Mirror: Book I - Mind

The cold, gentle breeze brushed against Rarity’s cheek like the stiff bristles of an unkempt hair brush, clawing at the thin yet plush fur of her hide and causing the unicorn to blink with a small wince of discomfort. Despite the fact that Celestia’s sun was still shining brilliantly upon the land, day by day the air and the wind had grown much more harrowing than to the white unicorn’s liking. Although Canterlot weather was never quite to her liking either, it at least made her feel specially acquainted to endure it along with all of the other high-end unicorns living upon the grand, mountain capitol. But this, this weather was simply unbearable. So what if I’m a little soft? Rarity thought to herself. I am a lady, after all. Such boisterous ponies like Rainbow Dash would never understand.

She, as well as many other ponies, had found the rhythm of the weather pegasi to be knocked out of balance this season. In response she lifted the warm, dandelion scarf resting over her chest and snugged it tight around her neck, shivering slightly as she looked to and fro in nickering, expectant glances. Where is that Twilight? It’s nothing like her, to be off schedule.

A moment later and the chilling breeze returned, with much more force and roar than before, causing the end of her scarf to slip up and over her eyes. She flicked the fabric away with a whip of her magic, and blinked before a familiar yet horribly disheveled sight in front of her.

“My, my.” The unicorn began. “Wherever are you off to in such a hurry, darling?”

“Funny…” David wheezed. “…you should…” And he panted. “…say that.”

“Well, once you’re finished speaking two syllables at a time, perhaps you can tell me?”

“Just need’a breather.” He spasmed and collapsed before the postured unicorn with a mighty thud, hovering a hand over his heart as the blood pounded against his ears and his own saliva threatened to choke him.

Bystanders stopped to watch the mare standing over the defeated form of the boy. Some wondered if they should start applauding in triumph, others sought to distance themselves from the new, threatening reputation their local tailor had suddenly obtained. Quickly then, Rarity went to help the poor boy back up to his feet, carefully motioning over to bench on the side of the building. He sat down with a grunt and a swallow, finally catching up to the pace of his heart where he now sat at eye level with the unicorn before him. He was already speaking before the mare could even open her mouth.

“What brings you here, Rares?” He inflected.

The strange nickname gave her a pause, but she persisted through. “Why, Twilight and I had arranged for a date this morning. We promised to meet here for a bit of brunch and tea, but that bookish mare is nowhere to be seen.” She stifled a chortle. “I don’t suppose she sent you in her stead?”

“Nah, this is just something Rainbow Dash is having me do.” He admitted.

“Running amok like a manticore is on your tail?” She joked.

David looked to her, giving a shrug and a nod.

“Don’t tell me, Rainbow Dash is making you…exercise?” Fret filled her eyes. “Oh, you poor thing. Just look at you, you’re exhausted!”

“Well, yeah, that’s what exercise does to you.”

“Come now, I shall free thee from the turmoil that bumbling pegasus has wrought upon thee!” She pranced for the door, holding it open with her magic. “Join me for brunch, why don’t you?”

“No, I couldn’t!” He quickly stood up, waving his hands. “I mean, Twilight must be on her way by now, surely she’ll be here any minute?”

“Then we shall meet her in due time. Now, come come! I shalln’t take no for an answer.” She delivered a warm and gracious smile to the boy, nodding her head towards the indoors.

“Thank you.” Was all he had time to say to make up his mind and go ahead inside anyways. He mentally slapped himself for not being proper and holding the door open for a lady. Meanwhile, Rarity was feeling quite alright about herself.

Two brimming cups of chamomile slid across their table, one each landing respectively before the other. Rarity took a moment to inhale and bask in the aroma of her lavender blend whilst the boy across from her timidly cupped his serving around his palms and gave the small beverage a tiny sniff. The cafe diner was, for lack of a better telling, the average and everyday diner that the boy imagined road trippers or truckers would often walk into. Where such customers would have been, there were of course ponies in their stead, delivering to the boy their usual questioning glares. David pushed his head back down and ignored them the best he could, his eyes resting easy upon the beautiful figure before him.

“There now, isn’t that better?” Rarity’s chest swelled with the lovely, lavender aroma, only to deflate the moment her eyes fell upon her partner. “Is everything alright, darling?”

