And then there were two...

Rarity paused outside of the doors leading to the room her parents were currently lying in, her purse floating in her Aura. She was unsure if she really wanted to do this but having the Nurse and her good friend Applejack next to her help to fortify the unicorns’ internal resolve. The nurse went to open the door but Rarity beat her to it with her magic, opening the door for herself.  She hesitated for a moment but knew what she was about to do was right not just for herself but for her parents.

They were always so proud of Rarity’s dressmaking career especially given her status as an Element of Harmony meant she didn’t even have to work. Despite not being too into the fashion scene themselves, it didn’t stop them telling everypony they knew that there ‘little Rares’ made the Royal Wedding Dress for Princess Cadence, as well as personally knowing all four princesses.

With as much poise as she could muster, Rarity crossed the threshold of the room and trotted up to her father first. She gave a week nod towards Nurse Fetlockhart to indicate she was ready and seeing this the nurse removed the sheet covering Magnum’s body. Rarity was actually surprised on how normal it looked - there were a number of cuts and a lot of dirty on his coat, but apart from that he looked just like he was sleeping.

He nurse brought over a large bowl filled with water and picked up a washcloth ready to clean the stallion, but Rarity moved to take cloth from her.

“I’ll do this Abby…if you don’t mind” Rarity smiled at the earth mare.

“Not at all Rarity,” the nurse smiled back “but I’m here if you need any help”

“As I’m I Rarity” Applejack called out from a respectful, yet not too far, distance.

Rarity put the cloth in her hoof and started washing the dirt out of her father’s coat, being careful around some of the cuts. She would have normally done such a job with her magic but decided that this was the way to do it, applying her hooves carefully on her dear father’s fur. She quickly made good work at cleaning off the bulk of the blood and dirt from the stallion before doing the same for the mane.

Rarity put down the washcloth and levitated the bowl back over to the sink to allow it to be replaced with fresh water. She then rummaged through her bag until she found a small tube of mane-gel and a stallions comb – she had been around the snobbish ponies enough to learn that by carrying the essentials around she could swoop in during a mane-emergency and win over a new important contact. How shallow that all seems right now.

“Hello father” she broke the silence, as she applied a little gel to the comb and started brushing it through her father’s mane “I’m sorry I’ve not been around as much as I could have been these past few years…but you know how it is when little fillies grow up. It was hard enough to find common interests when I was young...and as I grew up it just became so much harder didn’t it?”

“I mean, I’m sure most fathers and daughters go through this. You would have naturally wanted a colt to be interest in hoofball and all the other silly things you were into, but none of that interested me. I could have been any more of a fillie filly if I tried really, could I?” Rarity smiled at her father “Of course all that time I spent playing dress-up and drawing outfits really paid off in the end but I wish we had spent more time together!”

By now Rarity had finished brushing the mane, and put the items back in her bag. “I know you tried your best, as did I, but we really were like chalk and cheese weren’t we?” She kissed her father on the forehead “But I hope you know that I really did love you with all my heart. Making you and mother proud of me with my fashion business was my way of showing you that.” Rarity paused to dab a hoofkerchief to her eyes. “Talking of business, I’ll make sure that your business is in good hooves and won’t just sell it to anypony, but somebody who will care for it and it’s staff like you do…did. There’s more to life then bits and gems…” Rarity trailed off, realising that she hadn’t been this honest with her father for a long time.

She held on to the stallions hoof for a while longer, internally reminiscing about the times they shared. Of course after Rarity moved out, at such a young age afterall, Sweetie Belle got more of the parental attention. Rarity just wished she had paused her career, just a year or two, so she could have spent more time at home.

Rarity then looked over to Applejack, one of her oldest friends, who nodded sincerely back to the unicorn as if saying “I’m right here for you”. Rarity let out a huge breath, picked up her bag and moved round to her mother’s side.

Nurse Fetlockhart looked carefully at Rarity “Are you sure you are ready for this?”

Rarity nodded again and the Nurse slowly removed the sheet covering her mother, this time causing the unicorn a little more of a shock than with her father. Pearl had a big scar down her front where the incision had been made and although it had been sealed up it was still visible as a line in her coat. There was a couple of tubes sticking into her left frontleg and rear legs, as well as the tube still in her mouth.

“I’m afraid we can’t remove any of the tubes until after the review of the case.”

“Review of the case?” Applejack replied a little confused

“Whenever something like this happens, we need to make sure that we did all we could and didn’t do anything wrong” Abby explained.

“I understand. Even if that was the case I wouldn’t want to press charges or anything…I’m sure they were only following Twilight’s orders”

The nurse looked over to Rarity “You have no idea. Nopony in this hospital has ever done an operation before, we’re just not equipped for it. But the Princess insisted that we tried anything and everything to save her”

Rarity’s eyes started to well again up as she looked down at her mother. Clearly everything that was magically or medically possible had been tried; it was just simply the end of her mother’s time in this world. “I presume Twilight was here the whole time?”

Abby leant up softly against the unicorn to comfort her “Princess Twilight was here alright, and just wouldn’t give up on her. We had to almost drag her away in the end, which is difficult when she’s…you know…a princess!”

“That’s Twilight alright” Applejack added, trotted up next to Rarity and putting a hoof round one of hers “She doesn’t give up easily. You can be as sure as sugar that everything ponily possible was done to save ya mother”

Rarity smiled with thanks at the pair and levitated over the bowl of water again, proceeded to start to wash her mother coat. She started in silence, the words not easily coming to the unicorn. Whilst her and her fathers relationship simply grew apart, her and her mothers was a little more temperamental. As she became a young mare the pair often clashed over the silliest things, and truth be told one reason Rarity moved out and into the shop so young was to get away from her mother.

