Chapter 02
It was probably her love of drama talking, but Rarity couldn't help but feel that these 'thickest brambles' and 'most twisted vines' would be better suited to the Castle of the Two Sisters.
An old decrepit keep looming through the murk, built across a seemingly bottomless chasm in ancient times now lost to pony memories... Cursed ruins taken-over by the nightmarish forest surrounding this place of sorrows, springing unexpectedly from the mist even as uncertain heroes close in to battle a terrible threat that clawed its way out of the distant past...
Yes, now that she spared it some thought, that castle and the desperate quest that led them there in the first place had sorely lacked a carpet of black, twisted brambles to fight through before finally reaching the entrance.
She stopped walking. Pain prickled across her right haunch.
...No, these sharp, sharp thorns would have been perfectly serviceable sitting docilely on each side of the old, beaten, definitely clawing-free dirt path to the front stairs.
Just like all these nasty, uninviting brambles and vines couldn't be located anywhere better than away from her. They were that much more appropriate for the context that way, too; a mere way to find the fabled Mirror Pool as opposed to the last obstacle before saving the day.
She stopped walking again and tilted her head.
'Saving the day...' She'd read enough novels to know that that idiom was both very old and very used, but she'd never once wondered where it could have come from. Hm...
Her giggle might have been closer to a snort, so there was at least one good thing about braving the dangers of the Everfree Forest: no witnesses.
Just how many times had Princess Celestia needed saving in the past? There was simply no other way she could imagine for that saying to appear to begin with. It just fit too well.
She got back to walking—or prancing, perhaps. This spontaneous musing had lifted her spirits.
She nearly smashed headfirst into a tree a few steps later, and not so nearly stumbled onto the ground a couple of steps after that.
She pushed herself back to her hooves. Then she shook her head and stifled a yawn.
Her beauty sleep hadn't been enough, it seemed. Well, not so much 'it seemed;' that was probably her tenth... twentieth... somethingth tree since she'd entered the forest. And her... well, the only thing she knew for sure about the number of times she tumbled to the ground was that it was more times than the trees.
Probably. Maybe.
...It likely didn't count as genuine beauty sleep if it started after midnight and ended before sunrise, to be absolutely fair.
The woods breezed past her in a blur. At least she'd slept enough that she didn't need to rely on bedtime rhymes to find the way; her memory still worked well enough to remember Pinkie's... lapse of judgment, shall we say.
Twilight had had a good idea when she'd chosen to bring the rest of the girls along to make sure Pinkie's copies had indeed been sent back, properly contained and confirmed unable to cause further trouble.
Well, the rest of the girls sans Rainbow Dash. And that had certainly been the best idea of the entire day. She couldn't be trusted not to leap at the opportunity to kiss herself, that one. And she'd be lying if she claimed she didn't sleep just a little better knowing she'd never have to deal with more than one Rainbow Dash.
Thank Celestia for small mercies, as they said. Or for choosing somepony so astute to be her most faithful student, at least.
The brambles became thicker, twistier, more ominous. Just looking at them gave her the feeling they wanted her to go away. One turn around a particularly thick, gnarled tree and she saw her goal in the distance: the rock blocking the entrance to the Mirror Pool.
She focused on the rock all the way to it. And felt more unwelcome with every step.
She trotted all round it. Inspected it from every angle. Then she climbed up until she stood on its middle. And suddenly had a very good idea of why she felt so ill at ease.
...Perhaps Celestia could have chosen somepony just as astute, but an itty bitty bit less powerful and talented with magic.
She didn't have the faintest idea about how to handle this seal. More threads, twists and turns than she could count; and Spike could tally up the strands of magic she could tell apart from each other on one claw, on top of that.
Rarity scuffed the boulder, because a lady just didn't stomp out of frustration.
It shook. She yelled and jumped away. The air around her tightened. She took several steps back. The rock shook harder.
And then, it crumbled like an old cookie.
She crawled to the edge and watched the pebbles tumble down the hole.
"Well, that was anticlimactic."
She felt her ears twitch with every echo, until everything quieted down. Everything, including the foreboding hum she'd heard—felt—in the back of her mind since she'd spotted the entrance.
