"Well, quite frankly, it's no surprise that he took such a liking to me!" Rarity gleefully chirped. With a telekinetic heave, she lifted three yellow roses from their pots in the back of a tiny wagon and levitated them over to a small bed dug out of the ground before the Carousel Boutique. "What amazes me is just how swiftly he fell head over hooves!"
"Oh really?" Fluttershy remarked with a rosy-cheeked smile. Using her golden wingtips as a fan, she wiped the sweat from her brow before gracefully accepting the flowers betwixt two forelimbs. Gently, she laid the sunkissed roses down into the earth, forming a neat line of floral yellow around the edge of the Boutique's sidewalk. "I thought you two had only met to discuss a new line of uniforms..."
"Oh, Captain Hailstorm most certainly needed my expertise in the production of proper dress for his troops," Rarity said. Her sides softly brushed past Fluttershy as she leaned in to pat the dirt in tight around the flowers with a floating garden shovel. "What neither of us knew was just how much he needed another pony to talk to. Why, our dashing stallions of this kingdom sure do put on a brave show for the sake of national security, but a great deal of that is just a hollow facade, Fluttershy. After all, behind every helmet and bonnet alike there's a lonely soul just dying for some comfort."
"And... did you... erm..." Fluttershy fidgeted. "...c-comfort, him?"
"Fluttershy!" Rarity gasped at the mare, almost dropping her tiny shovel altogether. The sun glittered across her blue eyes as her expression wrinkled under the shroud of an elegant sunhat. "Why, whatever do you take me for, my dear! I am a lady!" She upturned her nose as she levitated another throng of yellow roses to add to the garden. "And a lady is most concerned with another soul's well-being, first and foremost... erm... no matter the quality nor the length of time it takes to engage said individual in intimate discourse."
"Just how long did you spend talking with Captain Hailstorm?"
"Ehhh..." Rarity smiled nervously. "We parted ways shortly after three in the morning."
"Three in the morning?!" Fluttershy gasped, pivoting to face her with a gawking expression. "Rarity, why... that is nearly seven hours after meeting to discuss uniforms!"
"Mmmm... yes..." Rarity tongued the inside of her grinning cheeks as she focused on the yellow roses in front of the two. "I suppose we did 'hit it off well...'"
"Rarity..."
"With a merciful bludgeon of fate worthy of propelling one's heart to the moon!" Rarity said with a brief, unseemly squeal. "We are meeting again for dinner on Tuesday!" she blurted.
Fluttershy's eyes blinked wider. "Tuesday?! Doesn't Captain Hailstorm have to guard over Her Majesty Princess Celestia?"
"That's just it! He had chosen to take his leave of absence earlier this year!"
"Since when?"
"Since he met me, of course!" Rarity grinned. After Fluttershy's breathless response, she warmly regaled her with, "Oh, Fluttershy, you should hear him. Beneath that chiseled exterior is a warm soul with a voice of honey, who loves to quote poetry and sing songs from simpler, more romantic times. He's a classicist, you know! An old fashioned pony at heart who's well-versed with Steinbuck and Hemingwhinny and Fitzgallop! Oh, I just know I will talk him through the floor about For Whom the Bull Trots..."
"Oh, Rarity..." Fluttershy shook her head with a helpless smile. "I'm so happy for you. You look absolutely glowing."
"Mmmm! I am, aren't I?" Rarity turned to grin at Fluttershy. "Which is exactly why I so ardently wish to spend this blissful afternoon with a dear friend like you. This is a time to enjoy life and add to the beauty around us!"
"Is that why you don't mind being so sweaty?" Fluttershy stifled a giggle. "Gardening can be strenuous work, you know."
Rarity gave a flippant laugh. "The less you remind me of perspiration, the better, darling." With a felicitous smile, she stared more evenly at the yardwork. "Now, you said that you had something 'extra special' to spruce up the front of my Boutique?"
