Commissioned cover art done by SilFoe
Last Evening Together
By Pen Stroke
Preread, Edited, and Reviewed By
Illustrious Q, Skeeter The Lurker, Hidden Brony, JustAnotherTimeLord
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Rarity stood alongside her friends in the foyer of the new palace, looking on as Twilight seemed to vibrate with excitement. The only things that could get their friend into such a tizzy was a new delivery of books or some very good news from Princess Celestia. The scroll Twilight showed them when they first arrived made it clear it was the latter.
“So what exactly is the Sky Star Monastery and why would we want to go there?” Rainbow Dash asked as she hovered a few feet above the ground, messing her mane in ways that made Rarity shiver sometimes. She still missed those beautiful butterfly wings from time to time, but constant flight did bring interesting difficulties regarding maintaining a mare’s presentability.
“It’s an ancient temple built by the old tribes. It predates the founding of Equestria and even the great blizzard,” Twilight answered, already scratching out a checklist of things she wanted to take. “And the reason we’re going is so we can learn to harness the powers the Tree of Harmony gave us. It’s the same place the princesses worked to tap into the power of the moon and the sun. It’s where they ascended and became alicorns.”
“Oh! Oh! Does that means we’re all going to become princesses!?” Pinkie asked. She had managed to procure, color, and put on a pair of cardboard wings and a paper towel tube horn.
Twilight shook her head as she looked back at the staircase, tapping her hoof impatiently as she waited for Spike to bring more quills and parchment. “No, I don’t think so, but who can really say? The important thing is that we learn about the new magic that is living inside us. It may be more powerful than the Elements of Harmony, and it is our duty to Equestria to understand this magic so we may employ it should the need ever arise.”
“Well, guess it’s hard to argue with that,” Applejack said. “So, when are we leaving?”
“Everything has been arranged for us to leave tomorrow morning. Princess Luna and Princess Celestia will meet us here in Ponyville, and then they’ll use a spell to take us to the monastery.”
“And how long will we be gone?” Fluttershy asked, glancing out the nearest window in the direction of her cottage. “It’s so short notice. I can’t just leave all my little furry friends alone.”
“Princess Celestia has assured me all necessary plans have been taken care of,” Twilight said, letting her head turn away from the staircase. “Some of the royal animal caretakers from the castle are going to tend to your animals, Fluttershy. Some retired Wonderbolts will be taking care of Ponyville’s skies. They contacted Mulia Mild to help the Cakes at Sugarcube Corner. Some bits will be provided to Applejack’s family so they can afford to hire a few extra farm hooves to cover Applejack’s work. Finally, staff from one of Hoity Toity’s boutiques will be covering Rarity’s shop while we’re gone.”
“It seems the princesses do try to think of everything, don’t they?” Rarity said. She would, admittedly, want to tuck a few things away and clean the shop before any staff of Hoity Toity’s entered, but it would not be much.
“I know. Princess Celestia even told me she used a checklist to ensure she accounted for everything.” This fact alone seemed to increase Twilight's excitement. She bounded a little on her hooves. “Oh, it is going to be such a great trip, I just know it! We leave tomorrow at eleven, but we need to meet at the spa at ten.”
“Why is that?” Rainbow asked.
“We have to get our tails and manes shaved.”
Rarity felt her heart skip a beat, and she looked to her friends as if hoping this was some cruel joke. But no, they were just as stunned as she was. Even Pinkie Pie seemed incapable of finding a joke in the concept. “Twilight, did you just say—?”
Twilight nodded. “I know it is a lot to ask, but this monastery is very traditional. Everypony there shaves their manes and tails. The princesses will have their hair cut before they arrive, and I think we should really do the same.”
“But... but...” Rarity stammered, drawing her tail close to her body and holding her mane with her hoof. “Twilight, certainly these monks are reasonable. They can’t expect me to cut my mane. They must be willing to make exceptions.”
“I don’t know about that,” Applejack said. She had raised a forehoof to touch her own mane as well. “If they aren’t giving the princesses a break, doubt they’d do it for us.”
“I’ve also been told that it’s an important step in the process to enlightenment on a pony’s inner power,” Twilight said. She looked back to the staircase, resuming her impatient waiting for Spike.