“Of course not-” He blurted. “I mean…Yes, everything’s fine.” And considered his surroundings. “I guess I just feel a little out of place, is all.”

“Well, no wonder.” She took a sip of her tea. “You’re the only one in the entire restaurant who isn’t a pony.”

It took up until now for the unicorn to realize that half the room had moved to the far end of the restaurant the moment the boy had walked in.

“N-Not that I mean anything by it! It’s just-” Rarity stifled and slapped herself over the head.

“Don’t sweat it, Rares.” The boy chuckled. “I can already see you’re being generous enough. Honestly, we’ve only met each other about two or three times and you treat me like you’ve known me for years. I’m surprised you even remembered my name.”

“Unforgettable faces go a long way.” She stifled again, growing wide-eyed. “I-I didn’t mean-”

“Please, the feeling is mutual.” He examined his tea. “Way more than you think.”

She blinked, cocking her head. “Whatever do you mean?”

“Let’s just say it’s all starting to make a little more sense to me. These ponies, I mean.” He gave the room a quick glance before returning to the mare. “They’re a populace, a people, a society. It’s in my understanding that society is never going to go out of its way to treat you with the respect you think you deserve, even if you play by their rules. By that logic, why continue to search for it? I learned early on in life that the only one who can really please you is yourself.”

Rarity stared at the boy, seeming a little dumbfounded.

“N-Not that we should stop trying to give back-I mean…” He started again. “You have wonderful friends, Rarity, I’m sure. It would break my heart to see you turn your back on them.”

“And what makes you think I ever would?” She questioned.

It was David’s turn to come up speechless.

“Don’t go back on your word just yet. Trying to please society is a fruitless endeavor, is it not?” She splayed out a hoof. “And yet here you are, attempting to adhere to my preferences in spite of the fact that you know very little about them, or perhaps even nothing at all. What makes you think you’re going to get anywhere close to pleasing anypony when you don’t know a thing about them?”

“Well…” The boy considered, and failed to speak further.

“That’s just it, that’s the problem.” Rarity told him. “We fail to please one another because we don’t know each other, even when we think we do.”

“So, how do we fix it?” He quizzed.

“Fix?” She almost chortled. “There’s nothing to fix, darling, this is simply the way things are. Ponies say we live in an age of union, the grand result of our fire of friendship, hence the story of Hearth’s Warming Eve. Alas, I fear that fire is beginning to wear thin. We say that it still burns just as bright as it did back then, but it is only those words and nothing more.”

“You suspect a falling?” David wondered.

“As does every generation.” She admitted coldly. “The question is, how can a populace know that they might be the ones to watch everything around them crumble so?”

Only at the end of time will the tumult of your decisions weigh upon you.

The familiar words echoed in her mind like a harrowing, old memory. They were words from herself, to herself, and that thought alone made Rarity wonder for a moment. Just what exactly was she feeling, what exactly was she saying? Had the presence of this boy made her question these things so? Quickly, she shook her head and looked up at her human across the table, wherein he was busy studying her with a quizzical gaze.

“I’m sorry, it must be this dreadful weather.” She supposed. “This is no time for such gloomy conversation, now is it?”

“My mind gives room for plenty conversation.” He admitted. “Though I never took you for the…how do I put it, type?”

“Depressing?” She wondered.

“No, that’s my assignment.” He claimed, prodding his chin. “Philosophical.” He decided.

“I believe you should leave the compliments for Twilight.”

There the boy and the unicorn sat for an unrecorded amount of seconds in complete and utter silence, as though the whole diner were in anticipation of an outburst or obnoxious disturbance about to take off. Their expectations had been granted, but not so much in the way they had presumed. Rarity and David chuckled, chortled and laughed together at the stupid compliment, at the stupid conversation they were having, and finally realized a calm company between each other. The ponies of the restaurant seemed to rest a little easier on that note.

In contribution to their unicorn magic, David wished to provide a bit of his own magic by folding up the wrapping of a straw and dabbing a drop of his beverage onto the crinkled up paper. Rarity was more or less mildly impressed by the display of “magic” the boy was performing, claiming she might have seen her little sister doing the same trick before. The more she talked, the more the young human seemed to open up, as Rarity had come to discover. He went to produce his book, the one he had always been carrying around with him, and showed the mare his sketches thus far. Without a doubt, as even Rarity would deem, the boy was an artist.