"Oh, yes, Rarity! I do..." Fluttershy got up and pushed the wagon over with her forehead, showing a line of daisies occupying the rearmost spot of the vehicle. "I think these... uhm... will look really nice right near the entrance to your front door. What do you think?"
"Ohhhh, Fluttershy!" Rarity cooed as she levitated one pot, then a second out from the wagon. "So delicate and full of life! Just like you!" She laughed with a sing-song tone and positioned them by the last open spot of the garden’s freshly-dug trench. "Such a generous gift! Why, they're simply darling!"
"...and on top of the dresses for the Hearth's Warming Pageant, I have winter gear to fashion for Cheerilee's fillies' chorus." Rarity said over the rumbling sound of her sewing machine. "They'll be singing outside the front gates to Trottingham Manor! No need for the poor little urchins to catch cold, after all..."
"Aren't you exhausted, Rarity?" Fluttershy remarked in a breath of concern. Outside the tall ornate window of the Carousel Boutique, snow flurried wildly beneath starry night. Trembling slightly, Fluttershy cradled a mug of hot cocoa closer to her muzzle. "I swear, it's as if you've been working all week."
"That's because I have been, dear," Rarity droned, her eyes thinning behind her bifocals as she focused hard on her work. "I've got a schedule to keep, after all. Fear not, though. I can hear everything you say. I'm multi-faceted, after all. I can concentrate on two things at once when I've caught the wind of inspiration."
"Well, yes, I understand. It's just that..." Fluttershy looked across the empty lengths of the Boutique. "Didn't you have an arrangement with Captain Hailstorm this evening? I can't even remember the last time I saw him."
"That's because we are no longer an item, dear..."
Fluttershy gasped as if her dainty yellow chest had been dealt a bullet. "You... br-broke up?"
"To use such a term would suggest that there was something inherently brittle or hard about our parting of ways." Rarity paused to bequeath Fluttershy a calm smile over her shoulder. "Don't be so concerned, darling. I saw our inevitable schism months in advance. The only problem is: he didn't, which is why I had to do things so... delicately."
"But that's... I mean you..." Fluttershy gulped and bit her lip. "How did he take it?"
"Now, don't look as though you've broken water, Fluttershy!" Rarity gave an airy laugh. She turned the machine off and walked across the Boutique to grab a few more lengths of silk. She paused to pat the pegasus gently on the shoulder. "While that expression is most becoming, it certainly doesn't fit the mood of the moment. Trust me..." She approached the wall and started levitating several soft spools of fabric down with her horn. "There was simply no way he could have taken it except for the way that I wanted him to. After all, I had put up with the good Captain's superficial charms and flatheaded oafishness for months on end. The fact that I let go of him so gracefully is something he should be eternally grateful for."
"Oh, Rarity..." Fluttershy sighed with a long face. "If... If I had known that you were so unhappy, I... I-I would have done something... I-I would have said something!"
"Now now, none of that!" Rarity spun around with an upturned chin. "You have been utterly supportive of all my endeavors since day one, Fluttershy, just like a true and honorable friend! I have nopony to blame but myself for letting things linger as they did." She smiled as she trotted back to her sewing machine, levitating the spools of silk along with her. "Besides, I am most exceedingly better off!"
"You are...?"
"Why, of course, dear!" Rarity flung a scarf over her dainty neck and settled into place before her machinery. "I count this all as a learning experience! If ever I should be charmed by a stallion's wit again, I'll be sure I think with my mind as much as with my heart!"
"I just can't stand the thought of you being alone, Rarity," Fluttershy said, trotting closer to her. "After... my goodness... seven monthsof close companionship?"
"Oh, Fluttershy..." Rarity turned to smile softly at the pegasus. "I do believe I am the last pony for you to worry over..."
