The Mask
The Mask
“Okay, it should be after the next two turns. Are you sure you want to do this?” Twilight asked her little meal-in-waiting for one last time. “We could still turn around and start off with that friend of yours, the pony with all the pets.”
She felt Spike taking a deep breath and squaring his posture into as good an approximation of a formal stance as his juicy little body could manage while riding her back.
“No, I've gotta do this first. I've gotta apologize. If she hates me anyway, then at least I know she hates me.”
“Oh, come on, I'm sure you're just being-” Twilight paused to stare pointedly at a passing earth pony who was glaring at her dragon with an expression of visible, almost personal aggression. “Keep 'em moving, buddy. Anyway, Spike, so you've got a reputation as a bit of a wild animal around Ponyville, so what? You are wild. Well, were, anyway. If worst comes to worst, I've got a little set aside from the main travel budget to pay for any damages.”
She was trying to keep an optimistic framing on things for the sake of science, even though her heart was more inclined towards Spike's own level of gloom'n doom the more she traveled through the countryside around this town. They had met plenty of hostile ponies, ponies who either recognized Spike or who had heard of him, and she had had to invoke the Princess's name explicitly more times than she really was comfortable with just to keep his little neck from getting snapped.
Yet for all that, they hadn't seen any sign of the ponies Spike had been most afraid of encountering. No rainbow-maned pegasi, no hyper pink earth ponies. She had small claw marks on her back from the last time he thought he'd seen a blue pegasus following them, but it was all for a good cause. As was her unexpected windedness from carrying a baby dragon and saddlebags full of traveling supplies and utterly necessary (and astoundingly heavy) scientific equipment. Whew, she was incredibly out of shape. Just one more reason why this trip was a painful but necessary thing. At least she could alternate with physically carrying things and using her magic to levitate them, so her back muscles got a break while she worked her brain muscles and vice versa. How all the earth ponies hauling carts and carriages along these roads managed, she'd never know.
Spike had gotten quieter and quieter once they'd gotten a ways away from Canterlot, unresponsive to her well-formulated and totally fair grammar pop quizzes or her efforts at starting up some good natured back and forth theorizing on the possibilities implicit in chaos magic-based pony mutations, undiscovered parasitic life forms and invisible magical artifacts. Much as she liked to trick herself into believing otherwise sometimes, she knew that Spike just didn't have the educational background to be a real research partner. No, he was a go fetcher at best. A very good go fetcher, though, even when tired from getting a predictably bad night's sleep. With lots of dumb, blind hope and enthusiasm to make up for his lack of scientific knowledge.
They turned the last corner and there it was. The Inn.
“Y'know, it seems a little less... well-kept... than you described,” Twilight noted as a tumbleweed blew past her.
The Inn was clearly closed. Black drapes hung from every window, clashing with the color scheme. The bushes had been left to grow wild and fight it out with each other and the weeds. A white picket fence gathered dust and grime in a delicate taupe coating, and the patio furniture was stacked against the building's walls. The construction actually was incredible, an impressive combination of Canterlot-approved Baroque philosophy and Ponyville's down-home charm, all done in the finest materials. Maybe a month or so ago, it would have been perfectly serviceable as a vacation home for any Canterlot noble. But these facts only served to make the overall visual impact even more depressing. It was a wedding cake rotting, a museum painting gone to mold. Only in the early stages, there was no sign of obviously irreparable decay, but to have even gone this much downhill spoke to very serious business problems.
She was ready to abandon hope of their first research subject entirely before she saw signs of life. A few of the windows on the bottom floor spilled light out, barely visible through the drapes.
“Well, looks like somepony's home, at least. I hope you prepared your groveling stance,” she joked, trying to keep her own spirits up while Spike squirmed and twisted around, a terribly frightened and uncomfortable little dragon indeed.
It was really kind of admirable how he still wouldn't back down, even though... even though... okay, now she couldn't stop thinking about how it was lunchtime and she hadn't had much of a breakfast. She paused and let Spike soak in his full of the oppressive ghost town atmosphere while she dug in one side of her saddlebags for the veal jerky and scarfed it down.
To her amusement, Spike reached up to the door with his fist at the same moment that she reached with her hoof, and they both ended up knocking in unison.
“Hello? Is anypony home?”
A reply came very quickly, but it was not exactly the one Twilight had been ready for.
“Go away!” a voice yelled, a wavering sob choking back at the end. Those two words had packed enough emotion, even through the door, to make for a great soap opera scene.
“That's her!” Spike whispered in Twilight's ear furiously, jumping up to his feet.
“Miss Rarity? I'm sorry to bother you, but this is an official scientific inquiry authorized by the Princess Herself. I promise we won't take too much of your time! Could you please open the door?”
Bitter, witchish laughter spilled out, causing Spike and Twilight alike to flinch back a bit.
“Another prankster, REALLY?! Was it not enough that you foals brutalize my life's work in your news rags?! Come up with a more believable ruse next time, you cretins! Nopony would believe that the Princess could ever need anything from a HIDEOUS, HIDEOUS pony like me!”
Twilight and Spike shared a look.
“Exactly how badly did you hurt her, anyway?”
“I don't know... I just swung my claws at her and ran....” Spike's eyes actually welled up with tears. “Rarity, it's me!” he yelled. “I know you probably hate me forever, but I just wanted to say I'm really, really sorry!”
There was a silence, and then the door opened without any sound of hoofsteps prior to that, as if they were to be greeted by a ghost. Standing in the dim doorway was a stark-white unicorn with a terrifying wax mask covering half her face like a vast and overflowing boil. Spike and Twilight, once again in unison, shrieked and stumbled back, the former falling down to the ground.
“You see?! Am I not an abominable display of the grotesque even with my deformity shielded from the cruel gazes of onlookers?!” Rarity insisted, her actions somewhat contradicting her claim as she struck a seemingly instinctive pose so that the sunlight would sparkle in her gorgeously curly, midnight-purple mane. “Don't try to deny it. But why, WHY did you have to bring that... that guest... back here?!” she asked, pointing a trembling hoof to Spike while directing her eyes to Twilight.
