A Woeful Trade
Hello. My name is Rarity, and if you’re reading this, I’m probably dead. I have betrayed my best friends. Though I can never fully make amends for my actions, it would alleviate some of my guilt knowing that somepony learns of the terrible deeds I have done. I don’t even deserve your pity, though I suffer a terrible fate. I’ve earned this, and every other punishment I’ve since received. So, to set my conscience at ease, I will recount to you the story of how I turned the most beautiful town in the world into a desolate swath of pain and misery. I am talking of course, about the lovable town of Ponyville.
It began, I suppose, about fifty years back. I was a filly then; you’ve all seen my brilliant rendition of the tale. I was coming of age. My other classmates all had their cutie marks, and though I’d recognized my talent for fashion, the mark still hadn’t appeared—and I couldn’t imagine why. Then of course, my horn took me on a long and relentless journey to a boulder filled with gems. That was where I realized my fashion designs lacked flair, and the addition of gems to the costumes for my school play earned me my cutie mark.
Such a brilliant and inspiring tale, isn’t it? If only it were true. No, my cutie mark appeared for a far less innocent reason. You see, I am—was—a treasure hunter. Well, more of a treasure hoarder, but my insatiable thirst for precious articles was the key. You see, that story involving the gems is partly true. I was dragged quite some distance by my horn, and my cutie mark does have a lot to do with precious jewels, but that’s where the truth ends and the lies begin.
~ ~ ~
I hadn’t quite discovered my magical abilities just yet. Born into a hunting clan in the far north, I spent my days helping to maintain the village; patching up ice walls; collecting snow for melting; keeping the woodpile stocked—when I wasn’t getting into mischief. As the only unicorn family, it was rather difficult to keep up with the earth ponies and pegasi when it came to menial labor; unicorns aren’t exactly built for lifting much weight unless they can do it telekinetically. I would often practice with my horn, but having never felt magical energy surge through my horn, I was mostly groping in the dark.
My parents tried helping me learn how to freeze ice to the ice walls, creating a single solid mass, but my magic hadn’t quite matured yet, I suppose. They said it would ‘just show up’ one day, and that I’d ‘just know’ how to use it, but waiting became extremely tiresome. I spent some of my free time in the center of the village, near the ice sculpture my father had crafted in his youth. It depicted Icy Gale, the earliest name anyone in the whole clan could remember. Her wings almost seemed lifelike, slicing through the wind high above the wall. She had lead an expedition to search for a crystal cave that was supposed to be nearby, but they’d never found it; She and her team had been forced to erect a shelter in order to survive.
It was said that a unicorn foal had been born to one of the earth ponies with unicorn blood, which I suppose must have been my great great grandfather, Frost Shard. He had originally constructed the ice wall which surrounded the village, protecting it from ice storms and any predatory creatures in the area. I liked to imagine that it was his cutie mark emblazoned upon the base for the sculpture.
So intricate was the design, so… flawless. The mark was cut into the snow crusted ice, then filled in with ice so crystal clear and smooth it shimmered under the right light. My friend, Snowflurry, often caught me gazing at it intently, and never passed up the opportunity to laugh. Such precious items had always dazzled me, and I often went searching for them when I wasn’t mesmerized by Icy Gale’s statue.
Other ponies didn’t take kindly to me walking into their huts unannounced, though. I didn’t understand what all the trouble was. I just wanted to look; I wasn’t going to take anything, but try telling them that. In their defense, I did nearly walk out with a large sapphire necklace once. I’d put it on, admiring the way it matched my eyes, then scampered quickly when the family returned home. The father caught me out the back door, which earned me a charge of attempted theft.
There wasn’t really a justice system for such a small village, but my parents weren’t exactly happy with my behaviour. Of course I could never explain my fascination with precious gems to a village of earth ponies and pegasi, who were far more interested in when the next storm would be rolling in. They were certain I was seeking out the gems intentionally, watching for anypony who brought some in from a scouting patrol.
Really, I couldn’t explain how I was so drawn to them, I just was. I somehow knew they were there, like some innate extrasensory ability that would turn my path until I found a hut that met my fancy. In I’d stroll and there would be the beautiful rubies and diamonds.
Can you blame a filly for being curious? My misdemeanors earned me frequent scolding from my parents, and on rare occasions, scouting runs.
