Rarity uses the Mirror Pool. She really should have known better.
Rarity is overworked. Saving the day on a regular basis doesn't do her schedule any favors; on the contrary, it brings in several customers. She appreciates that, both for the additional income and ever-increasing opportunities to live her passion. But the emergencies keep piling up as well and any moment Rarity has to herself is spent cornered against her backlog.
She will not rush or botch any order though. That was simply, irrevocably out of the question. Her customers will get the marvels they asked for and deserve. She'd just have to soldier on, like so many times in the past.
She's swiftly reminded that even heroes need rest, along with one fateful, foreboding proverb: desperate times call for desperate measures...
The colors on the fabric shifted again. Dimmed just a little bit more. She didn't know whether it was because the sun dipped lower in the sky—the natural order of things—or because exhaustion took another fee's worth of its toll—the not so natural order of things... although her near future seemed intent on making it so.
Rarity sighed. No rest for the brave.
And indeed, she'd developed a true wealth of bravery lately; more than she ever thought possible from herself. The returns of Nightmare Moon and then Discord, the surprise assault on Canterlot, the daring rescue of the Crystal Empire... and those were only the 'cream' of a very sour, thoroughly spoiled crop.
No, that wasn't even counting the myriad perils that came merely from living in Ponyville. Strangely enough—insultingly enough, perhaps—very few of them had anything to do with the reason why the town had such a poor reputation throughout all of Equestria in the first place: the Everfree Forest.
Most troubles came from her fellow ponies, instead. At this rate, setting up both camp and shop in those dreadful woods was going to pass as genuine vacation.
Positive thoughts, Rarity, positive thoughts. This customer didn't ask for a dress soaked to the yarn in bitterness. None of them did.
A small tingle up her horn and her glasses slid back up her snout. To think that she didn't need them when she first began working... was she naturally farsighted or had all this time spent hunched over her drawing board and sewing machine exacted its own fee on her eyes?
She'd never seen her parents with glasses. Neither had Sweetie Belle shown any signs she needed any, for that matter; at least one thing to be thankful for.
Rarity closed her eyes. The needle stopped and fell silent. She took a long breath.
No, she certainly wasn't 'naturally farsighted.' She wouldn't have bitten more than she could chew if she was. Becoming a hero was what had propelled her works among the most coveted of all Equestria; surely she could—should—have capitalized some more on that same status to pick and choose a wiser pace.
She gave an even longer sigh. Positive, Rarity. Positive.
Carousel Boutique was now entirely quiet. She savored this silence, after so many hours working that needle. Breathed it in. Silence was good.
Her back hurt a little less. Her hooves didn't shake so much now. The headache that seemed so ready to consume her whole pulled back instead; shaking its claw at her the whole time and promising to return tenfold, no doubt.
Silence was good.
Maybe she could finish this dress today, after all.
The needle clattered on and on and on. The colors became more and more muted.
Then, the fabric stopped moving with a sharp clack.
Rarity jumped. The sound echoed in her head to the beat of her heart. She blinked, shook her head, blinked again. She was looking down at her work now, and found something strange. The colors didn't look so muted anymore.
The echoes ended just as she understood, but her heart pounded harder. But giddily, this time—so very giddily.
She'd finished the dress.
She freed it from the sewing machine with all the care it deserved. Discarded her glasses and gave it the long, critical look it deserved.
She mused whether she outdid herself or merely lived up to her standards—exacting ones, as all standards should be. But she couldn't tell; focusing on the details proved difficult, even without the blur that came every time she tilted her head.
A whirl of magic and the dress found itself snugly fit to its allotted mannequin. Such nitpicking could wait. This order was as good as she'd promised, and for now that was enough. Especially when there were so many others left to do.
It was only one order, true; but one sole gleam was all the more precious when she had no idea how long it'd take before she even saw the light at the end of the tunnel. And that gleam came with a surge of energy—she wanted to dance around the room, just to celebrate one less dress to make!
But she resisted the siren song. Orders didn't complete themselves. So she simply walked back to her drawing board instead; with perhaps a little skip to her step, true.
The world spun and spun and spun, and vanished.
Oh, the moon must be truly magnificent tonight, without a single cloud to hide its silver glow. How could it be any other way, when she could see such a bright night sky outside her window?
She had no idea how the drapes had ended up so off-center, though. They were practically horizontal; she'd find it impressive if that didn't ruin such a beautiful sight so readily.
One drape at the top and the other at the bottom... and perfectly symmetrical as well, down to their tying ropes. Half-measures did never quite cut it for Opal when it came to her mischief.
Hm... There was something off about all of this...
She looked around. No, half-measures certainly didn't cut it for Opal; even the furniture had fallen to her games. Whoever had first claimed that pets resembled their owners was right about the both of them, at least. It was only appropriate that her cat had the same exacting standards as she did, now that she thought about it.
But being on the wrong side—angle?—of cat's paws didn't rob this dress on the mannequin of any quality. On the contrary, it looked positively gorgeous, basking in the moonlight as it was...
Rarity's eyes snapped open with a very distinct clack.
She jumped back to her hooves. Ignored the shrill mreoooow! and the sharp claws digging into her coat as Opal was thrown off her haunch and landed... not important. She grasped around the door with her magic and, two toppled pictures and one ripped-off shelf later, finally found the switch.
Light came back with the crackle of a thunderbolt. That switch was going to need replacing now, but she could worry about that later. Later, when she'd finished her orders.
She scanned the room. What had she set out to do, again? Tuxedos five and eight were ready and so were dresses number seven, nine and ten, apparently. Opal was hanging from the top of the left drapes by the skin of her teeth... skin of her claws... keratin of her claws?
Not important! She hadn't landed on any of the mannequins and that meant her orders were tear-free. And that was a good thing, because there would have been a free fur hat thrown in for whichever customer had their clothes damaged.
She trotted about. What was she doing beforehand? Not getting headaches, that was for sure—she didn't have time for headaches. Or for getting dizzy, for that matter. Just one or two seconds spent leaning on that sturdy-looking blur should chase this pesky dizziness away.
What was this blur, anyway? Hm.
She squinted. There was something yellowish on it. And flat. It looked familiar... a sheet of paper, perhaps?
Ah, probably her drawing board.
Rarity blinked. Slowly. She was certain the motion echoed in her mind, somehow.
She was on the stool by the next blink. She glared daggers at every inch in front of her until she found her pencil. Trapped under her scissors. What in the world had possessed her to put them there? She didn't have time for this!
One burst of energy up her horn and the stupid things flew out of sight.
Mrrreeeooooww!
Everything inside her went cold. She snapped her head towards the screech. Opal stared balefully back at her—thankfully with both eyes—less than one foot away from the scissors sunk deep into the wall.
She then stormed out of the room, hissing and spitting all the while.
Rarity released her breath. Whatever warmth was left in her body seeped out with her sigh. She let her head fall onto the drawing board. It didn't even hurt, because that was very, very small fry compared to her pounding headache.
"One good night's sleep," she said softly. "It will solve everything."
It didn't solve anything.
Rarity splashed some more water onto her face.
This morning had started so well, too. Inspiration had struck. Her pencil had danced on the paper like a débutante with the stallion of her dreams on their first ball, then the design had just flown off the paper into a wondrous whole to the tune of her magic.
She'd taken her richest burgundy for the dress; a full roll of velvet she'd purchased on a whim ages ago, so smitten had she been with its softness and vibrant shade. It had shamefully, shamefully gathered dust for months on end in a dark corner of her stocking room as she mused and wondered whether she'd made a mistake, but no more! Today was its time to shine.
The cloth draped over the right shoulder, of course; "there's a right shoulder, and that's the right shoulder!" as the fashion designers said—this year, at any rate. It circled sleevelessly above the right foreleg and under the left one back to the withers.
A lovely golden sash around the barrel, wing holes just beneath that, then the dress simply hugged the figure until the floor. Without restricting movement whatsoever, of course; this was a pegasus we were talking about here.
The tail had all the room it could ask for as well, but not one inch more. No more monstrosities with trains so high they could look the pony behind you in the eye!
Stars, what had she been thinking before the Gala? It was a miracle she didn't wake up in cold sweat over these dresses. And she'd made them for her best friends to boot!
A night best left forgotten in every way, indeed.
She couldn't help but be reminded of the pegasi of yore every time she looked at her creation. Just picturing it on a beautiful mare carried her away centuries into the past, during the glory days of ancient cities such as Trot, Rhodeos and Knossorse.
No, it simply couldn't be denied; this dress was her best work of the year, a ravishing marvel that would set fire to all the runways of the fashion world... Oh, how she yearned to wear it herself.
But even she couldn't make it shine as bright as it could. As much as she loved her wonderful coat, she felt—knew—that it'd take something livelier to exalt such splendor. A light, soft shade of blue, perhaps?
She wasn't sure her hair was suitable either, gorgeous as it was. She couldn't put the tip of her hoof on which color would be best, however. She wasn't even certain that only one would do, come to think of it.
But such musing could wait; this dress wasn't for her anyway. So she'd gone to her breakfast with a light heart and a lighter step—or had it been the other way round?
She'd smiled at the sunrise as she finished her meal, and had been certain it'd smiled back.
Then she'd strolled back into her bedroom only to realize the horrible truth.
Nopony had made such an order.
Ah, no, there was a red dress somewhere in her orders, and quite permissive on the specific shade and which fabric to use at that—from a mare who didn't ask for patched-over wing holes.
Inspiration had struck hard indeed; right into her face, and then it'd tripped her up for good measure.
She dried her face. Her cheeks were wet again instants later. She wiped the corners of her eyes with the towel. The wetness came back.
Fatigue. It was the fatigue. Long days and short nights always made her eyes sting and quick to water. It wasn't anything else.
She sighed. "Oh, who am I kidding?"
The sting bit harder when she looked up. The sickly, exhausted mess that was her reflection stared back at her from the mirror.
The mirror...
Rarity closed her eyes and lowered her head in defeat.
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.
Twilight walked out of her home alongside Spike only to witness several Raritys rushing about.
As always, she trusted her mind, sharpened to the razor edge of reasoning as it was, to find the perfect solution. And as always, it proved that this trust was well-deserved.
