//------------------------------// // Success // Story: Song of Stone // by Waxworks //------------------------------// Rarity watched Sassy fall to the ground without caring. She was building the fourth suit. She would sell it, and then she could build the fifth and final suit. There would be glory waiting for her then. Glory the likes of which Ponyville, Canterlot, or even Equestria had even seen. They promised her that much. The suits would be the fulfillment of that promise. The suit was finished quickly. She looked it over. It was made of white crystals, pure as snow, but laced with the faintest shadowy veins. Spiderwebs of them criss-crossed the entire thing, crackling through the chest, back, legs, and head, all coverging on the slot where the horn would go, turning the edges of the crystals as pure a black as the white was white. As Rarity looked, the beast in the portal reached out and pointed to Sassy. It nodded, and Rarity turned to follow its gaze. She turned back to it and shook her head. “No, I need her.” The humming rose, then fell, and Rarity slowly nodded. “Okay, if you say she’s necessary. I suppose I can part with her temporarily. That will help, won’t it?” The humming buzzed, and a little dust fell from the ceiling. Rarity nodded again. “I understand. I’ll make her buy it, then. She’ll want it, yes? To make it easier? When she looks at it, I mean, because this is very pretty, but she loved the snow-filled one, more.” The rumbling shook, and a single silvery crystal was passed through the portal and placed where the suit would be. Rarity gasped in delight. “Yes… yes of course.” Sassy awoke in her house. She jumped to her hooves and looked around, but it seemed she was alone. There was no Rarity, no beast, no hole in the air, and no humming sound. All was quiet. Sassy ignored her morning routine. Her makeup was left unapplied, breakfast went uneaten, and the news went unread. She raced down the street to the boutique, undressed, and slammed the door open. “Rarity!” she shrieked. Rarity jumped. She was among the racks, stacking the clothing and hanging things Sassy had ignored last night. She was tossing some things into a hamper labeled “remove”, and ironing ones that needed it, while hanging the rest up. She was holding a dress that had a rip when Sassy entered, and she dropped it. “Sassy! Good heavens, are you alright?” Rarity called out, dropping everything to rush over to the door. “Goodness, you look a fright. You’re not even dressed! What’s wrong?” Sassy pulled away from Rarity’s grasp. “You! What did you do last night? What did you make and how did you make it? I saw… I saw something assembling that suit.” At the mention of the suit Sassy’s eyes flicked about the room. They lighted on the dais where the suit of crystal clothing sat, shining brightly with its white color and black veins. Sassy choked on her words. “Oh, do you like it? It’s not as good as the snowing one, like you said, but I’m still very proud of it. Do you want it?” “What – me?” Sassy was taken aback. “I’m not as rich as those other ponies, don’t you want a wealthy pony to wear it and hold it?” “Not for this one. It’s already popular enough, I should start lowering the price, don’t you think?” Rarity reached out to touch it. Sassy took a step forward. “An everypony needs to be able to wear and buy them, and that’s all that matters. So… what do you think? Would you like to be the first everypony to have one?” Rarity’s smile was small, but sinister. Sassy couldn’t help herself. She nodded. “Yes… yes I would very much.” “Then it’s yours! For just a few easy payments of one bit a month, you can have it!” “Just… one bit per month…?” Sassy took another step forward. “Yes, yes! Just one! I’ll even take it out of your pay so you don’t have to think about it. Does that sound good?” Rarity was excited. Her eyes were wide as Sassy drew closer to the crystal suit. “Yes… I’ll… I’ll take it.” Sassy touched it. She didn’t know why she was touching it, but it felt… good. It felt normal. Everything about this; her touching the suit and about to put it on, felt like it should be happening. There was nothing else she wanted more than to put this on and wear it and be seen wearing it. It was just missing one thing. She looked around, noticing she was holding the helmet in her magic already. She felt strange panic rising as she looked around for something and couldn’t find it. “Rarity the…” Rarity held out the tuning fork. “…fork. Thank… you…” “Of course, darling. It’s pat of the experience, you know. Now… what will you do with it?” “I’m… going to wear it.” “Right now?” “Right… now.” Sassy was going to wear it. She was going to put it on. The store was late opening, but there could be no more delays. She started pulling it on. Rarity was gone by the time Sassy was dressed. She was racing excitedly down the streets, making her way to the cavern as fast as she could. Her hooves clopped along the cobbles and ponies waved to her as she rushed past, but she didn’t stop. She had an appointment. The cave was fairly vibrating when she entered. There was a physically painful hum in the air when she ran inside, and she had trouble breathing as it vibrated against her body. The portal in the center of the room was wide open and the beast was sitting, waiting. It’s one great eye locking on to her. Noise came from it, and Rarity took up her position immediately. “I’m here! I’m here! Yes, she took it! She’s putting it on now, the others will be wearing their soon enough. Now please, is this enough?” The sound came again and Rarity looked excited. A great hand brought out another shard of silvery crystal and Rarity squealed in delight. “Yes! That will be mine, will it? Yes! Yes! Yes!!” Rarity sat down and pulled out her final tuning fork. She tapped it against the crystal and it emitted a low hum. She hummed herself, slowly picking up the sound and following along with it. It filled the room, amplifying the already painful sound that filled the cavern. It burrowed into her ears, which she flattened against her head, but it was no good. The sound shook her teeth and she felt the timbre of it dig into her brain. Despite the pain, she hummed along with it, singing the tune that kept the beast in the portal building her crystal suit. It slowly took shape, piece by piece, crystal by crystal, part by