Today was one of those days. It would have been a rather dreadful task, being forced to wade out through the thick snowdrifts with no warm feathers to protect me. However, a pegasus filly named Snowflurry had decided to tag along to keep me company—something about needing a navigator. Usually this meant that she would keep an eye out and I would simply follow, despite the task being assigned to me as punishment for acting out. Besides, I was rather dreadful at navigating through snowstorms.
But following Snowflurry through a snowstorm was a task in and of itself. She had a snowy white coat and a near white mane, with some streaks of dark grey, which made her nearly impossible to see in the snow. And she had a nasty habit of hiding behind snowdrifts and popping out to scare me. Not that I truly minded of course. I was glad of the company.
Snowflurry was a special kind of friend. The sort where you didn’t know how or why you met; you’d just always been friends. She and I had grown up together, and she’d rescued me from all sorts of mischief all over the village. And on special occasions, she would be the only one to sit and truly listen to my troubles. Odd that I was the one named Rarity, and not her.
Our task was to keep an eye out for any wolf packs that might be moving through the area, or caribou. If any of either were spotted, we would report back and a hunting party would be sent out after them—either to scare them off or bring them in. You’d think ponies couldn’t eat meat, but we could, somehow. The wind was cold, and bit at my nose and my horn. Snowflurry didn’t mind so much, being covered in feathers—lucky girl—but I needed a scarf and thick snow boots just to come this far.
I strained my eyes to see anything on the horizon, but with the heavy winds and thick snowfall, we may as well have been searching for a snowfox in this blizzard. And then I found this odd sensation I often bumped into when strolling through town, often finding gems. It felt odd, but somehow important, as though it had been planted there just so that I could discover it. I pulled at it, curious as I’d ever been, and of course nothing happened. Nothing ever did, other than the small tickle which graced the tip of my horn for a moment.
“Hey, look over here!”
I looked up. Snowflurry had gone on ahead while I was focusing on my horn. I slowly stumbled over to where her voice had come from, trying desperately to shield my face from the wind with my scarf.
“Boo!” Snowflurry leapt up from behind a snowbank, startling me. I lost my footing and slipped, tumbling—rather ungracefully—over the edge of the bank, and landed face first onto a thick sheet of ice.
“Ha-ha. Careful there,” Snow laughed, trotting up to me. She helped me to my hooves with a wide grin, then turned her attention to the ice. “Whoa, check it out! I didn’t know there was a lake out here.” She scurried out onto it, sliding around gleefully.
Remembering what my parents had taught me about ice, I first inspected the lake to make sure it was safe; Snowflurry shouldn’t be out there yet. There was a raised lip of ice surrounding the entire edge of the lake, as though the whole surface had sunken in, and the resulting broken pieces around the edge had melted back on to the rest of it. It was a captivating conundrum, but determining the safety of my friend was more important, and I wanted to get back before I froze to death. My mane had already frozen to my withers. I placed a tentative hoof onto the ice, drawing back instantly at the biting cold surface.
“Snowflurry, wait! I’m not quite sure it’s safe.” I decided I should go fetch her; the ice had been sturdy enough near the edge. As long as I was careful…
“Aww, come on. How often do you get to slide around on some ice with nopony watching? Just a few more minutes and we can get back to scanning for snowdrifts.”
She used her wings to propel herself around the lake, cackling giddily as she went. I trotted further out—careful not to slip—and noticed the ice was getting thinner as I got nearer to the center, and Snowflurry was gliding over a dangerously thin patch near the middle.
“Snowflurry, stop. The ice looks really thin over there.”
She did indeed stop, but rather than heed my warning, she trotted right on top of it, and looked down.
“Whoa! Check it out. You can see straight through, like there’s nothing there at all, and look, what do you suppose that is?”
I followed her gaze, but all I could see was the reflection of her icy blue eyes. I moved closer, and noticed a rather odd phenomenon. Beneath the water’s surface was a second surface of some other liquid. She and I stared at it for a good long while, mesmerized by it’s peculiar existence.
