Chapter 6: Collateral Damage
Sweetie Belle was glad that the crowd was now dissolving with only a few ponies still milling about. She had come to visit her sister at Carousel Boutique today but instead found a huge gathering in front of the shop that blocked her from getting there. She had wondered why there was such a mass of equines there, but between the banter of the ponies in the back she heard what sounded like a fight. Now that the group had broken up enough to the point that the unicorn filly could walk around, she actively sought out a familiar face that could help explain to her what had just happened.
As she looked around, she spied not only one fellow filly, but two, her friends Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, who helped her to form the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They were talking with each other and had yet to notice Sweetie Belle. Eager to find out what had drawn so many spectators, the young unicorn ran towards her compatriots.
When Sweetie Belle came upon them, however, she saw that they were not talking, but instead yelling at each other.
“Who does your sister think she is? Fighting dirty like that with Rainbow Dash isn’t fair!” Scootaloo shouted at the straw colored filly.
“It was Rainbow Dash that was fightin’ dirty! Tryin’ to fly so she could ambush my sister ain’t right! Rainbow Dash was tryin’ to be a cheat!”
“You take that back!”
“I will not!”
Sweetie Belle was confused. From what she was hearing, it sounded like Apple Bloom’s sister, Applejack, and Scootaloo’s mentor, Rainbow Dash, were the ones that were fighting. While a fight between the strong earth pony and the brash pegasus pony would be something to behold, the reason why they would do so eluded Sweetie Belle.
“Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, what happened? Why are you two arguing?” Sweetie Belle inquired. While she had hoped to be a calming influence on her friends, she instead became the object of their scorn. The quarrelling fillies turned their attentions to the young unicorn pony that had just arrived.
“It’s all your sister’s fault!” Said the flightless pegasus with an angry hoof pointed at Sweetie Belle.
“Yeah! She’s the cause of all this!” The bowed filly shouted in agreement.
The vehemence in the voices of her friends shocked Sweetie Belle even more than what they had just said. It took her a moment to process the fact that her friends had just rebuked Rarity.
“What? Applejack and Rainbow Dash are in love with my sister? ” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. She was even more confounded then before. While this raised even more questions in the mind of the pearl colored filly, she decided to focus on the reason for the spat between her friends. “But I still don’t understand why they fighting? What does it have to do with Rarity?”
Apple Bloom answered with her conclusion based on child’s logic. “Because yer sister drove them to fight. She bewitched them with her charms into lovin’ her, but she didn’t choose one so they would fight each other fer her enjoyment.”
Scootaloo injected her own opinion that was formed from the limited facts that she knew. “That’s right. From what I saw, Rarity just watched the fight and didn’t try to stop it at all. She just cried, ran, and hid herself in her shop when the fight was over.”
She failed. She wasn’t sure whose hoof was whose, but one smashed into her nose and another found its way into her left eye. Both blows sent her crashing to the ground, cutting a gash on her right cheek. At first, Sweetie Belle didn’t feel any pain, but she began to cry once the stinging from her wounds started to manifest. A metallic taste touched her tongue as the blood from her snout flowed down her face.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo paused their struggle and looked at their crying friend. Any other time they would have gone to comfort Sweetie Belle and help tend to her injuries, but the loathing that had blossomed between the coral hued pegasus and the flaxen colored earth pony eclipsed all other emotions they had. Neither wanted to continue the quarrel now, but they also could not stand to be anywhere near each other either.
Scootaloo was the first to say anything. “Forget you two! I’m sick of hanging around with a hick and a crybaby! I’m leaving!”
“Fine by me!” Apple Bloom responded. “I never wanna see either one of ya again! The Cutie Mark Crusaders are over!”
The words broke Sweetie Belle’s heart, causing her to cry even more than she was already. She picked herself up and tried to talk to her friends but the words could not get past the lump that formed in her throat from crying. After Apple Bloom and Scootaloo hurled the final rounds of vicious insults they both departed, leaving the bloodied, dirty, and crying Sweetie Belle alone.
* * *
Rarity was in chaos as she sat sequestered in the dark solitude of her workshop on the top floor of Carousel Boutique. The only thing that she had managed to accomplish after she stopped crying over the fight was to board up the window that Rainbow Dash and Applejack had crashed through. She had left the rest of the shop in its state of disarrayed destruction. Holes adorned the walls of her shop. Headless mannequins wore shredded and ruined dresses. Gems and jewels littered the floor, their colorful glint mocking Rarity with their cheerfulness. Repairing Carousel Boutique would be a long and arduous task.
