Shattered Diamonds

“Hello?” Rarity called out into the abyss. “Is anypony there?”

She was alone, standing in the middle of darkness. Even with the illumination of the blue light from her horn, she could still see nothing around her but the pitch black of nothing. Rarity darted her head in every direction, in hopes of finding a trace of something, anything, in the area with her. But there was nothing to be discovered. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to focus.

“It’s okay Rarity,” she said to herself, “You’ve been in worse situations. Just remain calm.” She then lowered the illumination, and tried to keep silent in the hopes of picking up something. And it paid off. Her ears perked up at the sound of small hoof steps in the distance. It was faint, but there. I suppose it’s the best I have for now.

                Rarity slowly walked towards the direction that she could hear the hoof steps coming from. “Is somepony there?” The hooves went silent, and then began to move even faster. So Rarity picked up her pace, and proceeded to follow the sound. “Please, I just need to talk to somepony, I want to know where we are, what’s going on?” The hoof steps went faster, now sounding like they were running. With no other leads, Rarity had no choice but to chase after it. As she ran, the area around her began to change shades, turning from pitch black to dark grey, and finally to a lighter grey. She could finally see the source of the hoof steps, a pony’s silhouette was seen in the distance, running away from her. “Hold on, please!” The pony stopped, allowing Rarity to finally catch up. She slowed down to a trotting pace as she approached the silhouette. Despite the land being much more visible as opposed to before, Rarity still could not see who or what the pony was.

                “I’m so sorry if I startled you.” Rarity stopped a few meters away from the silhouette, to give the pony some space. “It’s just that you’re the first pony I’ve seen here, I wanted to know if you knew something was going on. Something like where we are, or-”

                “Shut up.” The pony snapped.

                “Wh-what?” Rarity was taken aback by the response. Not only in the rudeness of it, but the voice sounded familiar to her.

                “You’re so stupid. Can’t you take a hint?” With that, Rarity knew exactly whose voice it was, but was in complete disbelief of it.

                “…Twilight?”

                “Princess Twilight Sparkle when you address me!” The silhouette flashed, revealing it was in fact Twilight Sparkle. She unfolded her wings, and flapped them in such a fashion only to display how grand they looked, with her head held up tall.

                “What has gotten into you?”

                “I don’t need to explain myself to a pony as low as you. Go back to your concerns of clothing and style, some ponies have actual importance.”

                “I don’t understand…”

                “No, you wouldn’t, would you?” The ground beneath Rarity and Twilight began to shake, and a grand pillar arose where Twilight was standing, lifting her high into the air. And beside her, four more pillars emerged from the ground, two on her right and two on her left. They were noticeably shorter than Twilight’s own pillar, but still very high above Rarity. And for each new pillar, a new silhouette materialized.

                “You’re not loyal.”

                “Unkind.”

                “Dishonest.”

                “And just not that funny!”

                One by one, the silhouettes disappeared, and revealed themselves. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie stood beside Twilight, all glaring down at Rarity.

                “Girls, what’s going on?!” Tears began to form in Rarity’s eyes. “The ponies I know would never act like this!”

                “Well did it even ever occur to you that we’re just putting up with you?” Rainbow Dash scoffed at Rarity. “It’s incredible we’ve managed to put up with you this long!”

                “If we really just need a token dress pony, they’re a bit a dozen all over the place.” Pinkie Pie snickered, “I mean really, what makes her so special in the first place? She’s such an idiot that she let somepony steal from her.”

                “And then the time she nearly got herself killed by being such a spotlight hog.”

                “Which time, there are so many!” A wave of laughter grew from the five ponies, sounding more like the roar of thunder as opposed to genuine entertainment.

                “Stop it!” Tears rolled down Rarity’s face, leaving black streaks of mascara running down her cheeks. “You’re my friends!”

                The laughter continued to grow amongst Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy and Pinkie, but Twilight’s face turned very solemn as she stared down at the sobbing mess of a pony, and shook her head. “Stupid Rarity,” Twilight’s voice boomed over all other noises, “in order to be a friend, you’d actually have to be that pony’s equal.”

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                “Rarity!”

                Startled awake by the sound of her name shouted into her ear, Rarity opened her eyes to see her younger sister standing on her bed. “Sweetie Belle…” She let out a small yawn and shook her head, still trying to figure out what just happened. “What are you doing, do you know how late it is?”

                “I heard you crying, I came in to check on you. Were you having a bad dream? It sure sounded like it.”

                Rarity tried to get her bearings together, and shook her head. What was that? That certainly didn’t feel like a typical nightmare. It felt… genuine. But at the same time, Twilight would never act like that.

                “Rarity? Did you hear me?” Sweetie Belle waved a hoof in front of Rarity’s face, trying to capture her attention as she appeared dozing off again.

                “I’m sorry Sweetie, I’m a little tired. What did you ask?”

                “I asked what the dream was!”

                “Oh, well uh… it was one of those typical nightmares, the kind everypony has. I was naked at one of my fashion shows, it was incredibly embarrassing. You know how it goes.”

                Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow. “But you never wear clothes at your shows.”

                “And that’s why it felt so real.” Rarity picked herself up from her bed, and looked around, finding her cat Opalescence curled up and hiding in one of the corners of the bedroom. “Did you do something to startle Opal when you came in here?”

                Sweetie Belle turned and looked where Opal was lying. “No, she was over there when I came in. She was hissing a bit too when I came in. I think something scared her.”

                “Alright Sweetie. Thank you for coming in to check on me. But I assure you, I’m fine.” Rarity rubbed her eyes, and let out another soft yawn. “Now it’s late, will you please go back to sleep? I don’t want mom and dad thinking I kept you from sleeping all night when they pick you up in the morning.”

                “Okay…” Sweetie Belle hopped off of Rarity’s bed, and trotted over to the door. “Goodnight sis!”

                “Sleep tight Sweetie.” And with that, Sweetie Belle closed the door. Rarity looked back in the corner of her bedroom where Opal was hiding. Rarity stepped out of her bed and turned on the lamp on her nightstand. “Opal, baby what’s wrong?” Her cat didn’t respond, she just looked up and glared at her. Rarity walked a little closer to Opal, yet still trying to keep her distance so as to not make her feel cornered. She knelt down on the ground to get on her level, while avoiding direct eye contact. “Opal…?”

                The response given to Rarity was a sharp hiss and a swipe of the cat’s claws, enough for her to know that Opal was in no mood to talk. I’ll deal with her tomorrow, I’m in no mood of being bandaged up tonight. Rarity slowly backed up, and returned to her bed. But something still struck her as odd about Opal’s behavior. It wasn’t just a sign of Opal being in an aggressive mood, the expression was closer to that of fear, and not recognizing her owner as who she is. Perhaps she just needs her rest too. And I need my beauty sleep too.

Rarity turned off her lamp, and slid her sleeping mask back over her eyes. That’s all I need. Beauty sleep, that’s it. Everything is fine.