Then, we heard a loud crack. Well, felt is more like it. Before either of us could react, the ice had begun to give way beneath us. I scrambled for the thicker ice on the edge, but Snowflurry was not so lucky. As the surface disappeared and evaporated before our eyes, a powerful gust of hot air blew Snowflurry’s mane straight up. She fell over, stunned by the sudden blast of air. Her wings twitched uselessly at her side as the ice fell away beneath her. I saw the horrifying look of fear in her eyes as she whispered a silent plea for help, and sank through the growing hole in the center of the lake.
The next thing I heard was a loud sizzling sound, quickly drowned out by the agonized screams of my best friend.
“AAAAGGGH!! RARITY, HELP!! IT BURNS!!”
I crept closer to the edge, trying to see down into the hole Snowflurry had fallen through, but the ice cracked and fell anytime I got close to the edge. I couldn’t even see what was hurting her. Whatever it was was glowing red, and emitted a blistering heat. I had to help her, somehow, but there was nothing to do except wait for the rest of the lake to melt and then join her terrible fate. If only I had my magic.
My magic!
Yes. If I could unlock my magic, I could lift her out of there to safety. Telekinesis was a standard spell for all unicorns. I closed my eyes and concentrated hard on finding that odd sensation I’d been tugging at earlier. I grabbed hold of it, and ripped it to the forefront of my mind with whatever mental strength I possessed. My horn exploded with an odd tingling sensation, as though a thousand snowflakes were pelting the inside of it all at once. This had to be it. Now for a spell.
Come on, come on. Just get her out of there. I’ve got to save her! I thought to myself, as though simply wishing it hard enough would make it happen.
But I couldn’t lift her up—I couldn’t even feel her. I tried to reach out and find her with my magic, but she was simply not there. I reached out as far as I could in any direction. There had to be somepony nearby.
“Somepony! ANYPONY! Please just help me!” I cried as I struggled to find some magical grip on Snowflurry.
I felt a sharp tug on my skull, and the ice began sliding beneath my feet.
“What?! What’s going on?” I opened my eyes to see the lake almost entirely melted by now. Snowflurry’s screams slowly died off as the entire scene sped quickly away from me through the wind.
“No! Stop! You have to take me back! I have to save her!” I dug my hooves into the snow, but it was no use. I was properly hooked, and being taken somewhere unknown against my will. Tears flowed down my cheeks and froze quickly in the biting wind as I struggled helplessly against the tug of my own horn. I uttered a quiet promise to my friend as I stared longingly back at what I now knew to be her grave.
“I’m sorry, Snowflurry. I promise I’ll come back. I’ll find a way to save you. I promise.”
~ ~ ~
“Are you alright, young one?”
The question was voiced only in my head, but I certainly wasn’t the one to say it. It came in a calm, soft, soothing voice, rather unlike my own. It sounded exquisite, as though its owner had an affinity for the uncommon or refined, and it echoed around me as though from a vast chamber. I cast my gaze around for the speaker, but found nopony. It was dark, wherever I was—far too dark to see.
“Ah, yes. I had forgotten you do not see well without light.”
A brilliant blue light flared up somewhere in front of me. I blinked, quickly at first, but more slowly as my eyes adjusted to the new light. I was in a small cave, decorated by a myriad of dazzling crystalline shapes jutting from the walls. The floor beneath me was perfectly smooth, like ice. The far wall glowed brilliant sapphire blue, the source of the light, and curled up in front of it was the unmistakable form of a snowfox.
A halo of blue light radiated through its stunning white coat. Sparkling strands of snow colored tail fur swayed bewitchingly backward and forward on top of its snout, matching time to the gentle rise and fall of its side. Eyes closed in peaceful slumber, it appeared to be sleeping.
“Hello.” The voice called out in my mind again. I blinked, and looked around for the source of the voice. It chuckled, which matched the sudden erratic breathing of the fox just then.
“Figured it out yet, have you?” It was teasing me, I realized. The fox’s eyes opened then, revealing that they too were brilliant sapphire blue. They appeared to glow from within, as though they provided their own light. I stared into them, awed by their stunning contrast against the snowy white fur.
“Oh, do go on with your admirations; I know I am quite a beautiful creature, but I believe you called out to me for a reason?” The fox stood up and arched its back, stretching as it said this, and waving several snowy white tails in the air behind it. I blinked a few times and checked again to be sure I had counted right, subconsciously pointing with my hoof. One, two three… Yes, there were six tails coming from the fox. I wasn’t sure how I’d missed the extra tails a moment ago, but there they were, extending upward further than the length of the fox’s body.
