The Most You Can Give, When You Cannot Give Much

Rarity entered Fluttershy’s cottage and saw that all her animals had come together in the living room. They were evidently staring at something that was in the center of the room, but she could not see what it was. Out from under their various chitters and chirps, Fluttershy’s timid voice rose:

“Um, excuse me, please, but there’s some pony at the door.”

The animals parted and let Fluttershy pass through.

“Oh, please come in, Rarity.”

She did so before shutting the door behind her. She marveled at the packed animals and said with a smile:

“Fluttershy, it seems as though you’ve turned your house into even more of a zoo than it usually is.”

Fluttershy folded her ears and smiled bashfully.

“I can’t help it,” Fluttershy said. “The baby bunnies are due any day now, and I just can’t get any of my furry friends to take an interest in anything else.”

Rarity looked past her and into the space where the animals had parted. There, sitting closely together in a wicker basket that was lined with straw, were two white rabbits, Angel bunny and a small female with a round belly. She was asleep in his arms, and his ears were laid behind his head as he held her. Rarity’s chin nearly touched the floor when she leaned down to look at them.

“Oh, they are so cute,” Rarity said.

Fluttershy, seeing Rarity’s saddlebags, asked if their blanket was ready today. Rarity opened them and lifted a small blue fleece blanket out with her magic. When Fluttershy took it she sighed and began rubbing her cheek on it.

“It’s so soft,” she said. “Thank you, Rarity. It’s perfect.”

Rarity said it was no trouble at all while Fluttershy went to show the bunnies their new blanket. As she was tucking them both in with it Rarity felt that her heart could burst open from happiness. She had told the truth when she said that the blanket had been no trouble, but it was also the last order she had needed to finish before she could focus on her upcoming weekend trip to Manehattan. After all her years of work in the fashion industry she was finally being recognized by the Equestrian Academy of Design and was put in the running for the Best New Designer award at this year’s ceremony. The ceremony was the biggest yearly event in the fashion world, and winning an award from them had been a childhood dream of Rarity’s ever since she first began cutting patterns and stitching threads together. She still could remember how she used to slowly turn the pages of her fashion magazines and place herself inside every picture that was taken of those glamorous nights. With time her worship of the academy had waned, but now that she was actually being recognized she could not help but see again what had so enchanted her all those years ago as a filly. The bright lights of the auditorium, and the eyes of all the highest ponies in the world of fashion, would all be focused on her, if only for one evening. Then there was always the chance that she could win the award she was up for. She was sure that she would cry outright if that were to happen. The winners often did, and she had been receiving hints from some of her higher connections in the fashion world that she should spare no expense in her dress for the evening. She felt giddy and could not wait until she got home so that she could start packing and planning.

Fluttershy came back and hugged Rarity while repeating how perfect her blanket was.

“She just loves it, Rarity,” Fluttershy said.

Rarity looked at the basket and saw that the bunnies were tucked in now. Their heads were peeking out from the blanket and resting on the rim of the basket.

“They’re lucky to have you watching over them,” Rarity said.

“I’m lucky to have them,” Fluttershy said. “It won’t be too long before it’s time to see them gone.”

“Not if you keep one for yourself,” Rarity said.

Fluttershy went to answer, but stopped herself and thought for a bit.

“I usually can’t because of space,” Fluttershy said. “But these are Angel’s first babies.”

Fluttershy looked back at the bunnies, and she slowly felt her eyes beginning to shine until they were full and happy. In a while she turned to Rarity.

“Are you sure you don’t want anything in return for the blanket?” Fluttershy said. “You could probably use the money for your trip.”

“For such a trifle project, and one that’s for a friend no less, I wouldn’t even think of it,” Rarity said. “Everything is paid for already, and I’ve already set aside a small spending fund that’s both for me and for the boutiques on Saddle Row that I shall soon storm.”

“Well, okay,” Fluttershy said. “I do think you deserve it, though.”

“Maybe so,” Rarity said with a shrug. She gently rested her hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “But I’ve got good friends that I’d happily do anything for, and you can’t put a value on that.”

Fluttershy, blushing and giggling slightly, turned away from Rarity, who said:

“Oh, listen to how corny that sounds. I suppose I can blame you for luring me into this sweet atmosphere and bringing that out of me.”

Rarity pulled away. Her eyes moved back and forth between her friend and the center of the room, and her face was dressed in a solemn expression.

“I do wish you could come with me,” Rarity said. “Spike is good company, but I believe that you and I, as a duo, would have the most fun at such an event.”

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said. “But I hope you have a good time anyway. You deserve that award more than any pony else.”

“It isn’t really the deserving though,” Rarity said. “I had Carousel Boutique for four years before I ever met you and our other friends, and yet my career never really started until we were all together. You all helped me so much, with Hoity Toity, Photo Finish, Fancy Pants, in Manehattan with Coco, and in opening up my other boutiques. I do not think I would be receiving this honor if it were not for all of you.”