She whirled about and trotted back into Golden Oak. "Nope nope nope nope nope"
"Am... am I dreaming?"
She yanked Spike back inside with her magic and slammed the door shut.
Fluttershy smiled as she turned around and started the long trek back to her cottage. Angel didn't really need to eat, today.
Pinkie bounced through the streets. Mr. Cake had just lamented he couldn't sleep in for the seventh time before she left Sugarcube Corner. Lamented! Who did that? You were supposed to turn frowns upside down, not smiles upside frown!
Then again, Mr. Cake had always been a little funny. And not the funny kind of funny either! No, the saddy-pants kind of funny that made ponies worry, sometimes so much it hurt their belly.
Wow. Rhymy!
But she loved Mr. Cake anyway. Even if he had not-the-funny-kind-of-funny quirks, like lamenting and wanting to sleep in.
Sleeping in! Who even did that? Well, Dashie probably, but it wasn't really sleeping in. Just many many many naps, with the first one starting in the morning, before she was even up.
But sleeping in wasted so much time! So much time that could be spent on better things like making ponies smile and baking tastebud-parties and waving at her friends! Hi Rarity!
Hi again Rarity!
...hi again again Rarity!
...
Sleeping in sounded good right now.
"Howdy, Miss Cheerilee! What can I get for ya? I'm gonna guess not apples since Bloom brings you one every morning, haha!"
"Well... Did you find anything... strange about today?"
"Nope."
"Not even there being more Raritys than there should be?"
"LALALALALALALALA"
Oh, this town was simply magnificent! Yes, there were other towns even more magnificent in the country, at least as far as the edges of her memory were concerned, but that didn't mean this town wasn't. Whatever its name was.
And of course, a great part of why it was so wonderful was the ponies living in it. They all greeted her as she cantered by as though they'd known her their whole life! Which made some kind of sense, she guessed.
Rarity the Ravishing rounded a corner and stopped dead in her tracks.
A sizable building sat a few dozen yards away from her. Similar to the houses around it in some ways, but severely different in others.
Door, shutters and window glass; all pink. She was surprised the framework wasn't the same color, to be honest. That same door was flanked on each side by pillars mimicking a candy cane. And the references to food didn't stop there...
The roof was a monument to gingerbread, in all its brown and iced glory; and also served as a plinth to a statue devoted to another baked good: a tower shaped and painted to look like a cupcake. Complete with three candles on top. For some reason.
Somepony had a little misunderstanding when they were told to build a house in the gingerbread style, it seemed.
The design could work as an actual pastry, if only because it was thankfully doomed to vanish in a pony's stomach. Standing tall in the middle of a junction between several streets, like a flag planted in ironic defiance of all things tasteful, though...
Yes, this town was most wondrous, but that didn't mean there was no room for improvement.
She trotted daintily to the eyesore, because a lady didn't rush.
The mare outside noticed her just as she passed the—overwhelmingly pink, again—mailbox. An adorable mare with her own charm, although the way she'd styled her mane and tail reminded her a little too much of ice cream.
The owner, no doubt. Perhaps there had been no misunderstanding, after all.
She waved. "Ah, Miss Rarity, It's so rare to see you here on your own."
She paused. Then chuckled sheepishly in her hoof.
"Oh, silly me." She cleared her throat. "It's so unusual to see you here on your own."
Rarity the Ravishing just kept smiling. Her own charm, indeed.
"You're more interested in the Boulevard of Frozen Creams, usually—" She frowned and sighed. "Generally."
Oh yes, this mare was adorable, through and through.
That name was familiar, though. Something about... ice cream? But maybe it was the mane in front of her talking.
Hm... knocking that name around in her head only made it more familiar, but also gave her the feeling that something was off about it, that it could be so much more appropriate with just a couple changes... at least as far as the original Rarity was concerned.
But that wasn't really important, was it? No! What mattered right now was the mare in front of her. And her atrocious tastes in design.
The owner's frown vanished and her smile came back tenfold. "Not that I'm chasing off customers! Do you care for a treat?"
Rarity the Ravishing grinned. "I didn't come for that, but thank you! I don't doubt for a moment that every treat inside your shop is wonderful." She tilted her head as she looked her up and down. "Although murder on the figure, apparently."
The mare gaped.
She didn't know why. Being a little portly didn't make her any less a wondrous addition to this beautiful world, after all.
A voice came from behind her before she could go on. "Is everything alright?"
Another mare walked up to them. Rarity the Ravishing didn't know from where, but she felt there were good odds she'd stepped out of an old photograph.
Light sepia coat, two mops in place of her mane and tail—mind you, they looked like very well cared-for mops—a neat and tidy collar that couldn't tell a bath puff from a necktie and a pair of gaudy glasses that managed the dubious feat of making her look even older.
Hm. She looked familiar. Who was she?
There was something out of place with these mops, as well... the colors were too clean, too sharp.
Ah, yes! She was the mayor, wasn't she? The silly goose who somehow got it in her pretty little head that dying her hair gray was a good idea. Something about looking wiser and more experienced?
Oh, the delusions ponies came up with! Makeup could tell the prettiest lies, but even it had limits.
The mayor mare glanced between the two of them. With an air of worry to her of all things. Strange.
"Is everything alright, Cup Cake?"
Oh, so that was her name? So fitting, for a sweetie like her.
"Certainly!" Rarity the Ravishing waved up at the eyesore. "I was just about to offer this delightful lady to fix her shop. It's one of the tackiest buildings I've ever seen!"
Cup Cake gasped. Tears started to well up behind her eyes. Oh, there was that something off from earlier, too!
The mayor looked up and stroked her chin. "It is incredibly tacky."
Cup Cake ran off crying.
It was understandable; ponies willing to make the world shine brighter were so few and far between, unfortunately. And what she promised wasn't a mere act of kindness but an outright dream come true, no doubt about that! No wonder that she couldn't contain her tears of joy.
Rarity the Ravishing grinned at the mayor mare and clapped her forehooves together. "Indeed it is! The only thing tackier around here is the town hall!"
"I know, right?"
"Oh, yes, yes! This color is perfect!"
"You really think so?"
Roseluck spun around, admiring her new dress. And there was much to admire indeed!
Rarity the Radiant nodded. "I do! White suits you beautifully."
She squinted her eyes and tilted her head.
"Yes... now that I'm looking at the results, white was the right choice, even though pale gold would have truly matched your palette." She tapped her chin. "But that'd have been too much gold, most likely."
There was such a thing as too much gold, no matter what the Princess said. Oh, not with her words surely, but they were called fashion statements for a reason.
Roseluck twirled some more. Even though she was only looking at herself, there was undeniable grace in her movements. A dance, almost. How fitting that several birds had flown from the park's trees to rest their cute little talons on nearby bushes and sing for them.
These birds looked familiar, too. Or they sounded so, at least. They reminded her of a mare... either an earth pony or a unicorn. But not a pegasus. Her memory was clear; there was nothing remotely pegasus-like about her.
"I really like it..." Roseluck brushed a few strands of her mane back behind her ear and that lovely flower of hers. "But it's not... too simple?"
She nodded again. "Why, yes it is. But simple doesn't mean bad!"
Lily leaned towards Daisy. "Is this the real Rarity?"
Rarity the Radiant whirled around to face them. Her grin was equally radiant, naturally. "The next best thing!"
"That's... not exactly reassuring."
She turned back to Roseluck. "That something simple works so wonderfully with you doesn't say anything bad about you." Her smile grew—a difficult feat, but that only proved her point. "If anything, it's you making something so simple work so well! And that's quite telling, don't you agree?"
It was hard to notice, but Roseluck blushed. And she twirled aga—ah, no, she swooned. Complete with a crescendo from the birds, the little darlings.
Hopefully there wouldn't be grass stains, but her dress had made her the happiest mare in the world; and that was what mattered here. Her duty so delightfully and expertly done, Rarity the Radiant turned back to Lily.
"Hm... the luscious green of your eyes or the gorgeous reds of your mane, I wonder."
Daisy leaned towards Lily. "Is she hitting on us?"
Lily shrugged.
A few thoughts and three rolls appeared next to her; one green and two shades of red. Oh, the burgundy one was exquisite... velvet? Yes, velvet. She could feel its warmth and softness flow through her magic all the way to her horn.
The mirror still refused to budge from Rarity's home, though. A shame.
She looked at Lily again. She felt her grin spread until her cheeks hurt.
She was done much earlier than expected—and she knew her muse already tended to make time fly faster than pegasi when she danced to her siren song. It was almost as though she'd done something similar not long ago... and why this reference to pegasi, anyway? It came out of nowhere and yet felt incredibly apropos.
For that matter, where did this gold sash that hugged Lily's barrel so snugly come from either?
Oh. She'd summoned a fourth roll? But this shade belonged more on Roseluck... who'd gotten back to her hooves, apparently. At some point. She hadn't been paying attention. But it was nice to know she was alright all the same.
She watched as it was Lily, this time, who spun to admire herself. The mare's eyes shone with absolute delight and wonder. Roseluck and Daisy looked on, clearly impressed and appreciative. And the birds' chorus was downright divine at the moment.
No... maybe this subdued gold belonged on Roseluck in general, but right now, it belonged on Lily and her dress as well. The beauty of the world was generous like that; simply no room for possessiveness.
Rarity the Radiant clapped her hooves, both out of happiness and to give the lucky mare the applause she deserved—she could multi-task, after all.
"Oh, Lily, you look absolutely breathtaking!"
Lily froze. Roseluck and Daisy snapped their heads towards her. The birds kept singing.
"Rarity... That's Roseluck. I'm Lily."
Surely the ambient euphoria was playing tricks on her ears. She raised an eyebrow. "What was that, Roseluck?"
Oh, stars. That frown just didn't belong on her face, white dress or not. And even less on Lily's with her gorgeous pegasus-style dress... wait, was it actually pegasus-style? Hm. Thankfully, she hadn't cut holes in it.
And that third frown had no place here either. "Oh, Daisy. Smile! Your dress will only be poorer if you don't."
Roseluck and Lily gaped. Daisy stared. The birds kept singing.
"How come you can tell her apart!?"
