“Oh that’s perfect Pinkie, and you look simply stunning I might add.”

Rarity was having Pinkie Pie model a new dress for her, she wanted to make sure everything looked perfect even while the model was walking around.

“Thanks Rarity, this is fun, I’m having fun, are you having fun?” Pinkie playfully hopped around the room delighted she was able to help her dear friend.

“Do be careful Pinkie, this dress is still a work in progress I don’t want you carelessly ripping it with your ridiculous hopping. Its far too valuable to be treated so poorly.”

Pinkie immediately stopped and stared at Rarity, shocked by her sudden change in personality. She took the dress off and gently laid it down on the table next to her. Rarity just glared at her for a moment, then turned her nose up in disapproval.

“You couldn’t even be bothered to properly fold it up I see. I thought you’d be grateful that I allowed you to wear something so stunning, its not as if you could ever afford such a master piece.” Rarity laughed quietly to herself at the thought.

“I’m sorry Rarity, here I’ll fold it up, and I AM grateful. Grateful that I could spend time with you, and I thought you needed my help but I guess you just wanted to make fun of me because I’m not a big shot fashion designer like you!” Pinkie shouted with tears in her eyes.

“Hmph, I don’t need anypony’s help, I think its time for you to leave.”

“Fine... if that’s what you want, I’ll leave! And you’ll never have to see me again, ever!”

Pinkie trotted past Rarity looking away in an attempt to hide her tears. Rarity felt guilt and regret wash over her as she turned around and watched a heartbroken Pinkie Pie trot away, leaving a trail of tears behind her. Overwhelming sorrow filled her mind, the room seemed to stretch on and on as if Pinkie would never reach the door at the other end. Rarity wanted to call out to her and tell her she was sorry, to tell her how much she loved her, that she didn’t mean the things she said and she didn’t know what compelled her to say them. She opened her mouth but couldn’t speak, she tried to walk forward but couldn’t move. It was as if she was trapped in her own mind, forced to watch her best friend walk out of her life.

The room continued to stretch on and on, Pinkie kept trotting towards the door never reaching her goal. The lights began to dim, the roof began to sink, the walls began to close in. A beautiful and elegant chandelier came crashing down in front of Rarity, glass and gems exploded into thousands of tiny pieces. Rarity closed her eyes and looked away to protect her face, when she looked back she saw Pinkie begin to disappear into a black abyss with the door to her house floating away in the void. She finally was able to speak,

“Pinkie! Please don’t go, please stay, I’m begging you please stay!”

“Pinkie I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” She pleaded desperately.

Rarity’s cries seemed to fall on deaf ears, until Pinkie stopped for a moment and stood still. She continued to stare straight forward into the black abyss as the room continued to break apart and drift into space.

“Pinkie... can you hear me? Come back, please don’t leave me, I need you more than you know. I need you more than I need all these things, I don’t care if my dresses or gems are gone, as long as you stay.”

Rarity looked around to notice she was standing on only a small segment of floor. A huge gap separated her from Pinkie. All her belongings and valuables were gone, all that remained was the distance between her and her best friend. The panel of wood Pinkie was standing on broke apart and drifted into the air, as did Pinkie. Pitch black darkness seemed to reach out and envelope her while Rarity watched in absolute horror.

Suddenly Rarity was blinded by light, she shielded her eyes with her leg. Opalescence had pulled a curtain open allowing the brilliant sunlight to fill the dark room. Rarity opened her teary eyes.

“Oh my Opal, I just had the most awful dream.”

She wiped the tears from her face and looked at the clock. Realizing she was late for an important meeting, she began to rush and get ready in a panic. She quickly grabbed a document folder containing her new dress designs for Celestia and Luna in this year’s Royal Eclipse Festival.

Rarity arrived as quickly as possible to the royal conference room. There she met Celestia and Luna’s royal advisers along with Hoity Toity and a few other ponies important to either the fashion industry or related to the kingdom’s bureaucracy.