"So, with four dozen outfits going to six boutiques apiece, that officially covers the west end of Canterlot!" Rarity shouted over the sound of soaring wings and cheering ponies. She fidgeted with mild discomfort, scooting tighter under the shadow of a propped umbrella as she adjusted a pair of wide-rimmed shades over her white face. "All things considered, it's a dream come true, although the constant toil of designing dresses has somewhat diluted the thrill of the moment."
"Still, that's so wonderful to hear, Rarity!" Fluttershy exclaimed. She had to lean in for her voice to register any meaning under the roar of throttling pegasi. All around them, a squirming audience of ponies from all trots of life cheered and hollered. Above the crowd, several pegasi in blue and yellow jumpsuits performed rapid tricks, spiraling through the glowing sky while letting loose dazzlings streams of electrified smoke flares. "After all these years, your work has finally paid off! How does it feel?"
"Hmmm..." Rarity wearily smiled, gazing up as a pony with a spectral-colored tail took front and center of the daredevilish group. "You mean how does it feel to be worked through to the bone?" She beamed and waved excitedly at the team captain as she roared past the cheering stands. "Positively exhausting, to say the least."
"But you must be proud to have gotten so much accomplished!" Fluttershy said, her eyes glued to Rainbow Dash's flight team as they banked around the far end of the lofty stadium. "Sooner than you know it, you'll be collecting more bits than you can even count! Imagine all the diamonds you could buy with that money! That's always been your dream... hasn't it?"
"Oh, Fluttershy..." Rarity leaned back under the cool shade of her umbrella. "The only diamond I'd ever want is the one I wouldn't have to buy for myself. You know that, darling."
Fluttershy blinked. Squirming, she asked, "Has he... uhm... has he said anything since the last time you had dinner together?"
"’Said anything?' But of course!" Rarity tossed her mane. "The stallion is full of words! Just like all of them! No matter how extravagant his vocabulary or poetic his syntax, it still amounts to the same pile of banal excrement... erm..." Rarity blushed profusely. "If you do pardon the uncouth analogy..."
Fluttershy nodded with a soft smile. "Consider yourself excused, Rarity."
The fashionista sighed and sat closer to her friend. "Sometimes, I do tire of being led on so. Mostly because I am fully aware of just how much I let him lead me on."
"Rarity, if you know how much he likes to play with your emotions, then why do you let him?" Fluttershy asked.
"It's my own fault for having allowed business and acquaintance to mix so thoroughly," Rarity said in a loathsome tone. "After all, I saw the warning signs clearly the first time I ever met Fancy Pants. His taste in mares is like his taste in brandy, swift and goes down hard." Rarity's blue eyes bugged, and she hid her features with a shading hoof. "My stars, I am simply full of boorish epithets today..."
Fluttershy giggled lightly. "I think it helps to let loose a little bit."
"I blame this environment!" Rarity groaned, gesturing towards the crowded stands around them. "I swear, when will Rainbow Dash perform for Princess Twilight?! Or the Council of Trottingham?!"
"Because... th-then Fancy Pants would be likely to attend?" Fluttershy added, wincing.
"Don't you worry, Fluttershy," Rarity grumbled, nevertheless sitting up with a proud smile on her lips. "I respect myself far too much to allow this charade to go on for much longer. If Fancy Pants does not propose, then I am simply going to take my business elsewhere and find myself a stallion who will respect me for my heart as much as for my bits!"
Rarity dropped her bowl of ice cream with a rattling crash before letting loose a guttural moan into her forelimbs. "I am an incorrigible train wreckkkkk!" She tossed her disheveled mane and wailed heavily.
Fluttershy winced. "Rarity, please! Don't be so hard on yourself!" She leaned across the couch before the balcony of the luscious eighth story Canterlot apartment and nuzzled her bedrobe'd friend. "You know I hate it when you call yourself such horrible things!"
"But it's truuue!" Rarity hissed through her teeth. With puffy eyes, she blinked tearfully at Fluttershy. "It's a horrible, vicious cycle with me! First Captain Hailstorm! Then Fancy Pants! Then the Duke of Elfwhinny... and now..." She sniffed. "Now..." She sniffled again. "Hoity Toityyyyyyyy-Nghhheeeeeughhhh!" She fell in a satin heap across the edge of the sofa.
