A Monument to Fashion

by Llyander

Part 1

“A Monument to Fashion”
Part 1.

Celestia’s sun was just beginning its slow ascent over the roofs of the town of Ponyville, bathing the little town with its warming, golden light. You would never know it at first glance, but this was, it was fair to say, a place that had seen its fair share of weird, confusing, distressing and occasionally near world ending events.

However, as this particularly quiet morning dawned there was little indication that this would be anything but a quiet day. There were only a handful of early rising ponies up and about.

The weather team lead by the ever awesome (at least if you were to ask her for her own opinion) Rainbow Dash was hard at work clearing the clouds overhead, the forecast today was for nothing but blue skies and sunshine over Ponyville.

Applejack and the rest of her family were already hard at work in the fields of Sweet Apple Acres. It was nearly time for the Zap Apple harvest and they were determined to get as many of the other chores done before they had to devote all their attention to this shortest lived of magical mysteries.

Back in town, the air around Sugarcube Corner was filled with the sweet scents of the delectable treats being baked by the nigh-indefatigable pink pony Pinkie Pie and the Cakes and the grey Pegasus mailpony Ditzy Do, known to most as “Derpy”, was already hard at work on her rounds.

She flitted from house to house, somewhat unsteadily it had to be admitted, her wall-eyed stare making her less than the most confident of flyers, prone to bumping into walls… Trees… Other ponies… It suited her when she had a lovely, warm, quiet morning like this where she could take her time inspecting each piece of mail to ensure it found its proper destination.

Ah, another package for Rarity, Carousel Boutique. Probably more fabric samples from Canterlot or Manehatten. She swore that mare got nearly as much mail as Twilight at the library. Satisfied she had her next destination firmly in mind she clutched the small package tightly to her as she swooped over the tops of the buildings to the tall, magnificent spire of Rarity’s shop.

“Rarity?” She peered in the windows at the upper level. “Rarity, you in there? I’ve got some mail for you!” She fumbled with the package for a moment before deciding to simply hold it in her muzzle by the string as she put her hooves up to the glass and she peered inside at the bedroom.

It was as immaculately kept as you might expect from someone like Rarity but more importantly the bed looked like it hadn’t been slept in, the lights still off and the room devoid of anypony at all. Derpy wasn’t entirely surprised. Rarity was probably downstairs working on some new commission and just forgot the time. The fashionista had been known to lose track of entire weekends while in the throes of creation.

Dropping down to the ground floor she again peered in the windows, frowning a little as she tapped on the glass once more. “Merrmph? Oo ing ere?” She spat the string back out with a snort and set the package down on the grass as she again peered within. “Rarity? Sorry to bother you, it’s just Derpy with some mail for you.”

The shop was quiet and still, no sign of the unicorn at all. Huh. That was sort of odd. But then maybe Rarity was just staying with a friend? Well… Derpy rubbed a little thoughtfully at her chin. Well, she could always just come back later in that case. It wasn’t like it was late in the day so she had plenty of time to complete the delivery at the end of her round… She stuffed the parcel back into her saddlebags and turned to leave when she noticed something faintly through the windows at the other side of the shop.

She fluttered around to get a better look at it, squinting in the glare of the early morning sun reflecting from the river, the rising mist making it hard for her to get a good look at this curious shape that had caught her attention, She didn’t know what it was, but she knew it hadn’t been there the day before when she’d been fluttering around town. That meant it was weird and in Ponyville when something weird happened, there was only one pony you went to.

“Oh ponyfeathers.” She sighed. “I’d better get Twilight.”

*******

The protégé of Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, had a certain image to maintain. Known around the town as a dependable pony, a sensible pony (most of the time), a pony that could always be relied on for a certain amount of decorum, a pony that would certainly never be caught snoring, facedown in a book on the library floor, her tongue poking cutely out from the corner of her mouth. No no, certainly not.

So when the first knock at the door came, she scrambled to all four hooves so quickly that she bit down on her tongue in her haste to compose herself, filling the air around her with curses until she remembered Spike was asleep upstairs and these were words a baby dragon really shouldn’t be hearing. She sighed as she ran a forehoof through her mane, sticking out in all directions following her impromptu slumber then went to answer the door.

“Oh hey, Twilight. I like your mane, is that a new look?”

Twilight blinked as she came near nose to nose with Derpy, the mailmare hovering just over her doormat. Well, it could have been worse. She was used to ponies only knocking on her door this early in the morning when they had a problem they needed help with. “Oh, good morning Derpy. Er… No. This was just, uh… You know what, never mind. Did you have a delivery for me?”

“Well, no… I actually had a delivery for Rarity.”

“….And you came here?”

