Fallen Generosity: Chapter 3.2: Finality

The Nightmare of Generosity gave a snarl at the sight. “You! Now it all makes sense! You would be this selfish as to sabotage my perfect world!”

The gray Rarity shook her head. “Not selfish. While to call me Rarigreed is far from wrong, it is not all I am, she is me but I am not her. Nor is our avarice all I represent.”

“You're a greedy selfish parasite!” the Nightmare snarled, firing a beam of perfection at her. The mare merely sat and allowed it to wash over her like it might as well not have existed, causing the Extreme of Generosity to gasp in shock. “But...how...”

Rarigreed gave a knowing chuckle. “Because you can push me as deeply as you like into our shadow, but by merely desiring to be rid of me, you make yourself unable to do so.”

“How?!”

The gray mare put a hoof down and picked up bits, letting them run off her leg and into the pile. “These bits?” she asked. “They're the ones we've earned throughout our life...”

Stepping down from her throne, Rarigreed pointed to the carpets. “The carpets? Every roll of fabric we've ever desired.” The gray mare's hoof moved to the walls of the castle. “These walls? Every gem or stone that we've ever possessed or acquired, or desired to.”

“I didn't want those rocks! Discord made me want them!” Charity exclaimed in disgust.

“And the rocks we've dug out of the ground searching for diamonds? All the rocks we busted open to find the jewels nestled inside?” Rarigreed questioned, snatching a rock from the castle wall and smashing it open to reveal the inside was lined with gems. “Those rocks that you want to reach in a hole because our gem finding spell let's you know that on the other side of it lay a clutch of jewels?”

“Stop talking nonsense! Why are you here?!” Charity snarled, as if the being in front of her was an insult. “Greed is a flaw and perfection has none! You shouldn't be able to be here!”

“Oh Rarity, you misunderstand me,” the mare said, putting a hoof on one of the pictures lining the hall. “To be perfect is indeed to be without flaw...but something that desires nothing can do nothing.” Desire suddenly turned to give a furious look to the Nightmare. “Which is a flaw I've noticed in your world. You've made ponies desire nothing and stagnated everything.”

“Ponies want for nothing! I fail to see how that could possibly be wrong!” Generosity replied.

“Yes, they want for nothing, but they also don't want to do anything!” was the mare's rebuttal. “And if no one wants to do anything, no one LIVES!”

“There's nothing that can take their lives! Not monsters, not murderers, not predators, not even each other! And not even age! This world is one were everyone can live without fear of dying!”

“While nothing wants to hurt anypony, no big sister wants to play games with her little sister. No father wants to play catch with his colt. No artist wants to paint, no writer wants to write, no inventor wants to invent, no ruler wants to rule. Not even the birds want to fly! All they want to do is stand around and look pretty! Life is motion! Life is doing what you love! Life is doing! Not just being! There's a difference between living and just not dying!”

Charity looked like her head was beginning to hurt. Out of one of the windows, her territory began to crack a little bit more.

Rarigreed pointed to Princess Rarity. “Her world was one where no pony wanted for anything. But they still wanted things. They still lived! They still desired!”

Charity snarled. “I fail to see the difference between want and desire!”

“There isn't, there's a difference between being in need and desire. You mistake one for the other,” Rarigreed replied. “To need is to require something. To be in a situation were having or not having that thing is the difference between living and dying. To desire is to want more than you have. To want to be more than you are. To rise. To thrive. Desire is the fire of life, and you're snuffing it out!”

The mare trotted forwards, looking Charity in the eye. “And that's why you can't be rid of me, darling. I AM your greed, your vice, your avarice...but I'm also your desire. And without desire, you'd be as frozen as the rest of your world. Anything trying to do something needs desire. Without desire, you can't desire to give. Of course you already know that, don't you?”

Charity shook her head frantically. “You're...you're just some remnant of Discord's magic! That's it...you...you're just trying to trick me!”

“The Elements purged that from us, remember?” Rarigreed asked. “The one thing we've ever lost I'm willing to let go of.”

“Rarity,” said Melody. “Rarigreed is part of us, just like me and Princess Rarity.”

“And she's right!” exclaimed Princess Rarity. “In my world, we still wanted things. We still wanted friends...in your world no pony wants anything...and that just isn't right.”

“And...” Rarigreed started. “If I was really Discord's magic and nothing more, why can't you think of something to counter what I'm saying?”

The mare held her head like it was about to explode, her very being seeming to become unstable. “Because...because...because you're a liar!”

The Nightmare gave a roar of rage, sending off a shockwave to knock Melody and Princess Rarity back, Rarigreed simply holding her ground. The soulscape once again shook with a tremor and the main island grew more distant.