Fluttershy gave her a soft hug from behind. "Oh, Rarity..."
"Mmmmmff—Why couldn't h-he have just been honest with me from the start?! Why are stallions such terrible, hideous liars?! All of them!" The fashionista hiccuped and spasmed, her tears forming a tiny stain on the edge of the sofa cushions. "All those months... he could have t-told me that he didn't care at all for mares! What?! Was I s-supposed to somehow read into it myself?!"
Fluttershy took the blind opportunity to wince. Swiftly, she composed herself and uttered, "It's no use blaming ourselves when other ponies refuse to be upfront and honest..."
"I know! Isn't that the truth?!" Rarity shot up in her friend's grasp. Her wet face frowned towards the starlight beyond the rich Canterlot estate. "After all these years, after all of the bits I've earned, after all of the boutiques that I've opened in my name... is a modicum of respect the least that I can ask for in this... this..."
"Let it out, Rarity—"
"...in this detritus of an economic environment?!" Rarity spat, kicking her discarded bowl of ice cream with just enough force to bend a straw.
Fluttershy sat blankly for a few seconds before breathily exclaiming, "Woohoo... you go, filly...!" She smiled, proud of herself.
But Rarity was pacing angrily at this point. "From now on, I swear on my mother and father's graves, I will no longer be a mare tied down to romance and unrequited love!" Her blue eyes brightened, melting the tears away as she smiled with a savage grin. "Yes! Most assuredly, I shall embark upon a new campaign of independence and personal renaissance!" She spun with a dramatic pose in the starlight. "From now on, Fluttershy, Lady Rarity is her own mare and nopony else's!"
"And then, last Friday at the opera, Thunderlane whispered three dear words to me while we sat waiting for the curtains to rise."
Fluttershy lowered the teacup from her lips. She blinked across the sunlight wafting in through the open panes of the rooftop greenhouse. "Oh? Dare... d-dare I ask what words they were?"
"What words do you think, darling?" Rarity said, her voice raspy from the same years that had drawn hard lines across her ivory features. She sat back in her chair, sighing as she magically fiddled with the ends of an ornately stitched shawl. "How like a stallion to spring them at the most awkward and unexpected time..."
Fluttershy blinked. She cracked a smile, albeit accompanied by a nervous breath. "Why, Rarity, that's... that's fantastic!" A beat. She gulped and leaned forward across the table full of dainty saucers and sandwiches. "Isn't it...?"
Rarity exhaled through her nostrils. She brushed aside several sprawling notes of dress designs and elaborate gowns only halfway sketched. "Oh, you know how it is."
"I... uh... I-I don't think I do."
"Fifteen years prior, most surely, my heart would have positively fluttered through my throat upon hearing him say such a thing." She gave a flighty chuckle. "Or any dashing stallion, to say the least." She lifted a teacup to her lips while squinting knowingly at Fluttershy. "And you and I both know that Mr. Thunderlane has kept good care of his 'dashing' qualities throughout the years."
Fluttershy chuckled and simply nodded.
Rarity took a sip and gazed off into the colorful garden filling the lengths of the greenhouse. Two servants on the far end of the sun-lit chamber were attending to rose bushes. Not a single bud had been plucked. The fashionista's eyes followed the gardeners' watering motions with bland interest, like threading a needle through green silk from afar.
"The thing is, Fluttershy, he... he told me that he loved me... and all I could think about was when the opera would end that evening," Rarity said in a cold tone. "Because my mind was full of all the orders put in place for my latest shipments to Bostrot and Chicacolt. On top of that, there's the bundle of griffon silk I'm still trying to get transported here from beyond the eastern shore, and there's this gown for the cute-ceañera of Twilight's daughter that I still have to design..."