Hm. That seal had looked a little bit like a ball of yarn left alone with Opal for a whole week, now that she thought about it. She'd have to tell Twilight that the wild magic of the Everfree didn't play nice with those from beyond its borders, apparently.
Later. Much later. When she'd have come up with an unassailable alibi as to why she was around the Mirror Pool in the first place and there'd be no risk whatsoever for the paranoid little darling to become remotely suspicious.
For now, she had a hole to dive into.
A very, very dark hole.
...
Why didn't she bring her mining helmet?
Forget the mining helmet. Why didn't she bring the full caving gear?
Alright, so she didn't own one, but still. That hadn't been a mere hole; it was an outright tunnel that apparently had been a yo-yo in a previous life. At least it was roomy, so crawling all the way down to the cave hadn't been as unpleasant as equinely possible.
The universe was on her side today, truly.
The sight that welcomed her once she'd stepped out of this diamond dog's drinking spell was marvelous, at least.
Glowing flowers and mushrooms decorated the large cave—tastefully at that, with neither too many or too few. Moss that looked as soft as cushions here and there, in sharp contrast with the craggy rocks that dotted the place. Mercifully, they all stood far away from the pond.
A little stream flowed out of cracks in the walls and into the Mirror Pool. Its water shone bright as it reflected light peeking into the cave from some gap or another in the rock overhead.
There even was an angelic choir singing in the background... wait, no, that was just tinnitus from smacking her head several times in the tunnel.
Rarity looked up. There... was no gap in the ceiling either. Or any light, for that matter.
She looked back at the water. Sparkling like a high school supporting actress with full control over the spotlights.
She looked up again. Zilch.
She shook her head and took the first steps down the path. "Everfree Forest. Do not question," she muttered.
A quick walk and she stood over the edge. One glance and she recoiled.
She'd already been a mess before setting out, but traipsing through the woods and then down below really hadn't done her any favor. Her mane was a battlefield between leaves and twigs while her face was a disaster zone.
She was going to need a long, long stay at the spa after that. Hopefully, Aloe and Lotus wouldn't faint upon seeing her.
Wait, no, it was the three flower mares who fainted at the drop of a hat. Whatever their names were.
Rarity stared some more into the Mirror Pool. How did its spell work, again?
Oh. Right.
Maybe those bedtime rhymes were a tad necessary, after all.
She racked her brain. But the only thing she remembered was, well... that she never knew these rhymes in the first place. Pinkie had kept humming the first verse as she led them to the entrance, true, but she'd only mentioned the rest in passing. She probably hadn't repeated them in the cave; that'd have been counter-productive, to say the least.
Staying outside while the others went down with Pinkie now proved counter-productive as well. Perhaps Pinkie had whispered the rhymes into the girls' ear—switching from bouncing cacophony to near silence in the span of seconds—but she'd robbed herself of that knowledge when she'd decided she drew the line at... 'dirty, obviously bug-infested caves,' was it?
Sigh. What to do?
Even she could tell her smile was weak and desperate when she gazed into the pond. "Please?"
Naturally, nothing happened.
She flopped down on the bank. She sighed... no, it was more of a whine. Her reflection mimicked her as she shook her head.
"Oh, Rarity," she said softly to herself. "What made you think this was a good idea? Any of this?"
She skimmed the water with the tip of her hoof. The reflection smiled back at her.
Rarity started and drew her hoof back. Another hoof followed, not breaking contact with hers.
She got up and stepped away. The other hoof became a foreleg, then she saw her own face rise from the water. But this one was unscathed, without a single trace of fatigue or any evidence of soldiering through the woods. And the smile on these lips never faltered.
Some more steps away, and her double climbed out of the pond.
Rarity just gaped.
The copy gently closed her mouth with her hoof.
Rarity blinked several times. Her double was still there when she was done. "But... but I didn't know the rhymes."
Her copy beamed—and Rarity was certain the whole cave shone brighter. Was that what ponies saw when she smiled?
"They're not the only way."
Rarity just stared. Then she shook her head. The copy turned into a blur and started toppling to the side.
