Written by: Mercury Gilado
The most ornate hotel room, worth every bit she poured into it, boxed in the prone mare. Thirteen-hundred bits; thirteen-thousand beads of her youth lost on her brow. One million, three hundred thousand seconds that ticked by since she left home, without a word of her destination.
She was hardly alone these days, however. Rarity sat up straight on a faux-leather sofa, bellowing out musical scales, up and down, down and up. She enjoyed her midnight arias, delivered to her captive audience as always. Even the warm-up was merely transparent after years of hearing it, thanks to her wondrous voice.
She held no love for Rarity. Every time she snuck a glance at her, Rarity would ultimately catch her, meeting her with those diamondized eyes of hers, cool blue and perfectly sharp. The first time she met those eyes was long, long before, staring back at her in a gilded hoof mirror. Looking away was impossible though. All the other mirrors told her lies, while Rarity, where she sat, was her truth.
And Rarity smiled back, always. She hoped, when Rarity’s cheeks rose from that smile, her eyes would cut her beautiful face.
“It’s such a relaxing night tonight, is it not?” she asked.
“I suppose.” Where Rarity’s voice was clear as crystal, hers was strained and dry. She sang duets with Rarity once before, but she now could no longer keep up. “I would rather get some sleep, if you don’t mind.”
“Don’t worry about that, my dear,” Rarity responded, playful as ever.
“I see. I shan’t ever become used to this,” she said, adjusting her shoulders a bit.
“Oh, you always say that. What do we desire tonight, hm? A little company?” Rarity said, licking her lips.
“It gives me no more joy, Rarity. You will simply have to find another way to kill time.”
The radiant mare only pouted.
“I can smell the loneliness from here,” she said in a low tone. “That means you are thinking about her again, or Luna is rudely dropping in for another visit.”
“She does not care for your kin, Rarity.”
“Oh, I’m well aware.”
The poison she spat was an out, to keep the predator at bay while an old wound bled. She tossed to face away from Rarity, but that did little to hide the trail from that wound.
“I implore you to not cry to yourself all night again. It’s so pathetic, I taste bile! And I don’t even have a stomach.”
Phlegm began choking her up, but she dared not sniffle, even a little. Knives of diamond raked her back in silence, she could feel it. From a hawk to hyena, Rarity chuckled.
“I AM generous, though. It makes me even more ill to lower myself to her level, but I’m willing --”
“Silence!”
The ground lurched under the two at her cry. Watching Rarity stumble around like a fool gave her more than a little mirth, enough to bring her to her hooves, standing over the collapsed mare.
“She terrifies you, doesn’t she?” Rarity said, out of breath. “Every love you’ve known since then, all slashed and torn. But she!”
“I said silence!” With a growl, she took hold of the couch with her magic and rammed Rarity from the side, sending her rolling into the wall.
But the mare’s smile never wavered. “She showed you what it was all about! The time you spent, the smiles traded, the glances stolen, not one word of that silly thing called ‘love’. And you knew!”
A pair of scissors floated to her side. Rarity glanced to it, but she met her eyes straight away. Even with a show of winding them back, Rarity paid the scissors no mind. No mind, even three inches into her neck.
“Her heart screamed!” Rarity croaked around the blackness pooling in her mouth. “‘Let me out!’ You looked back that day, to her, when the train departed. It was like watching a dove curl up and die, as the the other dove left it behind in its cage.”
Then, Rarity frowned back at her, lips pursed in ink.
“I must say, that was one of the finer displays of cruelty I’ve ever seen. I knew I saw great things in you,” she said, looking down to her bleeding neck.
“It was mercy,” she sobbed back. “I can never love a wretched thing like you, Rarity. How could I truly love her back? To love her, I would need to care about you too.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Rarity said back, lifting her trembling hoof away from her shoulder. It was her turn to collapse to the floor, Rarity now standing above. The inky blood pooled at her feet, giving the prone mare a reflection to stare at. “Fluttershy was always too kind for her own good. You’d suck her dry like a changeling would eventually, except all the changelings I’ve ever met were far prettier.”
“Just a pinch,” the tired face in the puddle whispered. “Just a pinch of her love, at the bottom of my heart, would have weighed it down in Ponyville. My hopes, my dreams!” The mare pounded the floor feebly. “ I could never have left her behind if I opened up and accepted her love!” Under the small blows, the floor rippled, as did the mare in front of her, until nothing but blackness remained. “Then, she would spend the rest of her days with a monster like you…”
As her chest shuddered, a letter slid from her chest to the floor. A mess of signatures adorned the bottom, six in total. When the sunlight came into focus, she choked out a single word.