Romance and the Fate of Equestria

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Two

Rarity levitated a pair of trash bags at her sides as she walked into Ponyville's frosty streets, beneath a blanket of clouds. Wearing a hat, scarf, and boots against the cold, she tossed her bags into the garbage cans on the street.

As she started to turn around to walk back into Carousel Boutique, she paused, having smelled something that caught her attention. She sniffed the air as she padded around looking for the scent's source, and after a bit of searching she found Sweetie Belle, in earmuffs and a scarf, sitting on the ground behind the trash cans, looking dumbfounded and guilty about being discovered.

"Sweetie Belle," Rarity remarked. "What are you doing lurking about back here?"

Sweetie Belle didn't answer.

"Do I smell cigarette smoke?" Rarity asked.

Sweetie shrugged innocently.

"Why aren't you talking to… oh," said Rarity, grinning. "I get it. You're smoking."

She shook her head frantically.

"Yes you are, and I came upon you just as you were inhaling," Rarity said deviously. "You've got a lungful of cigarette smoke and you're hoping that I won't find out. A classic vaudeville routine if ever there was one! I can't wait for the punchline."

Sweetie continued shaking her head.

"Oh, by all means," said Rarity, sitting on the ground and making herself comfortable, "keep denying it! The longer the buildup, the funnier the payoff is."

Rarity expectantly stared at Sweetie Belle with a broad grin. After a few seconds of tense silence, Sweetie Belle sighed, releasing a huge puff of smoke.

Rarity clapped her hooves together. "Ah, classic! Delightful. Now, why don't you give me the rest of your cigarettes and we can pretend this never happened, hmm?"

Without a word, Sweetie Belle retrieved the pack of cigarettes she had been sitting on and surrendered it to Rarity.

"Darling, why on earth would you start smoking?" Rarity demanded, as the magic aura around the pack went from pale green to light blue.

"If you must know, I'm smoking because I hate myself," Sweetie Belle snipped.

"Sweetie—"

"I know, I know," Sweetie said dismissively. With a hideous caricature of a cheerful expression and a near-perfect impersonation of Rarity's voice, she said, "'Oh, that must be why I smoke. I hate you too!'"

Rarity chuckled. "I don't smoke, first of all, and secondly, despite my love of such vaudeville standbys as the one you just pulled, I would never stoop to telling a joke that hacky."

Sweetie Belle coughed twice, trying to hide the phrase "gigantic powder puff" in the midst of it, but dissolved into a horrendous fit of hacking coughs that lasted for over half a minute. "Oh, wow, that backfired on me," she remarked in a raspy voice when it was over.

"Yes, it did," Rarity said with satisfaction. "Well, I'll consider that all the punishment you need for being caught smoking." She tossed the cigarettes into the trash. "Let's get you inside and out of the cold. You can take a bath and brush your teeth to get rid of the smell, and Mother and Father never need to know about this as long as it never happens again. How does that sound?"

She started walking back to the boutique. Sweetie didn't follow. "Call them Mom and Dad, you pompous snot-rag," she grumbled out of the corner of her mouth.

Rarity turned back to her. "All right, what's really going on here? What's got you so irritable? What could be going on in your life that led you to pursue the most self-destructive habit known to flesh-and-blood mortals?"

Sweetie hung her head in shame. "They say cigarettes are incredibly relaxing. I'm pretty tense, I could use that. I figured, whatever life-threatening heart or lung disease they could give me… I probably deserve it."

Rarity stepped forward and ran a hoof through Sweetie Belle's mane. "Come inside. Tell your big sister everything."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Fresh out of the bath, Sweetie Belle sat at Rarity's dining table, a towel wrapped around her mane and a blanket around her shoulders. Rarity provided her with a cup of cocoa. "Ready to start talking yet?"

"Yeah," Sweetie Belle said softly.

Rarity sat down and waited.

"Here's the deal," Sweetie sighed. "I think… I think I may have fallen in love with Spike."

Rarity gasped, covering her mouth with her hooves, moved almost to tears. "Oh! Oh, Sweetie Belle, you don't know how long I've waited for you to say those words!"

"Actually, I think I know the definite exact day you first started… 'shipping' us… but I take your point," Sweetie said. "Great. I'm glad you're happy." Her voice was emotionless and dull.

Rarity pouted. "But what's the problem, dear?"

"It's too late, that's what's wrong," she said glumly. "It took me too long to fall for him, and… he's moved on. He's dating Scootaloo now."

"Oh, darling," Rarity said kindly, "everypony knows that they're only doing that to make you jealous."

"Yeah, everypony knows that, but what if everypony is wrong?" Sweetie said desperately. "What if what they have is real? They have a lot more in common than he and I do."

