***
Sweet Tooth simply sat silently in Rarity’s room on the upper level of Carousel Boutique, on what Rarity had referred to as her ‘fainting couch’. He had been mulling over what had happened over the past few days since arriving: visiting Fluttershy, Pinkie’s story, Rarity’s testament, Twilight’s jarring reminder of who he is and what he’s done, both of which joined in with all that was floating across the surface of the sea of his mind, as the storm that had been raging reached its eye.
Rarity was climbing back up the stairs, face scrunched slightly, she disconcertedly inspected the details of a bottle she levitated before her. “All I could find was some wine that I got from the Gala” she called from the stairway. “Though it hasn’t really had much time to age, I’m afraid it’s all I’ve got right now” she reached the top of the stairs and continued over to Sweet Tooth. “Do you still want any of it?”
Ding-Dong
Rarity stopped, looked quickly between the door, the bottle and Sweet Tooth.
“I’ll just-- leave the bottle” she concluded sheepishly. “ You’ll be ok on your own again for a moment?” she inquired with motherly concern.
Sweet Tooth didn’t respond.
Rarity couldn’t help but relish the opportunity to break off from the awkward scene.
She opened the front door “I am truly sorry, but trading hours have closed. If you would like—” she stalled, upon realising who it was at her door. “Oh, Fluttershy? I’m terribly sorry, darling, but I’m...with a client. Could we please re-schedule this, dear?”
“Pinkie Pie told me what happened. I thought, maybe I could help--If that’s ok with you...”
***
The bright afternoon sun cast light over Rarity through the boutiques windows, illuminating her angelic white coat brilliantly, almost blindingly as she returned upstairs, trailing behind Fluttershy who had already established herself in the room, having made a bee-line for it from the front door.
Sweet Tooth took a drink of the bourbon Fluttershy had brought with her for just the purpose.
Even with Fluttershy’s help, the ponies probing and airings of concern hadn’t broken through Sweet Tooth’s brooding. The two ponies decided to give him some space, turning to return downstairs.
“If you need anything at all, just let us know” Fluttershy offered.
“We’re here for you” Rarity affirmed.
Once again, the kindness of the ponies had flown under Sweet Tooth’s guard, he found himself oddly infuriated by how well he was being treated. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Before the two ponies could leave he simply asked “Why?”
“Beg ‘pardon?” Rarity turned towards Sweet Tooth in confusion from the mouth of the stairway.
“Why?” He repeated “Why are you doing all of this!?”
Fluttershy and Rarity paused temporarily, exchanged glances, before smiling to each other. Rarity stepped forward.
“It’s because we’re you’re friends, sweetie!” she replied simply and sweetly “—uh, Sweet Tooth...darling” she corrected herself clumsily with a smile.
The sincerity and selflessness they had exhibited to him since he first laid eyes on them and tried to slaughter them, burned him. The floodgates he had held his guilt back with collapsed. He remembered how he had felt about the girl who had made Pinkie’s life hell and how he felt after hearing about Rarity’s father and her childhood. He thought about all the people he had snuffed out.
“How can you be so kind!?” he challenged quietly.
Rarity’s coat dimmed as the sun was eclipsed by the clouds, and the light filling the room turned dark. Rarity and Fluttershy were perplexed by his question; neither knew what he meant by it.
Their questions were answered when Sweet Tooth erupted from the chair “Why are the ones who deserve better the ones who always get the shaft!?” He threw his arms around in pure anger as he continued his lamentations “Why are they the ones to get pushed around, walked on, swept aside? What’s the point of being good if you get knifed for it and the dogs get rich off your blood!?”
Before either Rarity or Fluttershy could respond, he continued “You have all shown and told me of the ‘magical power of love and friendship’” Sweet Tooth waved his arms and legs up and down mockingly in a half-hearted jig. “But why bother with love and friendship!?” he spat. “I hate myself for what I’ve done. But why should I change?” he took a moment to let the challenge sink in before concluding his rant “Why should I change, when I’ll just be miserable anyway!” his voiced made the walls shake. He stood there, fuming, panting like a blazing steam train slowing to a stop.
For a moment the two ponies stood stiff, wide-eyed with dropped jaws at his unexpected outcry. They turned their heads to each other in silent dialogue.
