Spike and the Dragon Tree

by Fimbulvinter

Interlude: The Last Will and Testament of Rarity the Unicorn

Spike and the Dragon Tree
***

Interlude – The Last Will and Testament of Rarity the Unicorn

Back in Ponyville, Rarity’s isolation room was a hive of activity, something that seemed a little contradictory to the idea of keeping her as far away from other ponies as was possible. Aside from Rarity herself and the medical staff expected to be on hand, there were two other ponies who had come at her express request.

The first was Goldenrod, a slightly aloof, bright yellow unicorn who had all the hallmarks of being Canterlot born and raised: a superior expression, and a perfectly tailored suit and top-hat. He had provided legal services to Rarity and her family for years, and he had come as soon as he had gotten the message that she needed to see him. Seeing her hooked up to machines and being tended by ponies dressed up in full hazmat suits, it was clear that she had called him there for a very specific reason.

The second pony was a local. Looking through the glass with concern and sympathy on her face was the schoolteacher, Cheerilee. She wasn’t sure why Rarity had requested to see her; they knew each other a little, but Cheerilee didn’t consider them to be close friends. After they had graduated from the same class at school, they had both taken very different paths in life.

Inside the cube, Dr. Stable tapped Rarity on her shoulder as he passed a glass of water over to her. “The ponies you requested are here, Rarity.”

Rarity nodded and tried to lift herself up a little higher in her bed. Dr. Stable had to assist her when she couldn’t quite manage on her own. “Thank you, Doctor,” she said before turning her attention to the ponies looking at her through the glass. “Goldenrod, Cheerilee, thank you both for coming at such short notice. Normally I would invite the pair of you to share a drink or exchange pleasantries, but as you can see, now is not the best time.”

Goldenrod gave Rarity a courtesy chuckle, but Cheerilee just looked concerned again.

“As both of you may have heard, I may not be long for this world. Thus, I want to make sure that all of my affairs are in order while I am still able to take care of them. Goldenrod, do you have the necessary papers to write up a will with you?”

“Of course, Rarity,” Goldenrod replied, levitating a briefcase from his saddlebag and flicking it open. “Specifying your will is one of the most important thing you can do right now, and will require that two other ponies are present to witness it. Rest assured that whatever you specify here will be treated as your legal wish and will be respected as such.”

Cheerilee looked at Goldenrod when he mentioned witnessing. Maybe that was why she had been called here; to put her hoofmark on an official document.

“Very good then. I think I know how I would like my estate to be divided once I am gone, so we should begin with that.”

Goldenrod levitated a pen up alongside several pieces of paper covered with official looking letterhead. “Before we get to that, you should record any messages that you would like to be read. Final words to your parents or friends.”

“Oh, I suppose you are right,” Rarity conceded. “Very well then, take this down.”

“To my friends and family; if you are listening to this, then I have passed on. I know that you must all be devastated about that, but I want you all to be strong and carry on. Mother, Father, Sweetie Belle is going to need you both to look out for her now more than ever. I know how much she wanted to be like me; to be a famous designer, and I would like you to encourage that dream as much as you can. I know it is going to hurt now, but please do not mourn for me for too long. Sweetie Belle has her whole life ahead of her, and I don’t want her to spend it crying over my memory. To my closest friends – Fluttershy, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash; you girls were the best friends I could have asked for. Even when things got tough, I knew I could count on all of you to do your best to carry me through. That you all never gave up on me means the world to me, be it when I was taken by Diamond Dogs, or forgiving me when I made a fool of myself on Twilight’s birthday made me so happy to call you all my friends. Please live again; Pinkie, you keep on throwing parties. Maybe throw one in my honor every once in a while. Rainbow, the Wonderbolt’s would be lucky to have a mare as talented as you in their team. Just keep practicing and one day I know you will make captain. Fluttershy, please take care of Opal. You always seemed to have a way with her that I’m sure you will make a great new guardian for her. Applejack, remember not to work yourself so hard that you forget to take care of your skin. And finally, Twilight, I know you are going to beat yourself up for not being able to find a cure for this condition. I wish you wouldn’t. This isn’t your fault, so don’t act like it is. You all did your best to help me, but in the end, I guess that it was just my time. I can only hope that the ferrypony will look kindly on my soul. I can’t wait until I can see you all again, but I hope you understand when I wish that it won’t be for many years yet. Again, you have been the best friends I ever had, or could have asked for, and I wish you well in your lives. Farewell, everypony.