“Drawing is much more than just a hobby, much more than just a passion to me.” The boy emphasized. “For all I can remember, it was practically the only thing I did back home on Earth. Aside from eating and sleeping, of course, and a whole bunch of breathing, but even so it didn’t fall far from that category.” He illustrated. “Drawing is like breathing to me…” Slowly, his pencil stretched and sketched across the paper. “It gives me life, it gives me energy, and I don’t think I’d be able to live without it. Life would have no meaning.”

“Would you mean to say you cling to it?” Rarity supposed. “As a way to cope for the trials and nonsensicals of life?”

“Why would you think that?” He wondered.

“I hate to bring up the conversation from before, but do you not think the tribulations of our lives are just too much to bare?” She asked him further. “That, in order to cope with all the bumbling extremities of our daily ado, we venture to our own little realms of escapism?”

“Trust me, there’s nothing little about my own realm of escapism.” He reassured. “I’ve spent enough time alone to know that much. But really, to me it’s more than just a means of coping. If it were, then I probably would have found another route by now, something else to help me occupy my time.”

“Then why do you draw?” She questioned.

David sat back in the booth and peered out the window for a long, gracious moment. He finally shrugged and gave a silent chuckle. “I don’t know.” He simply said. “I just do, because I choose to.”

Rarity sat back in her booth all the same, scanning over the boy’s words and the details of their conversation. Her mind ventured back to her days in the capitol of the country, Canterlot, wherein she had finally achieved opening her first shop in the grand, mountain city of the nation. It was, of course, everything she had never dreamed of it being. One monotonous dress pattern to sew after another, Rarity had soon found herself losing her inspiration, her passion, her will to go on…It wasn’t until her creative endeavors once again found their flame that she decided she wasn’t going to let this dull routine subdue her true desires. She wondered then, and she was wondering now, had she once again found that moment of inspiration? Or, had the inspiration found her?

There was a tapping on the glass. Both occupants looked to the outdoors, and found a blue, rainbow maned pegasus with a questioning look upon her complexion. Rainbow Dash gave an exaggerated shrug to the boy, and in response he gestured to the unicorn.

“Hi, Rarity.” Rainbow Dash muffled through the glass.

“H-How do you do…Rainbow Dash?” The unicorn seemed unsure.

“Mind giving me back my trainee?” The pegasus asked.

David glanced back at the mare in the booth. “Well, I suppose that’s my queue.” He said, rising up from the booth, his head nearly hitting the ceiling. “This was a wonderful experience, Rarity. We should do this another time.” And a second later, held out his hand.

The unicorn eyed the odd gesture before quickly realizing what it meant. Within another beat, she raised her hoof and shook upon the boy’s palm. Rarity couldn’t return any words as she watched the boy trudge his way across the seats and weave around the little ponies surrounding him. She hadn’t even noticed the excessive amount of bits lying upon the table after the boy’s disappearance, very likely from his own pockets. Twilight’s allowance, I presume? She supposed. Only then did she realize that with the addition of the coins, something had gone missing in its place.

“It was a fine, dandelion gold scarf!” The fashionista whined. “One moment it was there, and the next, poof!”

“Yep.” Twilight hardly acknowledged.

“Sort of the way you do it sometimes.” Rarity compared. “One second you’re here, and then poof! There goes Twilight Sparkle, wherever had she gone? Only Celestia knows.”

“Yuh-huh.” The purple pony glanced.

“And the same fate can be said for my beautiful, one of a kind, irreplaceable, dandelion gold scarf-”

“Rarity, please!” Twilight finally burst, whipping around to meet her friend eye to eye. “I’m sure it was a lovely scarf, but it’s not the end of the world. You’ve been bringing it up ever since we got to the book store, just let it rest.”

The unicorn elicited a low, quaint grumble, making sure to maintain somewhat of a graceful attitude even in the midst of her little dilemma. Twilight cantered on into the store, and Rarity followed.

