Galant's Truth

by Lethanvas

The Plot Thickens !

The Cutiemark Crusaders managed to escape the salespony, hiding under a bush, not proud about their last achievement.
And worse of all, no investigation Cutiemarks.

“We totally sucked this time ...” Scootaloo snorted.

“Gurls ! I got my Cutiemark ! Gurls !” Applebloom excitedly shouted, something brown on her flank.

“Nah, it’s just some dirt, Again” Sighed Sweetie belle, pulling straws out of her mane.

“Aw !”

...

---

“Sigh !”

Eyelash extensions...
Why do I even need to put them on ? So bothersome! Why wasn't I born with any?
Using magic, she putting them on, blinked, then did it again.

Even if she was the first willing to use accessories, she'd give up fashion altogether if she could have real eyelashes
Rarity sighed again; it had been six days already, and she felt the potion beginning to wear off.

She never really been through the whole process, and she never skipped a dose before, but a tingling sensation told her that she'd need the next one pretty soon.

She sat the powder compact on the drawer and went to her desk, looking at her new project.
Something Big.
Something Grand

Thinking that- thanks to Spikey wickey- she’ll design her first dragon scaled outfit, her heart lightly twitched. She shook her head and scolded herself, there was no place for this here.
There is only work.

---

On her side, Twilight was not as successfull ....
In fact, she was more Clueless than ever.
She searched all around Ponyville to seek probable classmates of Rarity in her early childhood, but miserably failed.
No pony seemed to remember knowing Rarity before her teenage period.

“ Augh ! It’s like she never existed before !” Twilight let out a desperate groan and headed up to the Elementary School of Ponyville, the only place she hadn't visited.

“I’m sorry Twilight, but it seems that nopony called Rarity was into our school in the time you told me. We had her antecedents just fine few years later, but she seems not taking part to our Class photoshoots as well, Cheerily said nervously, trying to dig into the indigestible mess that is the School’s administration and archives.
“If you want to take a look at the pictures you can, but I don’t see Rarity on them !”

Twilight sighed and lowered her head
“It’s fine, may I take them home so I can study them closely ?” She asked the schoolteacher.

“ Sure Twilight ! I trust you, you will bring them back soon, please ? I’ll need them to show my class their parents were foals too” Cherilee grinned and put aside some files for the unicorn as the bell rung.
“ Oh, It’s time for me to do my favorite kind of teaching !”

“ History ?”

“ No, making necklaces with noodles !”

“ Oh...”

---

“ Sis, Miss Ditzy is here !” Sweetie belle called “ She has some mail for you !”

“ Wonderful, can you take it for me, my dear? I’m in the middle of something I can’t leave at the moment.” Rarity called back, struggling against a little model of a boat, trying to put it into the bottle, with her eyes on the notice.
One minute after, the front door closed and Sweetie Belle came, the envelope in her teeth

“ Sweetie Belle, what have I told you about grabbing things with your mouth ?” Rarity scolded.

“ To do so is uncouth. But I'm not the only one doing it !” Her sister protested

Rarity froze and looked down on the piece of boat in her mouth, instructions in her telekinesis and the bottle in fragile equilibre on her head.

“....You got a point here Sweetie. But you should really use your magic more ! You need to practice !”

The foal eye’s rolled and she sat the paper on the table before going out.

“ Thank you !” She opened the cache and took the parchment to read it”

Dear Customer,

I, Doubltly Commerce, am writing to inform you that due to the sabotage my shop has been subject to, we are unable to provide you with your weekly dose for an extended period of time.

Three unknown little fillies broke into my tent and ruined the batch and it’ll be troublesome to find the ingredients to make another potion.

In fact, I’ll not be able to provide your product for exactly five weeks, the time required to resupply and mix the sus-named potions.

I apologize in advance for the troubles it’ll cause and advise you to find an isolated, cottoned place when the potion will wear off, in exactly 2 days or so, if the potion has been taken the day you bought it.

Rarity eye’s went as big as saucers as she let the paper fell on the ground, her hooves shaking.

She fainted, hitting the ground with a soft bump.
When Rarity woke up, she was in her bed, seemingly alone.

---

“ Was that just a horrendous dream ?” she asked herself, looking around and spotting the letter on her drawer.

Oh, Horseapples

It wasn't a dream, and worst of all, somepony was here when she fainted, maybe he/she read it.

She scolded herself and hit her head with her hoof
“Stupid! stupid !”

“Oh my ...” A quiet, calm voice said.

“ FLUTTERSHY ? What are you doing here ?” Rarity managed to say.

