Hello. Goodbye. I'll miss you.

So... bored. Sweetie Belle dribbled her Jr. League basketball about with complete boredom. What grade was it again. Good Grogg. Her head hurt and all the math in her homework wasn't helping. Eating junk and listening to loud music might've made her more complacent toward paperwork. But coach told her not to eat anything that wasn't a raw vegetable. Glancing about her sister's boutique strung her attention toward the mannequin section. Goodness. She shivered and made her way upstairs, wanting nothing to do with those eerie things. Although it was always quiet these days, her hoofsteps were especially deafening that night. It pitter-pattered above her head, reminding her of... Rarity.

'I'll try to miss you.' Sweetie joked back then.

She joked because she wanted to fall apart; Rarity looked back in the rain, leaving her sibling to the care of both her own friends and Sweetie's. The hiss of water pouring down gave her no comfort. Because three weeks ago, she left the boutique and a scared, little girl who couldn't fight alone. In time, she'd worked up the courage to ask Scootaloo for self-defense training, in-case anyone tried to hurt her. The day she learned to appreciate a good jog and throat jab was the day she stopped being afraid.

But she missed weakness. Now, she didn't have her fear to distract her from loneliness. Loners were amazing creatures. And so were stoics. In ways, she wished she were like them, capable of severing her sentiments for nothing more than logic.

Sweetie Belle watched the rain fall and race down her kitchen window. Over the glass were iron bars that Twilight inscribed herself. To protect against black magic, she said sometime ago. Without hesitation, she levitated the nearest object. Someone was banging the door down. It was dark. And all of town was asleep by two in the damn morning. Her pupils shrunk as the reinforced entrance splintered around her. Wood gore and metal hinges struck the air past her, tearing dresses and smashing display cases.

Cloaked, rank strangers poured into her stronghold. Six were visibly armed, all carrying knives or revolvers. Among them was a taller one with mutated features and a scar in his robe, it being punctured sometime in his life. Sweetie Belle tossed her sister's spare sewing machine, catapulting her bullet far. The rapid impact knocked somepony unconscious and left the other figures scrambled.

Sweetie Belle galloped. Up the stairs. Up the room. Up the secret attic in that room. She was about to die. Rarity was right all along. She wasn't making up stories. She wasn't crazy. There really were a cult of people coming for the elements of harmony.

She fell on her snout, squeaking into her teeth as she muffled herself.

"Keep it together...!" Sweetie growled, stumbling soberly to her hooves.

Even in the safety of her well-hidden attic, the robed strangers found her location. Soon, the bedroom before her was packed full of searching, mindless drones licking their chops for prey. One even chuckled about how he'd enjoy taking her 'essence.' His friend smiled and said he loved fillies. No, Sweetie Belle panicked. Why did it have to be them. The mare trembled and backed away from the attic door, realizing the warm gold trickling down her hindlegs.

No. No. No.

They opened her entrance, sliding the steps out to full spread. The bad men rose step after step with eager energy bouncing them up. It was a hunt. They were itching for the kill. As soon as they stepped completely inside, though, the door slammed shut. The last thing they saw was lime green magic and their vision flashing white. Sweetie Belle collapsed, aching in her chest and basking for sweet air. She held a bloody, empty .32 snubnose at her chest, the butt still fresh with cruor. A few teeth had caught in her coat, too. How disgusting, she whispered, tasting their blood between her teeth.

"Rarity... where are you?" Sweetie Belle whimpered, starting to curl and whimper, wheezing and hacking in the lonely dark.

She couldn't hear anything. Sweetie Belle didn't even see the light erupt out the entrance. All the tears blinded her as somepony stepped into her space and clicked their .44 ready. She had no strength left. It was over. The gashes between her ribs said so. Sweetie Belle heaved and shook as familiar, snowy fur comforted her drenched cheeks.

"I missed you too, Sweetie Belle... I'm sorry I wasn't here." Rarity whispered, telling her it was all okay and waiting till her sister stopped moving.

Rarity held her tightly and pressed her sister's bloody, open neck against her heart. Her sister was still warm when she lay her on piled stuffed animals and security blankets. And though she never got to say how much she missed her, Rarity said it all. She said everything she never could as Sweetie Belle grew rigid and cold.

Author's Note

Some evils are necessary.