The Fourth Gem
by Midnight Shadow
an MLP:FiM sad fanfic
“Oh my my, everything is shaping up just wonderfully my dears! For my final appearance as head of House Rarity before you three take up the reigns and I...retire, everything must be perfect! Amethyst, do make sure the lighting crew are prepared - double check all the lights!” said Rarity in a sing-song voice.
“At once Mama!” replied Amethyst curtly, bowing her head with a small smile playing on her lips. Her mother trotted past frantically, adjusting a hemline here and dabbing a spot of blusher there on the fortunate lost souls who wandered within reach of the old unicorn’s magic. The prim and proper white unicorn was gifted with a still-stunning purple mane and tail despite her advanced age.
“Ruby, Ruby! Make doubly sure all the models are ready and waiting! Those with dresses to finish-” called Rarity, voice breaking with stress as she flustered and panicked.
“Yes mama!’ interrupted Ruby, “Those with dresses to finish should be in dressing room B, makeup in dressing room C, finishing touches in A - calm yourself mother, be calm! We three have everything well in hoof here and Jewel is putting the finishing touches to the dresses.”
“For an earth pony,” mulled Amethyst, “I did wonder why you brought her in and gave her the spot you did, with no magic and only hooves for such intricate work...”
“Ammy! Second-guessing mother like that!” gasped Ruby.
“I was about to say,” continued Amethyst, sticking a tongue out, “that whilst I didn’t understand, I do now. I don’t know where you found her but she’s saved our hides more than once. I swear, if I didn’t know better she could almost be...”
“Well I don’t know what I would do without you three either deary!” Rarity interrupted as she trotted back past and gave her second daughter a peck on the cheek, trembling as she mentally ticked off yet another item to deal with, “Oh! Music! Music! We must have-”
“Music is ready, mama,” said Emerald, the third daughter, with a laugh. “We have The Hoof to open with, Three Foals Black for the evening wear, the Colt Cuddlers,” she giggled despite herself at the name, “for the lingerie and Stomp Stomp Whinny for the ensemble pieces. I can assure you, nopony has seen an eclectic collection like these ever. You’ll be the talk of Equestria for decades mama! You will go out in style!”
“Oh, I don’t know...do you really think the Colt Cuddlers..?” Rarity fussed over the music choice, her aged voice quivering as she considered the possible backlash.
“Oh it must be bold! You said so yourself! When have I ever steered you wrong?” asked Emerald, her name reflecting her colour-scheme perfectly.
Rarity paused, forehoof half in the air. She blushed, “Oh my dear daughters, never. Mama is so proud, of all of you! If only...” she sniffed, sadly, raising a kerchief to her eye, “if only Starlight could see you now. Oh I miss him. His calm disposition, soft voice. Those big, strong hooves...”
“Mother!” gasped Amethyst, flicking her tail.
“Starlight Express, I used to call him...oh your father and I had such good times...”
“Not listening!” cried the purple unicorn with dazzling white mane, closing her eyes and throwing her head back as she started singing, “la la la la laaa!”
“Oh Ammy,” chided Ruby, shaking her deep-red statuesque head in a laugh, “a grown mare like you! You’ve got foals of your own!”
“It’s just it’s different when it’s Mother talking about...it.”
“You’re such a prude!” giggled Emerald, putting a hoof to her muzzle, “Why, with the things I read about you in Equestria Daily...”
Emerald trailed off as she turned to see her aged mother sprawled on her backside with a faraway expression in her eyes, “Girls! Mama’s not well!”
The three older daughters crowded around their mother as Emerald leaned in and nuzzled her ears, “Mother? Mother! Are you alright?”
Rarity blinked and shook her head, “Oh, darlings, of course mama’s alright!”
“When did you last rest Mama?” chided Ruby, “We have everything well in hoof! You’re running yourself ragged like this! Tell me, when did you last get some shut-eye?”
“I simply don’t know what you’re talking about, Ruby darling. Why I’m perfectly...” Rarity surged to her hooves and stood there, swaying gently for a moment before collecting herself, “I’m perfectly fine!”
