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Rarity opened her eyes, painfully. The sun, though through a layer of thin, whispish clouds burned her eyes. She stood on shaky hooves, and walked for a few steps before she realized where she was. She was on the edge of the road leading south, out of Ponyville. “What time is it…?” She muttered to nobody in particular.

She started the short walk back to her house, barely managing to stay upright. The ground seemed unnaturally firm, and the air seemed unnaturally steady, unwilling to shake and writhe as it had been before…

As she walked past the first few houses on the way into town, she noticed a multicolored streak of fur as it flew over her. She barely took notice of it, and thought nothing of it. Then Rainbow Dash flew back toward her, and landed in the street in front of her.

Rarity blinked twice, and moved to walk around her friend.

“Whoa, where are you going? Rarity, it’s me, Rainbow!”

Another blink. Then a slow, very deliberate blink to bring the air back into focus. “Oh, hello, Rainbow. What time is it?”

Rather taken aback, Rainbow replied, “Well, it’s almost night, I’m not sure exactly what time. A better question is where in the hell have you been?!” Rainbow glared.

“Umm… well…”

“How drunk were you last night? You didn’t even go home!”

“No, I suppose I didn’t… Rainbow, which direction is my house?”

A sigh. She pointed directly to her right. “Rarity, your house is right there. Anyway. Me and Fluttershy have been flying everywhere trying to find you! You said you were going home because you were tired, and it looks like you decided to sleep on the road!”

“Yes, well, I was going home… but…”

“But what?”

Rarity stared for a moment. Something was missing. Yes, she had to get home immediately…

“Rarity… er… Oh damn it all, I’m no good at this lecturing stuff…” She glanced around. “Twilight! I need someone to lecture Rarity for me!”

The air in front of Rarity shimmered, glowed pink, and exploded, revealing Twilight Sparkle, with her mane messed up, and red creeping from the edges of her eyes. “Oh! You found her! Where?!”

“She was just wandering into town like she didn’t know where she was!”

“Well, Rarity, you’ve got a lot of questions to answer, like why your side is covered in dirt and you don’t seem to care-“

“Oh, is it?”

“And why you told us you were going back to your house, but somehow didn’t end up actually arriving! Where did you go? Was there some other house you haven’t told us about that you went to? And what about your sister? She needs someone to look after her while she’s living with you! You can’t just leave her alone for a night! And I’m just about out of things to be mad about. I have to get to bed.” Twilight turned and started walking back to her house.

“Thanks.” Said Rainbow. She turned to Rarity. “Don’t do that again or I’ll have to get rough.” She flew away to tell the rest of the ponies out looking to go to bed.

Rarity realized that she had just been publicly reprimanded. She sighed as she walked back to her house. That was another thing that had to be fixed. When she got into her house, she quickly made for the shower. It would look suspicious to everyone if she allowed herself to go to bed covered in dirt.

She got out of the shower, and dried herself off. There was a knock on the door to boutique section of her house. She walked slowly over, taking her time to not knock anything over.

The pony waiting at the door knocked again, louder. Rarity bristled. “I’M COMING, CELESTIA DAMN IT!” She shouted. Then she remembered that she shouldn’t shout at customers. Whatever, she thought. Customers weren’t her focus in life anymore.

She opened the door to reveal a tall, midnight blue unicorn stallion with a passionate look in his eye. “Rarity.” He said coolly.

“Midnight.” She said, staring hazily at him. “Not now.” She made to close the door.

“Hold on, Rarity.” The door was enveloped in an azure glow as his magic took hold of it. “I’m only in town for the night, and I thought we could have fun like we did in the old days.”

“I said not now.” Rarity growled. The aura on the door changed to a light violet as Rarity took hold of it.

The aura changed back. Midnight’s calm expression changed to one of mild displeasure. “Rarity, we had an agreement. If we ever had the opportunity, we wouldn’t turn the other down.”

“I don’t care!” Rarity shouted. Her horn glowed, shooting sparks.

Midnight jumped back a step, unnerved. Regaining his composure, he turned away. “Fine then. I won’t be seeing you.” He trotted off down the road.

The door closed. Rarity went back up to her room, closing that door as well, locking it. She unlocked a drawer of her desk with a spell that only she knew. Inside… was relief. She removed the tools, mixed the proper ingredients, and administered them to her foreleg, thinking briefly that it was fortunate that her fur covered the marks.

She lay down on the bed, sighing as she was lifted out of reality. The bed was softer, the lights dimmer, and she was finally relieved of the stress that had built up during the day. She found herself filled with a steady stream of energy, with which she wandered around the room, gazing at all of the beautiful aspects of decoration.

“Oh, that’s a nice wallpaper.” She said, gazing at the new paper she had put up a week ago. “It blends well with the floor, and the ceiling… and…” She heard a crack. Turning sharply, she looked at the window. A black, red-eyed Pegasus was hovering there, chewing at the glass.

“Get out of here!” She shouted, preparing a basic attack spell. The Pegasus bit the glass especially firmly, causing the glass to shatter.

Rarity fired her spell, hitting the Pegasus in the snout. It fell away, snarling. Rarity sighed with relief.

There was a buzzing sound, as if flies were surrounding the house. More black, red-eyed pegasi gathered around the window.

Rarity screamed, bolting into the closet. She locked the door, and aimed an attack spell at it. “IF ANY OF YOU PIECES OF SHIT GET ANYWHERE NEAR ME, I’LL BLOW YOU TO PIECES!” She roared.

