“And that was the first time she didn’t show.” Rarity groused, shifting gear as they drew closer to her house. “In the last three weeks, she has been late to everything our little group has set up, and not shown up on two more occasions.” She slowed down, indicated, and made a left turn, “And she keeps dodging questions about it.”
Sweetie Belle hummed in thought. “What do you think she’s been doing?”
Rarity passed her sister a few of the lighter bags, before picking up the heavier ones. “I’m not sure, but I’ve caught her on the phone to a ‘Brick’ person quite a few times. And she always turns up worn out.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing bad.” Sweetie said with surprising confidence.
“I hope not…” Rarity let the topic run off. “Thank you for suggesting I spend the long weekend with you and our parents. It’s been so long since we did anything as a family, and I really enjoyed this weekend. I’m still not sure why you were so insistent to come back to mine for the night. You do realise with Sunset staying, you’ll have to sleep on the futon downstairs, with the draft?”
Had Rarity turned to look, she would have seen the smile that crossed her sister’s face. “I’m sure I’ll be ok.” They made the last turn of their journey, onto the road Rarity’s house was on, and Sweetie saw her sister flinch hard. “What is it?”
“Oh no she DIDN’T!”
Confused and worried, Sweetie looked to where her sister’s eyes were; looking straight at her house front, and straight at Sunset hugging an older man.
By the time they had made the rest of the way down the road the man had made it to his car and left, leaving Sunset on the front, smiling at them. But Rarity wasn’t smiling back. Tires screeching, they pulled up, and before Sweetie could even undo her belt, Rarity was flying out the door and storming over to Sunset.
“How dare you?! HOW DARE YOU?!”
Sunset’s face fell, now sad and confused. “How dare I what?
“Oh don’t play coy with me. It’s bad enough that you’ve been blowing us all off for the past few weeks, and don’t get me started on the fact he looks old enough to be your father. But to invite him round MY house while I was away for the weekend? I… I can’t even begin to describe how mad I am right now.”
“But Rarity, it isn’t what…”
“Ba ba bab!” Rarity interrupted her, “I don’t want to hear it.” She brushed past Sunset, and reached out for the door handle. “Just wait until the others find out.” She shoulder barged the door, and three things happened.
The door flew open, and smacked into the wall.
There was a large chorus of ‘Surprise’.
Rarity met the floor.
There was another chorus, this time of ‘ooohs’ and sharp intakes of breaths. “Wow,” Pinkie piped up, “They really fixed that door.”
When Rarity came too, she found herself on her back, on something soft. Opening her eyes revealed that she was lying down on her couch, but something looked off about her ceiling.
Fluttershy’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts, “Girls, she’s waking up.” Suddenly her vision was full of her friends faces, each one looking relieved. All apart from Sunset, who looked more than anxious.
Rarity felt a throbbing feeling on her forehead, and using her hand she quickly found a painful lump next to her right temple. Wincing, she quickly withdrew her hand. “What happened?”
Twilight settled onto the floor next to her seat. “You fell and hit your head. What do you remember?”
Blinking, Rarity did her best to recall her memories. “I was driving home while talking with Sweetie Belle, and then…” Her eyes narrowed, and she turned to Sunset, “You!”
“Land sakes girl, just stop.” interjected Applejack, causing heads to snap towards her. “Ah heard what you wer’ hollerin’ about outside, an’ I know you love drama and scandals, but this ain’t that. Give ‘er a chance to explain what actually happened.”
Eyes still narrowed, Rarity crossed her arms. “Fine,” she grumbled, turning to Sunset, “who was he?”
Sunset flashed her apple farmer friend a smile of gratitude before she pulled out her phone. Handing the device over to Rarity, it showed a photo of both Sunset and the man from outside. They were both dressed in work scruffs, and both filthy enough to make Rarity’s skin crawl at the mere sight.
“His name is Brick Lay, and he is a building contractor.” Intrigued, Rarity said nothing so that Sunset could continue. “After the whole ‘demon’ thing, part of my punishment was that I had to rebuild the damage I‘d done to the school. Of course, I knew next to nothing about construction or plumbing or any of that kinda thing.”
She scrolled through a few more photo’s, showing her working on the front of Canterlot High. “Brick was hired to do it, and I was to assist him. As it turns out, I’m actually pretty handy at the work, and we both had fun. Enough so that he offered for me to work with him if I needed cash.”
Realisation began to dawn on the purple haired girl. “So that is what you have been doing most weekends?” Sunset nodded, but Rarity’s face dropped again to a sour expression. “That doesn’t explain what he was doing here.”
“Oh for the love of…” Rainbow Dash grabbed Rarity, and pulled her to her feet. “I’m with Applejack on this. I guess you’ll have to see to stop.” Confused, the group followed as Rainbow dragged Rarity back to the hallway. “Watch.” Dash grabbed the door, turned the latch, and pulled with the barest of effort. She swung the door open, then closed.
For her part, Rarity’s fish impression was spot on, and she stood there mouth opening and closing in disbelief. After a few moments she tried the door herself, astounded. “How?”
“Brick,” Sunset answered. “That’s why he was round. I’ve been working with him; rather than be paid, he came round to help me with a few things here.” Confusion was still written across Rarity’s face.
“But you’ve been working with him for a month, weekends and some evenings. How much should you have earned, just to get my door fixed?”
A snort pulled her attention to Pinkie. “It isn’t just the door silly.”
It wasn’t until this point that Rarity actually calmed down and took stock of her surroundings. The door didn’t jam anymore. The walls looked cleaner; taking a sniff she detected the faintest whiff of something. “Fresh paint?”
This time Twilight nodded. “Walls and ceilings,” she smiled, “but you should really try upstairs.”
Looking upstairs with concern, still slightly off put by the idea of a man she didn’t know being in her house, she turning and began the climb. Only to stop half way. Up a step. Nothing. Down two. Still nothing. Jumping in place. Nothing.
The creak was gone.
Looking down at the girls again, they all motioned for her to go up. So she did. The landing on the top floor had also been freshly painted, and the carpet looked as fluffy as the day it was made. Going in the first door on her left she entered the bathroom, and she was almost blinded. The place was spotless, and shining in the light from the window.
Overwhelmed, Rarity sunk to the floor. “Sunset, what else did you do?”
The girl in question joined Rarity on the floor, sitting facing her. “Well, there was the front door. The back door seals now, the paint and plaster work on both floors, the stairs, this room and the plumbing behind it.”
Sunset had been lost in thought while she had been running off the work they had been doing, and had failed to see that Rarity had begun to cry. When she finally noticed, she flinched. “What’s wrong?” Concern laced her voice.
Her only reply was for the white girl to lunge forward and wrap her in a tight hug. Only caught off guard for a split second, she quickly returned the hug, a warm feeling coursing through her. After a moment, she also realised that her friends were suspiciously absent now.
“Sunset, why? This must have cost a small fortune.”
She squeezed her friend tighter. “You gave me a home when I had nothing. I still feel I owe you more.”
Rarity sniffed, and pulled out of the hug. Sunset felt something… sad?...that it had ended. “You owed me nothing, and you still don’t. But this”... she waved around the room, “I can’t even begin to form words that express what this means to me.” Words, no, but I have an idea what I can do for her.