Sweetie Belle was startled awake once again by a sorrowful noise, one she had to bear with for the past days. The young filly stood on her tiny legs and gave a little stretch, accompanied by a yawn, and began to make her way out of her room and into the hallway in the Carousel Boutique that held the doors to the sisters' respective rooms.

The little unicorn hadn't been sleeping well, being haunted at night with the sounds of sorrow, and was left to herself during the daylight hours.

Sweetie Belle swayed slightly as she walked up to the crimson, gem studded doorway that served as the entrance to her sister's room. The high-pitched filly knocked on the door lightly, but received no response, just like every other night she tried to talk with her sister.

Deciding to finally figure out what was going on, Sweetie Belle rose to her hind legs and pushed the door open with her fore hooves, gaining entry to the darkened room that had a frazzled designer mare laying on a disorganized bed, tears both long dry and fresh matting her face.

Rarity raised her head from being buried in a damp spot in the sheets, turning to look at her sister with a forlorn look in her sapphire eyes. Sweetie Belle lost the little annoyance she had in her from being awoken, a surprised look on her face as she took in how deeply her big sister had fallen into the pits of despair. She should have noticed how bad it was from the start, Rarity never really was a mare who enjoyed leaving her work unchecked, and she hadn't left her room, unless it was to eat something, since the time she returned from Twilight's library.

"Rarity, what's wrong? You haven't talked to me for days." Sweetie Belle walked over to her sister's bedside, juggling ideas on how to cheer her up in her brain.

The purple maned designer avoided having to answer her sister's question, she instead trailed her eyes down to the floor and returned to burying her face into her blankets again, shutting herself away from the world's problems. The young filly would be having none of her sister's evasion, Sweetie Belle walked closer to Rarity and began to nudge her slightly with her hooves.

"Come on, Rarity! You're never gonna get better if you don't tell anypony what's wrong." The younger sister raised her voice slightly, just enough to catch the distraught mare's attention. The designer saw through bleary eyes a look of determination set upon her little sister's face, the sight causing her to speak through a hoarse throat.

"Why do you want to know, Sweetie? There's nothing you, or anypony else for the matter, can do to help me, not even myself." Rarity moved her head back down to rest her chin on her mattress, a frown frozen onto her expression.

"I want to know because I'm your little sister and I care about you, even if there's nothing I can do to help you I still want to listen about your problems!" The filly kept her voice raised, trying to break through the shell Rarity had set up for herself, and partially succeeded.

The fashion inclined mare became lost in thought, judging if she should talk to someone about her situation. Once her decision was made, Rarity sighed sadly and patted a spot on the bed next to herself, beckoning the filly to jump up and take a seat.

"What do you know about love, Sweetie?" the filly at the fashioner's side put a hoof to her chin, hinting that she was thinking heavily.

"Well, not a lot, I haven't looked for a special somepony because I'm too young for that. I don't want to end up making a mistake and ending up married to a pony who doesn't love me back."

"Okay, that's a good way to think, but what do you think draws the line for a pony's relationships?" Rarity began to forget her dismay and instead focused on her conversation, finding it almost clinical.

"Draws the line? What do you mean, Rarity?" Sweetie Belle tilted her head to the right a little, emphasizing her confusion about her sister's words.

"I-it's just that...what do you think is wrong for a pony to love?" the designer was beginning to ask the questions she had been asking herself for the past days, hoping to get the answers from her sister.

"Uhm, Rarity, there is nothing wrong that a pony can love, I'm not really following what you mean."

The fashion inspired mare lost herself in her thoughts again, thinking of a subtle way of asking about the topic without letting her know who she was talking about. She decided that she would change a small part of her question, but the same problem she faced with Twilight and Spike applied there, a sense of what they were doing was wrong.

"What if a filly in your class fell in love with another filly, what would you say to them."

"I'd congratulate them, duh, seriously what else am I supposed to say." the filly's words prompted a stare from her sister that was accompanied by a slightly ajar mouth.

"B-but, aren't fillies and colts supposed to be together, not two of the same type?" Rarity felt a little stupid at the moment, she was saying stuff a little filly would say, while Sweetie Belle was speaking like a grown mare.

"Fillies and colts can be together, but they don't have to be together, like the example you gave of two fillies."

"Isn't it wrong though, isn't it against a rule or something?"

"Before I answer you, sis, I want to ask you a question."

"Uh, okay, go ahead dear."

"Are the two fillies happy?"

Images of all the times Rarity had seen Spike and Twilight together as friends came to mind, along with the various stories the lavender librarian had shared with her, all of it pointed to the two lifelong friends always being happy with one another.

"Y-yes."

"Then they aren't wrong, it doesn't matter what the circumstances are, if the two of them are happy then they aren't doing anything they shouldn't, even if it is a little rare."

"What about a dragon, Sweetie, wouldn't that be wrong?" Rarity was unable to stop herself from speaking, her body demanded answers and it was going to get them whether she wanted to or not.

"Let me think, hmm...no, it's still right, as long as the two are happy. Just look at Spike for example, he obviously loves you, and just because he is a dragon doesn't stop him from basically worshiping you."

The designer mare flinched at her sister's words, feeling as if a knife was being twisted inside of her as all the guilt, remorse, and sadness crashed over her with a newfound weight.

"T-thank you, Sweetie Belle, I really needed to get those questions out of my head."

"No problem sis, glad to help you out, but I think I should go to sleep already, I'm feeling tired." the filly hugged her sister before making her way over to the bedroom's door, but was stopped as Rarity spoke up.

"I'm serious Sweetie, thank you, for everything."

"That's what sisters are for, Rarity, they stand there for one another when no one else does."