Conscious of her failure to exhibit suitable professionalism, Twilight took a breath and straightened up. This was a rockier start than she'd been prepared for. Nowhere in her notes did she have anything relating to crazy deformed ponies with masks. Not a single thing. She was torn between being upset at life for throwing her the curve ball and being upset at herself for failing to prepare for ever eventuality.
“Well, like he said earlier, Spike has come to apologize to you. And I have come because we have reason to believe that you, personally, may be critical to exploring new boundaries in interventionist pandemonic theurgy, as well as equally-misunderstood spellcraft related to alicorns like Princess Celestia!”
Rarity looked between dragon and student, her expression somewhat clouded by the mask but still one of clear suspicion.
“This... this isn't another cruel joke, then? Of course not, you wouldn't have brought him back if that were the case. I have half a mind to, to braise you with star anise and leeks right now, you little brute!”
Before Twilight could object or Spike could throw out another of the many apologies he'd been working on, Rarity turned back inside.
“Sweetie! This is a moment of such great drama, you're missing your cue, sister dear!”
“Oh, right, sorry!” called a younger voice from further inside.
Organ music blasted out through the building and plastered Twilight's mane to her neck, a foreboding melody recognizable as the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor, every bit as grim and dramatic as Rarity.
“Well, if it is for the Princess, as you claim, I suppose I can withstand any company, no matter how barbaric,” Rarity said without turning back to them, her words low and icy. She stopped and turned her head back. “Are you coming?”
“Oh, uh, okay.”
Twilight and Spike walked in awkwardly, not made any more comfortable by the organ music, which was starting to get a little iffy in presentation but no less loud. Rarity started chiding the organ player on technique, while Twilight took in what sights there were to see. The interior was much like the exterior. Full of gorgeous furnishing, all left pointedly untended to, as if the household was in mourning.
“As you can see,” Rarity went on, her voice dry as a fine wine, “my customers have been somewhat lacking of late.” She turned towards them in a movement fine enough to be that of a ballerina, a small, unhappy smile curving her lips. “I always invested so much into improvements for the Inn, always tried my best to make guests and employees alike happy. And this is the result, as you can see – no spare bits to weather temporary dips in revenue. They all told me I never should have been a businessmare. And now I wear the proof of that on my repulsive, repugnant, repellent and revolting face.”
“Miss Rarity, this research is very important to me and the Princess. Maybe I can offer you some compensation for participation, enough to help you with some cosmetic surgery, if you'd be happier that way...” Twilight suggested, trying to talk loud enough to be heard over the organ without yelling rudely in her hostess's face.
Unfortunately the organ appeared to have won.
“How dare you! Observation of my contamination, you say?! I may be the ugliest mare for miles around, but I assure you, miss whoever you are, that I am not contagious, nor am I to be made a spectacle of!”
“She said compensation for participation! And I'm sure you don't look at that bad anyway!” Spike yelled, having given up on being heard with any less volume than top-of-his-lungs. “Miss Rarity, probably everypony would love you if you just took your mask off! However bad it is, it can't be that bad! And if it is, I'm really sorry and I'll do anything to make it up to you, I swear!”
“Oh, you don't think I have a right to feel sad, after you came into my life and ROO-EENED everything I worked my whole life to achieve?!”
Spike waved his hands frantically.
“No no no! I mean-”
Okay, she'd had about enough of this.
“Do ya think you could stop playing the organ for a second?” Twilight called out in the direction of the background music.
“You want seconds?! OKAY!” squealed the organ player voice with a filly's enthusiasm, starting up from the beginning again, only somehow even louder.
“Oh, for the love of...” Twilight muttered while Spike and Rarity half-fought half-apologized to each other.
A moment's concentration, and she magically jammed all the organ keys with a pleasingly final clash of mix-matched notes. There, much better.
“Heyyyyyy,” the filly organ-player whined, trotting down the hall and into view. “I was just getting to the best part!” Rarity's sister was young, roughly Spike-sized, and not very closely resembling her sister except in the coat. Certainly not in her bearing, which was very cheerful and lively for somepony playing dramatic background music for a horribly mutilated relative. “Hi! We're closed right now, did you want... YOU!” she interrupted herself, jabbing a hoof towards Spike in the exact same way Rarity had done earlier.
Ah, yes, now there was the family resemblance.
“I'm gonna kick your butt all over Ponyville!” she screeched.
Aaaand it was gone again.
Twilight's reflexes on setting up protective shields had been very well-polished by now, and the charging little unicorn bounced back with a sulky glare.
“Sweetie Belle, we do not attack visitors' pets,” Rarity chided her sibling, placing a hoof on the little pony's back. “No matter how vicious and dangerous they may be,” she added with an eye-slitted look over at Spike, who was blinking back tears again. “Now, what exactly can I do for you, miss....”
“Twilight Sparkle. Like I said, I'm conducting a localized field research expedition on chaos magic, potentially Discord-derived, as well as exploring possibilities on the spontaneous generation of magical antiquities, specifically positive emotional feedback-based accessories.” Twilight reached up to adjust her glasses in a scholarly way, then blushed and put her hoof down when she remembered she didn't wear glasses. “Ahem, all I need is a few hours of your time to conduct a series of tests, nothing invasive or weird.”
“Accessories? What sort of accessories?” Rarity asked, tilting her head and trying to look less intrigued than she seemed to be.
“Well, in terms of purpose, these Elements of Harmony, as they're called, are enchanted anti-disharmony artifacts. Their appearances seem to be variable, but the Princess mentioned something about jewelry, gems and precious metals being involved typical manifestations...”
“Really now. That sounds... very nice, actually,” Rarity conceded. “But why did you bring him here? I take it you are aware of his violent and unprovoked attack against me?”
