The Broken Carousel Part 2 [Rarity/Anon]


                                            >Ugh…

                                            >You cringe as sunlight sneaks in through the wooden planks covering the windows, and into your eyes.

                                            >You raise a hoof to cover your eyes, which that means you must still be Rarity.

                                            >Wait a minute.

                                            >This isn’t your bedroom or the bunker.

                                            >You’re in your living room, on the couch.

                                            >That’s when you remember what happened yesterday.

                                            >Anonymous convinced you to take a day off, and you spent it together eating ice cream and watching movies on that ‘portable DVD player’ of his until the sun went down.

                                            >He must have left alrea-

                                            >It is at that point a loud snore cuts through your internal monologue, and you become aware that there’s an arm around your barrel. A human arm.

                                            >You freeze up.

                                            >Darn it. The two of you must have fallen asleep. Now he’s CUDDLING you.

                                            >Your face scrunches up in annoyance, before sighing.

                                            >No, this is your fault Rarity. You should have told him to leave when you realized that the both of you were getting too tired to stay awake through the last movie.

                                            >You just have to wake him up. Although he may get the wrong idea if he wakes up as the big spoon to your little spoon…

                                            >No problem then. You just have to slip out of his grip and then wake him up.

                                            >You raise your hooves up and with a quiet grunt of effort, try to slip your way down out of his arms.

                                            >You make it half of the way there before his grip tightens, and Anonymous starts mumbling in his sleep.

                                            >”No, Mommy. I don’t want to go to school today...”

                                            >You roll your eyes.

                                            >Okay, that didn’t work.

                                            >You look around for something to use, and see an old throw-pillow on a chair.

                                            >Grabbing both it and Anonymous’s arm with your telekinesis, you slip out of the human’s grip and replace yourself with the pillow.

                                            >There, the perfect escape.

                                            >Now all you have to do is wake him up so he can leave.

                                            >Although he does look rather cute all curled up with a pillow on your coach.

                                            >....

                                            >M-Maybe you can let him sleep in a little longer?


                                            >You’ll eat breakfast, grab the newspaper, and then ask him to leave.

                                            >You should probably get him a blanket too.

                                            >Trotting over to the linen closet, you pull out an extra blanket and gently lay it on the sleeping human.

                                            >You whistle as you walk past Sweetie Belle’s empty bedroom.

                                            “Wait, what?”

                                            >You zip back to see the filly in question isn’t in her bed, causing alarm bells to go off inside your head.

                                            >Where was she? You remember taking her to school, watching movies with Anonymous...

                                            >Wait.

                                            >DID YOU EVEN PICK HER UP FROM SCHOOL YESTERDAY?!

                                            >OH CELESTIA, HOW COULD YOU SCREW UP SO BADLY?!

                                            “Oh dear, oh my, oh dear.”

                                            >You need to find her.

                                            >Running back towards your front door, you open it with your telekinesis and zip out.

                                            >*SLAM!*

                                            >You turn your head left and right, but after slamming the door open you hear what sounds like… paper, falling in the wind.

                                            >You look behind you to see a piece of paper falling off the door.

                                            >Grabbing it with your telekinesis, you bring it to your eyes to see that it’s a note.

                                            >In Sweetie Belle’s hoof-writing.

                                            >’Dear Rarity, I’m staying at Mom and Dad’s house so don’t worry. I saw you were busy with Mister Anon when I walked back from school, and I didn’t want to bother you. I’m so happy you’re having fun again! Love, Sweetie Belle.’

                                            >You exhale a breath you didn’t know you had been even holding, and walk back in the house.

                                            >It’s okay, she’s with Mom and Dad.

                                            >Still though, you feel guilty about just completely forgetting her like that.

                                            >You certainly owe your sister an apology.

                                            >Maybe you’ll ask Anonymous if he’ll let Sweetie use that DVD player device? He did say all the movies he brought were meant for children.

                                            >You had a feeling she’d like them. Especially that ‘Frozen’ one.

                                            >With that settled, you made your way back to your kitchen table for breakfast.

                                            >You grab a box of oat rations from the cabinet, a bowl, a spoon, and sit down.


                                            >Now that you’ve satisfied Anonymous and your family for the time being, you can get back to work.

