VENOMOUS GENEROSITY

The sun was just about to set in Canterlot City. The school was already over and every single student was either at home, on their way home, or still outside hanging out somewhere with food and music. Six peculiar teenagers, on the other hand, were busy with something else. They were preparing to watch a meteor shower that, according to Twilight Sparkle's calculations (which are almost never wrong, obviously), was going to take place that night. Everyone was very excited to see that and were currently in Twilight's house gathering all the equipment they need to observe this rare spectacle clearly and comfortably.

"Okay, guys! The meteor shower is gonna start at approximately one hour. So, let's do a quick recap to make sure we got everything. Applejack, the van."

"Check!"

"Sunset, telescopes."

"Check!"

"Pinkie Pie, snacks."

"Check!"

"Rainbow Dash, pillows."

"Check!"

"Fluttershy, blankets."

"Check."

"Spike, my notebooks and pens."

"Check!"

"Great! Looks like we DO have everything."

"Uh, almost everything actually."

"Why? What are we missing?"

"Oh, nothing. Just a really good friend of ours who's extremely talented in dress-making. You know, the same one who recently made you that beautiful scarf you're wearing for this occasion!"

Everyone gave Twilight weird looks while she stood there shocked and nervous.

"Oh! Right! How could I forget about Rarity? She was supposed to be here hours ago. Does anyone have a clue about where she is?"

"I haven't seen her at all since the English exam. What about you guys?"

Everyone shrugged.

"Well, I talked to her before the exam and I remember her saying something about showing her latest design to her boss after school, but she also said that it would take only about half an hour and it's been almost three hours since the school ended.

"Well, you know Rarity. She just LOVES to talk 'bout every little detail in her dresses."

Suddenly, they heard a light knock on Twilight's bedroom door.

"Speak of the devil!"

Pinkie went to open it after saying that.

"Hello, Rari… WHOAAA!"

Yeah, Rarity's appearance absolutely beyond horrible. Her face was full of wet make-up due to intense sobbing, her hair was a real disaster, there was ice cream stains all over her clothes, her eyes were almost completely red. She was obviously so depressed that nearly no amount of life was left in her. As soon as the others saw what a mess she was, they all let out loud screams and Spike immediately fainted.

"Hello, girls. I'm so sorry to say this, but I can't come with you to watch the meteors tonight."

They all rushed towards her and did their best to comfort her.

"Rarity, what in tarnation happened to you?"

"Didn't your boss like the dress?"

"Did you get a terrible grade on the exam?"

"It was your keytar, wasn't it? I knew I should've spent a little time on trying to fix it instead of studying!"

"Please, Rarity. Tell us what it was and I'm sure we'll find a way to help you."

Rarity's eyes quickly watered up again.

"IT WAS ALL THREE! Though what happened with the dress wasn't exactly what you suggested."

"Oh, nelly! Ahm not sure we can help her this time."

"Are you crazy, AJ? Of course we can! Rarity, just tell us what happened in all three incidents and we'll immediately help you solve any of your problems. Right, girls?"

They all nodded in agreement and Applejack let out a sigh.

"Ah guess no harm can come from tryin'."

"Oh, I have no doubt you'll try, darlings. But trust me, these are the kind of problems that just can't be solved anymore. Besides, I'm far too depressed to even tell you what happened."

"Uh, you know I can see your memories with a single touch, right?"

"Go ahead. I won't stop you. I'm too weak to stop anything, anyway."

She began to sob again and Sunset prepared to touch her forehead.

"Oookay, here goes nothing."

As soon as she touched her, she was greeted with three flashbacks and each one was worse than the last.

The first flashback took place during lunch break when Rarity was both practicing for the Rainbooms and adding the finishing touches to the dress she was planning to present to Prim Hemline after school in order to get a promotion. Her work was just about complete when she caught sight of several sudden lights that looked like cell phone camera flashes. She was this close to discovering the source of the flashes when she was startled by the sound of her keytar falling from a desk and hitting the ground hard. She quickly picked it up but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get it to work properly. She both called and texted Twilight but became really distraught when she couldn't reach her at all. Suddenly, the school bell rang and she rushed towards her locker with slightly teary eyes.

The second one was when she had just finished her English exam and Miss Cherilee was about to hand over the results. She didn't really have enough time to study for it and had a hard time concentrating due to her sadness over the broken keytar. Therefore, she was really nervous about her performance but still had hope that she was going to receive a passing grade. However, her nervousness turned into pure shock and her hope was smashed to pieces when she found out that she in fact failed the test. She was just about to sob at that point.

