The Element of Generosity

by Seanessy

Rarity Reflects

---

Rarity let out a deep sigh, as she began to neatly put away her fabric. She retightened each roll and slipped them in her cabinet by hue coordination, lined up each mannequin single file, set out her sewing tools for the next day and put the ones she would no longer need in a nearby drawer. She smiled as she overviewed the neat room, occasionally remembering how she once scolded Sweetie Belle for tidying up the exact same way.

“Organized chaos…”

She allowed herself a slight chuckle as the term seemed slightly silly to her now. She yawned as the responsibilities of the weekend finally took a toll on her body. Her shoulders suddenly felt like bricks and every step she took felt like trudging through quicksand. She dragged her hooves up the stairs and into her bed room where she plopped face first onto her Egyptian cotton bed sheets. She raised her head, breathing in the sweet scent of the peach morning spritzer detergent she used to wash them, and caught the eye of the artwork that hung on her wall. She smiled staring at the pink piece of paper encrusted with blue sapphires in the shape of a heart with a crudely drawn Rarity and Sweetie Belle in the middle.

“Sweetie Belle…”

The unicorn shifted her body weight and reached under one of her cushions. She pulled out a tiny framed picture and laid it upon her pillow. Her eyes began to get misty as she observed the picture of her filly self and her newborn sister. She clutched the picture tightly against her chest and laid down as her mind began to slowly wander into the past.

---

“Mag, hon, it’ll be alright. We’ll figure out something.”

“I can’t believe how fast we lost our savings. I-I could’ve sworn we had so much more.”

“I know, honey.”

“How can… how can you even want to stay married to me?”

“Magnum! How could you ask me that? I love you!”

“How can you love a colt who can’t even provide for his own family!? A colt who can’t afford to renovate the kitchen or buy a new oven so our children don’t have to grow up on burnt food! A colt who doesn’t even have money to support his oldest daughter and barely enough to keep his youngest in diapers!?”

“Honey…”

Rarity frowned as she gently pressed her ear against the door.

“All we have left is a bit from our “Cloudy Skies Fund”, and what we’re saving for Rarity to go to magic school and study under Princess Celestia.”

“Maybe magic school can wait, hon?”

“No! We have been saving since she was born to give her this opportunity! I will not be the father that takes it away from her. She’s passed her magic test; she’s gotten her acceptance letter. The ponies who gave her the test said she showed the most prestigious and beautiful magic they had ever seen and that she might even be good enough to study under Princess Celestia herself! How can we take that away from her?”

“But is it so important that we’d have to risk the chance of taking food from our youngest daughter’s mouth?”

“Never! I would NEVER allow that to happen!

Magnum slammed his hooves on the table and glared at his wife, his blue eyes emitting a burning passion to protect everything he held dear. “I’ll lie… I’ll cheat, I’ll steal, I’ll kill a Manticore with my bare hooves and cook it myself if I have to!”

The colt grit his teeth and closed his eyes tightly avoiding his wife’s gaze. His upper body rested on the table as defeat started to consume him. The emotional ache of being a father and not having a clue on how to take care of his kin clutched his heart and bound it to a point that made him feel sick. Tears soaked his cheeks as his wife huddled over him grasping his body to absorb the pain from his mental burdens. Tears of her own began to cascade down her face and dampen the back of her husband’s collared shirt.

“Listen to yourself hon, this isn’t you…”

Rarity gently slid the door open and peeked through the slit. Her eyes became misty as she watched what appeared to be never ending pain tormenting the strongest ponies alive; her providers, her caregivers, her support system, her superheroes, her parents.

Magnum titled his hat in front of his eyes. He gently moved Pearl as he motioned to stand.

“Maybe… we can only afford to have one daughter…”

“Hon, what are you saying?”

Magnum remained silent and titled his head lower and drooped his shoulders.

“No! We can’t put Sweetie up for adoption! She’s our daughter!”

“And we want her to have the best don’t we?”

