Sweetie Belle gently poked a hanging roll of Rarity’s discounted canary yellow cotton fabric with the tip of her horn, feeling nothing special. She had tried this with the cerulean cotton that had been used to make Diamond Tiara’s dress and even with the orange and red garnets her sister had found in the gem fields. Each time, her horn never reacted. Prodding the green silk and garnets she had found with just the tip of her horn had given some small reaction that she couldn’t quite name.

I don’t get it. What’s the connection?

She stood alone in the showroom of Rarity’s shop. The rolls of fabrics on display were meant to give customers a chance to see the current shades and patterns that were in fashion for the season, while more bolts of fabric were hidden in her big sister’s workroom waiting to be crafted into new fashion trends. Rarity herself was in the kitchen still, cleaning up from the lunch they had finished. Even at the table, Sweetie hadn’t been able to use her magic to lift her tomato sandwich to her mouth the way Rarity always did. She couldn’t levitate her napkin to her mouth nor could she lift the plates to take to the sink.

Staring now at the rolls of cloth, she sat uncharacteristically still and quiet. Her magic was there, she had used it and knew what it felt like, but it wouldn’t work when she wanted it to. All she had to go on where the silks and the gems she found.

What’s so special about those silks and those green garnets? The gems are rare, but it’s not like my special talent is finding rare gems. These silks aren’t rare, just expensive. The gems are expensive too, but…

She raised her head above the collection of bolts to the light blue chest she had pulled earlier. Inside were the costumes that Rarity had made, something she had no idea even existed until her magic nearly slammed the chest into her.

Those costumes are expensive too, but Rarity wouldn’t sell those. Whoever Mare Do Well was, she must have stopped being Mare Do Well because Rarity has those costumes back. That means she must not have sold them in the first place...

It didn’t make sense to Sweetie Belle that her sister would go through the trouble of making expensive, fancy costumes she never intended to sell. Rarity was no superhero; the thought alone was laughable. They couldn’t have been made for Rarity’s friends either - none of them were the superhero type, except Rainbow Dash, and she was out of the question for being Mare Do Well.

Rarity would never refund a customer if they returned used damaged clothing either. That was besides the point though. Sweetie Belle focused her horn on the chest, reaching out with her magic like Rarity had taught her.

The chest shuddered. Her horn glowed softly, covering the folded costumes inside. She could feel three of them, as if they were in her hooves. Not wanting to upset Rarity, she let the feeling go and her horn dimmed, the magic fading away again. The excitement she wanted to feel was held back by more confusion.

Okay. So my magic can work when I want it to work, but only on certain things. Only on certain clothing?

Sweetie Belle let out a loud groan of frustration, rubbing her face with her hooves and feeling a headache coming on. She could have assumed her special talent had something to do with expensive things, but her magic couldn’t be used to make Diamond Tiara’s dress, and that was suppose to be very expensive. It never reacted to the cloth or the thread and needles. The dress was sure to be expensive from just the garnets alone but her horn only responded to the gems and not the whole expensive dress.

“I don’t get it! How am I supposed to make sense of my magic?!” Sweetie sighed and stood up on her hind legs, mimicking her sister’s often overly dramatic sense of despair as she let herself fall back, landing on a plush red pillow that zipped on the floor just in time to break her fall.

“Sweetie Belle, dear, it is just going to take more time to figure out how your magic works.” Rarity said as she came up behind her sister, her magic wrapped around the pillow that Sweetie Belle had landed on.

“But I finally started using magic! I’m just one step away from finding my special talent and getting my cutie mark!” Sweetie’s voice was higher than normal, a sign that she was getting genuinely upset. The filly’s voice had all the pent up frustration from the day’s disappointments. Sweetie had expected to get her cutie mark when the gem-seeker spell went off on its own; the way Rarity had gotten hers. When that didn’t happen, she expected to get it when she started grabbing Rarity’s silks and wools, but instead she had been left only more confused. She felt like she had taken two steps towards her goal, only to go back a step now.

“Well, be that as it may, you are just going to have to hold off on it for now. I expect Miss Tiara to arrive in the next ten minutes or so to pick up her dress and I want to go over what I would like you to do.”

Sweetie Belle nodded, though she couldn’t help but feel nervous as she rolled off the pillow and stood back on her legs. Part of her had hoped that, if she could have gotten her cutie mark by now, Diamond Tiara would at least not be able to call her a blank flank anymore. She truthfully had no idea how to reach out to her, and was trusting Rarity to have the answers she needed.

“Okay. What do you need me to do?”

“Firstly, I want to be sure you want to be this filly’s friend in the first place. I’ll admit that when the idea first came to me I went with it and might not have given as much thought to your feelings as I should have.” Rarity gave Sweetie a small apologetic smile. Sweetie Belle was already used to her sister not being as thoughtful as she would have liked, but in this case she wasn’t the least bit mad.

She hadn’t been completely sure at first if she wanted to be friends with a pony like Diamond Tiara. On the outside, the rich filly had a lot of faults. Knowing that her sister had once been like Diamond though, she began to see her bully in a new light.