“Well, it could be worse,” Pinkie Pie said, finally managing a smile.
“How could it possibly be worse?” Rarity asked, fearful of just what worse really was.
“They could be asking us to shave everything.” Pinkie giggled to herself as she looked across the group. “We’d all be pink ponies then!”
Rarity trembled a little, her mind being invaded by the thought of being completely shaven. Yes, that was a far worse fate, but the one she faced was nothing to laugh at. Shaving her mane and her tail. It was unthinkable. It was horrifying. It was a crime against fashion, beauty, and nature itself. Only brutes and prisoners shaved their manes. Even the guard ponies were allowed to keep their hair. Yes, it had to be cut short, but they were not forced to face the indecency of being... well, follically indecent.
“Rarity?”
The sound of her name drew Rarity out of her thoughts. She looked to Applejack’s face, her brain needing a moment to register what was going on before speaking. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“We were talking about having a sleepover here at Twilight’s,” Applejack answered. “You know, have some silly fun with our manes before we cut them off.”
Pinkie Pie bounced up and landed on Applejack’s back, knocking off her hat and starting to fiddle with her mane. “Yeah! We can braid them, dye them, put them up, let them down, and do all sorts of fun things!” Pinkie withdrew her hooves from Applejack’s mane, revealing the thick braid she had made out of Applejack’s normally haphazard ponytail. “Like this!”
Rarity looked across the faces of her friends. As an idea, it wasn’t bad. In fact, it was quite good. But she had to shake her head. “No... no, girls, I am sorry, but if I am to shave my hair, then I must give it a proper farewell. And that is something that simply cannot be done in the company of others.”
She had spoken the words as if she was going to be attending a funeral, and it drew some curious and concerned looks from her friends. But after a few moments of silence Applejack took a few steps forward and put a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder. “Hey, you do what you need to, sugarcube.”
“Thank you for understanding.” Rarity took a step away, beginning to head towards the door. “I’ll see you all tomorrow, then.”
Pinkie Pie placed one forehoof on Applejack’s head, squashing the pony’s hat down past her ears while using her other hoof to wave. “See you later, and don’t be afraid to come by if you change your mind!”
“Pinkie, get off!” Applejack snapped. She began to buck, and Rarity was sure a proper ruckus between her friends followed. It was, however, something she would not be participating in. She slipped out the door, closed it behind her, and began a walk back to her boutique.
She had so much to prepare.
~~~
“Now, don’t look at me like that,” Rarity said. “There is nothing I can do.” She spoke with earnest love, as if she had disappointed the one true stallion in her life. She had no such stallion, but she was torn up inside all the same. Was this what heartbreak was? This was worse than when she had been in Canterlot, trying to decide between her friends and being a high society pony.
For how could she say goodbye to such a loyal companion as her hair?
She looked at her reflection in her mirror, eyes focused on her mane. It shimmered so perfectly. The new shampoo/conditioner combination the spa mares had suggested was really doing wonders. It had never had such beautiful bounce and shine. She’d compare her mane and her tail to two spiralling rivers of the finest silken fabric. And these... fashion-backward monk ponies just expected her to chop it all off.
But Applejack was right. If the monks weren’t making an exception for the princesses, then she had no hope. The only way to save her hair was to not go, but she couldn’t stay behind. This was a new adventure for her and her friends. It was the kind of thing that would deepen their bonds even further while also unlocking the amazing powers the Tree of Harmony had gifted them. Without those powers, what would they do if another beast like Tirek was to attack Equestria?
“It’s for the sake of everypony,” Rarity told the reflection of her mane. “Surely you can understand.” It may just have been her imagination, but she was sure her mane and tail were now drooping more than they had been moments before. “Please, try to view things from my perspective. This is something I must do. It is for the greater good.
“But I promise, I shall make our last evening together worth remembering.” She turned away from the mirror, looking across her bedroom and to the bathroom. Every leisurely activity she could think to do with her hair was laid out before her. A delicious evening meal of deep green leaves, sweet potatoes, and other hair strengthening foods. In the bathroom, candles in her favorite scents surrounded her most expensive shampoos and conditioners she owned. It was like altar to the gods of haircare products. Then, on the bed, there were brushes. Thin tooth brushes, thick tooth brushes, and about every size of brush in between.