Rarity, despite her friend’s happy expression, spoke in a soft regretful tone. “There’s no way I could ever fully repay any of you for what you’ve done for me.”

“Oh, Rarity, you don’t have to repay any of us,” Fluttershy said. “We’re just glad to be your friend.”

“I know,” Rarity said. “But if I had my way, I’d have at least liked it if all of you could have come with me to the ceremony. It’s ridiculous that I was only allowed a plus one.”

“It’s okay,” Fluttershy said. “I’m just glad that you’ll be thinking of us at all on such an exciting night. I know how much the ceremony means to you, and I want you to have a nice time.”

“Then I won’t let that spoil my night come Saturday,” Rarity said, raising her head towards Fluttershy. “But I will make sure to thank you all individually in my acceptance speech, if I win.”

Fluttershy, blushing and smiling, motioned for Rarity to come and hug her, which she gladly did.

“Even if it’s not the same, at least you’ll be there in spirit,” Rarity said.

A week passed and the time for Rarity and Spike to depart had arrived. All her friends had come to see her off that Friday night at the Ponyville train station. Twilight made Spike promise to send her letters that would keep her updated on what they were doing, a practice that she decided to call a letter vacation. From under a pyramid made up of a dozen designer suitcases that were stacked on top of his back, he made a sound that was interpreted as an agreement.

In the first class carriage, Rarity and Spike sat on velvet-cushioned seats and drank cold berry juice out of chilled glasses with tall stems. At midnight they stopped and ate in the Canterlot station while waiting for their layover to end. Spike wrote to Twilight about what they had done so far. A moment later he burped and received her reply.

Sounds like fun. I can’t wait for you two to get there, so that you can write me some more.

—Twilight

Rarity had on her seamstress glasses and was hastily writing something on a small notepad. She occasionally was caught muttering to herself, and she kept crossing out the sentences that she wrote with audible broad sideways strokes of her pen. The week had given her plenty of time to get everything ready for her trip, but her speech was just not coming out to her satisfaction. She was trying to express what she had so easily told Fluttershy earlier, how the presence of her friends had made her a better designer. When their train arrived she put it away. She slept easily for the four hours it took to reach the Fillydelphia station. This was their last stop before they would reach Manehattan in the morning, and she tried to take up the task of finishing her speech again. But after another hour of false starts and frustration she was convinced that her expertise lay in fashion and not words. She knew she would have to give a speech if she won though, and of course it would have to come across as though she had put a lot into it. She felt that her friends deserved nothing but her best effort. She also knew well the irreparable damage that had been done to the careers of designers that had snubbed or disrespected the academy before. She tiredly rubbed her eyes, and then bought some granola and a bottle of water from the machines in the station before trying again.

Their arriving train was late and they had soon waited over two hours past schedule for it. Many of the ponies also going to Manehattan went to the information window to complain but there were no signs from the board or from the stoic station employees that indicated that anything was being done to resolve the issue. When morning came Spike woke up after having been asleep on a small bed he had made of Rarity’s luggage. He wrote to Twilight that they were waiting for a new train to replace the one that they were supposed to have taken. It was early but he knew that she would be awake.

Rarity had been nodding off in her seat for the past hour before Spike had waked. She felt relieved to see him up and pretended to be asleep when he approached her. Through her half-closed eyes she could see that he was looking at the notepad that was on her lap with a puzzled expression on his face. She remembered the various scribbles that covered the page she had left off on as she drifted into sleep.

When she awoke the sun was shining harshly in her eyes. She looked away and noticed that Spike was sitting on her luggage. His back was facing her and he was closely reading a scroll that he did not have previously. He stared at the scroll for a long time and she blinked her eyes and watched him, wondering if what Twilight had written was very long. His whole body seemed to wilt after a while, and the spines on his back began to sag. Rarity shook herself fully awake and sat up while watching him. Spike quickly rolled the scroll up and put it away in the front pocket of one of his cases. Then he turned to her with a broad smile on his face, but she could see that his eyes had been sad. She fixed her own eyes on him solemnly.

“How’d you sleep?” he asked.

She simply stared at him, which made him blink nervously.

“They said on the intercom that our train would be here in another hour,” he said, “but I think that was an hour ago.”

“Spike,” she said, “what was that you were looking at just now?”

He made a face like he was confused, but Rarity said:

“I’m talking about that scroll you were looking at. You put it in your case just now. Is it from Twilight?”

All of the happiness he had set on his face fell away while she waited. He regretfully went to his case, took out the scroll, and brought it to her without meeting her eyes. He twiddled his claws as she straightened the scroll in her magic and, after putting on her glasses, leaned into the paper with her eyes.

She glanced over the greeting and read:

I’m sorry that things haven’t been going well so far. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse back here as well. Fluttershy’s bunny went into labor last night, and there were some complications which. . . .

Rarity’s ears turned back and she pulled herself away from the paper. She had to sit and look down into her lap for a while before she could go back and finish. She kept fixed a serious expression on her face until her eyes fell down to the last lines of the letter.

