Fire's on the Heart and in the Home
For Ponyville, even after the uniting of the Elements of Harmony and their penchant for causing almost comical levels of town destruction, a fire was a rare and unseen occurrence. Sure the occasional filly unicorn’s horn would act out and maybe start a small puff of smoke but almost always a parent was near enough to oust the flames and scold the accidental offender. But what blazed near the town’s heart was another matter. A towering inferno was consuming a home in the time it may take for a misplaced town panic to set in. Dozens of ponies where gathered around the flames, many working in a desperate attempt to save something, anything’s, others in trapped in strange fascination as they merely watched the flames consume its prey. But there were a few who stood apart even from this group, one’s whose lives were bound up in this place and only one was able to whisper the word on each and everyone’s minds. “Why….”
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For some reason she’d always had the notion that fire’s only occurred at night. A silly idea and one she should have outgrown but it had clung on with tenacity ever since…well since a memory that eluded her at the moment. Dismissing the vague sense of unease that thought line generated she saw that contrary to her belief the fire in front of her was occurring in the harsh light of a summer’s sun, and was currently consuming her beloved home in the time it had taken Sweetie Belle to yell in fear when it had started. She stood by helpless as her friends and neighbor’s tried to fight a fire that already had left her with little doubt that almost nothing would be left to save after it was done. A fire that had already gutted her home destroyed her work and more devastatingly left her feeling hollowed out, a shell of the Rarity that she once knew. She could feel the slight burns scattered across her body, the singed hair and the throbbing pain emanating from her head and it was that particular area that was causing her the most pain, the side of it having taken a glancing blow from a falling beam as she rushed both herself and Sweetie out of the inferno but none of it mattered right now. She was watching something that she had spent her the last 10 years of her life upon and in, working and honing her craft to the great peak that she’d know she was coming closer and closer to achieving. That was until it all came crashing down around her in a moment of childish folly, as Sweetie launched an entire barrel of fireworks from within her room, a tool that had been used in the what the girl’s had promised to be their last quest of cutie mark acquisition of by using pyrotechnics after they had wound up burning down several building’s during the Summer Wrap Up festival a few years ago. But it seemed that a lie had been told, for what other item could cause such an inferno while at the same time producing ironically spectacular visual theatrics?
As Rarity turned to her sister, she found that she was currently huddled against Applebloom and surmise that she had only been several streets away after having presumably dropped off the fireworks in what had to be only moments before the fire began to destroy her life. But to Rarity her sister’s state of mind nor her physical wellbeing did not matter much for her gaze burned with hurt and cold fury in equal measure. Even with watching Sweetie use Applebloom both as a way to keep calm and a physical support her mind was had too much hurt and her walls still to damaged to stop her mouth as it began to unleash a tirade of near volcanic proportions. The tirade had been sparked by her current injuries and her severe emotional strain and she would not have even dared to voice any of it aloud to herself let alone direct against its unfortunate target but already some part of her was being to fear that it had always been there, like an itch she couldn’t scratch until at last it was given license to let fly.
“SWEETIE BELLE HOW DARE YOU STORE FIREWORKS WITHIN MY BOUTIQUE DON’T YOU REALIZE HOW DANGEROUS THEY ARE! I MEAN REALLY IN WHAT WORLD COULD YOU POSSIBLY LIVE IN THAT WOULD MAKE YOU SAY PUTTING FIREWORKS IN A WOODEN BUILDING,PARTICULARY THE HOME THAT WE LIVE IN, IS A SMART IDEA? YOU HAD PROMISED THAT THIS WOULD BE THE LAST OF THIS A FEW YEARS AGO AND NOW WHAT’S HAPPENED! Look at what you’ve done you have burned everything I’ve worked so hard for, my home my dresses everything gone, it’s all gone and it’s all the fault of you and your friends ridiculous ideas of how to get your cutie marks! Is this all worth it now, is the fact that our home is burning, that we have no place to live, that you may very well have to go home to Mr. and Ms. Magnum and…” Rarity stopped short as something extremely heavy and powerful crashed into her at what felt like “Rainbow-Dash-flying-into-a-Room” speed and she found that the world went monetarily dark for the second time that day.
Blinking the darken stars from her eye’s and after several moments of further disorientation she realized that it had been Applejack who had barreled into her. Holding her hoof over Rarity’s mouth and in voice that chilled her blood into absolute ice Applejack whispered into her ear
“Listen here Rarity and you listen good, Ah don’t care that we’re friends, Ah don’t care ‘bout how bleak it all may look right now, Ah particularly don’t care how bad or angry you might even feel right now, Ah really, really care or give a plum’s backside that you’re a “Element of Harmony”, you ever talk to your sister like that again, I mean ever again, you ever say an unneeded cross word, ya’ll talk to the way you just did ever again, you ever unleashed on that poor little filly ever again and a burnin home will be the easiest problem you ever had’a deal with. Ya’ll know me and you know how understandin’ Ah am but don’t ever for a second underestimate what Ah’d do to protect family from family. That’s ya’lls sister and there ain’t any excuse for what you just said. You’re a good girl Rarity but kin treating kin in the way you just did? Only lowest of low do that and I used to think better of you.”
