The Enchanted Library: Amethyst Dreams

by makise-homura

A Vision Number Zero

Rarity didn’t remember how and when she got home. How she left the cemetery, when she said goodbye to Fluttershy, if at all, and whether anypony even looked at her on the way back, it all was completely unnoticeable compared to truth just revealed to her. Obviously, Discord had nothing to do with it. All those strange details, like the lack of Applejack’s stall at the marketplace, the way ponies who were close friends with the Apples, avoided Rarity’s gaze the very moment they met her in the street, and many other inconsistencies, this all has fitted into the big picture now. No way to deny the truth anymore: Rarity, and she alone, was the one to blame for this. No excuses like “she did it for Twilight”, could justify this. It was Rarity’s desire to meet the princess again, and she lost two of her friends to fulfill it. Nothing but a desire to desperately knock on the curse’s door in the hope it would somehow break and let her back into Twilight's library. A foolish hope that someday it would be possible to overcome the strength of Discord. Rarity sacrificed her health, and almost her life for that–and now, she was sacrificing other ponies’ lives. The lives of her friends.

How insane had she quietly become to even think of paying such a price?

Now, Rarity realized with irrefutable clarity: she would never hear Applejack’s voice again, never see her insisting gaze, never feel the touch of her hoof stopping her from another stupid adventure in the Everfree Forest. She finally saw how ungrateful she was acting.

“It’s me who should have died there instead.”

Unfortunately, death took her friends. And still awkwardly ironically, one of them had once told her a simple thing:

“Being dead ain’t gonna reunite you with the princess.”

And now she was dead, not Rarity. Either way, it was a clear signal that Rarity would not reunite with Twilight. After all, Princess Twilight had an eternity to spare. And if Rarity was able to find her one day, someone else could probably be lucky too someday. Maybe now, maybe in a dozen hundred years. Rarity could not afford to try again and again: it didn't bring her goal any closer, but it hurt and even killed ponies around her. After all, this was exactly what Twilight had written in her letter, wasn’t it?

Rarity walked to the fireplace and levitated a jewelry box off the shelf over it. This box contained the most precious things for Rarity, and all of them were in some way or another connected to Twilight. The book from the castle that she never gave to the princess. A broken pendant on a necklace and a few crystal fragments that were all the evidence of the times when Rarity could still connect her minds with Twilight…

And four letters.

She tried to force herself to read the last one many times, but she could never get past the first sentence:

“I’m not sure how to say this, and I don’t want to, but this is probably the last time I’ll be writing to you.”

Rarity hugged herself, and lowered her head. Despite being a few feet from the fire, she felt like she was lost in a blizzard–well represented by the storm of feelings in her heart. Earlier, she shed a lot of tears upon these words…

But now it was anything but tears.

She didn’t feel the familiar bitterness and desperation she used to feel each time she tried to read this letter. She could cry about anything: about the death of Applejack and her sister, about her own curse, about the fate of Twilight, once again losing the mare who could be her savior…

But it was not like that. She realized she rather was filled with anger.

Rarity didn’t know exactly who she was mad at in the first place. This was that sort of untargeted rage and fury, filled with powerlessness and guilt. Oh the cursed fate! First, it brought Rarity upon the beautiful princess of the library, ultimately making her fall in love with the alicorn, or rather making them both fall in love with each other. The same fate that gave Rarity hope to free Twilight, pulled her from heaven down to earth, enclosed in unbreakable curse befallen onto her, and almost turned Rarity insane. And in the end, that very same fate robbed her of a friend–and the Apple family of half their members.

Was it all worth it?

Rarity just realized that the fate was not the only object of her wrath.

She was angry at Twilight. To her beloved mare, who decided to break off all relations at such a difficult hour for Rarity. “Last time,” she said? Well, if Twilight wills it so, this will be the “last time”!

Rarity grabbed the letters and threw them furiously into the fireplace. The flames flared gratefully, consuming fresh fuel, and in a moment it was all over.

If Twilight decided that she wrote the last letter, then who was Rarity to disagree?

Rarity noticed a brief movement in the dark evening sky outside the window, and, glancing at it, Rarity could have sworn she saw two barely visible owl silhouettes gliding among the stars.

However, it mattered no longer.

---

…It was many years ago.

And now Rarity, while sitting comfortably in a chair near the same fireplace, let herself reflect on the days long gone, just for a moment. She was brought back from painful thoughts by her sister’s voice–well, it was still as melodic as dozens years before.

“Rarity, you should take a little walk too. What has your doctor told you?

“Oh, what does she know? I’m fine here. Go on your own, you still have a speech to give today.”

“Like I want to. You know I look like Princess Cadance as much as you look like Discord,” Sweetie grunted. “Would you resist, I will get you on stage! After all, you look way more like the real Cadance the First. At least because of your age,” she laughed.

“Sweetie Belle! How dare you remind a lady of her age!” Rarity protested.

“And what are you going to do to me? I’m in another room!” Sweetie chuckled from the hallway. “Come on, raise your flank and go out, fresh air is good for you. Especially today–our weather pegasi did their best for this Seeking Night. Scootaloo is a great head of the weather team, after all.”

“Oh you youngsters,” Rarity muttered, pushing herself out of the comfortable embrace of the chair. “Alright, alright, I’m going now. And you, don’t be late for the ceremony, foals will not wait.”

“I’m on my way, Rarity. Just don’t fall apart halfway through,” young mare giggled, walking down the stairs and watching Rarity carefully following her. “Little Candy, are you coming?” Sweetie called as she descended to the lower hall.

“I’m going, Mommy!” a foal’s voice replied.

Comments

[My name is R]

I could probably say something deep here, but I feel that the story speaks for itself.

Rarity could not afford to try again and again: it doesn’t bring her goal any closer, but it hurts and even kills ponies around her. After all, this is exactly what Twilight had written in her letter, isn’t it?

You changed your tense around a few tmes. It should be:
'Rarity could not afford to try again and again: it didn't bring her goal any closer, but it hurt and even killed ponies around her. After all, this was exactly what Twilight had written in her letter, wasn’t it?'

Despite of being a few feet from the fire, she felt like she was lost in a blizzard–

[makise-homura]

11580968
Thanks! Corrected this too. Uh, I'm quite bad at tenses I guess...