Her fur stood on end when familiar—with something off about it—magic enveloped her body. The copy sharpened back into focus, her horn now glowing.
Oh. Hm. She'd simply gotten dizzy and the other she had just steadied her with her magic.
"Er... thanks." Her smile cracked at the edge but she didn't know why. Because she was thanking herself, maybe? "But... how, then? Why?"
She glanced at the pond behind the double. As though it'd answer her question itself. Well, stranger things had happened. Like the copy in front of her. Who was probably its spokespony in some way, logically speaking.
Rarity looked back at her. Still smiling gently.
Her own smile cracked a little harder. Because she was unimpressed with herself, this time. "Not that I'm ungrateful, mind, but—"
The copy merely beamed again. "What did you need help with?"
Rarity blinked. That didn't answer her question. Or perhaps it did? Did the Mirror Pool just feel her distress?
"Hm. I... I need to make clothes."
Her eyes lit up; putting the pond to shame. "Clothes?"
"Dresses and suits; mostly dresses, actually."
The copy squealed.
...Did she sound like that? Hm. Not exactly a pleasant prospect, that. And giving it some thought, 'squealed' didn't belong with someone who looked exactly like her, either.
Rarity had her back on the ground the next second. Her double loomed over her.
"How many!?"
She gulped. "A lot?"
Squee.
Yes, 'squee' was better than 'squeal.' Much better—did the glowing flowers just hide back in their stems?
This copy must be... quirky, somehow. Surely her voice couldn't actually reach such a frightening pitch.
Her double jumped off her to go bounce around instead. Squeal... squeeing "dresses!" and putting springs—Pinkie herself, even—to shame all the while.
Rarity got back to her hooves. "Yes, a lot... I'll probably need more than just you."
And that sounded like a much less appealing idea than it did only a few minutes earlier. But what choice did she have, really?
The copy's grin melted down to a smile and she was by her side shortly. They both reached into the water, and they were four. Rarity stepped back, the three other shes plunged their hoof, and they were seven.
One short briefing and more bounces than even Pinkie could count later, Rarity led the six copies out of the cave.
Rarity was fairly skilled at sneaking around, if she did say so herself. It was a necessary thing when you lived in the same town as two outrageously prank-happy mares. But all these tiresome years of unwelcome practice had paid off; she'd walked back into Carousel Boutique with her five copies in tow and nopony the wiser.
There'd been five gasps as well, naturally. Her home was a temple to all things chic, unique and magnifique, after all. A far cry from a cave lost in the middle of nowhere, regardless of how unexpectedly beautiful it was.
They'd been most mesmerized by her latest creation, of course. And whined in ways most unbefitting a lady when she'd draped a roll of fabric over it. And shoved the whole thing into a closet while keeping the key to herself. She'd rather avoid any distraction from their part. She couldn't afford any distraction from their part.
Another, longer briefing and her copies went off to work on her next orders. With a skip in their step and stars in their eyes, as she undoubtedly did herself the first time she'd made clothes after getting her cutie mark.
She understood the teary smile on her mother's lips that day a little better, now.
She also understood why Opal had just given the lot of them a long stare before leaving the room. Six Raritys were a little too much fabulosity for anyone to take in. One more reason to keep them all locked in here.
Opal shaking her head and rolling her eyes when she hopped off her basket was probably unnecessary, though. Outright overdramatic, even.
Either way, Rarity had watched them work their magic for a while, then gone to bed when all her stress and exhaustion caught up with her.
Well, gone to the couch downstairs, at least. Perhaps there were drawbacks in making her bedroom and design room one and the same, in the end.
Still, she woke up the next day just as light started chasing the night away, bright-eyed and curly-tailed.
And yet, she felt a sword hovering over her the whole time she shooed Opal off her lap and got up from the couch. It only got worse as she walked up the stairs.
She wasn't sure whether she remembered a genuine dream or her last fleeting thoughts before falling asleep; but she woke up with a question, a worry eating away at her: would her copies let their inspiration get away from them, as she had let hers?