“I think I do. If you hadn’t told me about how you use to be a bully too, then I would have said no, but now I want to try. Are you sure this can really work?”

Rarity smiled knowingly, in a warm way that Sweetie Belle only saw when Rarity was really happy.

“I believe it will. But even if it does not work and she does not accept your friendship, I want you to know that I will be proud of you for even trying. This is a very mature thing you are doing, and it is not easy to give a pony a second chance, more so when they have been rather beastly towards you. If she does not decide to be your friend, hopefully she will at least treat you better when she sees the dress you helped make her.”

Rarity used her magic to bring the ponikin wearing Diamond’s summer dress out onto the greeting area of her store. It was covered with a red cloth that was meant to be pulled away for a big reveal.

“Now listen, Sweetie Belle, when Miss Tiara arrives we shall greet her together. The dress was a little pricier than average, so her father informed me that when the order was finished she would come with a letter of credit rather than bits. I will explain to her that the dress is ready but that I need to take the letter to the bank at once - letters of credit do take a dreadful amount of time to process. After I leave, you take over. You will be the one to show her the dress. Tell her about how fabulous it is, and be sure to highlight the parts you helped with, especially those magnificent garnets.”

“That’s it?” Sweetie Belle asked, thinking that the plan sounded a little vague. Outside of the dress, she wasn’t sure what else to say to Diamond Tiara. She couldn’t even be sure that the pink filly would really care what Sweetie had helped with.

Rarity didn’t seem the least bit worried. “It may not sound like a lot, but in truth, Sweetie Belle, it is not a great undertaking to befriend some pony. Do you know how you became friends with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom?”

Sweetie nodded, thinking the question sounded so simply it was almost silly.

“Of course! Scootaloo and I can to Apple Bloom’s rescue when Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon started bullying her about being a blank flank.”

Rarity smiled more and nodded, “Before that, how did you become friends with Scootaloo?”

Sweetie thought back, trying to recall how she met Scootaloo.

“We went to school together, for the afternoon class. I met her when she nearly ran me over with her scooter after trying to do some mid-air loop. She apologized to me and we just started talking.”

“And when you first met Apple Bloom, after you heroically came to her rescue, what did you three do?”

“We started talking. Apple Bloom asked if we were friends at that point and I didn’t even think twice about it.”

Rarity clapped her hooves together, happy with Sweetie Belle’s response.

“There you have it darling. You just answered your own question.”

Sweetie Belle looked unsure. “I don’t get it. How does any of that help me make Diamond Tiara my friend?”

“It’s quite simple really. You do to her what you did with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom – talk to her. Have you ever had a conversation with Diamond Tiara before?”

“Not one where she wasn’t picking on me.” Sweetie responded with a flat tone in her voice and a look of annoyance in her eyes.

“Well she will have no grounds to pick on you with this dress. Use it to start a conversation with her. Once you two start talking, I believe you will both open up to each other, just like you did with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom.”

Sweetie Belle looked surprised. The young filly never considered how easy it had been to become friends with the two fillies she trusted the most, and that it had all come about by simply talking to them and getting to know them. She had never had a real conversation with Diamond Tiara before.

If I did just start talking to her and getting to know her, maybe it would change things.

“Wow sis, that sounds like it could really work!” Sweetie Belle said excitedly, feeling like she had just been taught an amazing life lesson.

“Oh I’m sure it will. I just wish I had smart and beautiful big sister that could have shared such valuable life experiences with me. Even if this doesn’t work Sweetie Belle, it is important to at least try. I wish I could go back and try talking to the ponies I bullied at your age. That is why I planned this all out. I don’t want to see you miss out on the chances I was too blind to take for myself. I might have had more friends now than I currently do, and might have been a happier filly for it. It’s too late for me, but not for you.”

Rarity pulled Sweetie Belle into a hug, feeling more connected to her little sister than she had in a long time.

“Thanks Rarity,” Sweetie Belle said as she snuggled against her sister’s silky fur, “I’m going to try my best.”

It was at that moment that there came a knock on the door. Rarity turned her head to the clock on the wall and let Sweetie go.

“That must be her. Are you ready to try and make a new friend?”

“I’m ready!” Sweetie Belle said confidently.

I feel sick…

Diamond Tiara’s stomach was starting to ache as she walked down the street. When she first started to feel bad, she had felt like she would throw up, but that terrible feeling never came. The sandwich must have been bad, and she would yell at the chef once she got home for using cheap ingredients.With the way she was feeling, she would tell her daddy to fire him.

She passed other ponies without paying them much attention, feeling miserable and cold with each step, making her move slower than she realized. It was a physical kind of misery that mirrored the misery in her heart. She still hadn’t gotten over Silver Spoon and Twist’s secret friendship. The more it weighed on her mind, the more she found herself actually wanted to be included on that secret friendship. If the candies she enjoyed from that shop had been made by Twist, she would have been willing to overlook the filly’s embarrassing speech impediment to milk her for free treats.

