Unrelenting pain. Forehead burning up. Nonstop ringing in her aching ears. Her guts churning around her stomach like they were socks in the laundry. There was not a single doubt in Coco’s disoriented and throbbing mind that she was sick. It had been a nuisance that she thought she could have overpowered before the grand opening of Rarity’s newest boutique location, and she had been honoured by being granted the position of Sales Associate. The cream-coloured mare had been so excited she nearly kissed her employer on the spot. Of course she didn’t… good thing too, she would hate to have given Rarity whatever bug she had caught.
Now the opening night had come and gone without her, and that made Coco feel sicker than any virus. The terrible feeling that she let down her mentor, employer and close friend was more unbearable than her congested nose and sore throat. Now she laid in her bed in a mass of blankets and used tissues with tears glistening from her eyes, her head too hot and her body too cold.
She was just about to doze off in her own self-pity when she heard a knocking sound coming from the door of her studio apartment. At first she just thought it was a delusion from her illness, but when the sound continued to knock, she started to shuffle in her bed, mustering up whatever energy she had left and forced herself out of bed and waddled to the door, her comforter still wrapped around her like a cloak.
As Coco reached for the deadlock she heard the sound of the tumbler rattling and unlocking itself. Whoever was on the other side of the door must have had a key, and there was only one pony that had a key to her apartment besides her landlord, and her landlord wouldn’t have bothered to knock.
“R-Rarity…?” the cream-coloured mare asked weakly as the door opened itself.
There she stood, the beautiful white mare with a silky lavender mane. The unicorn smiled warmly at her as she placed a hand on the door and let herself in. “Good heavens!” She suddenly gasped. “What are you doing on your feet? You should be resting.” Tenderly, Rarity started to nudge Coco back to her bed.
“You… knocked…” Coco muttered, giving a big sniff to suck up some dripping snot. “And I… didn’t know it was you.”
“Oh, well then I suppose that was an oversight on my part,” Rarity admitted. “But I didn’t want to alarm you by just letting myself in.”
“It’s fine,” Coco mumbled. “But what are you… what are you…” she felt that tickle in her nose and desperately reached for a tissue, grabbing it just in time to block off her sneeze. “A-Choo!” she sneezed, wiping away any excess snot from her face and crumpling up the tissue. “Sorry…”
Don’t apologize…” Rarity said, looking in horror at the mess of sticky balls of nose fluids and tissue paper that laid on top of Coco’s bed. With her magic she started to gather all of the disgusting pieces of garbage and placed them all in a nearby waste bin. Once the bed was clear, it was safe for Rarity to lift up one of the bed sheets and fold them aside, making room for Coco to crawl in. “Now back in bed, dear. Give me that blanket and I’ll tuck you in.”
As much as Coco loved the idea of Rarity tucking her in, as it was the premise of three of her confusing dreams about the unicorn, the earth mare’s cheeks started turning as red as her nose. “Umm… do you think I can just keep my blanket wrapped around me? I’m a little… uh, chilled.”
Rarity gave her a confused look. “Really? Because you look like you’re sweating up a storm. Now I really must be insistent on this matter. It’ll only be for a second.” The white mare reached for the two outermost folds of the fluffy comforter and tried to open it up. There was little resistance from Coco, who could hardly fight back with her sore muscles.
“N-n-no!” Coco cried as Rarity was successful in taking off her blanket and exposing her pajama shirt to her. Coco tried covering her chest but it was pointless, Rarity had already seen what she was trying to hide. A white shirt with a big heart in the center, and in the center of that heart, an artsy picture of the Rarity’s face.
The purple-maned unicorn stared a little with disbelief at the sight of Coco’s top. “Darling… where did you get that shirt?”
“Umm…” Coco gulped, not sure if Rarity would believe the truth. “Thrift store… there was a whole box of them on sale for 5 bits.”
“So you have a whole box of shirts with my face on them?”
“Y-yes…” she said nervously, flinching as she waited for Rarity to lash out at her, to call her weird and creepy or some sort of perverted stalker. Instead as she heard was small fits of giggles. Coco looked up and saw that Rarity was trying to hold back her laughter.
“So that’s where they all went!” Rarity laughed. “Over a year ago, my little Spikey-wikey made these shirts to proclaim his love for me. It was utterly adorable and too cute but I heard Twilight got rid of them. I’m just glad that they found a nice home and weren’t turn into…” she shuddered a little. “Oil rags or something equally horrible.”
“So you’re not mad?”
“Of course not,” Rarity beamed. “But I will be if you don’t park your cute little bottom in this bed and start getting better. I’m going to need my new store manager back on her feet as soon as possible.”
“S-s-store manager?” Coco asked, confused and excited at the same time. “But… I missed the opening. I thought if anything I would be replaced and fired.”
“Well you were replaced…” the white mare said sheepishly. “But you’re still my apprentice. I could never fire my apprentice, but I can promote her. Honestly that was always the plan once I got some more help and positions filled up. So I’ll be staying in town for a few more days until you feeling well enough to come back to work.”
“I…” the cream-coloured mare started to stay, but either due to pure delight or her swollen throat she couldn’t finish her sentence. Instead, she wiped away a happy tear from her eye and nodded. The mare handed Rarity her blanket and slowly got into bed. Once she was snuggled in, Rarity started to drape the many blankets over her, tucking her in so she was nice and comfortable and warm.
“There, now isn’t that better?” Rarity smiled.
Coco nodded smiling back. Just seeing that mare’s warm grin was the best medicine she could ask for. Rarity was always such an incredible source of courage and strength for her. It was Rarity that gave her the strength to quit her job working for that awful Suri Polomare, to be the best she could be. She was her idol, her hero… a perfect depiction of grace and beauty. She would even go as far as to say she cared deeply for Rarity… more than almost any other pony in her life.