“Oh. Well. No, not right away. I mean, I tried the boutique first and she wasn’t in, then I looked around behind the boutique and I saw something really weird floating on the river that wasn’t there yesterday and I thought wow, that’s weird I’d better let Twilight know about it in case it’s something nasty so I flew right over here and here we are with me telling you all about it.”

Twilight blinked at the sudden stream of words with barely a pause for breath between them, her head cocking to one side as she tried to puzzle out exactly when and how Derpy and Pinkie had switched bodies. “Er… Well, alright. I guess we can go and take a look at this whatever it is. It’s not anything dangerous is it?”

“I, uhm… I couldn’t really get a good look at it. There was mist and light and... Well, I don’t think so but it was kind of spooky. If I didn’t know any better I’d think it was some sort of, well…” Her voice dropped to a Fluttershy-like mumble at the final word, her head darting left then right before she gave a helpless little shrug. “You’ll understand when you see it.”

“Riiiiight.” Twilight drawled, the purple unicorn chalking this up as yet another of the many “just one of those days” that seemed to happen so very often since she’d come to Ponyville. “Okay. I’ll head down there and take a look right away and make sure that it’s nothing dangerous. Thanks for letting me know, Derpy.”

“Oh no problem! Bye Twilight! I knew you’d be the right person to come to about this!” She turned and quickly flapped up and over the houses towards Sugarcube Corner, only smacking two of her hooves on the chimney as she passed, managing to stay in the air with a frantic burst of effort. She paused briefly to give the bemused unicorn another wave which Twilight returned before closed the door of the library and trotted down the quiet street to see exactly what all the fuss was about.

She paused and looked up at the few clouds that still remained in the sky, searching for that flash of colour that would give away Rainbow Dash’s current napping spot. There! Just over by the town hall. She quickly trotted down the street, exchanging friendly greetings with the ponies she passed but never lingering for more than a moment or two just in case there really was a threat that no-one else had noticed. “Rainbow!” She yelled up at the cloud. “I know you’re up there, I can see your tail.”

“This is the pegasus message system. Rainbow Dash is napping, please leave a message and come back later!” And with that, the tail disappeared into the wispy cloud, a muffled snigger reaching Twilight’s ears.

“Rainbow Dash!” She protested, stamping her forehooves. “If you don’t come down from there I’ll... I’ll... I’ll do SOMETHING and you won’t like it one little bit!”

“Alright, geeze. Take a breath before you blow your horn out or something.” The rainbow-maned pegasus rolled over on her cloud and planted her muzzle on her forelegs as she peered down. “This had better be something awesome, important, or awesomely important for you to stop me getting my nap on.”

Twilight took a breath, steeling herself for the inevitable reaction. “Derpy said she saw something down by the Carousel Boutique.”

Rainbow rolled all the way over and swooped down from the cloud to stand facing Twilight, her expression blank. “Derpy saw something. Derpy.” She pulled a face, circling a hoof next to her ear. “Right, because she’s the most reliOW! Okay, okay, I’ll go easy on her.” She muttered, rubbing at her shoulder where Twilight had just punched her. “But seriously, Twi’. She saw “something” and for that you disturbed my nap?”

Twilight hesitated for a moment then added. “She did say it was something, uhm, spooky.”

Rainbow somehow managed to look even more disinterested. “Spooky. Well, I’m sure we need to get the Princesses involved, call out the guarOW! Geeze, Twilight. Have you been working out or something?” She muttered, rubbing at her other arm.

“You of all people should know better than to act like a bully, Dash.” She chided.

“Yeah, yeah. Fine.” Dash muttered, scuffing a hoof on the grass, “I know. I just mean… Come on, this is Derpy we’re talking about here. When you make a list of reliable witnesses she’s not exactly in the top ten.”

“Nevertheless, if she says she saw something, I think she did. Derpy’s lots of things, but she’s never been a liar.”

Rainbow didn’t have a response to that, so instead she just shrugged and nodded. “So where’s this spooky thing again? By the Boutique? Gimme one second and I’ll go scope it out.” She crouched down, ready to launch herself into the air. “Well, maybe more like five seconds.” And with a flash of technicolour light, she was gone, leaving nothing but swirling grass and dust in her wake.

In point of fact, it wasn’t five seconds. Nor ten. Or twenty. In fact, the rainbow-maned Pegasus was gone for well over a minute, long enough for Twilight to begin to shift nervously in place. It wasn’t like Dash to be… She shuddered at the word… Tardy.

Just as she began to gather her magic up for a teleport to the Boutique, the air was split by the sound of frantically beating Pegasus wings and Rainbow Dash landed heavily in front of the lavender unicorn, her eyes wide. “Derpy wasn’t kidding.” She blurted out before remembering that she was not only supposed to be awesome, she was meant to be cool and collected as well. She cleared her throat and quickly composed herself. “I had to clear the mist around it to get a good look. If I didn’t know any better I’d swear it was some kind of floating tomb or mausoleum.”