That’s not what Silver is doing though. No, Sterling and Pepper are actually the best of friends when Silver Spoon isn’t pretending to be my best friend.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she nearly bumped into a mare on the street. Diamond had to stop suddenly as a pink pony with a black and white polka-dot mane walked right in front of her. The mare had come up from behind Diamond, walking quickly when she suddenly cut in front of Diamond’s path, never once acknowledging her as she walked right into a wall and then through it without breaking her brisk walking pace.

Diamond Tiara blinked, too shocked to know how to respond. She looked behind her, seeing other ponies going about their day, none of them showing any sign of having seen a pony walk through a solid wall. Rubbing her eyes with her hoof, Diamond wondered if she had just imagined it. She decided that she had to - ponies don’t have polka-dot manes anyway.

She chalked it up to being tired. Walking was starting to become a chore. The muscles in her legs felt weak, though she couldn’t think why. She hadn’t done a lot of walking around that day, though her body felt like she had already walked all over Ponyville.

Maybe I have food poisoning. Maybe I’ll die. That would show you, Silver Spoon.

Diamond stopped and rubbed her eyes again. She hadn’t meant to think that way, but knew she was starting to feel tired and irritable. The bright side was that she was nearly at the Boutique.

I’m better than Peppermint Twist.

Diamond turned her head to look behind her. Though she was far away from it now, she could still make out Sweet & Savory. The candy decorations of the roof melting in the hot sun and dripping down the walls and over the windows slow as a snail on the ground, leaving behind a slimy white trail of bubbling sweetness.

She blinked and the slime on the walls wasn’t there anymore; she was too far to be sure she had even seen what she thought she saw.

I must be getting tired, I’m starting to see stupid things.

She turned to continue on her way when two stallions walked past her. They were in a heated conversation about the appropriate tier of cuteness of the town librarian. Diamond Tiara stood shocked as both stallions had the biggest teeth she had ever seen in her life.

Each tooth was white as a pearl, but as thick as a ice cube. Their speech sounded fine as they walked away, the huge teeth doing nothing to alter the sounds of their voice. She couldn’t help but marvel that the teeth on both stallions were perfectly straight.

“Excuse me.”

Diamond Tiara squeaked as she quickly stepped aside. A unicorn with a minty green coat walked past her, giving Diamond Tiara a questionable look with two eyes that were the size of softballs, bulging from the mare’s eye sockets and held in only by thin red veins. The mare’s eyelashes were thick as earthworms, and the pupils of her eyes were the deepest blackest pits Diamond had ever seen; she felt like she could push her whole hoof into those pupils.

“What are you staring at?” the mare asked, and Diamond Tiara realized then how she had been leaning closer to the mare’s face, drawn in by the large eyes. The pink filly shut her own eyes and started running, too afraid to even think of screaming.

She traveled only a block away before finally stopping, her legs feeling even more sluggish. Opening her eyes finally, she looked around frantically for ponies with giant teeth or huge eyes.

Every pony around her looked perfectly normal. The streets weren’t very crowded, but the ponies she saw didn’t look like mutated freaks at least. Her heart was hammering in her chest as she rubbed her eyes again.

What’s wrong with everypony!? Am I the only one who sees this? Buildings are melting and faces are warped!

Yet as she looked around her, there was nothing to suggest anything she had seen was real. Every pony looked perfectly normal, going about their normal business in a normal way.

I must be seeing things. I’m just really tired. And stressed. Maybe I didn’t really see Silver Spoon with Twist. I must be imagining things...

The idea seemed the most logical to her, though as she assured herself of that fact, a grey pegasus with one eye looking to the sky and another eye looking to the ground passed her. The mare was balancing a muffin perfectly on her head.

Yeah... things are normal. I’m normal. Every pony is normal. I didn’t see Silver Spoon with Twist, being her best friend. She wouldn’t need her when she has me. I’m a better friend for her than anypony else.

Reminding herself about that notion made the filly walk faster as she started heading for Rarity’s shop, ignoring how her body wanted to rest. She believed that to be true of any filly in Ponyville; she was better than them all, and Silver Spoon was a fool to ever doubt that.

I don’t need to be nice. I’m better than that. I’m… better than Silver too.

Diamond shivered from chills, though she wondered if it wasn’t from the thought she allowed herself to have. If she was better than Silver Spoon, why did she need her to be her friend so badly?

She never got to answer her own question as she arrived at the front door of the Carousel Boutique. Diamond Tiara lifted a finely manicured hoof and knocked on the door. Her hoof made ripples of tiny rainbow mushrooms spread out from her hoof over the door, springing up from the dried paint until they reached the door frame.

I just saw sound...

Diamond wanted to throw up again, but she had to swallow the sick feeling away as it took only a few seconds before the door opened and Rarity appeared, welcoming Diamond with a happy smile.

“Welcome dear! Please do come in.” Rarity stepped aside as her magic held the door open, allowing Diamond Tiara to walk in a little slowly.

Praise the fat flank of Celestia, she looks normal at least.

She was about to greet Rarity in turn, when she spotted Sweetie Belle.

“Hi Diamond Tiara. Uh, you’re looking good.”

Sweetie’s coat was sparkling like a diamond in direct lighting, making her glitter like a crystal pony. Tiny bursts of gentle light were exploding in four point stars all around her.

