Broken Hearts and Diamonds

"Hey there, Rarity. Ya in there, sugarcube?" Applejack called out.

The orange earth pony knocked again at Rarity's door, but for the fifth time received no response from anypony inside. Applejack was starting panic, something she rarely did. Nopony had heard from Rarity for the past three days, nor had her boutique been open since she suddenly closed early about the same time she disappeared. Her friends figured that she must be busy with orders and had to close before becoming overwhelmed, but when the second day passed they began to think otherwise. Worry sank in as Fluttershy informed them earlier today that Rarity had missed their weekly spa trip, and with their patience now gone Applejack and Rainbow Dash rushed to Rarity's home to check on her.

"Gosh darnit, still no answer. Any sign of her up there?" Applejack called out to Rainbow Dash.

The colorful pegasus was zooming around the upper floors of the boutique, trying to peek in through the windows but was having a hard time due to all the curtains being drawn tight. "I can't see anything inside. Stupid curtains!" she huffed.

"Well, we know she must be inside." Applejack reasoned. "No way she'd leave without askin' Fluttershy to take care of her cat while she's away."

"So why don't we do something? Those windows aren't so tough, I could break through one of them no problem." Dash said.

"Woah there, Dash. Ah know we're all worried 'bout her, but we ain't gonna start breaking windows or nuthin." Applejack said.

Just as Applejack finished speaking, a loud crash came from inside the boutique, startling both ponies outside.

"Screw this!" Rainbow said, zooming up before crashing through one of the upper windows to investigate. Applejack's mouth hung open momentarily at Dash's reaction, but soon also came to the same conclusion as Rainbow did earlier; a few bits of damage was nothing compared to their friend's safety.

Taking a running start, Applejack ran up and bucked the front door off its hinges with ease and raced inside. As she finally entered the dark interior Rainbow came flying down the stairs, sweating slightly from the speed she was rushing at. "She's not upstairs!" she informed Applejack.

Another crash caught both of their attention. "It's coming from the back room!" Applejack said. Both mares rushed to the back workroom, terrified by what they may find. Was Rarity being attacked? Was she being held hostage? Were they just in time to save her, or were they too late?

Coming up on another closed door, Applejack took no chances and bucked the door open, splitting the door almost in two. Both mares gasped at the carnage in front of them; this was not what they expected. Broken mannequin pieces lay strewn all over the floor while the walls showed signs of damage, possibly by having something thrown against them over and over. And in the middle of the room, with her back to them, was a certain unicorn they had been looking for...

"Rarity? What in tarnation happened here?" Applejack asked, for some reason afraid to approach her friend.

"Yeah, what's going on? It looks like you had a tornado blow through here or something!" Dash added.

Rarity slowly turned to face her two friends, and both Rainbow and Applejack swore they saw an evil smirk on her face for a brief moment. She quickly turned her expression to a smile before they could be sure, though.

"Oh! Hello there, Rainbow and Applejack. I'm sorry you had to see this mess. Just had a bit of a small problem with getting these old things into the correct poses so I could continue working." she said, seeming to not be bothered by the fact that every single mannequin she owned was now in a minimum of fifty different pieces.

"Err, small problem?" Applejack asked, picking up what was left of a leg. "You sure ya didn't decide to go into the demolition business?"

"I'm quite positive, dear." Rarity said, stepping over the broken pieces. "I've been meaning to order the newer models they have now. They're much more efficient and sturdier, not to mention they weigh much less and are easier to move."

"Yeah, looks like you definitely need sturdier ones." Rainbow Dash said ironically.

"Ya need help cleaning this up, sugarcube?" Applejack offered. "We, uh... we also kinda broke your front door and window. Ah can git Big Mac to help patch up our mess good as new righ' now."

"Oh don't worry about such a small thing, darling." Rarity said, a glimmer appearing in her eyes. "I believe you've actually helped me quite a bit by doing so."

"Uh... ya sure?" Applejack asked in disbelief. Rainbow Dash looked relieved that she didn't have to help repair the damage she caused, but she too was extremely confused by what Rarity meant when she said that them breaking two doors and a window was 'helping her'.

"I'm positive, girls. Don't worry about it." Rarity insisted.

"Um, okay then..." Applejack said, her uneasiness growing about this whole situation. Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash decided to let Rarity be and left the boutique, more questions in their heads now than before. But their main worry was put at ease for now; their friend was safe. As Dash turned to leave, her eye caught a smudge of dirt on the flank of one of the mannequins. She didn't think much of it and turned to leave, but had she taken a closer look she would have seen that the smudge was in fact a copy of Flitter's cutie mark.

Rarity watched Applejack and Rainbow Dash leave, then left her home after placing her front door almost in place. She rushed over to Twilight's home and entered the library, finding her friend once again reorganizing her collection of books.

"Twilight, I need some help." Rarity said, adopting a look of depression for sympathy.

"Of course, Rarity. What is it?" Twilight asked, concerned that something bad must have happened.

"Well, darling, I had a bit of an accident at my boutique. One of my windows got smashed, and two doors got broken down. Nopony can come in today to fix it, and I can't do it myself. Do you think Spike would be able to come over and help?" she whined.

"Of course, Rarity." Twilight said. "He's not too thrilled about helping me reorganize all my books in reverse alphabetical order, so I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help you. Spike! Can you come here?"

*CRASH!* "Oh come on! Stupid... I'm coming!" Spike yelled out from upstairs. The young dragon came stomping down the stairs, but his mood lightened as he saw Rarity smiling at him. "Oh, hey Rarity. I didn't know you were here." he said happily.