"You... weren't moved by his words at all?" Fluttershy asked.
Rarity shrugged... shrugged again... then said, "I simply can't afford to fall in love right now, Fluttershy. I've wanted it for... for as long as I can remember. And yet..." She smiled placidly. "It just doesn't fit me. It's like a woolen sweater that's gone through a cold rinse, and I can't slip my forelimbs through without feeling choked... suffocated... starved..."
"Thunderlane has never struck me as the sort of stallion to... erm... smother the mare that he takes a liking to."
"Yes, but that's the funny thing about stallions, dear." Rarity placed the teacup down and folded her forelimbs. "I've discovered that they too have the capacity to change. I know it's hard to believe, but—given enough years—they can turn out to be true saints." She gulped. "It just... happens to be too many years too late..."
"Oh Rarity..."
"Never fret, Fluttershy." Rarity gazed at her softly. "For, you see, I've changed too. It's taken quite a bit of unnecessarily vacillating, but I've come to the point where I realize the truth about myself."
"And what is that?"
Her teeth showed through a porcelain smile. "That all I need in life is my success."
"Thirteen years old, can you believe it?!" Rarity called across the office of the busy workshop as she levitated several fashion blueprints in front of her. "She's got a music note for a cutie mark, just like her mother!" Rarity smiled proudly as she hoofed through one design after another and finally pointed at one, to which a pair of finely suited stallions subordinately nodded. "I'm telling you, Fluttershy, Sweetie Belle had better give birth to a stallion or at this rate her husband's never going to have an engineer to follow in his hoofsteps!"
"I think it's absolutely fantastic news, Rarity!" Fluttershy said, smiling from where she sat daintily in a plush seat in the far corner of the office. Her ears flicked from the thunderous noise of mass-produced sewing machines channelling through the lofty room's door. As soon as Rarity's assistants were gone, it was once again silent enough to hear a pin drop in the factory's roost. "I swear, they should consider becoming a traveling music troupe! Wouldn't that be just... nice?"
"Oh, five years ago, Sweetie might have contemplated that," Rarity said as she shuffled slowly on weary limbs towards her desk. It took her the better part of two minutes to sit down. "Mmmfff... after all, the darling isn't exactly a spring mare anymore. I think she's starting to feel it's time to settle where she's at in Baltimare. For heaven's sake, who can blame her?! After four foals, I'm surprised her legs haven't completely fallen off!" She slumped back in her seat and rubbed a tired hoof across her forehead. "Thirteen years old and already having her cute-ceañera. Blessed Luna, Fluttershy, it feels like just yesterday when I was designing a gown for Twilight's daughter!"
"She's come back home safely from her diplomatic trip to the Minotaur Kingdom," Fluttershy said.
"Hmmm? Who has?"
"Star Prism. Twilight's daughter."
"No, darling, I was referring to Twilight's first daughter, Moondancer—Nnngh..." Rarity facehoofed, ultimately chuckling into her limb. "My stars, it doesn't really matter much, does it?" She pivoted to toss Fluttershy a crooked smile from across the office. "I swear, if it isn't years that have spread between us, it most certainly is little bouncing babies..."
Fluttershy smiled. "I didn't realize you thought so much about our friends' children."
"Mmmm... it's rather hard not to," Rarity said, swiveling in her chair to face more blueprints strung across her office like disheveled wallpaper. "There are truly, truly so many of them. I almost..." She paused, biting on her lip.
"Yes, Rarity?" Fluttershy leaned forward. "You almost what?"
Rarity took a deep breath. Eventually, she said, "I wonder how many ponies will remember me in twenty years, Fluttershy..."
"What?" Fluttershy produced an awkward smile. "Rarity, you're the most fashionable pony in all of Equestria! Your designs are on the rack of every boutique in the country! Why, it'd... it'd be criminal for a pony not to know your name!"
"Yes... but what of forty years from now? Or sixty? One hundred?"