Diamond gave a smile that was less than confident or welcoming. At school and on the playground the two never talked, and that was how they liked it. With an adult around though, they both had to play roles, and Diamond Tiara wasn’t feeling up to it as Sweetie smiled at her and shinnied like a polished gem.

“So my dress is ready?” Diamond asked Rarity, ignoring Sweetie Belle who pouted at the back of Diamond’s head. She needed to get the dress and go home as soon as she could.

“Oh yes, it’s all done. I understand your father left you a letter of credit for the dress?” Rarity had also noticed the snub Diamond had given Sweetie, but she let it go, knowing that there was still work to be done between the two of them.

Diamond gave a nod and reached into her saddle bags, the stiffness in her neck making the simple action seem hard. She couldn’t help but let out a groan of protest as she reached with her neck and clamped her mouth on the sealed letter Rarity needed. Once she had it, turning her head back felt just as hard.

Rarity and Sweetie Belle noticed the minor difficulty Diamond Tiara had, but neither said anything about it. Rarity assumed the filly was just stiff. Sweetie Belle, who knew how Diamond Tiara liked to always present herself as if she were showing off for an unseen camera, was realizing that something was off with her.

Rarity’s magic took the letter from Diamond’s mouth, breaking the seal and opening it. Her magic also brought her glasses to her face, giving the letter a quick read over.

“Excellent. Everything is in order. I need to fill out the paperwork on my end for this, and for that I need to make it to the bank before they close. I’ll be having Sweetie Belle show you your dress. I’ll try not to take long. Sweetie Belle, please show Miss Tiara to her dress.”

The two sisters gave each other a quick wink, completely missed by Diamond as she discreetly rubbed her neck. Even moving her leg to do that felt hard – it was getting harder to move at all.

She watched as Rarity trotted out of the room, and Diamond realized just then that Rarity was walking out of the shop and closing the door behind her.

“Wait… what about my dress?” she asked, sounding both annoyed and tired.

Sweetie Belle blinked with confusion and moved to face Diamond. “Rarity just said she was going to take care of the letter. I’m going to show you your dress.”

Diamond Tiara looked to Sweetie Belle, whose coat was no longer shining. The filly looked as normal as she always did, but that only left Diamond Tiara more unnerved. She couldn’t be sure what was real and what was fake anymore. She wanted to sleep, to hide her head under the pillows - maybe even cry a little.

Seeing a nervous smile on Sweetie Belle’s face banished those thoughts as quickly as she had them - she never cried. Crying was for babies.

“You don’t know how to sew,” Diamond said, finally breaking the silence.

The comment caught Sweetie Belle off guard. It sounded too weak to be an insult, and even if it had been an insult, it wasn’t cutting like Diamond’s insults often sounded. Sweetie Belle knew that the rich filly had seen the capes she had made for the crusaders – she knew that Sweetie could sew.

“Well, I know the basics,” Sweetie started, remembering how Rarity told her to use the dress as a talking point. “I helped Rarity make your dress. I just took care of the easy stuff, but I also found the gems to go with it too.”

Gems? Daddy got me gems too?

She followed behind Sweetie Belle to a covered up ponikin, her legs feeling very heavy now. She wasn’t sure she would make it home now with the way she was feeling. She wanted to nap more than anything now.

Taking the covering cloth in her mouth, Sweetie pulled it away and revealed Diamond’s summer dress. Under the special lighting Rarity had set up, the dress looked great but the catching point was the garnets in the collar.

“Rarity said your dad wanted green garnets for your dress. They’re supposed to be really rare, so I only found seven of them, but they’re flawless. They’re in a princess cut, so they… uh… they’re extra shiny that way.”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes went to the collar before they even took in the dress. They reminded her of Sweetie’s eyes.

They were in fact Sweetie’s eyes.

“I’m sure it will go great with your tiara.” Sweetie Belle offered, trying to get some kind of positive reaction from an unusually quiet Diamond Tiara.

The rich filly stayed quiet, looking back into the seven lidless eyes green with what she was sure had to be jealousy. Her legs were beginning to tremble as she took in the rest of the dress in a passing glance, only to look back at those eyes.

“Diamond Tiara?”

“I get it now. I’m dreaming.”

Sweetie Belle looked confused as Diamond Tiara looked at her with a tired expression on her face. “What? You’re dreaming?” She looked back to the dress, thinking that it didn’t look like the best dress Rarity had ever made to earn such a compliment.

Diamond sighed and lifted her front leg to rub her eyes, only her leg felt too heavy to lift. She gave up midway, looking at Sweetie Belle with glassy eyes.

“This is all one big nightmare. I’m still in bed, and Silver Spoon is still my friend. You’re not really here, you stupid blank flank loser.”

Sweetie Belle looked at Diamond Tiara with concern, taking a step away from the filly. She knew something was wrong the moment Diamond tried to insult her. Now, she was starting to get concerned. All thoughts about trying to win the other filly over had been pushed aside.

“I… are you okay Diamond Tiara? What about Silver Spoon?”