Rarity had a snow white face that could put marble to shame but now her face was the complexion of a lingering spirit. Her complexion had whiten so much that in another situation a joke would have been made about she could ever allow herself to go outside looking so sickly but here and now it was merely another sign of her fear of the sheer menace Applejack was exuding. But not only the fear she felt but also the great shame that Applejack had made her feel over her action.
She knew by the end of Applejacks threat that she was partly amazed at how throughout her “talking to” the tone of delivery had been so steadily whisper quiet and evenly toned. The greater part of her however was still overall frightened on a primal level for her speech had all been said with such a palpable undercurrent of ready violence. With her head still pinned beneath Applejack’s iron grip she had no choice but to nod her head as best she could in acquiesce to her demands. Even the delivery of the last few lines had still carried such a heavy weight of threat behind them.
“Now what I what y’all to do once I let you up is to go over to Sweetie, ask for forgiveness and hold your little sis tight ya hear me? She’ll forgive ya she’s still young but unless you do something now who knows what might happen. ”
Again she had little choice but to nod and the pressure was off of her the next moment. As she slowly got up Applejack kept her eye’s locked with hers but there was only so much of her silent recrimination Rarity could take. She lowered her head in shame and in doing so noticed that the Applejack’s legs were trembling just slightly. Is she truly that mad, hating me that much that she’s having to fight herself to prevent her from lashing out? Rarity wondered but she banished the thought almost as soon as it came. We have a sister to apologize to worry about Applejack later and so resolving herself the next step she making her way cautiously over to Sweetie.
Sweetie meanwhile had taken to cowering behind Applebloom and her face held such a look of pure panic and fear mixed together that Rarity felt the greatest shame she’d known in years. To say those sort things to her sister of anypony was almost more then she could bear but she steeled her again to apologize. Now is not the time to self-admonish my dear we have a problem to solve and like any problem it’s one faced head on. she thought to herself and straightening her herself into a normal position as best she could, the impact of Applejack causing her further aches and while her vision was beginning to teeter towards darkness she still knew her duty to her sister.
“Sweetie… Sweetie… Sweetie… oh my dear, dear Sweetie Belle how could I ever be like that to you I was a horrid monster of a mare, I am beyond sorry I yelled at you like that, it was completely uncalled for, not to mention ghastly in the extreme and I don’t know how I’ll forgive myself but please Sweetie could you maybe come here for a minute?” By the end she was already near sobbing, the stresses of the day and the full weight of what she had said to her own sister were like hammer blows to her emotions. Her words became a symphony of curses each part delivering its own new horrible line and sinking further into her already cavernous hole of guilt. And at same time that this all began to crash thru Rarity’s mind and she struggled to contain her tears, Sweetie edge her way past Applebloom, more hesitant than anypony had ever seen her before bolting for her sister and encircling her in as big a hug as her arms would allow, sobbing all the way.
“I’m so sorry Rarity, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so, so, so, so, so sorry please forgive me, I’ll do anything I’m sorrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy!” Sweetie Belle cried, her words near unintelligible between her howling tears and the fact that she had her face buried into Rarity’s neck. Rarity immediately embraced her sister and began comforting her as best she could but somehow she could feel a profound sense of only going thru the motions.
She was experiencing a sort of disconnect in herself suddenly, a separating of her mind from her body, even as one comforted the other retreated into the relative safety of inside herself. Her mind was closing in like a trap door reluctant to let out or in anything, for the moment, as it attempted to deal with the damage it had suffered. While she was truly aghast at her behavior and the effect it had on her sister, she could still feel the lingering anger and pain at what Sweetie had done burning someplace low within her soul, the flame had diminished but she feared all it would need is the right, or wrong she corrected herself dryly, spark to reignite. The low burning flame, coupled with unspecified need to somehow lash out, to strike back at the world that had struck her, was a combination she did not think she need at the moment but with a jolt of lighting-like pain her flesh reminded her she had other matters to attend to.
While inside herself she was able to go over the harm that her body was currently suffering in quiet an alarming way. Her right leg had started an unpleasant rhythm of staccato pain in conjunction with the slight smell of burned hair and flesh was coming from her own body. Her head meanwhile was attempting to set a new record in pain threshold tolerance as it blared out agony and made her vision darker by the moment. Plus it had the added benefit of making it difficult to tell whether her tears were from her sadness or the pain. But out of a whole fall fashion catalogue’s worth of physical injuries, and it seemed to be quite a jam packed edition this year, it was the non-physical damage of the fire she feared would be the greatest obstacle to overcome.