Oh, their two voices were splendid, together in perfect unison like that. The three of them should sing for the town from time to time. They could call themselves 'the Three Graces,' perhaps? True, they lacked the wings of these mythical figures, but the ponies of today had so thankfully outgrown such reductive mindsets.
Hm. What was it about today that made her think about pegasi at every turn?
But that musing could wait. She was asked a question and it was only polite to answer.
She smiled. "Oh, I never could mistake such a horrible color scheme for another."
The birds stopped singing.
"What."
"Now, now, wrinkles won't do you any favor, so please stop scowling!"
Hm. Was that smoke or steam coming out of her ears? Either way, it didn't compliment her colors. Truly unsalvageable, that poor dear. Thank the stars that she made up for that in several other ways.
Rarity the Radiant then noticed that the other two remained silent, and instead looked at Daisy... very, very thoughtfully.
"IF YOU AGREE WITH THIS EGG-WHITE PRISS I SWEAR TO CELESTIA—"
The foals gasped in awe and amazement. Was that how this one unicorn mare felt when all eyes laid on her? Oh, what was her name... Sleight of Hoof? Up Sleeve?
Hm, no... this couldn't possibly be the same feeling. After all, the foals gazed upon their own creations. A few hints here, a few tricks there, one or two ounces of explanations and secrets, then all things encouragement and reassurance and here they were, discovering the countless talents and marvels hiding deep within themselves.
She watched them and their works. Pottery, banners, drawings, paintings, scenery for some school play or another... even some notepads with their imagination unleashed into tales of heroism and dreams come true. Each and every one made with their own hooves, horn or wings.
Yes... Rarity the Bedazzling was simply bedazzled by the wonder in front of her, there was no other word for it.
It was a shame that the budding composers among them couldn't put their works to the phonograph, really. But she couldn't translate their sheets into records. Perhaps another unicorn had the appropriate magic—maybe that entertainer, or that librarian mare she couldn't quite distinguish from her because they were so similar—but she didn't.
Perhaps there were foals with a passion for playing music rather than writing it in their midst as well, but unfortunately there hadn't been a single instrument available in the entire schoolhouse.
Just a little note with 'never again!' taped onto a violin case—empty save for a ludicrous amount of tree sap with several bugs trapped in it—at most. A shame.
A double shame, even. That phonograph had helped the foals, she didn't doubt that for a second, but that hadn't prevented the musics and songs etched on these records from conjuring horrible images of brutalized manes, misshapen socks, glowing circlets and an unholy mix between window blinds and sunglasses the whole time they played.
Truly, the only thing more criminal than their teacher's tastes was that she'd left her collection within reach of her students. Yes, they should have been outside eating lunch or playing when they started, rather than inside rummaging through the cupboards, but that was no excuse.
A double shame, she stood by that. She certainly would have loved to be able to listen to the foals' compositions instead.
But they proved useful, ultimately. The foals had soon found themselves humming to their tunes. Some had outright sung—one more passion discovered among many today—even if they had trouble with some of the words.
She couldn't fault them for that. She didn't understand half the words, although she wasn't sure it was because the singers made them up or butchered them. And the original Rarity was given a dictionary every single birthday by... somepony, so her vocabulary was quite extensive, thank you very much.
Unlike some songwriters, it seemed. Tsk.
But all of this was irrelevant. What mattered here and how was all these foals and the beauty they'd shared with the world.
Admittedly, the one with the cheap plastic tiara on her head had been more interested in telling others what to do than in doing anything herself... until she saw how much the others enjoyed themselves. The inspirer became inspired, who said that irony was always bad?
Alright, so she was tremendously bad at inspiring others... but she had other talents, surely? No, not 'surely;' she did have her cutie mark, so there was something she added to the world which nopony else could in her wonderful, unique way.
Yes... authentic, irrevocable artistry in its purest form was brewing here. She could have felt a bit miffed that none of these children had gotten their cutie mark during this little impromptu get-together, perhaps, but she thankfully knew better. The world would be a much poorer place if ponies had only one string to their bow.
Hm... this musing over cutie marks reminded her that she'd been feeling like something or somepony was missing since they all began.
At the same time, she'd noticed—distinctly noticed, as though an instinctive part of her had suddenly become much more perceptive and suspicious—a lack of muffled explosions, horrified screams or distant crashes, and for some reason that had put her mind at ease.
She shrugged. The music was probably outstaying what little welcome she'd given it.
The foals finally stopped gazing at their marvels.
No, no, 'finally' implied that it was a good thing. Their creations were worth admiring forever and more. All the same, they were now looking up at her.
Pouting up at her.
"Can you come back one day?"
"More days?"
"Can you replace Miss Cheerilee a few times?"
"Many times?"
She smiled.
"Now, now, Miss Cheerilee is the best teacher you could possibly ask for! Even if she could be just a little bit more attentive to children bullying others right in front of her. Several times a day."
Rarity the Bedazzling paused. Most of the foals blinked, then glared at the last two of them. The two fillies gulped and huddled together. The phonograph started playing a new piece of music, one that inexplicably reminded her of sharks.
"Why did I feel the need to say that?"
The Boulevard of Frozen Creams. The finest ice cream parlor in town.
Alright, so it was the only ice cream parlor in town. Details.
And there was something off about that name too, now that she stopped and thought about it.
But again, details.
The worker perked up when she walked in. "Ah, Rarity, good to see you!"
She blinked.
"Er, is that a new friend or did Sweetie Belle mess up magic practice really bad this time?"
Rarity the Marvelous tilted her head. "Who's Sweetie Belle?"
She was reasonably certain that was a filly's name. And she wasn't standing next to a filly.
A centaur, rather. A shriveled little thing she'd stumbled upon while admiring an arch—or a bridge, she still wasn't sure—between two buildings.
He'd slinked out of the shadows and loomed over her; or at least, tried to, given she was actually the taller one between them. He'd wheezed and coughed instants later, then mumbled curses at the Everfree Forest and promised that even its magic wouldn't stand a chance once he'd regained more of his strength.
She simply couldn't have left him to his own devices. He was obviously in great pain. Before she went and led him to the local hospice though, there was time for some ice cream to cheer him up.
There always was time for ice cream. She was no doctor, but she knew it helped heal all wounds! Or clogged them long enough for an actual doctor to get involved, at least.
True, throwing his dirty, frayed cloak to the winds and crafting him a sparkling new tuxedo instead was probably an unnecessary delay. But cyan worked so well on him! It showed the world how much brighter he could make it just by being himself.
Yes, yes, all that sequin might count as cheating a little bit. Details.
Hm. The worker was still staring. She hoped she wasn't suffering from a bout of senility. That was something she couldn't possibly help her with, unfortunately.
Finally, the old mare sighed. "Ah, young love..."
The poor thing.
Next to her, the centaur groaned and buried his face in his hands.
Well, she could ease his pain, at least.
They took their places in front of the counter. A glass cup that almost overflowed with scoops drowned in syrup was already waiting for her by then. Rarity was a regular, apparently. That made sense.
A soft scoff on her right. He rolled his eyes and twirled his wrist. Perhaps she could find a way to leave the bracers—genuine silver, would you believe that?—over the cloth next time. They did look very good on him.
"I'll take whatever she's having."
He leaned in and squinted at her sundae.
"...Whatever it is."
Everypony in the room gasped. A particularly burly pegasus in the back even fainted, sounding like a goat of all things as he did so. The worker's eyes welled up and she promptly served him his order.
"Please do try not to drop anything on your tuxedo." She smiled. "But that shouldn't prove a problem, should it? It's no horn, but your hand is certainly better than a hoof or a wing."
The earth ponies and pegasi in the room shot her a black look while the unicorns snickered, for some strange reason.
She frowned, for her part. "That's a hand, right? Or is it a claw? A talon, perhaps?"
He stopped his spoon one inch from his treat and tapped his jaw instead. Musing shone in his glowing eyes; regal gold, no less!
"Hm... well, I've always found them handy, rather than 'clawy' or 'talony...' I supposed that makes them hands."
Rarity the Marvelous couldn't help but giggle at that. He raised an eyebrow and maybe, just maybe, one corner of his lips twitched up. The worker sighed dreamily. Poor mare.
He rolled his eyes again, then he shoved the spoon in his mouth.
Silence.
Then his eyes lit up, putting the mightiest of the Princess' solar flames to shame. Alright, so there were no documented solar flares. Her point stood.
"Is... is this what happiness tastes like?"
She grinned and nodded.
He wolfed down his sundae. Then he pouted at hers, and so she slid it towards him. The worker sighed again. She'd have to ask somepony at the hospice if they had anything to help with senility when they'd get there.
"This... this is amazing! This must be what—"
His spoon dropped on the counter with a jarring clink. The glass cup cracked between his fingers. His face twisted into a scowl, then into an outright snarl.
"—my dear brother Scorpan felt."
She frowned and leaned in. "Are you alright?"
He started laughing. It rose to an unhealthy pitch as it filled the room. The poor dear... his lungs were only one of the many things wrong with him, weren't they?
Everypony but the worker fled the parlor. Hmph. The selfish and uncaring lot.
He wheezed. Coughed a little and cleared his throat. "Yes, yes. I am alright. More than alright."
He stood up and rolled his shoulders. Hm. He could use some more muscles. Along with some more height, perhaps; but that couldn't be helped with, unfortunately.
The smile on his face could use some less evil foreboding doom, on the other hoof. It might as well have been a sneer.
"If I had any doubt about my brother's choices before, you have blown them away."
With that, he gave another laugh. More of a soft chuckle this time, sounding quite determined and pleased with himself.
He strode out of the building. The last thing she saw of him was the sequin of his exquisite tuxedo reflecting the sunlight in the distance.
The worker leaned over the counter and gently laid a hoof on her shoulder. "Oh, dearie... I'm so sorry."
She pushed an extra-large pot of ice cream up to her with the other hoof.
"Here. This one's on the house."
Rarity the Marvelous raised an eyebrow and turned back to her. "What is there to be sorry for? I don't know why he and his brother fell out, but he's decided to make peace with him!"
A squee didn't befit a lady, true, but some events simply called for all the stops.
The worker smiled as well; though sadly, oddly enough. She patted her shoulder.
"That used to it, uh?"