She watched as Diamond tried to lift her other front leg again, but stopped herself. It seemed to Sweetie like Diamond couldn’t lift her legs. She was moving sluggishly, and her eyes were half open.

“Did you spread your loser germs on me? Is that why I’m dreaming about you? Are the other Cutie Mark Catastrophes here? I bet they’ll melt out of the walls any moment now. With the way this dream is going, I bet Chickenaloo is going to show up with freakishly huge wings and still won’t be able to fly.”

Despite the insults, nothing Diamond Tiara was saying made sense, but the filly was insistent, and before Sweetie Belle could say a word, Diamond spoke up more.

“Don’t look at me with your huge eyes all sad! And stop making them spin! This dream is stupid! You’re stupid! You’re STUPID!” Diamond Tiara yelled as her body started to shake.

“Diamond-”

“NO!” Diamond Tiara yelled, her glassy eyes wide and scary for Sweetie Belle to look at. She shut her eyes, as if Diamond Tiara was having trouble seeing, and then quickly opened them again - they suddenly looked bright and clear a second. “I remember... you said once that Apple Bum was full of potential because she didn’t have a cutie mark - well you’re wrong! If that loser ever does get a cutie mark, or if any of you get cutie marks, I’ll always have more potential than any of you! She’ll have some dumb cutie mark about apples like the rest of her hick family because that’s all the potential she has! My cutie mark is special; I can do and be whatever I want because everything I set my mind to is within my talent! My talent is being the best me I can be! That’s why I’m better than you! I’ll always be better than you no matter how many friends you have!”

Diamond was panting, trembling, and crying all at once. Her eyes had been darting all around Sweetie as she gave her speech, as if Sweetie Belle herself wasn’t standing perfectly still, watching the rant with a look of confusion and concern. Diamond Tiara wasn’t just upset, she was talking crazy and looking around as if she was seeing things that weren’t there.

“I’d like it if you were my friend.”

It was the first thing Sweetie Belle had gotten to say since Diamond Tiara had started ranting, and to her surprise the words rang truer now than they had felt before. Her normally high soprano tone of voice sounding a little more squeaky as she made her confession.

“I don’t care if you think you’re better than me," Sweetie spoke softly and with a small smile on her face, "My sister always thinks she’s better than other ponies because of her good looks. But she doesn’t rub it in other ponies faces, and neither should you. You can be pretty and rich and important without hurting other pony’s feelings.”

Diamond Tiara didn’t move. She looked at Sweetie Belle through hot eyes, shaking so much that Sweetie Belle was sure that something was wrong.

“You’re not my friend. You’re not Silver Spoon. Nothing you say matters. I want to wake up now.”

The more she spoke, the more slurred Diamond’s speech became. She took a step towards a now scared, angry, and confused Sweetie Belle, only to fall forward when her legs gave out. Her tiara fell loose and slid away.

“St-stupid dream legs... I caann’t staannd up.”

Sweetie Belle shrieked at the sight of the fallen Diamond Tiara. The pink filly was kicking her legs out in a hopeless attempt to stand up. She had begun to drool out the side of her mouth, and her eyes dilated and half open. She looked like she had a hard time breathing.

Panic set in and Sweetie screamed.“RARITY!” Sweetie Belle had nearly forgotten that her sister had left for the bank - she was all alone with a very sick Diamond Tiara
“HELP! Somepony, I need help!”

Sweetie almost ran for the door, but stopped herself, remembering Diamond. She was torn between going to her side and running out of the shop.

“Siiilver?” Diamond asked as she looked up to Sweetie’s face from the floor, “Heeelp meee?”

“Rarity?”

Sharp Dresser felt a weight drop in his stomach at the sight of the grown filly that use to tease and bully him. The last thing he expected to see was a grown Rarity welcoming Diamond Tiara into her clothing shop.

The mirror showed Diamond as the poison began to make her hallucinate; it had been an amusing sight to watch the stuck up filly see things that weren’t really there. The mirror however wouldn’t let him hear what was being said between Diamond Tiara or Rarity, or the small white filly in the shop with them.

Rarity… she really grew up to be beautiful.

Sharp Dresser’s thoughts wandered to the possible what-ifs that he often asked himself. What if he had stood up to Rarity, defending his own taste of clothing – could he have won her over, or at least convinced her that just because he didn’t keep as up-to-date on fashion as she did that he still knew what clothes made a pony look good? His special talent allowed him to see the best colors in the right patterns and styles on any given pony. Had he the confidence in his talents, he would have been up there with Photo Finish and Hoity Toity; he would have servants, rather than be a servant himself.

His dimly glowing red eyes glared at the images in the mirror, watching as Rarity left the shop and the two fillies alone, a smile on her face that made Sharp Dresser grind his teeth together. An old hate was growing again in his heart. It had been Rarity’s fault that his confidence was so weak thanks to her teasing, her hurtful comments, and her needless cruelty.

Rarity... once Diamond Tiara is done with, I’ll kill you next.

With that thought, the spell on the mirror ended, showing him his reflection once more. His shocked eyes were a darker red than he remembered them being. In fact, he could have sworn his eyes use to be brown.

