Heartache: Cursed Destiny {Book the Second}

Rarity stared at herself in the large, elegant mirror of her bathroom. She almost couldn’t believe it was her. The unicorn pony reflected on the glass was tired and disheveled. Her usually glossy and neat white fur was sticking up at odd angles and was surprisingly dry. Her once radiant mane and tail was no longer ridiculously curly but simply laid limp on the ground in a tangled and dull heap. Her eyes no longer had their false eyelashes but there was still old mascara stained around her bloodshot eyes.

“Ugly,” she muttered then more loudly and forcibly, “Ugly!”

She felt it again. The pain. The pain. Her blue eyes darted from here to there across the bathroom until they landed on the tissue box. She snatched a tissue and let it all out again. All the snot, the tears, the mascara, the wails, and the pain.

She heard hoofsteps. They were heading toward the bathroom. She moaned and, still holding the tissue, banged her head on the sink counter. There was a sickening thud, and Rarity’s forehead throbbed, but the physical pain does not match her internal pain. She just laid there, tears forming a small pool on the counter.

“Rarity,” Sweetie Belle whispered, peeking into the bathroom, “I heard crying. Are you-”

“No, I’m not okay,” Rarity snapped at her younger sister. “Go away.”

Sweetie Belle’s green eyes glittered with sympathy as she hesitantly stepped away from the bathroom. For some reason, Rarity was faintly reminded of the Sweetie Belle from 14 years ago, when Sweetie was just 12 years old and she was just 22. Good times. Bad times too.

But at least Fluttershy wasn’t dead then.

Rarity sniffled. Oh, how I miss her dearly.

She knew that her grief was slowly destroying her, but she can’t seem to stop from crying. The mere one week of mourning seemed like an eternity of pain to her.

Fluttershy, she thought faintly, you did not have to die. You did not have to leave. You were too young, only 36. Sure, you were the oldest out of all of us, but you’re only older than me by a month, and just about a year older than Pinkie. What? Huh? No, Fluttershy that’s not the point. The point is that you did not deserved to die first. No, just because you have had a longer lifetime than the rest of us so far doesn’t mean it’s okay-oh fine, I’ll go. I’ll go and mingle with reality, with my other friends. But don’t think that’ll help me out, Fluttershy. Dear Fluttershy.

Rarity wiped a few tears away and discarded her spoiled tissue. For a few minutes, she decided to fix herself a bit. She washed her face and eyes. She brushed her mane and tail. And she smoothed down her fur.

Well, she thought to herself, I still don’t look my best, but I look my better. Slightly satisfied, she opened a drawer. She frowned. Oh, I’m running low on makeup and false eyelashes.

Biting her lower lip, she hollered, “Sweetie! Could you do me a favor and run to my bedroom to fetch some blue eyeshadow and false eyelashes?”

She heard the thumps of hooves and waited.

“Rarity, you don’t have makeup or false eyelashes in your bedroom!” came Sweetie’s voice.

Rarity cursed. “Okay, dear, er, just hurry up and go to the nearest beauty supply store.”

Rarity looked over herself for the last time in front of the large bathroom mirror. She smiled to herself. She looked much better than in the last seven days. She had carefully applied her signature blue eyeshadow and false eyelashes. She had forgotten to remind Sweetie to buy mascara, but she would do fine now. Her eyes were still slightly red, but that was the least of her problems.

Okay, Fluttershy. I’ll go.

When she stepped out of her boutique, she became slightly confused by the sight of her town. Ponyville was always the beautiful town it was, but it seemed to the unicorn that she hasn’t set eyes on the town for years, not a week.

She walked. That was all she was doing now. Walking around neighborhoods, taking in the sight of reality outside of her mourning.

She breathed in the air. Fresh, sweet air. It has been awhile. The sun shone brightly against the autumn sky. Pegasi were rearranging the clouds for a few days of rain in the future. She wondered if her dear friend Rainbow Dash was amongst them.

It was just her and reality.

However, she didn’t know. She didn’t know that reality was about to go against her.

She was so hooked up in her senses of Ponyville and reality that she did not realized where she was walking to. Without knowing so, she was climbing up, going above ground level. She was walking on rock. She was on a ledge, a cliff.

Hmm, Ponyville looks so beautiful up h-she froze. Dread engulfed her. She found herself falling off a cliff and beneath her would be her doom. She let out an ear-piercing scream.

That was the last sound heard from her.

Reality had already been hard on her when Fluttershy died. And now again, reality went against her.

“Why?!” Sweetie screamed in front of Dash’s face. “Why and how?!”

She was pointing at the bloody pulp nearby.

She watched as a few ponies took her sister’s body away. Her friend Apple Bloom laid a reassuring hoof on Sweetie’s flank but Sweetie pulled away.

Some ponies around her sighed, including Dash.

“Rarity fell off the cliff,” Rainbow whispered painfully. She stared up to the sky. “I saw her smack onto the ground.” She shuddered. “She’s with Fluttershy now.”

Sweetie let out an agonized cry and galloped away. Nopony stopped her. She needed time alone.