“Ahem, first off let me apologize to everypony for being late.” Rarity looked around at the cold blank faces of all the high-horse ponies.

“Well with that out of the way I’ll start with my presentation.”

Rarity looked down at her folders, then realized she had grabbed the wrong one while rushing out. She gulped and felt a sense of self loathing and humiliation began to sink in. She looked back up the the impatient ponies waiting for her to impress them with her presentation, knowing without her elaborately drawn designs, they’d never be impressed. This was her one chance to finally be able to design a dress for princess Celestia, it could have been a dream come true.

“I don’t suppose we can reschedule this for a bit later could we?” Rarity asked with an awkward smile on her face. She already knew the answer but waited for a response before leaving the room.

“If you don’t have a presentation then please leave the room, our time is much too valuable to be wasted by such an incompetent and unprepared pony such as yourself.”

Rarity quietly gathered up her papers and exited the room. Another pony then entered and started setting up their presentation. Rarity kept her head up and walked out of the building with confidence and dignity. She then walked around back, sat on some steps and let all her emotions out. She began to cry and stamp her hooves, she threw herself on the ground and allowed herself to drown in her own self pity.

“I’m so pathetic, this was it Rarity, this was your chance. This is what you’ve spent every second of every hour of every day all year planning for, and you blew it like it was some kind of joke.”

This was the first Royal Eclipse Festival ever so Luna and Celestia wanted new gorgeous dresses designed for them. They’ll become the traditional dresses meant to be worn every year for this celebration. It could take another thousand years before a new Royal Holiday would be decreed.

Rarity looked down at her folders. She opened up the folder she grabbed by mistake and began going through her old dress designs. These were the dresses she made a few years ago for her friends to attend the Grand Galloping Gala. She finally let out a smile when she thought about the hideous atrocities her friends had designed. In particular she smiled at the thought of Pinkie Pie’s streamer covered mess of fabric she thought looked good.

“Even now you’re the only one who can make me smile like this Pinkie.”

This time more tears began to run down Rarities cheeks, but it was a different emotion causing them. Rather than self pity, it was regret.

“Once again, I’m sorry Pinkie, I should have gone to see you today of all days. I blew you off and for what? So I could humiliate myself in front of a bunch of uptight judgemental jerks?!”

Rarity gathered her things up and headed back home. She had a new home, a luxurious condo located in a wealthy area of Canterlot. Upon entering she dropped the folders on her mess of a work table. She then let herself fall onto her unmade bed and began stroking Opalescence’s soft fur. She stared up at the ceiling and began thinking about the day she lost one of her closest friends, the day that changed who she was.

“I really don’t understand why these storms are necessary at all. All they’re doing is blowing dirt and mud all over my house.” Rarity said to Opal as she tightly shut all her windows.

She then went back to picking up scraps of fabric off the floor and neatly placing them into a basket. The wind was picking up and thunder was roaring. Large drops of rain pelted the windows, then wind stated blowing dirt and leaves into the side of Rarity’s home. She shuddered at the thought, then went back to her chores. A loud crackle of thunder shook the window’s and Opalescence shrieked and jumped into air before running for cover under Rarity’s bed.

“Come out from under there Opal, don’t be scared, mama’s got you.” She reached under the bed and pulled the terrified cat out. She then started cuddling and babying her shaking pet.

About half an hour later the storm began to break. Rarity was relieved that it was over, she then headed out to see what kind of damage may have been done to her home. Nothing too severe, just a lot of dirt. In the distance there was a huge rainbow, the biggest she had ever seen. It was growing rapidly and forced the black storm clouds apart until they disappeared into the evening sky. She then noticed two galloping officer ponies were quickly heading towards the outskirts of town. Out of curiosity Rarity followed. There she saw a circle of ponies standing around something. She eased her way into the crowed to see the lifeless body of Pinkie Pie. She looked at her face, her eyes were closed and there was a small puddle of blood around her mouth.