“It’s over now. You failed.”

The statement was a slap in the face to Sharp Dresser. His reflection stared back at him uncaring.

“What? What do you mean I failed? Diamond Tiara ate the poison. I saw her stuff that sandwich into her fat little mouth. She’ll be dead in a hour the way she was looking.

His reflection was unmoved, even as Sharp Dresser stepped closer to the mirror.

“No. You saw her with that filly. She’ll call for help. She’ll save Diamond Tiara, and you’ll be ruined.”

Sharp Dresser opened his mouth to argue back but was stopped short. His reflection was right. The little foal in the shop with Diamond would see something was wrong, and she’d go running for help. The poison wouldn’t work fast enough and he knew that. Passion Flower was a slow but painless death; it was suppose to be a kind way to die for a pony who had been anything but kind to the others around her. His kindness was going to cost him everything.

The despair in Sharp Dresser chilled him to the bone. His vision blurred with tears as he slammed both hooves on the polished mirror. His reflection never moved.

“Help me! It was you who convinced me to take matters into my own hooves. You told me how to poison her; you said making her go away would give me what I wanted. I’m a grown stallion for Celestia’s sake - but I’m still intimidated by bullies like her! Killing her was going to fix everything!”

“You had your chance. By yourself, you couldn’t do it.”

By himself; Sharp Dresser had always been by himself and it had gotten him nowhere in life. With a face wet with tears, he leaned his head against the mirror, the tip of his horn grazing the polished surface.

“Please help me... I’ll do anything.”

“Anything for revenge?”

The question filled Sharp Dresser, as if the voice reverberated inside him. He felt something in his heart break, like a final line had been crossed.

“Anything for revenge” he said as he blinked away tears that, instead of falling down his cheeks, evaporated into a mist that steamed continuously as the whites of his eyes glowed a sickly green. He reflection warped, turning darker until it faded away into the blackness of the mirror that he had somehow never noticed before.

From inside that darkness on the other side of the mirror, dozens and dozens of glowing green eyes snapped open, holding the unicorn in their mournful gaze. Hooves reached out and passed through the surface of the mirror, slow and gentle, taking hold of Sharp Dresser and pulling him through the mirror.

Had he been able to focus, he would have seen the one pair of glowing green eyes that weren’t mournful; they were wide with hunger.

“Sharp Dresser, you have a heart weak with pain. But fear not, my little pony. We will take your hate and despair for my cause. In exchange, we will see to it that you get your revenge. We shall fill your heart, and you shall be my slave.”

She didn’t know what to do.

It was in that moment of panic that Sweetie Belle, who had only ever had to deal with occasional mishaps at home and a few sticky situations with her friends, found herself in a life and death situation, with no grownup around to help her.

If she left, galloping out of the shop as fast as her small legs could take her, she could get help, but that meant leaving Diamond alone. The filly had been trying to talk, but her words came out like slurs, her tongue hanging out of her mouth like she couldn’t control it anymore. What had scared Sweetie most was watching Diamond’s glassy eyes close - maybe for the final time.

Sweetie had tried to keep Diamond awake, talking and even shouting at her to keep her eyes open, but the pink filly had stopped responding, looking blankly at Sweetie Belle like she didn’t recognize her. Every time Diamond had started to close her eyes, Sweetie would shake Diamond a little, trying to keep her awake. Her body felt slack, like she was dead weight. When it was clear Diamond Tiara wasn’t going to open her eyes again, Sweetie Belle set her bully to lay on her stomach on the floor.

What do I do?! What would Rarity do?! Diamond needs help, I’ve got to get her to somepony who can save her!

Sweetie Belle clung to that idea, using it to keep her as calm as she could manage. She would take Diamond Tiara to the nearest adult and get her help that way. She went to the filly and tried to lift her up, to carry Diamond on her back, but the other filly was too heavy for her. It didn’t help that Diamond was essentially dead weight and not helping in the least. Sweetie Belle would never make it far with Diamond Tiara loosely on her back.

She needed to be held on her back with magic.

Past failures were ignored as Sweetie Belle shut her eyes and focused her magic to her horn as fast and as strong as she could.

You have to work this time, horn. You HAVE to work!

There had been enough attempts were her magic had worked that Sweetie could recall how her magic felt to her, how to hold it, and she could feel her horn lighting up as she pointed it at Diamond Tiara. There some was something inside of filly that Sweetie’s magic could respond to.

Please, I just need a little more...

A lime green aura wrapped around the body of Diamond Tiara, but she wasn’t being lifted. Sweetie’s magic enveloped her completely, but the filly wouldn’t budge.

“Come on! Work!” Sweetie shouted, pulling more and more magic from inside her into her horn, making it glow brighter and hotter. The aura around the sick filly glowed stronger, and Sweetie could feel something for her magic to grab, but it felt small, too small to be Diamond Tiara.

The effort of using her magic in such an inexperienced way was draining Sweetie fast. She was forced to stop, opening her eyes and panting from realizing just how much effort she was blindly putting into trying a simple telekinesis spell. Her horn still glowed, Diamond was still wrapped in magic, it was all more than Sweetie Belle had even done with her horn before; it was all not good enough.

