Breaking Point

Rarity stood outside the hot tub, waiting a moment before she got in to remark at how dreadfully hot it was in the spa today. The air around her was blazing with heat, more dry than humid, and every inhale seemed to scorch the inside of her throat, leaving her choking and gasping for air. Blinking through the tears that clouded her vision, she turned to Fluttershy, who was already in the tub.

“Dear, how in the--,” she broke off as she erupted into another fit of coughing, “--wide world of Equestria can you stand to be in here? It’s positively burning!”

With that, Fluttershy acted in a very un-Fluttershy manner, giggling and splashing Rarity in the face. Where the drops of water touched her pristine coat, it felt as if burning embers had been flung onto her face. Rarity twisted, trying to wipe the water off her face and screaming in pain…

And woke up screaming in her bed.

At first, she was relieved it was a dream, but when the burning sensation on her face and in the air around her remained, she knew something was terribly, dreadfully wrong. She lifted the mask of her face, hoping to find herself surrounded in darkness as usual at this time of night, but instead she was greeted by a room blazing in the light of the flames that danced across her walls, her mannequins, and everything else they could reach. Without thinking, she screeched “Sweetie Belle!” and took off in the direction of her sister’s room, only getting tangled in her sheets and falling to the floor for a moment before she was on her way.

Upon reaching the door, she found her entrance to be completely blocked by flames. It appeared the fire had started closer to Sweetie’s room than her own, so it had more time to wreak its havoc here, which only made this bleak situation worse. Rarity panicked for a moment before deciding to throw logic aside and save her sister, beating at the already-burning door. The wood had already become weak, so it was no hard task unless you consider the flames licking Rarity’s hooves, but with each place that splintered away and left a gaping hole in its wake, it seemed more flame rushed forth from within the confines of the bedroom. Even worse, she couldn’t hear her sister.

“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity gasped, her lungs filling with smoke. “Sweetie Belle, can you hear me?”

No answer.

“Sweetie! Sweetie, please, say something!” Rarity’s voice grew louder with each plea.

Still calling for her sister, Rarity made a hole large enough that, when the bursting flames subsided into regular flames after the impact, she could see Sweetie’s form lying on the floor near the window, her coat tinged with ash and soot. It appeared she’d been trying to escape.

“SWEETIE BELLE!“ Rarity wailed, flinging one last forceful hoof at the door before collapsing on the ground. It felt as if the strength had been drained from her limbs, and her lungs were positively bursting with the need for oxygen. But, as she lost the energy to even hold her eyes open for a moment longer, she knew that wasn’t what mattered. What mattered was getting her dear sister out of this burning pit alive, and at least the once-pristine mare could die knowing she did her best.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

It came in a steady procession. An annoying, steady procession.

“Hey, I think she’s waking up!”

Ohhh, mother of Celestia, did Rainbow Dash always have to be so terribly loud when she was suffering with a headache?

Wait, Rainbow Dash? Did she die too?

Rarity’s eyes fluttered open, revealing the face of a certain cyan pegasus and their orange apple-farming friend. She rubbed a hoof to her temple, though not without noticing the IV in her foreleg, and suddenly gasped. “The fire!” Rarity started, seeming to stumble with her words. “Sweetie Belle! Where is she?”

Applejack winced. She’d never heard Rarity sound that desperate, and Rarity sounded desperate a lot.

“She…” Rainbow Dash began, but seemed to lose track of whatever excuse she was going to feed Rarity.

Rarity, sensing Rainbow’s oncoming fib, turned to stare Applejack down fiercely. “You’re the honest one. Where. Is. Sweetie?”

The earth pony looked at the ground and played with her hooves a minute. She forced herself to look up at Rarity, though not quite meeting her gaze when she finally uttered, “She’s dead.”

“No…,” Rarity breathed. “It’s not true. Tell me it’s not true! Applejack, you’re not supposed to lie now, darling.”

A moment of uncomfortable silence passed between the three mares, all of them looking at one another unsteadily.

“She’s not lying, Rarity,” Rainbow Dash said at last.

“No,” Rarity growled. “You two are playing an unkind prank, and I must say, I don’t find it funny in the least.”

“But Rarity, she’s--” Applejack began, but was cut off.

“I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT!” Rarity screeched, effectively getting the attention of everypony nearby who had not been heavily drugged or comatose.

One of the doctors, a light grey stallion, put a hoof on Applejack’s shoulders and gave the two visiting friends a look of pity. “I think it would be best if you left now.”

Without a word, the pegasus and the earth pony left the room, looking back only to make sure Rarity was calming down. She wasn’t.