She faintly heard a knock at the door to her room, and the voice of her little sister calling out to her, asking what was going on. Rarity shouted for her to get to her room and lock the door.

The buzzing sound grew louder and louder until it felt like the house was shaking. They were right outside the door, she could hear them, whispering to each other about how they were going to eat her legs first, then go for the nice parts, which they would tear slowly away…

Midnight was standing right next to her in the closet. “You know, it’ll be easier if you just go out there now and get it over with. They’ll catch you no matter what.”

Rarity shouted for him to go away, and tried to hit him with a bolt of electricity. He laughed, and hopped behind her. He said that this was for not allowing him inside earlier. He put his hooves on her flank, and told her to hold still.

She pulled away, shouting for him to keep his distance. She fired bolt after bolt at him, but nothing seemed to hurt him. The door to the closet was shaking, there were roars and shrieks as the pegasi sensed they were about to reach their prey, they were getting closer…

Sunlight shined through the crack of the closet door. Rarity stood, shaking. She opened the door, as the shrieks of the pegasi were nonexistent. She glanced up to see a white and blue unicorn repairing her window. He glanced back to her. “Oh, hey Rarity. He sent me over to fix anything you broke, and make sure nobody found out. The first few weeks are always the hardest.”

She nodded. “Make sure to tell him that I’m almost out.” She glanced back into her closet. “And there are some burn marks in the closet.”

“I’ll get to fixing those right away.” He trotted past her. “Oh, wait. I’m supposed to give this to you.” He pulled a letter out of his mane, and gently levitated it over to her. “These burns are something tough, but I’ll be able to fix them in no time. I’m surprised that you managed to cast such a dangerous spell. Most unicorns can’t do them without some kind of training.”

Rarity was paying to attention to him. She had opened the letter.

Dear Miss Rarity,
Don’t worry about a thing. If anything, anything at all happens, I’ll cover you. I’ll pay all of the bails, hire the right lawyers, pay the right ponies, and cover all of the damages. After all, what’s a dealer for if not that? By the way, it would be best to burn this letter once you’ve read it. It’ll definitely lead to trouble if anypony finds it.

-A

The repair pony was still talking about something that Rarity didn’t care about. She took the letter into the kitchen, turned on the stove, and held the paper over the flame until it was nothing more than a clump of black flakes.

“So I’ll be seeing you around, eh?” The repair pony had followed her downstairs.

She glanced at him sharply, implying suspicion.

“Oh, the marks in the closet were fairly easy to clean up, I must be getting better at it. So… since we’re kind of in the same place now, being… kind of… the… well…”

“You’d like to establish friendship?” She asked, a lighter expression coming over her face.

He blushed. “Well, um, yeah.”

“But of course! I wouldn’t turn anypony down for something like that. Have a nice day,” She paused, implying a request for a name.

“Oh…” He glanced at his cutie mark, a pair of circular arrows. “You can call me… Reverse.”

“Okay, Reverse. Have a nice day.” She glanced at the table, which reminded her of something. “Oh! I need to get to Sugarcube Corner ten minutes ago to meet my friends! No time to chat.”

“Don’t worry, everypony, I’m here!” Said Rarity.

“Yeah, about twenty minutes late.” Said Rainbow Dash. She snorted, sipping her drink sullenly.

“Actually, she’s only about fifteen minutes late.” Said Twilight.

“Whatever!”

“And.” Twilight stood from her seat. “We need to talk to you. You have a problem.”

Rarity glanced up. There was a tall unicorn with a black mane sitting a few booths away, eating a donut. When Twilight said “You have a problem.” He glanced up sharply, adjusting his position.

“You can’t drink so much at parties.” Twilight announced, pointing. “It’s dangerous, and you don’t appear to have any control over what you do when you’re that drunk. I say no more than two glasses of wine. Understand?”

“And that’s another thing.” Cut in Applejack, who had kept silent until now. “You can’t drink all of my liquor at every party, that stuff’s expensive.”

Pinkie flew from the kitchen, carrying a tray of cupcakes. “Oh, come on, Applejack. That stuff’s the best! Even Fluttershy drinks a cup or two whenever you bring it out.”

They all turned to Fluttershy, who was sitting near the window. “What? What are you guys talking about?” she glanced around, clearly not familiar with the art of deception.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Anyway. Back to the original subject. I won’t stand by and watch you drink your life away, Rarity.”

“Alright, Twilight, I’ll cut back. I guess I did get a bit out of hand. That’s why I went home early.”

They all ordered another round of drinks, Rarity specifically ordered a non-alcoholic drink. After they were all done, each excused themselves, needing to get to the winter preparations.

Rarity stayed behind. The stallion was still sitting where he had been before, eating another donut. She approached him. He pretended that he didn’t know she was looking at him.

She stuck her nose right underneath his.

He glanced up, acting surprised. “Can I help you, miss?”

“I know who you work for.” She said. “And I know what you’re doing here. But whatever those five do, no matter what, you do not touch them, or you answer to me. Understand?”

He nodded, grinning. “I’m surprised you noticed me.”

“Um, Rarity?” Twilight had reentered the café. “What are you…?”

“Oh, I was just commenting on how this charming stallion here styles his mane. It looks like it could become a huge thing in fashion!”

“Okay, well, the Mayor needs to see you in her office, as soon as possible.”

“Whatever for?”

“I don’t know, but she said to tell you that it has something to do with your sister.”

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