However, the space that it gave them had been the best thing for their relationship and not long afterwards the arguments had stopped. They started to get along when they saw each other and whilst never the closest of families, unlike the Apples, they still cared for each other.

Thinking of the Apple family, Rarity looked over to Applejack, the pony known throughout Equestria for her physical strength. But in the right here and now she was providing the emotional strength the weak fashionista required. And the orange mare did not have to say a word, she just radiated confidence and had a conviction about her that gave Rarity hope. As Rarity applied some hoof polish to her mother, a skill she had down to a fine art, it gave her time to relax and think

How young was Applejack when her parents passed on? Rarity thought to herself We had only just met, and neither of us had our cutie marks. She must have only been about Sweetie’s Belle’s age when this happened to her, and look at her now! She is one of the most down to earth, reasonable and reliable ponies there is…even if she could do with a make-over every so often. And she didn’t have an older sister to help her,

Rarity noticed she was staring at Applejack, so quickly turned her eyes back to her work, but she couldn’t shake the thoughts from her head. And she’s not only had to grow up with no mother or older sister, but also helped raise Apple Bloom. I’m sure Granny Smith helped out where she could, but with the farm to run and also Big Mac to look after, no doubt she was the main pony to bring up Apple Bloom...

Rarity almost had to wipe away a tear just imagining what it must have been like for the young filly And there I was all the time whining about my mother or the attention my baby sister got, when she was being a mother *to** her baby sister. She’s been the rock to me so many times…* she looked down at her mothers peaceful face …and I’m supposed to be the generous one? Pah, how selfish I am?

Having finished cleaning her mother’s body and painting the hooves, Rarity turned to her mother’s mane. The style Pearl preferred took a long time to get right, even longer than Rarity’s mane took, so the unicorn started on it. Being up towards the head just made Rarity think she should be speaking to her.

“Well, mother, I’m not sure if you heard what I said to father, but a lot of it applies to us as well, doesn’t it? Except, I mean we probably had a little too much in common for our own good. But you knew that I idolised you as a foal and filly, and it’s sad that we did grow apart”

Rarity sniffed back a few tears before continuing “I guess the house wasn’t really big enough for the both of us…and that was no bad thing. We are both larger than life characters and that’s what every pony loves about us. It’s a shame we went through that rough spell but we made up in the end didn’t we?”

Rarity sprayed some hairspray some had with her and continued “I know I have to look after Sweetie Belle now, and don’t worry about it’ll, I’ll make sure life carries on as much as normal. I’ll take her to those singing and dancing lessons you force her to go to that she hates, as well as teach her myself to cook like you used to. Well not exactly how you used to, I might just make it edible!” Rarity snickered at little at the end.

Having finished tidying her mothers mane, Rarity looked over her parents for a final time. Whilst she had originally thought the idea a little stupid, she was glad Sweetie Belle and the others had encouraged her to see them for a final time. Rarity started packed up her things but whilst doing this with her Aura she turned and faced her parents

“Mother, Father, as the princesses as my witnesses, I will devote my life to raising Sweetie Belle into the wonderful pony shes bound to be…I won’t let you or her down. And neither of us will ever forget you, no matter how far we go and how high we climb…”

Applejack by this point had slightly lowered her hat so it covered her eyes a little, not wanting to show the emotion building up within her. Rarity noticed this as she turned and started heading out of the room, with Applejack following her whilst the nurse cleaned up. As soon as they got outside Rarity sat down in the nearest chair and motioned for Applejack to join her.

Fidgeting a little nervously, Rarity waited for her friend to sit before beginning “Applejack, whilst I’m apologising to everypony, I owe you one too” The earth pony tried to interrupt, but the unicorn continued “I may not have been the friend that you needed all those years ago!”

“Don’t be silly sugarcube, there’s more important…”

“But Applejack” Rarity interrupted “I should have been there for you…”

“You were! The way you treated me was exactly what I needed. We were just fillies, we shouldn’t be held up on all that stuff. Everypony else was walking on eggshells round me, but you treated me the same and I was mighty greatful for that. Even if you were always trying to get me to play dress up in a frou frou dress!”

Rarity giggled with a bit of genuine laughter for the first time that day “You would have made a wonderful Princess Darling, your golden hair is gorgeous!”

“No way I want a pair of wings, having these four hooves on the ground is more than good enough for me and all the other Apples!”

Rarity smiled, but then her face dropped again as the mention of the Apples made her remembered her train of thought “But how did you move on?”

“Well, I guess that with a foal in the family to look after, and a farm to run, there was no time for the three of us to mope about. Of course I think about them still. On a quiet summer night, I look up at the stars and just wonder if they are looking down at me…” Applejack started shedding a tear which Rarity noticed right away

“Why Applejack…I never knew”

“I don’t like to talk about it…and perhaps that’s a weakness of mine. But I try to stay strong for Apple Bloom. And I’m sure you’ll do the same for Sweetie Belle!”

“Yes, Sweetie Belle” Rarity mused

Applejack took of her hat and lay it down on the chair next to her, before taking Rarity’s hooves in her own “But it’s going to be harder for you then it was for me...”

“Oh, why is that?” Rarity asked

“Because you won’t have a wonderful friend named Rarity to help you through it!” Applejack bopped her friend on the muzzle.

“But I will have something equally as good…all you girls” Rarity sighed, and lent into her friend. They sat there for a few minutes before deciding it was best to return to the family room

As they walked to the room, they heard three voices coming from the room opposite, recognising two of them as Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie as well a third voice, talking about Daisy Dreams. The pair smiled to each other as they realised that their friends were not just there for each other, but for the whole of Ponyville.