It was with the brushes Rarity began. She went to the bed, levitating the brushes into the air. She looked across them like a surgeon selecting her tools. Each one was considered before Rarity made her selection. Then she began, brushing out her mane with ginger care. Though, she was not really brushing it. She was stroking it, petting it like a loyal purebred that had to be put down. The feel of her hair almost made Rarity tear up. So soft... she always took for granted just how soft her hair was.
She worked her way through the brushes, cycling and changing to ensure she was always using the optimal brush. She tended to her mane and tail for over an hour, but by the end they were looking like finely polished gems. Each follicle worked together, flowing from her scalp like a river of liquid gemstones. Oh, it was a shame she could not give her mane and tail such attention on a daily basis. Unfortunately, her current morning routine already took as much time as she could spare on a daily basis.
But tonight was special, and Rarity returned to the mirror after she finished brushing. She smiled and twirled. “There, didn’t that feel lovely?” she asked of her hair, and this time it did seem to give a positive answer. It bounced a little more, and to Rarity, it looked as if it shimmered with a smile. “I’m so glad you're enjoying yourself,” she said before cuddling her mane against her cheek with one hoof.
“Now, on to the bath!” Rarity twirled away from her mirror, skipping across the room if only to feel her mane and tail bounce until she reached the bathroom. The sweet fragrances of the candles swept over her, and she drew in the aromas as if enjoying a bouquet of flowers. Rarity then went to her tub, turning on the faucets so the water temperature would be just perfect.
“What should we use tonight?” she asked, picking up the shampoos and conditioners in her magic. “I’ve only selected the most gentle and nurturing of products. Nothing harsh tonight, I promise. Tonight is all about you.”
She began circling the hair care products around her head, like wooden statues circling on a merry-go-round. She then watched her mane, focusing on the bit of it she could see out of the periphery of her vision. It was perfectly still as the many shampoos and conditioners circled past it, but then... was it a shift in the shine? Rarity couldn’t say for sure if she had actually seen anything, but she wanted to believe it was real.
“Oh, the lilac, a wonderful choice. Lilacs are such a wonderful flower. So beautiful, so fragrant, but... so short lived.“ Rarity choked up a bit, but forced a smile. “But we’ll go with the lilac shampoo and conditioner. The fragrance will simply be stunning.”
~~~
Several hours later Rarity sat at the table she had carried into her bedroom. The bath had been wonderful. She had lost track of how long she had laid there, just soaking. She didn’t want it to end. More than once, as she laid there with only her hair and the candles for company, she wished it could go on forever. An eternal bath that never grew cold, with candles that never burned down, sounded divine, like a piece of heaven brought down to earth.
But when her hooves began to get pruney, Rarity knew she had been in too long. She forced herself out, dried herself off, and looked at herself in the mirror. She then brushed out her hair once again. She did not style it. She did not make it endure the tortures of hair rollers or magical drying. No, she just brushed it with care and affection. How could she think of doing such things to her mane and tail in the first place. Her hair was so beautiful just the way it was.
The fragrance of lavender that was surrounding Rarity like an uplifting haze was also beyond delightful.
But now she sat at the table, her meal eaten and the candles beginning to burn low. She had done it all. She had enjoyed a perfect evening with her hair. Now all that was left was to go to bed. She’d just go to bed, go to the spa in the morning, and let the ponies there shear her hair off.
Yes, she had to just let them destroy what could be considered one of the finest works of art in all Equestria.
Standing from the table, Rarity felt the brush of her mane against her cheek. She paused in her steps, lifting a forehoof and holding against her cheek. She also brought her tail around, letting it brush against the side of her flank. It was a tender, silken embrace, a final farewell, and... and a request. Perhaps it was just in her head. Perhaps she was just going through some strange stage of impending loss, but she felt her hair had silent spoken to her.
It had made a single request. One simple thing that was equally fitting and heart wrenching. “No, I can’t,” she said, even as she wrapped her chin in the curl of her mane. “You can’t ask me to do that. I can’t do it. I won’t do it!”