“Because you're a liar that's tricked these other two pieces of my soul! That's it...I can't argue with you because you're lying and there's no sense at all in what you're saying,” Nightmare Charity spat...but her voice cracking and the tears starting up in her eyes told another story. She flew forwards and tried to grab Princess Rarity and Melody. “Come to me and I'll make you perfect! I'll make everything perfect! Then we can deal with this liar in our soul!”

The two's eyes went wide as she nearly grabbed and consumed them.

Rarigreed leapt forwards and caught the mare's horn, planting her hooves into the ground and holding her back. “You're a zealot right now, Rarity. Zealots respond to having their beliefs undermined with rage...but you're not quite as much of as one as you wish you were...”

“Does being a zealot mean I'm the villain? Is not one full of zeal for the right thing considered a hero?” the Nightmare replied, pushing back against the part of herself but the two seemed at a stalemate.

“Indeed, but the problem with a zealot is they refuse to admit when they're not!”

The other two embodiments of Rarity's soul rushed to a door and opened it, Rarigreed leaping back and following them. This time, the personification of their desire took to blocking her corrupted self's attacks due to her immunity.

“Where are you going?!” the Nightmare cried, tears still streaming down her face.

“Somewhere you know very well!”

Finally, the group burst through a large pair of doors into a massive ball room. One that put the Gala room at Canterlot castle to shame.

“Oh welcome back, my lady!” called a picture perfect representation of Prince Blueblood, kneeling and kissing Charity's hoof.

“I thought she couldn't make anything here perfect...” Princess Rarity stated, rubbing her head.

“She can't, but he's always been like that,” Rarigreed replied. “We kept him around because deep down always desired him to be like that instead of what we truly saw...but that's not the important factor here.”

The personification of their desire looked to Nightmare Charity. “Recognize this place, Rarity?”

The Nightmare looked around. “This was...”

“Our little secret gala?” Rarigreed asked.

The ball room transformed into another memory projection, this time of a waltz, one composed of so many ponies. Or so it seemed. It was difficult to tell if they were countless ghosts or memories dancing in an endless waltz.

“Our Gala...” Charity said under her breath, giving a gasp.

“So you do...” Rarigreed gave a chuckle. “The others believed they were simply Golems...never knowing they were souls who desired to be a part of our endless dance...”

“We...we kidnapped them...” stuttered Charity.

“Really? That's not how I remember it, and I'm you,” the personification replied. “We only realized it afterward, of course, but some of those souls stayed with us to be voices of reason in our ear. Others so they could watch one of the others. Still others for immortality. But all the same, none of them were forced to come or forced to stay.”

Charity found herself questioning if the memories were looking at her. “That...that can't be right...we were walking greed...we never would have...”

“Don't you get it? Even when you were Discord's perverted version of me, we let souls join our endless waltz. Join us in OUR fantasy. Even when we were greedy, we SHARED even if we never GAVE! That's the paradox of us: generosity existed in us at our most greedy and greed existed in us when we were the most generous! And that little strength is OURS AND OURS ALONE!” the mare chuckled, looking at the necklace around her neck. “And that's why you couldn't become a pure Nightmare. Because greed will never let something go.”

“I'm...I'm letting nothing go...”

Rarigreed gave a sad laugh. “You're throwing away all of ourself. Everything but the the part of us that is the Nightmare's heart. You're throwing away our friends and who they really are!”

“I'm saving them!”

The gray mare snarled. “Oh yes, from physical harm. But how are you saving Rainbow Dash by making her not want to fly? Saving Pinkie Pie from not wanting to throw her parties? Or how about saving Fluttershy from wanting to spend her days frolicking with her animals? Those are the things they truly desire!”

“And how would you know, you selfish thing?!” Charity snarled.

Rarigreed focused, her horn glowing and one of the orbs composing the outer walls, this particular one being blue in color. Inside was was an imagine of the six of them standing in the library, the books having been freshly toppled over by Rainbow crash landing into it. “Because we have memories of them. Memories of the real them...memories of who they truly are. Memories of their dreams. And in the name of your 'perfect world' you're throwing all of that away! And I'm not going to allow it!”

“They...I...”

The Nightmare held her head, a crack ringing out as her face seemed to briefly break apart like her very form was breaking up. She pulled herself back together, but what seemed to be two long tear lines going down her face remained. Tremors rang out and Charity's portion of the soul grew still more distant. “They didn't know what they really wanted! Their desires were tainted by imperfection, just like them!”

“You know for a fact that's a lie, they were our friends and flawed or not we'd never want them any other way! They were-”

“MINE</b></u>!”

The trio of pieces of her soul seemed to say the last word at the exact same time. It was less like in those alien invasions and more like...their voices each formed part of a single voice rather than being said at the same time. One that was so familiar.

“...Rarity, we don't want to throw away our friends.”

