//------------------------------//
// My Best Friend 
// Story: Jackie 
// by BronyWriter 
//------------------------------//

A knock on my door interrupted what had previously been a fairly lazy Saturday morning.

I stood up from my bed, where I reclined when completely engrossed in a trashy romance novel, and walked down the stairs to the main floor.

"It's open," I called out to the pony on the other side. "You can just come on in. It is a public library."

The door swung open just as I reached the bottom step, and Rarity walked in, a hint of a smile on her face. "So sorry, my dear," she said, "I do sometimes forget that this is more than just your home."

I chuckled and waved my hoof at her. "No worries, Rarity. What can I help you with?"

Rarity's ghost of a smile faded, and with it went the last illusion that everything was as it should be with her. For the first time since she entered, I noticed that her eyes were bloodshot, and her mane, usually flawlessly brushed and curled, had a few hairs out of place here and there. Normally I would have attributed this to one of her frequent all-night sewing sessions for some extremely important client or other, but something about her posture was completely off. Her shoulders were slumped ever so slightly, and her ears weren't as perky as I was used to seeing. Her eyes betrayed worry, as they did not have that usual spark that she normally had. The corners of my mouth curved down ever so slightly.

"Rarity? Is something the matter?" I took a few steps towards her and tilted my head. "Did something happen?"

Instead of responding immediately, she took a deep breath, and then clicked her tongue. "Yes, I suppose that something did happen."

My breath caught in my chest, and I rushed over to my friend. "Well now you tell me! Come on and sit down, Rarity." I extended a hoof and nudged Rarity towards a pair of plump pillows I kept handy for such an occasion so that I could comfortably talk to somepony. Rarity inclined her head in a barely noticeable nod, and sat down on the pillow I directed her toward. I sat down on the adjacent one. "Now, what happened? Are you okay?"

Rarity didn't respond right away. In fact, she stared at the floor as if deep in thought. She brought a hoof up to her lips and muttered something that I thought sounded like "silly." I frowned and put a hoof on her foreleg. "Rarity? What's going o--"

"Twilight, this is going to sound silly, but..." Rarity put her hoof down and looked me in the eye for the first time since coming into my home. "Did you ever have an imaginary friend when you were a little filly?"

Well, I do have to say that of all of the things I expected her to say, that one didn't even make the list. My look shifted to one of subtle bewilderment for a few moments before I tried my best to make my face neutral. I didn't want to make Rarity think that I thought that she was crazy after all. I gently cleared my throat.

"Well, I didn't, actually. I had my Smarty Pants doll, and I had Shining Armor to play with, so I never thought that I needed one." I took my hoof off of her foreleg. "Uh... did you?"

That ghost of a smile reappeared on Rarity's face, and I heard a light chuckle come from her. "Yes, I did, as a matter of fact. I was probably about Sweetie Belle's age, now that I think on it. We would have tea parties, pretend trips to the spa, and I would bounce ideas off of her and so forth for my sewing." Rarity shrugged. "Nothing unusual for an imaginary friend, I would imagine."

"I guess not." I shifted on the pillow to find a more comfortable spot. "Did she have a name?"

Rarity's smile flickered out again, to be replaced by a pensive frown. "Er... yes, I'm sure that she did, but I can't quite recall what it was." Rarity shook her head and waved her hoof. "No matter, Twilight. I'm not here about my imaginary friend, I'm here about Sweetie Belle's."

"Sweetie Belle has an imaginary friend?"

Rarity nodded, and a grimace formed on her face. "Indeed she does, Twilight. I wouldn't worry so much about it, because as I said: I had one in my time, but she's..." Rarity took a deep breath and poked at one of the hanging curls on her mane. "She's taking it a little too far, Twilight. Exceptionally far, now that I think on it."

I raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Well, to begin, the name she's given it is 'Jackie.'"

"Jackie." I let the name go through my head for a little bit, trying to find some significance to it. "Uh, do you have some relative by that name? Some old family friend, perhaps?"

Rarity shook her head. "No, Twilight. It was not a name that I had heard with any frequency before Sweetie Belle started using it. Heavens knows where she picked it up, but the name is hardly the most important thing." Rarity flattened her ears and began pawing at a loose thread on the pillow she was sitting on. "It started out simple enough. The first indication that I noticed that Sweetie Belle had created such a friend was when I walked past her room and heard her talking to it. I thought nothing of it, assuming it to be some doll that she was playing with."