Fluttershy's brow furrowed. "I... uh... I-I'm afraid that I don't understand..."
"Neither do I, darling. But I feel, Fluttershy. I feel..." She bit her lip, fidgeting. "I feel... cold. Like a damp wash in the winter that I've forgotten to dry." She hung her head to the side with a slight grimace. "Over time, the fabric gets... sour... smells like vinegar and ruin." She gulped. "Even the finest silk can get spoiled... by neglect..."
"Do you feel neglected, Rarity?"
"Mmm... I would be the last one to claim such, darling," Rarity said with a soft smile. "But it is still entirely possible to neglect oneself in spite of all that's been gained. I like to tell myself that everything has been worth it, but... I'm starting to feel that a fine dress suits a single soiree, not the fashionable lengths of a changing, shifting century..."
"Rarity, you are larger than legend," Fluttershy earnestly said. "I'm quite certain that, a hundred years from now, ponies will still be talking about you."
"Yes..." Rarity chewed on her lip. "But will they be talking about me... respectfully...?"
"I... I-I visited town again," Rarity said, fumbling to trot over the garden path outside a lush manor in Trottingham. "Just last week. Ponyville, that is..."
Fluttershy looked aside, her graying mane cut into a short bob. "Is that the first time since—"
"Pinkie's funeral, yes. It's hard to find joy in that town these days, especially since Apple Bloom took the family business to a whole new—Unngh!" She nearly tripped.
Gasping silently, Fluttershy caught her with an outstretched wing. "Be careful, Rarity—!"
"Blasted landscapers!" Rarity grumbled, the frayed edges of her mane showing beneath a floral-printed headpiece. "All of their digging of the muck and the earth... and they c-can't keep a single Celestia-forsaken sidewalk even! Why, I would trade all of these infernal rose bushes for... for... ehm... not quite sure, exactly. But something other than this!"
"I like old sidewalks," Fluttershy said with a gentle smile, effortlessly helping Rarity along as the two mares trotted slowly side by side in the afternoon sun. "They have such... character to them. You can see all the lives that had trotted over them over the past. It's quaint."
"Darling, if you had the opportunity, you would like every single living thing on this earth."
Fluttershy chuckled. "Old habits die hard."
"Mmm... yes. For better or for worse," Rarity grumbled. Blearily, she blinked ahead of them. "Curses... now just where was I...?"
"You were talking about your visit to Ponyville—"
"Yes! But of course! Ahem... and who should I see while I was there, sizing up the local quilt work of the downtown bazaar?"
"I give up. Who...?"
Rarity's snow-white lips curved, losing their wrinkles temporarily. "Why, Spikey-Wikey, of course..."
Fluttershy gasped. "Spike?!"
"Indeed..."
"Why... after all these years, he must be the size of a house!"
"Two of them, and he'd fit them rather well, if he was shown the door," Rarity said with a dry chuckle. "He wasn't alone, either. He had come to visit Moondancer, and he had two whelps with him. They were about as tiny as our old scaled friend was when Twilight first showed up in town. I greatly suspect they’re a lucky dragonette’s litter."
"Awwwww..." Fluttershy cooed. "I would have given anything to have seen them."
"Oh, I took pictures, darling," Rarity said. "Or... at least... I think I did." Her face twisted momentarily, but she went back to her shuffling conversation. "Either way, it was the... eheh... most rare of occasions. Dragons migrate every month of every year, and even someone as noble as Spike can't afford to visit Ponyville just any day."
"Did he have anything to say to you? It must have been... oh... thirty years since the last time?"
"Well... like I said... I did see him, darling."
Fluttershy blinked. "But... you did talk to him, yes?"
Rarity took a deep breath. "I... I'm ashamed to say that I did not muster up the courage to do so."
"But, Rarity!" Fluttershy gasped. "It's our old friend! It would have done his spirit so much good to have seen an old acquaintance such as you!"