“Well I don't want to ever lose them! And they don't want to ever lose me!”Charity yelled back, firing a perfection beam at the group which Rarigreed blocked, teleporting the memory sphere away. “I don't want anypony to lose anything ever again!”

Rarigreed gave a snarl. “...Looks like we'll need to pull out our last trump card, darlings.”

The three aspects of Rarity's personality nodded and took off out the rear door of the castle.

The Nightmare burst through the door after them, engulfed by a glimmering sphere of perfection magic. The beautiful magic spread over and began pulsing off her in waves, each one requiring either magical song or rainbow to punch a hole through it as it came.

Running (or rollerskating) as fast as their legs could carry them, the personifications of Rarity's mind made a fighting retreat towards the final untouched section of the soul, the second landmass that had been behind Desire's territory.

As it had been with Princess Rarity and Melody's sections of the spirit, Rarigreed's blended seamlessly into this new area. It seemed to have a dark shade to everything, dark clouds that seemed backed by a silver glow hung above, between the maelstrom of darkness and the land below. The trees were all broken and seemed to droop towards the ground, but still had leaves and still seemed to be growing.

The primary structure of the section of the soul was what seemed to be a castle...but one that made Nightmare Charity shudder looking at. It was far from perfect...it looked like a little foal's first drawing of a castle made real. Grainy color, with bare white bricks in places, one side uneven with the other. Even the drawbridge came short to crossing the moat, as if it'd been made with no thought as to them matching up or aligning when actually lowered. Which became a problem when the trio of embodiments of Rarity's soul reached it and had to make a running jump just to make it in, narrowly evading one of the Nightmare's beams.

Following into the duo into the castle, the Nightmare noticed the walls were lined with pictures, but they were strange. They were all of the exact same subject, the exact same thing. Of the three blue diamonds she possessed for a Cutie Mark. But the first picture, greeting new arrivals at the door, was like the castle itself: as if the first drawing of a filly. However, the next was slightly improved. And so on with the next. As if each new picture had been produced via trial and error learning from the previous attempt's failings. Never quite reaching perfection, but growing closer with each picture...until the last one, which seemed to regress and become an overly shaded mess.

Finally, the trio of portions of her soul burst through a door and came to a stop, the Nightmare soon joining them and charging her horn...only to notice something.

The chamber they'd now entered was less a chamber and more a museum hall. Portraits and statues  lining it, all of Rarity herself...but...something was...

“Hello, Rarity...”

Landing, Nightmare Charity's eyes fell on a solemn looking version of herself. The Rarity's mane was ragged, like she'd been working herself ragged. She wore the glasses Rarity dawned while sewing, her tape measure hanging loosely from her neck.

“...Who are you?”

“I'm Failings, our Failings,” explained the mare. Her tone wasn't grim, or chastising. It was...learned. Mature.

The Perfect Generosity took a subconscious step backwards. “Failings? Well that's not possible, I'm Perfection, I can't have failings!”

Failings gave a sad chuckle. “Everypony has failings...Without them, we wouldn't be us...that's why I'm still here...”

“Because we don't want to let go of who we truly are,” Rarigreed replied, she and the other two taking a step back to allow the new Rarity to speak.

“I...I am Rarity! So therefore that must be a lie!” Charity argued back.

Failings trotted over to one of the pictures. “Look.”

The Nightmare of Boundless Generosity blinked, looking at the picture. It was of their first, lacking fruit costumes from that day. “...They're missing the gems...”

The solemn Rarity nodded slowly. “Because that was their failing. The failing that we were lamenting and so strongly desired to fix when our feelings triggered the magic surge that drug us across the country to where we witnessed Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom and realized our destiny. Had we not realized we'd fallen short the first time, that magic surge would never have happened.”

“I...I might have gotten my Cutie Mark if they'd been perfect!”

“I doubt it,” Failings replied. “Because our talent is to bring out the beauty in anything...and had we never seen that rock shatter to reveal the beauty inside, how would we have discovered it?”

Once more, her voice wasn't chastising or cruel. It was like a teacher instructing a pupil...or a big sister instructing a little one?

Failings trotted over to another picture. This one of a young filly Rarity sitting upset with a football next to her. “And this one is our failings at being the athlete father wanted.”

“I never wanted that!”

“Yes, but like any foal, we desired to live up to father's expectations,” Failings recited calmly. “But we could never live up to them...but was that a bad thing?”

“I...” Charity froze up, shuddering.

“There is the major failing in your logic: to be perfect, at least your definition of it, one will always live up to expectations...but to have lived up to father's would have been to pursue his dream, not ours. We could have been the best athlete that has ever been, but we'd not have been happy. To fail was to not live up to father's expectations...but to live up to them would have been to live a dream we never wanted. And that would have only driven a bigger and bigger wedge between the two of us...we'd have lived a life of resenting father for forcing that on us.”