Rarity the Breathtaking pranced about inside Ponyville Hospital. But quietly, making sure her steps were as silent as possible and humming only loud enough for herself to hear, because she wasn't a selfish boor.
On the contrary! She existed to make the world a better place, not the other way round!
This hospital was the same. The specifics were different, true, but ultimately the staff here strived to make each patient's life a little bit more pleasant, or less unpleasant as the case may be.
This place deserved to be beautified! To say nothing of showing the ponies within how beautiful the world could be—with them in it, naturally.
She reached the end of the hall, and that meant her lovely banners stretched from one corner of the ceiling to another. They didn't obstruct the doors in any way, of course; again, she cared, and she wasn't an idiot either.
She rounded back into the lobby. The receptionist shook and hid behind her desk. Poor dear, she must have caught something from staying there so long without so much as a breathing mask.
Oh, that was a splendid idea! A breathing mask to go with her new sweater! But no shade of white or grey like on the bore she'd replaced; such cold colors had no place on a mare of pink and peach.
Rarity the Breathtaking grinned at her as she walked by her desk. The mare paled, shook harder and hid lower. The poor thing. She'd need to tell the ponies in charge to take better care of their employees.
She scanned the lobby and its decorated glory. Most importantly, its color-coordinated glory. The ponies in charge would get a most thorough ear-bashing, oh yes they would.
Still, it could have been worse. She sighed, but that didn't mean her smile was gone; she was making it all better, after all.
"I'm so glad this hospital wasn't all white as I'd expected."
"What's wrong with white?" asked a vaguely familiar voice.
She whirled around to something much more familiar: a mare with a gorgeous white coat and dazzling blue eyes.
But without a horn, and a pink mane pulled into a bun behind a nursing cap.
"Well?" the nurse asked.
Rarity the Breathtaking heard a loud clatter. She was absolutely certain that it'd been her grin tumbling to the floor.
She stared at this unsettling reflection. The nurse kept glaring. She kept staring. The nurse glared harder.
"Uncanny," she finally muttered.
The mare raised an eyebrow. "White." She made a big show of looking her up and down. "Is uncanny."
Another sharp poke. She opened her eyes. A white blur. It leaned in and poked her again.
Rainbow yawned hard in her forelegs and curled up some more.
Poke.
Pokepokepokepokepokepokepoke
Ugh.
White, pokey and really not happy with her...
She rolled her head around and squinted.
Nah, way too slim. And kinda tallish too. Okay, sure, that one could fit, seeing how there probably was her picture in the dictionary next to 'on your high horse...' plus where that weird saying came from, maybe.
But the horn was yellow and on the bottom. So, even if she'd gone overboard with her diet number who-cares after her ice cream binge number same-thing, this wasn't Rarity.
Thank goodness. Was there a worse way to start the day than waking up to her of all ponies? Of all things? No siree. Except maybe being told that cider was gone for good.
...
Nah. No cider was definitely second.
But what was this stupid thing, then?
It poked harder. Ouch. Eyes open wide now, jerk.
Uh. It was still blurry, but that thing was flaring huge wings at her now apparently.
Ugh. It was too early to think. And that cloud was too comfy. Kinda like a haystack, weirdly enough... but with the perfect size and stuffing. You'd think pegasus farmers had made the thing.
Yeah. Far too early to think. She could hear her brain tick like a clock as she tried to understand this stuff. Or maybe it was because the angry discount Celestia kept hammering her forehead.
Heh. Discount Celestia. A swan, maybe?
She squinted again.
Oh, right.
Look, you leave it, you lose it. If you didn't want the first pegasus who flew by to nap in your real cozy-looking nest, you should have kept your butt in there instead of flying off into the sunset or wherever. You snooze, you lose, she got to snooze.
The stork poked her right between the eyes. Then it grabbed her tail with its beak and hurled her out.
Several blurry whirls and bounces off... walls or roofs or whatever later, Rainbow glared down at the stupid upside-down bird. It did what it should have done a lot earlier and shoved its butt into its nest so hard, she couldn't even see one twig sticking out of the chimney anymore.
She blew her hair out of her eyes. Fine. You win this round. But only this one. Someturkey was going to be forgotten down south next Winter Wrap Up.
Pft.
This wall really didn't hold a candle to that awesome naptrap... especially that she was standing the wrong way. Sitting the wrong way. Something the wrong way. The only thing on the ground was the back of her head. And her hind hooves hung dumbly in front of her face, too.
Some momentum and she was back on her hooves. It paid to be the meanest, leanest, flexiblest muscle machine this side of Tartarus.
She then stormed off, after not smashing her head into the wall because she'd still been facing it when she was done, thank you very much. That hadn't been a yelp of pain either, but a growl that promised the most horrible punishment to the wa... stork.
Thank you very much.
So, she flew off. Any pegasus worth their salt flew off when they stormed out. The whole thing was named after them, after all. Kings and queens of the sky, buddy.
Okay, so Fluttershy didn't use her wings when she stormed out... that didn't make her any less a pegasus. Probably. Just a... pegasus worth her honey or something. It was all the same sesame field since they were both food flavoring, right?
Did Fluttershy even storm out? Uh. Good question, that.
She watched Ponyville as she flew.
Scootaloo and the other two terrorizing the market stalls, Applejack singing with her hooves on her ears, Cheerilee shaking her head and walking away, Mr. Cake patting a sobbing Mrs. Cake on the back, Rarity next to a real cutie in a red dress and what's-their-names, Fluttershy's friend Grizzly the Bear or Bear the Grizzly, Rarity prancing out of the school, those two jerks running out of the school with all the other kids in tow...
Wait, wait, what?
She rubbed her eyes. It was brain damage from the stork, right? Please let it be brain damage from the stork.
Nope.
"Rarity... duplicates? And triplicates? Quadruplicates? Pentaplicates?"
She paused.
"Why do I even know these words!?"
After totally not flying around like an earth pony who'd suddenly grown wings, Rainbow didn't gather her wits because she didn't need to and came up with a plan.
She was going to wing it.
She was a pegasus, after all. The pegasusest pegasus to have ever pegasused, in fact. And no, she didn't care that this didn't make any sense.
Not like anything else made sense today, anyway. Like that weird feeling she had that none of the others would be of any help. She had no idea why she felt that way.
She glanced down towards the market. Applejack was still singing about apples or barns or whatever, still with her hooves on her ears.
Yeeeaaah. Maybe she did have an idea, after all.
This year's cider was gonna be great at least, from the looks of it. Bonus.
She'd need a whole lot of it once she was done, too. Good thing Applejack had opened a barrel or twelve to 'sample' down to the bottom like that.
She'd also need to think just an itty bit before going and winging it. Sure, that was egghead territory, but five times the Rarity meant five times the risk of being dragged kicking and screaming into a frilly dress.
Five times the risk bottoms, at that. Something about force contraption, or whatever it was Twilight said when she spent an entire afternoon talking science at her. All because she'd told the sucker of the week six against one meant six times the kicking-around and Twilight got offended that she got her precious little maths wrong.
She hated egghead territory.
But, yeah, she couldn't charge in like that. Well, she probably could and chances were whatever plan she came up with would be just that, but she still needed to know what to do after that.
In a nutshell: did she buck these changelings all the way back to their nest or cave or love-joint or whatever, or did she... well, if they came from the Mirror Pool, it'd be really jerkish to go and beat them up.
Throwing down with the real Rarity, sure, she'd wanted to do that ever since she saw those slick moves she pulled to defend Bob, Dick, Harry or whichever dumb name she'd given to that rock.
Or the can of thrashing she'd have opened on what's-their-dragons if Spike hadn't made them run for it instead.
Or the whole wedding business. Rainbow had counted. She'd kicked the most bug-butts, duh, but the runner-up was Rarity. Not Applejack. Not even close. Twilight got more of them than Applejack did, for pony's sake. Without the part where Pinkie used her like a freaking machinegun.
Rarity was hardcore when she wanted.
Seeing how Pinkie's fartoomanyplicates had acted though, if these were copies too, they'd make it two out of ten tops on the fight meter. Three, maybe, if you got some cake on their dresses or in their manes.
The real Rarity was something like thirteen on that meter. At least. Still way under Rainbow One-Pony-Army Dash, of course.
The changelings had a hard time even getting to one. And even then that was all of them together, not each on their own.
She kinda hoped it was changelings, just a little bit. Maybe she'd get lucky and they'd make up for just not getting this whole 'don't make ponies suspicious' by being the best fighters of the whole horde. Swarm. Stampede. Thing.
Uh. She'd been staring at Drunklejack the whole time.
She looked away and watched the park and school again.
Dang. The two Raritys she'd first spotted weren't there anymore.
She scanned the rest of Ponyville. Where had she seen the others, again?
Ah!
There was one Rarity standing on the roof of Sugarcube Corner.
Well, she thought it was Sugarcube Corner, anyway. It didn't look like a cake train had crashed into a building anymore, save for Pinkie's bedroom tower. That one still looked like a cupcake.
Wouldn't last, probably. The Rarity had a huge 'first you, then that tower, then the world' vibe to her. She kept glaring up at the chimney the whole time Rainbow flew closer.
Yeah. Not a changeling. This one was just too good at acting like the real Rarity. If their queen was so bad at her job even Twilight noticed something was off, the guys under her sucked even more.
The double scuffed and pawed at the chimney. And then she let out a small whinny that had no right sounding so cute and adorable. Cuter and adorabler than Tank looked, in fact.
That proved they weren't changelings alright. Them bugs just couldn't do cute, even when they replaced the princess of all things cute and cuddly, for crying out loud.
That was also reason enough to throw them back into the Mirror Pool. Nobody, nothing was allowed to be cuter and adorabler than Tank.
...Uh.
The copy didn't have any issue balancing herself as she hopped and scowled around the chimney. That was kinda impressive. The roof was crazy-sloped, especially now that the dumb fake icing was gone.
Then again, unicorns had been obsessed with climbing up and down every pointy rock that sprouted from the ground since before Equestria was a thing, so she guessed it made sense that Rarity could prance around on the roof like that.
Yeah, probably foal's play compared to the mountains unicorns kept building their castles and towns on, actually.
Rainbow hovered a little bit behind her. What now? She... hadn't thought that far ahead. But that was the point of winging it, and she winged it like a pro.