                                            >You were running low on money, so it’s time to start digging for gems on the outskirts of town again…

                                            >Those usually went for a good amount of bits.

                                            >Depending on how many gems you can find today, you might be able to avoid doing it again for a whole month.

                                            >From there you’d be able to purchase enough oat rations, which when added to your current supply, would be able to last you and your family for about four years.

                                            >Which wasn’t good enough. What if the war lasted a decade or longer? That’s what you were aiming to prepare for. The absolute worst case scenario.

                                            >As you dwell on that possibility, you can’t help but want to add Anonymous to that list.

                                            >You don’t want him to die. But then again you don’t really want anyone to die when war comes to Equestria again.

                                            >It’s just an inevitable truth. Death is a part of War.

                                            >You were only one mare, and you could only save so many ponies.

                                            >It’s taking so much effort just to plan for yourself, Sweetie, Mother, and Father.

                                            >Adding Anonymous would make that much  more difficult. He’s bigger than any pony you’ve ever seen aside from the Princesses so he’d need to eat more, and you don’t even know what humans need to eat in order to remain healthy!

                                            >You knew he ate meat based on his teeth, and you ate ice cream with him all day yesterday, but that’s about it.

                                            >Yet… the idea of leaving him out to possibly die in the horrors of war provokes a feeling of revulsion in yourself almost on par with the idea of leaving your family’s survival to chance.

                                            >*KNOCK* *KNOCK*

                                            >Your eyes perk up.

                                            >Someone’s at the door? Maybe your parents have come to bring over Sweetie?

                                            >You get up from the table and trot over to the front door.

                                            >You open it, and instead of the familiar visage of your parents you see an unfamiliar scowling pegasus with a short mane.


                                            >You blink in confusion.

                                            “Um, hello?”

                                            >”Is Anon here?” she asks.

                                            >Rude. Well two can play that game.

                                            “Why do you want to know?”

                                            >”Because he’s an hour late for work and Applejack sent me to see what’s taking him”

                                            “And why do you think I’D know where he is?”

                                            >The pegasus looks at you like you’re an idiot.

                                            >Well buck you too, then.

                                            >”He’s YOUR alien coltfriend. Shouldn’t you know where he is?”

                                            >Wait what.

                                            “Anonymous and I are NOT dating!” you shout, growling.

                                            >She rolls her eyes, “Yeah, and I don’t have wings. He comes here practically every day after work, and I’m sure it’s not to buy dresses. Yesterday, ponies see him enter but nopony sees him leave. See where I’m coming from?”

                                            ”We’re not!”

                                            >She waves her hoof at you dismissively, ”Look, it’s understandable that you’re having second thoughts about a relationship after the probably unsatisfying sex you two had last night. But he needs to clock in before he gets fired. Not that it’s my problem or anything.”

                                            >You’ve decided that you don’t like this mare.

                                            “You must be an absolute joy at parties, dear.” you deadpan.

                                            >The pegasus snorts, “Oh like you’d know, Miss Paranoid Shut-In.”

                                            >You gasp.

                                            >Oh. IT. IS. ON.

                                            “You know I’m surprised Applejack was willing to hire somepony as abrasive as you! Crude she may be, I do know she has a low tolerance for ponies with poor attitudes!”

                                            >The stranger growls back at you, “I have a job because I’m GOOD at what I do!”

                                            “And if that’s supposed to be making ponies dislike you, then congratulations! I’d say you’re doing a pretty good job of it!”

                                            >”Says the mediocre ex-dressmaker!”

                                            >HOW DARE SHE?!

                                            “MEDIOCRE?!”

                                            >”YOU HEARD ME!”

                                            >If your designs were mediocre, why would that WHORSE Suri Polomare bother to steal them in the first place?!

                                            >”Hmm…. Jesus Christ, what’s with all the noise?” a sleepy male voice interrupts.


                                            >You turn around to see Anonymous rubbing his eyes as he gets up off your couch.

                                            >The human looks at you, and then at the mare in the door with a surprised expression on his face.

                                            >”Wait, Fluttershy? What are you doing here?”

                                            >The now-named Fluttershy sighs in relief, “Finally! You’re late for work you dingus!”

                                            >The human looks confused, then looks down at his wristwatch.

                                            >His eyes go wide, “FUCK! I have to go!”