"But it's not a doll," I guessed. "It's not some physical thing that she's given a personality to."

"No, Twilight. There is no physical representation of Jackie that I have ever been privy to." I noticed that Rarity's breathing became a little heavier, and she began blinking with more frequency. I smiled at her and put my hoof back on her foreleg, and that calmed her breathing. She gave me a weak smile before continuing.

"So yes, it's thin air she's talking to when she speaks to Jackie, and that just makes everything more concerning, Twilight. Jackie... Jackie never leaves her alone, you see." Rarity ran a hoof through her mane and took another deep breath. "Ever. I'll hear Sweetie Belle taking a bath, and she'll be talking to Jackie. She'll be doing her homework and start asking Jackie for the answers, and then she'll nod and begin writing things down as though Jackie is actually giving them to her."

"Interesting..." I tapped my lower jaw with my hoof. "So, you're worried that Sweetie Belle thinks that Jackie is real?"

Rarity's grimace intensified, and she shook her head, this time with a little more vigor. "No, I'm not worried about that, Twilight. I'm certain of it. There is no doubt that Sweetie Belle thinks that Jackie is as real as you or I. It even goes beyond thinking Jackie is helping her with her multiplication tables. She literally won't play with anypony else."

My jaw dropped and my eyes widened. "Wait, what do you mean? You mean that she won't even go play with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo?"

"I'm afraid not, Twilight," Rarity said grimly. "They have come to our home many times over the past week, and each time Sweetie Belle has turned them away, citing Jackie being shy as the reason for not wishing to go out."

Now, that concerned me. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were inseparable! I would have guessed that if Sweetie Belle had made some imaginary friend, she would want to bring it along, so to speak. I could see why Rarity felt that Sweetie Belle had a problem.

"There's one other thing, Twilight."

I flattened my ears and bit my lip. I steeled myself to hear more of a story that was becoming increasingly difficult to hear.

"It's the event that triggered me coming to see you." Rarity's gaze went down to the loose thread that she had been pawing at. "It happened just last night. Sweetie Belle came down for dinner, and she asked me if I could set an extra place for Jackie. I wasn't quite sure what to do, but I didn't want to upset her, so I decided to humor her and do as she asked. I served her and myself, then sat down and began eating. I looked up, and she was just staring at me, this puzzled look on her face. I asked her what the matter was, and she said that I had forgotten to serve Jackie. I laughed and said that Jackie wouldn't eat it, but she pressed that she would. I told her that Jackie wasn't real, and insisted that she begin eating before her dinner got cold.

"I went back to my food, but still Sweetie Belle wouldn't budge on the issue. She wasn't puzzled anymore; she was glaring at me as if I had just told her that I hoped she would never get her cutie mark. Before I could ask what was wrong, she threw her water glass against the wall and began screaming at me that I was a terrible host, and that I didn't deserve to be called the Element of Generosity. Well, I didn't know what else to do, so I put some of what we were having on the plate, and apologized to the thin air where Sweetie Belle believed Jackie to be."

I grimaced, but shrugged. "Well, I guess you did all that you could. You didn't want to upset her any further."

Rarity shook her head. "Indeed not, Twilight, but it gets stranger from there. You see, once I put the food on the plate and apologized, it was like a switch had been flipped. She smiled, thanked me, and then asked me if any famous ponies had come into the shop recently."

"That's so bizarre," I whispered. "And this was just last night?

Rarity nodded. "Yes. Just last night. I'm worried, Twilight, I'm worried that she's going to get a lot worse! She's already gotten worse since she conceived this 'Jackie,' and I'm afraid where she's going to go from here!" Rarity's lower lip quivered, she sniffled, and wiped her eyes. "I never thought that I would see the day when I would miss those hyperactive Crusader sessions that nearly destroyed my boutique! She's just going to get more shut off from the world, Twilight, I'm sure of it! I'm going to come into her room, and she's going to refuse to go to school because Jackie told her not to! She listens to it as though it's Princess Celestia!" I subtly flinched back as Rarity's voice became steadily more hysterical. "You have to help me, Twilight!"

