Author's Notes:

Hey guys, sorry for the long wait, but here's what's been happening to me lately. Having college work and stuff to do, been trying to get the hang of digitally drawing, and due to how much ya'll wanted to know what's up with Rarity, this chapter took me a lot longer than I first thought. But... I love the way it came out. Much better, and longer, than I had first thought. Don't worry about this happening too often. My editor and I are covering as many bases as we can so you guys won't be left with too many questions at the end. Things will get back to a smooth pace when life calms back down for me.

Thanks as always. Till Next Time.

High Moon Ch. 46: Of Talks and Faith part 2; Letters

“You guys just worry about taking care of your own,” Quill said before she too opened her wings to fly back into the Everfree, following Cinder.

Twilight and the three other Elements stood there, watching Quill and Cinder disappear into the thick canopy of Everfree forest. Seeing the dragoness leave again was a bit hard on Twilight. She would have sacrificed much to have the twins back home, safe. However, Quill had proven that they were more than capable of living out in the forest in Wolf’s pack.

‘Yes, they’ll be fine as long as they have each other. I’ve got to stay focused,’ Twilight thought to herself, turning her back on the forest so she could lead the others to Rarity’s house. “Come on girls, we’ve got to go see what’s wrong with Rarity.” Somewhat reluctantly, the other three mares started following Twilight back to Ponyville.

It wasn’t long before they found themselves in the town square, taking the road down to Rarity’s house. The whole way there, Twilight had been conspicuously quiet, an odd aura emanating from her. The rest of the town-goers noticed the strange change in their resident princess, and moved out of the four mares’ ways, letting the girls keep to themselves.

Fluttershy and Pinkie shared a look between each other as Applejack took a few large steps to walk besides Twilight. “Twi, ya’ll alright? Ya seem… well... “

Twilight came to a sudden stop, which would have caused Pinkie Pie to run into her if Fluttershy hadn’t been able to stop the pink mare in time. Twilight took in a deep breath, closing her eyes before slowly breathing out. A few more moments passed as Twilight continued to breath slowly, seeming to be the only thing keeping Twilight calm in this situation.

Before the twins ran away to Everfree, they were usually the ones to keep Twilight from flying off the handle. Now, she had to do it herself. And it was one of the hardest things she’d ever had to learn to do.

“No Applejack, I’m not,” Twilight answered, a long sigh leaving her lips. She opened her eyes to see the concerned look on Applejack’s face, frowning at the sight. “Spike worked really hard on that ruby, and it meant the world to him seeing the smile on her face when he gave it to her. But now… I have no idea how he’ll take it.”

“Twilight, I don’t think that we have to worry about Spike or Quill anymore,” Fluttershy said, placing a hand on Twilight’s shoulders as her wings drooped a bit. Ever since Twilight became an alicorn, it was a lot easier for Fluttershy to tell how she was really feeling from the posture of her wings. And right now, she needed comfort. “They have each other, and from the sound of things, many others that will support them the same way we tried to. Right now we just have to get to the bottom of what’s wrong with Rarity.”

Twilight closed her eyes, taking in another deep breath. She breathed out slowly, nodding her head. “Okay Flutters. I’m sorry guys, let’s get going again.” Fluttershy waited a moment before she let Twilight’s shoulder go so they could continue down the road to Rarity’s boutique.

However, when they got there, they saw that Sketchy and Jinx were standing outside speaking with each other while Dusk was sitting on the ground reading a piece of paper in his hands. Arctic was there as well, but she had a more secluded spot high in a tree above Dusk. It seemed that she was trying to look into Rarity’s bedroom window for either a way inside or to see Rarity.

The Elements walked over toward the four, Fluttershy opening her wings to join Arctic up in the tree. Dusk looked up from the letter in his hands to the tree branch above his head. He couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the two mares sitting rather close to one another. He’d noticed that Arctic was close to Fluttershy lately, as did his mares, but he mentally waved it off before carefully going over the letter again.

“What are you guys doing here?” Twilight asked after she, Pinkie, and Applejack had gotten closer to Dusk’s two mares.

Dusk glanced up from the letter in his hands to Twilight before looking over to Sketchy. She shook her head with a short sigh, eyes hidden behind the glare of her glasses. “Well… I have a feeling we’re here for the same exact reason, Princess Sparkle,” Sketchy answered while Jinx walked over to take a seat in Dusk’s lap.

“Sketchy, something happened with Rarity, didn’t it?” Twilight further questioned after she had stepped to take a spot at Sketchy’s right side. She tried to peer through the bright glare of the mare’s glasses, but it seems that she had learned a spell or trick to prevent anyone from seeing past them. The look gave Sketchy a distant and eerie appearance. “Please tell me that Rarity is alright, Sketchy.”

A moment passed before Sketchy took in a small breath, the glare disappearing as she tilted her head down. She cut her eyes over to her right side, seeing the worried expression on Twilight’s face. Another sigh left her lips before she finally answered Twilight’s questions.

“Ms. Belle came in some time ago and basically had a small meltdown right in her shop. I tried to stay and see what was the matter with her. However, she kicked me out of the beautique. The only thing she’d tell me was that there was something she needed to do. Something to relieve her of her guilt and try to make amends.”

‘So that’s what this is all about,’ Twilight thought to herself. Before she could continue along that line of thought, Dusk inadvertently called attention to himself with a long groan.

“You know what this is right, Sketchy?” he asked his mare, waving the letter in the air while Jinx quietly rested her head against his chest. Dusk didn’t question the mare’s tired manner, not after she’d been called in early this morning to help out with BonBon’s bakery. “Everything that happened during the camping trip. It’s finally coming full circle.”

Sketchy nodded her head as she thought back to the eventful moments of the last night and day of the camping trip. She’d known that it was going to come back around in some way, but she didn’t think that it would be like this. Not to this magnitude. “Yes Dusk, it is. Just wished Sweetie would have picked a better time to do this. I wasn’t expecting it to be this early, at least.”

“Wait, how is Sweetie Belle behind this?” Twilight asked, looking between the two.