“You’re not! You’re going to kill yourself if you don’t get some rest. I don’t know where you found her but she really is a gem - Go! Go see Jewel. She’s putting the finishing touches to our top models and I know for a fact she’s been sleeping in there, slaving away, getting your collection ready. There’s a bed of sorts in there, use it. You may inspect the rest of our girls when you’ve rested up.”
“But...” said Rarity, glancing towards the door marked with three large diamonds. In truth, she’d been agonizing over a decision that had long been put off - facing Jewel would mean facing that decision once and for all.
“But nothing! Go!” said Ruby, pointing with a hoof. The deep red unicorn breathed a deep sigh, “Please?”
“Oh alright, for you, but I don’t know what the fuss is about...”
***
Jewel was an earth pony, so unlike Rarity and her three famous daughters, she had to use her mouth and hooves to maneuver fabrics into position and sew sequins and buttons. Still, she was the quiet powerhouse behind many of House Rarity’s top-selling outfits. She sat engrossed in her task, sewing machine humming away, as Rarity walked up behind her and stood, watching.
Jewel stopped and lifted her head suddenly, turning, “Oh! Miss Rarity! I didn’t see you there! Forgive me!” she fumbled with her gear and awkwardly stood up on all four hooves to give a cautious curtsey.
“Oh don’t get up my dear, I’m...I’m a silly old mare and I’m just getting in the way but...I love to see you work.” Rarity stumbled a bit and almost fell. Jewel leaped to prop her up and lead her to a large comfortable couch. Rarity looked deeply into her eyes, breathing deeply, as if searching for something...or trying to speak.
“Up you get, Miss Rarity, right here.” said Jewel softly, nudging the aged unicorn mare with her muzzle, “lay yourself down for a bit. Is there anything I can get you? Is there anything specific you want?”
For a moment, it seemed as if the unicorn was about the speak, as if a heavy weight rested upon her back and she just waited to unburden herself - but the moment passed, “Just...just a glass of water, if you will - and tell me, how is your dress coming along?”
Jewel stiffened, halfway to the well-stocked fridge. Nervously putting the crystal goblet down, she pulled open the door and lifted out a bottle of sparkling mineral water in silence.
“Jewel, darling, you can’t hide anything from...from Rarity. I know you’ve been working on your own creation, something uniquely you.”
“It’s not finished,” said Jewel in a small voice, picking up the now-filled glass carefully and bringing it back to Rarity, who used her magic to take it from her. The unicorn’s magic faltered for a moment and the goblet dipped, but she recovered and sipped it gratefully.
“Then finish it, display it, show me! Shower me with your brilliance.” Rarity leaned back in the sofa. Whatever she’d had in mind to speak about, decided Jewel, the unicorn had put it off once again.
Jewel blinked and shook her head, there wasn’t a hint of irony in the mare’s lined muzzle about the dress and the old mare was urging her on to work. She dipped her head demurely and moved back to the sewing machine. As the clatter started up again, she could feel Rarity’s eyes boring into the back of her skull. Jewel knew she had something important to say, but it was as if the unicorn just didn’t know how to start. She sighed, a practiced eye sweeping across her dress as she completed it’s silken lengths and frilly folds in her mind. It was time to spread her wings.
***
Rarity opened her eyes with a start, had she been...sleeping? Worse, she’d been drooling. Somepony had pulled a blanket over her. How long had she been out? Glancing at the clock she all but leaped from her makeshift bed to stand on wobbly legs from the sudden exertion, “Oh no! It’s time! I’m late! There’s just so much to do! So much...I wanted to say.”
In an echo to her words, the door to the room burst open and Rarity’s three unicorn daughters exploded in, chattering and hollering.
“It’s the final act! We’re supposed to be on stage! The big number is supposed to start in ten minutes and our light technician’s had a blackout!”
“The Colt Cuddlers are off Colt Cuddling! And Stomp Stomp Whinny’s having a tantrum!”
“By Celestia’s great blue beard! Tell me at least our models are ready!”
