The Enchanted Kingdom

by Monochromatic

~ Interlude V ~ A Quiet Moment ~

---

She hadn’t been able to sleep since they came back from the library.

She simply lay on the edge of her bed, unable to tear her eyes away from the sleeping alicorn beside her, the ink all over her coat staining the sheets and Sweetie Belle huddled next to her.

For hours, she was convinced it was a dream. It had to be. Any moment now, she thought, she’d hear Incantation yelling her name, she’d wake up back at Hollow Shades, and Twilight would still be sealed inside the library.

But the hours had passed, and the more they passed, the more she had to confront the fact that it wasn’t a dream.

Twilight really had been freed from the library.

Pinkie was awake when Rarity came down the stairs at around five in the morning.

“Rarity!” she exclaimed, and she was happy, and thrilled, and delighted, and it was jarring. “You’re awake! Were you too excited to sleep, too?!”

Rarity smiled thinly. “Ah. I suppose I was.”

It was jarring and uncomfortable, and Rarity didn’t know why, but it was. Hours ago, she’d shared that joy! Double, even triplefold, endlessly relieved and overjoyed that Twilight was back, completely drunk in the euphoria of what seemed to be a miracle.

She’d been happy, but somewhere in between then and now, reality had settled and now she was something else. Something she didn’t quite want to think about it, because whatever it was, it felt bad.

It felt frightening.

She hadn’t seen Twilight Sparkle in two years.

She’d been torn apart from Twilight longer than she’d actually had her.

She made herself tea, in this house from this town she’d abandoned from sheer paralyzing grief—over somepony she’d only known for a year! Dear stars, dear stars, dear stars above—listening quietly as Pinkie rambled on and on. How excited she was! How thrilled! If Princess Twilight had gotten out, then Princess Luna would, too! With every excited hop around the kitchen, the pink necklace Pinkie had been wearing for over a year bounced on her chest. It bounced, and bounced, and it was transfixing and mesmerizing until Rarity remembered when she’d taken it off.

Remembered the hazy hours of staring at the necklace for days on end feeling like nothing else mattered.

She quickly looked away, fixing her stare on her cup of tea and the drops spattered on the table around it, and she hated it.

How she hated it.

Pinkie left a little later, off to see Mister and Missus Cake so she could use their kitchen to bake Twilight a cake. Rarity waved her off, standing under the frame of the front door, and when Pinkie was but a speck in the distance, she went back inside to pour herself another cup.

This time, her hoof was steady. A small insignificant detail, but it mattered to her.

She sat down at the kitchen table, dropped a sugarcube inside, and then stirred the tea with her magic. Stirred, and stirred, and stirred it, a mechanical motion that allowed her to press her chin on her hoof and look off into the distance, her thoughts drifting her away.

For the past two years, after a six-month haze of grief, Rarity the unicorn was fearless. Fearless enough to leave her hometown, fearless enough to be blinded into abandoning her fashion career and everything she’d built, fearless enough to try and free Princess Luna from her cave. All these things that might have once frightened or stopped her did not anymore.

She hadn’t been afraid of anything going wrong, because no matter what happened, no matter how badly it went, no matter what it was, nothing in the world would ever absolutely and completely shatter her as much as losing Twilight had. Nothing could devastate her as that had.

One couldn’t really fear death anymore when one had already died.

And now, all of a sudden, Twilight was back.

Just like that.

---

Author's Note:

And with this posted, all that’s left is the end of Act II, which will comprise of two chapters posted back to back (maybe a short act epilogue) and an interlude. All of these posted back to back.

It’s strange to see this posted, as this entire interlude was conceived and first drafted back in 2017. Somewhere in the depths of my GDocs is the first scene of TEK’s first chapter written entirely in Rarity’s POV. This scene is part of it. The unpublished beginning of a quiet arc that has spanned literally the entire fic thus far. A quiet reminder that the beating heart of this saga is still the bond between Fashion Horse and Book Horse.

Tattered, and scarred, and bleeding, but still beating.

I’m excited to see its conclusion! And for those of you who’ve stuck with me through highs and lows, through my neverending awful updating schedules, I hope it’ll be worth it. The entire story isn’t over, but this arc will be, and I hope it’ll be as meaningful to you as it is to me.