“She isn’t entirely behind this. At least not intentionally,” Sketchy answered, pushing up her glasses to rub her eyes. It seemed that all three lovers were tired from their jobs calling them all up earlier than expected. On top of that, Dusk had been flying back and forth to help Vinyl get ready for her gig in Canterlot. And now this happened, just adding to their stress. “However… there was an ‘incident’ during the camping trip we all had awhile back. Let’s just say that it didn’t end well.”

“So’s that thuh reason why Bloom has been acting up lately?” Applejack asked in a snort. She’d known there was something wrong with her little sister ever since she came back from the camping trip. It had been obvious that something happened, but Applejack was willing to give the young mare some space to gather herself, as Applejack just figured she was bummed that one of her friends was leaving.

Hearing that something happened during the camping trip, Applejack now had a few questions. “Now all ya’ll listen here. I want to know what the hay happened with my little sis and her friends that caused all of this mess.”

“It more indirectly caused this, but…” Sketchy started, looking back at Dusk for a moment. The hybrid nodded his head as if answering a question. “But, both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo apparently had a crush on Spike at the same time. Sweetie acted on it, and Scootaloo caught her in the act.”

“And from what we could gather, Sweetie’d had a crush on Spike as long as he’d had one on Rarity,” Dusk added in, his hand placed on top of Jinx’s head. He started using his claws to gently scratch at Jinx’s head while she fought to keep her eyes open a little while longer. “So I’m guessing that she’s feeling some kind of resentment at Rarity for messing around with Spike’s heart so much.”

Twilight honestly cursed under her breath, huffing slightly. She had talked to Rarity about Spike’s infatuation with her, but it seemed that Rarity never worked up the nerve to let Spike down easy, the way she promised she would. On top of that, Sweetie had, or possibly still did have, a crush on Spike. The question was, how was she connected to all of this?

“I’m guessing this also has something to do with that letter?” Twilight asked after she had calmed herself down. Dusk didn’t respond, instead just holding out his hand with the letter for Twilight to take in her magical grip. As she brought it closer, Twilight unrolled the letter. It was hard to make out some of the words from the smudges, scratch outs, and ease marks but she managed to read:

Dear Jinx, Sketchy, and Dusk,

First of all, I’m sorry we didn’t get to spend much time together after the camping trip. It’s just that… this may be my only chance at finding out just who I am as a mare. I’m sure you guys will understand, it’s Applebloom and Scootaloo that I’m worried about. They’ve been my closest, and at times, only friends that I could count on. And here I am, leaving them and all I’ve ever known behind. It’s scary. I’m sitting here in this private booth of this train car off to Canterlot, where my studies under Mrs. Shores will begin.

I have no idea where my life will take me after this, so I need to say this right now. Sketchy, Jinx, thank you two for talking me into following through with this. This whole thing has been a bit unnerving, even now as I write this. By the way, sorry for all the smudge marks and stuff. I had tried to write all of these letters earlier, but nothing was coming out the way I wanted. So… yeah. But anyway, thank you two. I truly believe that this change in my life will help me out greatly.

Can’t be a little kid forever, you know.

Dusk. All I wanted to say to you is… thank you for what you did for Spike. If you hadn’t done that, there was no telling what would’ve happened. The last thing I want to do is drive a wedge between Spike and his own sister. Same thing goes for Scoots and Bloom. So for what it is worth, thank you for all you did. You changed my life, for the better, I hope.

Twilight started to shake her head a little, still puzzled at how Sweetie’s letter would cause all of this to happen. She read through the letter again, even trying to decipher the scratched out words to see if they held anything else. Twilight’s thoughts were cut short by Dusk letting out a small snort of gray smoke through his nose.

“I just wished she would’ve told us in person instead of a short letter,” he said, an arm around Jinx’s shoulders as her eyes were drifting passed half-lidded. She let out a small yawn, closing her tired blue eyes and nuzzling into Dusk’s bare chest, which was matted with dried sweat from his early day of working in the construction yard on the outskirts of town. “But if that’s what she wrote for our letter, then I wonder what could be in Rarity’s,” Dusk continued while Jinx was raking her fingernails through Dusk’s purple furred chest.

“Same here,” Twilight said, rolling up the letter before handing it back to Sketchy. She looked straight at Rarity’s closed door for a moment. Normally, Twilight would give the mare some time to herself in order to calm down. But right now Twilight needed to take some sort of action to make sure her friend was ok. “Alright guys here’s-”

Twilight was cut off by the intense sound of flapping wings off in the distance. Everyone turned their heads to see that it was Scootaloo riding her scooter, going faster than anyone had ever seen her before. As she blasted through, forcing Pinkie to jump out of her way, Dusk caught a crumpled up piece of paper in Scootaloo’s hand and the slight signs of tears in her eyes. He followed the speedster down the path with his eyes, guessing one thing.

“Guess Scoots got her letter, and it looks like there was more to it than ours,” Dusk said, rubbing his face to keep his eyes open. He inhaled a deep breath, puffing out a light cloud of smoke to the sky. “Something tells me she’s heading to the farm, Applejack. Wanna go meet her there?”

Applejack took a moment to think to herself, questioning if she should get involved or not. “Nah… nah.” She shook her head, tipping her hat slightly to scratch at her eyebrow while placing a hand on her hip. “Ah’m sure Bloom can handle herself, and if something happens, Mac’s there to make sure those two don’t get into it.”

“Heh, yeah I bet,” Dusk chuckled a bit, having seen Big Mac a few times in the farmer’s market. There likely wasn’t a fight he couldn’t break up. “So, what are we gonna do about Rarity?”

“We?” Twilight asked. “When did you…”

“I’ll put it like this, Princess Sparkle,” Dusk cut in, moving his fingers through his black hair. “I was taught a lot of lessons when I was a cub. A few of those lessons included never passing a chance up, to always keep options open, and never be a dick without a reason.” He laughed while shaking his head, rocking Jinx in his arms. “Mom had really stressed that last lesson more than the others, but my point is… Think of this like my way of saying sorry, for you know, being a dick.”

“O-oh, well you don’t have to Dusk,” Twilight said, having remembered the things Dusk said to her and the other Elements awhile back. “Like you’ve already explained, we’d acted more fragile than we should’ve when the twins left, and we are to blame for that.”

“But. Ya could’ve said it in a nicer way,” Applejack said, deadpanning a bit.