Rarity rubbed her mane against her face, as if trying to hug it tightly. Yet, still, her hair seemed to speak into her mind, continuing its request. It had to just be her imagination. The only pony she had ever heard of having sentient hair was the Mane-iac, and she was but a comic book villain. Yet the request remained, and the longer it lingered in her mind, the more she couldn’t deny it.
It was her hair. She had been the one to care for it and nurture it. She was the one that tended to every split end and brushed it so frequently. She was the one that ensured her tail never drug on the ground. She was the one that made sure her mane was always styled to impress. It was her hair.
She had to be the one to cut it.
The scissors weren’t far. They rested in a drawer in her bathroom along with a fine toothed comb. Those two tools alone would allow her to ensure a clean cut. Yes, she lacked a proper razor for such a task, but she wouldn’t want to use such a brutish thing anyway. One did not take a lawn mower to a finely crafted topiary of Canterlot Castle, even if you intended to chop it down. She would surely not subject her hair to the same.
Still, her scissors had never looked so murderous. She intentionally kept them sharp. She’d use them for fabric and thread if she couldn’t find her main sewing scissors. Otherwise, the scissors were meant only for her hair, and a dull blade would do more harm than good when she was touching something up.
But now the glinting blades of the scissors might as well have been covered in blood. They gleamed as if they had lain in wait for this very day, the day where they would do more than clip a split end or touch up a bang. The day where they would slice her mane away at the roots, like trees being felled by an army of lumberjacks.
Her body and magic was trembling. She felt sick to her stomach, but she began the process nonetheless. She used the comb to brush out her mane near its roots. She then put it in place, as a safeguard against her scalp. Next, she began moving the scissors. She had to open them, and the sound of the metal sliding against itself made her feel faint.
No, she couldn’t do it. She shut the scissors and set them down on the table. She just couldn’t do it. Rarity even doubted she’d be able to stay awake the next morning. They’d need to get her hair cut at the hospital. She’d need heavy medication. In fact, she would demand to be put under. She didn’t want to be awake for it.
At the same time, what did a doctor know about cutting hair? They’d just use some barbaric machine, and her hair didn’t deserve that. No pony except her would be willing to take the time, to put forth the effort, to do things the way her hair deserved. Her own scissors, sharp and clean, were the only tool in Ponyville... no, in Equestria... no, in the world worthy of cutting her hair.
It had to be her.
So Rarity opened the scissors again, finding their sound just as gruesome as the first time. She, however, did not falter. She lifted the scissors to her head, using her full body mirror to position the blades right against the comb. This was the final step now. An application of pressure with her magic, and there would be no going back. The deed would be done.
It was at this moment Rarity began to cry. She felt the tears streaming down her face as she looked at her mane. She began to mouth words to it. Her voice was gone, fled to some other corner of the house where it would not have to witness the murder that was about to be perpetrated. Yet her lips still worked. They formed the words.
“I am sorry,” she mouthed silently over and over again as she tried to work up the nerve to squeeze. She had to close her eyes. She knew the dangers of trimming hair with her eyes closed. She could make an error, even hurt herself, but she simply could not look. She was thankful she had taken so long in the bath, for her makeup would surely be running in the tears curling down her cheeks.
“Please forgive me,” she mouthed one more time before, with the skipping of her heart, she closed the scissors.
The sound. The dreadful and terrible sound might as well have been the falling of a guillotine. The sensation. The unignorable sensation of missing something from the top of her head, as if she had cut off a limb. Rarity lowered the scissors and the comb to the floor, but did not open her eyes. She could not bring herself to do it. Every time she tried, she felt on the verge of passing out, and there was no space next to her bedroom mirror for her fainting couch.
Minutes ticked by before Rarity was finally able to work up the courage. She opened her eyes, and looked the front of her mane. The deed was done, and it was as horrific as she had imagined. Dozens, if not hundreds, of hairs, cut so short they barely stood out from the white of her coat.
“No! What have I done!?” she screamed, dropping to her knees and looking to the floor. She grasped the fallen locks of hair from the ground, cradling them in her forelegs like a child. “No monastery could possibly require such travesty. This is sin. This is a sin I can never be forgiven for. My hooves are stained with the...” Rarity paused, realizing there was no liquid involved with cutting hair. “They are bound forever by this fallen hair.”