I hope Rarity is still asleep when you receive this. Fluttershy does not want her to know yet, but I thought that I should tell you.

—Twilight

Rarity looked over the scroll a few times more. Then she carefully rolled it up in her magic and gave it back to Spike. Her body suddenly felt weighted down in her chair from her chest down as she questioned what she had just read. It did not seem fair to her. It was not long ago that she had seen that mother rabbit sleeping peacefully, and now she and all of her babies were dead. Nothing could have been done to prevent what had happened. There are always risks to be taken in childbirth. If even Fluttershy could not have saved her then it seemed that there really had been no hope that things could have been different. But that it should happen so suddenly, so cruelly, and so as to leave one such as Fluttershy in its wake to suffer, when she had loved them before they were born and was so happy to anticipate one day holding them.

He held the scroll in front of him and was looking up at her now.

“Are you okay, Rarity?”

She shakily nodded. “I’m fine. I just feel badly that Fluttershy has to go through such a terrible ordeal.”

“She loved those bunnies,” Spike said.

“Yes, she did,” Rarity said. “She’s a good pony, and she doesn’t deserve to have this happen to her.”

“Do you think she’ll be okay?” Spike said. “What should we do?”

“I don’t know. I should hope that she’d be alright. I . . .”

He waited but Rarity did not speak again. Her eyes seemed to have gotten smaller.

“Maybe we should say something to her in our next letter,” Spike said meekly.

Rarity looked down and saw the notepad she had been writing in, still in her lap. She felt tears slowly starting to fall from her eyes.

“It was not just love that she felt for them, Spike,” Rarity said.

“Not just love?” Spike said.

“There was more,” Rarity said. “I saw the way she looked at them, how she cared for them, all she gave them and all she was hoping for from them. I think they were a little piece of her own life. If such a thing had happened to me, Spike, I . . .”

She gently covered her mouth with her hoof and began to shake her head slowly. Spike waited for her to continue, but she did not. When she managed to get her tears under control, and she was wiping her eyes, he again said:

“Do you think she’ll be okay, Rarity?”

“I truly don’t know right now,” Rarity said.

“What do you think we should do?” he said after a while.

Rarity folded her ears. She looked away from Spike and her luggage only for the sun to shine in her eyes again. As she blocked the light with her arm, her face suddenly became very determined and firm. She got up from her chair.

“We’re going home, Spike. Watch our things while I go buy our tickets.”

She put her notepad away in her saddlebags before strapping them to her barrel. Spike held out his arm as she passed like he was going to stop her but there was no force in his gesture and it fell limply at his side once she was past him. Sitting on their luggage, he did not stop looking at her the entire time she was away from him, and his eyes were not just sad.

When they finally arrived in Ponyville that evening they were tired, sore, and hungry despite spending their last bits on a meal at the Canterlot station. They carried their luggage to Carousel Boutique, and she left Spike there, in her bed, as he was just too tired to continue any longer. She put on a black veil and went to Fluttershy’s, not knowing what she would say to explain her sudden appearance or to ease her friend’s grief, but just wishing that there was something that she could do for her friend. It was night by the time she had reached the cottage, but the glow of the full moon and the lights from inside helped her to see.

When Fluttershy answered the door, Rarity was shocked at her appearance. Her friend looked pale and weak. Her mane was unkempt and her eyes were wet and red and ragged. Rarity fought back tears as Fluttershy looked at her with a very surprised expression and asked what she was doing here.

“I heard about what happened,” Rarity said solemnly, “and I knew that I had to cancel and come see that you were okay.”

Fluttershy folded her ears but Rarity reached out and touched her shoulder with her hoof. Soon Fluttershy had led her towards a spot in her backyard where it seemed that all of her animals had gathered. They parted and Rarity saw a small dirt plot that had flat stones laid on top of it. Angel bunny was sitting next to it and only offered them both brief recognition before looking away. They were silent for a while.

“When did you do this?” Rarity said.

“We had a small wake this morning,” Fluttershy said. “Applejack and Big Macintosh dug the grave.”

Rarity was staring at the grave when she noticed that Fluttershy was beginning to tremble. She slowly wrapped her arm around her friend and pulled her close so that she could her rest her head on her shoulder. She gave way to her trembles now and shook all over. With great difficulty, she said:

“Rarity, I hope you don’t mind, but we buried her in your blanket. I probably shouldn’t have, but I just didn’t want her to be without it.”

Rarity shushed her before she could nervously go on. But Fluttershy had become too emotional and she had begun sobbing into Rarity’s shoulder.

“There was blood on it,” Fluttershy said. “I didn’t want it anymore, Rarity. I’m sorry, but I didn’t want it anymore.”

“I’m here for you,” Rarity said soothingly. Silent tears fell from her eyes as she held her friend tighter. “I’m here. I’m here for you now, dear.”

They stayed together like that for a very long time before Fluttershy had stopped crying, but neither of them let go.

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