“Yes, yes, I have six tails. Are you going to ask me for something or not?” The fox rolled its eyes and shook its head, thrashing a tail or two forward like a whip.
“Oh, I um…” I stuttered, trying to remember why I was here in the first place.
“It speaks. At last.” The fox laughed again in my head as I listened to the sound of my own stuttering echo around the walls of the cave. “And what might I call you, my young dear?”
That much I did remember. “Oh um, Rarity, good sir.”
The fox smiled (if that was possible) and silently trotted up to me. “Ah. And a rarity you are.” I stood perfectly still as it walked a circle around me, brushing its furry tails over every inch of my body. They tickled, as though licking me with magic, and I stiffened at their touch, but they didn’t seem threatening, so I forced myself to relax. My eyes remained fixed on the opposite wall, which shone like a crystal lantern.
“Well, miss Rarity, you may call me Burūfok. I am the guardian of this cave, and I can grant you something you may desire, but you must give up something in return for it.”
I continued to stare ahead at the opposite wall, noticing the intricate facets of the crystal there. It seemed to grow larger, blocking out everything else in the cave, almost as if it were staring back at me, drawing me closer to it. I reached out a hoof to step forward, then stopped. Snowflurry. I have to rescue Snowflurry. No time for gems now. I tried to turn my head, but it seemed to be fixed in place. I pulled harder, nearly groaning with the effort, and slowly, ever so slowly, I turned until my eyes could no longer remain locked to the crystalline wall.
Instantly, a cord was severed, and my body became my own once again. The first thing to enter my field of vision was Burūfok. His snout nearly touched mine, and he stared straight into my eyes. I swallowed hard. I knew what I wanted, but to give up something in return? I had never been very good at that. I don’t care what it takes, I just want her back. A tear escaped my eye, as I recalled our fillyhood together. She had been the only one who could talk me out of anything. The only one kind enough to stay with me no matter what, even when nopony else would even look at me. Or even when I didn’t want to be seen. She’d always seen through me, and that kind of friend just didn’t happen twice.
I swallowed the lump in my throat, and asked him. “Please. Please just bring back my friend. I’ll be so lonely without her.” The tears began to steadily stream down my cheeks. I’ll give anything. I heard him chuckle in my head once more, which was joined by an audible, sharp gekkering.
”Such a fascinating creature you are, to resist your nature so easily... Very well, I shall return life to your friend, and in return for your admirable integrity, I’ll even lend you my power to draw on for the duration of your own life.”
He walked back to his spot near the far wall, and curled up, then began to glow intensely bright. His six tails reached up into the air, swirling around each other slowly, but growing steadily faster. Thin wisps of magic began to float in the air between them, glowing the same sapphire blue as everything else in this cave. Faster and faster they spun, until they formed a vortex which began to spin the air around it. My mane began to whip my face as the wind caught it, and before long I had to close my eyes.
Something cold brushed my face, and I opened my eyes again. I was no longer in the cave, and began to wonder if I ever was. I was lying down in the deep snow. The wind was biting cold, and my scarf had frozen around my neck. I stood up and looked around, but was unable to make out anything in detail amidst the snow flying everywhere,.
I was lost out in the middle of nowhere, with no one to help me. Snowflurry usually showed up right about now with a warm blanket, and her keen sense of direction. As I remembered the horrifying scene from before, I began to cry into the wind. Snowflurry was gone, and she wasn’t coming back.
My flank itched, and I turned to scratch it with my horn. I gasped. There, on my flank, were three blue sapphires, printed into my coat. My cutie mark! I should have been excited, but it was hard to feel happy when I’d just lost my best friend. A dull pain formed in my chest. She should have been here to share this moment with me.
I heard a chuckle echo from somewhere in my head. Was that… The fox! The chuckling grew into a loud, chittering laugh. So it had been real. Which meant Snowflurry was alive! I searched for the direction I’d come here from, but there were no tracks in the snow, and I couldn’t remember arriving here in the first place. The laughter in my head continued as I closed my eyes, and concentrated with my magic.