The book store in question was much more akin to an antique shop, now that the dress maker had gotten a better look on the inside. Along with the occasional trinket and cobweb, a rug that could really tie a room together, diamonds within a dirt mine had yet to be found. When the young Alicorn had described a simple trip to the book store to her, Rarity had never imagined that it would include gazing upon the lot of Equestria’s forgotten relics, having somehow ended up in Ponyville of all places.

Rarity watched as Twilight quietly motioned her way from one isle to the next, scanning over the intricate displays covered in dust as though a little filly were encapsulated by an over-priced doll in the store window. There was no reason to judge the young mare, even if she was a princess. To get away from such regal duties was a blessing granted only once or twice an entire month, the desire for free time an undeniable need at that point. The bookish, purple mare was finally enjoying herself, and thus her friend suddenly felt ashamed of herself.

“I apologize for letting this silly little dilemma invade our time together.” Rarity sought.

Twilight almost wanted to roll her eyes as it looked as though the poor unicorn was about to begin crying all over again, which would actually be pretty up to par with her standard behavior. Alas, she pushed aside her judgments and turned to meet her friend’s gaze.

“No worries, Rarity, I’m sure the scarf must’ve meant a lot to you.” Twilight furthered. “After all, you were patient enough to wait for me even after I missed our entire breakfast date. If anything, I’m the one who owes you an apology.” She paused, turning to scan the shelves once more. “Tell you what, I’ll bet they’ve got a whole section dedicated to the olden wardrobe of ponies back in the day. We should check it out!” Twilight sauntered forward. “Who knows? Maybe it’ll give you an idea or two for your next line of dresses.”

“I do appreciate the offer, Twilight, but please don’t take this the wrong way.” The fashionista took a breath. “I’ve had a look at the stylistic choices of the past, almost all of which had come up as…how do I put it? A little, drab?”

“What?” Twilight turned back around, a small frown adorning her muzzle. “But, that yellow dress you made for my birthday was a vintage replica of pre-formation old Canterlot etiquette. I thought you liked it, too.”

“It was?” Rarity’s eyes danced from shelf to shelf. “I mean…it was, wasn’t it?”

Twilight gained half the mind to question even Rarity on her knowledge of fashion history, and to consider that a prim and proper mare such as herself probably wasn’t so invested in the nuances of history text books and their thick explanations in general. Nevertheless, the lavender Alicorn detected a hint of discomfort from her friend, and the unicorn quickly sought to change the subject.

“Never you mind, Twilight.” The unicorn reassured. “This is your day out today, you need not go out of your way for my little, insignificant desires.”

“Actually, this is more in my way.” Twilight informed.

Rarity winced subtly, trying again to change the channel. “Well, call me crazy but a series of unanticipated events has impelled me to search for a bit of a…change.” She paused mid stride, her eyes searching the ceiling and her hoof winding in circles. “Oh, what do they call the term. A bit of soul searching?”

Twilight froze and craned her neck, an unbelievable gaze landing upon her friend. She blinked to make sure it was in fact Rarity that she was looking at, checking her ears for second measure. “Did you…hit your head in the middle of one of your fainting episodes, again?”

“I was being serious.” Rarity gritted her teeth.

“I know, that’s what scares me.” Twilight stared on.

“Come now, surely you must know what I’m talking about. The arts, philosophy, a bit of thinking.” The unicorn stopped as soon as something upon the shelves had caught her eye. Using her levitation, she gripped the item and pulled it from its slot. “Perhaps this will do, some of the pages have crumbled into dust.” Carefully she opened the book, filtering mounds of dust and cobwebs down its spine and onto the floor. “That’s a good sign, right?”

“What is it?” Twilight wondered.

Rarity wished she had her reading glasses with her. “Discourse…De la…” She splintered her pronunciation. “Methode…? That’s Prench, correct? I’ve been practicing.”

“A Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth in the Sciences!” Twilight read aloud, squealing like a little filly.

“H-How did you do that?” Rarity was astounded by her friend’s flawless translation.

“I’ve read hundreds of renditions, but who would’ve guessed that an original copy ended up here, in Ponyville?” Twilight snatched up the old text of the Discourse, cradling it in her magic as though it were her first-born. “What a find, Rarity! You should’ve told me sooner you had such a keen eye for the classics.”