The whole day was a flood of bad news for the once-successful business mare. Her entire home and business had been destroyed. Her cat didn’t make it out alive. And worst of all, her sister had perished in the flames. Rarity tried her best to stay strong, and with a sad smile, she remembered how annoyed Sweetie always was with her for being a “drama queen.” She chuckled softly, a small tear rolling down her cheek that she was quick to wipe away. Sweetie wouldn’t have wanted to see her like this.

Fortunately, she was given some good news: she could be released from the hospital in a few hours. Her injuries actually weren’t terribly severe--just some burns and smoke damage--and they’d done almost everything they needed to while she had been unconscious. The doctors checked and double checked, making sure she really was fine to be released, and once they were satisfied, Rarity was on her way.

The ashen-coated mare trotted down the streets of Ponyville, hoping that, if she acted like everypony else, no one would recognize her and leave her alone. But, for the most part, it failed. Even the ponies that didn’t come to offer their condolences were giving her sympathetic stares, but Rarity paid them no attention. The less she focused on things like this--the things that would make her remember her losses--the more she’d be able to concentrate on getting her hooves back on the ground, so to speak. She couldn’t take this wretched twist of fate and let it keep her down. She would make something of herself yet.

“What do you mean only…,” Rarity trailed off at the bank teller’s counter. “S-surely there’s a mistake? I mean, this number can’t be right…”

“’Fraid so,” the mare informed her. “I’ve checked and double checked, and that is most definitely the correct amount of bits in your account, miss.”

“But that won’t even cover the hospital bill…” Rarity sighed dejectedly.

“Sorry, miss,” came the curt reply. “There’s nothing we can do about that. Those are your bits, take them or leave them.”

“I’ll take them,” Rarity decided.

With her bits jingling in the new saddlebag she’d just purchased, Rarity felt a bit of hope left. Sure, she didn’t have much left, but things weren’t as bleak as they’d first appeared. With the right judgment, she could be back in a new boutique making new dresses, just as Sweetie Belle would want her to do. She’d just have to find a place to rent with the amount of bits she had left, which, while it wasn’t much, it would probably get her a somewhat-decent place to stay until she was able to afford a place of her own. Yes, she would make something of herself yet. She would--

Rarity’s train of though was interrupted by a pegasus barreling into her side. The stallion looked at her and grinned, his eyes lighting up in delight. “Hey Ace, lookit what we got here. Somepony’s quite rich, carrying around all those bits.”

Rarity tried her best to smile, “No, no, I assure you, this is all I have left in my name and I was--”

“You hear that load a crap, Ace?” the brawny pegasus shouted, clearly offended when he thought he was being lied to. “This unicorn thinks she can pull a fast one!”

“I hear ya,” ‘Ace’ replied, stepping forth from where he’d been hiding in the shadows. He was more slender than his companion, though his muscles bulged from underneath his tan coat and left no doubt that this earth pony wasn’t one to be reckoned with either.

“Gentlecolts, I promise, I’m not--”

“Shut ‘er up, will ya?” Ace yawned. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Right, boss,” the bigger pony agreed. He smacked Rarity over the head with one of his solid hooves, leaving her vision swimming before she blacked out.

When Rarity came to, the moon was high in the sky and her saddlebags were empty. It wasn’t until she tried to get to her hooves that she realized how much her body ached all over. She winced, then fell, lying uselessly in the alley. She couldn’t move, but even if she could, where would she go? She had no home. She couldn’t ask one of her friends to shelter her--after all, she was the one who was supposed to be giving to them, not the other way around. That was how she worked in their little group. Rarity was the upper class friend who had the money to indulge them in random acts of kindness when the moment presented itself.

It was then Rarity realized she would no longer be able to perform her part in the group, and thus she wouldn’t fit in anymore. She’d truly lost everything, including her friends. She vowed then and there to avoid them at all costs, so as not to draw the obligated pity that came with viewing a mare in her state.

Days, weeks, months… Time had a way of blending together when you spent every hour under the sun doing the same thing, especially when that thing was sitting in the alleys of Ponyville, begging for food and bits.

Rarity, her coat a mottled assortment of grey and brown from the dirt and her mane a limp eggplant-colored mass not at all resembling what it used to be, was hardly recognizable. Nopony had really spoken to her, aside from hurried sympathies when they dropped her a scrap of food or spare change while they were on their way to someplace else. She saw her old friends occasionally, though she watched them from afar and did her best to stay obscured from their view.

But it wasn’t just her outside that had become a mess. She’d become the kind of pony who’d kill over a bit or half-eaten biscuit (not that it ever actually happened, given that there are few homeless in Ponyville and Rarity was alone in her alley). Because generosity isn’t what gets you far. To be anything, you have to take what you can when you can. To be anything, you have to be greedy.