Dusk shooked his head as he waved his hand to the mare, smirking. “Could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. Yeah, yeah, heard that all the time from my parents. Ya’ll want the help or not?”

“Like I said Dusk, only if you’re up for it. The three of you look pretty tired, and I don’t want to add any more stress on you guys,” Twilight said in a concerned tone. Dusk might have a point, but Twilight took a good look at the three lovers. Sketchy’s irritated and distant expression hadn’t changed, there was no telling how tired Dusk was, and Jinx looked like she was already asleep on Dusk’s spiky fur.

Dusk didn’t answer as he looked over to Sketchy to see what she had to say. She closed her eyes while taking in a deep breath. “After Rarity gave me this job? Yes, I’m going to be there to help her when she needs it. And she really needs it now.”

Jinx muttered something in her daze, which everyone took to be her answer of wanting to stay and help with the situation. Dusk chuckled at his mare, petting her head and getting a soft coo from her.

“And if you guys are in, then so am I,” Arctic said from her seat in the tree next to Fluttershy. The two mares glanced towards each other, mirroring each other’s slight blushes.

“Then I guess we’re all in,” Dusk said. He carefully got up from the ground with Jinx nestled in his arms. The mare complained at the sudden movement, wrapping her arms around Dusk’s neck while the half-breed placed his arms underneath her legs and lower back. “Wakey, wakey princess,” Dusk teased as he started walking over to Rarity’s home, bouncing Jinx a little.

“Shush, you, and carry me, my handsome knight,” Jinx teased back, sticking out her tongue in a childish manner. Dusk chuckled while Twilight and Sketchy were standing in front of Rarity’s door, which, knowing the white mare, would be locked. Eventually, everyone gathered by the door, all thinking about how to get Rarity to open the door.

“Why don’t we asked nicely?” Pinkie asked, raising an eyebrow to Twilight like she was being serious. Twilight sighed to herself - likely, Pinkie was.

“Ah don’t think that askin’ nicely will work Pinks,” Applejack flatly said, unphased by Pinkie’s thinking. “Ah think we should just find a way to sneak in.”

“Can’t. All of the windows, side and back doors are completely shut tight,” Arctic informed, rubbing the back of her tilted head as she thought about away to get in. “Couldn’t someone, I dunno, bust it open with some magic?” she asked, looking between Sketchy and Twilight. Jinx didn’t look like she was up for using magic right now.

Twilight was going to respond to Arctic when she was cut of by Dusk letting out a chuckle. “You ponies and your tip-toeing around stuff,” he joked as he sat Jinx down onto her feet. She whined of course, but that didn’t stop Dusk from doing what he had to do. Once he managed to coax Jinx into letting go, he stepped over to the locked door, rolling his right shoulder while clenching his fist.

Sketchy quickly recognized the motion as the same one Dusk used to unsheathe his claws. Immediately, she realized what he was planning to do. “Dusk wait, please tell me you’re no-” However, she was too late as Dusk jerked his clawed hand up to swipe at the lock on Rarity’s door. All of the mares closed their eyes as they awaited the inevitable sound of steel ripping, only to not hear anything.

They all slowly opened their eyes to see Dusk leaning on Rarity’s door with his left elbow while he was inspecting and cleaning his dense black claws, or at least pretending too. “Really guys? Really? You thought that I was going to break open that lock?” Dusk asked in a flat tone of voice, a huff following as he pushed off from the door. “As many times as I’ve snuck out of my locked room, you still thought I was going to just cut my way through?”

“Well what were we supposed to think, you jerk?” Sketchy retorted, turning her head away from her kneeling hybrid mate while crossing her arms underneath her chest. A small blush came across her cheeks at the fact that she fell for Dusk’s small prank, which only grew when she caught the sound of Dusk laughing underneath to himself. “Can we be a little more mature about this, Dusk?”

“With the lot of you acting like this? Someone has to lighten things up,” Dusk laughed before turning his attention back to the lock. “Anyway, all I got to do is blow a little air with some wind-magic. That’ll push up the winch, which turns the tumbler inside, thus unlocking the door.”

Dusk started to take in a deep breath to blow out through his lips, when he was stopped by an, “Uh…” from Twilight. He turned to see a quizzical look on her and the other Elements faces.

“Yes, princess?”

“Um, well… it’s just that, how do you know all of that will happened Dusk? I’m quite curious to be honest,” Twilight admitted, the other Elements also seeming to be interested.

A sly smile grew on Dusk’s face as he chuckled at Twilight before answering, “Like I just said, I’ve snuck out of my room plenty of times before.” He laughed again at all of the eventful and fond memories he had of sneaking out in the middle of the night. Sometimes just to spread his wings and fly through the midnight air, other times to clear his mind by staring out at the open ocean, which captured the Lunar goddess’ moon perfectly. But most of the time it was for another reason. “Most of the times it was for these three here.” Dusk nodded his head over to his mares and Arctic, each of the mares making a small smile. “Don’t get me started on the beatings though.”

“Heh, I’m sure it wasn’t that bad right?” Twilight asked after her little giggle had ended. However, Dusk merely deadpanned at her, the look on his face told Twilight that he was being serious. “Ah… I, uh, I see.”

“Right,” Dusk said before he turned back around to finally get the lock undone. He took in a deep breath through his nose, his wings flexing outwards as his lungs were filled with as much breath as they could hold. Once he had enough, he pressed his lips close to the keyhole of the lock, keeping his lips carefully shaped in a tight oblong shape before he let the air in his lungs slither over his tongue.

All of the mare’s ears twitched from a low-pitched whistling sound emanating from the lock, followed by the metallic sounds of the locking mechanism of the door undoing. After the final click, Dusk ended the stream of air with a long sigh, slowly getting up from the ground. He let out a small groan before he placed his hand on the side of his head, one eye lightly closed. “Ah man, what is this thing? A heavy-duty deadbolt? Sweet Cerberus.”

“Dusk, you alright man?” Arctic asked while Jinx moved to his left side to rub her hand around on his back. “Last time I saw you like this was when your elder sister nearly beat the shit out of you.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. And thanks for the reminder, Arcty,” Dusk hissed through his teeth, rubbing his right shoulder with a look of pain on his face. He shook off the memory with a shudder. “Never mind that, let’s just find Rarity already.” Twilight nodded her head before she stepped inside of the house/shop, the others following close behind.