However, her heart felt that none of it mattered compared to the decision before her. The cause of the fight was more pressing to her than the damage that her home had sustained. The glass pieces of her shattered slipper were her whole world now. They were emblematic of how she felt, shards that could never again become whole. She divided her thoughts and gazes between the twin mounds of broken glass, thinking what a deeper relationship would be like with the either of the ponies that were vying for her affection.
Rarity stared at the pieces that Rainbow Dash had brought back to her, contemplating what the brazen pesasus pony truly meant to her. Rainbow Dash had said that she herself had only found out about her own feeling towards Rarity the day she took care of the winged equine’s cuts. Rarity herself found it surprisingly natural to care for her friend. The unicorn pony knew with polychrome mare’s daredevil lifestyle, Rainbow Dash would need more tending to for injuries, and the idea of Rarity being a nurse for her friend generated a warm feeling of fulfillment. Taking care of her friend was so comforting to Rarity that she knew she could easily find happiness with Rainbow Dash.
As soon as the elation came, it was quickly eclipsed by remorse. Rarity gradually turned her head and looked at the fragments that Applejack had returned to her. The alabaster mare supplanted the image of Rainbow Dash at her side with Applejack instead. The industrious earth pony was the opposite of Rarity in so many ways, yet those differences were her most endearing qualities. The tangerine mare cared very little for her own appearance, so Rarity would find the task of maintaining her friend’s image to be a chore, but one that she would relish immensely. There was also the fact that Applejack had contained her affections for so long for Rarity’s sake. The unicorn pony knew that she could not dismiss her friend’s love so easily that it pained her to even think of such an act.
Rarity’s stomach growled at her in rebellion, snapping her out of her constant emotional back and forth. She realized that she had not eaten anything since breakfast, and it was now well after sunset. She did not want to leave the shattered slipper and the issue that it had brought back to her unresolved, but Rarity knew she had not come any closer to reaching a decision. After a moment’s pause to reflect further on the matter, she left her desk and workshop to head down to her kitchen.
When she came to the bottom of her stairs that lead to her kitchen she heard an indiscernible whimper in the room. At first, Rarity did not see what the cause of it was, but as she followed the sound, she came upon the whining’s source.
Rarity saw her sister, Sweetie Belle, sitting with her rump on the floor and eating out of a tub of chocolate ice cream that she held in her legs. She was crying while she ate, seemingly trying to drown her sorrows with the frozen dessert.
“Sweetie Belle, what’s wrong? Why are you here and not at mother and father’s?” Rarity asked her forlorn sister as she walked over. Without saying anything, the filly looked at the elder unicorn pony, revealing her swollen and bruised eye, a nose stuffed with blood drenched cotton, and an amateurishly applied bandage on her cheek. Her face was also covered in dirt with clear trails running through the grime made by her tears.
Rarity gasped in shock. “Sweetie Belle! What happened to you? How did you get these injuries?” Rarity crouched down and joined her sister on the floor, meticulously inspecting the dressings that Sweetie Belle had clearly administered herself.
Sweetie Belle pushed the ice cream away from her and tried to speak past her crying, but all Rarity heard was blubbery gibberish because of the cotton in her sister’s snout. The older sister pulled out the crimson stained stuffing and asked the unicorn filly to start again. The immature equine did, with her sister being able to understand her now.
“My friends hate me.” She said meekly, sniffling as she spoke. Rarity was confused, but
she had an idea of what Sweetie Belle meant.
“Your friends did this to you? Why would they do such a thing?”
“It wasn’t their fault really.” Sweetie Belle shook her head as she defended her friends that had struck her. “They were fighting each other. I tried to stop them by getting in between them but they ended hitting me by mistake instead.”
Rarity used her unicorn magic to grab the first aid kit and a wet towel while she listened. She took off the bandage that Sweetie Belle had put on herself, wiped the dirt off with the towel, and properly affixed a fresh band-aid on the cut.
“Why were Apple Bloom and Scootaloo fighting though?”
“They were insulting each other because they saw the fight between Applejack and Rainbow Dash.” Sweetie Belle blew her nose in the towel. She looked at Rarity with eyes desperate for answers. “Is it true that they’re both in love with you?”