“Oh, Um ... I was... well you know, it’s Tuesday .... and it’s our weekly spa day .... if that’s okay with you ... but I saw you on the ground and unconscious, so... I put you in your bed and... well, I took care of you” she managed to say through her mane, barely loud enough for Rarity, used to Fluttershy’s ways of communications.

“ The Letter ! Did you read the letter ?” Rarity precipitately asked.

“ N...no ! It’d be rude, don’t you think ?”

Rarity sighed and leaned in her bed a little more, relieved.

“Thank you Fluttershy” Rarity said, looking at the roof “ I need to be alone now, if you don’t mind”

“A...are you sure you’ll be fine ? I can stay to help you if you need ....”

“No, Fluttershy, this is something I have to do myself” Rarity smiled, nervously, but reassuringly to her friend. “ It’s nothing, really, it was just an embarrassing bit of news, nothing too serious; you know how I am ? Right ?”

“ ... Okay Rarity, but I'll be back tomorrow to check on you !” she answered after a moment of pondering, already trotting away and going out through the window.

The white unicorn sat there for a minute, before going out and moving to her desk, taking one of her empty signs and a large brush and some paint. She wrote something down, put it on her door, and went to bed, thinking; after all that, she definitively needed beauty sleep right now.

---

”The Carousel Boutique is closed due to illness,” Twilight read the sign, flanked by Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Then she looked at the second line, “Please return in 5 WEEKS!?”

Pinkie pie bounced to the door and knocked.
There was no answer.

“Maybe she didn't hear us ?” Fluttershy ventured, looking nervously around.

“More reasons to see her !” Twilight urged Pinkie to knock again, which she did.

“We know you are in there !” She said, looking into the keyhole.

“Um girls ... I saw something move into the window !” Flutershy ventured, peeking a little around the bush right under the said windows.

On the other side, Rarity, was totally panicked.

Not only had the potion wore off more quickly expected, but she had no time to prepare her room for the changes, resulting in the Boutique looking like it been under the attack of a manticore. She was more hurt than ever, clueless on how to manage her friends right now, not doubting her appearance being nightmarish and probably, un-fashionable.

“ I’m very sorry my dears, but you cannot enter right now” She said, coughing from time to time.

“ Rarity, it’s Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Are you alright ? The sign says that you are sick!” Twilight answered through the door. “Your voice sounds weird, may we enter ?”

“NO!” Rarity shouted, cursing herself when her broken, altered voice rang and echoed into her room. “I mean, no, I’m very, very contagious! Please stay away from me for today!”

“But, Rarity we...”

“Please! “

“Rarity, um ...I..” Fluttershy began.

“Pluh-ease!”

“Okie doki Lokie Rarity. We will be back tomorrow, okay ?” Pinkie said, uncharacteristically calm and posed, head against the door and an hoof stroking it.

“Pinkie! How dare you take that decision without our consent ?” Twilight whispered.

“She won’t open, she is super duper serious right now” Pinkie answered, looking straight at the eyes of Twilight. The pink, hyper energetic pony was serious as ever, concern in her face. “She won’t disappear, Twilight.”

“Uuugh! Fine !” Twilight groaned. “We will be back tomorrow afternoon, okay?’

“My yes! Sure!” Rarity answered. “I think it’ll be much, much better.”

“Okay, then. Bye Rarity.” The purple unicorn said and motioned to her friends to move as well and leave.

“Oh, horseapples, how will I get out of this?” Rarity moaned. “I can’t let my friends see me like this!”

She moved to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror, shuddering and experiencing a very alien sensation, not too far from when she was infected with poison joke.

“There’s no possible way I’ll show myself out of my boutique like this.” She stomped the drawer and looked straight at her reflection’s eyes.
“If only I wasn’t looking so much like .... like me!”
Her eyes suddenly went wide as the solution dawned on her.
“But of course !” Rarity grinned and yelped as she saw her reflection doing the same.
“Why didn’t I see that earlier ! I’m a fashionista after all” She scooted and went into her stock of cosmetic products and dyes.

---

If nopony must ever see her like that, she’ll be somepony else.

For the first time in ten years, the moment has come to use her real name.

The next day, in the early afternoon, Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie went again to the boutique

“It’s too bad that Dashie is so busy with her Wonderbolt training and Applejack with Apple season to go see Rarity with us!” Pinkie whined a little.

“It’s okay, they both promised to go see her tomorrow morning,” Twilight said.

“Um ... yeah, and I.. I carried some medical supplies for Rarity just in case,” Fluttershy quietly said, carrying a huge cart of medicine, gauze and bandages.

