound asleep.

Was this what Discord was talking about? It was true, if she had decided to make a new dress, the one thing she would have saved was the gem. But now that she knew, couldn’t she hide the gem away? Or even destroy it? Spike would love it as a nice meal. And then there would be no way for the creatures to start a fire, right?

No, that would never work. She still had other rubies. She had gemstones everywhere, and she was positive that, at some point, she had dropped several under furniture, even into cracks in the floor. Plus, who was to say that they wouldn’t just find a rube somewhere else, eat it, and then come here? Her shop was a veritable buffet for them. It would come here eventually, and she knew it. When the initial concern wore off, the next emotion that Rarity felt was anger. Anger at Discord. She was worrying over nothing, and it was his fault. She turned and stomped out the door. It was time to have a chat with the statuesque villain.

Discord stood as he had since they’d defeated him. The “statue garden” was really only a small set of statues, set up around Discord, each with some historical significance to the area or to Equestria as a whole. Previously, Discord had been kept in Canterlot. However, this time around, they’d left him in Ponyville. Celestia said it was because he needed to be kept close to the source of magic that had locked him away, and while the Elements had been their tools, the power had originated with them. So, here it stayed.

Rarity had been wishing that it had been dragged to old Canterlot mines and buried there. She stood, breathing heavily, glaring at the statue. She wasn’t sure why she was here, really. He was encased in stone. He couldn’t likely even hear her. But she wanted to yell and scream and shout at him. She wanted to kick him in his smarmy, fear-stricken face. She gazed into his eyes for a moment. Had they moved? They seemed to be looking more down than forward. Her eyes followed his. A belt? Had he always been wearing a belt? She glared at him for a moment, her mouth quirking open in confusion. She slowly got closer, her eyes flicking back and forth between the belt and his face.

There was something on the belt. It was a pouch. And sticking out of the fold in the top of the pouch was what looked like the top of a vial. Cork and all. She would notice it anywhere. It was a vial that was commonly used for dye additives. She became transfixed on it. He hadn’t been lying about it? Was he mocking her? With that thought, she grew even angrier. Her horn began to glow, and she focussed herself on the vial.

“Discord, you uncouth, evil ruffian. I won’t fall for your tricks, you hear me? You think you can get the best of Rarity? I’ll show you!” She strained her eyes so much that she nearly popped a blood vessel. However, slowly, ever so slowly, the vial’s stone encasement melted away. After several minutes of an internal battle to keep the magic under control, she finally pulled the vial free, leaving the belt there, now with an empty pouch. She didn’t look back as she dashed back towards her home.

I need to work quickly, she thought as she burst through her front door. The dye was a dull navy color, not quite suited to the dress as a whole. But if she dropped it in a couple of different vats, its properties should bleed through. It would be too bad to change it at all, but it would be a worse fate for it to burn, not to mention all of Ponyville. However, when she walked through the door to her bedroom, to bring the dress onto the boutique floor, she froze in her tracks.

Dash was still asleep on the bed, but Rarity hardly noticed. There was ripped ribbon everywhere. Her box had been broken open and tossed halfheartedly on the ground. Atop her dress, her masterpiece, stood a small, green, raindrop-like creature. In his hands, he held the large ruby which, until recently, had been on the dress. Panic gripped the dressmaker’s heart, and she looked around wildly for something to do. Anything. Before she could find something, the little monster cackled and chomped the gem completely in half. Impressive, considering the beastie was only a third the size of the gem.

Rarity gasped. Such beauty, lost from the world because of this little...thing! There were more pressing matters at hand, however. The Schucker immediately turned a bright red color. Tossing the remnants of the ruby in the air, it swallowed the last of it. With a maniacal little giggle, it turned towards the unicorn and spat in her direction. A small fireball emerged and blazed just over her shoulder as she ducked out of the way. “Hey, you! Cut that out!”

Her cry fell on deaf ears, however. Well, deaf and sleeping ones. Dash was still clocked out. The schucker began breathing in. More and more air rushed into its little lungs, and it began to swell. Rarity could see where this was going. She looked around again, and her eyes fell on the dye, which was still floating next to her. She’d nearly forgotten she was still carrying it. With only a few moments to respond, she did the only thing her panicking mind could think off. She hurled the vial at the Schucker.

The vial hit its mark just as the creature let out a huge flame from its mouth. The vial was the first thing hit, and the extreme change in temperature caused the glass to explode. Immediately, the dye inside doused the flame and coated the entire corner of the room in a dull blue color. The floor, the wall, part of the window, the creature, and the dress were covered in the stuff. The schucker blinked rapidly several times, then sputtered a little, coughed, and let out a yell of some sort. It then crashed through the window and ran off towards the forest, still screaming.

The dress didn’t look salvageable, and the gem was now gone. Rarity didn’t care. The emotional strain she’d just gone through made her realize just why Dash was still so tired. With half of her mind shut off, she made her way to the bed and crawled into it. Somehow, the pegasus was still asleep. It was understandable. She arranged herself on the other part of the bed, rolled over, and closed her eyes. Some relaxation, some unconscious relief from this nightmarish day was just the thing she needed. Wordlessly, she breathed a deep sigh and let herself fall into a restful sleep.

Comments

[shardfff]

FINALY its back

[MaxKodan]

853449

Sorry for the wait! I should be back now. At this moment, I'm working on a new story. After that, I'll probably be hitting chapter 10, though I'm not sure who I'll be doing next...Any requests? I've got Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight left, but I'm leaving Twi for last.

[shardfff]

853492

[MaxKodan]

Not sure if that's meant as an emoticon or a request. Taking it as both. AJ it is.

[Omnishifter]

This story, like only a few I've read about him, shows something vital about Discord, he is master manipulator and can do amazingly strange things to accomplish his ends. Good story!!!