"Oh, Fluttershy. You know how the draconian heart is. He will be around for centuries after you or me..."
"But a soul is a soul, and it blossoms from friendship! I simply cannot believe that you wouldn't go forth and speak with him!"
"Can't you, though?"
"Rarity...?"
"Fluttershy, look at me..." Rarity shuffled around; her wrinkled features hung in a pale shadow. "Do I look anything remotely like the ravishing young mare that the youthful dragon used to fancy? Hmmm? Am I the same dashing businesspony that saw him off on his first migration decades ago?"
Fluttershy stared at her with a quivering lip. "Rarity. But... but..."
"I didn't want to put his hopes up, is all." Rarity mumbled, gazing into the flower bushes on either side of the path. "After all, by the time he comes back, well..." She bit her lip.
Her friend quietly gazed at her.
Rarity fumbled for words. When they came out, it was in a pitiful squeak, "I am so terribly exhausted from... feeling regret, Fluttershy. I... I really do not wish to set myself up for even more..."
"Rarity..." Fluttershy leaned in. "You have had a long and healthy life. You have enjoyed a fabulous, successful career. What’s more, you are still... st-still every bit as beautiful and graceful as you ever were..."
"You're right, Fluttershy." Rarity smiled, though it was a brief thing. "Grace and beauty has not left me. But, even with all the fashion lines and servants and gardeners at my disposal..." She paused, and her face melted into another grimace. "I look back, and I remember the generous mare that gave that darling dragon whelp bow ties and gemstones..." Rarity hesitated. "...and I wonder... if there was a time when I stopped giving?"
"Rarity..."
"Not just Spike, but... so many ponies... so many stallions..." She shuddered. "I-I gave my money, my time, my talents, and several pieces of my mind." A painful wince rolled through her delicate features. "...but m-my heart?"
"Rarity, your talents are your heart," Fluttershy said. "And you've spent all your years doing nothing but giving that very special part of you, even to the point of sacrificing what you yourself have wanted. I'd say that you never stopped being generous whatsoever..."
"But that's just the thing, Fluttershy. I... I so do wish to believe that. But, I don't think I have much time left... and..." Rarity gazed worriedly at her. "How can I lay my head down without knowing whether or not what I've done has been fruitful enough to warrant that belief?"
"Did... Did I...?" Rarity teetered forward, shivering. A yellow hoof tilted her back before she could fall off the edge of the bench. Snapping awake, she sat her weary bones against the back of the seat and gazed tiredly across the manor's garden, scattered with fallen leaves. "Did I ever tell you about the time that Spike had a birthday... and he gave me this fabulous, heart-shaped ruby?"
Fluttershy smiled, bundling herself up in a shawl as she squatted softly beside her friend. "I would love to hear about it, Rarity."
"It was shinier than a Canterlot diamond in a storefront display," Rarity rasped, her eyes as thin as her mane. "When... when it caught the light just right... it p-positively set the whole room on fire. I know that he didn't want to give the thing up, but the little gentledragon was so smitten with me, I could have asked f-for the world and he would have somehow put it on a platter at my doorstep. Heh... I was certainly cruel in those days, but when I would see him smile, I somehow knew... yes... I knew I made his whole week..."
"His whole month."
"Mmmm... most assuredly..."
"It's funny to think how much our lives revolved around each other," Fluttershy said. "It was as though we were... inseparable. It didn't matter if we were earth ponies or unicorns... pegasi or dragons... we all were meant to be together... to be destined friends..."
"You should know all about th-th-that, you precious little animal trainer," Rarity said with a curve to her lips. "Why, with your cottage full of ungainly little creatures and..." Just then, the mare froze, her eyes widening as if staring down a thunderstorm.
Fluttershy looked curiously at her. "Hmm? Rarity...?"
"Fluttershy...?"
"Yes?"
"What... Wh-what are you doing here?"
"You invited me over for the weekend, Rarity. Don't you remember?"
