Efficiency

Twilight appeared outside Rarity’s Boutique. She took a moment to prepare herself before knocking.

After what she had witnessed with Fluttershy, and if what Discord had said was true about this… madness affecting everypony, she had no idea what to expect from her friend.

Finally, she knocked on the door. A moment later Rarity answered.

“Twilight? Oh Twilight darling, how wonderful it is to see you! Do come inside.” Rarity said, seeming genuinely happy to see her friend.

Twilight walked inside. Rarity seemed her usual self. Not covered in blood and viscera at least. She led Twilight through her shop and into the back workroom. Twilight noticed however as the passed through the display room that there had been radical changes in Rarity’s life as well.

Gone were all the displays of beautiful and unique dresses and hats. Instead her mannequins displayed winter coats, backpacks, saddlebags, and straw hats. The accessories display now contained a variety of tool belts, harnesses, and leather goods.

“You got rid of your dresses?” Twilight inquired carefully.

“Oh yes. They were so very impractical. Why, we ponies don’t even need to wear clothing, except in the wintertime of course. Now I devote my efforts to making practical items. And to that end, I’ve begun to cure my own leather. It’s much more efficient.” Rarity says as they enter her workshop.

Twilight looked around at the changes to what was once her sewing room. Packed tightly edge to edge along all the walls were tanning racks each containing a tightly stretched hide. Sweetie Bell was mixing up some foul smelling concoction which Twilight could only assume was tanning solution. Rarity motioned for her friend to sit down, as she returned to a stack of cured hide, and began cutting off the rough edges.

“Hey Twilight!” Sweetie Bell called. “Good to see you back!”

“Nice to see you too Sweetie Bell. So you’re home from school helping your sister?” Twilight says, settling onto a stool.

“Oh, I don’t go to school anymore,” She responds cheerfully. “Not ever since the purge.”

“The… purge?”

“Yeah. It was Miss Cheerilee’s idea. About three weeks ago she told the class that it was inefficient to continue teaching ponies who would never benefit from it. So she called all of our names, one by one, and sorted us into three groups based on our aptitude and test score average.

The first group was the ones with the highest scores. They, she said, would continue to attend school. The second group she said, were ponies that would not benefit from further education, but could still become useful members of society. Apple Bloom and I was in that group. The third group were the ponies with the lowest scores, poor attendance, and what she considered poor moral character. These, she said, were a waste of time and resources, and would grow up to only be a burden on society. Scootaloo was in that group.”

“So what happened to Scootaloo after that?” Twilight asks.

“Oh, she’s right over there.” Sweetie Bell says calmly, as she points to a nearby tanning rack.

Twilight’s jaw goes slack as she gazes in horror at where Sweetie Bell is pointing. She gets up, and walks slowly over to it. It was a small tanning rack. The hide stretched across it is undoubtedly the same color as Scootaloo’s. Then she saw it, on the lower right side, it was Scootaloo’s cutie mark.

Twilight whipped her head around, intending to shout bitter accusations at what Sweetie Bell had done to her friend. But then she noticed the tears streaming from her eyes.

“Sweetie Bell?” She said softly.

“Oh, what’s this?” She says wiping a tear and looking at her hoof. “I wonder why I’m crying? Really now, this is horribly inefficient.”

“Yes it is.” Rarity observes. “Come now, back to work, we have a lot of hides to get through before dinner.”

Twilight turns toward her friend. “Is that all you have to say?!? Her best friend is dead, and you’re okay with this?”

“Twilight, we’ve all lost ponies that were important to us in the last few weeks. We can’t just simply stop what we are doing and waste time mourning them. That would be inefficient.”

“What do you mean ‘we’ve all lost ponies’. What ELSE has been going on?” Twilight says, becoming more and more angry.

“Well, you see it didn’t take long for word to spread about what Cheerilee had done. Once the mayor found out about it she decided that although Cheerilee had a good idea, the scale of it was too small. She had everypony gather in the town square, and made an announcement to us all. All ponies that were too old, infirm, or crippled to be useful members of society would need to gather at the community center for purging. All nonessential businesses were to either be re-purposed, or closed down immediately to avoid wasting resources that could be put to better use. Any pony that lost there job, and could not find other employment to be a useful member of society, was to report to the community center for purging.”

“By Celestia! Are you saying that all those elderly ponies, all the sick and infirm… you all killed them?”

“Don’t be silly Twilight,”Rarity responds, “We didn’t kill them, for one thing I was far too busy. No, they all killed themselves.”

“What!”

“Well it was their duty you see. Once they were made aware of how inefficient there existence was to society as a whole, it was the only thing they COULD do.” Rarity said simply.

“This is insane! You’ve all gone insane! Everypony that they declared as useless just trotted up and killed themselves! It’s madness!” Twilight says, bitter tears forming as she rages at her friend.

“Well,” Rarity says hesitantly. “Not EVERY pony. There was one who didn’t go quietly to purge herself. As far as I know she’s still out there. Hiding somewhere, squandering resources by staying alive. It’s so frustratingly, infuriatingly, inefficient!”

This was the first time since her arrival that Rarity had spoken in anything other than a calm collected manner. She was visibly angry.

“And who was it?” Twilight asks. “What was the name of this useless pony that had decided not to kill herself?” Twilight says, becoming even more angry at her friend’s callous attitude.

“Pinkie Pie!” Rarity says, her voice filled with venom.