“And I'm really sorry,” Spike said again, and would probably be saying as his only conversation addition for the rest of the day, by the looks of it. “I didn't mean to hurt you that bad, I swear!”
Hm. How much truth should she risk? Staring at that half-waxen face wasn't doing anything to help Twilight's nerves. But if she focused on just the pony half it wasn't so bad. Rarity was rather pretty, too, it was a shame.
Bah, Spike deserved the credit. And blame, Twilight added to herself as she held back the urge to grab some jerky from her bag. She had to look like a representative of the Princess, this was a pony who would notice rude behavior.
“Well, I've classified Spike as an emergency food supply, but actually this was partially his idea. He's told me a lot about how generous you are, more than anypony else he's ever met, and seeing as how one of the Elements of Harmony is Generosity, we thought you'd be the best place to start.”
“Y-you did? You said that about a hideous old mare like me?” Rarity half-whispered, a single tear sliding down her unmasked cheek, glistening in the light of candles that seemed to be lit purely to make the place seem more gothic. It was so perfectly done that Twilight was more than half-convinced Rarity had shed the tear on purpose for dramatic effect.
“Y-yeah, I mean-” Spike started, but he didn't very far into his attempt at a touching moment of reconciliation before the younger sibling broke it up.
“Even if you did, that doesn't make up for hurting my sis and making her cry, like, a ton!”
“Sweetie Belle! A lady does not cry, she weeps! And it was not a ton.” Rarity hoisted her nose higher in the air, eyes nearly shutting. “It was barely a trickle, if you must know.”
“She moans 'why oh why' into her pillow at night! What're you gonna do about that, huh?” Sweetie had her nose crammed right up against Spike's. “What could you possibly give my awesome big sister to make up for all the trouble you've caused, you... you delicious-smelling but still very bad dragon, huh?!”
“I don't know, okay?!” Spike wailed, grabbing the pony's shoulders and shaking her. “I didn't mean it to be like this! I'll do anything to fix it, I swear, just gimme a chance!”
Meanwhile, the two adults in the room had shifted closer to each other as they watched the young ones interact.
“Ah, the melodrama of youth,” Rarity murmured. “Aren't they just so over the top?”
Twilight just stared back at the other unicorn, struck speechless.
“I don't dare ask what madness caused you to adopt such a vile, dangerous little beast as him, but so long as you know the risks, I suppose it's alright,” Rarity went on. “Is his presence required for these little experiments of yours?”
“Oh, no, I mean, he's kind of doubling as my assistant, but I can keep track of everything myself if you'd be more comfortable that way.”
“I believe I would.” Rarity heaved a sigh, one that was surprisingly not that drawn out or loud. “It would be nice to be able to give somepony something useful again, even if all I have to give is my time. Sweetie Belle, be a dear and play with Spike for a bit while the grownups attend to matters of science, will you?”
Sweetie wrinkled her nose.
“You want me to play with this jerk?” Then she brightened. “Wait, are you doing that polite yoofeemism thing again where 'play' really means 'kill and eat?'”
Rarity looked over at Twilight questioningly, who shook her head, eyes rolling. If she had to suffer, everypony had to, dang it!
“No dear, I'm afraid 'play' just means 'play.' Please? Do it for me?”
“Fiiiiine.” Sweetie Belle smirked rather evilly while Spike fidgeted. “Kay, how about this game... count out all the ways you know how to slay something... one, stick a lance into 'im, two, boil 'im inna pot, three.....”
Rarity beckoned Twilight down a hall, leaving the would-be-food and the child to their, err, 'playtime.' Twilight considered that maybe leaving those two alone wasn't so smart, but it really was the best way of getting a sterile environment for examining Rarity. This was for scientific advancement, a goal definitely more important than that baby mice latte she was really craving right about now. Darned semi-rural road trips and their inconvenient lack of coffee shops.
“So, she's a pretty, uh, lively one, isn't she,” she joked by way of a conversation starter. Rarity felt too much like a creepy ghost pony when she wasn't actively engaged in talking, and following the masked mare through a neglected and unfamiliar building was definitely enhancing the creepy.
“Sweetie's such a gem, she goes into things headlong, you know. All or nothing.”
“Can't imagine where she gets that from.”
“Indeed. Ah, here we are, the former smoking room. Perfectly roomy and vacant, as empty as my aesthetic prospects and social life. Deservedly, so, of course. Will this be suitable?”
“Err, yeah, it looks fine, thanks. Let me just get a few things set up here....”
Muttering to herself, Twilight unpacked her extremely well-organized and much-compressed portable lab gear, all of the beakers, and burners, and flasks, and tubes, and funnels, and pipettes, and tongs, and goggles, and rubber mats, and clamps, and pincers, and knives, and electrodes....
“Err, are you really going to need to use all of that?”
Twilight came out of her cheerful unpacking fugue to find Rarity staring at the setup with a bizarre degree of nervousness.
“Oh, probably not. But I guess we should start off with the more psychological end to get things off on the right hoof, huh?”
“The, ah, psychological end, you say?” asked Rarity as she poked one of the electrodes like it was something slimy.
“Mmhmm! You see, we're currently theorizing that extreme displays of the relevant harmonic virtues will generate a counter-wavelength to the one that the theoretical chaos magic operates on, basically canceling it out. Besides that, we're also trying to determine the extent of parasitic influence on the subject's physiological makeup, particularly regarding interactions with uncompromised individuals.”
“Parasitic?!” Rarity reeled back, baring her teeth in disgust. “Now see here, I don't know what that dragon told you, but aside from my horrible injury, I am in the very zenith of health!”
“Ah, but what if other ponies also had this problem? You wouldn't know because you'd be just like every other pony!”
“I... I suppose... but still....”
“Oh, relax. If the theorized parasite exists at all, it can't be any worse than the magical equivalent of a tapeworm.” Seeing how Rarity's expression was anything but one of being comforted by the explanation, Twilight hastened to move on lest her subject lose her eagerness for participation. “Anyway, Miss Rarity, you've had a long and exciting life as a businessmare. Can you tell me what led you to open an Inn for prey, and why you recently chose to close it?”