                                            >He runs right past you, the yellow pegasus, and out the door.

                                            >”Sorry Rarity! I’ll see you later but I have to make sure I don’t get fired! BYE!” he says as he leaves.

                                            >The pegasus rolls her eyes at him, turns to look at you, and blows a raspberry.

                                            >*SLAM!*

                                            >’I really should have done that earlier’ You think to yourself, ignoring the mare’s exclamations of pain at the door hitting her tongue.

                                            >You walk back over to your kitchen table to finish breakfast.

                                            >Well, you were going to, but then you noticed that Anonymous had left his stuff here.

                                            >Eh. He’ll return for it when he gets off work.

                                            >Right now you just want to eat in peace, then get back to work.

                                            >You are Applejack.

                                            >You sigh as you watch the clock tick down.

                                            >You hold a clipboard in one hoof as you wait for that latecomer of yours to show up.

                                            >It would be a shame to fire Anon. He was almost as good at wrangling the animals as Fluttershy.

                                            >He was also the only employee willing to put up with the pegasus’s poor attitude for long periods of time.

                                            >You stand right at the entrance to the farm, your non-occupied foreleg tapping on the ground.

                                            >You look back at the buildings, and the smoke coming from them, and you wonder what your parents or Granny would think of the place now.

                                            >Just as you have for the past few years

                                            >You and Big Mac alone couldn’t keep up with the demand for canned foods during the war. You tried, and you both nearly worked yourselves into an early grave.


                                            >So you expanded, but home rapidly started to feel less like home and more like a prison.

                                            >You wanted to shrink back down after it ended, but jobs in Ponyville were scarce now.

                                            >You weren’t about to leave good ponies unable to pay bills, but you hated how everything was now.

                                            >All that smoke being put into the air, it just wasn’t good for the environment.

                                            >Especially the apples.

                                            >You might as well just call this place ‘Sour Apple Acres’ now…

                                            >You shook your head.

                                            >Then there was that weird purple alicorn you met about a year ago who said that this all wasn’t supposed to be how it happened.

                                            >That some unicorn named Starfright Grimming or whatever traveled back in time and changed the past, like in one of Big Mac’s fancy science fiction stories.

                                            >She said she’d fix it, but… Everything still sucks.

                                            >Too good to be true, you suppose..

                                            >”WAIT! Wait!”

                                            >You look up to see none other than Anon running towards you, his work uniform hastily put on. Fluttershy was trailing right behind him in the air, looking amused.

                                            >He skids to a halt right in front of you, bending over and panting from the exhaustion.

                                            >”I’m… sorry, Boss. I lost track of time.”

                                            >You roll your eyes.

                                            “Get in here. Just don’t let happen again, ya hear?”

                                            >He stands up straight and nods, “Yes ma’am.”

                                            >Anon walks into the farm, Fluttershy behind him, and you behind the both of them. You place the clipboard back into your saddlebags, and close the gate.


                                            >You are Anonymous, livestock handler

                                            >Or at least that’s your official title.

                                            >In actuality you’re more like Fluttershy’s assistant-slash-handler.

                                            >Considering no one else who’s been stuck with her has been able to deal with her for very long.

                                            >Thankfully, that’s one of the traits that’s kept you from being jobless. Although you weren’t keen on testing Applejack’s patience again.

                                            >You probably should have brought your alarm clock with you to the Carousel Boutique, but you honestly hadn’t expected or intended to fall asleep there.

                                            >You and Fluttershy walk over to the chicken coops.

                                            >”I’m curious. How’d you get the shut-in to take a day off? Your dick can’t be THAT good.” the pegasus casually asks.

                                            >You roll your eyes.

                                            “Sex did not happen.”

                                            >”Obviously. If it did, she would have kicked you out before sunrise.”

                                            “I got her to take a day off because she’s an overworked emotional wreck and I used the fact that she still actually likes making dresses deep down against her.”

                                            >Honestly? You didn’t see what the issue with Fluttershy was. Sure she was an abrasive bitch, no doubt about that. But you could tell that most of the time she doesn’t really mean all the insults she spouts. That just seems to be how she’s used to interacting with other people.

