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// 13: Cleaning Up After Sweetie [Sad?] 
// Story: Thirty Minutes of Fabulosity 
// by Esle Ynopemos 
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((Prompt: Spring Cleaning.))

She stood in the doorway to the Boutique. It wasn't always so visible, but right now her age showed in the wrinkles around her eyes and the way the sheen had begun to drain away from her mane. She was still by no means an old pony, but today she looked just a little bit more frail than Rarity remembered.

“Mother,” Rarity said, nodding in greeting.

Rarity's mother gave her a thin smile. It felt a bit odd; she was usually one to have a broad, cheesy grin no matter the circumstances. But there were some circumstances, Rarity supposed... “We're cleaning her room,” the middle-aged mare said. “We... I could use your help, dearie.”

To her shame, Rarity took half a moment's hesitation, her eyes flickering to the unfinished dress on her sewing table before she forced herself to look her mother in the eyes. “Of course I'll help, mother. Give me a moment to put my things away, and I'll walk with you.”

The walk across Ponyville was nearly silent. Mother and daughter shared no words. The town itself seemed quieter than it normally did. The weather team could be seen pulling clouds across the sky in preparation for a light spring shower.

Rarity took a deep breath as her foalhood home rose in front of her, bordered on one side by a still pond that reflected the gathering gray of the sky. Her father set down a cardboard box and waved at the two of them. Rarity smiled and waved back.

“I take it you need me upstairs?” she asked her mother, who nodded in reply.

The upstairs room had been Rarity's once, before she had moved out. Sweetie, ever one to take after her sister, had claimed it the day Rarity's last box of belongings had been taken over to Carousel Boutique. Now the room was empty. There was still a few things of Sweetie's left—a picture on the wall, some clothes in the closet—but nopony lived here anymore. If an empty town was called a ghost town, it was perhaps appropriate to call this a ghost room.

Rarity's mother followed her in, her horn glowing as a box of items floated into the air. “I just wish you could have been here to say goodbye.”

Rarity's eyes narrowed as she wheeled on her. “That isn't fair, mother. You know where I was and what I was doing. Twilight and the others needed me!”

Her mother put a hoof over her mouth. “I—I know, I'm sorry. I just...”

Rarity's face softened, and her shoulders sagged. She took a few steps to wrap her mother in a hug. “I know, mother. It feels so empty without her here.”

A few minutes later, as the two mares carried some boxes outside, they stopped as a young yellow pony who was no longer a filly approached. “Apple Bloom,” Rarity greeted, waving a hoof. “I haven't seen you in a week! How are you, dear?”

Apple Bloom pushed an unruly lock of red hair out of her face. “I'm managin',” she said, grinning weakly. “I thought I might come lend a hoof.”

Rarity smiled sympathetically. “I'm afraid this is the last of it.” Apple Bloom's ears fell at this news. “But maybe you could help Father loading it all into the cart,” she suggested.

The yellow earth pony nodded. “Okay, I'll do that, then.” She trotted alongside Rarity as the three of them carried the remaining boxes around to the moving cart parked around the front of the house.

“Fillydelphia,” Rarity remarked, wiping her brow as she handed the box off to her father, who was busily organizing them all to fit in the vehicle. “That's a long way away.”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Sweetie says they got the best music program there. An' she promised she'd write us back letters every month.”

Rarity's mother took out a kerchief and wiped the corners of her eyes. “Hopefully it'll help it feel a bit more like home over there once her stuff makes it there. Oh, I know I'm getting sentimental, but the house is going to be so empty now that both of you have gone and left the nest!”

“Don't worry, mother.” Rarity put a foreleg over her mother's withers. “She'll be back home for the Summer Sun Celebration.”