“Thanks to Jewel,” said Ruby demurely, “they were and are. Now, get Candlewick if you can’t get Nightlight and let’s get the closing number of this show on the road!”
Rarity leaped to the door and closed it quickly, “No!”
She had come to a decision.
She bit her lip, “No, first I...I have something to tell you all. An announcement, it can’t wait. I’ve waited too long already - the show will go on but...this can’t wait!”
“Mother?” asked Amethyst quizzically.
“Many years ago I met your father, girls. He was a good stalllion and he was taken far too quickly. The best medicine in Equestria couldn’t save him, and...” she paused, wiping a tear from her eye, “and I missed him so much, but we grew. We lived. We survived.”
“We all miss Papa very much,” said Ruby, “but is now the best time to get maudlin over him?”
“Shush Ruby! This isn’t about your father. It’s about what happened next. A few years after his passing I found myself back in Ponyville, renovating and re-opening Carousel Boutique. There was...we needed wood. My good friend Applejack had an orchard, and trees she didn’t want. I found a helpful stallion to rebuild.”
“Yes, we know. It’s when you...went into seclusion. We thought that was because you missed Papa.”
“Oh girls,” Rarity smiled fondly, “you shone brighter that day than any star. You took my little company and made it something great whilst I was holed up in the back of beyond feeling sorry for myself.”
“So you were moping.” giggled Emerald.
“I was not moping. I was pining. There’s a difference,” sniffed Rarity, “anyway, there I was...and there he was.”
“HE?” echoed all three daughters.
“What does this...I’ll...just be going...”
“You most certainly will not, Jewel, this involves you too. Sit. That stallion, young Caramel by name, caught my eye and we got to...talking. And soon talking turned to something more and then...well, Jewel, I have something to say to you that I should have said years ago.”
“Mother!” cried Amethyst, “You didn’t?”
“I did. Several times. Many times. Eleven months later, Jewel was born.”
You could have heard a pin drop, thought Jewel. She flinched a moment later when an entire box of pins clattered to the polished oaken floor as one of the elder sisters, one of her sisters realised Jewel, stumbled into it in shock. The room exploded again, into a ceaseless jumble of chatter.
“How could you not tell us?”
“How could you manage to hide it!”
“So...who brought her up?”
Rarity fended them off, “One at a time, one at a time. I operated Carousel Boutique alone and young Jewel stayed with the Apple family. I...I had my reputation to uphold - hear me out; back then a foal born out of wedlock was a scandal, it took Ditzy years to get over Dinky. It would have ruined me, ruined my business and ruined any future for you, my poor darling Jewel...” Rarity turned back to her eldest daughters and continued, “so she had to grow up without a mother...without her sisters.”
“Applejack said one of her long lost relatives died in the Everfree Forest and she could only save me!” shouted Jewel, stomping a hoof, “I cried myself to sleep when she told me that!”
“Applejack’s and my friendship suffered quite the strain and we didn’t speak for a long time, but she did what she thought was best when I asked her, when I explained. She forgave me eventually. Can you?” asked Rarity in a small voice when she finally plucked up the courage to lift her head and meet Jewel’s gaze, “I’m a vain old mare; a stupid, vain, selfish old mare and I cared more for my name and my prestige than for my own daughter...”
Jewel sniffed, gulping back tears, “But it was you who...always bought me new dresses and ribbons and saddles, even though they weren’t always the most practical for a farm-pony.”
Rarity nodded, wordlessly.
“It was you, then, who paid the tuition fees when I got into Hoity Toity’s School of the Gifted Arts.” she looked up into Rarity’s reflective blue eyes, her troubled expression lifting slightly.
“I did.”
“It was you who gave me my first break, wasn’t it?”
“I...called in a few favours, but...your talent...that wasn’t...”
“I inherited it from you though, didn’t I? You didn’t abandon me...You watched over me.”
Rarity nodded slowly, tears forming in her eyes, “I watched you for so long, from afar. I daren’t hold you. I daren’t tell you...and then...and then you were all grown up!”