                                            >You didn’t think she was a bad person, or rather pony, by any means. Especially after seeing how she handles the animals…

                                            >The two of you reach the entrance to the first coop, and grab the baskets for the eggs sitting outside.

                                            >Fluttershy goes in first, and you never get tired of what you see next.

                                            >It’s as if her entire demeanor changes. The near constant scowl turns into a joyful smile, her hard glaring eyes soften with kindness, and her body just seems to relax in its entirety.

                                            >”Good morning, ladies!” she chirps.

                                            >The hens all cluck back to her in greeting.


                                            >She flits between each hen on the left side, politely asking to look under their rear ends and take the eggs they’ve laid today.

                                            >Meanwhile you get started on the right side of the coop, starting with a dark brown hen on the top row.

                                            >You smile.

                                            “Good morning, Ophelia. Mind if I take a look?”

                                            >The hen gives an affirmative cluck and moves out of the way for you to grab her eggs.

                                            >You like working with livestock more on Equestria now than you did on Earth at your cousins’ farm during the summers.

                                            >You can actually afford to get attached to the animals, seeing as ponies are herbivores so none of them are on the menu in the near future.

                                            >Although that does make you sad for a moment. There’s going to be a small human population in Equestria, albeit slow growing, because of the Initiative.

                                            >Humans who will want to eat meat. So Equestrian farmers will have to change the way they do things to accommodate.

                                            >Then there’s the fact that humans can apparently reproduce with ponies. Or at least that’s what you were told in the Crystal Empire.

                                            >They said the result would just be a  normal pony foal with human dietary needs. Odd but they’ve clearly done the research so you’re not going to question it too much.

                                            >But that means there’s going to be ponies who will need to eat meat as well. It’s not like they can just import it all from Griffonstone.

                                            >Well at least that’s a few years away. For now, all you need to worry about is making your next paycheck and Rarity.

                                            >Speaking of whom, you had another idea on how to help her.

                                            >She mentioned how she used to enjoy going to the spa. Except the spa was destroyed when Sombra’s forces passed through Ponyville, and Aloe lost her sister.

                                            >The same Aloe who now worked inside the buildings canning apples…

                                            >Well at least you know why she looks depressed all the time. Or at least, more depressed than most ponies in this town.


                                            >You’ll ask her after work ends for today. Maybe she’d be willing to teach you a couple of things on your off time?

                                            >You won’t know unless you ask.

                                            >”Hey Anon?”

                                            >You turn over to see Fluttershy looking at you with curiosity plain on her face.

                                            “Yeah?”

                                            >”Err, not that I care or anything, but why do you care so much about Rarity? She continuously friendzones you and it’s not like you’ve known her for very long.”

                                            >You take a moment to think about it.

                                            “Well, I guess it’s a number of things. Princess Cadance said the Crystal Heart matched me with her, so part of it is me wanting to see if it’s full of shit or not. Now that I’ve gotten to meet her, there’s this connection drawing me to her I can’t quite understand. I know she feels it to, otherwise she wouldn’t let me in her house everyday and sometimes I can see how much it eats at her to deny it.”

                                            >You grab another batch of eggs from underneath another hen.

                                            “Another thing is that I’ve seen examples of her design work. Mostly pictures, but even I can tell it’s amazing when I still don’t know what qualifies as ‘fashionable’ for you ponies yet. I’m an artist too, so it’d be horrible to just deprive the world of something beautiful like that, y’know?”

                                            >Fluttershy looks contemplative.

                                            “Lastly, do you need a reason to help someone who so clearly needs it?”

                                            >”Even if all they do is smack your hoof away?” she deadpans.

                                            >You shrug.

                                            “She has PTSD and is SO convinced that another war is coming that she needs to do everything she can to prepare for it and she can save her loved ones. She’s not really in the right state of mind.”

                                            >She looks at you a moment, as if gauging the weight of your words.

                                            >”I guess that makes sense. Still sounds stupid to me. A lot of work for no immediate payoff.”

                                            >You grin.

                                            “Princess Cadance told me it’d take a while for her to open up, and I accepted anyway. So yeah, I guess I’m stupid.”

                                            >She snorts, “At least you admit it.”

                                            “You’re the one who asked.”

                                            >”Whatever.” and she goes back to tending to the hens.

                                            >Although that does make you think.