A gasp came out of Fluttershy from one look of the parlor room. Fabrics, papers, cloths, and fully made dresses lay sprawled across the porcelain floor, some ripped beyond repair. Her chest of gems was thrown halfway to the other side of the room, with a coffee table laying right on top of it in a chaotic manner. Shattered glass from a picture frame laid around the ground. Gems laid on top of the couch, while a number of mannequins were broken into pieces. The mess only continued throughout the rest of the house, leaving a trail of broken vases and other objects on the floor.

All in all, it looked like a tornado came through and had a small hissyfit.

“Holy… Okay, whatever was in Sweetie’s letter must’ve been a huge bomb,” Dusk said as he and the mares carefully stepped further inside. The only thing he could think that resembled the mess was when his full-blood dragon cousin Dimsy had gone on a short rampage and attacked her parents with her wind-magic. He was shaken out of his thoughts by Jinx placing her hand on his shoulder.

“Dusk, you alright? You were just… staring,” she said with a concerned look on her face.

The hybrid blinked twice as he looked around to see that half of the group had started the search for Rarity while the other half was attempting to clean the parlor room up. “Uh, yeah… yeah. I’m fine. Just remembered Dimsy’s rampage, this looks a lot like how the house was.”

“Dimsy? You mean your cousin?” Jinx asked. Dusk turned his head towards Jinx, giving her a wordless nod and a small roll of his shoulders. “She went on a rampage? But she’s so, so…”

“Sooo?” Dusk coaxed.

“Well, she’s a shut-in,” Jinx finally said. It was had only been brief, but her and Sketchy had met Dusk’s dragon relatives before. Dimsy stuck out from them like a sore thumb. The dragoness was many things. Quiet, reserved, and distant. She did her best to keep to herself and away from everyone else; this much Jinx or anyone really could tell from first meeting Dimsy. She had a certain air about her.

None of this was any news to Dusk. “Two weeks she spent at our house,” Dusk chuckled to himself, moving over to the turned over table to flip it over for Twilight. “Even packed in with seven others, she still found a way to be solitary. Her breaking point was when her parents tried changing how she was.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow towards Dusk, wondering what he was talking about. She’d missed the exchange between Dusk and Jinx, more focused on finding Rarity instead. “Changing who, Dusk?” Twilight asked.

“It’s about my full-blood dragon cousin Dimsy.” Sketchy nodded her head as she remembered the only dragon she’d known to be quiet and reserved. “Well I was just telling Jinx that this mess reminded me of a time where she lost it after her father tried to turn her into a… ‘proper’ dragoness. Let’s just say it took about a good two or three days to clean that up.”

“Wait, what happened?” Twilight asked, now becoming interested in the story.

Dusk held back a groan as he thought back to one of the days he’d never forget. “Ok, you see Princess, you know how everyone has their breaking point when it comes to something, right?” Attentively, Twilight nodded her head. She remembered back to a specific time when she’d snapped - just a bit - at the thought of missing one of Celestia’s lessons. Her eyes followed Dusk as he went to fix the couch next. “It was kinda like that. With dragons, there’s a more… physical meaning behind it. ” Dusk lifted up the soft red couch by the left armrest, moving it over where he thought it should be.

“I don’t understand. What do you mean by ‘physical meaning," Dusk?”

“Think of it like this, Princess Sparkle.” Dusk turned to face Twilight, pointing his fingers together at the center of his chest. “Dragons can’t bury anything down; it’ll drag ‘em with it. The reason they like to hoard is to fill a void that grows over time. Items are easy to get, so they hoard more of that. However, companionship is something a lot harder to attain for dragons, and does not often come easily.”

“And the void? What happens if it isn’t filled?”

“Then a dragon gets desperate. Instead of looking for several gems, they spend all day and night digging up entire quarries. They start pushing others away in place for materialistic things. These dragons tend to live alone; apart from anyone,” Dusk answered, clearly remembering everything his father told him and his siblings when they were all young cubs. Every word seem to just flow back to him every time he had to remember. “But it doesn’t stop there, if a dragon continues to follow this pattern, they soon will die from their own dragon’s soul... burning out, for lack of better term.”

Twilight bit her lower lip as she looked away for a moment. “Wh-what happens if a dragon… a young dragon gives into their greed?” she asked with a light shudder in her voice.

‘She must be talking about the twins.’ “Same thing. ‘cept much faster, and a lot more feral. There’s also a second condition that can happen to hatchlings that survive a greed-growth, called the Ghost-heart. Basically, it’s like dwarfism for dragons, where the end result is them dying.”

Twilight’s expression darkened when she heard this. If what Dusk was saying true, then the twins would’ve likely suffered from this ‘Ghost-heart’ as well. But why hadn’t she been told about all of this by Celestia? Surely someone of her status and longevity would have some knowledge about dragons. At least enough to keep the twins healthy.

“Princess, if you’re worried about the twins, don’t be,” Dusk said after noticing Twilight’s change in expression. The mare’s eyes snapped up from the floor to Dusk’s eyes, firmly locked onto them. “I’ve already told them everything they needed to know to make it through to their growth-spurts. And even then, they’re pretty smart and adaptive. I’m sure they’ll be fine.” ‘I don’t think she needs to know about Spike’s ghost-heart. It’ll just worry her, and that drake isn’t going to let himself die that easily,’ Dusk thought to himself.

“I’m that easy to read?” Twilight asked with a small sigh. “That needs to change then. Thank you, Dusk, for looking out for them. Now, let’s find Rarity.”

“Well she ain’t upstairs,” Applejack called from the second floor, Pinky skipping behind. Fluttershy and Arctic came out from the fitting room, with Fluttershy shaking her head.

“We couldn’t find her in the fitting room, but it doesn’t even seem like she went through there. Way too clean,” Arctic verbally answered the question on everyone’s mind. “I’m starting to think that she was searching for something.”

“Yeah? Well she must’ve been searching hard,” Dusk said, scratching the back of his head. Arctic did raise a good point though, the way the mess was suggested that she was desperately looking for something. “Anypony have any ideas on what?”