Yes, she'd locked that wonderful dress away, but these five mares were her, ultimately. They could—would—find inspiration on their own.
Had she, in fact, made everything worse?
Yes... she certainly dreaded checking up on them, now. She had a nasty feeling that her dear muse was waiting by their side, Damorsecles' sword in hoof...
There now was only the door to her bedroom between her and either a horrible answer or a deep sigh of relief. She could hear humming coming out from the other side, both from the whirring sewing machine and the familiar voices.
Rarity swallowed the dry, tight lump in her throat, then pushed the door open.
The number of mannequins with clothes on them had almost tripled, and... they were actually what ponies had ordered.
She scanned the room. There were no signs of unwelcome distractions anywhere; not even thrown into a heap on the floor or shoved into a corner.
Deep sigh of relief it was.
The copies perked up at the sound in perfect synchrony. Then they turned their heads towards her and greeted her at once.
That was... a little bit unsettling.
She was also a little miffed that they weren't upset that she entered without knocking, for some reason. Strange.
The grins on their faces could make Pinkie jealous—assuming the mare could even feel jealousy in the first place. And the stars in their eyes had only grown from the day before; they had their place in the night sky alongside the brightest constellations, no doubt.
Well, no more room for worry now. These orders were made with la touche de Rarity and all the love and passion that implied.
One of the copies went back to her work and, a few stitches later, a beautiful tuxedo flew onto another mannequin. Number eleven, if she wasn't mistaken. Then, the mare dropped her sewing kit from her magic onto the nearby desk and walked up to her as the others resumed their own work.
Hm. Just an old-fashioned needle? She did own only one sewing machine, now that she thought about it. Had most of these orders been done by horn? That was impressive.
"Good morning!" the copy said. Once more, her smile seemed to make the whole room brighter—the original double, perhaps. "Did you sleep well?"
Rarity nodded. "Yes. Thank you."
She blinked. There was still something odd about thanking herself.
"...and thank you for, well, all of this too." She waved towards the room at large.
"Oh, it was our pleasure!"
Rarity watched quietly after that. She had good hopes that her orders would be all completed by the deadline, now; perhaps even a pleasant while before it. But until that happened...
"I just realized there's nothing for me to do," she muttered.
Well, she could pitch in herself, of course; but seeing how much her copies enjoying living her—their—passion, she simply couldn't bring herself to rob them of a single second of it.
The main copy's smile grew gentler as she tilted her head. "The spa, perhaps? You need it."
Hm, true, she did need a most relaxing, most thorough pampering...
The copy dragged the room's mirror to them. Sparks flew from its edges; apparently the magical lock didn't recognize her fully as the real thing.
Why, yes, she did have a lock on her mirror, courtesy of Twilight. It was her mirror, dangit. Same thing for her couch. Her couch. Hers. Grr.
Her double's voice drew her out of her musing. "Oh yes, you certainly do."
Rarity stared at her reflection. A landscape worthy of the end times; withered leaves, cracked sticks, white hairs—please please please let them be from Opal—savaged makeup begging for a quick death... and an annoyed frown.
"Well, that was rude."
Rarity the Ravishing put the finishing touches on her third tuxedo. Oh, truly a marvel of textile arts. It'd make the world more beautiful and its lucky wearer—whoever he was—happier; what more could she ask for?
Making a dress this time! Yes, she could ask for that. Variety was the spice of life. Being new to this whole 'life' thing didn't mean she didn't know some key truths about it.
She turned around just in time to see Rarity the Breathtaking leave from the drawing board with a flourish—oh, the sheer grace!—a new design dancing in the lovely blue glow of her magic. She smiled as she watched her prance across the room to the desk and its myriad delightful rolls of fabric.
But she noticed something as she did so. The window, shining bright with the light of the sun.
She walked closer and gasped.
She knew the world was beautiful. Innately so, even before she followed Rarity out of the Mirror Pool's cave. Their journey back to her home only confirmed that, from the wild, savage allure of those untamed woods to the bucolic charm of the fields and hills surrounding this town.
But seeing this same town, basking under the midmorning sun...
The others had heard her gasp and promptly huddled behind her. Then they gasped as well.
