The Death of Loyalty

“He who wishes to secure the good of others, has already secured his own.”- Confucius

Rarity stood in front of her mannequins attempting to relight the spark of creativity that was so hard to find now. Her Boutique looked worse for wear with all her creations all in a heap. If it was a month ago, she would have scolded herself on keeping such a unkempt shop open for business. But, that was a month ago...before that.

She had started using sleeping pills to keep the nightmares away. She had always had issues sleeping because of her work, but only recently had there been dreams that came with it. Dreams of Ponyville drowning in blood.

“Oh Rarity, how I wish things were like before. So simple, so happy, so believable. Now I don’t know what to do.” the white unicorn moaned while staring at her dresses. Even the dresses had stopped giving her joy and now it just felt like work, not her dream. Her dream, her reality had changed after the trial.

“Poor Fluttershy, I hope she’s doing well. The poor dear has already suffered enough.”

Just then Sweetie Belle ran in. “Rarity! You won’t believe what happened!” Sweetie panted. She had run all the way to the shop just to tell Rarity the bad news.

“What? Did something happen to your friends?”

“No, Fluttershy was ran over by Big Mac and she’s in the hospital!.”

Rarity felt herself grow faint and hit the floor. She felt Sweetie Belle rush to her side and, at some point, felt water splash onto her face. She was shocked awake and the first thing she saw was the face of her sister holding a bucket.

“Rarity, we are going to be late and I want to see if Bloom will be there. It has been boring without her and Scoots has been not the most fun to hang out with. So allon-z!” Rarity had to wonder where her sister had learned that saying. She had been with Doctor Whooves a lot lately and when she came home she was usually unresponsive. Must be puberty. Rarity sighed, soon they would have to need that talk.

Rarity was soon drawn out of her reverie because they had arrived at the hospital and she trotted quickly and asked where Fluttershy’s room was.

“Room 14, be careful she had a fit earlier and was yelling about Rainbow Dash, but we gave her sedatives and believe it to be stress related. We are going to release her tomorrow because we already have done the best we can for her.” Nurse Redheart sighed.

Rarity was worried for the yellow pegasus. She had missed her last couple spa dates. It was understandable because of the circumstances, but Rarity missed the fun times with her quiet friend.

She was surprised to see Twilight already at Fluttershy’s side with her nose in a book.

“Hi, how is she?”

“Fine I guess. I may be a doctor of Magical Theory, but I am not a medical doctor. I have no idea about her mental health and the Magic Code forbids me from reading her mind.”

“Ok, how have you been?”

“Told off my teacher, no longer her personal student, the Elements are useless without a third of my friends. Just great. Why do you ask?” Twilight glared at the white unicorn.

“Just wondering, my dear, with all the things that happened lately how you were. Usually by now you would be worrying about the smallest things.”

“Thanks for bringing that up. Like I haven’t forgotten.” Twilight’s mind remembered the Smarty Pants Incident and realized that Big Mac had run off with it. “Oh, so that’s where it has been. I don’t need it any more. He can keep it.”

When Twilight snapped out of it, she discovered a note from Rarity.

Twilight,

I hope you will be okay, its been very difficult to get you to say more than a couple sentences now. Sorry I had to leave quickly, my sister was wanting to go to Sweet Apple Acres so I let her and I have to get back to my shop.

Your Friend,

Rarity

Rarity rushed back to her Boutique, not because she had work to do but because she felt there was something big happening. Something she wanted to stop as soon as possible.

She felt the premonitions in the hospital, she knew it had to be because of Twilight. It couldn’t be Fluttershy, she was too nice and could never hurt a fly. Just in case, she would have to spy on the both of them.

She had to or else something would happen to everypony.

Her motives were clear: protect the community in secret.

“Well I guess Mare-Do-Well has a purpose again.”

Outside the shop, the scheduled rain fell ever onward towards the ground.