Rarity started to speak, then went quiet, dipping her head slightly in thought. Twilight was immediately unnerved by the way the shadows of the room played over the half-mask, and backed up a bit closer to the comforting embrace of her loops of wound-up electrode cords. Being traumatized was one thing, but why did Rarity have to be so creepy about it?
“Since I was a filly even younger than Sweetie Belle is now, I'd always thought that there was something... wrong... with how we treated them, you understand,” Rarity began to explain slowly, picking each word with care. Twilight's ears perked. With an opener like that, it was easy to see how the dragon had gotten so wrapped up in the Inn's mistress. “I mean, of course we have to eat them, that's just how things are, but, well, it's just not... sporting, you know... how we go about it.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight sneaked a hoof into her saddlebags and grabbed her notepad along with a small ink pot and a quill. Time to practice those stealth note-taking skills.
“I mean, they're never really given much of a chance, are they? They have no idea what life is like for us. They live brutish, short lives, the lives of wild, uncivilized things. As you've doubtless seen with Spike.”
Twilight nodded and grunted agreement, provoking her on.
“I remember, one time, I was walking by a butcher shop when I was very young,” Rarity continued, seemingly lost in introspection. “It was advertising fresh kitten steaks. They were in great big cages, peering out of the windows with sad little eyes, and I knew that they had nothing to live for. Empty lives, the lives of all meat. We had three of them for dinner, there was a buy two get one sale and father simply cannot resist a good sale for the life of him. Even though they were delicious, even though my stomach was full, I felt so....”
“Mmmhmm?”
“I felt so empty inside,” Rarity whispered, rubbing at her mask with a hoof. “Like something important was missing. Have you ever felt like that, Twilight?”
“I'm not sure.” Twilight snapped her memories shut like a trap, moving back on to business. Science. No good would come of letting things get personal. “But let's not make this about me. We can't complicate the environment with too many variables or this will take a lot more than one day to get through.”
“Of course, of course, all in the good name of science, yes? I apologize. Anyway, after that, I realized that what I truly wanted was to just give those poor little creatures a taste of the good life. The pony life. Even though I had my own wants, my own dreams, their little lives were so much duller, and they needed these things more than I needed the life of a... well, never mind those old foal's fancies, anyway. They could learn what it was like to live their lives in style and self-assurance, you see? Not kittens, of course, or mice or common songbirds, but some of the more well-developed ones, the griffins and even some of the brighter diamond dogs. We already keep some of them as pets, why not go one step further? What could it hurt, I ask you? At least, that was what I thought at the time,” Rarity added before Twilight could get a word out, her voice darkening. “And in the present moment it is, in fact, very apparent what it can hurt.”
“So you spent your life giving prey unique opportunities to immerse themselves in pony society because you felt bad for them, uplifting them to our level temporarily. And now you've kind of had that thrown back in your face because one of them got out of control. I'm sorry,” Twilight said sympathetically. “I know Spike is too.”
“I gave him something beautiful, something he could never have otherwise, and far from being grateful, he threw it away and made me into this monster that you see before you!” Rarity burst out furiously. “But I can't truly hate him for it, he's just prey, like all of them, and he can only act as prey can act, isn't that right? I can no longer continue to delude myself. I couldn't face anypony anymore, after what he did. My life has been spent throwing pearls to swine. The others are right to mock me for it.”
At this point, the polite thing to do would be to offer to put Spike down as a balm to the reputation of Rarity's business. But Twilight's tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth when she tried to ask. It was probably just Rarity's mask making her nervous.
“Are you... is it really that bad, with the mask off?” she asked, hesitant but morbidly inquisitive.
“I'm hideous,” Rarity replied quietly.
“I'm really sorry.”
“It's perfectly alright, dear. Not your fault. Now, then, do you have any more questions for me?”
“A few, but nothing as deep as the earlier stuff. Let me see....”
Twilight quizzed the hostess on her diet, her daily schedule, her level of physical activity, her general moods and basic physical anomalies and ailments. When put together, all the facts added up to a picture of a totally normal pony, all things considered. She was healthy, ate regularly ('mostly bitter salted herbs, unboned fish and black bread these days, you understand, dear'), got plenty of exercise. She didn't show any symptoms typical of traditional parasitic infestation such as low energy levels or dangerous divergent appetites – at least, not compared to any other pony. All of it was as Twilight had expected, but she'd had to ask these things anyway to make sure of the baseline they were starting with.
After that it was on to the attempted Element of Harmony manifestation phase. Based more or less purely on Spike's assumptions that Rarity was the Bearer of Generosity, Twilight first set out to induce a generous state of mind in her subject. They talked of holidays where giving gifts freely played a major part, like Hearts and Hooves Day and Nightmare Night and Hearth's Warming Eve, and reminisced of different presents they'd gotten for family members and friends over the years (at least, Rarity had had friends to give presents to... Twilight, not so much, unless you counted the Princess or her former babysitter).
Then, when the mood was right and Twilight had the subject plugged in to every body and magic-monitoring device under ten pounds known to ponykind, they moved on to the physical act of giving. Passing an expensive ceramic vase back and forth did absolutely nothing. With the possibility of the return-giving nullifying the whole act, Twilight then asked Rarity to give her something permanently. She'd meant the flowers in the vase or something, but Rarity obligingly hoofed over a beautiful set of topaz earrings.
“It's the least I can do for you after you dragged the poor little dragon back to me and made him apologize,” Rarity said with a wry smile.
“But... but my ears aren't even pierced!”
“Well it's high time you jumped that hurdle, don't you think, dear?” Rarity commented with a deftly-raised sculpted eyebrow. “Oh, the summer hues are all in vogue these days, and with the contrast to your stately lavender coat, you would be simply tres chic!”
“Welllll... okay... but still....”
“Come, my dear, you must accept! This isn't even part of the experiment anymore, I simply shan't allow you to refuse! I will be mortally offended if you say another word against it!”