But her thoughts were starting to tread in dirty waters, so she quickly squeaked something out. “So… why are you here? Not that I don’t mind the company?”
“Why, to take care of you, of course,” the white mare beamed. “I wouldn’t be a very good employer or friend if I didn’t see that you were properly taken care of.” She looked around the messy loft. “Still living alone I see. It always baffles me that a mare as gorgeous as yourself doesn’t have a coltfriend.”
“It’s OK…” Coco mumbled, turning her head to look away from the white mare so she could hide her worried expression. Truth be told she had never felt that way towards anypony, stallion or otherwise. Maybe it was the uncaring mother, or the abuse she received from Suri but for the longest time she felt like the ability to love another pony had been beaten out of her… until she met Rarity that is. “I mean, I work all the time so I doubt I could hold onto a relationship.”
“Well there must be somepony who catches your fancy,” Rarity asked, trying to see if she could fish out a big, juicy piece of gossip from the young mare.
“Well… there is this one pony…” Coco whispered. “But I don’t think they feel the same way.”
“Well, it’s their lost,” Rarity shrugged. “Anypony who can’t see how wonderful you are is a fool.”
That time Coco almost laughed, but managed to politely keep it down her windpipe. “Thank you…” she said. “Maybe one day…”
“But today…” Rarity said, heading towards the kitchen across the room. “You need to focus on getting better, and there’s nothing better for you when you’re sick than my mother’s special orange soup.” She placed her bag on the counter and started to pull out the ingredients needed to make the soup. There were a lot of carrots, a lot of oranges, and a questionable amount of cold medicine.
“That’s really not necessary,” Coco said. “I have some leftovers in the fridge if I get hungry.”
“Yes, but I think it’s highly unlikely that whatever is in your refrigerator will have the vitamins you need to kick this flu. So not another word on the matter. It should only take me a couple of minutes to make the soup.”
“If you say so…” the cream-coloured mare said. “So… how was the opening. I hope that it didn’t go too badly.”
Rarity chuckled a little, remembering the fiasco of preparations that led to her opening night. “Let’s just say I’ve learned my lesson about leaving redecorating till the last minute. I should have had everything cleaned up the day before at least… and then there were the racoons, and the nightclub, and… ugh, Plaid Stripes.”
“Plaid Stripes?” Coco wondered. “Who’s that?”
“The only teenager I’ve ever felt the strong desire to throw off a building,” Rarity muttered as she filled a pot full of hot water. “She’s my landlord’s daughter and she has… unique ideas. After thirty seconds with her she wanted to sell glow in the dark teeth instead of dresses. Of course I had to let her work for me because her father threatened to raise the rent and I figured, well, I can tolerate the girl for a few weeks before she gets bored and becomes somepony’s else’s problem. Although clothing made out of spoons wasn’t a terrible idea.” Rarity started to peel the oranges and carrots, discarding the skins into the sink. “So I’m afraid you’ll have that to deal with. Just try and be kind with her feelings, I don’t want her crying home to daddy and losing my business.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Coco said with a yawn. “But you mentioned a dance club and racoons?”
“Ah yes,” The white mare continued as she poured the cut up fruit and veggies into the pot. “Well, I had thought I had bought the whole building when I first came across RFY, but apparently that wasn’t the case. Turns out another resident of Ponyville decided to open up a night club on the third floor. A rather odd location if you ask me and it caused a terrible racket. We were able to get that under control for the moment, but I’m working on a buyout of the rest of the building, maybe use it for storage space or a HQ away from Ponyville. That’d be nice actually since we’re all the way out east.”
“That’d be nice…” Coco muttered with another yawn, imagining if Rarity one day decided to move to Manehatten, and they could see each other more often, hang out after work, and go on lunch dates… Her eyes felt droopy and pictures of her and Rarity sitting at a café table, staring lovingly into each other’s eyes as they began to lean in closer and closer towards one another…
“It would be, and I’d save a fortune on hotels,” the unicorn said, stirring the pot and adding some of the many bottles of cold syrup. “Now where was I?” she thought for a moment. “Ah yes! The family of racoons living in my janitor’s closet. I guess they were just looking for a home but I am running a civilized business, not an animal shelter. But I suppose they’ve grown on me… you should see the little outfits they have now!” She gave her soup a little sniff. “Perfect!” She said, digging through the cupboards and getting a bowl for the soup. She took a ladleful of the orange, sweet-smelling liquid and poured it into the bowl. “I hope you’re hungry, Coco because you’re in for… a… treat…”
Coco’s eyes were closed as she purred peacefully in her sleep. Rarity sighed jokingly, rolling her eyes as she put the bowl down and covered the pot and bowl to keep them warm. It was really only a matter of time before Coco would have passed out, the poor thing. But it was good that she was getting rest. She could have the soup when she woke up. Rarity spent a quick minute putting everything away and cleaning up her mess.
Once the kitchen was clean she wrote a quick note for Coco to tell her where her food was and to call her if she needed anything and placed in on the bedside table. The white mare looked fondly down at the cream-coloured mare, brushing a few strands of her aqua-blue hair out of her eyes. Rarity stared at her for a moment, wondering what she was dreaming about before giving her a soft kiss on her forehead.
“Get well soon, darling,” Rarity said, grabbing her bag and heading towards the door, being careful not to close it too fast and wake the sleeping mare up.
As the lock clicked behind the white mare, Coco slowly started to smile as she slept, her dreams that day would be riddled with her idol and her face covered in kisses like the one she felt on her head as she finally drifted off and got some well deserved rest.
Author's Note
Thanks to ACTASAP for editing, and Pia-sama for the cover art!