Rarity stood back up, still cradling the freshly cut part of her mane with one hoof as she looked back at herself in the mirror. The perfection... was ruined. Like someone had torn the canvas of a great, ancient oil painting, there was no way to repair this. There was no hair style she could use to cover what she had cut off. It was... it was beyond saving.
Clutching the cut locks close to her chest, Rarity knew now that there truly was only one merciful thing to do. She drew up the scissors in her magic, placed them in her mane, and closed the scissors once more. This time was easier; the sound was not as torturous. But Rarity was still crying. Her hair was dead. Now... now she was only doing what was best for it and her.
“I promise,” she blubbered as she continued to cut. “I’ll donate you to the best wig shop in Canterlot. No... no, you don’t deserve that. You don’t deserve to be a trophy resting on somepony else’s head. You are my mane. You are my tail. You are my hair. I’ll... that’s what I’ll do. I’ll bury you in the garden and plant a lilac bush. Won’t that be nice? Every spring I’ll smell the lilacs and think of you. I promise, I’ll never forget. I’ll never, ever forget.”
Rarity finished the last snip of her mane and moved to her tail. This first cut... it was painful. The sound of the scissors took the strength from her legs, but she continued. She couldn’t stop now. She couldn’t stop just at her mane. She had to do this. She had to be the one. No one else was worthy.
“I bet the lilacs will bloom with the most beautiful purple color. They’ll be the most beautiful in all of Equestria, all thanks to you.” She finished one side of her tail and began cutting the other, revealing the short appendage that was the actual flesh and bone of her tail. “I’ll make a whole line of dresses based on how those lilacs look. It will be a memorial line. It will be the talk of all Equestria, just like you and I should have been.”
One final snip, and the last of her tail hair fell. It was done, and Rarity looked at herself in the mirror. She looked like a white rat with a stubby tail. Worse, she looked like some rocker, her purple stubble of a mane forming a mohawk line across her head. She wanted to go into exile. This was worse than when Hoity Toity had scorned her designs.
In fact, going to the monastery was a form of exile, wasn’t it?
Still, exile would have to wait until morning. Rarity gathered up her mane and went to fetch one of the finest shoe boxes from her closet. She placed every single follicle inside, bound it together with ribbon, closed the box, and then headed for the stairs of her bedroom. She would use her garden trowel. She had no lilac bush to plant, but she would do that honor as soon as she returned from the monastery.
Right now, she had to ensure her hair had a proper burial.
~~~
Rarity stood outside the spa, running just a few minutes late the next morning. Her night of sleep had not been restful, plagued with a few bad dreams of her hair weeping at what she had done to it. But the morning had come, and with its light the bad dreams had been banished away. Though the nightmares of the day had arguably only just started.
She had been unable to find anything to wear. She could not bring herself to hide what she had done to her hair. No, it was a guilt she had to face head on, but none of her other dresses felt appropriate either. So many of them relied on the beauty of her hair to complete the look. She spent every second she could spare that morning trying to find something.
When her efforts proved fruitless, however, she was forced to head out without a scrap of cloth. To head out into Ponyville with her shaved head and tail visible for all to see.
And ponies did look. Many stared in disbelief. She even thought she saw a few start to weep, though perhaps it was only her imagination. Yes, what she had done was worthy of tears, and she had cried many while she had dug the hole. She may have heard a few snickers as well, but she ignored them. They could not understand her pain. They could not understand her torment.
She reached the spa half an hour late. It was somewhat amazing Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie hadn’t come looking for her yet. Perhaps, however, her friends were being considerate. They surely understood how painful this was going to be for her. That was the mark of a true friend, and a lesson they had learned quite well the day Twilight was tardy.
Bracing herself, Rarity stepped into the waiting room of the spa lobby. The door fell closed behind her, and she looked ahead to the five mares who were sitting in the chairs.
Rainbow was the first to notice her, the pegasus lifting a hoof to point as she spoke. “Look, there she... whoa!”
The other mares looked to Rarity, and she looked to them. Aloe and Lotus had proven their skill that morning because all five of Rarity’s friends were already shaven. Each was like her, having mohawk lines of stubble on their heads. Though they were sitting, Rarity could also picture each of them having the same stubby tail she had seen in the mirror the last evening.