“Alright, alright.” Twilight caught herself giggled. This was very unscientific of her! Very unscientific indeed! Stay objective, Twilight Sparkle! She peered over at the readouts as the magic she fed into dozens of quills allowed them to capture Rarity's physiological stats from body temperature to heartbeat to thaumaturgical aura and scritched them out on long loops of scrollwork. Far more work than the passive magic radiation compass she had as a backup, but also far more specific, and specificity was the very soul of truth! “Let's see, did that... wow.”
“Oh, oh my, did something exciting happen? Do let me in on it, are we expanding the bound'ries of classical thought even as I speak?”
“Errr, no, actually.” Twilight scratched her cheek and smiled sheepishly. “I was surprised because nothing happened at all, even after all that display of generosity. It was just... interesting, how completely the current physical evidence is repudiating my theory. I mean, I would've expected at least a blip or something, but we've got nada here.”
“Oh dear.”
“Yeah. But, don't worry! So maybe you're not the bearer of any sort of magical artifact, that doesn't mean you might not still be infested with ancient chaos magic!”
“What part of that statement is supposed to cheer me up?!”
“The part where you help further our understanding of ponykind? Hold on a second, let me get the probe assortment out and we'll just-”
Rarity's eyes narrowed.
“I think we're done here.”
Oops. Twilight was seized with mild panic at having blown her research study so thoroughly so rapidly. The very first day of research gone like that! What would the Princess say?! How had it gone so wrong? Had she said something to make Rarity uncomfortable somehow? Thinking back through recent memories, she couldn't bring anything to mind that would cause the subject to shift in amicability so abruptly.
“Wait wait wait, I'm sorry, I'll do something else, we can't stop now, there's still so many tests to try out...” Twilight rambled as she tried to block the doorway without looking like she was blocking it. She felt oddly like Spike right now. Sweet, juicy, chubby little Spike. “You can have your earrings back!”
“What's wrong with them?!”
“Nothing, I just meant-”
“Room service!” Spike and Rarity's sister yelled out with perfect coordination, making both the older ponies jump.
Dragon and filly rolled in a squeaky-wheeled tea cart laden with a steaming tea pot, packets of tea, cups and small triangles of bacon sandwiches. It was all sloppily put together, crumbs spilling onto the top of the cart, food arranged on the plates unevenly at best, but for all that was not a half bad effort from two kids. They also had found, somewhere or other, a roughly-fitting tuxedo for Spike and maid's uniform for Sweetie, fancy clothes that only partially hid the light bruises, scratches and sweat the two had from undoubtedly fighting with each other with low-key violence before they'd set upon this bizarre idea.
“Sweetie, dear, I thought I told you to play,” Rarity said, sounding as bewildered as Twilight felt.
Twilight nibbled on a sandwich. Surprisingly decent, apparently the ingredients had all been in an ice box and they'd just needed assembling.
“We are playing! We're playing servant. Would you care for a spot of tea, m'lady?”
“Be that as it may, you know you're not supposed to use the stove without supervision!”
“I didn't! I just used my magic to heat up the water!”
“Ohhh... yeees, I can see that now,” Rarity drawled out with a faint giggle, inspecting the blackened bottom of the teapot. She sighed and adjusting her slipping mask back to its usual posture. “I suppose we might as well enjoy the meal since you both went to such efforts to prepare it, right, Twilight?”
“Mmmhmm,” Twilight mumbled through her second sandwich, the bacon crunching delightfully in her teeth. She couldn't help it, having Spike around all the time made her appetite go nuts! She could almost imagine cracking his cute little bones just like bacon in her mouth....
“So, what is it like studying under the Princess Herself?” Rarity asked as she propped her hooves up under an ottoman pushed over by her sister. “You know so much of me and I barely know anything about you, it's left me feeling quite disarmed!”
Twilight's lips curved into a fond smile before she was aware that that was what they were doing, a Pavlovian response to remembering all the lessons and essays and wonderfully fulfilling homework assignments. And the other times, too... teatime in the garden, spontaneous walkabouts while they shares opinions on centuries-old architectural traditions of the city, the field trips to the museum. And the summer hunts! Oh, it'd been so exciting, analyzing all the skeletal muscle ratios of caught game Shiny had decapitated while the servants fretted over whether or not the Princess had chipped a hoof.
“Well, not to brag or anything, but it's really nice. I've learned so much from her I couldn't put it all into words in one lifetime! Of course, there's plenty of spellcraft, but the Princess likes to place emphasis on sociology in her lesson plans. She also really approved of my scholarly interest in the philosophy of objectivity and how it applies to the scientific method, so we've been applying that to a lot of things lately.” As she talked, she noticed Rarity leaning in just a little bit, eyes a bit more intense than usual. There was a definite energy, a sort of hunger there, that Rarity'd been lacking earlier.
“More tea, Twilight?” Pity there weren't any mice.
“Yes, Spike, thank you.”
“Butter with your sandwich, Rarity?”
“Oh, just the barest smidgen, Sweetie Belle. You know how dreadful all the sugar is for my diet. So, you're her sole student, then? You make it sound like such a personal experience.”
“Well, early on I attended her school for gifted unicorns, but she didn't actually teach there, of course. I graduated a while back and have pressed on with my independent studies since then. Studies like this one... why, if we can figure out how to get a handle on this whole Generosity thing, it could make big, big waves in the scientific community! You could even be famous,” she added with a smile, gambling on Rarity being the sort of pony who'd be interested in a spotlight.
For a second, it seemed like she had her, but then Rarity's head drooped, her curls framing the mask artistically.
“As if anypony has a use for a hideous hag like me....”
“That's not true, you're really pretty!” Sweetie insisted, filing one of Rarity's hooves. “I bet if you took that mask off everypony'd agree too. Right, Spike?” she added with the kind of poorly-concealed molten hostility that only children and mortal enemies displayed.
Spike's silent smile was a watermelon slice of shiny fangs.