"Uh..." I blinked once and took a slow, deliberate breath. Truth be told, imaginary friends were a little outside of my area of expertise. Heck, the psychology books in general needed a good dusting off, as I hadn't quite broken into them yet. "I'm not quite sure what you want me to do, Rarity. Have you thought about... uh... having Sweetie Belle talk to a counselor of some sort?"

"No!" Rarity leaped forward and grabbed my shoulders. "I absolutely refuse to subject Sweetie Belle to one of those... those... quacks! I resent the fact that you would even suggest such a thing, Twilight!"

She must have noticed the fear in my eyes, because the wild look faded from hers, and she gave a quiet, nervous laugh. She let go of my shoulders and smoothed out some of the frazzled hairs. "Er... what I mean is: I'd rather keep this between us, if it's all the same to you, that is."

"Uh..." I gently cleared my throat and rubbed my shoulder where Rarity had latched on. "Okay, I guess. That still doesn't answer my question of what you want from me."

"Well, I suppose that I just want you to..." Rarity hesitated for the briefest of moments. "Talk to her. She trusts you, Twilight. She knows that you would not harm her, and you are a..." Rarity spun her hoof around as she thought of the words. "Neutral third party."

"Wouldn't she think that I'm just doing it for you?"

"Yes, and she could get angry again, but I'm at my whit's end, Twilight!" Rarity bit her lip and rubbed her hooves together. "I have to help her, Twilight. That angry filly that threw the water glass against the wall isn't my sister, and we both know that! If this 'Jackie' thing is what is doing that to her, then I must do what I can to figure out what is wrong." Rarity extended her hoof and put it on my own. "Please, Twilight. Do it for me? Just talk to her, that's all I ask. I merely want another perspective on the matter."

I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. I didn't like the idea. If Sweetie Belle had a history of getting violent when confronted about Jackie, then my presence could only make things worse in the long run. Still, one conversation couldn't hurt, and I could very easily leave the second that she started losing her temper. I slowly began nodding.

"Okay, I can talk to her. Just once to see what's up."

A look of relief instantly spread over Rarity's face, and, before I could do anything, she lunged forward yet again and wrapped me in a crushing hug. "Thank you, Twilight! Thank you! I won't forget this! I cannot tell you how much this means to me!"

I smiled at Rarity and did my best to return the hug, the back of my mind worried about the difficulty of the task before me.


*  *  *  *


Twenty minutes later, Rarity and I stood outside Sweetie Belle's room in Carousel Boutique. I could hear Sweetie Belle talking inside, but couldn't quite make out what she said. I turned my attention to Rarity, who nodded at me. "She's just playing, I think. If she's talking, then I'd imagine that she's talking to Jackie."

"Okay." I took a deep breath. "I'll do my best to try to get a feel for what's going on with her."

"I can ask for nothing more, Twilight." Rarity gave me a small smile and put her hoof on my shoulder. "Good luck."

With that, she walked back down the stairs, leaving me alone to deal with Sweetie Belle. I took a deep breath. I took a deep breath and allowed myself a weak smile. She's just Sweetie Belle. No reason to be nervous about it. Sure, she may be schizophrenic, and Rarity's secretly expecting me to have one conversation with her and be able to cure her on the spot, but no pressure on me. None at all. 

I walked up to Sweetie Belle's door and swiveled my ear to press it against the wood to see if I couldn't hear her. She still spoke to somepony. Either that or I was about to interrupt a tea party with some innocent stuffed animals. Her voice came through faintly, but I still heard it.

"Would you like some more tea, Jackie? It sure was nice of Rarity to make us some while she went to go talk with Twilight, wasn't it?" Silence filled the room for a moment before Sweetie Belle spoke again. "Now Jackie, I don't think she's that bad. She's my big sister, and I love her, and she loves me very much! She just needed to get used to you, I guess." Another pause, but when Sweetie Belle spoke next, I could sense some uncertainty in her voice. "W-well, I don't know why she did that at dinner last night. I guess she thought that there was only enough f-for the two of us, or something." Another pause. "No! Rarity is a very good pony! She's the Element of Generosity, and she makes the most beautiful dresses in all of Equestria! She's the nicest, kindest pony I know! She just didn't understand about you, I guess."