“Hon, ho–”

“Sure, we could cancel Rarity’s admission to magic school and use that money to feed the kids for a little longer, but soon, we’ d be right back here where we started. Then what, Pearl?”

Pearl sniffled through staggered breaths as she turned away from her husband. “She’s our daughter…”

“And we had kids so we could give them the best! Give them opportunities we never had! We’re barely doing that with Rarity! We could take that away and have our kids live hoof-to-mouth or…” Magnum swallowed as he struggled to spit out his next words, “… or we could send Rarity to magic school, so she can be the best she can be… and give Sweetie Belle to an infertile couple, so they can give her what we can’t, and help her be the best she can be.”

Rarity slapped a hoof over her mouth as a short gasp attempted to expose her eaves dropping. Tears began to form in her eyes at the thought of losing her sister just so she could go to magic school. Within the thirty seconds she sat there eyes closed trying to push the thought out of her head, the scenario played out in her brain over a hundred times, each more heartbreaking than the last. She sprinted away from the door and up the stairs into the room of her slumbering little sister.

“HOW COULD YOU EVEN THINK THIS?! YOU’RE NOT THE COLT I MARRIED!”

Pearl began to mercilessly slap her husband’s face repeatedly. Tears of betrayal and confusion blinded her mind refusing to contemplate living a life without both the young fillies that came from her womb.

“SHE’S OUR DAUGHTER! SHE’S CALLED US “MOMMY” AND “DADDY”! HOW COULD YOU EVEN THINK OF DESTROYNIG THAT BOND?! YOU SELFISH. THOUGHTLESS. HEARTLESS. IDIOT!”

Magnum took each hit his wife dealt him, not once flinching or raising his hooves to defend himself. Pearl’s muscles became limper with each blow she delivered until she was nothing but a weeping rag doll in her husband’s arms. Magnum held her tightly, blood and tears gently seeped down his face as he cried with her. A part of him thought the physical pain would help relieve the emotional stress, but it didn’t. Nothing could ever heal this.

“I’m s-s-sorry, Pearl.”

As the two ponies wept downstairs, Rarity snuggled tightly against her sister, who still lay sound asleep. She wrapped her forelegs around her with only one intention; to protect her from the rest of the world under any circumstances.

“I won’t let anypony take you from me. I’ll give up everything I have. Everything I love. But I won’t lose you.”

---

“You want to what?” Pearl asked her daughter, desperately trying to wrap her head around the question.

“I want to go to Canterlot and study fashion.”

Magnum raised a brow and stared at his daughter, back to his wife, then again to his daugther. “Absolutely not.”

“But daddy!”

“We just don’t have the money for it right now sugarplum.”

“You could use my magic school money!”

“Absolutely out of the question, that money is for your education. After you graduate, then we can talk about studying fashion.”

Rarity’s bottom lip began to quiver and high pitched whimper began to fill the air.

“Daddy, please! Please, please please!”

“Rarity! You stop right now, you know how I feel about whining!”

“But Daaaaaaaaaadyyyyyyyyyy!”

Pearl sat down in front of daughter.

“Hon, why are you so eager to go to Canterlot to study fashion all of a sudden? Why can’t it wait until after you graduate?”

“It just can’t!”

“Why not?”

“Because!”

“Because why? What aren’t you telling us?”

Rarity avoided her mother’s inquisitive gaze and fixated it upon the ground below her. Feeling her parent’s eyes burning a hole through her coat eventually made her spill.“Because I don’t wanna lose Sweetie Belle!”

The two parents gasped and their eyes widened. Rarity, still staring at the ground, continued.

“I-I-I heard you guys talking about putting her up for adoption a few days ago… I thought that if I went to Canterlot, I could become an intern and get a job and send money so we could keep Sweetie Belle.”

Pearl covered her mouth with her hoof. She was completely speechless and she looked at her husband attempting to find the words in him. He sighed and sat down in front of his eldest daughter. He put a hoof under her chin and looked into the unicorn’s tear filled eyes.