The helpful filly walked away after speaking one last time and headed towards her bed's warm embrace, leaving Rarity to her thoughts as said designer mare lay her head down on her pillow and closed her eyes. The white mare was far from done with her arguments though, but they were now silent, taking place in her mind as a brutish side rattled her mind.

'You aren't honestly thinking about letting those two be together are you!'

'What's to stop me?'

'Yourself!'

'I don't want to stop myself.'

'No, you want to stop that little tramp and her slithery fuc-'

'DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK ABOUT MY FRIENDS LIKE THAT!'

'It's all on you, Rarity. You don't like it, even if you manage to lie to yourself now that you spoke with Sweetie Belle.'

'I'm not lying, I'm just now seeing how stupid I must have seemed barging in like that, accusing the photographs as if they were the worst things ever to appear in Equestria.'

'So what now, huh, you shut up and let stuff you don't like happen!'

'No...now I give them a chance, after all, everyone deserves a little bit of generosity.'

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The moon was high in the sky, illuminating the apple-dotted orchards that made up Sweet Apple Acres, name and all. The shimmering glow that was reflected off of the red delicacies was watched only by one mare, one who wore a look of dejection on her freckled face.

The clopping of hooves against the sturdy hallway's floor let Applejack know that Granny Smith had retired to her bedroom for the night, which calmed the orange farm mare for some unknown reason.

Applejack was currently on her bed's edge, trying to look out of the window as much as she could. Her mane and tail hung freely since the red hairbands had been removed a long time ago and were currently in a corner next to the mare's signature stetson hat.

The hardworking mare had been replaying the most recent events of interest in her mind, starting from the time she received the newspaper from an anonymous sender, up until the moment she saw Granny Smith confront Spike and Twilight as they tried to find her, the latter always causing her to shudder at her grandmother's rare tone of voice. Among all the fear at Granny Smith's newly arisen personality, Applejack found shame, shame that she hadn't just bucked open her room's door and sided with her friend. In all honesty, she could've done just that, but apprehension cut her off every time she made up her mind to stand up for herself and her friends.

Memories of times long past flooded back into the farm mare's mind, each one of them agonizingly familiar. These were the roots of her problems, acts committed in the past that ride their way up to the future and appear as roadblocks at every turn. The memories that haunted her all contained one thing in common, each and ever one of them had her parents in them.

The latest memory showed her mother, Toffee Apple, a mare with a light red coat and a blond mane worn in a ponytail in a style matching her tail, the resemblance uncanny to any of those who could ever get to meet the mother and daughter. Toffee was currently standing in front of a green mare with a brown mane, Granny Smith unleashed a barrage of lectures upon her daughter, her face contorted in anger.

Toffee Apple had fallen in love with Citrus Punch, a member of the Orange Family. The two dated in secret, knowing the consequences that would take place if they were ever to be caught, and they continued to do so for years before Granny Smith caught on.

The inevitability happened around the fifth year of the couple's secretive relationship, and Toffee's mother was not happy at all with what she found. Her suspicions towards her daughter were correct and she caught them both red hoofed in the barn, instantly confronting the couple and stating how 'nontraditional' their actions were, since the most of the Apples and the Oranges always kept up a bit of a blood feud, and that they were going to put a stop to it. Of course, neither agreed to put an end to their love just because one mare told them to, it was a grave mistake.

The couple continued their relationship for quite some time, bringing forth a large red colt and a strong looking orange filly into the world, life seemed good for them since Granny Smith never intervened with them. It all changed one afternoon when Citrus Punch walked out into the Everfree Forest's edge to retrieve some medical herbs due to Toffee's illness at the time, it was a walk he never returned from again.

Toffee waited and waited, but Citrus never showed up, the only things that stopped her from going out into the forest to look for her husband were the two police officers standing at her house's doorway, both of them wearing grim faces. The news they carried was even grimmer, they had found Citrus Punch, brutally murdered in the woods by some unknown assailant.

Toffee was left alone, her family shunned her, her husband had been murdered, she had two kids to look after, and she was expecting yet another from her late lover. She was never the same again, she would cry herself to sleep at night and not utter a single word during the day. Her life was soon taken as well, the stress on her mind had ruined her, and her fall left a young stallion, mare, and a newborn filly in her wake.

Applejack knew what really happened to her father, all of the evidence pointed towards it. He had been murdered at the hooves of the Apple Clan due to the mixture of bad blood, unjustly stolen away from the love of his life and three of his greatest achievements. If she could, Applejack would try to present her story to the world, but all evidence had faded away with the sands of time, leaving behind a scar that still affected the farm mare.

'Ahm, just being a coward. Granny is way too old to be able to put up threats against me, but what about the rest of the clan, what would they do to me if I took up a side that opposed what they believed in?'

'This is somethin' I'll have too settle myself, but I'll need time, Twilight, just give me that much, because honestly, ah don't feel like ah can take on my family, no matter how much ah reassure myself I want to.'

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"Shining, honey, have you picked up that newspaper already, it's been sitting there for days now." Cadance called out to her husband from the second floor of their house.

"Uhm, I'm pretty sure I did." The royal guard's captain was seated on one of their house's plush celestial blue sofas, enjoying a good book and a cup of coffee.

"I can still see it from up here, can you get it already? It's starting to get a little yellow."

"Okay, I'll get it dear." Shining Armor shook his head as he walked over to his house's entrance, opening the door to find a soggy, yet readable, newspaper from The Canterlot Times.

"Hmm, I wonder what's on the news." the captain talked to himself as he took a sip from his coffee and unrolled the slightly weathered newspaper, but as soon as his eyes fell upon the photographs on the article, he began to choke on the coffee in his throat and the cup he was levitating shattered as it fell to the floor.