At Least Until The Rain Stops
It's been about a month since Rarity had been away to work in her store, Rarity For You, located in Manehattan, due to a shortage of staff because two out of her three assistants had fallen ill. Now that they've healed, she can finally come back to her home and original workplace, the Carousel Boutique, in the town of Ponyville.
Her train ride was quite a thoughtful journey. She spent the entire trip thinking of all the things she would do back at her beloved town. She could go to the spa. Celestia knows she deserved a full treatment after what she went through. Or maybe she should visit her close friends... Or maybe... She should see her sister.
Yes. That sounds appropriate.
The train arrived at Ponyville's train station early enough for Rarity to get to the town's Schoolhouse with time to spare. She made a beeline towards her destination, accelerating as she gets closer and closer, a simple trot turned into a full gallop.
When Rarity arrived at the Schoolhouse, she waited outside the building. She could hear Cheerilee and her students inside.
15 minutes passed.
Flashes of heat lightning illuminate a purple summer sky. Rarity took notice of the change in weather as she waited.
Another 15 minutes passed.
A slight drizzle warned Rarity of the incoming downpour. Not wanting to get her Indigo and Mulberry coloured fabulous mane wet, her horn lit up in a light coloured blue magical aura, conjuring up an umbrella. With a smile on her face as she stood in the rain under the safety of an umbrella of her own brand, she waited.
Yet, another 15 minutes passed.
This is too long...
Rarity took a peek inside the schoolhouse, making sure she doesn't get caught by anypony.
"Okay," Cheerilee said suddenly, standing and putting down her chalk onto a small holder attached to the bottom frame of the chalkboard. "That's enough for today. Remember class, homework is due tomorrow. Diamond Tiara! Silver Spoon! Sweetie Belle! Please, stay behind."
At that, all the other students ran off out the front door, oblivious of the fashion designer due to their need to get home quickly before getting completely soaked in the heavy downpour.
"Now, you three made quite the scene this morning. I want you fillies to clean this place up. Unfortunately, I have a meeting with a representative of the EEA, so I have to leave early. I will come back here after the meeting and if I return to see that you three left this place in a mess, I will have you rewrite your entire homework due tomorrow on the board. Understood?"
"Yes Miss Cheerilee." The three fillies chorused.
And so, off goes the cerise mare.
Rarity heard every single word her sister's teacher said and she had gotten the impression that what her sister did must have been something worth noting. So she continued to observe the three fillies inside.
Diamond Tiara, identifiable by her... diamond tiara cutiemark... on her flank, stood in a superior and snobbish fashion, sent a glare towards Sweetie Belle before turning and starting away.
How rude.
Silver Spoon, identifiable by... you guessed it... her silver spoon cutiemark, watched her friend leave. Turning quickly to Sweetie Belle, she gave an acknowledging glance, chirping, "I'm sure you can handle it. You're a unicorn." before racing after her friend.
This left Sweetie Belle, who, quietly, pulled herself off her chair, feeling the chilly breeze come in through the door left open by the last pony that used it, water starting to seep in. She glanced at the various stationaries scattered at her hooves and dutifully set to gather them up, using her magic smoothly, efficiently; Rarity watched her steady use of magic for a moment. Sure, Sweetie Belle knew basic unicorn spells, but the filly never showed this much experience in levitating multiple objects at once.
Has she really been away for that long? Surely, one month is not that long, is it? It's just about four weeks. Just about thirty days. Oh my.
Sweetie Belle then stopped what she's doing and dropped all the levitated objects, leaving them in one neat pile in front of her. She moved her head around, her eyes scanning the room until she stopped and stared at the window which Rarity had been using to watch her.
She saw... Nopony.
Rarity had teleported herself to another side of the building. Watching her sister stare where she stood just a second ago. Her sister didn't seem to move. She could see her green eyes staring at the rain, filled with sadness. Rarity raised an eyebrow at her sister. She had expected her to pack up and go home, call it quits and leave.
Instead, Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and her horn started to glow. Rarity blinked, leaning forward a little. What is she doing? Surely, the filly is done with her job; there wasn't anything else to tidy up and she had been exhausted from her overuse of the levitation spell.
Rarity was more surprised when some sort of light began to take form in front of Sweetie Belle. She could see the filly taking strain yet again, this time far worse, she was sweating a fountain and her mane seemed to rise, tangling strands forming.
When the light died down, Rarity saw a copy of her mother standing in front of the filly who had reduced her output of magic.
Rarity's eyes widened, her knees going weak. Her sister had used a high level spell, creating a copy of their mother, a perfect embodiment. The same light cornflower blue eyes, the same greyish indigo and greyish persian blue mane, the same pale fuchsia coat, topping it off with a kind expression and a tender smile. An ache filled the fashion designer's heart, oddly enough, and although she was aware it was false, not the real thing, she felt an indescribable urge to run inside, to reach out and hug her mother, to fill the mare's ear with everything she had to say...
She squashed it; she'd long since grown out of such feelings, she was a grown mare now. It was time for her to face reality; Cookie Crumbles wasn't coming back. But that didn't mean her younger sister had to accept it.
The copy smiled down at the filly, holding her hooves out to her. Sweetie Belle smiled, throwing herself into the offered embrace. The copy gathered her up, holding her close; whispering to her, smoothing her mane back from her face. At that moment, Sweetie Belle looked smaller than Rarity had ever seen her. It reminded her that despite the filly's responsibilities as a Cutie Mark Crusader and early maturity to handle things alone, she still is a young filly... They stayed that way for a long while, the copy of her mother simple rocking the filly gently, the filly clinging to her fuchsia coat with trembling hooves.
Rarity saw it coming before it happened, and found she had to restrain herself from leaping out of hiding to prevent it: the copy disappeared in a flash of light, and Sweetie Belle fell to the ground. She laid there on the ground, staring at droplets of water that had seeped through the roof hit the floor as she listened to the sounds of thunder. She couldn't move; she had overexerted herself, keeping her spell active for as long as she still had magical energy in her. But Sweetie Belle knew she was tired already, and doomed the copy to an early disappearance from the start.
Still, as logical as what had happened was... Spells don't last forever... A single unicorn, let alone a filly, wouldn't be able to hold such a high level spell for long periods of time.
Rarity couldn't help trot from where she was into the schoolhouse. She made her way soundlessly over to Sweetie Belle, who still laid motionlessly in the now damp floor, and pulled her in, uncertainly and hesitantly, to the same embrace the copy of her mother had.
Through the rain and tears, Sweetie Belle inhaled sharply, bringing her hooves around Rarity desperately, burying her face and clinging with all the strength she had left.
It was unreasonable to stay in a less than liveable building during a heavy storm; thunder and lightning was already upon them, too. But even as Sweetie Belle shivered in her hold, from more than cold and wet, and even as her trembling hooves gripped Rarity's coat, the bigger sister didn't move. She would stay there, in this condition, with Sweetie Belle. She would hold her younger sister just long enough for her to stop crying, to fall asleep... for all the filly knew, to fall asleep in her mother's arms.
She would stay, just like this...
At least until the rain stops.