Darkly Familiar

Dear Diary,

Since my little Spikey Wikey is still off in Canterlot, I’ve lost a great deal of much needed assistance for the time being. Fortunately, Twilight herself offered to come by and fill in for Spike while he’s gone. How very kind of her.

She’s at least more organized than Sweetie Belle. I love my little sister, but sometimes she really can’t be much more than a silly filly. And she’ll be a better live model than Pinkie Pie with all her unceasing bouncing.

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Pinkie at all recently. Not since I had to regrettably decline her last party invitation do to a rush order from Sapphire Shores. I wonder what’s keeping her so busy. Maybe Twilight knows. I’ll ask her when next I can dwell on it.

Stay fabulous darling.

-Rarity

***

“Thank you ever so much for helping me today Twilight. And you even brought gems with you!” Rarity smiled at Twilight, who currently had a small cart strapped to her, in which there was a significant amount of gems. Twilight smiled right back at Rarity, but it seemed as though there might have been an infinitesimal twitch in one of her eyes when she did.

“I wrote Spike a letter yesterday asking if he would mind if you had a few of his excess gems to work on some dresses. He didn’t object one little bit.” Twilight giggled, though she laughed at Spike’s true fate and not the fake answer she assumed he would have given if she hadn’t already disposed of him.

Rarity smiled again at Twilight, then helped her move all the gems inside and to the various chests Rarity would use to house them. Twilight smiled and mockingly wiped sweat off her brow, hiding her dark smile behind her hoof as she did, when the last gem was in place.

“Now, allow me show you around. I obviously know you’ve been by before now, but you were never this involved in my process before now.” Rarity gestured upstairs to her workshop, and Twilight happily nodded and trotted after Rarity.

It took just under two hours for Rarity to explain and demonstrate every piece of equipment that was involved in her dress making process, from the actual sewing machine she controlled with her magic, to the clotheslines she had set in specific areas outside Carousel Boutique. The entire time, Twilight paid careful attention and took detailed notes, which both amused and impressed Rarity.

For the next 6 hours after that, Twilight helped Rarity draw and redo the basic designs of several distinct dresses, modelling herself a couple of times as well, eventually only stopping when even their magic wasn’t bright enough to illuminate the room anymore. As Twilight and Rarity carefully set aside what could disturb their designs until tomorrow, Rarity made a proposition to Twilight.

“Why don’t you stay here for the time being Twilight? It would cut down on your commute time greatly, and it must be lonely with only Owlowiscious in that big Library.” Rarity put on a light pout as she asked Twilight, trying to appear jokingly helpless without her nearby.

Twilight smiled to herself as she levitated her last quill into place, then made it appear more genuine as she turned around to answer Rarity.

“That’s so nice of you Rarity. I’d love to stay over if it’s no great inconvenience. The Library is really lonely lately, and even emptier since Owlowiscious is out hunting right now.” Twilight smiled as she imagined her Owl out and about, probably still enjoying the meal of phoenix meat that he’d had recently.

After a last cup of tea, Twilight and Rarity both headed off to bed. After about two hours in Rarity’s guest room, Twilight quietly left its confines and set about starting her next plan. As Twilight trotted up to the lone sewing machine, she smiled maniacally yet again as her dark magic appeared around her horn.

***

Dear Diary,

I feel as though I might need to make another appointment with our local Optometrist. These glasses I have now are definitely not strong enough anymore if I let so many minor mistakes slip by me un-noticed.

I should thank Celestia that the mistakes weren’t more severe. Fortunately, Hoity is still in love with my work, so he still accepted the slightly off work and ordered another half dozen dresses from me. He did warn me that it was his customers and not him who might disapprove if the mistakes continue though.

Twilight seemed quite emotional over the whole situation. That mare needs to get spa treatments a lot more often than she does. I assured her none of it was her fault. How could it have been anyway? No matter how much I trust her, she still only does sketches and modelling for the time being.

If mistakes are making it past my eyes though, maybe I ought to employ Twilight more into the overall process. She checks everything more keenly than every other pony I know, even myself apparently.

If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to teach Twilight about stitching gems on so she can help me finish my Baltimare order.

-Rarity

***

Twilight carefully threaded each and every stitch she did with a gem, focusing so intensely she was nearly likely to make the dresses spontaneously combust if she focused any harder. Rarity smiled as she realized just how truly dedicated Twilight was to helping her with her work this week.

Rarity returned to focusing solely on her own stitch work, giving Twilight an opportunity to plaster a smirk on her face as she lifted and attached yet another one of her special gems after she had just finished attaching 2 real gems to the dress, making sure to change her pattern often enough to avoid detection when the final product appeared.

An hour later, both Twilight and rarity had finished their share of the gem stitching. After carefully gathering what remained of the loose gems and their other supplies, the two moved to hang the dresses carefully on the clothesline Rarity had said would let the gems colour blend most easily with the dresses natural colours.

The rest of the day passed with simply more sketching and light modelling, ending earlier than usual when the sun began to set that night. Rarity instructed Twilight they had to take these kinds of dresses down from the line now, or their colours would blend too darkly for the type of event they had been ordered for.

As Twilight levitated the last dress down, she minutely turned it to admire it in proper lighting. Seeing small dark blotches were she had expected them made her smile wide. Rarity saw this, but merely took it as being an expression of Twilight’s pride over her first gem stitched dress.