“I don’t mean to rupture your enthusiasm, but as much as I’d like to be as excited as you are, I’m only just a fledgling in this field.” Rarity admitted, though her curiosity was hard to quell. “Just who is this…Haycartes pony anyhow?”

More than happy to adorn her teaching cap, Twilight rested the book back into Rarity’s aura and began to explain. “Reneigh Haycartes was a Prench scientist and philosopher who lived in the First Solar Age during Princess Celestia’s solo reign, almost five-hundred years ago. He studied upon a vast array of spells, and created some of his own that could help ponies better understand the intricacies surrounding the world of the arcane. Using his own spell, Haycartes’ Method, he walked the very tomes of Starswirl the Bearded’s ancient library to discover the secrets to time travel!”

Rarity studied the book in her magical grasp carefully, hints of uncertainty and confusion swelling in her gaze as the text glowed a strange, sparkling blue.

“After he went missing, rooms full of his notes were left behind at his house in Prance. Legend has it that to this day, he still walks the very pages of the hundreds of books forgotten to Starswirl’s ancient archives.” Twilight furthered, looking down and tapping the book gently with her hoof. “I’m almost certain that if you were to use Haycartes’ Method in this book you wouldn’t even have to know a word of Prench to understand the knowledge being relayed to you.”

Rarity looked up, blinking. “Is that so?”

“Although, I would probably advise against using such a complicated spell early on, especially for lower level unicorns.”

Rarity blinked again, looking back down.

“N-Not that I meant to say you’re like a lower level unicorn. I mean-” Twilight slapped herself on the forehead. “You’re a very talented unicorn, Rarity, and I know it. You showed me how to use that gem-finding spell once, remember?”

“I know exactly what you’re trying to say, darling.” The white unicorn puffed a sigh and sought to rest the book back onto the shelf. “Perhaps it is a little too early, isn’t it?”

“Of course not.” Twilight attempted. “It’s never too late for somepony to invest in learning the arts of magic, and I say that for all ponies. Earth and pegasi, too.”

Rarity held her grip on the book, studying Twilight’s demeanor.

“It’s just, you caught me a little off guard is all.” The Princess shrugged, studying her friend. “Why is it that you want to study magic and philosophy all of a sudden?”

The once proud fashionista took a step away from the shelf and trained her sights to the outdoors, standing next to the nearby window as a gray, cold light veiled itself over her form. Twilight could feel a tinge of despair lingering about the air, and unwelcome as it might have been, the young Alicorn was all the more ready to listen to her companion’s tale of concern.

“I suppose I was searching for the right occasion to tell you this.” Rarity began. “I haven’t even told Sweetie Belle, yet.”

“Told her what?” Twilight waited.

“Come next year,” Rarity hung her head. “I’m going to close down the boutique.”

A sweltering, firing pain pumped and pulsed within the pits of the boy’s lungs as he trialed and trudged up the hill leading to the two trees at its summit. They were the same two trees the pegasus had told him to run to that day, the day she had to tear him out of bed and begin what he came to proudly call his “anime training arch.” That was nine days ago, and the tenth would soon come to a close.

David pumped every bit of energy he had left into his legs and soon enough reached the top, gasping for breath and working on the breathing technique his coach had taught him. There the pegasus rested on the branch of the first tree, peering down at her trainee with an expectant glare. She fluttered down and by his side to meet him as he took shelter beneath the thinning shade of the orange-tinged, green leaves.

“Took ya’ long enough.” Rainbow Dash had always said.

David waved a hand at her, too exhausted to speak.

“How was your date, lover boy?”

He waved another hand, this one exempt of every finger but one.

“One of these days you’re gonna have to tell me what that means.” Dash slitted her sights. “I know it’s not something pleasant.”

“I saved them all for you.” He choked a chortle, struggling to sit up.

“What’s that, recruit? You want another lap?”

“No, ma’am! I mean-sir! I mean-” He waved his hands.

Rainbow roared with laughter and hoofed his shoulder. “Relax, I brought ya’ here for a reason. Looks like you made it just in time, too.”

“For what…?”