Already she could tell that her relationship with Applejack would require just as much work to repair as the one with Sweetie and even with her sister in her arms and her main focus on making sure she made no further screw-ups with the young filly, she could tell that her dear friend was currently staring magical daggers into her back. And not without justification she thought to herself. Why to Applejack, a pony who’s entire life revolves around family and working together with them, what she had just witnessed Rarity do had to be one of the gravest sins anyone had ever made in front of her. Rarity could tell that forgiveness for what she had done would not come easy nor would it be given in a short length of time and she most likely would have prove her dedication to her sister in more ways than she could imagine at the moment. At the same time she would need to acknowledge that she wanted Applejack to only to forgive her but also to trust her again even if she never would do or feel that way about herself again, and for some reason that single thought, the idea that she felt an absolute need for Applejack’s trust somehow terrified her more than anything that had gone on this day.
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To say that Applejack was mad would be like saying that RD’s habit of crashing was only a once and awhile thing. Never in her life had she’d been as angry as she was at this moment, even when she confronted that Changeling bitch after kidnapping Applebloom. It was taking all of strength and the calming memories of Granny Smith’s words and the happy time’s they’d all shared to not let that rage get the best of her.
“For Rarity, Rarity of anypony, speak that way to one ah of her kin was… was… was… I need… I sure as Granny’s sock drawer don’t know what I need but I do know that don’t know how I feel bout this. Ah mean we get the fire down enough that Ah feel okay with comin’ over here and the first thing I hear is Rares layin into Sweetie like nobody’s business? Ah don’t care a lick how beautiful her mane…” Applejack never finished her thought, crushing it beneath layers upon layers of mental walls that she had built over the years. “Now how in the name of Tartarus did that get out?” she angrily thought to herself, disappointed in her mental slip in discipline. “You know you denied yourself that road a long time ago sweetheart and now is not the right time to be tryin to go down it again” she scolded herself again little realizing that while she debated internally with herself, her eye’s had wandered to Rarity herself, taking in her frame, which even when seated on the ground and slightly bent over from hugging a still crying Sweetie Belle, was a sight that was near enough to set her blood near to boiling. With a start Applejack realized where her gaze had turned and quickly both averted her eyes and once again cursed herself only this time berating her body for almost betraying her greatest secret. It was a small miracle that Rarity, Applebloom nor Sweetie had noticed her staring though with good reason and Applejack’s attention was turned back toward the matter that had initiated the whole mess.
While Sweetie’s crying had abated somewhat and the flames that had engulfed Carousel Boutique had finally been extinguished, Rarity’s earlier mental prediction that nothing would or could be saved was stunningly accurate. While Rainbow Dash and several other pegasi had stopped the flames from spreading with hastily captured clouds that they had worked into a frenzy to create rain, they had been unable to prevent the inferno from claiming all of the original building. Nothing but ashes marked the place where Rarity’s workshop had once stood and a silenced descended upon everypony who had gathered around the burning building.
The silence stretched out and on, like a thin membrane brought over to large a surface. One move and it would shatter and a torrent of words, emotions and activity would flood the area but for the moment, for a long terrible moment the gravity of what had occurred impacted everyone that stood by the wreckage.
Rarity released her hold upon Sweetie gazing glassy eyed at the ashes that already where being strewn across Ponyville as a light wind picked up and began distributing them here and there. Shell shocked she stared at the wafting embers and ash until she took a single faltering step forward. Then another step and another until she was racing full force towards the remains heedless of the sister she had so recently been comforting. Barreling past Rainbow and several other ponies whose names she couldn't be bothered to recall or care about, Rarity reached the ashes and hesitated for the first time since her day had begun. Reaching with a forehoof she scooped a small pile of them into her hooves and a low wail began to build in her throat. Steadily increasing in volume Rarity’s despair echoed thru the entire town, her cries of anguish affecting everyone gathered as her pain became theirs.
Each and every one of them could feel the echo of the raw wound that had been inflicted upon her as the sorrow that had steadily been building over the course of today’s events was finally let loose. Her dream had seemingly died today and the dream that had died brought a terrible pain to not only its dreamer but also its unintentional killer and the mare that held her dear in her heart. Each of those closest to her felt her pain more keenly then the rest, each experiencing a different facet of her pain. For Sweetie a hole of depression grew ever deeper as she watched her sister wail and fail in the ashes. For Applejack the sympathy of a close friend warred along the feelings she had hid for years while even these factions fought against the tide of anger she still felt. Rarity’s howling continued even as Applejack and the others joined Rainbow Dash in creating a small circle around her to shield her as view. Each of them knew instinctively that she would feel a deep mortification and embarrassment that her emotions had let fly in such a public and unladylike like manner let alone the fact that she had made everyone else be party to so public an outpouring of her pain. It was only when the sobs diminished and Fluttershy, who had arrived at the scene only moments before, naturally came up behind her, and she placed a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder.