Rarity heaved a sigh.
“Thank you for your opinion, Sweetie Belle, but I'm afraid you're a little bit biased in that regard, being of my blood and all.” She waved a hoof in a way that somehow managed to be both vague and elegant. “Now then, while this has been a very pleasant distraction, I really shouldn't waste too much of Miss Sparke's time. You two go play elsewhere while we get back to the humdrum of this little magical experiment, alright?”
“But there's still tea left!” Sweetie protested.
“And some bacon,” Spike added helpfully.
“Yeah, bacon! Wait.” Sweetie raised an eyebrow. “Who wants just bacon? We need to go find some more bread to put it on! And butter! And thyme or something! Rarity likes thyme!”
This started up an argument between the two on what spices belonged in a bacon sandwich, which lasted till well after the two had pushed the cart shakily back out the door and continued onward out of earshot, presumably towards the kitchen. Twilight listened until the sounds died out, then looked over at Rarity, who had a sad, gentle little smile on her face.
“She seems... very eager to help,” Twilight put in.
Rarity shrugged.
“What can I say? The darling loves to spend time with her big sister. Sometimes it seems like all she does is give me any spare time she's got, when she's not off with her little friends trying to earn their Cutie Marks. And you seem to be keeping Spike on the straight and narrow, I must note. Don't forget though, you may think you've tamed him, but he's a wild dragon at heart. Don't let him... hurt you.”
“My brother said the same thing before I went on this trip,” Twilight revealed, keeping her tone as mild and neutral as possible to balance out the sudden and surprisingly ugly grating tension that'd leaked into Rarity's. She put a hoof on top of the masked mare's, who twitched. “I know he did something to you that he'll never be able to make up, but he really understands that he made a mistake. He doesn't want to hurt ponies. And from that look he gets whenever he brings you up, I think apologizing to you is something that's been on his mind for a long time.” She laughed. “Listen to me, getting all serious about the opinions of my backup rations. It doesn't matter what he thinks, anyway, he's just food! You look like a beautiful pony to me, Rarity. Whether your mask is on or off.”
“Then why do I feel like, like some repulsive spot trampled into the rug,” Rarity whispered, leaning back in her chair.
“You know, maybe that's the problem,” Twilight thought out loud. “Maybe your ability to synchronize with your innate harmonic resonance is being impeded because you're not expressing a prerequisite degree of self-awareness that would enable the reification process. A textbook case of psychosomatic negative feedback!”
“Ah hmmmm. I'm going to pretend I understand the majority of the words you just used,” Rarity said carefully while Twilight flushed, “and you're going to tell me what, theoretically, we should do about this. From a scientific perspective, of course.”
“Of course.” Twilight took a moment to compose herself and plan a rational way of dealing with her test subject's squeamishness, closing her eyes and rubbing hooves at her temples. She felt like she was still missing something in her interactions with the pony. Oh, if only she'd read more books, she was sure she'd know the right scientific procedure to analyze harmonic potentiality! It was really frustrating how some ponies put something as petty as their personal space above the wonders of discovering new knowledge. “Let's see, what if we just used a basic glamor to try and get you feeling less self-conscious? No more machines, no more poking and prodding.”
“That sounds... nice.” Rarity smiled hesitantly.
“Maybe you could tell me about a good memory, something that somepony gave you, or that you gave somepony....”
“Another trip down memory lane, is it?” Rarity's eyes narrowed, and at first Twilight wondered if she'd offended the finicky pony somehow again, but then she smiled. “I think I can come up with something sufficient to the task at hoof.”
Rarity was almost too obliging, picking her words with the intricate purple prose of a romance novel, describing a visual shorthoof of a long-ago birthday party with such attention to detail that Twilight felt as if she had lived through it herself. Creating the glamor to match the words was subject to endless scrutiny and nitpicking by the masked pony, who had a very particular sense of aesthetics that would brook no argument. When Twilight tried to brush past details, impatient to be making the most of her schedule, Rarity rebuked her – gently, but unmistakably – and there was nothing for it but to smile and apologize and try again, do better, make it more like her memories.
“Think nothing of it, dear!”
“Oh, you almost had it that time, but perhaps a trifle more...”
“Come come now, are you even trying? I'm kidding, of course, you needn't glare at me so!”
“Goodness, is that how they do birthdays up in Canterlot? Truly? I had expected much more, ah... never mind, no, pleeeeaaase continue.”
Twilight began to find her mind darkening with frustration even as their surroundings lit up with an ever more beautiful glamor. It was not a literal reproduction of the party, of course, but a reproduction of the party's most important elements, all brought together and emphasized with physically improbable proportions and lighting techniques. The balloons were pinker than pink could be pink, the small cake more ornate than its size should have been able to withstand, the presents great puzzles to the eye of geometrical mazes of foil.
And yet Rarity would not be appeased. Something was always... off.
Argh!
Did this vain, shallow pony even realize how important this was?! It was Twilight's first ever real research expedition outside of the environs of Canterlot. She had to prove to the Princess that she was a good student, not just frittering away bits and study time on sightseeing! And her theory, her foolish, foolish theory, based on a half-mad, two thirds undomesticated baby dragon's ravings all hinged on this wishy washy emotional nonsense of getting Rarity to feel generous. This wasn't scientific, this wasn't scientific at all! But it was all she had, mad experiments from a mad dragon's diseased brain at the mercy of a mad masked pony. And Rarity was making it so unnecessarily hard.
The change happened, like lightning, sudden and without provocation. Rarity leaned over, gesturing with a hoof to show how the angle of the candle smoke could be 'just a tad more curlicued.' She tripped over a piece of furniture that had been quite obscured by the bottom of an illusionary balloon, stumbling and catching herself harmlessly... but her mask fell off. The wax made an anticlimactic little thwup against the floor, the part directly impacting denting and flaking off a little like dandruff. Rarity froze, horrified, mouth and eyes paralyzed wide open, and Twilight just stared, equally a loss.