My stomach clenched, and I gulped. Sweetie Belle sure sounded like she believed that somepony else occupied the room with her. The nervous way that she spoke... it sounded like Sweetie Belle felt like she needed to defend Rarity, and whoever she spoke with wanted her to think the other way. The conviction in her voice....

"Jackie, don't say those things about Rarity! She's a good pony; I promise!" I heard the floorboards creak as Sweetie Belle stood up. "You can't say that about my big sister, Jackie! She's the best big sister that I could ever ask for, and I know that she just didn't understand last night! She'll understand tonight, a-and it'll be okay! If you don't stop saying those things then I won't be your friend anymore, Jackie!"

Before I could process the information that Sweetie Belle might want to get rid of Jackie on her own, I heard Sweetie Belle squeak, and something get knocked over. Another few seconds of silence passed, and I gasped when I heard Sweetie Belle again. She whimpered. She honest-to-Celestia whimpered.

"No, Jackie," she squeaked, "no, I didn't mean it. Y-you're right. I shouldn't get mad at you like that. I didn't mean it. You're right. Rarity can be a little mean sometimes. I didn't mean to say that I didn't want to be your friend anymore. You're my best friend, Jackie! Please don't be mad at me." I heard Sweetie Belle sniffle. "I'll do whatever you want to, Jackie. Just don't be mad at me!" More silence for a few seconds. "Paint? You wanna paint? Okay!"

Just like Rarity said: a switch being flipped. Sweetie Belle's happy little squeak returned, every trace of the whimpering fear gone, and I heard her open up some drawer or closet. "Painting is fun, Jackie! What should we paint? Ooh, that's a good idea!"

I'd heard enough. I raised my hoof and knocked on the door three times.

"Come in!" Sweetie Belle said, her voice still happy and cheerful. It unnerved me that she went so quickly from sounding like she feared somepony striking her, to her usual self. Still, I illuminated my horn and pushed the door open.

I saw Sweetie Belle laying on the floor, humming some tune to herself while setting some paints, paper, and paintbrushes down next her. She looked up when she heard me come in and smiled. "Hi, Twilight! It's nice to see you!"

I gave Sweetie Belle my best smile and sat down next to her. "It's nice to see you too, Sweetie Belle." I motioned down to the paint supplies. "You, uh, painting a picture?"

"Uh-huh." Sweetie Belle poured some of the water from the teapot into an empty cup to wet the paints. "I'm thinking of painting a bunny!"

"Well that sounds really... nice."

Ugh. I didn't have the next clue of how to approach the subject of Jackie with her. If I could believe what I just heard, Sweetie Belle probably believed that Jackie was in the room with us, which would complicate matters a significant amount. Having said that, Jackie likely never left her alone. Now or never, I supposed.

Sweetie Belle began sketching out the outline of the bunny, and I idly stirred a small jar of brown paint. Sweetie Belle finished the outline, and smiled up at me. "You can do the ears if you want to, Twilight."

"Uh... okay." I took the paintbrush out of the jar and gently brushed brown paint inside the lines of the crudely drawn bunny ears. "Um, Sweetie Belle?"

Sweetie Belle moved the paintbrush she had been holding in her mouth to the crook of her right foreleg. "Yeah?"

"So, your sister came to talk to me today. She wanted to tell me about what happened last night with you, her and... Jackie."

Sweetie Belle froze, her pupils contracting for the briefest of moments. "Uh..." She blinked once and her ear twitched. "What about Jackie?"

"Nothing bad!" I said probably a little too quickly. "Just that you had... made a new friend named Jackie. I... uh, know you two fought about it last night, so she wanted to make sure that you were okay."

Sweetie Belle stayed still for a few more moments, but she finally nodded and began moving her foreleg to continue painting. "Yeah, I guess. She just didn't want to serve Jackie any dinner, for some reason, even though she set a place for Jackie!"

"Mhm." I finished coloring in the ears and put the paintbrush back in the jar. "So, is Jackie in here now?"

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Yeah. She ran into my closet when she heard you knock." Sweetie Belle grimaced and leaned in next to my ear to whisper into it. "She's very shy."