Already wearing the most soothing and nurturing face she had Fluttershy whispered to her “Rarity? Why don’t we go someplace else? I’m so, so sorry this all happened but maybe you’d like to be someplace else for a little while? You've had a very, very hard day and I think if would be best if we go and get you some rest.” Fluttershy’s voice was as natural as the summer breeze and as soothing as anyponies voice had or would ever be but even trying her best not to let her own emotions get the better of her, cracks and muted sobs of shared pain had made its way into her voice. It was this that finally snapped enough of Rarity out of her wailing that she was able turn around.
The look on her face that only those with the small gathering could see was one of such raw agony and desire that it was a near mortal shock to each of the ponies who saw it. In her face Rarity was wearing everything she felt at that moment and it was a sight that none of them ever what to see or have her experience that type of pain again. For applejack it cut so deeply that it made her swear right then and there that never again would she let such a look of brokenness and pain be plastered across so beautiful a face.
Applejack resolved in that moment that she would do all that she could to help Rarity in any way possible to prevent both Rarity from feeling like that and herself from seeing a someone she l… a friend like her in that kinda pain. Even given the towering anger she still felt and would continue to feel some part of her would now always be dedicated to the, some would say unenviable, task of making Rarity as happy as she could be.
“Applejack….Sweetie…” Rarity’s voice was gone, between the smoke, her outburst against Sweetie and now her crying little of the beauty and melody that usually resided in her voice remained. “I’m…sorry…so sorry……” her sentence trailed off as her eyes rolled back and exhaustion took hold as she passed out. Dimly she heard Applejack and then others shouting her name as she drifted away and then absolute silence.
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Rarity awoke to a nightmarish headache, a throbbing forehoof and a body that while it curiously seemed to be recovered of many of the burns that had covered it, still felt overall like a complete train wreck. There was the inevitable disorientation that follows waking from the kind of sleep she had been in and for what seemed like several moments, she was completely at lost as to why she was where… wherever she was. Curiously she felt oddly at peace with where she was even though she was unable to see anything beyond an inch in front of her. She abandoned the “where am I” mystery for the moment as she decided to take her time and just sort out everything that she could remember. The events of, she couldn't call it yesterday as it had clearly had been at least several days if not weeks since the fire…. When her mind hit the f word it was like the floodgates had opened. All of it came pouring in, the fire’s, the search for Sweetie as the building burned, the escape and watching the flames eat her home, screaming at her sister in front of hundreds of on-lookers, Applejack threatening her life, cradling Sweetie as she apologized and then nothing. Try as she might Rarity could not remember what happened next so she set her mind to work puzzling out the gap. She needed a puzzle to solve right now; she couldn't handle at the moment all the events that had played out however long ago it had been so the missing piece was a blessing in disguise. Coming at as she would a stubborn piece of fabric that simply would not cut at the right angles, Rarity examined the last memory with eye well practiced at stitching together pieces that most would consider to never be viable with each other.
Considering the fact that it was a solid wall of dark and there was little hope that she would ever get thru it Rarity was forced to conclude that she must have suffered a blackout of some kind. At the moment she came to her conclusion thee door to the room was opened a silver and harsh light stabbed Rarity in the eye.
“ ‘Bout time ya’ll was awake, there’s things that I need doing and most ah my time been spent making sure you don’t up and leave on us” Applejack drawled, moving about the room, slowly lighting the candles within.
As she moved from one to another Rarity noticed a distinct pattern, one that didn't’t surprise her but still hurt. Applejack was avoiding her at all cost. Oh she was talking to her, telling how’d she’d been put up for week, as she termed it, that she’d taken her and Sweetie in to Sweet Apple Acres, that her and Big Mac had taken turns looking after her but it still didn't change the fact that she was deliberately avoiding even looking at her. She would take odd angles across the room as she lit the candles all to avoid even glancing at her and her return to the door was marked by the same odd pattern. As Applejack made to leave she simply announced
“I talked it over with Granny and we figured on letting you and Sweetie stay here until ya’ll can get recovered and figure what ya should so next.”
With that she left leaving Rarity in a room that while so filled only once before had felt so dark. But she was still Rarity, a mare known not just for her generosity but the hidden strength she had in abundance. So sitting in an old farmer’s room, she made a promise to herself and to those she cared about, that she would put repairing what she had broken with her deeds before she allowed herself to leave Sweet Apple Acres. "It will be tough" she mused but then she had always quite enjoyed a challenge.