Rarity sighed before she answered. “Yes, it is true. It’s a long story, but it is true.” The ivory mare draped a leg around her young sister. “Still, that’s no excuse to beat you up. Your wounds must be so painful to make you cry like this.”
Sweetie Belle’s tears started flow in rapid succession. Her injuries had stopped hurting a while ago. “That’s not why I’m still crying…” She said between sobs. “It’s because… It’s because… It’s because they broke up the Cutie Mark Crusaders…And they never want to see me again.” The pearl filly started uncontrollably sobbing anew as her personal anguish again erupted inside of her.
Rarity embraced her sister as hard as she could, shedding her own tears in sympathy. “What hath this feud wrought? Sweetie Belle doesn’t deserve to be hurt like this.” The crying of her younger sister reanimated her own heartache from earlier in the day. Through water logged eyes, Rarity looked at her grieving sister. “How much wider will the suffering spread?” She wondered to herself.
With Sweetie Belle in her legs crying from the travesties beset on her from the larger problem that was plaguing the ivory unicorn mare, Rarity reached a decision. The choice before her was made as clear as crystal by her sister. A plan started to form in her mind, and while the entirety of it was not yet completed, she knew the first step to take.
“Sweetie Belle, I want you to listen to me.” Rarity spoke to her sister in a calm and authoritative voice. “Everything is going to be all right. I’m going to correct all the wrongs done to you and everypony else today.” The unicorn filly’s tears started to wane as her sister spoke confidently to her. “Now, you can have one small bowl more of ice cream, but then I want to go upstairs, wash up, and get into bed, understand?”
Sweetie Belle choked back a sob and nodded in agreement. “Can I sleep with you in your bed?”
A slight smile formed on Rarity’s face as her sister’s pain started to ebb. “Yes, you can, but I won’t be able to tuck you in tonight. I have to go see some of my friends right now, but once I return, I’m going to curl up right next you and sing to you while you’re asleep, alright?”
“Okay.” Sweetie Belle meekly agreed. “Who are you going to see? Are you going to see Applejack or Rainbow Dash?”
Rarity shook her head. “No, I’m not going to see them tonight, but we’ll both see them tomorrow I hope.”
“What do you mean?”
“It will be clear to you tomorrow, but for right now, I want you to do as I’ve told you. Understand?”
The words that Rarity said were unquestionable and soothing. Sweetie Belle silently nodded in agreement to her sisters instructions. Then the two sisters shared a strong hug and kissed each other on the right side of their horns, the way they silently shared love for as long as Sweetie Belle could remember.
The younger of the sisters was the first to break the embrace as she went to grab a bowl from the cupboard. The immature unicorn was not able to use her magic yet and had to do the task of putting the ice cream in the bowl by hoof. She ate it this time without tears as Rarity left out the back door of Carousel Boutique.
After finishing the ice cream and placing the bowl in the sink, Sweetie Belle realized how alone she was in the house and doubt crept into her thoughts. “I wonder what Rarity is doing. Is she trying to fix things? How is she doing it? What if it doesn’t work? What if it makes things worse?” The opaline filly started to tremble. She did not even want to contemplate on how worse things could get.
As uncertain as she was, her sister’s promise echoed in Sweetie Belle’s mind. “Everything is going to be all right. I’m going to correct all the wrongs done to you and everypony else today.” Even though Rarity was gone now, just remembering her voice was more than enough to assuage the young unicorn pony’s fears.
Finding new strength to go with her confidence, Sweetie Belle went upstairs, brushed her teeth, and washed her face while being mindful of the band-aid Rarity had applied. She then went into her sister’s room and went under the covers of the large opulent bed.
“I’m going to stay awake until Rarity comes home, so that way I know that everything’s alright for now.” Sweetie Belle promised herself. However, because of the stress of the day, sleep found her too easily. Her eyelids drooped shut, sending the unicorn filly into a fitful slumber. She awoke when then bed creaked and the sheets shifted. Familiar legs grabbed her and pulled her close into a tight hug.
“Rarity, is that you?” The filly asked drowsily.
“Shh, Sweetie Belle, go back to sleep.” Rarity whispered to her sister through the dark of the room. Then, true to her word, the ivory mare started to sing. “Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head…” Sweetie Belle could not remain awake for even the first refrain to finish.