                                            >You wonder what Rarity is up to now.

                                            “HNNNNG!”


                                            >You are Rarity.

                                            >You grunt in exertion, pulling the cart behind you as you finally reach your destination.

                                            >You sigh in relief, removing the harness keeping you tethered to what would hold today’s haul.

                                            >Your horn lights up, indicating that you’ve reached the right spot.

                                            >Perfect.

                                            >You reach into your saddlebags, taking out an axe pick, and get to work.

                                            >Now, everything is back on schedule.

                                            >All you need to think about it is digging.

                                            >That way you have enough gems to pay for everything you need in the bunker.

                                            >Truth be told, you were amazed when you stumbled upon an entire mining operation hidden underneath the outskirts of Ponyville.

                                            >Apparently, a small group of Diamond Dogs had set up an illegal mining operation here before the war.

                                            >They had started kidnapping ponies from the town to serve as a slave workforce, until the Royal Guard was called in to deal with the problem. The Diamond Dogs had been driven out, but most of their mining equipment was still here.

                                            >Probably because the war was a more immediate concern when the Crystal Empire returned...

                                            >So when you found this place, it was relatively easy to navigate and find a place to start digging.

                                            >You just had to reignite the torches with your magic, use your gem finding spell, and pull one of the carts strewn about to where your horn led you.

                                            >It was long, hard, and exhausting physical labor.

                                            >The kind you would have been aghast at having to do prior to the war.

                                            >But well… times change, and so have you.


                                            >Your family tried to convince you that this was dangerous, and you agreed that it definitely is.

                                            >You were alone the dark, dank underground without a mining crew to assist. If there was a cave in, you had no way to contact anypony topside.

                                            >That is, if you even IN the condition to try contacting somepony.

                                            >Of course, that’s why you’re careful. You developed a variation on your gem finding spell that allowed you to detect how stability the rocks within your immediate area are.

                                            >This allows you to avoid unstable areas that would collapse if you tried digging near them. Naturally, that wasn’t enough for them. You were still alone down here.

                                            >Now that you think about it, Anonymous would probably help you. Just the two of you down here, the troubles of the outside world completely forgotten as you both toiled the day away.

                                            >The two of you would get hot and sweaty from the work… Then for stress relief, the two of you could-

                                            >You feel the heat rise to your face, and shake your head.

                                            >No.

                                            >No. That’s not happening. It’s never happening. It can’t happen.

                                            >Dear Celestia, when did sweaty sex inside a dirty abandoned mine become one of your sexual fantasies?

                                            >What happened to a candlelit dinner after a night on the town ended with an intimate embrace in the bedroom?

                                            >N-Not that would you do that with Anonymous either.

                                            >You grunt in frustration, ramming your pickaxe downwards with your magic.

                                            >*KK-DING!*

                                            >Your eyes perk up. Well that’s certainly a good sound.

                                            >Throwing the pickaxe back into the cart, you pull out your shovel and start digging.

                                            >Soon enough, you come upon a small deposit. of hidden treasures. Gemstones.

                                            >Rubies, Sapphires, Emeralds, and even one or two Amethysts~!

                                            >A grin pulls at the corners of your mouth.

                                            >You may not make dresses anymore, but finding gems always brings a smile to your face.

                                            >It’s how you got your cutie mark after all.


                                            >You didn’t understand it at first. Why your horn had dragged you all the way to the middle of nowhere right in front of a giant rock.

                                            >You got angry at all the time spent following your magic had lead to this.

                                            >So admittedly, you got into a rather un-ladylike mood.

                                            >You screamed in frustration and started tossing smaller rocks at the large rock you had been brought to.

                                            >One of them made a large enough crack for you to see what lie inside.

                                            >Gemstones, hundreds of them.

                                            >They were absolutely perfect and were exactly what you needed to spruce up the costumes for the play that night.

                                            >You weren’t able to get all of them of course. You tried to enlarge the crack with more rocks but time was of the essence. You managed to grab enough of them though.

                                            >You pull the gemstones out of the ground and toss them into the cart.

                                            >You are Rarity, and your special talent is finding beauty.

                                            >You previously chose to apply that to a life of fashion.

                                            >But even down here in the dark, there are still beautiful things to be found.

                                            >You just have to look hard enough.