Maybe if... I touch her with my horn?

Maybe distance was all that mattered. There was something in Diamond she could take hold of with her magic, she had felt it. Stepping up closer to the filly, who was taking shallow breaths, Sweetie pressed her horn on Diamond Tiara’s head, pouring her magic into trying to lift the filly up.

She felt something then. Her eyes began to glow as they had with the gem-seeker spell, letting Sweetie Belle see past the pink coat and into Diamond Tiara. It wasn’t muscle and blood she saw but a light, trying to shine clear and bright inside of the filly but was clouded by inky clouds.

It was wrong. It was making Diamond Tiara sick, but Sweetie couldn’t name it nor could she name the light inside Diamond that was being choked. She saw how her magic was seeping into the light inside the filly’s body, helping it to shine. Her enchanted eyes showed that the brighter the light inside Diamond Tiara shined, the more the inky clouds around it were pushed back, or faded away altogether.

There was no telling what this meant, but in her own heart Sweetie Belle believed this would help. She focused her horn to keep pouring magic into the body of her bully, to take it all if it had to. Her magic was making that light inside Diamond bright as a candle flame, and brighter still as the inky clouds around it were pushed back, even when they seemed too thick and dark to be lit. The light was burning away whatever was trying to choke it; whatever Sweetie Belle was doing, it felt like it was working.

It was also hard. Just as it seemed like she could do this for as long as she needed to, Sweetie’s sight of the light in Diamond Tiara faded, and the enchantment on her eyes stopped. Her horn stopped glowing, and the white filly felt like her legs would give out from under her.

I can’t do it anymore... I don’t have enough magic. I should have... should have ran for help. I don’t even know what I’m doing.

She didn’t know, but it had felt right to her. Something inside Diamond Tiara was making her sick, and she swore that her magic was helping to fix that, burning up whatever those inky clouds inside of the filly were.

I need to try again. Maybe just a little more magic will help... it has to help.

There was no choice anymore. Sweetie Belle felt too weak to run out for help now. Her heart told her that whatever her magic had been doing, it was helping. She had no idea how it related to finding gems or lifting certain kinds of clothing, but it was helping.

She didn’t get the chance to start again as the room around her darkened, as if a cloud outside was blocking the sun. This darkness was unnatural though - it spread too fast and was just too dark to be only shadows. Sweetie watched in fear as those shadows blocked out the world from the windows. The shadows grew darker and thicker as they began pooling by the front door as if to block any pony getting in or out.

“What... what’s happening?” Sweetie asked, feeling something very wrong happening around her. She stood in front of the helpless Diamond Tiara, fear rooting her hooves to the floor.

Silently, the shadow of a pony pulled itself up from the floor, the darkness dripping slowly off it like oil as a green unicorn stallion in a fancy black jacket pulled himself up. His eyes were a sickly green as purple mist steaming from the corners. The red pits of his iris’ felt like they could burn as he glared at a terrified Sweetie Belle.

“Move,” he growled, and his horn fired a burst red magic at Sweetie. She screamed and held her front legs up to defend herself, but no pain ever came to her. What she felt was a sense of weightlessness as she realized she was floating off the ground, trapped in a bubble of red magic and slowly floating away from Diamond Tiara.

The unicorn paid her no mind as Sweetie started slamming her hooves on the magic holding her, trying to make her horn light up again.

“St-stop! Stay away from her!” she shouted with all the courage of a foal who was terrified. "Don't hurt her!"

Sharp Dresser ignored Sweetie as his magic pulled a nearby pillow. With a look of satisfaction on his face, he gave Diamond’s body a rough shove with his foreleg, making her lay on her side so that he could stand over her as he pushed the pillow over the filly’s face with both hooves.

“Should have done this from the beginning” he growled, pressing with the pillow as hard as he could.

“H-Help! Somepony HELP!” Sweetie kept slamming her hooves on the bubble she was trapped in; bucking it the way Applebloom had taught her to buck trees. For all her effort, she continued to float slowly away from a smothered Diamond Tiara, too weak and out of it to even put up a struggle.

The panic was blinding her with tears. She couldn’t do anything but watch as a strange pony with terrifying eyes suffocated the filly that used to consider her enemy. She might not have liked Diamond Tiara, but she never wanted to see anything bad happen to her. As bad as Diamond Tiara could be, never once did she ever think somepony could be so full of hate that they would try and kill her.

She tried to make her horn glow again, focusing on just making it light up as she reached out with her senses as she had done with the gem-seeker spell.

There was the blue chest with the Mare-Do-Well costumes inside it. She could feel the costumes responding to her magic as her horn lit up bright green. It wasn’t the chest itself that responded, but the costumes inside. Shutting her eyes, Sweetie Belle pulled with her magic as hard as she could, just as Rarity had tried to teach her before.

The chest flew off the shelf that Rarity had put it on, and slammed right into Sharp Dresser.