“That’s very generous of you Rarity, but you’re just a filly. That kind of decision is too adult for you to make. Besides, living in Canterlot is expensive. What would you do if you didn’t get a job right away? What if you ran out of money while you were down there? Then what would you do?”

“I-I…”

“I know it’s hard to understand right now, but you want the best for your sister right?”

Rarity’s lips began to quiver again.

“The adoption agency will make sure she goes to a good home, and she’ll be with a family that loves her and will take care of her, better than we can. You’ll still get to visi–”

Rarity slapped her father’s hoof away and glared at him. “I’ll sell my designs on the streets if I have to! I won’t let you take her! I love her! She’s a part of this family!”

Rarity closed her eyes as she tried to stop the oncoming tears. “She’s… my sister.”

“Sugarplum, I know it hurts, and I know you have good intentions but you just can’t go to Canterlot and jump into that industry just like that.”

“I can do anything, I put my mind to… didn’t you teach me that daddy?”

The white colt gently dropped his hoof and looked away from his daughter.

“If you don’t send me there… I’ll run away myself. I’ll get a job, I’ll send money back every time I get paid. I can do this. I know I can. Just, please, mom and dad…”

---

“ALL ABOARD!”

The train’s whistle whirred loudly through the air as the gray furred conductor checked tickets and guided the ponies to their necessary cabins. Rarity timidly approached the conductor and presented to him her ticket.

The conductor adjusted his glasses slightly and stared at the filly. Her mane was a tousled mess and her blue bag had shown signs of what appeared to be decades of overuse. However, her unique white fur coat along with the determined gleam in her young azure eyes spoke highly of her innocence.

“Little young to be travelin’ alone at this hour, little miss, dontcha think?”

“Oh, I’m used to it. I’m always riding the train to visit my relatives in Canterlot!”

The conductor pony laughed, not once had he seen the young filly in the several years which he worked the station, but the green colored mark on her ticket was good enough reason to let her on the train. He gave her a warm smile, checked her ticket and escorted her in.

“Well, let me upgrade you to our first class suite little miss, since yer such a frequent customer and all…”

The gray pony took a red marker from the front pocket of his navy blue uniform and scribbled a check over the green mark. He winked and handed the young filly her ticket back. “Just go in, make a left and keep walkin’ til you see the first class cart. Enjoy yer ride little miss.”

Rarity smiled at the conductor pony. “Thank you, sir.” She tucked her ticket in her bag and trotted into the train car, going left and walking down the aisle, she reached a door labeled “First Class Suite” and she pushed it open. She pushed past red curtains and her eyes widened in awe. The aisle was draped with a red carpet, there were scarlet curtains draped on every window and the seats weren’t black and plastic like the other cars, these were royal blue cushioned seats. Rarity placed her bag in the seat next to her and hopped onto one of the seats, her eyes fluttering as the soft cushion hugged her body.

“This is amazing…”

“Kinda young to be traveling so early and by yourself aren’t you?”

Rarity’s ears perked up and her head darted to the left. Across the aisle was a mature looking milk chocolate colored unicorn sporting an elegant silky black dress. Her jet black and slight streaks of gray mane and tail were styled in beach curls that flowed down elegantly beside her. Her hazel eyes, coated with a thin layer of mascara wore an obvious ensemble of sleep deprivation.

The young filly’s mouth fell agape as her nerves sealed her vocal chords shut. When her mind fully processed that this moment was real, she uttered as best she could, “Y-y-you’re T-T-Tyra Flanks!”

“Dingdingdingding!” the brown mare exclaimed. Her horn illuminated with a bright golden glow and a microphone appeared. The curtains turned from scarlet red, to a silk black with laced with silver lining. A large blue banner appeared over Rarity’s head that had golden letters to spell out “Congratulations” across it. “We have a winner folks and her name is…?”

Rarity’s eyes widened in awe of the magic, a blink snapped her back into reality as she looked down at the levitating microphone in front of her. “R-Rarity.”