The copy skipped another half-circle around the chimney. Rainbow flew to the side to keep herself out of sight. She really didn't want to be prettified like that Rarity wanted to prettify the thing. She was going to lose all her cool, awesome and radical points forever if that happened.
The chimney could use looking a little less stupid though, she had to admit. Okay, a lot less stupid.
Uh. Prettify...
She smirked and darted towards her.
"Fashion emergency at the market!"
"Eek!"
Wow. That was some jump. The copy went all the way from the chimney to the cupcake tower thing.
Well, she was a unicorn. She could climb down from that candle she was clinging to like her life depended on it without breaking a sweat. In the meantime, Rainbow had other Raritys to handle.
Winging it like a pro, folks.
Rainbow smirked as she watched all the Raritys rush about down in Ponyville.
Then her smirk dropped.
They were running in every direction except towards the market.
Uh. They didn't know the town as well as the real Rarity, looked like.
Okay... Change of plans.
Rainbow dropped the last Rarity in the cart. The quintupli... double yelped when she landed, headfirst right on top of another double just as she tried to climb out of the cart. That one let out a whine instead.
She hovered above them and looked at the clock tower. Three minutes tops to gather all the copies milling about. Yup. Still awesome. But was there ever any doubt?
A chill ran down her spine. There was something wrong about that last thought. She had no idea what, though.
She had no idea where Applejack was either. She'd cleared off as soon as she'd brought the first Rarity to the market. Cider probably made her see a horrible white and purple monster or something.
It was kinda insulting that Applejack hadn't trusted her to defeat this 'monster,' to be honest. She should realize that Rainbow Danger Dash could handle anything, drunk off her hat or not. Weren't they supposed to be friends?
"That was most uncouth!"
Oh wow. Rarity's voice in stereo. Fiveo. Something-eo. That was real creepy. Almost straight out of a nightmare. That made it one thing that made sense today at least, because more than one Rarity was pretty much a nightmare.
Even just the real one was rough to deal with most of the time.
Rainbow glanced down. Heh. Cart-o-Raritys. There was probably a toy brand in that. Or a plushie one. She was fuzzy on the whole toys business.
Well, either way, they weren't happy with her. At all. They glared up a storm at her. Black and crackling and waiting to fry unsuspecting pegasi and everything.
Luckily, that was one deep cart. Even a unicorn couldn't climb out of that thing. Much less five. Unless they made a ramp out of themselves or something.
...
She didn't think this through, did she?
Their five horns glowed.
Then, the cart peeled apart like a freaking banana.
She didn't jump out of her skin and fly several feet away when that happened. Only... only half out of her skin and twelve feet. Or twenty.
The copies stepped out... down from the not-walled-up-anymore plank. They kept their heads down as they made sure to avoid the seriously-bent nails, then glared up a whole honest-to-the-stars Everfree Forest at her.
Rainbow gulped. "You unicorns are freaking terrifying, you know that?"
She really didn't think this through.
The Rarity at the front clicked her tongue. Then she raised her eyebrow. It was a good thing Applejack wasn't there anymore, because she'd probably spend the whole month crying herself to sleep because of how the copy schooled her when it came to looking unimpressed.
"A 'fashion emergency,' was it?"
She hadn't raised her voice, and Rainbow still heard it like she was standing right in front of her. Years of experience with dealing with her little sister, she guessed. She guessed, because her mom had never actually scolded her.
Yeah, she praised her to the skies instead of grounding her every single time she broke something or refused to eat her greens or collapsed half of Cloudsdale into a mountain. She even had a trophy made for the last one. Genuine gold and stuff.
...That probably wasn't healthy parenting, now that she thought about it.
Speaking of thinking, she needed a way out real fast. The Raritys were still peeved. Especially the one who'd just spoken.
Uh, was that the Rarity from Sugarcube Corner to boot? The one who apparently couldn't climb down after all, since she had to pry her off the candle?
Rainbow gulped again. Real fast.
She pointed at the empty stall of what's-their-names so hard she felt whiplash from her shoulder to her hoof. "Yup! Flowers don't match! Okaygoodluckseeyabye!"
And she hightailed it.
Or at least, she tried to.
Rarity's magic was already strong enough to pluck her out of a close fly-by if she really wanted it. So yeah, she didn't stand a chance against five. They brought her to the ground like a freaking spring.
She still had goosebumps up to the tips of her coat when she caught her breath. Ponies just weren't made to be grabbed with magic. Spooky didn't even start to describe it.
...She'd have to tell Twilight about that one day.
She turned around and looked up. The Raritys had formed a half-circle around her. And yeah... they still didn't look happy. At all.
If she was honest with herself though, she was pretty glad they'd only dragged her down. She'd have nightmares about that cart for months, she just knew it.
The magic finally left her alone. Her wings flared out just from being free again.
That startled the Rarity right in front of her. The Sugarcube Corner one? By the time she'd folded back her wings, her frown had dropped.
"Oh, I apologize." She gave an embarrassed smile of all things. "I forgot that pegasi despised feeling trapped."
The other copies blinked, shared glances and then smiled the same way at her. One even scuffed the ground and looked away.
Save for the one the most to her left, who just frowned harder and muttered "what's with today and pegasi?" to herself.
Rarity number in-front-of-her offered her hoof.
Rainbow squinted at it. Pranks weren't Rarity's thing, but at this point looking for a joy buzzer was probably a smart move.
Uh. Safe. Probably. Hopefully.
Rainbow grabbed her hoof and the copy hauled her back to her hooves like she didn't weigh anything.
Wow. Was the real Rarity this strong? She was going to have even more nightmares now.
...She also was a little bit impressed. Okay, a lot impressed. Not that she'd tell anypony about it.
The... 'main copy' sounded off. Sugarcube's Rarity gave her a good look once she was standing again.
And then her entire face lit up like a supernova.
Because yeah, she did know about those, thank you very much. They were huge explosions that vaporized absolutely everything in their way. Of course she'd know about something this cool. It wasn't her fault eggheads hogged the whole star stuff to themselves.
But yeah. Back to Sugarity.
"Oh, I simply can't not make it up to you! How about a dress?"
Always keep your eyes on the prize, right? Yeah, these were Raritys alright.
The others gasped. And grinned and nodded. And huddled a little bit too close around her.
"Trapped!"
They all froze and stepped back. Looked and sounded sorry again.
And she'd said that pretty awesomely, by the way. Not squeaked. No siree. She was just being smart and using the mistakes of the enemy against them and all this boring army stuff the teachers over at the Academy kept yammering about.
Uh. It was kinda fitting, surrounded by... well, they were a little too polite and apologizey to be enemies, so overeager fans maybe? She did have many things to have adoring fans about, after all.
So, what would the Wonderbolts do? She was working to be one, that was probably a good question to ask herself.
The little Spitfire in her mind stuck out her chest and strutted around roughly sixty-five percent as awesomely as Rainbow did on a daily basis. "There are no problems, there are only opportunities!" she squeak-yelled. "Dismissed!"
Then she kicked the little Soarin that was also in her mind right in the bum and flew away.
Rainbow blinked.
She knew she hadn't been sleeping enough but she had no idea it had gotten that bad.
She blinked again, and she realized Sugarity was fluttering her eyelashes at her. All of them were.
That was Rarity-speak for 'pretty pretty please with sugar on top.' She'd seen her string Spike along enough times to know that trick by heart.
But she wasn't a baby dragon with really bad taste in mares though, so it didn't work. Duh.
She chuckled as she unfolded her wings. "Yeah, no." She turned around for the take-off. "I don't do girly."
"But if anypony could make 'girly' look good, it'd be you."
Rainbow's ears perked up. She refolded her wings and turned around. "What?"
The Rarity on the far left half-climbed over the middle left, prancing-in-place one to shove her grin into Sugarity's muzzle. "Good? No, no. Great. She'd make it look great!"
"Gorgeous! Enchanting! Out of this world!" squeed miss Prances-a-lot.
Uh, yeah. The one and only Rainbow Dash could make anything look great...
The two on the right stepped closer.
"Or dare I say... cool," the first whispered in one ear.
"Radical," the second one added on the other side.
A familiar chill ran through Rainbow's body, all the way to the tips of her wings. A familiar thrill. And because it wasn't only bad things that always came in threes, there was also a familiar smirky grin on her lips too.
"Awesome," the last three of them sang.
Rainbow nodded. Slowly. "I don't do girly."
She was grinning so hard now, Pinkie was probably feeling threatened somewhere.
Ah... Was there anything more relaxing than hot water?
Aloe and Lotus knew their craft well, and that came with knowing the perfect temperature for a bath, that elusive threshold one fraction before too hot for comfort. They also knew her well, and that meant the perfect temperature at all times.
They could gauge when they needed to warm up the water again with a mere glance or a single step into the room. It was little things like this that made Rarity certain that they were half-pegasus; they were extremely in tune with humidity.
That they could be trusted to frolic in the morning dew every day and dance in the rain whenever their work schedules allowed them did nothing but confirm her suspicions.
Not that she'd ever asked them about their private life, mind. Fond of them as she was, their relationship was strictly professional. A true diamond in the rough, with only boons and no downsides—something even her friendships couldn't claim—but professional nonetheless.
So, she didn't actually know straight from the mares' mouths if they were indeed half-pegasus. Or whether they were sisters or entirely unrelated, for that matter.
That last one had never stopped being awkward, she had to admit.
But that nagging lapse in her knowledge melted away into the water like everything else. The stress, the fatigue, the worry... expelled, ousted, banished. Or evaporated, perhaps, to suit the context.
Lotus walked back into the room. Or Aloe. Rarity always had an ear for detail to go with her eagle eye, but she still couldn't tell their hoofsteps apart from each other's.
Yes, she could simply crack open an eyelid to learn the answer. But the water was simply divine. There was no strength left in her body to summon the will to do anything but bask in this gift from the stars themselves. Even if these stars had cooled down so very, very slightly.
As if on cue, her favorite beautician—they were both her favorite beauticians—emptied a bucket into the bathtub; and the stars burned the precisely right temperature once again.
Rarity sighed and sunk a little deeper into the water. Giving her limbs a few stretches here and there.
