A snip here, a stitch there, a quick press, and Rarity's latest masterpiece was complete. Despite the long hours and stress, she knew
she would not be allowed to rest. She dragged the materials for the next stage of this miserable project closer to her workbench. After all,
this was to be her finest work yet. She sighed. Her customer was very picky about these kinds of things, and one mistake would mean
— well, she wasn't sure. Death? Torture? Anything was possible with these tyrants. Their imagination for punishment would surely lead to
catastrophe.
Then again, catastrophe was her way of life now.
A knock on the door broke her concentration, and the cloth she was levitating dropped to the floor. "Who could that be at this hour?"
she muttered, not bothering to hide her resentment. She hoped whoever was knocking could hear. Her chances for retaliation were few.
With an idle thought, she opened the door. In stepped Sweetie Belle, her face covered in bruises and an eye swollen shut. "My goodness!"
Rarity crossed the room to her wounded sister. "This was not part of our agreement!" The door closed after a bag of cloth hit her side.
Rarity gasped but remained focused. "Who did this to you?"
Sweetie coughed for about a minute before she could answer. Rarity held her tight and waited.
"It was no one," Sweetie said. Her gaze remained fixed on the floor, and Rarity had to move her head with a hoof to get a better look.
"It was the jailer, wasn't it?" Sweetie jerked her head away when she prodded a cut, but Rarity knew well enough those whip marks.
Rarity scowled and cast her gaze about her workroom, looking for anything she could use as a bandage. Her eyes settled on strips of
cloth she'd keep hidden. She wanted to use them as an escape rope before they barred her windows. Holding back rage, she gathered the
leftover scraps. She wrapped them around the worst of her sister's injuries and pinned them in place. "Now, now," she said, stroking her
sister's blood-spattered mane. She kept her voice low, in case somepony was still outside. "We'll get out of here. Trust me." She rubbed her
chin thoughtfully. "I'm sure everything will turn out all right."
She said it, but she wasn't sure she believed it anymore.
"How do you know?" Sweetie Belle asked. Her swollen lip made her words a little hard to make out. "Every time I try to do
what you say, they catch me and..." She choked back a sob before tearfully continuing. "I'm useless. It's like I just can't get away with
anything... this is what always happens."
Rarity listened for hoof beats outside. Hearing none, she decided to take a risk.
"Oh, don't talk like that," she said, putting on her best smile. "I know this isn't Ponyville, but that's no reason to be upset." The
phrase was part of a code they'd worked out during their brief visits. It meant Sweetie should check the secret compartment. Nodding, the
filly stood and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I know some of the other kids pick on you," Rarity continued, "but you have friends, right?"
Sweetie had crossed the room and crawled into a cupboard. Rarity hoped her next words wouldn't sound too muffled from outside.
"I guess," Sweetie replied. "Babs is really nice. She's actually been sticking up for me when things get rough."
The filly must have located what Rarity hoped she'd find. A hoof scramble and gasp later, she looked at Rarity with wide eyes.
Rarity nodded. "Well, that's a start."
Sweetie clambered back into the cupboard. It had taken some work, but Rarity hoped her efforts would shortly pay off.
"It's still not easy, though," Sweetie said. "I'm starting to see why she was so mean the first time she came to Ponyville." Her voice
turned into a squeak as the clatter of falling metal objects rattled from the cupboard. Rarity grimaced, but the door was silent. Sweetie
trembled a moment before she regained her composure. "E-Even with Babs helping me out, I still get picked on a lot."
Rarity took several deep breaths to calm her nerves. That was too close.
"Well, surely there's somepony else who can help," Rarity said, gathering her materials and resuming her work. If she remained idle
for much longer, they would only become more suspicious and return. She kept an ear on the cupboard. Timing was crucial. If she waited
too long, she'd never catch up. The sewing machine whirred to life. "Have you told your teachers?" she asked. She desperately hoped she
drowned out the noise from the cupboard with her work. The tunnel was done, but rigging the harness would take all the strength Sweetie
had. "I'm sure they can help."
The noises from the cupboard stopped. Sweetie poked her head out, shook it, and bounded off in search of a tool.
"Yeah, but they just pick on me when we're not in school," Sweetie replied. The filly had forgotten about her injuries for now, and
she moved nimbly through the scattered pieces of Rarity's project. An intricate face here, a delicate wing there, parts of some sinister plan.
Rarity hoped her sister would be careful not to hurt anything. "I mean, I guess I could try to come back here, but I don't think I'm that fast."
Sweetie found what she needed — a wrench — and returned to the cupboard. The sound of work resumed.
Rarity shut off her machine and cleared her head. Sweetie Belle was miserable, no matter how often she put on a smile. Rarity knew
it was her fault all this had happened. In her rush to help an important client, she hadn't bothered to check the details. Freedom was close.
Sweetie Belle needed her help more than she needed to keep the project going. As hard as it was to pull away, she forced herself to do it.
She walked over to the cupboard and looked inside. Sweetie was tightening the bolts on the harness, and Rarity used her magic to help.
"Listen," she said. "I'm sorry I got you into this mess. If I'd known things would turn out like this, I never would have let you come."
The harness was attached. Outside, Rarity could hear somepony banging on her door. It was now or never.
"I'm the one who asked to come," Sweetie replied. "It's not like you didn't try to stop me." Rarity looked her right in the eyes.
Outside, the door was beginning to break. Rarity lit a candle and handed it to Sweetie as the two strapped themselves into the harness.
She could see her sister's determination, and that filled her with pride.
The door shattered. Rarity focused her magic on the rope and lowered them into the tunnel as fast as she dared.
"This will all be over soon," Rarity said, tussling her sister's mane. "Then we can go back home. We just need to hold on
to this until we reach the bottom." She heard movement upstairs and hoped they would destroy the project in their search. "The tunnel is just
a little longer."
They made it to the bottom before their pursuers could cut the line. Rarity dislodged the rope from the pulley above and let it fall.
Rarity touched her sister's face, gently. "Are you okay?" she asked. Sweetie Belle nodded. "Then let's work together and finish this."
It took all night, but when the sun rose, they had accomplished their goal. Their manes were more unkempt than usual, but Rarity
wasn't about to complain. The plan had worked perfectly, and she and her sister were the safest they'd been in weeks. With that in mind, she
didn't mind a little mess. "You were fantastic," she said, giving Sweetie a smile. Sweetie smiled back.
Their tunnel had led to the city's sewers, which they followed out of town. They rested a while before venturing outside.
"I still can't believe we managed to do all that," Sweetie said. Her injuries looked much better, and Rarity guessed she'd be just fine
if she saw a doctor soon. They stayed clear of any crowds until Manehattan was a dot on the horizon. At this pace, they would make it home
in a day or two.
At midday, the two stopped to eat the meager provisions they'd smuggled away. It wasn't much, but it gave them strength.
"I must say, this project has been a lot more extensive than I expected," Rarity said, giving her sister a nudge. Now that the work was
far behind them, she felt she could relax. It felt good to be outside again after weeks of being locked in that cell. With her imprisonment
done, she was beginning to feel playful again. "They said it was just a simple dragon costume."
Of course, she'd refused when she learned it was to be used in a coup, hence her and Sweetie's imprisonment.
"Yeah. Guess it kind of got out of hand," Sweetie said. "Too bad we didn't know that before."
Rarity felt a pang of guilt at this, but she brushed it aside. There was nothing to be done about that now.
"To be honest, I probably should have," Rarity said. "That's why it's important to read between the lines."
Author's Note
Really. There might be something hiding in all those white spaces.