"I... I remember..." Rarity's chest rose and fell with sudden palpitation. "Animals... a rabbit... a most demonic little thing with pointed ears who loved to k-kick one's fetlocks. Angel... was his name. Whatever happened to him?"
"Hmmm? Who, Angel? Rarity, that was years and years ago..."
"Years... and years..." Rarity turned towards Fluttershy. "The... the cottage?"
"Yes, Rarity. I buried him behind in the back yard ages ago. Right beside a gorgeous little flower garden."
"But... You... Is the cottage still there?"
"I would certainly hope so," Fluttershy said with a smile. "I took a sky carriage from there just yesterday morning."
Rarity gasped as if struck by lightning. "You... you st-still live in that unsightly place?"
Fluttershy's brow furrowed. "Now, I do my best to tidy it up now and then—"
"Fluttershy, it... it is full of animals and birds and—"
"Well, not nearly as much anymore, Rarity. These days, it's usually just me, but I'm doing quite fine—"
"No, you are most certainly n-not doing fine!" Rarity snapped, starting to hyperventilate. "Fluttershy, darling you... tell me that you're not..." Her breath lowered into wheezing squeaks. A tear ran down her cheek, then another. "You're so beautiful, Fluttershy. Such grace... such poise... How can you possibly be so alone?"
"Rarity..."
"A mare of your quality, of your elegance! It's shameful!" Rarity clenched her jaw shut as another tear ran down her face. "It's downright shameful for you to be so alone! After all these years... like ashes falling loose from a fireplace! I... I can't stand for it!"
"Rarity, look at me..." Fluttershy took Rarity's hooves in her own.
"I will not, you hear! You deserve so much more! I... I-I could have g-given you so much more—"
"Look at me..." Fluttershy fought their mutual trembles long enough to raise the mare's forelimbs until they felt the warmth of her wrinkled cheeks. She gave her a smile that melted the autumn breeze away. "I have never been alone. Do you understand me?" Her eyes curved as she murmured, "Not for a single second..."
Rarity breathed a little easier. Nonetheless, her body teetered from an invisible wind. "You... you haven't?"
"Mmm-mmm..." Fluttershy shook her head and gently placed Rarity's hooves back down. "Would I lie to you?"
"No... I shan't even suspect you of such..." Rarity said with a firm nod. "You are my friend... and a lady... and a lady does not tell a lie..."
"No..." Fluttershy remarked, her smile never leaving. "No, she does not."
"It's... It's rather breezy today... with all the leaves and... and..."
"I find it rather nice."
"Oh, darling, you find everything nice."
"Because everything is."
"Yes... yes I suppose so..." Rarity stifled a yawn. She shivered again, curling tighter against the back of the bench. "Fluttershy, dear, have I... erhm... have I ever told you about the time Spikey-wikey gave me this fabulous, heart-shaped ruby on his birthday?"
Fluttershy breathed in through a smile. She leaned over, wrapping a wing around Rarity's shoulder as she nuzzled her friend's mane softly. "I would love to hear about it, Rarity."
Her lone hoofsteps took her slowly, with the grace of falling snow, down a garden path and towards a small, emerald clearing. With several heavy breaths, Fluttershy eventually knelt down before a granite stone that reflected her weathered, yellow features.
Three blue gemstones were encrusted across the marble, and they glittered fabulously in the summer sun.
Reaching into her saddlebag, Fluttershy pulled loose a garden shovel and a pot of yellow-petal'd flowers. Leaning in, she spoke with a hoarse voice, hearing it echo back to her from the headstone's surface like the whisper from an old friend.
"I brought you a gift today, Rarity. Daisies, fresh from the market." She gently placed the pot down so that its reflection would shine as bright as diamonds. "I do believe that they'll blossom here fruitfully."
The old pegasus smiled with grace, a lone tear running down her rosy cheeks.
"You would love them. They're simply darling..."
Author's Note