Twilight and Pinkie pie deadpanned at Fluttershy, who meeped.

“T...too much ?” She ventured, as the two other ponies nodded.

“Eep! Ooh, well, I’ll probably leave the cart here then.” She smiled sheepishly and left it near the entry door.

Twilight smiled was about to knock at the door when it opened on a passably angry Sweetie Belle.

“I’m her sister ! Why can’t I see her ?!” She yelled.

“I’m sorry, Sweetie, but she is highly contagious and she needs rest. You can’t see her right now,” said a refined, collected voice.

Twilight’s eyes went wide as she looked past the little filly and saw the voice’s owner.

All the mare’s mouth went dry as they looked at the form in front of them.

All of them but Pinkie, who was eyeing it suspiciously.

The form was indubitably a stallion. A beautifully well shaped stallion stood before them.
White, slender, and unlike most of the males, he possessed a delicate figure and was wearing a purple tuxedo going far down his rump, hiding his cutie mark; his hooves had just the right amount of fetlocks. His cyan mane was shaped into a Catogan, with a purple strike on the tier of it and his tail was cut short but curled in a very familiar manner.
Twilight shook her head and shut her mouth with an audible clap. There was no time for that right now.

“S..sir ?” She ventured, “Excuse us, but we are here to see Rarity. She’s a really good friend of ours. Is she here?”

The stallion froze an instant and looked at the three ponies through the door of the Boutique.

“Oh, yes, Rarity told me about you.” The stallion said, smiling with an unmistakable charm. “Unfortunately, it seems she got a little worse and is still contagious. The doctor asked me to take care of her, since I am immunized to the condition. But where are my manners? My name is Gallant, nice to meet you three “ He smiled and went to Twilight to kiss her hoof.

“Nice to meet you too, I’m Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends: Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.” She said, blushing lightly and showing her friends to the stranger.
“Are you part of Rarity’s family?”

“Why yes, Mademoiselle, I’m her cousin, at your service,” he said, looking at the two other ponies. Pinkie chuckled lightly and Fluttershy turned red like a tomato, trying to hide behind her cart.
Gallant moved to the shy pony and smiled gently to her.
“Hello dear, Fluttershy, it is ?” he asked, smiling reassuringly to her. She nodded faintly, looking at him, red and all nervous.
“Oh, Fluttershy, Rarity told me a lot about you and she told me that she is very, very sorry to have missed your meeting at the spa yesterday. She also told me that once healed, she’ll not rest until you both have had your extra special appointment on her charge”.

“So... we can’t see her ?” Twilight asked again.

“I’m afraid not. She is very weak and in need of rest in the darkest room possible,” he sighed.
“But I assure you, she will be fine in few weeks,” he smiled reassuringly.

“B...but what kind of disease can do that?” The unicorn raised an eyebrow.

“Maneringitte, dear, maneringitte,” the stallion said, mournfully.

The three friends gasped and Fluttershy nearly fainted.

“Maneringitte? This is awful! We need to see her!” Twilight urged.
Maneringitte is quite a serious condition, making the pony ultra sensitive to light and very, very contagious, involving fever, puking, shaking, cold, body pain and sudden and painful headaches.
This disease, previously dangerous, is now manageable thanks to improvements in medicines. Ponies rarely die from it now and grows less and less common.

“No, miss Sparkle, you need to stay away from her, and let her rest!”

“How did she even catch that?” Fluttershy asked.

“We think .. it’s because of her last fabric import. We found a contaminated batch of her fabric stock, obviously from Chayna..” Gallant explained.

“Now I am very sorry, but she really needs to rest and I must help her through all of this. I’ll be there for her, don’t worry Miss,” he added for Twilight.

“O...okay .. B..but maybe we can, when she feels better, get to know each other? Have a get together with you, me, and all of Rarity’s friends? You’ll surely need help, and you wont stay forever into the boutique, right?” She asked.

“I’ll see, miss Sparkle, but now I really need to make her take her medicine. Miss Pie, Miss Fluttershy, Miss Sparkle, Goodbye,” said the stallion, closing the door behind him.

“Ow ... He’s a little ...” Twilight began.

“He must be so worried for his cousin; I’m sure he didn’t want to sound mean” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah .... Right”

---

Rarity, on her side, was against the door, panting and and closing her eyes tight.
She did it, it was hard, but she played it like a pro.

“I just hope I wont have to do that often ...” She sighed and climbed her stairs to go to the workshop, windows closed and blind, using a candle to continue to work on the Dragon scales outfit...