Be on the lookout for Act II’s grand finale: The Nightmare Night & The Filly who Hoped.

Stay safe, everyone!

Comments

[JMP]

...wow. Should have figured Rarity was having thoughts like this given her recent fight with Twilight, but still...wow.

Also, this chapter was labelled Interlude IV in the chapter name but the art and chapter selection indicate that this is Interlude V?

[NebulaNyx]

This whole arc has been amazing so far and I am so excited to finaly see the conclusion.
And I love these little snap shots we have been getting about how rarity has felt over the last few years. You can tell its building up to something. Its both exciting and terrifying. I cant wait.

[SigmasonicX]

Hmm, a flashback? Here? Well, I'm sure everything will go fine for the heroes.

It's great to see the first chapter from Rarity's perspective, now that we have more insight into how she feels, and I suppose now we have more insight into her thoughts for whatever is coming up. Also an interesting look at an alternate Rarity-perspective TEK.

[Monochromatic]

10151358
oops that was my bad! Thank you for pointing it out

[kits]

Combined with the whole "afternoon in Canterlot" greatest fear stuff, this does a really good job of showing just WTH is going on in Rarity's head.

I like getting these small glimpses into what's going on with her more than just having it laid out from the story being her PoV. It kinda makes me want to go back and re-examine lot of her bits with this fact now in place.

[fanreader999999]

Dammit Monochromatic, you can't get my hopes up with an update and dash them with so few words!

:)

[Monochromatic]

10151411
I think I mentioned it once in a blogpost, but TEK was a story I had to write twice. Twilight’s POV on paper, and Rarity POV in my head. Everything Rarity does in TEK is informed by a storyline we’re not seeing.

[Blue_Paladin42]

Ahhhhh that final few lines keeps tearing me up!

[Kapuchu]

I think I see it now. See what Rarity's "deal" is, at any rate.

Rarity had been at a Low, where nothing more could really hurt her. She was already "dead" as it were. But now, Twilight is back, she has something again, something to lose. Something that can hurt her.

I have been having a few suspicions that maybe Rarity didn't quite love Twilight as much as she had been, and perhaps her feelings were dimming or fading. With this, I get the distinct sense that it's the very opposite. Her love for Twilight is so strong that it frightens her. She is so deathly afraid of losing her again, that she gets into these quiet moments of just staring at Twilight, which we've seen multiple times during TEK. She is, now that she has experienced it, afraid of being, in her own words, so completely shattered again.

I feel bad for Rarity. They deserve a happily ever after, and stable relationship, dammit!

[Nira Lightshine]

Oh come on that's evil to do a interlude in the middle of all this

[Blood Rarity]

[concordion]

With all that's going on these days I'm more emotional than normal. I'm anticipating a good cry, whenever it arrives.

[Wolfcape]

I missed Rarity's PoV, no offence b'cause your Twilight PoV is really great. I guess I just got used to her PoV from TEL and IE, and...a quite a few of your wonderful writing.

[Harwick]

There is something so wonderfully, richly emotional about your Rarity perspective. Twilight gets lost in her own head, but Rarity gets washed away by her heart. It’s a wonderful contrast of viewpoints, and this was a welcome return to this moment for some insight and touching pain from Rarity’s POV.

[Emperor of Jurai]

Poor Rarity, you can't blame her for being so torn up on how to feel when you understand her thoughts on the matter. Can anyone really be willing to open their heart to someone who shattered them so utterly and completely, despite how much you are completely in love with them? It will be torture to shut up that sinister voice in the back of your head whispering `They did it once...are you willing to risk them doing it again?`

Damn it all to heckkkk, I love this ship let them be happy you sadist! -in all seriousness continue with your ideas they are great!-

[Sir Mediocre]

10151504
Hear that? That nothing? That suffocating quiet? That's the sparking fuse disappearing into the bomb.
This is the infinitesimal pause before it explodes.

[bronyheat]

Nothing could devastate her as that had.

[Discoris]

10151411

afternoon in Canterlot? Could you provide the link?