Rarity.”

Goldenrod scribbled down everything that Rarity said onto his papers in shorthand. He would convert them into formal documents later on, but for now the shorthand would allow him to keep every word correct. It would be an insult to try and change even one word of a pony’s last testament. He finished writing a few moments after Rarity stopped speaking. “Alright then. Now we can move onto the division of your estate. From what I can gather, your property can be divided up into several main groups – materials, money, real estate and products. Which one would you like to start with?”

“Lets just go through the list in order, and come back to specifics as we need to,” Rarity said. She sounded firm; a little color had seeped back into her voice. Here was something familiar to her that she could work on; a far better change than simply lounging in bed waiting for the next pony to come in and gawk at her while offering sympathies.

Goldenrod nodded curtly, picking up a fresh sheet of paper. “Materials can be broken down into several main groups – cloths, gems, and metals. All the component parts you would use to make your dresses. How would you like to divide them up?”

“All my unused materials are to be sold and reduced to a pure bit value. That money is to be added to my bank accounts and divided up in accordance with my later stipulations. Any gems that do not sell are to be given free of charge to Spike the dragon, resident of Ponyville and assistant to Twilight Sparkle. He will make very good use of them.”

Goldenrod duly noted Rarity’s requests. “Alright, moving on to money. As your accountant, I know you have a fair sized bank account; even more when we account for the income that selling your materials will bring in.”

“That money is to go to Sweetie Belle. My parents are doing fine and do not need or want to receive anything from me. Half of the money is to be held in trust for Sweetie Belle until she comes of age. Of the other half, half of that amount is to be made available to her to be spend as she wishes. The other half is to be earmarked to pay for her further education.”

“A most generous decision, if I may say so, Rarity. If she is smart with her savings and invests wisely, your sister may never need to work a day in her life. Now how about property?”

“The only real estate I own is Carousel Boutique, and like my money, the deed is to be held in trust until Sweetie Belle comes of age, at which point it is to be signed over to her name. I would ask that you establish a second trust from my personal savings to cover all rent and upkeep until such time as the deed passes to Sweetie Belle.”

“Very well. And what about any works that you have currently in development?”

“Aside from my usual dresses in production for sale in my shop, I only have two commissions at the moment. The first is an experimental design for Fleur-de-lis, entitled ‘A Mare for all Seasons.’ This dress and companion bracelets are enchanted to keep a mare warm or cold depending on the surrounding temperature. The second one is a back order gem studded jumpsuit for Sapphire Shores. Neither one is finished, and thus I would like them to be provided to their intended owners free of charge. Please send both mares my apologies that I will be unable to finish their orders.”

“I think that they will understand. Now, is there anything else that you would like to stipulate?”

“Yes, two things. First, before anything is to be sold or passed off, I would like to gift each of my aforementioned friends with a piece from my collection. They may choose whatever piece they wish to remember me my, excepting those that have already been marked for receipt by others.”

“I’ll make a note of it,” Goldenrod said, marking down Rarity’s request on his papers, “What is the second thing?”

“My Element of Harmony. As you may know, my friends and I represent the six Elements of Harmony, a primal magic that we have used to keep the peace in Equestria on numerous occasions. The magic only works when all six elements are united though, thus I must name a successor to my element; a pony who represents the spirit of generosity as well as I did.”

“Do you have anypony in mind for this?” Goldenrod asked. “This sounds like it would be a large responsibility.”