This time, Fluttershy stepped forward. “I’m not miserable” she replied simply and sensitively.
“Neither am I” Rarity stepped forward uniting with Fluttershy.
“How..." Sweet Tooth clenched his palms before him in question, staring in unbelief at the two ponies "can you stand there in all honesty and tell me that?” he demanded simply.
“We don’t do nice things to benefit ourselves, dear” Rarity started. “We do it to benefit others, so that others might live. So that others can see the light of love reflected into their life, to look at things through different eyes, to encourage them to join in taking the highroad, perpetuating goodness --paying it forward, so to speak" Rarity testified. “Why, knowing that you’ve helped someone is more fulfilling than the richest of banquet feasts!”
For the first time since he had arrived, things were starting to make sense for Sweet Tooth. His memory flashed back to the decision he had made with Pinkie Pie: “Applejack showed me a way out of my dark, un-fun place. She gave me a light and a path.”
“The light?” Sweet Tooth muttered in recollection.
“The light of love” Fluttershy informed. “We have this light shining in our hearts, even though we ourselves are like fragile jars containing this treasure.”
Sweet Tooth couldn’t help noticing that Fluttershy couldn’t have been a better illustration for fragility.
“That doesn’t answer my questions...” he strained, leaning down towards the ponies, arms outstretched. “Why do you allow people... like me to hurt you!?”
Rarity noticed that this question was more aimed at her “Darling, believe me: I didn’t want nor ask for you to hold a machete to my throat and start threatening my life. And, given the chance, I would have given you a right piece of my mind for being so uncouth!” She scolded jokingly, in an attempt to lighten his mood...
Realising that she should leave the wisecracks to Pinkie Pie, Rarity quickly sought to amend her response. “What I mean is: we don’t ask for bad things to happen to us and we do our best to avoid progressions that all too quickly evolve into bad things.” Her light-hearted air evolved into a more candid tone as she took his hand in her hoof. “But, bad things happen and will happen to everyone at some point or another, regardless of who we are, what we believe or what we do. We’ve all been sorry, and we’ve all been hurt. But it’s how you choose to respond to the cards you’re dealt that makes you who you are!”
Fluttershy moved closer to Sweet Tooth, looking up to him with compassion “We are pressed on every side by trouble, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. After all: light shines brightest in the dark.”
“That’s...” Sweet Tooth marvelled at Fluttershy’s insight before his rage began to rise once again “--all well and good! Meanwhile, you’re hard earned rewards get pocketed by some low-lifes!?”
“Darling, we don’t chase after or cling to the ever-fading spoils of this world.” Rarity chuckled sweetly.
Sweet Tooth gave Rarity a sceptical look.
His challenge, causing her to elaborate her point more candidly “If I learnt anything from my father it's that those who want after money will never have enough.” Her heart and gaze momentarily dropped in remorse for her father, she quickly returned her focus to Sweet Tooth. “ And I learnt, first hoof, that those who fight for power can never achieve complete control.” She reminded him with a sympathetic smile before adding “...even if they do, it never lasts” Rarity rolled her eyes down, disappointed in her past. She then sprung back to life, placing her front hooves upon Sweet Tooth’s shoulders “but love does!” she expressed earnestly, her eyes wide and sparkling like sapphires. “Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous, or boastful, or proud or rude and it does not demand its own way. It is not irritable and keeps no record of being wronged” she slowed from her initial frenzy by the weight of sentiment loaded in the words. “Love does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices when the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses hope. Is always faithful and endures through every circumstance” she concluded, hugging Sweet Tooth’s side.
“That is why we never give up” Fluttershy chimed in, as if the two had rehearsed for this. “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a treasure that vastly outweighs them all and will last forever! So, we don’t look at the troubles we see now; rather we fix our eyes on what we cannot see. For the things we see now are only temporary, but the things we cannot see are eternal.”
“Why don’t I have this light?” Sweet Tooth asked with jealous sorrow.
“Have you ever asked?” Fluttershy inquired plainly.
Sweet Tooth was dumbstruck. He looked Fluttershy in the eyes. He had never considered that it could be that simple. He shook his head.
Fluttershy joined Rarity by hugging his other side “It’s never too late.”