Rain.
So cold. So wet.
So alive.
Why did I run? Why did I flee?
I didn't have anything to run from, right?
Except him.
And him. And him. And him. And him.
And her.
It's raining harder. I’m slipping. Falling.
Lying. Lying?
Was I lying? Was it all a lie? Is it all a lie?
Will it all be a lie?
No. I'm up. Running.
Pain. Just my side aching.
No reason to stop.
I had to get away.
Away from them.
Away from the monsters.
The monsters like me.
But where could I go?
The rest were monsters too, only differently shaped.
The monsters like them.
Running again. Can't stop to think.
It hurts. I hurt. Every molecule, every fiber, hurts. Hurts so much.
I'm going to do it.
I have to.
No.
I can't.
But I can't!
I can't
Die...
Thump. Thump.
Rarity flipped up in bed, hooves flailing amidst a ladylike shriek for but a moment until her composure came back. The snow-hued unicorn sat in bed for a moment, wondering what in the world could be making such an awful racket.
"Perhaps it's just the storm," Said the fashionista to nopony in particular, observing the heavy downpour through a pink-lined window. "Although I must admit, I could've sworn tha-"
Thump. Thump.
Rarity blinked once, and looked at her ornate clock.
Three in the morning? Why would anypony be at my door at three in the morning?
Thump thump.
After a brief moment of consideration, the unicorn slumped back into bed and readjusted the covers. "Whoever it is, they can wait until morning, surely."
And with that, Rarity gave a minuscule smile, closed her eyes, and began to drift off to a calm, tranquil slee-
"RARITY!"
Said pony pulled her pillow over her ears and pretended that Sweetie hadn't just tried to rouse her during the vital hours required for beauty sleep.
"RARITYY!"
Grumbling under her breath, Rarity slid out of bed and began to stagger downstairs. Her sister would pay for this. Somehow.
After what seemed like an eternity, the unicorn reached the bottom of the stairs and shouted as loud as she deemed unreasonable.
"SWEETIE BELLE YOU'D BEST HAVE A REALLY GOOD REASON TO GET ME UP AT THIS DREADFUL HOUR!"
"Rarity, over here..." Said the creamy-pelted filly, gesturing at the front door, which was quite ajar. "I think-"
"IF YOU GOT ME UP AT THIS DREADFUL HOUR TO TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT RAIN-"
"She really needs some help."
Rarity stopped mid-rant and glared at her sister, confused. "She?"
Shaking her head, Sweetie pushed the door open with a hoof to reveal the doorstep.
The doorstep that Rarity distinctly remembered sweeping before bed.
The doorstep that now had a shaking, mostly-unconscious filly curled up on it.
"Ah." Said Rarity. "She."
Author's Note
And thus ends the prologue. :c.
Expect strange formatting - this story began as such when I first began it (may '12 O_o) and thats how it shall stay!
Apologies for holding back on it for so long :/
"Now, darling, as much as I delight in hosting you, I-"
"I'm sorry, I'll just leave..."
"You'll do nothing of the sort! I simply wanted to know your name!"
"I... Don't have one..."
Rarity, fashionista unicorn pony extraordinaire, planted her face into a hoof. Ever since early morning, caring for the little lavender filly in whatever way possible had been her top priority - not that said filly had made this feat easy, by any means.
Even as Rarity comforted the little pony as best she could, her thoughts kept drifting back to earlier, when the strange filly had requested to leave only minutes after waking up. The answer given was a clear and immediate no, of course, but Rarity had to wonder what could've made somepony so young want to do something so outrageous. A half hour of rest and an empty stomach was hardly enough to be up and about with, let alone travel!
Rarity froze in her current attempt to coax a name from the little unicorn and felt a powerful urge to (daintily) slap herself pass by. While she had been so wrapped up in formalities, she'd forgotten to feed her guest!
'That much is easy to fix, at least.' Thought Rarity to herself, giving a small grin for being such a great pony. Turning to the filly, she cleared her throat and gestured to the kitchen, utterly and instantly confusing said filly (who had been weakly arguing over names some two seconds hence) in a great many ways.
After staring at the admittedly blank face of her guest, Rarity flopped her hoof in a very noodle-like fashion in a vain attempt to convey it's meaning. After nearly seven more seconds of blank staring, the older unicorn let out an exaggeratedly large sigh and flopped through the doorway, a symphony of various kitchen things being moved emerging shortly after.