After a short pause, Twilight broke it with a small gasp. “The Fire Ruby,” she said, her hand covering her mouth as if she didn’t want that to be the answer or let anyone else hear it.

However, Dusk’s canine ears easily picked up on the alicorn’s voice, quickly growing curious. “Excuse me? Did you just say a Fire Ruby?” he asked even though he already knew the answer.

“U-uh, yes. Spike had given Rarity that ruby a few days before his birthday.” Dusk’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates at the thought of Spike doing something like that. “He had let it ripen, too. It seemed like it was going to be the greatest thing he’d ever eaten before. Even Quill drooled over it a couple times.”

“A fully ripened Fire Ruby… and he gave it to Rarity?!” Dusk shouted in disbelief. He wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth, his eyes having gone a little crazy looking. “You have got to be kidding me. What I would do to get my hands on one of those babies... All I need would be three good chunks of it.”

“Three? Why three?” Twilight asked while Dusk was licking his lips.

It took him a moment to hear Twilight’s question through his fluffy cloud of imagination. “Easy. One for me to take a good, long time eating it. And two more for Jinx and Sketchy’s necklaces.”

The two mares mentioned lightly touched their individual necklaces while the others all looked curiously. “Did you make them yourself Dusk? They look lovely,” Twilight said with a small smile which was returned by the two mares.

“Aye, that I did. But anyway… If Spike gave Rarity that ruby, why would she tear apart her house looking for it?”

“She, well… just gave it to Quill. To give back to Spike,” Twilight replied, having a feeling there was something she was missing. The smile on Dusk’s face suddenly dropped, telling Twilight that their was something she was missing. “I take it that’s a bad thing.”

Dusk took a moment, eyes shifting towards the ground for a quick second before he shook his head. “No. But it gives me another reason to find her,” he said in a flat tone of voice, looking down the only unsearched part of the building. “Come on guys, let’s find us a mare.”

Twilight spared a look towards Jinx and Sketchy to see if they knew what was up with Dusk’s sudden change of temperament. Jinx simply took hold of her necklace while Sketchy let out a slight sigh before they started to follow after Dusk. The Elements and Arctic soon followed after the other three, all spitting up to take a room to search.

Yet every room they searched, whether it was the kitchen, sewing room, or the room she kept all of her higher-grade fabrics, they still didn’t find the missing mare.

“Rah, this is starting to get irritating,” Dusk said after he closed the door to the fabric room, moving on to the next one down the hall. “She must have these doors sound-proofed, or just isn’t here. Because I should’ve heard something by now.” He twitched his ears around to pick up on any other sounds besides the group’s footsteps or the soft whispering of answers and questions between them.

“If we don’t find her soon, I might have EMP this place to get her attention,” Dusk growled as he took hold of the doorknob.

“Oh no you won’t,” Sketchy sternly said, causing Dusk to grumble as he turned the knob to open the door. When he did, a pony-like shadow quickly fell out in front of him, startling the three.

Dusk protectively held up a wing in front of his two mares while Jinx hid slightly behind Sketchy. However, after the initial fright, they were able to see the pony-like shadow was nothing more than a lifeless mannequin.

“Fucking mannequins,” Dusk growled, lightly kicking the head of the plaster dummy. After staring at it a bit longer, Dusk relaxed his wing down to its natural position against his back, giving the two mares behind him a view of their ‘attacker.’ “They’re creepy as shit no matter how you look at ‘em.”

“It must’ve been propped against the door or something,” Sketchy said as she sparked her horn to envelop the mannequin in her magic, lifting it back into the storage room. Dusk slammed the door immediately shut after seeing there was nothing but mannequins in the room, letting out a shudder.

“You’re not still creeped out by them, are you Dusk?” Jinx asked softly, placing her hands on Dusk’s shoulders.

Dusk huffed under his breath, the answer ever-so obvious by his body language alone. He’d always regretted watching that horror movie with his two elder siblings when he was a cub. “That obvious?”

“Just a little, yeah.”

“Awesome,” he hissed, dragging a hand down his face. Jinx briefly giggled at Dusk, hopping up on her tippy-toes to place a quick kiss on Dusk’s cheek to make him feel a bit better. She started rubbing two fingers at the base of his wings to sooth the tense muscles, getting a small, yet happy, groan out of Dusk. Flying all around Ponyville for most of the week really must’ve put on a lot of stress on those muscles, because his tail began wagging quickly behind him in a happy manner.

Jinx and Sketchy giggled from seeing Dusk like this as the other mares of the group came closer to see what the commotion was about. “What happened?” Twilight asked. “We heard you guys shout about something. Did you find Rarity?”

“No. We just had a little surprise with a dummy,” Sketchy answered as Jinx placed one final kiss on the side of Dusk’s neck. “Any luck with your end?”

Twilight shook her head before answering, “Nothing. I’m starting to get worried that something happened.” She took hold of her arms with her hands, rubbing them lightly with a small sigh. Rarity looked absolutely horrible when she gave Quill the necklace. She looked like a mare that’d had her heart slowly ripped from her chest, only for something else to replace it. Something more dark…

“But we got to keep looking,” Twilight said, shaking that unwelcomed thought out of her head.

The others nodded their head as they continued to advance down the hall, quickly checking every room they came by until they were at the final door of the hall. Right where the literal paper trail ended.

“Rarity’s inspiration room. She has to be in there,” Fluttershy said, gaining the attention of the group. Everyone’s eyes turned back to the door, a foreboding feeling emitting from the deep purple door.

Even the doorknob felt colder than ice as Dusk took lead, grabbing the silver smooth metal doorknob. “Better not be another fucking mannequin behind this door. I swear to Cerberus that I’ll set it right on fire.”

“Please don’t,” Sketchy said with a small sigh.

Dusk merely snorted before he took in a deep breath. Slower than necessary, he started to turn the doorknob before swinging the door open. Inside was indeed Rarity’s inspiration room, as she called it. Posters of famous models from Canterlot, as well as other places around the world, lined the walls. Racks of ballroom dresses were set against the wall, and much to Dusk’s displeasure, mannequins standing neatly adjacent to the racks. There was a small stage in the center of the room with a small strip that acted as a practice runway. The most shocking thing about the room was that, unlike the other rooms the group had seen thus far, it was fairly clean. All that was on the ground were a few rolls of fabric, small clippings of said fabric, and a few pins and needles.