She'd have to tell Princess Celestia about them one day. The toll ruling over Equestria doubtlessly took on her was far beyond her imagination, but she knew Aloe and Lotus were the mares to make it all go away, even if only for one day or so.
She paused.
No. No, that wouldn't do. At all. The Princess would drag them back to Canterlot and keep them all for herself; they were just that good. She was a loyal subject, but that was a reason to commit high treason and possibly regicide if there ever was one.
She resumed her stretching. Starting with her back and ending with her forelegs, twice for those, and then a third time for good measure. There always was a price to working her sewing machine for days on end.
Or had it been weeks on end? Hm. It was a little difficult to remember, what with how utterly blissful her little raincloud over the moon felt right now. If actual clouds were anywhere this delightfully cozy, no wonder that Rainbow Dash spent most of her time lazing about on one.
Hm. That was an interesting junction her train of thought had ended up at. Rainbow Dash and her sewing machine; Rainbow Dash and the wonderful darlings who gave her so much breathing—melting—room in the first place.
Thankfully, they simply weren't destined to meet. That would have truly been a trainwreck of untold proportions, to suit the context once again.
She didn't think this through.
Rainbow watched as the copies buzzed about her in the shop.
Oh, sorry, Carousel Boutique~. She'd have a hard time forgetting that name. The real Rarity kept dishing it right, left and center. She really loved the sound of what she'd come up with.
Chances were she also loved the sound of her own voice to boot. Which was all fine and dandy, but kinda muscled on her turf. Bragging was her job, dangit.
Or Trixie's, if you absolutely had to get a unicorn involved.
It was her actual, real job, at that. Why had nopony ever told her that traveling performers needed to show off if they wanted food on the table at the end of the week? Things would probably have gone a little better then.
Right now, things could go a little better if she could move instead of standing there like a lemon.
She'd be lying if she said she hadn't gotten a few goosebumps when the copies pointed towards the fitting stage in the middle of the room. That... that pompousdour thing Rarity had strapped on her head before that whole parasprite business had flashed back to mind, complete with the ridiculous getup that came with it.
She shuddered just from the memory.
And she remembered that mess really well, too. The stage was already surrounded by three mirrors back then. It'd been like being stuck in a train tumbling down Canterlot's mountain, but she could watch the crash from the outside at the same time.
She'd taken some crazy risk letting Rarity handle her Gala dress. Sheesh. The things she did to stay at her friends' side. The Wonderbolts would have either laughed her out of the room or thought she was some frilly monster from the depths of the Everfree and gone to town on her.
That last one would have been pretty sweet, she had to admit. Fighting off the wing-bustiest crack-team in Equestria would have seen her put in charge of like half of them on the spot. And even if that didn't happen, the showdown alone was some hardcore dream come true.
Dreaming about beating up changelings got old after a while, after all.
Lucky her, that garb was just one serious miss in Rarity's usual line of hits. A miss she'd tried to pawn off to Twilight what, three minutes tops after meeting her for the first time? Yup, still as hilarious now as it was when Twilight twigged about it.
And she'd had the gall to complain about it, too. Like she had any room to gripe. She spent maybe twenty seconds max in the thing. Not a whole morning.
And well, it was already feeling like half a morning in there. Even though the copies had done nothing but waltz about and chat like chipmunks on coffee with each other as they rolled out all the measuring tapes in the country around her.
...Especially that they'd done nothing but that, maybe.
You'd think Rarity knew her size well enough by now. But yeah, these Raritys didn't really seem to know the same things. Heck, they'd never even called her by name once.
Rainbow went back to watching them. It distracted her from still not being allowed to fidget as much as one feather.
One of the Raritys had stayed behind the others and watched her instead the whole time. She had a weird look every time another copy unfolded one of her wings to work her measuring tape. Something between Twilight staring at a brain-frier thingamajig and Fluttershy seeing a new animal for the first time.
Rainbow flared both wings when Rarity number not-the-same-one asked her to. The timing of things sometimes, really.
The copy in the back gaped for a few seconds. Then she had the biggest full-toothed grin Rainbow had ever seen on Rarity's face.
"I know!"
And she ran up the stairs.
...Maybe she should call that one the standard-bearer, because wow all the red flags she raised just now.
Yeah, she knew about army standards too. Planting your flag in the ground and telling the universe itself "come on if you think you're hard enough" was the most radically awesome thing ever.
Sure, Hurricane still croaked when he pulled that stunt against the Windigoes when they came back for a second round, but he croaked like a boss. While Private... Marshall... Stable-Count... Pansy died in his or her bed ages after being put in charge of Equestria's armies.
Yeah, not the same league. She or he was down there at the bottom of the coolness barrel with that cook-in-chief who choked on his own dish he made for the first Hearth's Warming meal and dropped dead on the table. What was that guy's name, again?
Pft, who cares. Whatever it was, he probably wasn't expecting that when he went and said his pudding was to die for.
There was one meancrack upstairs.
Rainbow shrieked. The next thing she knew, she was hovering inches from the ceiling with the Raritys staring up at her. Most of them had an eyebrow raised, like she was the problem, and not this freaking jumpscare.
Standard-Bearity cantered back down the stairs like nothing had happened not even ten seconds later.
There was something familiar with the red dress she had in her magic. And great, too. Would make an already pretty mare the best looker this side of Equestria, no doubt about that.
...Uh. Where had that come from?
The dress was obviously for her. That meant 'pretty' wasn't involved with a ten-foot pole. Awesome, cool, radical, even 'hey there good-looking!' when the mirror was squeaky clean...
But never 'pretty.'
She sighed and flew back to the fitting stage. She glanced at the mirrors on the way down just to make sure. Squeakiest clean. And yeah... no idea where that thought came from.
No idea why she remembered roses were a thing all of sudden either. Since when did she even know the names of flowers, anyway? They were all the same pretty things.
She rubbed her forehead. 'Pretty,' again. Ugh. Today was weird. And not even the good kind of weird, like Pinkie's usual stuff.
Standardity was waiting for her in front of the stage when she landed. You could probably use her grin to light up the night sky if the moon ever went on vacation, her face was shining that much.
Rainbow gave the dress a good look. Then she glanced at the doorway, this time.
The empty doorway, with the actual door just chilling against the wall next to it and torn-off hinges sprawled about on the floor.
The copies had just said "you can't hold back beauty, darling!" when they'd reached the shop and she'd just stared at them.
They got that right, for sure. Flag-raisity had ripped that dress from the cold, dead planks of the real Rarity's closet door, hadn't she?
Rainbow sighed again. "Let's get this over with."
Uh.
Being pampered and frou-frou'd and cutesied-wootsied to Tartarus and back wasn't half as bad as she'd thought.
It was more like... five-sixths bad, she guessed, since it was five Raritys doing the pampering. Yeah, worse than half if she understood those shifty maths right, but also not full bad. And that was a lot less than she expected from Rarity dolling her up.
Really, it should have been... five times as bad instead? Something something maths.
Meh. That wasn't important. The dress was a much better thing to focus on.
Thing was soft as cloud. She hadn't moved much since the Raritys helped her put it on, but she still could tell it kept her from moving even less than an actual cloud. And clouds didn't keep pegasi from moving at all to start with.
Wow. Just wow. When did Rarity get so good with pegasus stuff? Scratch that, how did she get so good? She was a unicorn. Did she have that many pegasus customers? Or was it because she was the only unicorn ever to get wings?
Sure, those had been huge, stupid-showy butterfly ones, but she was the one pony still stuck on the ground who'd get how incredible flying was.
The memory made her wings twitch.
Rainbow wanted to stretch these babies, but even the wing holes were out to make this the best clothes she'd ever tried on. Perfect size to let the air in and keep the pins and needles out.
Speaking of pins and needles... one Rarity wrapped something around her withers. Once the magic was gone, all she could feel was... some kind of really soft fuzz.
She opened her eyes and looked down. Then she glanced at each of her shoulders as best as she could without moving her head.
The fuzz came from... well, a fuzzy snake-thing hanging from her neck, from the looks of it. With feathers. Because reasons or whatever.
Obviously not a real animal. There was no way in Tartarus Rarity, any Rarity, would get close to a snake. Alive, checked-out, or even just its empty skin lying around. Especially to the empty thing lying around probably, in fact. That stuff was creepy as all get-out.
And Fluttershy would murder her dead if she made a critter into some fashion extra, anyway.
Yeah, some kind of funky hornmade scarf. She couldn't tell where the feathers came from, other than not from pegasi.
And that was a good thing, because today had given her enough new things to nightmare about already.
The feathers were white... heh. Maybe she'd go and find that stingy nest-hoarder with this stuff tied around her neck later, just to see the look on its big, stupid stork face.
There was a sharp tsk. Rainbow looked back up to see one Rarity pursing her lips at her.
"We told you to keep your eyes closed."
Yup, they'd done as much. Something about not 'ruining the surprise.' They'd even made sure she was facing away from all three mirrors.
And well, that'd worked so far because she had no clue how she looked in her dress, even if she knew everything about how it felt.
She'd still happily closed her eyes, not because she was giddy like a filly who'd been told she'd get all the Wonderbolts collectibles she'd asked for this Hearth's Warming, but because her head hurt from trying to tell the copies apart.
Cool nicknames didn't cut it when all it took to get mixed up again was turning her head for one second.
Just hearing them talking dresses at each other, on the other hoof, it just turned into white noise. Way easier to deal with.
The Rarity sighed.
"You chose the right time, at least." Her horn glowed and a small box floated into view. "I was curious about how you'd look with some more eyelashes."
Rainbow just stared.
The box opened with a click. True enough, there was a bunch of fake eyelashes in there.
Rainbow just stared.
Oh! Right. The real Rarity actually needed to put on those things she loved fluttering so much.
She'd only seen her once without them, before the Gala... and yeah. Girl needed them to look good. Or to not look like she'd stepped out of a mushy fairytale but left one sleeve of her princess dress back in the book, at any rate.
Rarity's whole 'I wish I was born a lady' deal just wasn't complete without the fancy eyelashes. Kinda like leaving a white puff in a storm cloud.
She frowned at the things in their boxes.
What would she look like with them?
She was already fine as is. Heck, she'd bet bits to doughnuts that was why all those Raritys were going gaga over the idea of her in a dress. So yeah, she was already great as is.