Jewel watched wordlessly as the usually verbose unicorn choked up and resorted to gesticulating, panting hard between sobs, talking about missing her first steps and aching every time she cut her knees and had cried for mommy...and gone to be comforted by Applejack. About not being able to congratulate good grades and share triumphs and comfort failures...but most of all, on Dam’s Days, she’d missed the scrolls. A simple scroll, hoof made with love would have been her fondest wish. Applejack had saved them all. They all featured the stetson-hatted cow-pony. Big Mac featured in Sire’s Day scrolls.
Rarity’s eyes grew puffy, “I...did what I could...but the simplest thing that I should have done was just to scoop you up in my hooves and tell you the truth! And I never did! I wasted all these years...now, when I have no time left...”
“Mother!” retorted Ruby, “Don’t speak like that!”
“Hush girls, it’s alright. A unicorn like myself...when you get to my age you get an inkling of what time you have left and mine grows short-” A bell sounded, curtain call for the final act and the unveiling of the ponies behind House Rarity, “...and now we have no time left. I know this is sudden. I know this is a shock...I’ve been meaning to tell you. For so many years! Af-after the show, dearest Jewel, you and I...shall have a long talk. Yes. A holiday. We’ll...we’ll start anew. Fresh. I...I can never get those years back but hopefully you can learn to forgive...”
“Rar- ...Mother,” Jewel tasted the unfamiliar word in her mouth, interrupting the nervous monologue, “I...understand what you did, I’m not ever sure I’ll quite understand why, but I’m a grown filly. A few years ago I would have thrown things, bucked doors off hinges...but now? ...Can we hug? We have time for a hug, don’t we?”
Rarity’s face broke into a wide smile, “Of course we can. Of course!”
They embraced, neck to neck, and the moment stretched on for as long as it could. Jewel opened her eyes as she felt hot tears on her neck, tears of regret.
“I wasted so much time,” whispered Rarity, “I can’t tell you how much it hurt me. I have no idea how much it must hurt you! I must make it right. Tonight, to the world, I will present my youngest daughter, prize of my collection, source of so much secret joy, now to be made public. Put your dress on dear, we have a show to present!”
“But...my dress! It’s...it’s missing something! I don’t know what though!” Jewel almost laughed at herself, fussing over a mere dress when her life had just been turned upside down.
“I have just the thing. Put the dress on and wait right here!”
As Jewel shrugged into her creation, Rarity galloped off, reappearing a few minutes later with an ornate box marked with a silver-inlaid ‘R’. The unicorn opened it. Inside, glittering on black velvet, was a necklace. Rarity lifted it out with her magic and fastened it to the earth-pony where it flashed brightly, the hue of the gem changing to match Jewel’s cutie-mark.
Jewel didn’t even have a chance to admire it before she was dragged pell-mell through the complex, “Perfect! Now, to the center dais!”
Rarity and Jewel fairly flashed through the crowd of panicked workers that scurried about lifting curtains and adjusting pedestals, and all but leaped onto the biggest. The lights went out, the music started, and Rarity’s show went into action.
Rarity turned to her daughter, “Jewel...I...I just want to say, whilst I still can, that I love you. I’ve always loved you. I only wanted the best for you.”
“I know Rar- mother, I know...but the show..?”
“That doesn’t matter so much than that I...get to tell you. Whatever happens, know I gave you everything I could.”
“Why are you now..?”
“I’m a unicorn with not much time left, Jewel, I can hear the stars calling my name. This will be my last performance, and your first. Please remember,” Rarity took a deep breath, turning to face the crowd, tears squeezing out of her tightly-clenched eyes, “please remember I love you. Whatever happens, it’s not your fault.”
“I don’t understand!” wailed Jewel.
“You will, dear Jewel, you will. Now, chin up! Face forward. Chest in! Smile!”
***
Spike cleared his throat as he spoke into the microphone, “Through the years...none have done more for fashion, none have been more bold or unique, none have been as talented in their endeavours as the members of House Rarity. Tonight, it is my great pleasure to present to you the three princesses of pret-a-porter, Ruby, Emerald and Amethyst!”