“Mannequins, always fucking mannequins everywhere in this-”

“Wh-w-what are you all doing here?” a sobbing voice questioned. Turning their heads to the right, everyone saw Rarity sitting at a dark-violet work desk, a picture frame in her hands. Her face was smeared with running black eyeliner, highlighting the puffiness of her eyes. The murkiness of the running makeup made it hard to see into Rarity’s blue bloodshot eyes.

Normally, they would sparkle with the light of inspiration and creative venture. Now… they looked like they had been through a bloody war and lost. Her disheveled hair furthered painted that picture as stray bits of it weaved every which way. Her clothing was crumpled and wrinkled in odd places, furthering her friend’s worry. Rarity never let her clothing look like that.

“Whoa, she looks worse than this whole place,” Arctic muttered under her breath.

She wasn’t paid any attention by the group as they began filing into the room while Rarity tried to clean herself up as much she could. Rarity hated when others saw her like this; it wasn’t what a lady was supposed to do. A lady was supposed to be refined, dignified, and most importantly honorable. She was none of these things.

“Sketchy, I t-told you that I’d be fine. You didn’t have to go find the others,” Rarity assured them, even when Fluttershy came to her side. “Girls I’m fine, r-really. I just had to…”

“Had to what? Blow off steam off on your house?” Dusk asked as he spotted a piece of paper on top of Rarity’s desk. ‘Bang, definitely the letter from Sweetie Belle. There’s the trigger, now about the fuel...’ “Or was it something else? Like returning something that you never should have taken?”

“Dusk,” Twilight snapped, whipping her head towards the hybrid. Dusk raised an eyebrow at Twilight but didn’t say anything since he didn’t need to anymore. It wasn’t hard for her to figure out that Dusk was going to force Rarity to explain herself, rather than let her explain willingly. Twilight took in a deep breath as she closed her eyes to calm herself before addressing Rarity. “Why did you do it Rarity? You know it meant the world to Spike when he gave you that ruby. So why?”

Rarity shook her head, brushing off Fluttershy's hand from her shoulder. She didn’t deserve such kind treatment from her friends. She didn't deserve kindness from anyone, not after what she had done. “I-I… I just… I just don’t know, anymore.”

Twilight looked down upon her friend in her low state, unable to think of what to say. The room went quiet for a moment as everyone awkwardly looked at Rarity, who had yet to fully meet any of their eyes. However, Dusk refused to let the moment die in awkward silence.

“Oh? Then let’s start with this here,” he said, reaching for the letter sitting on Rarity’s desk. The moment his hand touched the sheet of paper, Rarity slammed her own down on it with an unnecessary amount of force. Another pause came over the room, this time far more tense than the awkwardness from before. Dusk stared menacingly down at the back of Rarity’s head, burning holes through it with his eyes.

“Something yer trying to hide?” Dusk asked, causing Rarity’s body to tense up a bit as she tightened her grip on the letter. “We’re all here to help you out, mare. The least you can do is tell us what the matter is. Cus if you don’t, then we’ll just start looking for the reason.”

“C’mon Dusk, stop it,” Arctic said, not liking where this was going.

Dusk ignored his friend. “That drake gave a lot to you. The least ye could’ve done was give the necklace back to him and not his sister. Better yet, ye could’ve been straightforward with Drake from the start. This whole mess would’ve been avoided and-”

“Okay, enough!” Twilight sparked her horn, aiming her magic at Dusk as she settled a spell over him. The hybrid continued to wordlessly move his mouth for a few more moments before he realized what happened, blinking a couple of times. “Dusk… I know you mean well, but there are limits, and you were crossing them. I’ll let you speak when you have something nice and constructive to the situation to say. Okay?”

Dusk opened his mouth to answer when he remembered what Twilight’s magic had done. He simply moved his hand off the letter and nodded his head before he leaned against the wall next to him. Jinx and Sketchy blinked a couple times at their mate’s sudden silence, both turning to Twilight.

“A silence spell I’m taking it?” Sketchy asked, arching an eyebrow towards Twilight.

“I’m sorry, but now is not the time to be harsh,” Twilight replied with a small sigh. She didn’t mean to actually use the spell on Dusk, only threaten him with it. However, ever since she became an alicorn, she’d been finding it harder and harder to keep her emotions separate from her magic.

“Oh no trouble about it, Princess. In fact, I wouldn’t mind learning this spell myself,” Sketchy joked, Jinx nodding her head studiously.

Twilight giggled at the younger two. “Mm, I would be happy to show the both of you the spell if you’re that interested.” All three unicorns began giggling at the dumbfounded expression on Dusk’s face.

He soundlessly snorted at the two giggling mares, inhaling a quick breath to blow out a heart-shaped ring of light smoke at them. “And we love you too Dusk,” Sketchy giggled as she waved off the loose cloud. Dusk simply rolled his eyes at the two, prompting Jinx to skip over to him, moving his crossed arms out of the way to nestle against his chest. He looked like he was fighting some urge to give into Jinx’s charms, but he didn’t last long with the mare nuzzling her face into his chest.

It also didn’t help that he could feel her breasts pressing against his midsection through her thin light-teal tank-top she was wearing. Eventually, his walls came down as he placed a hand on top of Jinx’s head with a small smile on his face.

Rarity faintly turned her head to look at the two young lovers playfully displaying their affection for one another, sighing. The white mare’s sighing drew Twilight’s attention back to her. “But Dusk does have a point Rarity. We are here to help, but we can’t if you don’t tell us what’s going on.”

“That’s the thing, I don’t deserve your help,” Rarity finally said after a short pause, turning to look Twilight in the eye. This only occurred for a single moment before Rarity turned her head back down to the ground in shame. “It’s my own fault, Twilight. You told me to be honest with the way I felt about Spike this whole time. But I thought he would… grow out of it; like any other phase.”