But... if Rarity went from boring to roaring with that stuff...
Yeah, somepony as naturally mind-blowing as Rainbow Knockout Dash was going to turn so many heads so hard, all the hospitals in Equestria would have to pool their neck braces together just to deal with the whiplash carnage.
And... she'd be lying to herself so hard, Applejack would get a heart attack, then dig herself out of her grave and go all zombie on her if she said she didn't enjoy the idea of everypony in town swooning as soon as she walked by.
Yeah, walked by, not flew by, because it'd be all kind of jerkish to give them only a glance. Because she'd deserve something much longer than only a glance.
The smirky grin was back.
Well, that was fast. And it wasn't painful or anything at all to have somepony magic-fiddling with her eyes, as proven by the fact she hadn't been shaking like a leaf or biting down a whimper the whole time.
No siree.
Rainbow hadn't been nibbling her lip between her teeth either, because there was no chattering to hide when the Raritys pulled out the eyeblusher and mascarpone things.
No siree.
She also hadn't wondered how makeup even worked when there was her coat in the way, because you didn't stay sane or safe by asking questions. You didn't need to live in the same town as Pinkie to know that.
The shiny baubles weren't even worth mentioning, other than Celestia bless whoever it was who came up with clip-on earrings.
But the way the copies worked a brush was worth mentioning, though. And whatever else they'd used on her mane. She didn't even need to run her hoof through it to tell it was smooth as... smooth as some really smooth fabric.
And that was it. Her head was the last thing on the to-do list, turns out.
So, one of the Raritys grabbed her hoof and pulled her down from the stage. She raised and twisted her foreleg in the process, making her pirouette like a princess in a dance room with the stallion of her dreams.
Rarity and her cheap sappy books, really.
She wasn't anywhere near dizzy once the whirl was done and the copy let her go. Duh. Best flier in Equestrian history, ladies and gentlecolts. So she didn't need to waste time on something useless like clearing her head before she could see just what they'd worked so long on.
Two Raritys stood in front of her with huge grins, the kind that oozed pride all over the floor. And between them...
The mare in front of her had her eyes wide open, but Rainbow could still make out the purple on her eyelids. The blusher had been done just right, the shade was the same everywhere. It worked great with the deep black of her eyelashes and the light blue of her coat. That blue looked better than she'd ever seen it, too.
The combo made her eyes pop. Rainbow had never been one to care for the names of colors, maybe because she had like six of them to learn just with her mane alone, but right now she wished she knew what to call this pretty, pretty rose-ish red-pink.
She also really wanted to know how to describe that mane. The slick colors made her own downright dull and boring. And she couldn't say anything about the manestyle other than the bangs were curly, actually good-looking curly at that, just like the kinda-sorta ponytail that reminded her of her time at the Gala.
...She was going to raid Twilight's place out of every book about colors and manes and everything else once this was all over if that was the last thing she did.
So, her mane fell over her bare shoulder. And then came the dress. Oh boy, that dress. Same shade as that uppity grape juice the real Rarity kept drinking like a fish, and it looked freaking sweet.
It went over the right shoulder from the back of her neck to under the left foreleg. No sleeve for the other one. Just a hole, like around each of her wings. And wow, those were some nice wings spreading out of these holes. Did they always shine this much?
She had a golden, loose belt around her barrel and a very familiar white feather-snake thing hanging from her shoulders. The white on her necklace's pearls was the best out of the two, though. But the earrings got them all beat. It was like she had stolen two gems from Rarity's cutie mark.
Rainbow's heart beat hard. Her cheeks felt on fire. Her mouth dried up.
"You really didn't have to all slap your heads like that."
And making it so well-synced was just rubbing it in, no two ways around it. And also a little bit creepy.
Anyone would have made the same mistake, honestly. Rainbow hadn't been looking at herself, any pony with eyes would say as much. How was she supposed to twig it was a fourth mirror they'd lugged in from Rarity-knew-where?
The copy next to her waved away her totally called-for comment with... well, a wave of her hoof.
"Please focus on the moment, dear."
A few more steps through the streets, and she waved towards Ponyville at large this time.
"The world, discovering the beauty that you bring to it."
Yeeeaaah. Rarity drank that grape juice like a fish dragged out of the sea, alright. She hadn't even seen any of her copies drink a glass of water and they were still talking nonsense.
Rainbow kept walking. The other four Raritys were behind her. Their hoofsteps made it clear they were prancing, bouncing, or both. The one next to her cantered like she was on a runway instead.
That was probably fitting. She sure felt like she was on a runway, now that she was out and about.
Well, a runway with nopony watching, at any rate.
Runway-ity stopped walking and looked around. "Hm. This wasn't so empty last time." There was a little squeak when she pursed her lips. "Are they avoiding us?"
Rainbow rolled her eyes.
"Why would they do that?" one of the Raritys behind her asked. She sounded confused for real, too.
Rainbow rolled her eyes harder.
"Maybe there's an announcement somewhere," another said. "The town hall, perhaps? That'd be nice. Our lovely friend here could certainly save ponies from having to look at that tacky thing."
Heh. It was alright when some featherbrain didn't let the clouds kick her around rather than the other way round.
"Or the hospice." That was the third one. "If so, they could use such a gorgeous sight to cheer them up."
The last one out of them just gave a seriously uneasy and nervous laugh, weirdly enough.
"Lets... let's check the town hall first."
They all turned towards her.
Oh, right, they didn't actually know anything about this place.
Rainbow rolled her eyes again. She probably rolled that sigh too. "Let's go."
They fell in line behind her. They were a lot less prancy and bouncy and cantery now, but that still left them doing an awful lot of the stuff.
She found ponies much sooner than the town hall. Milling about in the market on the way there.
Rainbow gulped a little bit when she spotted the remains of that cart, tucked into a pile next to an empty stall.
Apparently, ponies had extra-sharp hearing when sick timing got involved, because almost all of them stopped what they were doing and turned their heads towards her.
And yeah. They really weren't interested in coming closer. A few even hid behind stalls or barrels or whatever they could get between them.
Made sense. Five Raritys was all kinds of scary. Save for the good kinds of scary. Not everypony could be so gutsy they laughed in the face of every schmuck from Nightmare Moon to Discord to Sombra and then threw a custard pie in that same face.
Nope. Not everypony could be Rainbow Danger Knockout Dash.
Time to strut her stuff.
She threw a cocky smirk Runway-ity's way. She nodded and stepped back with a huge smile, just like the others.
Rainbow pranced along the stalls. Yeah, prancing wasn't really her thing, but girly wasn't either, and she still rocked girly. Making prancing look cool was a piece of cake.
The flower trio hadn't homed their eyes in on her earlier, because they were too busy arguing. Again. That stopped when she strutted in front of their stall and they gaped instead.
Rainbow gave her best wink. Roseluck was looking good today! Even better than her reflection! Especially with that grin she got when she caught the wink.
The other two went back to arguing before she'd even reached her next stop. Roseluck was still looking at her though, bouldering that red dress like nopony's business. That called for another wink. And blowing a kiss.
Roseluck swooned out of sight behind the stall. What's-their-names stared down at her for a second, then doubled down on their squabbling.
Next stop couldn't handle her either. Mrs. Cake buried her head in Mr. Cake's chest and started sobbing as soon as she glanced her way.
Heh. She guessed there was a lot to be jealous of right now. Especially from her.
Mrs. Cake kept mentioning Sugarcube Corner as she drowned Mr. Cake's apron in tears. That was a 'Good Enough to Eat' seal of approval right there!
Two swings and two critical hits. And that was only the start!
She'd lost track of time. But that always happened when she was at the spa; just a seemingly everlasting now in Aloe's and Lotus' expert care.
All good things eventually came to an end, though. A trite saying, really, worn out to the bones, but painfully true in this precise moment.
Rarity thanked Lotus once she'd helped her remove her bathrobe. A plush wonder, that little thing. Then she made her way back to the lobby.
Being a regular to Ponyville Day Spa was indeed all boons and no downsides, just like its charming owners; and the one dearest to her heart today was that missing so many sessions these last months meant she could afford the absolute height of what the darlings offered. With no extra charge.
The wonders of subscriptions and understanding entrepreneurs. Really, how did she survive Ponyville before they set up their spa? Oh, she shuddered just at the thought.
She waved them goodbye. "This was positively divine, dears! Thank you so much."
Lotus and Aloe waved in turn with vibrant smiles on their lips.
"Goodbye, Miss Rarity!"
"Please come back sooner!"
Rarity's shoulders shook as she laughed; not a single kink or tense spot left anywhere near her forelegs or her back, such a delight.
She opened the door with a flourish. Her memory was clear again now, and doubly clear indeed: she'd never ever felt so relaxed. So amazing. So ready to take on whatever the universe could throw at her.
She laughed again as she took her first step out. She wanted to sing and dance and—
—and her five copies pranced by in the distance, along with Rainbow Dash: Bombshell Edition.
Rarity turned back to Aloe and Lotus. "I'll take another Premium Full Service Extra very shortly, please."
Then, she ran off after them.
By the time she was a stone's throw away from them—and there was a lot of stones to cast, to be sure—she could already feel that blasted headache taunting her from the edges of her mind.
But it hadn't arrayed ten times its previous forces against her as it had promised, but closer to one hundred. At the least.
Rainbow Dash certainly made a sensation. There wasn't a single pony in sight left unaffected; their reactions ranged from haunted fascination to abject terror—or both, for a few of them.
Or perhaps there were reacting to the five Raritys following the new, improved and very much not-welcome-right-now Rainbow Dash instead. It was hard to tell. Although to be honest, chances were that the real question was which of these two spectacles did their audience react to more.
There was a distinct screech when she skidded to a stop behind the six mares.
"Rainbow Daaaaaaash!"
Rarity saw her wings seize up on the spot. She might have found the girlish, squeaky yelp that came with that amusing, but this wasn't the time for humor; regardless of how much she felt like a punchline to the universe at this time.
Rainbow Dash stayed there, frozen, staring right ahead of her. Rarity's copies stopped in their tracks, shared confused glances—as if they didn't grasp the gravity of the situation, the little brats—and turned to face her.