Sweetie opened her eyes to the sound of a loud crash and a scream from the stallion. The pillow he had been using fell away from Diamond’s face, but Sweetie couldn’t stop to see if the filly was still breathing or not as she fell back to the ground; the magic holding her had been broken.

She got up quickly, seeing Sharp Dresser try and do the same. From under his black mane, blood was flowing over one of his eyes. The chest had hit him perfectly, breaking his concentration on the magic that had trapped Sweetie Belle. Without wasting any time, she pointed her horn on the costumes that had spilled out around the stallion, fitting them in her magic, pouring out all she could.

The costumes floated up around Sharp Dresser as if there were ponies inside them. Three costumes in total surrounded the unicorn, and jumped on him before he could activate his horn. The spider silk outfits wrapped their sleeves around him tightly, the capes of the costumes cocooning him in material that, as Rarity had told her, was half as strong as steel. Even his face was covered as the stallion fell to the side, struggling on the floor.

Sweating, Sweetie Belle hurried to Diamond Tiara. She was using more magic than she ever realized she had inside her, and she wasn’t sure how long she could make it last. Her own only hope was to drag Diamond away and lock themselves in a room until Rarity could come back.

She grabbed Diamond by her shoulders, hooking her front legs under the pink filly’s and started to drag her away. Diamond was dead weight, but not totally dead yet. Sweetie only managed to get a few feet away when she saw the wrapped up bundle of the stallion start to smoke. She lost her balance and fell on her back, dropping Diamond Tiara as the unicorn stood up.

He was using his magic again, and had burned away some of the costumes. With an angry growl Sharp Dresser tore himself out of the ruined costumes. His horn was glowing as red as the blood on his face.

With one eye open and smoking, he yelled in animalistic rage and charged at Sweetie and Diamond. With her horn still glowing and her senses still open, she felt something inside of the stallion that felt loose, and she pointed her horn at him. It was either trust her horn, or risk being killed with Diamond.

Her horn shot out a beam of green light that pierced Sharp Dresser in the chest. Everything happened in that single instance. The possessed butler fell forward, his momentum making him roll forward until he was a short distance away from the fallen Diamond Tiara. Like her, he wasn’t moving anymore.

Floating above him was a black sphere, perfectly round and large as a heart. Sweetie’s green magic crackled around it, and though her horn had stopped glowing, she had no idea what her magic was doing.

The orb cracked, smoke billowing out of it as more cracks appeared and Sweetie’s magic grew dimmer. She saw her magic disappear completely, and the orb silently exploded, releasing a black mass of howling shadows that seemed too great to have fit inside the small orb.

She was trembling now. Her vision was becoming blurry and her legs felt weak. She wanted so badly to close her eyes and sleep as the growing darkness spun around her. She wanted to call for help, but she couldn’t move her mouth.

Gently, she felt herself being lifted once more. The spinning shadows coiled around her and cradled her the way she once had been cradled by her mother when she was just a baby. The feeling felt familiar and pleasant; making her want to sleep all the more.

The pony holding her was of course, not her mother. As the face began to take form, her fatigue was forgotten.

It was not a pony, at least no pony she had ever seen before. It was a he, that much she could be sure of. He was all around her, and suddenly she wasn’t sure if she was awake or dreaming, having a lucid nightmare. She tried to make her horn light up again, but there was no chance of that as the shadows engulfed her small horn, and the rest of her head and body, leaving only her face. It felt like being in the bathtub, but with cold and heavy water that made her feel like she was in something stickier and thicker than tree sap.

Her teeth began to shatter as the face in front of her took more shape. The teeth were the first things she noticed. They were sharp and long, and there were so many she couldn’t count them all. He had a mane that melted into the shadows. A horn that was long and curved, sharper than Rarity’s sewing needles. The eyes were red, the whites replaced with green and full of hate just like the stallion that had suddenly appeared in Rarity’s shop, but these eyes were different.

The hate was still there, and there was so much it that Sweetie Belle felt a wave of hopelessness flood over her.

She was going to die, the eyes told her so.

She would die never having gotten her cutie mark.

She would never see Rarity again. Her big sister would never know what happened to her.

Her friends would never know either. They would eventually move on and stop being friends without her.

She was going to be forgotten.

She never mattered.

“You never mattered.”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes never once blinked as they too started to change and smoke at the corners. But even as the transformation took place, she weakly spoke out.

“Liar.”

It was all the fight she had left in her. The face that stared her down smirked.

“So brave. So young. Too young for me?”

She could hear the voice in her mind, loud and deep. The monstrous pony face was considering something, its eyes still holding Sweetie’s.

“I can smell it on you. Harmony. You stink of it.”

The face growled, and the growl could be felt all the way in Sweetie’s bones.

“You've cost me a slave, my little pony. Shall you replace him? Is there room in your heart for me?"

Sweetie Belle could feel herself sinking. She was going away, and there was nothing she could do about it. The shadows were starting to rise to her cheeks.

What are you? Sweetie Belle thought, just as her eyes were covered in darkness. Her last conscious thoughts were filled with the monster pony’s voice in her head.

“Your king. The king of the shadows in your heart. Ssssombra…”