And each looked somewhat as she did: not happy with what they had been forced to do. Even Twilight, who had been so eager the previous day, had been running a hoof across her scalp when Rarity came in. She was searching for the hair that was no longer on her head.
Rarity looked at them, and they looked at her. Seconds of silence past, and then a single snort. One single bitten back laugh cut the air. It was then followed by another snort as one mare lifted her hoof to her mouth, trying to contain her laughter. That containment, however, began to quickly fail. The stifled snorts turned into giggles, and then morphed into full on laughter. The mare fell back on her haunches, holding her sides with her forelegs as she struggled to keep herself sitting upright.
And the mare laughing was Rarity.
“You all... look... ridiculous,” Rarity said between gasps of laughter. She fell over, laying on her back as her hind hooves kicked in the air.
Rarity’s laughter brought a smile to Pinkie’s face, and she began to giggle as well. Rainbow and Applejack followed, and soon after Twilight and Fluttershy all joined in. The six friends, looking more like over-sized rats than ponies, laugh loud and hard for the first time that day.
“Yeah, I imagine we do,” Applejack said. “But Rarity, did you really cut your mane yourself last night?”
Rarity nodded, finally managing to corral her giggles. “Oh yes, and that isn’t the worst of it. I buried my mane in a shoebox outside the boutique.”
Rainbow Dash trotted over beside Rarity, shaking her head in disbelief. “You buried your mane? What did you make it dinner last night too?”
Rarity snorted and burst out in laughter again. “I did!” she exclaimed, which caused her friends to renew their own laughter. For a good few minutes, that was all they could do. All they could do was just laugh. Still, when the giggles finally began to die down, Rarity took a seat next to Fluttershy, the six friends intending to wait for the princesses in the comfort of the spa.
“I was feeling just so horrible last night and this morning,” Rarity said, a smile still pulling at the corner of her lips. “I really should have just stayed at the sleepover with you five.”
“Honestly, it wasn't much of a sleepover,” Fluttershy admitted. “We braided our manes, but we didn’t dye them or anything like that. All we really ended up doing was worrying what ponies would think when they saw we were shaved.”
“Yeah, you at least did something fun last night,” Rainbow pointed out. “Besides, it isn’t that bad. I bet I could go even faster now without my hair slowing me down.”
“And it ain’t like it’s not going to grow back.” Applejack ran a hoof across her head. “Why, I think I’ve grown back a little stubble.”
“Zecora probably has some herbal remedy too,” Twilight pointed out. “I could even use a spell.”
“As long as it isn’t a spell in the same family as that mustache charm of yours,” Rarity said, her smile wavering just a little. “No offense to your talents, Twilight, but those mustaches are terribly tacky, and they don’t even match a ponies natural hair color.”
Twilight nodded. “Yes, I guess can’t argue with that. Still, I’m sure once we get back, there’s lots of things we could do to grow our hair back quickly.”
“Yes, it isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be in hindsight.” Rarity looked across her friends, biting back a small snicker at their and her own appearance. “I guess when you have to lose something that helps define who you are as a pony, it can be hard to let go. But it is never the hair or the clothes that define a mare. It is her friends and what’s on the inside.”
“Very wise words, Rarity.”
Princess Celestia wore a smile as she came in the front door of the spa, Princess Luna following a few steps behind. They looked just like everypony else, manes and tails shaven to nothing but stubbly lines in their coats. Celestia looked very at peace with the whole thing, as if going to the monastery was like a trip to the spa for her. Luna didn’t look as keen on it. She kept glancing back at her shaven tail, flicking it back and forth.
At the sight, Rarity trotted up to Princess Luna, offering a smile as she put a hoof on the princess’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. It’s just hair.”
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The End
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Author's Note
Hope you enjoyed the story. I realize that, for some, this may be a bit sad, but unfortunately I can't mark a story as comedy and sad at the same time. That's one of those hard and fast rules here on Fimfiction. Still, it was intended more as a bit of comedy at how Rarity is overreacting over a mane and tail that will grow back. Still, as with everything, it is up to reader interpretation.
Also, if you notice a typo or error, please feel free to PM me instead of leaving it in the comments.