"Spike, I need you to go help Rarity. She needs some repairs done at her home and she asked if you could help her." Twilight asked her assistant.

"Of course, I'd love to help her!" Spike said excitedly.

Rarity's smile widened as she heard the excitement in his voice. 'Yes! He still likes me! Maybe I won't lose him after all!' she thought excitedly. Without wasting any more time she pulled Spike along with her, the little dragon more than happy to get out of shelving books.

"Oh, thank you SO much, my Spikey-Wikey." Rarity said as she walked slightly ahead of him. "You have no idea how much I appreciate your help." As she took each step she let her tail swish back and forth much more than usual, showing off parts of her body that all sane ponies kept hidden by their tails.

"No problem. I'm just glad you came when you did." Spike said, not paying any attention to Rarity's attempts to seduce him.

"Oh? You missed me that much?" she asked, her heart fluttering with excitement.

"No, now I don't have to spend all day today helping Twilight move all of her books around again." he said.

"What?!" Rarity almost yelled, stopping dead in her tracks.

Spike misunderstood her outburst, not realizing that he now had Rarity fired up more than ever. "Yeah, I know! I can't believe that Twilight needs to reorganize every single book every week. I mean, come on! They're books, nopony is going to care that they're organized the same way forever. But noooo, Twilight has to..."

Spike continued talking but Rarity tuned out his words. 'I... he... I can't believe that he... the nerve! How dare he use me as an excuse to get out of his chores! And here I thought he missed being with me! It's that filly, Flitter. She's probably telling him to ignore me because she's afraid that I'm better than her. Well, this stops now! I'm going to make sure Spike see's that he'd be much better off with me instead!'

As Rarity and Spike continued their walk a plan began to slowly form in Rarity's mind. By the time they reached her boutique, her idea was finalized and ready to begin. 'He will be mine...'

It was almost dark by the time Spike finished repairing the damage Applejack and Rainbow Dash had caused. Rarity had helped, but barely; she wanted Spike to be tired, if not completely exhausted, and purposefully caused more of a nuisance than help for him. Spike soon found himself begging Rarity to let him do everything and for her to just sit back and relax, which she was more than happy to do. She found herself becoming wet as she watched him hard at work, the smell of his sweat and sight of his small yet defined muscles turning her on.

"Phew... finally done." Spike said as he hammered the last nail into the window frame. He fell on his back on the floor, thinking that staying to help Twilight with her books may have been easier after all.

Rarity came into the room and inspected Spike's work, finding the window to be as good as new. "Marvelous, darling, it's perfect!" she said approvingly. "You have no idea how much I appreciate all your help. There's no way I could have even come close to doing such a good job as you."

"No... no problem." Spike panted, getting slowly back on his feet. "I should probably get going, I didn't realize it was so late."

"No! I mean, stay, please? You worked so hard and I just couldn't let you go without saying thank you." Rarity said, batting her eyes at him. "At least stay and let me get you a nice cold drink. I have an extra barrel of cider from Applejack's farm from last year."

"Wow, really? That sounds really good." Spike said, licking his lips.

Smiling a little too much, Rarity led Spike to the kitchen and motioned for him to sit down while she poured his drink. "I'll be right back, I have the barrel in the cellar to stay cool." she said, bringing a large glass with her. She went downstairs to the dark basement and found the barrel of cider. She filled the glass almost to the brim, taking a small sip to make sure that the hard apple cider still held its kick. Though she could barely taste the alcohol, she knew that the glass should be more than enough to get the small dragon at least tipsy. She returned upstairs and placed the glass of cider in front of Spike, making sure to brush her body against his while doing so. "Drink up, Spike, you deserve it. Just let me know if you want any more."

Rarity watched as Spike downed almost half of the glass in one gulp. "Aren't you going to have any? This stuff is awesome!" he asked.

"No thank you, darling, I'm going to just have some iced tea." she said, wanting to keep a clear mind. Spike shrugged and downed the other half of his drink before asking her for another.

Rarity filled his glass four more times, listening to Spike talk about a wide variety of topics while he drank; his annoyance at Twilight's increased duties as a princess and how he had to become her secretary, maintaining the library while she was away from Ponyville, the lack of conversation Twilight's pet owl provided... but Rarity had no trouble listening to those topics. It was only when Spike began to talk about his new relationship with Flitter that Rarity spoke up.

"You know Spike, there's a new club in town that opened not too long ago." Rarity said in an attempt to change the subject.

"Really? Maybe I should ask Flitter if she wants to go sometime." Spike said, slurring a few of his words.

Rarity began losing her patience as he kept on mentioning Flitter. "I don't know about that, darling. Maybe you should take an older, more mature mare first?" she hinted.

"Oh yeah, maybe I should. Cloudchaser likes the same things Flitter does, I should take her first and if she like it then I can invite Flitter." Spike said cluelessly.

Rarity wanted to buck Spike right in the face for his denseness but managed to restrain herself. 'Maybe this wasn't the right way to go.' she thought to herself, deciding to change the subject again. "Oh, I almost forgot, I have a few new outfits that I made not too long ago. I really want to try them out but I have nopony to model them for. Would you like to see me try them on and let me know what you think?" she asked, brushing her tail against his leg.

Even without the hard apple cider clouding his mind, Spike couldn't refuse the opportunity to see Rarity in her newest creations. "Of course, I'd love to!" he said. Surely Flitter wouldn't mind him seeing Rarity try on some clothes. In fact, he may like one so much he'd buy one for Flitter.

Rarity smiled mischievously. "Wait right here, Spikey-Wikey. I'll be right back." she said while licking her lips.