“Pinkie?” She called out, refusing to accept what she was seeing.

“Pinkie, get up!” She yelled in a useless attempt to wake her.

She pushed passed the ponies in front of her and started walking towards Pinkie. She was quickly stopped by an officer.

“Do you know who this pony is?” Questioned the officer pony.

“Of course I do, this is Pinkie Pie, she’s a good friend of mine now please let me go talk to her I think she may be hurt. We need to get her some help as soon as possible.”

“I’m sorry ma'am, but you’re friend here didn’t make it. We’ll make sure a proper investigation is done and we’ll keep you updated. Please wait behind the tape and another officer will have some questions for you.”

“That’s impossible, Pinkie Pie can’t die, she’s just pranking us all.” Rarity said, still in denial.

“Heh heh you got us Pinkie, that was a good one. You can get up now... please get up Pinkie... please.”

There was no response from the lifeless Pinkie Pie. She began to sob uncontrollably. Another officer calmly lead Rarity away from the scene of the accident.

“I know this is hard, but I need to ask you a few questions.”

Rarity hesitantly nodded her head in agreement. She saw Twilight Sparkle talking to another officer, then Twilight looked over to Rarity covering her mouth with one hoof, tears pouring down her face. Seeing Twilight like that only intensified the pain Rarity was already feeling. The officer then went through a routine of standard questions, of course Rarity didn’t know any of the details leading up to Pinkie Pie’s death other than the fact that she had planned on spending the day with Rainbow Dash. Rarity went on to explain how her and Pinkie had gotten into a fight the day before and she hadn’t seen her since. The officer thanked her for her time and told her everything they had learned about the incident so far, then went back to share the new information with the other officer ponies.

Applejack came running towards the scene, Rarity saw her coming and Twilight standing behind her in the distance. She figured Twilight must have decided to go tell Applejack what had happened. She ran out to greet Applejack with a hug, Rarity knew they could both use one after all that’s happened. Applejack insisted on seeing Pinkie, after talking to the officers she could tell Applejack was getting too angry. So Rarity decided to go get Applejack to sit with her so they could talk before things got out of control, she knew Applejack would be full of questions.

After arriving at Rarity’s home, Applejack was eager to hear everything Rarity had to say.

“So are you gonna tell me what happened or not?” Applejack was growing impatient with Rarity’s silence.

Rarity was having trouble working up the strength to speak.

“They said nopony knows for sure exactly what happened yet, but Rainbow Dash was supposed be spending the day with her and now she’s nowhere to be found.”

“Now hold up there! It’s startin’ to sound like Rainbow is bein’ accused of somethin’.” Applejack was angered at the thought that Rarity might actually believe Rainbow Dash could ever harm a friend.

“No one is accusing any pony of anything yet, but you know what Rainbow Dash is like, she has such a quick temper, and she’s always pulling those dangerous stunts.” Rarity didn’t want to believe that either, but she felt like she needed someone to blame.

“I’ve heard enough Rarity! I never thought you’d be one to give up on your friends so easily! But I shouldn’t be surprised after what you did to Pinkie Pie! And now she’s gone and you’ll never have a chance to make it up to her!” Applejack stormed out of the house and slammed the door shut behind her. Applejack’s words reached deep inside of Rarity’s heart and filled her with pain.

Just then Rarity heard a loud crash, causing her to stop thinking about the past for a moment. Opal had pulled some fabric off the table along with a sewing machine.

“Opalescense! What exactly do you think you’re doing!” A quiet meow was Opal’s reply.

“Oh you’re hopeless aren’t you.” Rarity laid back down and began thinking about all her choices in life, and all her regrets.

“How could I have been such a horrible pony to my friends like that, I’m still that pony now, aren’t I...”

Rarity found herself sinking deeper and deeper into her guilt and regrets.

“I wish I could make things right Pinkie. I wish I could make up for the choices I made, I wish I could be a good friend again.” But Rarity knew, it was far too late for that.