Shadows of Progress

by Silvermyr

Chapter four

Prince Blueblood was slowly moseying his way through the upper reaches of Canterlot, among the gardens more or less prohibited for ”the lowly peasants”, as he would put it. He walked through the greenery and looked at the various flowers, silently noting their flaws and imperfections.

”Incredible,” he thought bitterly. ”Not even in Canterlot can one find a flower perfect and pristine enough to be worthy of my royal eyes…”

Blueblood vaporized a couple of roses as he passed them, confident that the gardener would be blamed anyway. He trotted into his castle again and went to his own quarters. He was bored. Maybe torturing the servants could cheer him up?

”Lowly lackey!” He called, and five seconds later a red unicorn appeared. That was six seconds too long of a wait in Blueblood’s opinion.

”Yes, my Prince?” The lowly lackey said, tiredness in her voice. She knew how the Prince was when he was angry.

”Are there any letters of importance today?” Blueblood said as he glared at the lowly lackey.

”Only a letter from Fancypants inviting you to his garden party this evening…” the lowly lackey answered quickly. She fidgeted under his gaze.

Blueblood felt his cheeks heat up ever so slightly. He was the Prince of Canterlot, last in line of the ancient Unicorn kings. Fancypants was required, by etiquette, to invite him to all of his parties. But it was always Fancypants who was the popular one of those parties, and Blueblood hated that. Fancypants was nothing compared to his own grandeur. How could he, the heir to Princess Platinum herself, be less popular than anypony?

Blueblood had proposed that Celestia should outlaw being more popular than him, but, for whatever reason, nothing had happened yet…

Blueblood sighed. Right now he was so bored he actually would attend Fancypant’s party, if only to ”accidentally” drop glasses. ”Very well. In my limitless generosity, I have decided to grace Fancypant’s humble… ” Buleblood tried to find a demeaning word, but failed. ”…party this evening. That should brighten his day.”

The lowly lackey did not know Fancypants, but she felt sorry for him. She would probably have felt sorry for Chrysalis, too if it was her party, but still…

A few hours later, the Prince of Canterlot found himself dropping a crystal glass probably worth more than Sweet Apple Acres. He decided to ”go and get a new one”, which meant sneaking into Fancypant’s private room and see if he could find something embarrassing to sell to the paparazzi.

As the prince looked through the few letters his host had received, his eyes locked on something. He felt rage beginning to boil in his heart. Too well did he recognize the cutie mark stamped onto the envelope. Three light blue gemstones.

All too clear did the prince remember the beautiful alabaster mare from the Grand Galloping Gala a few years back. He remembered the humiliation too. He did not recall her name, of course, so he had never been able to get back at her, but now…

”Rarity…” Blueblood said as he read the letter. His lips curled upwards in a smirk that would have made Sombra proud. ”Financial trouble, eh?” He said sweetly, venomously. ”Would be a shame if somepony…”

He picked up the envelope in his magic and vaporized it. ”Oops, my bad,” he said to himself. He suddenly felt in a much better mood.

That night Prince Blueblood had a most wonderful dream. He dreamt that Rarity the Unicorn would come hungry and dirty to his home and beg of forgiveness, for him to give her something to eat, something to wear, anything.

At first, Blueblood would act like he should, and then, just when she thought she was saved, he would slam the door right in her face, and listen to her crying and begging outside. The prince slept with a smile on his lips all the night.

*****

Rarity looked at the image in the mirror. Alabaster coat with a silky texture, impossibly soft and long mane, colored in royal purple. Sapphire blue irises surrounding two uncharted, infinitely deep pools. Her horn was not slender nor stocky, it was elegant. A beautiful, elegant spiral, wonderfully framed by her eyes and mane. The icing of the cake was her cutie mark, the three ice blue gemstones that stood out enough to draw attention, but not enough to make ponies look away from her face for very long.

Rarity sure did not look like a criminal.

”I have to, it’s only temporary, I have to…” She mumbled silently to herself as she stood in front of the mirror. She looked over her outfit. It was a simple, black thing that would help her meld with the darkness, as well as hide her, in Ponyville, very rare coat color. In the saddlebags she also had a crowbar.

”Why, Fancypants?” Rarity wondered for the thousand time. ”When I really need you, why wouldn’t you answer?” She was out of time. Even if she would get an order tomorrow, it would take her too long to receive payment for it.