"Yeah, I've heard that." I envisioned a piece of parchment, ink, and quill to make a mental checklist of everything that Sweetie Belle told me. Based on everything that I knew so far, I'd need one to keep it all straight. "So, tell me about Jackie. She's female, I gather."

Sweetie Belle shrugged. "I guess."

I raised an eyebrow and tilted my head. "Wait, you guess? You talk with Jackie all the time. You don't know?"

"Not really." Sweetie Belle put her paintbrush back, and picked up the brown one that I had been using. "When I first met Jackie, I didn't really know if she was a filly or a colt, so I just guessed filly, and she said that she was okay with me calling her that. So I guess she's a filly."

"She's a pony, then. What else can you tell me about her? What color is she? Does she have a cutie mark? Is—"

"I don't want to talk about Jackie anymore!"

The words came out sharp and almost a little threatening, and a blind pony wouldn't have missed the glare she gave me. I flattened my ears and flinched back slightly.

"Uh... sorry, I guess, it's just that Rarity's worried about how much time you spend with her, so--"

Sweetie Belle cut me off with a growl, and shot to her hooves. "I said that I don't want to talk about Jackie anymore! She doesn't want you here, Twilight, so maybe you'd better go!"

I slowly got to my own hooves, and took an uneasy step back from her. "Uh, Sweetie Belle, there's no need to get so upset, okay? I'm just asking a few harmless questions. I mean no offense."

"Well if you really meant no offense, then you'd leave!" Sweetie Belle snarled. "Jackie doesn't want you here, and I don't think that I do anymore either!"

"Sweetie Belle, why do you keep listening to Jackie?" I took a step back as she advanced. "Why does she always get to decide what to do? Why do I have to leave just because Jackie wants me to? Can't Jackie leave so--"

"NO!" Sweetie Belle picked up the jar of brown paint and hurled it at me. Her aim was so poor that I couldn't even catch it with my magic, and it shattered against the wall beside me, splashing the room in brown paint. If Sweetie Belle noticed the paint, she gave no indication. Her glare never wavered.

"Jackie does not leave, Twilight!" Sweetie Belle snarled. "Jackie can always stay! Jackie never has to worry about me telling her to leave, okay?"

"Okay, okay!" I held out my hoof to calm her down. "Sweetie Belle, just calm down, alright? I'm sorry that I asked Jackie to go. I won't do it again."

"Maybe you'd better go, Twilight!" Sweetie Belle turned and went back to her painting, her ears folded against her head. "Jackie doesn't want you here."

"Uh..." I blinked once, but realized that I would get nowhere with her. I slowly nodded and began backing out of the room. "Okay, Sweetie Belle. Okay. I'll see you later, okay? Have a good day."

Sweetie Belle's ears perked back up, and when she turned her head to me, her face bore the usual beaming smile that she tended to have. "Okay, Twilight! You have a good day too!" she chirped.

I took a deep breath and walked out of the room, closing the door behind me. I stayed by the door and pressed my ear against it to listen in. I heard the closet door open and shut, and after a few moments, Sweetie Belle began speaking.

"No, she's not so bad, Jackie. She's Rarity's friend, and if Rarity doesn't understand about you, then Twilight wouldn't know any better." A pause. "Yeah, maybe you're right though. I don't know if I want to talk to her anymore either. You're my best friend, Jackie! You'd never leave me, right? You'd never leave me alone." Another pause, and I shifted where I stood. "No, Jackie, I wouldn't leave you either! I love you. They just don't understand. I don't know why, but they don't understand. They will though, Jackie. I think that they will. I want them to like you. I don't like how scared they are of you. You're good, Jackie. You're good."

I couldn't take anymore. I backed away from the door and walked down the stairs to the main floor. Rarity sat in her workroom, working on some dress or another. She looked up from the sewing when she saw me walk in, and quickly rushed over to me, putting a hoof on my shoulder when she got close.

"So, how is she? Did she talk about Jackie? Was Jackie in the room with her? Did something happen?"

I hesitated for a moment and bit my lip. With Rarity so worried, I didn't like the idea of telling her everything, but at the same time, she needed to know. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before mustering up the courage to respond.

"Rarity... I think we have a problem."