//------------------------------//
// Sickness 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

Rarity watched preoccupied the city outside the shield. "I don't feel good about this," she muttered under her breath. Starlight had been gone for a few minutes at that point, no signs of her anywhere she could see. To distract herself, Rarity turned to Fluttershy instead. "How are you doing, dear?" she asked.
"Nervous." Fluttershy was looking outside too, and slightly swaying back and forth with her frame. She slid her teeth over each other a couple of times, then looked sideways at Rarity. "You?"
"I as well." She swallowed. "It's... Being stuck here, unable to help, you know? I feel like a dead weight. If I knew something about healing magic I could at least be useful in some way. Instead I have to be the damsel who needs to be kept safe from harm, while the others are out there."
Fluttershy smiled briefly at that, thinking of how Rarity would have enjoyed that kind of treatment under different circumstances. "I get that," she said. She did. She was probably more used to the feeling than Rarity had ever been. "We wouldn't be here if we weren't needed at one point, though. And even then there's nothing wrong with not being useful here. Different ponies are better at doing different things, it's normal and it's best that way."
Rarity sighed. "You're right. Of course you're right. That doesn't make the feeling go away though, not when there's so much on the line especially. You don't feel inadequate when someone else is preparing food or taking care of a garden, but when the entire country is at risk..." She vaguely waved a hoof around. "It feels like the sort of thing where everyone should contribute, you know? We're all in danger, and yet only some of us have to do the work. It's not fair to them."
Fluttershy sighed too. "If things were fair, they would not need to fight in the first place." She cocked her head to one side, and smiled at Rarity.
"I suppose that's true." Rarity looked down, forcing herself to also smile and almost succeeding. "But my heart will not listen to logic or reason, it seems." She actually fully smiled after saying those words. "In that, I suppose I'm quite like myself." She shook her head, and looked back at Fluttershy. "How are things going with..." She vaguely eyed the miscoloured portions of the pegasus's wings and mane. "That," she said flatly.
Fluttershy shrugged. "No worse or better than when things started today, and only slightly worse than yesterday. Like I said, I've been able to reason with them well enough, and while I'm kept safe here and things stay like this they won't be acting up."
Rarity nodded a little at that, then exhaled and looked out the shield again. "Let's hope things stay like this, then." She eyed the spell still raining bullets on the buildings below it with increased nervousness. "And let's hope things will go well when the time comes to use the Elements."