Nothing. There was nothing nearby, and no way to figure out where I was going. I was lost. Well, that fox wasn’t going to get his amusement out of me yet. I opened my eyes, faced forward and began to walk—wherever that would take me. Surely I’d reach something identifiable soon enough. And as luck would have it, my first hoof-fall went straight through the snow, which broke and began to slide forward, and downward. I struggled to keep my footing, as the snow beneath me gave way.
I fell several feet and landed in a thick blanket of white powder. Just as I was getting up to shake myself off, more fell on top of my head, and the whole slew of it began sliding as one large mass. Faster and faster it went, picking up more along the way. Well that was it. I had no way of knowing where this snow-slide would take me, but it didn’t matter now. Wherever it was headed, I was going with it, willing or not.
I struggled to maintain my balance, but ultimately could not. The snow churned and swirled, flying up in large volumes to crash over my head. The white world around me turned black as I slipped beneath the snow. It was a sickening ride as I turned end over end by the thrashing wet powder, tumbling down the side of the mountain I’d been standing on. My prison opened up to the outside air for a few dizzying moments, and I noticed that I was airborne. Then it clamped shut and I went tumbling through darkness again.
After several more minutes, I noticed that the world had stopped violently turning, but now I found myself unable to move, trapped in complete darkness beneath the snow. NO! I couldn’t just die like this. That damned fox had promised. There had to be some way to escape. I couldn't even figure out which way was up. I was completely stuck. If I could cry, I think I would have. The snow got slowly colder, draining the heat from my body as I desperately tried to think of a way to escape.
There was none. I was going to die here, without even the chance to say goodbye to my parents. My heart ached as I thought of them, sitting at home wondering why neither of us had returned. After a few hours they’d sent out a party to look for us, expecting to find us frozen in the snow or beneath the ice. They’d find Snowflurry, hideously marred beyond recognition by whatever evil had melted and eaten the lake. And they’d assume I’d met the same fate—my tracks leading away would be gone by then.
If I could just melt the snow... I reached out with my horn, searching for the surface. If I could just find which way was up maybe I could… Suddenly, I could feel water pouring over me. It ran through my already soaked mane, growing thicker and warmer until at last I felt a chilling wind on one of my hooves. The spell’s success took me a bit by surprise, but I was beginning to become accustomed to the feeling of using magic. I guess my father was right after all.
The pool of water that had collected around me was rather soothing, and the tunnel reaching up before me didnt look quite as inviting, but I needed to get back to Snowflurry, so I scrambled up the steep slope as best I could, and out into the world above.
The biting wind from earlier had ceased, and with it, the punishing snow. The moon glowed brightly in the clear night sky as I shivered against the frigid air, pulling my soaking wet scarf tighter around myself in a feeble attempt to keep warm. A nice dry, wool blanket would be absolutely wonderful right about now. The snowdrift I’d just climbed out of reached upward to my left. Looking up, I saw that it extended up the side of a mountain—the cause of my latest plight.
As to where Snowflurry was, I hadn’t the slightest clue where to begin. I’d woken up in that cave, so there was no telling where it was in relation to my home village, and there were no landmarks in sight other than the mountain I’d just tumbled down. I felt the tears well up in my cheeks long before they actually broke. I was never going to see Snowflurry again. I was never going to see my family again. It was hard to tell if I was shivering from the cold or from sheer and utter grief.
I don’t know how long I sat there, or how I kept from freezing to death. Perhaps it was the simple forlorn stubbornness of one who refuses to admit their loss. I’d like to think it was Snowflurry, sending me a comforting wing from beyond the grave. Perhaps it was her who encouraged me to get up, and begin my long, slow trudge through the frozen wilderness.
~ ~ ~
My scarf had frozen solid around my face when I first saw the smoke, but it had kept me warm. The sun had risen again, and the light of the dawn revealed a column of smoke rising in the distance. It was still very far off on the horizon, but it meant hope. Hope of finding out where I was in this vast tundra; hope of escape from the cold. I could no longer feel my hooves as they pressed on through the thick snow, but the thought that I might see my family again gave me new strength.
Mother would be fixing a nice warm dinner, and father would be sitting by the fire, having just finished making additions to the walls around the village. They’d look up and rush to sweep their daughter into a tight, warm embrace, welcoming her home. I smiled at the thought, or tried to, given that my lips were frozen stiff and couldn’t move very far. I reached out with my horn, searching for anypony on the horizon who I might look to for help.