“Oh, I know exactly who I want to replace me,” Rarity said before turning her eyes to face Cheerilee directly.

It only took a moment for Cheerilee to realize where this was going. “Oh, no, no. I can’t be the new spirit of generosity. I’m not worthy of such an honor. I’m not anypony special; just a schoolteacher.”

Rarity chuckled lightly. “You sound like I did when I first got my element. ‘I’m just a dressmaker, not a hero.’ I’ve thought about this for a while, and I want it to be you, Cheerilee. You are more generous that you know; all that time spent outside of class tutoring Sweetie Belle and her friends when you didn’t have to. Or when you pitched in on your day off to help with organize a bake sale. You never asked for reward, or even acknowledgement. And I know you donate some of your already meager paycheck to charity works. I know that you will make a great spirit of generosity; please take on this responsibility; if not for me, then for Equestria’s sake.”

Cheerilee took a deep breath, silently considering refusing. But she couldn’t do that; couldn’t refuse a pony’s last request like that. “Alright. I’ll do it,” she said, hanging her head forward slightly before looking up again. “But it’s not going to happen. Twilight is one of the smartest ponies I’ve ever met. She would never let one of her friends down. If there is anypony out there that can find a cure for this disease, it’s going to be her.

Rarity gave her a weak smile. “I trust her too, and as much as I don’t want to, I have to consider a future where I’m not around anymore.” Rarity relaxed back into her pillow as several machines beeped and whirred around her.

Nurse Redheart walked in and tapped Cheerilee and Goldenrod on the shoulder. “I don’t want to intrude, but hospital visiting hours are ending, and Rarity needs her rest. You can come back tomorrow if you need to speak with her further.”

Goldenrod levitated his papers back into his saddlebag and shook his head. “No, I think I have everything I need for the moment. I’ll go and prepare formal documents of Rarity’s wishes.”

“And I need to start grading papers for my classes,” Cheerilee added. She still wasn’t sure what she had just agreed to, but she meant it. If Rarity really thought that she could make a good new Element of Generosity, then she would do her best to prove her right.

She walked out of the hospital, following idly after Goldenrod as he strode with purpose towards the train station, and Canterlot beyond it. Cheerilee made towards her home, a little single cottage not far from the school with a small garden immaculately tended by her own hooves.

For all she had just agreed to, she was still a schoolteacher, and she had papers to grade. No matter how many disasters befell Equestria, that would always come first.

Comments

[Unbreakable]

No Spike mentioned in Rarity's last words and gets a backhanded compliment by having the leftover gems no one wants to buy. Sheesh, that's harsh
:"It ain't easy being a support character."

[shyguy7829]

3551410
For the one who's making the journey to a mythical place to find a cure that may or may not exist for who he believes to be his true love, Spike's getting jack squat.

[OmniFox]

Spike wasn't included in that could be supposedly Last Will of Generosity.

[Fimbulvinter]

3551410>>3551477>>3551714 Remember, Rarity doesn't know that Spike is gone yet. Nopony has told her about the supposed cure, so she is expecting to be able to bequeath something to him now while she is still alive, rather than after she is dead.

[Treme99]

That made me cry. it was so sad. Why did it have to be rarity that got gravely ill

[Fimbulvinter]

3554271 Because reasons. The way this is going to end, it couldn't have been anypony else

[Swashbucklist]

Wow. Rarity's will was genuinely painful to read. Were Spike to hear it - whether he went on that quest or not - he would be deeply, deeply, wounded. And if this story wasn't already about Spike, I would've stopped reading and downvoted at that point. No doubt this is going to cycle around to something? Some emotional devastation after he gets back and sees what she wrote?

The reason for Cheerilee's presence was a nice surprise. You let us believe for a duration that she was only meant to suit the logistics of the story, and when Rarity's Element came up I thought it was just going back to Celestia. Then the two issues clanked together and dismissed each other while cracking open a new development.

3553400 Regardless, it's still pretty cold that she didn't list him among her closest friends.