part. Rarity shivered with excitement. When it was done, the silvery shimmering suit of crystal clothing stood before Rarity on the dais, just in front of the dark portal and the beast within. Rarity stopped humming and jumped forward, eagerly racing around the suit. The suit, like the others, was pliable. Despite being made of crystals, the pieces linked together through some magical means Rarity hadn’t yet figured out. They were waterproof, she had tested that, and the helmet, like the others, allowed for a unicorn’s horn. Rarity’s wasn’t a full body-covering suit, instead being made of thin strips of crystal that would drop over her croup, leaving a hole for her dock and tail. It was a dress, sort of, and it was all hers. Rarity wasted no time in putting it on. The beast in the window of darkness watched her impassively as she pulled the suit on. When she finally settled the hat over her horn, putting it through the hole on the top to let the silvery chains dangle down through and over her mane, she sighed happily. The creature reached out a hand to her then. She pulled back but still smiled at it. It pointed at her horn and hummed a loud, low note. Rarity sang it out back to the thing in her own alto voice. “Aahhhhh!” It shook its head and sang again. The deep note shook the walls of the cavern. Rarity furrowed her brow. “I don’t think I can get that low, darling.” It sang the note again. One of the crystals in her setup fall out of the ceiling and dust rained from above. Rarity went an octave lower. “Ahhhhhh!” It nodded and held the note. Rarity kept it going as long as she could, then nodded and smiled. “Thank you for the clothing. It is lovely.” Rarity turned to leave, and the creature smiled. It gave her a small wave and she waved back. She left humming that same note, going up and down, up and down. Singing high, singing low, and the whole while, the dress shimmered. Sunlight had no effect on it, but Rarity didn’t notice. She went back up to the boutique, and by the time she was there, she had an entourage of ponies fawning over her glittering dress. Ponies wanted it, ponies wanted her, ponies wanted to just stare, and ponies wanted to buy. Anypony that saw it was desperate to know the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ and the ‘when can I buy one?’. Rarity’s boutique was packed all day. Sassy and her had a neverending crowd pushing and shoving and offering bits over bits to get their hooves on the clothes they were wearing. Rarity didn’t answer any of the questions. They were her answers and hers alone. She had made the dress through effort and guile and work upon work. The clothing wasn’t easy and it never would be, but she had one, and she wasn’t going to part with it. She went home that day happy and humming. She went home that day so happy she didn’t even get undressed before she went to bed. Her eyes closed while she was standing in her living room, and she never made it. Rarity fell asleep, and then she left the house. Her eyes opened, but they weren’t her eyes anymore. They were hourglasses. Oblong in shape and warped, they watched the streets ahead as they helped her make her way through Canterlot. She walked up hills and down roads, making her way in a very specific direction to a very specific spot in town. There she met four others. The three ponies that had purchased one of Rarity’s crystal clothing line met up with her, all wearing their own outfit. The rich pony in the prototype mess Rarity had first built, the second pony who had paid the most, the snowfall in crystal, and last, Sassy in her spidery black and white outfit. They met up at a crossroads and looked at each other with hourglass eyes. Sassy was the one who started humming first. Her voice was high and lovely, humming a high-pitched note. The other three rich ponies joined in, singing counterpoint low and middling to match her in harmony. Rarity stayed silent as their voices set her ears to vibrating until she could feel it in her teeth. Rarity then stepped forward and stood in the middle to hum the deep, low note the creature below had sung for her. The road quaked. A shiver, starting from under their hooves washed out through the ground in all directions. Houses shook, masonry cracked, dust rained, and a few houses even fell over. Lights came on. Panic began, and magic glowed. Still they sang. Sassy’s eyes bled. The first pony and his crystal suit started rattling. Crystals fell from his clothing as his body and his clothing started to give out. His forehoof fell off, seemingly rattled to pieces as he bled and the muscle just let go. Despite his apparent injury he didn’t panic, he just kept singing until he collapsed in a bloody heap in the street. His suit fell apart, each individual crystal rattling to the street as whatever magic held it together gave way. The second pony followed soon after, their suit collapsed, their body ruptured, their eyes burst, and they fell to the ground. The third went after him. Rarity didn’t pay attention as Sassy gave in the same way. Her legs fell off but still she stayed, floating as her horn glowed to keep her up. Her eyes bled red until they finally disintegrated, leaving Rarity to glow in the middle of the bloody ring. Rarity’s dress shimmered darkly. The moonlight didn’t touch it as each string of crystals fluttered in an unfelt wind. She opened her mouth and sang the note as hard and loud as she could. The ground rumbled. Quakes shook outward from where she stood over and over, rattling the stone buildings, leveling everything as they blasted out to harm Canterlot. In the distance, Canterlot’s castle shimmered with protective magicks that halted the quakes in their tracks, the only building to escape the onslaught. Rarity held the note far too long. She should have run out of breath, but she kept going. Her chest collapsed inward, her dress squeezed her, crushing her as it, and she, folded in on herself. She died singing that note, disappearing into the air, only for it to explode outward. From Ponyville it could be seen, Canterlot mountain exploded as the creature’s giant arms reached out. Crystals of all sorts rained down on the countryside as the untapped crystal caves were ruptured. The castle, which had survived the quakes, collapsed down the side of the mountain. Hundreds died. The Beast was freed. The End.