Rarity stomped towards them.
Stalking closer felt more relaxing that it had any right to be, such were the skills of Aloe and Lotus. It made this whole ordeal feel less dramatic than it should, true, but that was only appropriate because today had all the trappings of a tragedy instead.
The crowd around them stopped huddling away and closed in. Among them was a bear. For some reason.
Rainbow finally relaxed when Rarity was just one pace from her. She whirled around—no, she gracefully waltzed around—with what was likely the most forced grin in history on her face.
The corners of her smile cracked deep and deeper, reminding Rarity of water-starved earth during a drought. Appropriate once again, because she felt her body burn hotter by the second.
Rainbow Dash's eyes kept drifting towards her doubles, who watched them both from the side, before going back to trying to hold her glare.
Rarity knew a silent question when she saw one.
She sighed. A long breath out that cooled down her blazing lungs somewhat.
"It felt strange to yell my own name," she admitted.
Rarity turned to her copies. 'She' was at fault here, not Rainbow Dash, no matter how unusual and—frankly—depressing such a state of affairs sounded.
From the looks on their faces... no, they didn't have the faintest idea about why she was simmering with rage. Unlike their audience, quite evidently; they'd closed in but still gave them a wide berth.
Let's keep it simple, then.
"What else. Did you. Do."
They all perked up; in perfect synchrony, once more. This was getting old.
"I crafted a most magnificent suit for a gentlecentaur down on his luck!"
"And I made two gorgeous dresses, myself. A shame those three lovely mares got distracted before I could design the last one."
"The hospital is much easier on the eye, now. Properly color-coordinated, as well."
"Oh, you should have seen the wonder shining in these foals' eyes when I showed them the marvels they could bring to the world!"
"And I beautified that one gingerbread-style bakery!"
The questions had just kept piling up in her head as they answered—including whether she should hire bodyguards to keep Cheerilee away from her—but that last bit kicked them all by the wayside with extreme vehemence.
She could only gape at the last copy. "You managed to make that gaudy mess look good?"
Somepony started sobbing somewhere in the crowd.
Mayor Mare stepped out from that same crowd and tugged at this miserable excuse for a frilly necktie of hers. "I can't imagine a better use of Ponyville's budget this year."
The sobs grew louder.
"Well, not entirely, unfortunately," the copy said. "I was distracted by something—someone—that simply drove my inspiration wild!"
She motioned towards Rainbow Dash with a grin. Her face beamed, as per usual, but this time it didn't feel like the sun peeking out from behind rainclouds after a downpour; no, it was much closer to shining a flashlight right into her eyes.
The other four drove the nail in her patience's coffin with a dirge quartet. "Drove our inspiration wild!"
Rarity glanced back at Rainbow Dash. The forced smile hadn't budged, although it was more cracks than anything else by now; one of her cheeks even kept twitching.
She'd still found the time to take a few steps back. Smart girl.
Rarity settled her gaze—her so very, very unimpressed gaze—back on... well, Mayor Mare's latest contractor, apparently.
And she blew a raspberry.
There was a better term to describe her reaction, with a little less crudity and a little more gravitas, surely; the universe threw its darts at everypony from the most refined lady to the lowest ruffian, after all. But it could wait a long, long time before she cared to consult the local dictionary for it.
Hm. Where was Twilight, incidentally? Or the other girls? Had they finally learned to stay away from catastrophes rather than rush headlong towards them, as Spike kept urging them all to do?
Hm. She truly was the only one who hadn't played it smart lately. Yes, this was a state of affairs most depressing indeed.
Rarity clicked her tongue once she was done with the raspberry and then jerked her head towards Rainbow Dash. "Yes, yes, she doesn't look like she lost a fight with a bear ten times in a row anymore. Congratulations."
Somewhere else in the crowd, Fluttershy's pet crossed his arms and huffed.
Well, he'd have to get in line. She had a much better right to indignation at the moment.
She saw Rainbow Dash frown from the corner of her eye. "I could totally take him."
The bear threw up his paws and stormed off.
Rarity closed her eyes and breathed in.
The air in her lungs felt as thick and hot as magma. Her heart, for its part, reminded her of drums in the deep; heralding something dark and enraged bursting out and overwhelming all.
Clearly, appropriate things came in threes today.
She could feel it. Her body starting to shake. Her mind beginning to crack. Herself, as a whole, about to snap.
It all came out as a whimper instead.
She flopped down on the ground and covered her face with her forelegs. Her eyelids burned wet against her coat.
"I just wanted some help..."
She heard the copies flinch. Each one of them.
Then, one of them spoke; with a very small voice, not unlike Sweetie Belle's. Logical in a sense and, once again, very apropos. If the Mirror Pool had indeed created them to help her, Rarity's answer would amount to telling a foal they were in this world for one reason and one reason alone... and they'd failed it.
"We... we're not helping?"
Rarity shook her head. As slowly as the dampness on her coat grew around her eyes. "No. No, you're not."
She then let out a loud sob. So that she didn't hear the ones she knew just gripped her doubles' throats.
She felt a hoof on her shoulder. A familiar touch; so Rainbow Dash rather than one of her copies.
Rarity's first sob had been on purpose, but she couldn't stop the next one from spilling out. Or the one after that. Or any of them.
Rainbow Dash sat down next to her. She rubbed her hoof gently against her shoulder and started stroking her back with the tip of her wing as well.
She heard the copies whisper to each other. Soon enough, they found their spokespony. The one Rarity had dubbed the main copy, perhaps. She always seemed to speak for them.
"I..."
The double swallowed.
"I don't know when you needed these dresses and suits done, but there are only four orders left to complete. And only one from scratch."
Rarity gulped down the limp in her own throat. She knew where she was going with this.
"It was nice knowing you, Rarity."
With that, they walked away.
For one brief moment, Rarity was infinitely glad, endlessly relieved that she hadn't called her 'sister' or 'mom' instead. And for one, even more fleeting moment, she thought that, maybe, it might not have been so bad if she had.
If she—and only she—hadn't messed up so much in so little time, at any rate.
"It was nice knowing all of you, too," she said softly.
Rainbow Dash gave a long stroke this time, starting from the nape of her neck. Rarity felt her tail twitch when her feathers reached her dock.
"I can bring them back to the Mirror Pool if you want," Rainbow Dash said, much more gently than she'd ever heard her sound.
"You never even went there."
And she knew the copies would get back there on their own; willingly. Entirely willingly. She could now boast that she shattered the dreams—the lives—of five ponies; she truly was in this world to make it shine brighter.
The sobs came back in full force. Rainbow Dash just kept going.
"...I can go with them and make sure they get back in there, then."
Her sobbing mercifully quieted down as she mused on this.
It would be nice if her doubles had somepony along to tell them goodbye. They simply couldn't leave this world all alone. And doing this herself would only be rubbing salt in the wound.
In six wounds.
"...You go do that." Please.
Rainbow Dash stood back up. She stayed there, next to her, for a few seconds; and then Rarity felt her wrap a foreleg around her withers in an awkward half-hug.
She was gone for good after that.
Rarity sighed and opened her eyes. The return of the light made them sting even more.
She looked around. There was nopony left in the streets. One point for Ponyville at least, against all odds: the townsponies didn't enjoy the sight of someone suffering. So they'd gone back to attending their business of the day.
And if Rainbow Dash hadn't been there for her, one of them would have stepped up to the task. Simple as that.
So, she was left alone. Alone with her mistakes, her guilt and the beat of her heart. It ticked the seconds by; like a faithful little clock to that wretched deadline that started it all.
...Or perhaps, like gears grinding as something clicked into place.
Rainbow Dash.
Mirror Pool.
Rainbow Dash.
Mirror Pool.
More than one Rainbow Dash.
Mirror Pool.
So many Rainbow Dashes.
Mirror pool.
All of the Rainbow Dashes.
Her eye twitched. She heard a familiar, obnoxious, so very smug spoing as one single hair stuck out of her mane.
She sprung back to her hooves and, once more, she ran off after them.
Rarity watched the last copy step into the pond. The first double, she was still sure of it.
She gave Rarity a sad smile. The whole cave shone brighter one last time, before she took her next steps and vanished beneath the surface. A little bit like the last sliver of light before the sun finally set.
Rarity sighed.
Rainbow Dash stood by her side, one wing wrapped around her barrel. Hugging her a little tighter every time she shook. Every time a copy left for good.
She was the mare of the day, no doubt.
Ah, no, perhaps some doubt was allowed, because it was rather she, Rarity, who'd been the stark opposite of just that. Her copies had been the mares of the day in some ways as well, no doubt; or at least they'd made someone's day today.
Unlike she.
She'd thought—genuinely believed—that Rainbow Dash would drag a copy of her own back to Ponyville. Yes, she'd been most enamored with how she looked in that dress, that had been as plain as day. But that didn't remotely excuse the utter lack of faith she'd put in her.
Well. She had been right about one thing in this whole debacle, at least. That dress was indeed her best work, light blue was indeed the right hue for the lucky mare's coat and only one color indeed didn't do it for the mane.
The accessories and makeup added by her... sisters, perhaps? At any rate, they worked like a charm. She'd always known that Rainbow Dash could become nothing less than sublime with the proper care, but the actual result left her imagination miles behind in the dust.
She wasn't really looking forward to discovering exactly what the mares had done to her home, though. The front door, her closet, her jewelry box... they'd all been locked tight; and that last one was very well hidden to boot.
They'd picked the perfect choices to bring out the best of Rainbow Dash, in any case. Funny. She'd never have pegged her as a pearl or diamond mare.
She sighed again. Rainbow Dash drew her a little closer.
She watched her reflection ripple in the water. Her copies were gone. All five of them.
Steven Magnet emerged back from beneath the quiet stream. He gently ran his thumb along the worn amphora in his hands, something like fond nostalgia in his eyes.
"Coltinthian wine from the last vintage before the city fell." He stabbed his forefinger through the cork. "The bottom of this river has simply the best temperature for ancient pegasus wines."
He opened the amphora with a wet pop and then flicked his fingers. The cork landed near the table and bounced out of sight.
"I was saving it for a special occasion." He filled the two glasses. "And what could possibly be a more special occasion than a dinner with you, Miss Rarity?"