It took several hours to reach the source. Snow gave way to grass and small brush as I got closer. It was odd to see anything green in the middle of winter, but perhaps I’d found some secret oasis, like the one from legend. But my hoof falls slowed and eventually stopped as I drew closer and finally saw what had captured my attention.
There was an enormous cloud of glowing orange mist surrounding the smoke, and the ground was very warm and wet, the way it ought to be in summer… in the south. I stopped dead in my tracks, and my heart nearly did the same as I realized why it was so warm. After I’d walked about a mile, the mist cleared, and I could see the cause of such a strange phenomenon.
This was no ordinary smoke from a campfire. I had only seen it from so far away because it was so thick, and rose miles into the sky. At its base was a mountain of fire. Flames reaching up so high they dwarfed the small houses burning at their base. There was a town on fire, and the resulting heat had melted the snow and raised this cloud of mist.
Liquid fire poured up from beneath the snow in the center of town, shooting high into the sky and raining down upon the defenseless townsponies—who were probably dead by this point. Then I noticed something my heart was not at all ready for: This was my village.
Home at last, and all for nothing. I’d lost my fillyhood friend, my parents, and my home all in the same stroke. There was no stopping the floodtide of tears that was rushing to my face in that instant. I could feel myself shaking violently all over. How was a filly supposed to cope with such loss on her own? I collapsed onto the ground. My head hung limply, staring down between my front hooves, barely stable enough to support my weight. My heart felt heavy, and slowly, steadily the tears began to flow. Snowflurry would know what to do.
Wait. Hadn’t that fox promised to return life to her? My head shot up, looking around. Could she be alive? I scrambled to my feet, kicking up soft dirt as I raced off toward the last shred of hope I had. Tears dried on my face, my heart nearly bursting straight out of my chest. The lake had been nearby here. I searched for where I knew it to be, and at last there it was. A great depression laid into the ground, now run dry by the same heat which had melted the ice and taken my friend.
I stopped at the edge and peered down at Snowflurry’s would be grave. A lake of fire peered back up at me, heat radiating off of its surface so strongly that I had to look away after a few seconds. My lips dried and cracked almost instantly. I turned and ran along what used to be the shoreline of the lake. Snowflurry had to be here somewhere. My eyes stung and my hooves were quickly gathering blisters from the heat of the rocks beneath them.
She wasn’t here. Slowly, reluctantly as I completed a full turn around the used to be frozen lake, I came to the heart-wrenching conclusion that Snowflurry was not here. I began to shake violently, as every muscle in my body tensed, and the pain in my chest intensified until it burned like a white hot ball of fire.
A shriek escaped my lips, born of every injustice I had been dealt since I stepped onto the ice that morning. It rose and grew in intensity, until I could no longer feel myself. The fire from my chest poured into my horn and through it, sending out waves of magic I didn’t know I’d had.
As I allowed myself to be consumed by rage, one small point in my head threw forth its voice. A single shard of ice amidst the flames. It thrummed with raw energy, waiting to be released, pressing against my mind like an ocean of power.
“My gift to you. Use it if you wish”
My eyes clenched shut and I glared with the sharpest daggers I possessed into the abyss I’d found, screaming inside my head. You monster! You lied to me! She is not here, and you’ve taken everything I’ve ever loved! WHY! How could you? You promised!
His eyes then lit up, burning with ferocity in the blackness of my own mind.
And you shall have all that I have promised you, when you have paid all that I have deemed a worthy price.
His words dripped with amusement and satisfaction, and the glowing orbs of light before me narrowed into thin slits. He’d planned this. I had never specified which price I would pay—only that I wanted Snowflurry back—and now I could see Burūfok intended to exploit my vagueness inexorably.
As I came to this realization, I heard his cruel laughter ring out in my mind. The wellspring of power continued to press relentlessly against my mind, and at last I let it in. I let it flow through me, and gave it direction and purpose. Torrents of energy poured into my horn, and were released in a brilliant white light that obscured everything in sight.
When it died down and everything went black again, I found myself on the ground, crying. There was silence all around me. The crackle of the flames as they consumed my village, the bubble of liquid fire as it rose from the earth. Gone. A cool breeze blew through my mane, sending a shiver down my body. It was cold outside again.