***

Dear Diary,

What’s happening to the quality of my work lately? Today alone I had 3 dresses returned for ‘discolouration’. I had never seen those dark blotches beneath some of the gems up to and including the moment they left my line of sight.

Is it the gems I chose? Were they impure or fake perhaps? The pattern is never the same for the blotches on the returned dresses, so I can’t put it together. Maybe it’s a prank by those dastardly Diamond Dogs.

I just hope I can repair this blow to my reputation too. It hurts even more when it’s one of the dresses Twilight worked on that’s returned. They’re no worse or better overall than ones I worked on alone, but I know she doesn’t have the same sort of nerves about criticism that I have now. She also looks like she’s not sleeping well.

I’ll make it up to her. From today on, I’ll let her dye some of my fabric. That should help pick her spirits up. Maybe it’ll help pick mine up too.

-Rarity

***

Twilight slowly lifted up and soaked the various pieces of fabric beside her into the different vats of dye Rarity had left her in charge of with her magic. The work was slow and calculated. Rarity had plenty of replacements in case of a mistake, but Twilight was determined to not waste a single piece of fabric.

As Twilight removed yet another article from a vat that currently contained sky blue dye, she flared her magic around it, scrunching it to an invasive shade of orange for less than a split instant. Twilight then laid it over the nearby clothes line to let any excess drip off into the tub below, as Rarity had taught her to.

Twilight slowly manipulated each colour until no fabric she dyed followed any sort of colour co-ordination underneath its current false shade. After finishing her own work, Twilight went and watched Rarity work on her own dyeing. Twilight simply watched as Rarity flowed seamlessly between each piece of fabric.

Within 3 hours, Rarity had finished dyeing almost three times the amount of fabric that Twilight had in 5 hours. Once Rarity too had put her last piece on the clothesline, she got up from her current place, stretched for a moment, and then urged Twilight inside for dinner.

Hours later, the typical pattern of tea and bed occurred again, with Twilight sneaking out of her room yet again. This time, Twilight had work to do outside though. As she looked at all the dyes in the dark of night, she felt yet another maniacal smile plaster her face.

***

Dear Diary,

I’ve lost it. I’ve lost my Special Talent.

Not a single dress I’ve made recently can be called anything short of a disaster. Photo Finish and Hoity Toity both refuse to have anything to do with me, and Sapphire Shores publicly berated my current dresses, urging no one to trust my work, past, present, or future.

Even Sweetie Belle is suffering from my work. She’s come home crying 3 times this week alone. I talked to Cheerilee about it, but I doubt it’ll make a difference. Nopony in town trusts me anymore after what Sapphire said.

I even sent Twilight home. There’s no need to drag her name down with mine in all this. And the way things are still going, I’ll never be able to climb my way out of this.

I’m thinking of selling the shop and sending Sweetie home to Mom and Dad. I’m a pariah, and it’s starting to get too dangerous to keep a filly around me. I even needed stitches on my right front hoof the other day. My sewing machine took off on me and drove itself halfway through my hoof.

I guess none of the girls will trust me either. None of them have come by through all this. Even Pinkie and Twi-

***

Rarity stopped writing as she felt an immense pain in her chest. Looking down, she saw a unicorn’s horn impaled through her heart. Her eyes widened and her breathing became panicked as she saw the aura around the horn fade, and some of her dye came running off the horn and onto her fur. The dye changed colours from purple to black after a few seconds on Rarity’s fur.

Rarity’s eyes widened even further as she saw this. She knew now. Her failed projects were the result of somepony else and not her own loss of skill. But who would do this to her? Rarity had to know.

Using what strength she could muster, Rarity slowly began to turn her head to the side. Once she had turned it as far as she could, she was finally able to see the flank of the one who had done this to her. Rarity’s breath stopped as she spied the Cutie Mark of her tormentor. It was a star with six points on a purple flank.

“Twilight…..Why?” Rarity weakly asked Twilight as her breathing became more strained, her vision beginning to blur towards the end.

Twilight smiled darkly, and quickly removed her horn entirely from Rarity’s chest. Rarity gasped and flailed about, trying to steady herself as her strength fully left her. Rarity stumbled off her hooves and landed on her injured right front hoof, gasping in pain as her stiches re-opened. Twilight trotted forward to stand over Rarity.

“You were generous Rarity. The most generous pony I’ve ever known. I love that about you, but….it also led to this. I couldn’t stop it again….I hope you can forgive me….It isn’t the Twilight you know that does these things…” Twilight cried as she explained herself to Rarity, knowing her friend had no reason to forgive or believe her.

Rarity tried to lift a hoof up to Twilight, but her vision suddenly went dark, and her hoof collapsed loosely against her side. A second later, her breathing stopped, and Rarity’s eyes lost their light.

Twilight cried openly for a few more seconds, before she stifled it and teleported herself and Rarity’s body to the highest peak of the nearby mountain. Storing Rarity’s body within what remained of the abandoned treasure of the dragon she had helped to send away, Twilight let an expression of melancholy adorn her face instead of her usual dark smile. Turning around from Rarity’s new resting place, she trotted forward a few steps, before teleporting herself home to begin anew her plans for her remaining friends.