Rarity was... beautiful.
Perfectly, flawlessly beautiful.
And Twilight Sparkle found herself filling to burst with a rapidly rising tide of bitter rage.
“Rarity,” she said flatly, eyes half-lidded, trying to keep her voice from shaking, “you look fine.” In the immensity of her distraction, the glamor winked out of existence, leaving them in the suddenly mundane-seeming room with its expensive furnishing, fit for a mare with equally expensive tastes. Expense mane condition, expense perfume, expensive makeup on the face nopony ever saw! “In fact,” she went on, her voice rising without her meaning it to, “you look more than fine, you look great! Is this what all the fuss is about?! Spike didn't do anything to you, heck, you look better than I do!”
There was a moment of dead silence, broken faintly by the sounds of Sweetie Belle and Spike getting into trouble several rooms over.
“Is that some kind of joke?”
“Uhhh,” said Twilight.
“Are you mocking my hideous DEFORMITY?!” Rarity screeched, jumping forward, jamming her face against Twilight, who found herself pinned against a wall by the sheer proximity of the other unicorn. Not to mention the almost physical force of all that expensive perfume.
But it was Rarity's eyes that held her, quivering azure like an angry sea. Those were the eyes of a pony as angry as Twilight herself was. It wasn't fair. It wasn't even logical.
“I can barely stand to look at myself in the mirror after what that, that vile beast did to me, and you make light of it?! How could you be so CRUEL, Twilight Sparkle?!”
“Rarity, there is nothing wrong with your face!” Twilight yelled right back, pushing her face back against Rarity's until they were on an even level in their postures, mutually upright and glaring hate. “I can't see anything wrong, anything, I swear! Certainly nothing worth closing your whole business over and putting a mask over your face for!”
“OH?! What do you call THIS, then?!” Rarity jammed a hoof at her left upper eyelid, and Twilight's gaze followed the gesture. There was just the tiniest, barely perceptible marking there, a well-healed scar that was only by the faintest degree of discoloration able to make its presence known. And something about Twilight's face must have given away seeing it. “You see?! YOU SEE?! I'm HIDEOUS, just like I told you!”
Rarity broke down into hysterical sobs, long, drawn out, hyperventilating sounds were so intense they barely seemed possible of emerging from a mere pony throat, covering her face with her hooves. She muttered things between her sobs, the words far from understandable, but the tone of self-loathing was pure and rich and utterly intuitive. Twilight was torn equally between empathy, disgust, anger and sheer confusion.
She didn't want to see this Rarity pony suffer... she just didn't understand it.
It was just a tiny scar!
“Hug her or something,” Spike hissed.
Twilight jumped and looked over to see the baby dragon looking at her with an odd, tense kind of... expectation. It felt a bit like how she thought she'd been looking at Rarity in the experiments before things had gone completely off the rails. She glanced over at Rarity, still in thorough histrionics, and then back at Spike skeptically, who hardened his look into something like a glare.
“Okay, okay....”
Reaching over to hug the perfectly-ordinary-not-ugly-at-all mare, she was rebuffed, pushed away blindly while Rarity only sobbed harder again.
“Oh, just leave me be! Leave me to fester in my shallow grave of woe and regrets!”
Twilight gave Spike her best 'Well, what now, genius' look. This was pretty much all his fault, she decided. Gobble him up in three, four bites when she'd met him and this would never have happened, but no, no, she had to be prudent and save him for a blasted emergency! And he just looked back like she'd done something wrong, the impudence!
“Muh, muh, my mask, where's my mask...” Rarity asked tremulously, groping around on the floor. “I can't stand to think of ponies seeing me like this... what would they think, what would mother and father say, they would be so ashamed, oh, ooohhhh....”
Sweetie Belle had also come in at some point, probably with Spike. Unnoticeable before only because she'd been – very uncharacteristically – quiet, eyes full of tears that wouldn't be shed. The little filly picked up Rarity's mask and hoofed it over to her ravenously grateful sister, who put it back on immediately, fiddling with the angle with trembling hooves.
“I wish I could give you something to make you feel as pretty as everypony else thinks you are... as I think you are...” Sweetie mumbled, sniffling a bit out of sympathetic grief. “But I guess that'll do till I can find something better.”
A suspicion in the back of Twilight's mind twitched, a mostly unformed thing, like the vague shadow of something deep underwater moving, diffused and buried apart from conscious thought and analysis by far too many layers of tiredness and resentment and worry and that ever-present sharpened appetite she got around her emergency food supply's tasty smell. Letting that hunger settle deep into her stomach till it bit, annoyed at its presence even at a time like this, she looked over at Spike again, staring into his wide, shiny green eyes as they also shone with tears. He didn't return her gaze. He was too busy looking at Rarity fix up her mask to get it on just right. Regretting things that words couldn't make right.
She felt like she was still missing something in her interactions with these ponies.
Feeling lost and rather extraneous to the whole situation, Twilight let her eyes roam over the room again, over her ultimately useless equipment. All the acids and bases and electrical conduction and thaumaturgical measurements and measuring and weighing and analyzing. So much junk, dead and lifeless trash. Except for the magical radiation compass, of course, quivering slightly just from the presence of three unicorns in the same....
Wait.
That wasn't just a quiver.
She teleported over to the compass, heedless of the nervous starts of the other three occupants of the room, staring at it intently. Yes. There was no mistake, there could be no mistake at all! This was wonderful, just wonderful! A real breakthrough! The Princess would be so proud!
To be sure, she levitated the compass over, first nearer to Rarity, and then to Sweetie, both of whom stared at the floating disc with identical expressions of mildly offended bemusement. Twilight watched that precious little needle spin and spin and settle. Oh yes, it did. Her mouth curved into the grin of a pony who had gotten just what she'd wanted for Hearth's Warming, and she teleported over to Sweetie to grab her in a one-hoofed, possessive hug.
“Eep!”