“Him giving you a Fire Ruby should’ve been enough to tell you that he wasn’t going to ‘grow out of it,’” Twilight said with a frown on her face. “I told you Rarity, Spike holds onto things a lot, especially if he puts in a lot of work towards it. Winning you over was one of his biggest goals.”

“Not anymore it isn’t,” Rarity said quickly, almost bitterly, shaking her head.

“What do you mean?”

Rarity sighed, looking back down to her floor. “He has someone else to admire. Someone far more deserving, in my opinion.” She choked back another sigh, thinking back to how rude she had been to the white dragoness. It was almost as embarrassing when she thought of how Spike had reacted defending the newcomer.

While the mares were letting Rarity fall back into her thoughts, Dusk glanced down towards the letter still on the desk. With one of his hands busy running through Jinx’s hair, he slyly tried to reach for the letter with his free hand. However, Jinx caught onto what he was doing and silently reached for his wrist, putting it back at his side.

She looked up into his blue eyes, shaking her head a little. Dusk nodded his head over to the letter, his eyes screaming, ‘Please.’

Yet Jinx simply shook her head again, mouthing, ‘No, there’s enough trouble as is.’ Dusk huffed through his nose, laying his head against the wall. Jinx looked up at him with a small grimace on her face, sparking her horn to open the mental link between her and Sketchy.

Upon feeling Jinx’s magic reaching out to her, Sketchy faintly lit her horn while everyone else was busy tending to Rarity. ‘Yes Jinx? What is it?’

‘Sketchy, Dusk wants to do something with the letter,’ Jinx answered, glancing over her shoulder to her pack sister. ‘He does have a point, you know. We can’t just let the situation be swept under the rug. It’ll come up sooner than later.’

Nodding her head, Sketchy ended the mental link with Jinx and took a step forwards towards Rarity. “That’s fair and all, but I still have one question,” Sketchy interrupted the Elements as they were trying to cheer Rarity up. “Ms. Belle, you are too controlled of a mare to have a meltdown like this. So, what I… we want to know is, what did Sweetie say in her letter to you?”

“She sent one to us and the other two crusaders. We saw Scootaloo blasting down the street before we came in here,” Jinx added, sliding her hands up to Dusk’s broad shoulders. “None of them ended on a good note. But you two are sisters, surely you would-”

Jinx stopped speaking when Rarity closed her eyes and shook her head. “It is true that we have our moments but… Sweetie, she... “

“She had the same feelings for Spike as he did for you. However, since he was always going after you, she never wanted to step in the way, or she was afraid of rejection because of Spike’s affection for you,” Sketchy finished for Rarity, causing her to snap her head up. “We learned about it during the camping trip. It’s safe to say that Sweetie wasn’t ‘happy’ with the way you supposedly dragged Spike around by his heart.”

“I never meant to do that…”

“But you did anyway,” Jinx said, taking on a serious tone. The gleam in her eyes easily held Rarity in place when the mare looked at the younger one. “You knew about his feelings for you, you knew that he wasn’t going to quit until you told him the truth of how you felt, and yet you still let this happen. All you had to do was talk to him seriously for a few minutes, instead you let Spike lie to himself for years. Why? Just, just why?”

Rarity took in a shaky breath, taking hold of her right arm in discomfort. “Because, I just couldn’t bear to cause Spike that kind of sadness.”

“That’s the thing, every single day you never returned his affection, Spike felt that kind of rejection. You didn’t spare him anything,” Jinx said in a calmer tone of voice, shoulders drooping a bit. Dusk caught his mare’s change of demeanor when she let out a long sigh, prompting him to wrap an arm around her shoulders while the other moved down to lower back. “If anything, you prolonged how much pain he was really feeling.”

Rarity dropped her head in shame when she realized what Jinx had said was true. All the times the twins got into arguments. Times where Spike would almost hurt himself to help her with the smallest of tasks, even allowing her to use him as a spare pin cushion. And yet, every time he made a move, even rather obvious ones, Rarity would find someway to deflect his affection without actually turning him down. If only she could have mustered up the courage to tell him that she wasn’t interested...

“Well at least he can move on… that is something, I suppose,” Rarity thought out loud, speaking to herself.

“But what about you, Rarity?” Pinkie asked after a quiet moment. Rarity slowly lifted her head up from the floor, half expecting Pinkie to have some sort of silly face or joke to cheer her up. However, everyone was given a mild shock to see that Pinkie had the straightest face they’d ever seen her have. Her expression was hard to read, and strangely they could see that Pinkie’s mane and tail had flattened a bit, but not completely straightened.

Rarity began working her mouth, her brain still too busy trying to understand the feeling she was getting from Pinkie Pie. Pinkie didn’t pay her friend much attention as she continued, “Sure you messed up big time. You led Spike on for four years, even forcing Sweetie to bury her feelings for him because you were too scared of ruining the friendship you had with Spike.”

“H-h-how did you…”

“Everyone makes mistakes, Rarity,” Pinkie went on, taking a step closer to Rarity, placing her hand on her shoulder. A small smile came onto Pinkie’s muzzle. “What’s important is that you don’t let this mistake define who you are, at least that’s what Granny Pie told me. Nopony is perfect, so mistakes are just a part of life, right?”

“That’s right” Applejack chipped in. “We all make mistakes some time or other. ‘Sides, if Spike really has moved on, then the only one left is ya.”

Rarity had to fight back a smile from her friends sticking by her. “But what about Sweetie? There’s no way she’ll ever forgive me for what I’ve done.”

“She will,” Sketchy reassured, lifting her glasses up with her middle finger. There was a faint glare on them due to what little orangish sunlight was coming through the widows. “Ms. Belle, you should know your own sister better than that. If anything, Sweetie is properly disappointed with the way you handled the situation with Spike. And any anger she must have has to be directed at herself for letting Spike’s crush, and your inability to put it to rest, stop her from seeking him out.”

“Basically, Sweetie is going to be okay. It’ll take time, but she’ll forgive you eventually,” Jinx said, laying her head on top of Dusk’s chest, playfully patting it. Dusk mutely groaned from Jinx’s repeated patting, rolling his eyes and moving his hands down to her hips to shake them a little. “Heh, see how smoothly that went without shouting or forcing stuff?”