"That's because Scootaloo is a tomboy, dear. It doesn't mean they're compatible. I'm pretty sure Spike is more attracted to the feminine type."

"I just don't know," said Sweetie, slouching. "What if I tell them their little jealousy scheme has worked and it turns out it's not a scheme at all, that they're really together? I'll be humiliated, and they'll never want to hang out with me again because they, they, they can't trust me if I'm in love with Spike, and then maybe they won't be able to trust each other as long as I'm around… and… and…"

She sniffled heavily and broke down in incomprehensible blubbering, and Rarity ran around the table to comfort her. "Shh…" she whispered. "Oh, Sweetie Belle, my little angel. I know what you're going through. I loved Spike, briefly. I thought I could wait for him, keep him in the wings for a while until I was ready. But by then I'd already lost him to… well, you."

She turned her back to Sweetie Belle and wandered off a bit. "There's a part of me that wishes… that wishes… I don't know." She sighed. "Just one kiss…? But the rest of me is grown-up enough to accept that he doesn't belong with me anymore, if he ever did. He belongs with you. My baby sister stole my man." She laughed. "I don't want you to go through what I did. While you may have diverted me into another joke set-up before I could say anything, when you said that you hate yourself… oh, how that ripped me apart. I don't want you to end up like me, darling." She walked back to Sweetie Belle and kissed her forehead.

Sweetie Belle's eyes went dewy with sympathy. "You really are depressed, aren't you?"

"Yes," Rarity said quietly. "I may very well be for the rest of my life. But don't worry, darling, I don't want to die. I'm far too invested in, among other things, seeing you grow up." She cupped Sweetie's face between her two front hooves. "Just look at your face," she said with admiration. "Such a beautiful filly. By Celestia, you're going to be a vision when you're a mare.

"I want to see you with Spike. I want to see your relationship develop, all the lows, all the highs, all the joy and pain. You must promise me that when you finally have him, you'll tell me everything. I must know, since… I'll never have such a thing myself. Sure, I've been playing my little game with Applejack, the two of us trying to 'score' together, but… I know in my heart that I'll never really stop being alone."

"Rarity…" Sweetie protested. "Rarity, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard."

Rarity's eyes were shut tight, but she couldn't stop the tears from dripping out. "Maybe so, but some days I just can't see what possible value anypony could take away from knowing me." She sighed gravely, which caused her tensed-up body to slowly relax. "It's a disease. But it's one I can survive."

Sweetie edged closer to Rarity. "Hey… how about if I ask Mom and Dad if I can bunk here tonight so I can be with you?"

"Has this conversation become about comforting me?" Rarity said in alarm. "I am so sorry! We were talking about you… and… and Spike." She sat back down at the table and leaned forward, an eager smile flashing through her tears. "When did you finally realize you loved him?"

Sweetie Belle got a bit cozier in her blanket and took a sip of her cocoa. "You ever get one of those crazy epiphanies where you only want something at the moment you can't have it anymore?"

"All the time, darling."

"When I first heard he was with Scootaloo, suddenly… so much came bubbling up inside me. Feelings and memories, all of them crystal-clear. I realized that every time we spoke, he understood me better, and respected me more. He learned from every conversation we had. He obviously really listened to me. No matter how harsh or cold I became, he was just impeccably polite. Plus, he learned from his mistakes, which is more than you can say about me…"

Rarity leaned even further, her entire upper body across the table. "Tell me more."

"And I started thinking about him, and…" Sweetie's face went red, and her heart was clearly racing. "Thinking about his cute kissable cheeks, and that innocent boyish face, so much cuter than any ponies I know… and that one thing, whatever it is, that quality he has that gives you the feeling that he's, like, a really good kisser?"

Rarity gasped and banged on the table with a hoof. "I know exactly what you're talking about!" she said gleefully. "What is that?"

"I don't know, but he's got it," Sweetie Belle said with grim satisfaction, staring into space with longing thoughts.

Rarity giggled, licking her lips thoughtfully. "Would you… like me to get some ice cream?"

"…It's a bit cold for ice cream, isn't it?" Sweetie said blankly.

"So? We can't have girl talk like this without ice cream."

"That's true. Yeah, go get it!"

"Hee hee!"

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Endnotes

Hrmm, all I wrote down was "endnote that discusses Episode 100 in some manner". Clearly the intent being that I watch the episode, and then write the endnote.

So, um… well, two grievances. One, the credits identify a certain muffin-loving pony as… "Muffins". Really, guys? You're gonna do that to us after five years of "Derpy"? Second, no David Tennant. No celebrity guest actors at all, for that matter. Much sniffles resulting from that, despite the fact that all the performances were extremely solid. Before you accuse me of accentuating such tiny grievances… one, I'm aware that they're tiny, and two, that's my entire list of grievances. Hooray for Episode 100!