“A tomb?” Twilight echoed sceptically. “Floating?”

“Look, I know what it sounds like but that’s what it looks like! It looks like it’s made of marble and it’s got all these pillars and billowy bits and flickering lights and… I swear there’s two statues that look just like Rarity!”

“What?” Twilight’s eyes widened in concern, “Derpy said that she couldn’t find Rarity at all this morning when she went to deliver something to her! Quick, go and round up the girls and meet me down by the Boutique. I think we need to take a closer look at this thing.”

“I’m on it!” Dash exclaimed and leapt back into the air, disappearing over the roofs on her way to collect the other Elements of Harmony, leaving Twilight to make her way through the streets at a quick trot.

Now what in Equestria was going on? Rarity missing and someone had left a monument to her in place instead? Was this somebody’s idea of a joke? If so, it was in very poor taste, coming so close behind everything that had been going on recently. Tensions were still running high after the thwarted Changeling attack and any new arrival in town was viewed with a degree of suspicion that made Twilight a little sad when contrasted to the warm welcome she’d received all those months ago when she’d been ordered to town to check on the arrangements for the Summer Sun Celebration.

Pinkie wouldn’t have done it. It just wasn’t her style tro do something like this. Now if someone had put a massive cake or balloon on the river... Maybe it was Trixie? Could it be this was some elaborate plot to try and get one-up on Twilight again but she couldn’t really see how! This kind of elaborate setup was reminiscent of the showmare’s theatrics but it wasn’t like Trixie to be so elusive. If this really was her, she would want everyone to KNOW that it was her.

Maybe it was Discord? No, he was still frozen in stone in the palace gardens, wasn’t he and really this seemed a little mundane for the mercurial dracoequus. If the tomb was made of cheese and the busts were dancing in place while spewing chocolate milk then she’d be more willing to believe he was responsible.

“Hey Twilight. Twilight? TWILIGHT!” The exasperated yell finally broke through her musings and she looked up in surprise to find she’d actually nearly walked right past her friends all waiting patiently at the door of the Carousel Boutique for her.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I was just…”

“On another planet?” Dash butted in with a snort. “Well, I got everyone here like you asked.”

“Yeah Twilight, what’s this all about?” Applejack adjusted her stetson atop her head. “Ya think somethin’ happened t’Rarity?”

“Well, apparently there’s a…” She sighed to herself, no point trying to explain it to them, it’d just lead to more comments about poor Derpy. “You know what, let’s just go and see it for ourselves. It’s around the back.”

The other Elements of Harmony exchanged glances and shrugs before following Twilight around the side of the Boutique till they all stood on the riverbank in the early morning sun, their eyes wide, their jaws hanging open.

“Well dip me in honey and throw me t’the filyfoolers.” Applejack deadpanned.

“Dip you in who and throw you to the what?” Twilight squeaked, giving the blonde haired pony an odd look while Rainbow Dash and Pinkie collapsed to the floor in helpless giggles. Applejack blushed and cleared her throat, tugging her hat down a little more snugly atop her head.

“Never you mind. Ah was just a bit caught by surprise, that’s all.” She paused while Rainbow and Pinkie composed themselves, Fluttershy just watching the antics with a slightly embarrassed look on her face. “So…. What the hay IS this?”

Floating on the river behind the boutique, plain as the nose on each of their faces, was indeed what could only be described as a floating tomb. Sitting on a wide base, the gleaming white marble rotunda mausoleum built atop it was flanked by heavy, carven columns. Flanking either side of this tomb was a marble statue of a pony that was unmistakably their friend Rarity.

Heavy purple banners displaying her cutie mark flapped in the early morning breeze as torches flickered either side of the heavy bronze door that lead inside. A small plaque above the door read –

“Here lies Rarity, a pony every pony should know. The world of Fashion will never know her like again.”

Author's Note:

Hello all. Just a quick note to let you know this story is set sometime after the events of the Crystal Empire, but before Twilight's ascension into Princesshood.

Comments

[Leo Archon]

I find myself interested.

Please, go on...

[Jlargent]

“Well dip me in honey and throw me t’the filyfoolers.” Applejack deadpanned.

That's a new one.

[Zephyrus Scary]

Okay... You're missing a lot of commas, and other points would benefit from some extra other types punctuation, but the storyline is intriguing.

[Velvet_Divan]

A few indents got messed up hon, dunno why the site's editor keeps doing that. I'm intrigued though, keep it up. :)

[ColdGoldLazarus]

Well, that's ominous. But very interesting; you have my attention.

2871558 Indeed.