“Well R-Rarity, tell the audience how you were able to do so well on “Guess That Mare?”.”

“You’re my idol! You’re the most prestigious, elegant and fashionable unicorn in ALL of Equestria!”

Suddenly all the decorations vanished in thin air and Tyra put a hoof over her face to mask the flush of red reaching her cheeks. “Oh, stop it, you! You’re making me blush!”

Tyra leaped from her seat and fell in front of the filly eliciting a giggle. She pressed her hooves against Rarity’s cheeks. “Tell me, young one, do you think I’m…beautiful?”

Rarity nodded and buried her face in her hooves as her giggles erupted into laughter.

“And what, may I ask, is so funny?”

Rarity licked her lips and darted an innocent look at the fashionable diva. “It’s just, you’re really dramatic, nothing like your pictures in the magazines or the paper.”

The brown unicorn stood up and took a seat next to Rarity. “Yeah, the life of a fashionista requires me to be extremely serious about my work, so rarely will you ever see a picture of me unless I’m sporting some elegant, sexy, mysterious stare.”

Tyra took a moment to reenact one of her poses as she her mane slightly covered her left eye. She flipped it back and smiled, “I originally wanted to do theatre plays but I couldn’t STAND the week before the play. Did you know they will have rehearsals for 12-18 hours at a time every day before the week of the show? I applaud them, but a lady like myself needs her beauty sleep!”

“So, how did you get interested in fashion Ms. Flanks?”

“Please, darling, call me, Tyra.”

Rarity smiled. “How’d you get into fashion, Tyra?”

“Well, as I mentioned, I loved theatre, but I just simply couldn’t manage those hours. So, I got into costume designing. Turns out, I had quite the knack for it. I was a visionary of sorts. It was as if, I was the director of the play, visually. Sure, the director makes an enticing story, controlling the emotions of the audience. But when it came down to what the audience would see, it was my duty to make the world they were about to enter, realistic.”

Rarity’s eyes glimmered with awe as Tyra talked.

“And so, one play led to the next, soon, my designs were being written about more than the actual story line of the plays themselves. Ponies everywhere clamored for my work. I branched out into the fashion industry, have been doing well, and I’ve even made designs for some of the most famous ponies and some who show real promise. Which reminds me, keep an eye on a Ms. Sapphire Shores. She’s new but I have no doubt she’s going to blossom, and she’s going to be needing some great designs from avid aspiring fashionistas like yourself.”

Rarity went star-struck again and could only bring herself to nod furiously.

“Which brings me back to my question. What in Celestia’s name is a young filly like yourself doing on a train this early?”

Rarity’s eyes widened. She swallowed and tried her best not to avert her gaze from Tyra’s eyes. “I’m…I’m your new intern!”

Tyra raised a brow. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you a little young to be interning? Typically you have to pass beauty school before they let you intern.”

“Oh, I was…a special exception. Yeah, I was top in my class, and the youngest filly they had ever seen with such a vast knowledge of fashion.”

Tyra chucked to herself as Rarity sported an obvious nervous smile. “I don’t know if I’m getting older or the talent is just blossoming quicker.”

Rarity allowed herself an internal deep sigh as Tyra extended a hoof.

“I’m looking forward to working with you, Miss Rarity.”

Rarity smiled and raised her head high, meeting Tyra’s hoof-shake.

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

So I think I can guess what happened from there, Rarity started sending money from her job as Tyra Flanks' intern so her family could keep Sweetie Belle and it's a promise she keeps to this day by sending all the profits that she doesn't use on Carousel Boutique to her parents so Sweeite Belle can grow up happy and healthy.

About the only question is how Rarity managed to get her current job and workplace.

Also I don't know if it's just me but even though I haven't clicked the italics key my senteces are being posted in italic, perhaps you forgot to do something?

[MagusNeon]

chzbronies.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-brony-manly-tears.jpg
SO MANY FEELS!!!!