In the final flashback, she was rushing towards Prim Hemline's store with her creation, hoping that the time she spent on beautifying the dress instead of studying for the exam was worth it. Unfortunately, she arrived at the store only to find an almost exact copy of her dress being presented to Hemline by a girl from Crystal Prep. Rarity then came to a realization. It was this girl that took pictures of her dress, dropped her keytar to create a distraction and escape the classroom, and caused her to be so distraught that she couldn't concentrate during the exam. She tried to explain the girl's schemes to Hemline, but she had designed her dress in such a way that made Rarity's dress a rip-off of it and not the other way around. Therefore, Hemline accepted to hire the girl as an employer and refused to promote Rarity. At that point, Rarity ran away from the store towards her house and once she arrived there; she locked herself in her room, broke down in tears, and desperately tried to drown her sorrows in ice cream.

Once the flashbacks were over, a perplexed Sunset turned to her friends and whispered to them what she saw. Then, they all gathered around Rarity and put their hands on their shoulders.

"We're so sorry for what happened, sugarcube."

"Don't worry, though. I'm sure we can find a way to set things right."

"Twilight's right. We'll make sure that this 'Suri Polomare' will pay for what she's done!"

Rarity finally managed to get up.

"Thank you so much for your support, girls. However, I still see no solutions to my current predicament. I feel like I'm torn to so many pieces that it's going to take forever for me to be whole again and I can only start putting myself back together after a little privacy."

"We can walk with you to your house if you want."

"No, that's okay, Fluttershy. I'd rather walk by myself for now."

Twilight then handed to her a telescope.

"Here. If you wanna watch the shower from the comfort of home, that is."

Rarity reluctantly took the telescope.

"Thanks, Twilight. I'll certainly check it out if I manage to feel better. I'll talk to you girls tomorrow, then. Good night!"

She waved them goodbye and exited the house.

"What are we gonna do, y'all? She looks even sadder than a lone duck during mating season!"

"Pfft! That's easy, silly! Tomorrow, we're gonna throw her the biggest get-well-soon-party ever!"

"I'm not sure that's gonna solve everything, Pinkie. I have first-hand experience of her memories and the amount of depression in them was more than I've ever felt in my entire life. Like she said, she just need some alone time right now. After that, we'll figure out a way to make her whole again."

Everyone agreed with this plan and left for the meteor shower shortly afterward.

Back at Rarity's house, she had already worn her nightgown and was having a light dinner with ice cream while her sister Sweetie Belle was watching the meteor shower through Twilight's telescope. While it was fascinating at first, it quickly became boring and by the time Rarity came back upstairs after finishing her dinner, she had already started putting the telescope away.

'Whatever's the matter, darling? I thought you liked watching meteors."

"I do. But they get really boring when a lot of them pass by for a long time."

Rarity slightly chuckled.

"I understand what you mean."

"You can take a look at them if you want."

"No, thanks. I'm far too exhausted."

"But, didn't Twilight give you this telescope so that YOU could watch the meteors?"

"She did, but I thought you'd want to use it more than I do."

"Oh. Well, I'm done with it. Gonna see what's on TV."

"Okay, I'm going to bed anyway. See you in the morning."

Sweetie stopped just before she started heading downstairs.

"You're going to bed at 8:00 pm? You're not sick, are you, sis?"

Rarity let out a sigh.

"No, I'm not sick, Sweetie Belle. But I'm also not alright. Some terrible things happened to me today and the sadness that I felt from their consequences is making me really tired. However, I'm absolutely sure that I'll be much better after a goodnight's sleep."

"Wow. Uh, okay then. I'll be downstairs watching TV, like I said. If you need anything, just let me know and I'll be here ASAP."

"Thanks, sis. I'm already feeling a little better thanks to your heartwarming generosity. Just don't forget to be in bed before 10, okay?"

Sweetie chuckled a bit.

"No problem! See you in the morning! Goodnight!"

"Goodnight!"

Sweetie closed the bedroom door and rushed downstairs. Rarity, meanwhile, fell asleep a few minutes later.

While all this was happening, a small lone meteor hit the nearby park. Shortly after the impact, a sentient black ooze crawled out of the rock and began exploring the area. It was a life form that had to bond to another life form in order to survive and right now, it had to find a suitable host soon. Else, it would certainly starve to death.

After 5 minutes of exploring, it finally picked up the scent of a potential host; a being with significant amounts of negative emotions including anger, sadness, loneliness, and hatred. On top of that, this being was carrying a great power that was not of this world and could cause serious damage in the wrong hands. All these facts made the ooze realize that the trail was leading it to the perfect host.

Finally, the ooze found the source of the scent inside the second floor of a pretty large building. While this potential host did not look like a powerful being at all, the ooze had little choice at this point. It could either take its chances and bond with her or risk perishing in a fairly primitive planet. It immediately chose the former and started wrapping itself around the her body.

The process was a very agonizing one for the host. While the fact that she was asleep caused her not to scream loudly, she still had terrifying nightmares where she was cornered by a huge monster made out of a black liquid. Even though large diamonds that fell from the sky hurt the monster a lot, they still could not stop the monster from grabbing her and moving her closer to its mouth full of sharp teeth. By the time she was thrown inside mouth and completely devoured, the bonding process was already complete. The ooze now had a new host and it was already starting to feel a lot better.