At his words, the platforms lifted silently into the air. Panicked squeals and hissed protests reached Rarity’s ears, “Lights! We have no lights!”
“Then,” said Rarity, “I shall produce the lights! The show must go on!”
Rarity closed her eyes, and her horn sparked into glory. Above the stage, lights flickered on and shone with soft yet powerful multi-coloured lights. Rarity groaned under the strain, falling back to her haunches.
“Mother - Mama! You don’t need to do this!”
“It’s...alright...mother’s fine...” said Rarity through gritted teeth, getting back to her hooves, as stars exploded in her vision, “I can handle it...”
The lights lit up the three expertly placed unicorns. The roar of the crowd - previously tumultuous - raised to bedlam levels. Beneath the stage there came the snapping of ropes.
“Rarity has it in hoof!” shouted the unicorn, compensating with her magic as various mechanisms suddenly refused to work.
“Mama! Please!” said Jewel.
“The show! Must! Go! On!” panted Rarity, “Nopony knows the setup as well as I do! Just a few more...minutes...”
“Please stop! Others can handle it! Oh why must you be so stubborn?”
“No! The world must know! Be ready!”
Rarity panted - demurely - as the dais rose into the sky. All around her she could feel the sound of the crowd stomping their hooves, calling her name. The blood rushed through her head as she exercised her magic to make this one night, this one last performance before all her daughters took over, fabulous. It was her way. It was her dream. Self-made. Self-reliant. She would do as she must, as she always had.
“But tonight,” said Spike into the microphone, his voice reverberating across the open-air auditorium, “House Rarity has something more to tell you. Something more to present. Something extraordinary.”
The dragon hesitated, eyes going wide at what he was reading, “House Rarity is blessed with three truly talented unicorn daughters, each one their mother’s equal...but tonight, tonight House Rarity is joined by a fourth. I present, with great fanfare, the...the youngest daughter of Madame Rarity - Jewel.”
Rarity took a deep breath. This was it. Her daughter’s moment. The one chance she would have to redeem herself to her youngest offspring. She leaned into the magic. She poured her very heart and her soul into the spells that fizzled and crackled across the brightly-lit stage. The blood rushing through her ears was loud, so loud it drowned out the pandemonium that overtook the audience as every single member stood up to look up at the radiant beauty that was this sudden, unexpected and magnificent filly. Her dress shone like the moon, drifted like the wind, sparkled like the stars...indeed, the stars themselves seemed to shine with a greater light than ever before in answer. Rarity breathed deeply - once, twice - and released the last of her magic.
Overhead, as the two ponies center stage rose into view, the night sky exploded with a shimmering, multi-coloured rainbow of starlight. A rushing clap of thunder tore the very heavens asunder as light brighter than the day rippled across the expansive panorama. The lights on the gantrys exploded with showers of sparks, and the stage - save for Jewel and her mother - was plunged into darkness.
The crowd was silent...and then it burst into applause more powerful than before.
In the midst of all this, Jewel turned to Rarity, who seemed to be asleep. Her eyes were closed and her horn was dark. She was very still, peaceful. Jewel bent her head to nuzzle softly at the mistress of elegance, and started to cry, softly, as the world slowly realized that the guiding star of fashion itself...had gone out.
“Oh mother,” said Jewel, nuzzling softly as tears rolled down her cheeks, “still giving of yourself to others to the very end, even if you had to do things your own way. Thank you. I love you. I’ll miss you.”
***
Celestia watched from her private box, and she turned to Luna, “Was that...you?”
“I control the night sky, dear sister, and whilst I admit to knowing the timing of such oddities of the universe as supernovae, sometimes these things just...happen.”
Celestia smiled, she didn’t believe a word of it, “She deserved the send-off, little sister.”
Luna watched on, eyes twinkling like the stars that were slowly reappearing as the last remaining rays of the monumental burst of light faded. They illuminated the scene of four solemn ponies kneeling around the still form of Rarity, proud and beautiful even to the end.
“She did indeed. I’d burn a thousand stars for a mare such as Rarity, and still they wouldn’t eclipse her light.”