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// 16: Snowstorm [Dark] 
// Story: Thirty Minutes of Fabulosity 
// by Esle Ynopemos 
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((Prompt: The night that lasted forever.))

Rarity dared not leave the window, even for a second. Even though there was nothing to see outside but an unending flurry of white on black. Even though the tip of her muzzle went numb from the cold as she pressed it to the glass. She only ever tore her eyes away when the fire died down and she needed to add another piece of wood. Rarity could care less if the fire kept her warm, but she needed to have it ready for when Rainbow returned.

So she waited by the window, keeping the front door lit and tending the fire and cursing herself that that was all she could do. Rainbow was out there somewhere, risking her life. Sweetie was out there somewhere, cold and alone. And here Rarity was, safe and warm, and there was nothing better she could do than keep the damnable door lit up and the fire going.

It was the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. Ponyville had dealt with wild storms from the Everfree before, but this blizzard was a monster even by the Everfree's standards. Rarity knew that her mailbox was mere paces from the front of her boutique, yet the wall of howling wind and ice obscured even that from her vision. The eaves of Carousel Boutique creaked and groaned as frozen gales pounded against its exterior.

Rarity could not see how Rainbow Dash could have expected to find anypony out there in such a miasma, let alone a little filly whose coat color was the same as the snow that drifted in heaps outside the window. How long could a pony survive out there in that frigid night?

She shook her head. She couldn't allow herself to think like that. Rainbow Dash would find Sweetie Belle, and she would bring her safely back here. And once her sister was warm and safe, Rarity would kill her for making her worry so.

Any minute, she would spot a rainbow mane flash among the swirling snowflakes. Any moment, she would see light blue in her window like an opening in the sky to a clear, sunny day. Any minute now.

The snow continued to fall without end. No flash of color. No knock at her door.

Perhaps by the time Rainbow found Sweetie, they were nearer to some other shelter and decided it would be safer to wait the storm out there. Yes, that would make sense. Rainbow Dash and Sweetie Belle were surely at Sugarcube Corner right now, laughing and having a grand time with Pinkie serving them hot cocoa.

Surely they weren't lost in the blinding snowstorm, utterly turned around and fumbling their way through the snowdrifts, shivering and crying out for somepony, anypony to help them, only for the cruel winds to snatch their voices away into the dark, churning sky. Surely they weren't feebly struggling to move their limbs as frozen whiteness covered them in a deadly blanket.

It took every last ounce of Rarity's willpower not to go charging out into the blizzard herself. It would do nopony any good, she reminded herself again and again. It would only make for one more pony lost in the frozen tempest. The most good—the only good she could do was wait here and tend the fire. Keep the door lit, so that Rainbow can find her way back.

The light seemed so feeble against the blackness, though. Rarity felt like she could see the limit of its reach a few mere feet beyond her window. Rainbow Dash would surely run headfirst into the Boutique long before she saw the faint glow from the lantern outside.

The blizzard's ice sank into her heart. She had let two ponies die, when there might only have been one. Sure, she had never asked Rainbow to find her sister. But after the sudden storm had driven the two of them into the Boutique, only to find that Sweetie Belle was not inside like she had believed, Rarity had not tried very hard to stop her.

Selfish. Stupid. Cowardly. It should have been her out there searching for her sister. Now she had sent a good friend, more loyal than she deserved, out to die in the vain hope that Sweetie might be found. If anypony deserved to freeze to death out there, it was her.

Rarity nearly leaped out of her own coat as a hoof knocked against her door. “Hey, let us in,” rasped a familiar voice. “I found her.”