I opened my eyes with some effort, and looked out over my hooves. It was like looking into a dream. As I struggled to raise my head, I saw down into the lake, and what I had done to it. It was frozen once more, but this would not melt. Its surface was a deep sapphire blue, perfectly smooth and flat. A great snowflake pattern had been emblazoned into it, with such delicate texture and intricate facets it put the old statue of Icy Gale to shame. I wanted to jump straight up when I saw what was in the middle, but my legs wouldn’t support me well enough, and it was a struggle even to stand.
At a painfully slow pace, I stumbled down and out onto the crystalline surface I’d built. It was both cold and warm at the same time, yet not unsettling. I struggled forward to the center, slipping a few times, but eventually made it. There before me stood a perfectly crafted, icy blue carving of a pegasus filly—Snowflurry. Its color matched her eyes. My lip trembled, and I shakily raised a hoof to touch it—her.
Just as my hoof was about to make contact, I stopped, barely able to breathe. Part of me wanted desperately to reach out and touch her, but the rest of me knew what my heart didn’t want to admit. I stayed nearly motionless for a second, then slowly put the hoof down, and let the tightness in my chest relax.
It wasn’t her. I hung my head, more tears forming. She was gone, and there was nothing that was going to bring her back. I reached forward with my horn just enough to touch her with the tip. I summoned up the magic I’d used to create her, and let her dissolve. Her aqueous form flowed downward onto the blue ice beneath us, collecting and reforming into three large icy blue gems. Just like her eyes. She had always had such beautiful eyes.
I picked the gems up with my magic and held them in front of me. These would keep me company as I blundered on through this pointless life. They would serve as a reminder that friends were only a curse–painful tools which could be used against you. I would keep my one and only friend next to me, where she could not be taken, or used against me. I fashioned myself a new saddlebag from the surrounding snow, melding the ice crystals into fabric. I then levitated the three gems into my new saddlebag, and turned away from the scene.
That was the day this all began.
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Can't wait to read this after i'm done with shiny's secret!
The feels, the feels
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this deserves a follow.
im going to rub this fic all over my body
Good start, but has a few incongruencies. It is as if it was written from watching the 'Cutie Mark Chronicles' and nothing else. It ignores the clear evidence of parents present in 'Sisterhooves Social'. You might be able to get past that with a few points in your story, if you knew what to do...but I'd be careful if I were you...Rarity fans can get...irrational. Over-all it's good so far. I'll look forward to what you can present.
3937743
>throwing caution to the wind
NEVAR!
I should be pretty okay though. I've planned for such incongruencies, and well, this isn't exactly a Rarity-glorifying fic anyway.
Thanks for the tip tho. I'll keep it in mind.
Why is the text in dark blue? I read on dark grey!
This is bad! Very bad! 
Nah, not really.
3938294 Is ok.
3938333 Read in darkest. It was pretty.
3938364 ooh, that is pretty...
3938364
You have to figure it out. 
3938382
Heh, I usually read in darkest, yeah. I write on Gdocs but I picked the colors after I made the transfer. Probably something to keep in mind in the future though.
Anywho, There's a purpose for it, but I'm not telling
EDIT: I've switched the dark purple text to a light blue to make it easier to tell them apart with a light background. I'm keeping the blue for the fox's speech though. It's easy to read on all but the Rarity theme, ironically enough.
................AWESOME!
>tfw you return to a story after a year and a half to continue writing and you can't remember what half the subtle hints mean anymore
I knew I should have written them down. Oh well.
Well, that's certainly a compelling first chapter. I have to wonder how hard-AU this story is given Rarity's background: whether she merely lied about her past and somehow got adopted by her parents shown in Sisterhooves Social, or if this is something more divergent where she doesn't even have parents at all since her real ones got killed in a fire. It's certainly going to be a lot harder Rarity than canon Rarity is, though given the ending she is still at least capable of being a seamstress. Of course, associating her Cutie Mark with Snowflurry every time she sees it is going to bring some heartache, even if it also gives her the drive to keep on living.
I would say Rarity isn't very genre-savvy when it comes to trickster fox spirits, but she is a foal, and it's not like she probably has had enough literature or folklore up in the frozen north to know about fox spirits. Still, not clarifying her wish enough to make sure Snowflurry was alive (and of course she never mentioned Snowflurry by name either) is mostly on her