Several moments later, she returned, victorious, with a bowl of Oakey Oats - the best industrially produced oaky oaty cereal in all of Equestria - and held it out for the filly, giving a warm smile as she did so.
"You must be hungry after your big long journey, dear!" Rarity stated with a flourish. "So I've prepared you a bowl of Oakey Oats - the best industrially produced oaky oaty cereal in all of Equestria - with milk!"
The filly looked at the bowl of cereal questioningly, as though she had never seen anything of the sort before. She gave a little sigh, then shook her head and turned to the door.
"Thank you," she said, the sheer sadness reflected in her adorable little voice nearly breaking Rarity's heart, "But I really have to go."
Rarity gave a determined little harumph and held out the bowl. If she couldn't get the filly to stay, the very least she could do was to give the poor thing some nourishment!
"If you really can't stay, I won't force you to." Stated Rarity matter-of-factly, setting down the bowl in front of the little pony.
"Thank you, miss Ra-"
"But for you own wellbeing, you must eat this entire bowl of cereal before you go. Traveling on an empty stomach is a terribly unwise decision, I must say."
The little filly opened her mouth as if to object, then gave a sigh of resignation and wearily nodded her head. "Alright miss Rarity."
Rarity allowed a small smile to touch her lips as the filly awkwardly began to eat. It may have been far from the resolution she wanted, at the very least she helped make Equestria a better place through kindness and friendship.
Some forty seconds later, Twilight Sparkle (a distinctly more purple unicorn) and her assistant Spike (an equally distinct purple baby dragon in an adorable little nightgown) burst through the door, the latter hefting a purple medicine bag that was indisputably too large for him to carry.
Immediately, they were assaulted by a hysterical white ball of fashionista.
"Twilight! Spike! I don't know what to do! I don't know what's wrong! I-" Wailed Rarity, hugging the purple unicorn as tight as possible.
"Rarity, we rea-" Began Twilight before being readily ignored.
"All I was doing was giving her a bowl of cereal then out of the blue she started choking and rolling on the floor and-" Continued Rarity.
"Rarity it's okay, just ta-" Began Twilight again.
"All I wanted to do was give her a nice going away meal because she couldn't stay for more than a few hours and-" Continued Rarity.
"RARITY." Stated Twilight, idly wondering if Rarity was always this emotional in stressful situations. Her idle mind determined that the answer was yes.
"And- and I tried whacking her over the back but the poor dear just collapsed like her bones were jelly and-" Continued Rarity.
“Spike! Help get her o-“ She tried to shout before Rarity drowned her out again.
“And woe of WOES! With nothing more to do, and with Sweetie all tired and-“
Spike took a deep breath, shot one hopeful glance at the still-oblivious Rarity, and then gently pushed a sleeping Opalescence onto a roll of fabric, simultaneously resigning himself to his fate and backpedaling madly to avoid the repercussions of fate-resignation-induced acts. Desperate times called for desperate measures, after all.
It only took the glamorous mare the better part of two seconds to completely forget Twilight and Spike existed, and begin a vicious brawl with her cat in a vain attempt to salvage – or avenge, at that point – her precious random fabric roll. The ensuing battle was climatic, to say the least.
Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle had rushed over to the twitching filly on the floor, aimed her horn at the barely-conscious young unicorn, and quickly focused her energy into a basic three-point remedy spell, one that she knew would solve any glaringly wrong maladies.
She picked up the filly, sat back on her haunches, and thumped her back twice. The basic remedy spell wasn’t working, so she would have to move onto a stronger, more focused eight-point spell, or even the thirty-one point, if she still wasn’t-
The filly threw up all over her back. Her thought processes ground to a rather jarring standstill.
Twilight didn't move for a few seconds, all the while idly patting the filly on the back. With a clear amount of effort, she turned to her number one assistant and gave a disoriented little clear of the throat.
“Spike… Fetch me a rag and a bucket of water. Warm, preferably.”
Twilight took a casual glance at Rarity, who was currently engaged in a rather double-sided headlock with Opal.
“And, if it isn’t too much trouble, a bottle of aspirin, too.”
Author's Note
Chapter one!
As with 'The Thing About Love', most of this was written immediately after the Canterlot Wedding episodes, and only completed now. Now to hope that long a gap doesn't occur between now and the next update O_o
ALSO: Super-important! Can anyone notice any format differences between the prologue and this chapter? I keep thinking the letters are slightly different, or the spaces slightly smaller... Eurgh, the stresses of formatting :x