Dusk rolled his eyes with a small snort, squeezing Jinx’s sides before nodding his head. Jinx giggled at her half-breed before looking back over her shoulder to Twilight. “Princess, I think Dusk has been in the doghouse for long enough, don’t you?”

A grimace came onto Dusk’s face before he started prodding at Jinx’s side with his claws to tickle her. She was sent in a fit of uncontrollable giggles, pushing her hands against Dusk’s chest, but not doing anything to stop him. “A-ah hah, Dusk quit it. I’m ticklish and you know it!” Jinx’s pleas fell on deaf ears as Dusk continued his assault on the mare, craning his head down to take a small nibble of her neck. Jinx took a gasp of air from Dusk’s bites, her hands slowly sliding down his body while her knees rubbed together. “Sketchy, help…” she whined, helpless to stop Dusk now. Mainly because she didn’t want to.

Sketchy moved her knuckle over her lips, laughing for a bit. “Okay Dusk, stop.” Dusk turned his eyes up to Sketchy while he kept his teeth on Jinx’s neck. “Come on, we still have a bit of packing to do before we head off soon.”

“Packing?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, packing. Dusk agreed to help Vinyl Scratch out with a show in exchange for a custom made guitar,” Sketchy answered since Jinx was still too busy giggling.

“Oh. Right. The guitar…” Twilight groaned at the memory of Dusk literally beating her with nothing but a guitar infused with magic-struct technology and a song he remembered from his youth. She could still hear a slight echo in the back of her head. Making things worse, she starting to like it, oddly.

Sketchy didn’t question Twilight’s groan, as she already knew about how Dusk debuted his guitar with a little ‘help’ from the local princess herself. “Yes, and we will be late for the train if we don’t get things going. And, Dusk, you still have to take a bath.”

“Mhmm, and I’m joining in,” Jinx half-purred with a small grin on her face. She moved a hand to her lips so she could bite down on her knuckle, moving her other hand into Dusk’s spiky black hair and letting him continue to bite her neck.

Twilight nervously blushed when she, as well as the other mares, caught Jinx’s purr. “Well, don’t let me keep you.” She sparked her own, undoing the spell she placed on Dusk. “There you go. Good luck with the show, Dusk.” The hybrid looked up from Jinx’s neck, causing said mare to whine in compliant, and began working his mouth, yet no sound came out. “Oh no, don’t tell me I-”

“Pfff ahah, gotcha,” Dusk laughed. All the mares (aside from Pinkie, who was laughing) gave him a flat look, not believing they had actually fell for another of Dusk’s pranks. “Woo, I’m on a roll today. But seriously,” He cleared his throat to drop his joyful tone down. “Rarity, I still wished that you would’ve waited until Spike was here to give back that necklace. It would’ve been the more honorable thing to do.”

“I know, I know. But I…” Rarity gripped the hem of her dress, biting down on her lip. She took in a slow breath, letting out a weary breath. “Dusk, there’s no telling when I would’ve seen Spike again. So it was either then or never.”

Dusk opened his mouth to retort, but soon closed it. Instead he shrugged his shoulders before he laid his head against the wall, staring up to the cellining. “Prepihu časa nosijo naše poti skupaj, nas zavezujoča.” Dusk turned his head down, finding that everyone in the room was staring at him with an inquisitive look. He restated it in Equestrian, “The Winds of Time carry our paths together, binding us. A saying my mother told me when I was a cub. It’s a saying that all diamond hounds tell their cubs.”

“But what does it mean?” Twilight asked.

“It means,” Dusk looked over into Twilight’s eyes. “no matter how far apart two become, they are still together. In spirit. Mom would tell us that all the time when dad was called away on business. She’d even told me that the day I left home.” A small laugh came out of Dusk’s lips. “Heh, she was either giving us life lessons or knocking our skulls around.”

“Sounds like yer ma was pretty tough on ya,” Applejack said. “Must’ve been nice to have her and yer pa around.”

Jinx noticed a slightly hollow tone in Applejack’s voice. She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. “Yeah, they were tough, but hell, it sure paid off,” Dusk joked, gesturing towards his element around his neck. “Welp, guess we better be shoving off. I do need that bath.”

“Alright guys, thanks for the help,” Twilight said with a nod towards the three.

As they were about to leave, Rarity quickly stopped Sketchy by raising her hand towards her. “Wait Sketchy, I’m sorry about earlier. It was… quite unprofessional of me.”

Sketchy shook her head, a small smile on her face. “Don’t think too much about it, Ms. Belle. We all have our moments.”

Rarity nodded her head at Sketchy, seeing her off and remembering to pay the mare back for not abandoning her. She was blessed to have ponies, or half-breeds in Dusk’s case, that were willing to stick by her side; especially when she thought she didn’t deserve it.

The three lovers resumed leaving, but Jinx came to a stop, causing Dusk to do the same as she was leaning heavily against him. She looked over her shoulder to see Arctic standing next to Fluttershy. “Arcty, you coming with?” Jinx asked.

“Uh… Well... “ Arctic moved a hand to the back of her head and glanced over to Fluttershy. The mare caught the glance, quickly turning her head away with a blush growing on her cheeks. Yet she still periodically moved her eyes back over to Arctic, who had mirrored her move.

Dusk chuckled at the two mares, shaking his head. “You got your ticket right?” he asked with a sly grin on his face. Arctic snapped out of her flustered daze, looking towards Dusk before she reached into her pocket to pull out the train ticket that he’d given her, Jinx, and Sketchy last night. Dusk nodded his head, again chuckling. “Then go on Arctic. I’ll get your stuff to the train station, just don’t be late. Doubt they’ll let you on a later train without buying a new ticket.”

“Seeing as we’re all leaving tonight, I’m guessing that we’ll meet up at the station. Cool with you?” Arctic asked, hoping she could spend a little time with Fluttershy. Even if it was just to help the yellow mare pack for her trip to Canterlot.

“Yeah, that’s cool with me, see ya in a bit then,” Dusk said before they exited the room. None of the mares knew, but he had managed to catch a small glimpse of the letter on Rarity’s desk when Jinx and Sketchy were consoling Rarity. And only one thought went through his head after reading just two paragraphs of the letter.

‘Spike, you, my friend, have some ties to cut.’