“The Last Rain.” Rainbow Dash trained her gaze over the expanse of Ponyville. “I remember how it was when I used to work for the weather pegasi in this town. Every year, we’d cover the skies with a sheet of light shower clouds. You can see them stretch from Whitetail Woods all the way down to the edge of the Everfree.” She reminisced. “One last drizzle before the change of the season, one last rain for the ponies of Ponyville.” She paused. “Tank starts getting a little sleepy after this time of year, so…guess I learned to pay more attention to it?”

Like an armada rolling in upon the valley below, the boy and the pegasus watched as the shadowed veil overtook the blue skies above, blanketing over the village with a quiet, serene and misty gray. A curtain of silver-white careened across the landscape, catching ponies unbeknownst as they began pattering against the rooftops of the town.

“But, dressmaking is your passion!” Twilight argued. “Just because you haven’t had much business as of late doesn’t mean you should give up. You’ve always pulled through in the past.”

“It’s not a matter of whether or not I’ve had any business, it’s this indescribable drive for passion, one that I will not find here.” The seamstress went on. “As I had said before, what I’m looking for is a bit of change, and I believe this is going to put me on the path to where my destiny truly lies.”

“Rarity…” The purple Alicorn stood dumbfounded for a moment, shaking her head. “You’re not making any sense. You may think that you’re taking a big step forward in your life, but how do you know you’re not making a big mistake either? What about your sister?”

“Sweetie Belle has done very well in her schooling, her grades are satisfactory enough for almost any academy in Equestria.” Rarity explained. “By the end of this year she’ll graduate from the school house and get to choose anywhere she’d like to study. I’ve already contacted these academies, all they await for now is her response.”

“You don’t have to do this alone.” Twilight persisted. “You have us, Rarity. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, we’ll help you through this!”

“I don’t want to be stuck!” Rarity exclaimed, far more louder than she would have liked, but it nevertheless got her point across as even the young, powerful Alicorn, one of the four Princesses and her dear friend, flattened her ears and took a step back. The tired fashionista took a deep breath and played an apologetic gaze as she recomposed herself and continued. “Please, understand what I mean when I say I already know how the future shall play out should I continue this endeavor. The bustling life of a wealthy business mare would be a dream come true for many, but it’s not the life I want. It never was. I had gained first hoof experience of what that sort of lifestyle might entail during my grand opening in Canterlot, and I decided I’ve had enough.” She trailed on. “No matter how hard I may try, that sense of ‘entitlement’ will always follow me. The fame, the wealth, it’s all just too…too much…”

The two ponies stood silently in the book store, gazing out the large shopping window with blurry, tired eyes. The mist outside waned against the panes and plastered a fresh blanket of fog upon the glass. Rarity took a few steps forward and swiped her frog against the panel, unveiling the cold, wet world outside through a small, hoof-sized view port. After a spell of silence, she finally spoke up again.

“I suppose I’m just a filly who never really knew where my heart laid. So, while I still have my youth, I want to find out where it may take me.” She proclaimed. “For just this once, my dear friend, allow me to do this for myself.”

A solemn, shadowy gaze veiled over the purple pony’s sights, closing her eyes for a moment as she harbored her closest friend’s words and elicited a slow, shaky breath and a nod. “I never knew you felt this way…” Was all Twilight could say. “All this time?”

“And it’s not your fault.” Rarity reassured, stepping closer. “I’m just glad you’re here with me today, Twilight.” She smiled endearingly.

The two ponies instinctively pushed forward and wrapped one another up in a touching embrace, chins over their shoulders and hooves at their barrels. Twilight flexed her wings and scooped the mare up in her feathers before drawing back. Rarity quickly swiped a single, small tear from her eye, and turned down the isle with the book in her aura.

“Now, let’s make a purchase, shall we?”

From the heights of the Everfree, the Last Rain could be seen rather vividly in the distance, pouring down into the valley like a brain-numbing flood that brought only strife and confusion to the mind and its many wonders. Starlight Glimmer stood atop the ruined castle’s summit, gazing over the village in the valley as the ponies below struggled on with their lives. She peered back down through the gaping hole in the roof, down into the old library where she had been studying.

There is work yet to do.