"Gorgeous!"
Hm. Perhaps they could start a chorus once all was sewn and done? That quartet had been enchanting.
Speaking of sewing... Rarity the Ravishing looked back at her tuxedos, then at the drawing board.
Her works were marvelous, irrevocably so, but such wonderful inspiration could only make the next ones even better.
She noticed the others were now looking at their own creations. Thoughtfully, with some of them stroking their chin.
Then, the five of them all nodded at each other.
She struck a, well, ravishing pose. "Onwards to beauty!"
They filed out of the bedroom and pranced down the stairs. An obstacle stood in their way. A tall, purple, pretty obstacle. Rarity had locked the door on her way out. Hm.
Nothing five mares working together couldn't handle! Their horns hummed together and the door was ripped off its hinges. They delicately laid it against the wall, because they weren't savages, and left to explore this beautiful world and make it shine even brighter.
Stats
Page generated in 0.029 seconds
Total duration
1,059 users online
27,304 hits today, 2,205,040 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Be careful what you wish for, Rarity.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/4/19/1711467.png
-
Rarity makes a good point. xD
But… should we also suppose that Luna’s slow decline upon the moon is the origin for the phrase “To waste the night away” then?
-
Talking an awful lot of smack about not trusting a pony to duplicate themselves for a pony at the edge of a mirror pool, Rarity. ;p
I like the idea, though that this is a precaution they took. Out of everyone, Pinkie and Rainbow are the most likely to pull this stunt on a whim. Although… now that I think about it… it’s funny that Rarity’s motivation for doing this is actually very similar to Pinkie Pie’s own.
Both had more obligations than they were able to fulfil.
Both decide the best way to deal with this would be to make more of themselves.
Both because they wish not to disappoint anyone and want everyone to be happy.
After all, there is nothing technically stopping Rarity from simply slowing her pace, and she knows it, but it would mean letting a lot of ponies down. Not least of which herself.
-
I love this little detail. Just to picture her tell herself this every time it happens.
-
Thinking ahead.
However, it does raise the question of just what Rarity plans to do with her clones… Ah, that’s right…
That’s harsh, Rarity. ^^;
-
Iiiinteresting… the copies in this seem to know more than the original. At least about the pool itself. I wonder what they understand about themselves then.
-
I like that the copies in this are eager to help, and even more so when it is about clothes. At first glance, they seem to act a bit like a Rarity stereotype, with one aspect of her character dialed up to 11.
All that bouncing around does seem reminiscent of Pinkie Pie and I wonder if that’s simply because the Rarity clones are excited, or perhaps the dozens and dozens of Pinkie Pie clones ‘rubbed off’ on the pool when they returned to it.
Or perhaps, this is just the default state of any clone.
In anycase, it makes them kind of endearing. ^^
-
Not even one scene transitioned in, and she already lost one. xD
-
D’awww. QQ
-
Mhm, some interesting details about the clones then. They did not come in with Rarity’s memories or her fatigue, but they do possess her talents, if Rarity is satisfied with their work enough to leave.
We’re gonna get back to the fatigue part in a minute.
-
Is this supposed to be “Damocles’ Sword” or is this a pun I’m not catching?
Either way, I like this line. The muse, the sword, the foreboding, the imagery. It’s great.
-
-
So, here we get back to the fatigue thing… It seems easy enough to accept that they aren’t as tired as Rarity is, but shouldn’t the copies look just like Rarity? They were her reflection when she looked in, mess and all.
If not, that feels like something that perhaps should get a mention in the mirror pool scene.
By the way, I like the idea that Rarity has her furniture enchanted. Presumably it explains why she can summon it from so far away. xD
-
I love that they all have the same name, but somehow adopted little additional titles to be identified. It makes the scene much easier to read as well.
-
Uh oh, it begins.
-
Oh no, here we go.
-
Phew, saved by foresight. Good job, Rarity.
-
O.o
…
Never mind!
I’d be worried, but lets be real. Just like any jurassic park movie, the most interesting bit of the movie was never when the dinosaurs were properly contained. Go rampage, Rarities! xD