“Err, Twilight dear, the 'moment' is rather over as it were, and I must say I think it a little inappropriate of you to be quite so familiar with my little sister....”
“Rarityyyyy,” Twilight sang, turning her head over to look at the fellow adult while still squishing Sweetie against her, who squirmed in silent protest. For some reason Rarity flinched back. Really, you'd think a heartwarming scientific breakthrough smile was something scary, sheesh. “Your sister isn't secretly an alicorn by any chance, is she?”
“Of course not, why on earth would you ask such a ridiculous question?!”
“Because if she's not, then I'm pretty sure she's the Bearer of Generosity.”
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MOAR!
Plot twist!
wait........WHAT
The twist fucked me up good...
boomside.com/eng/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/i-praise-you-Lord.jpg
Oh... oh my. Now that wasn't what i expected at all - especially not after that big 'give them a taste of a better life' speech by Rarity earlier.
Haha, well obviously things aren't going to go the way we expected them to. To make a prediction about the most expected unexpected thing that could happen...well, Fluttershy is going to have given in to eating meat by the time they get to her. Yup, the one pony that Spike was certain about is going to betray him, because where's the drama in having someone you count so blindly on pull through?
I'm not quite sure, though, that Sweetie Belle represents generosity. Her actions feel more kind or loyal than generous, but I'll reserve judgement until later. I just feel like Twilight might have jumped the gun a bit.
Speaking of Twilight, I'm loving her slow climb towards realizing that she cares for Spike as more than just food. Man, when the time comes for her to make the hard choice I am going to be SO excited to see the results! I don't think she's ready to admit to herself that she values him on an equal level to a pony, but with enough time...maybe.
I'm also just DYING to see Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie show up again in the story. I'm pretty sure there's going to be a fight! It would be ridiculous to believe in the possibility of anything else...which is why I'm going to predict that Pinkie or Dash is going to be completely understanding of Spike's dilemma. Or Pinkie is going to have snapped and started eating other ponies. But frankly, that would be boring compared to the rest of the story.
I have NO IDEA what to expect from Applejack...
Anyways, I'm looking forward with great anticipation towards the next chapter of this story. I hope all is well and life isn't treating you or your loved ones with too much difficulty. Have a pleasant day!
I knew it. Rarity is so bloody dramatic, I was half expecting there to be no damage whatsoever.
Ha.. of course Rarity is over dramatic. Love the Phantom of the Opera gag. You know what would make Sweetie even cuter? Singing the Great Big Gobs of Oooie Gooie Gopher Guts song.
I've been considering going vegetarian recently.
Anyway, gotta say this is a shockingly well-written piece for such a dark concept, not often I get to see that combination; gripped me like only one other has. In fact, I really should've been sleeping, eating, and working instead of reading... Should I thank you or curse you?
2441351
Hey, I stayed up till two am last night... because of a Trixie/Twilight fluff fic. The life of the fanfic reader is not a dignified one. ;)
Gotta ask, though... what's the other one fic? Always looking for more reading material, particularly ones with a dab of suspense or horror to counterbalance out the endless waves of shipping.
2436270
Nnnnoot gonna happen. I hated that song as a child. :( Felt sorry for the gopher, dontcha know.
2435699
You have some good ideas. I am tempted to appropriate 'em! While many things are well-defined in my plot sketches, there's still a few things up in the air... for instance, I haven't quite figured out what to do with Pinkie just yet. She does make such a good serial killer, though, doesn't she... so if Pinkie ends up murdering a bunch of likable characters, you have only yourself to blame for giving me the idea.
2441533
Diaries of a Madman
At times I read it and think "man this is like a stupid self insert", but then on the other hand I stayed up an entire night because I couldn't stop reading it.
(After that happened I decided to reset my sleep schedule by staying up until a more normal time to go to bed, and have managed to avoid doing anything like it... until this fic, which kept me up until just before daybreak.)
Fair warning: 1 million words. Don't start with it on a Monday...
Oh gawsh, with an ending like this I can only think of who might the other element bearers will be from past chapters.
I'm pretty sure I know who Loyalty will be.
god i love this story. so dark but funny, so gory but so sweet sometimes. and spike is such a hero! gods i pray theres not going to be a sad ending to this i want spike to have his happy ending with a family to love him. has to happen pleeassseee!!!
SWEETIE BELLE?!?!?!?!?!
Well......
That was certainly unexpected.
2556759
The instant I saw dragons in anyway worried about ponies, and then proven wise for this, I instantly thought: This makes no sense. Discord is involved.
No other explanation was possible.
My brain still has logic fits over this.
Spike is a baby and can take a several hundred foot fall into boiling lava, which is just as hard as rock, and have it only sting.
Hell, Twilight's force walls shouldn't have done shit, the walls would have broken before Spikes body would have.
Ponies should break every single bone in their jaw trying to CHEW Dragon flesh with how tough it's shown to be.
Their mouth flesh no sells chewing diamond shards into their gums without scarring or scratching.
We cut STEEL with Diamond tipped drills and they just eat it and then ponies bite them with flat teeth and my brain cries in agony and screams: FUCKING DISCORD!
EDIT: In the comics. Spike gets punted so hard he flies ten miles. he smashes through a stone cliff face at the end of his arc.
He gets mild bruising.
Then he walks back.
He's fine in about an hour.
That's a hilarious amount of nigh invulnerability combined with regeneration. In a baby dragon. The adults would logically be far worse.
Given what we have seen of him, you could beat Spike with a sledgehammer for hours and it would just message his back.
Ponies eat dragons in this fic. Ponies eat THAT. And cut them open. With sharpened hooves. When logically Cannon fire should have no effect whatsoever.
Discord. Fuck. You.
Plot Twist!
Well, this is certainly an interesting twist...
2441533
I didn't kill you with that 1 million word link, did I?
plot
! also I'm I the only person who what's the brainwashed spike to eat the ponies?
Rarity isn't blameless and kinda deserved that. Also, I find it weird that Spike agreed to make bacon sandwiches.