”Desperate times calls for desperate measures Rarity,” She told her mirror image. ”You promised Sweetie Belle, and it is only temporary.” The mirror image still had a deeply ashamed look on its face.

Rarity had a plan. She was ashamed of it, but it was likely her only chance as she saw it. She would have a sale on some of her more fancy clothing. Since the Summer Sun Celebration only was a week away, there was a lot of potential customers. Problem was that Flim and Flam would steal most of them, even if she had a sale.

They had to be removed from the equation. She had to sabotage their machine.

Rarity looked out of the window, and saw that the clock approached three A.M. ”Time to get underway…” She told herself and tried to swallow the lump in her throat.

She got into her black outfit and went into her sister’s room. She had to remember why she did this. She looked at the small marshmallow and cotton candy filly that laid curled up in her bed, soundly asleep. Somehow, the sight only made Rarity feel more ashamed.

With great effort, she forced herself to step out of the door, put out the light in the house and sneak out in the darkness. There was nopony out, but she still felt jumpy. Every shadow seemed to turn into the accusing faces of her friends, or those of Flim and Flam, or a policepony coming to arrest her. She swallowed and started walking a little faster.

Before long, she galloped through the streets in a panicked way. She hyperventilated and looked franticly left and right at the shadows that glared at her. Suddenly she skidded to a halt, and the tormenting shadows disappears. She had arrived at her destination. Flim and Flam’s Fast Fabulous Fashionable Finery.

She slowly went up to the door, and picked out a bent barrette. She prayed to Celestia that picking locks worked the same in reality as it did in her novels. She bent to the task and found it did seem to work the same way. Most ponies would have trouble picking locks for the first time, but Rarity was used to delicate, exacting work after all those years as a seamstress. She was so caught up in her work that she did not see the gray Pegasus with veering eyes that watched her from the post office, a half eaten muffin in her hooves. The door clicked open, and Rarity entered.

She took a few seconds to let her eyes adjust to the dim interior of the shop. She silently went to the door in the back, and found it open. She entered and found her quarry, The Splendidly-whatever-it-was-called-700. She took a breath to calm her nerves, and went up to the machine.

”Alright, where does it seem vulnerable?” She thought to herself. She felt a lot less nervous now when she was actually doing something, rather than just thinking. She slowly trotted around the machine, but did not find any weak spots. Cogs and gears made up most of the contraption, but they looked clunky and sturdy, and she did not have time nor skill to dismantle the whole thing.

”Maybe the wires…?” She thought slowly. The wires were located on top of the machine, so she would have to climb up to them as magic was to loud. Furthermore, the wires were protected by glass. Not the most subtile thing to break.

Rarity decided to go with the wires, as she did not want to stay and think for long. She leaped as silently as she could onto one of the cogwheels, and slowly made her way to the top of the machine. She brought out a crowbar from her saddlebags and swung it against the glassed wire.

The crash seemed to split the silence like a thunderclap. Rarity’s eyes grew larger in panic as she heard how loud it was. She laid herself flat against the machine, and prayed to Celestia that nopony had heard.

She waited for minutes, but nopony came. She then remembered breathing again, and proceeded to break the next glassed wire. This time, she held her left hood behind it to muffle the sound. She had to bite her lip to prevent a moan of pain to escape her as slivers of glass borrowed into her tender hoof.

She managed to destroy two more wires, even if a small whimper escaped her when she slammed the glass into her left hoof for the fourth time. She still had one wire left, but she knew she could not use her left hoof to nether swing the crowbar or muffle the sound. She silently crept closer to the wire, placed her right hoof behind the wire and levitated the crowbar up with her magic.

She felt like an invisible palm had gripped her horn and dragged the magic out of her. With a confused and startled sound she saw her magic drain from her horn. It formed a radiant blue beam that arched through the air on its own accord until it struck a small metal stick in front of her. She followed the small spark that traveled down into the machine’s interior. She watched it fork out and enter a series of wires. Rarity had just enough time to be afraid.

BRRRRZZZZZZAP!

Author's Note:

I do feel bad for putting Rarity through that, but don't blame me, it was all Blueblood's fault (again).

Anyway, a little shorter chapter this time, because I wanted to make a bit of a cliffhanger. Because I could .

Comments

[SusieBeeca]

Wow, this took a turn for the dark! In a good way, though. You actually have me concerned for my least-favourite Mane Six!