Charity held her head. “No...I'd...I should have tried harder! Ponies should go to any lengths for another!”

“...Determination for the right reasons is a virtue...but determination for the wrong ones is a failing,” Failings replied, trotting over to another picture. This one of the rest of their friends standing in the atrocious dresses she'd been so determined to make absolutely perfect by her friend's standards instead of her own. “...We were so determined to live up to our friend's expectations that we failed to live up to our own...”

“And what should I have done? Throw away their desires for mine?!” asked Charity snarled.

“No. But we should not have thrown away ours for theirs,” Rarigreed replied, stepping forwards.

“...We had to find balance, which we ultimately did,” Failings explained. “But we had to learn that lesson...and that, Rarity, is why you can't get rid of me.”

The embodiment of Rarity's failings trotted up to her. “Because our failings are ultimately what made us who we are. To discard them would be to throw away the heat and pressure that turned the lump of coal into the diamond. When we face our failings and learn from them, we learn not to repeat them. Failures aren't just mistakes...they're chances to refine ourselves. To become one step better than we were...but should we refuse to face those failures...we take four steps back instead. As we have as of late.”

Charity's form shuddered...but her face contorted in rage, the tremors increasing and the now extremely distant portion of the soul the Nightmare ruled growing more and more distant and difficult to see. “Four steps back?! How is turning the world into a paradise four steps back? How can it be a failure? How can I be failing when I'm just trying to make up for failing HER!”

The room suddenly fell as silent as a graveyard. Nightmare Charity looked like the words she'd spoken had caused Luna's moon to fall from orbit. The shaking stopped in it's tracks, the realms growing more and more distant stopping like the breaks had been hit. Tears hit the floor around the Nightmare's hooves. “...I'm just...trying to be the big sister for the whole world I couldn't be for...for Sweetie Belle...”

“...Rarity, look around at the pictures...” Melody asked.

The Nightmare numbly looked around the chamber. Eyes going from one picture to another.

There were pictures involving Sweetie Belle...pictures representing times she'd not lived up to being a good sister...but...

“...No picture of me losing her...”

“...These are our genuine failings...” Failings replied, giving a sad smile. “The ones we needed to learn from...we did fall short of being a perfect big sister...but we did not fail to save Sweetie Belle...Discord turned us into a monster, we resisted it while the others could not. We've heard their stories...you don't blame yourself...”

“...Who else can I blame?” Charity asked.

“You already know the answer to that, Rarity...if you didn't, we wouldn't,” Melody pointed out.

“Yeah! We're you!” Princess Rarity pointed out, smiling.

Charity's eyes went around the room, looking from one part of herself to another. Briefly, in Melody's place stood a teenaged version of Rarity, one right at the point of beginning to mature into a mare, and in Princess Rarity's, Rarity herself as a small filly.

Cracking began to sound. The light slowly faded from around Charity, revealing that beneath it her skin was not normal pony fur. It was porcelain, the 'tear lines' down her cheeks cracks straight through it. And it was cracking. Outside, Nightmare Charity's portion of the soul grew larger and closer.

“...Discord was to blame...not me...and he's sorry for it...this isn't guilt...it's pain...”

Melody nodded. “And?”

“...I did fail to be a good sister...because...it was always what I wanted and never thought about what Sweetie Belle wanted...”

The Nightmare's face cracked, falling away and shattering to bits on the ground to reveal a mare with tear stained cheeks and bloodshot eyes beneath.

“...And...I never learned from that...” Charity admitted, tears dripping down her face and landing on her shattered porcelain mask, her body continuing to crack apart. “...Instead of accepting why I'd fallen short and growing...I clung to it and made it worse...Deep down I knew it was wrong...”

“I knew that making everything the same would devalue it,” Melody said along side Charity, their voices becoming one as they spoke.

“I knew that with everything frozen, no one could know the joy of making friends, no 'happy accidents' could ever happen again,”  Princess Rarity continued, joining the single voice.

“I knew I was throwing away everything that made me me...and everything that made my friends my friends. That I was throwing away my friends for identical glass statues...” Rarigreed joined the single voice.

“And I knew by throwing away my past failings...I'd throw away half of what made me me...” Failings finished, their united voice sounding like one. Sounding like Rarity.

“That I wasn't perfect...I was just pretending to be...” said all five, united as Rarity.

The porcelain shell turned to dust and blew away on an invisible wind, leaving only a mere-mortal sized, sobbing alicorn standing among the four  other pieces of her soul.

With one final tremor, the landmass returned to its original place alongside the others, the fissures sealing up and mending.

“...The question is...” Failings said, looking to Rarity. “Now that we've admitted we failed, how do we learn from that?”

“...I still want to be the perfect big sister for the world...in Sweetie Belle's honor...” Rarity said. “...for her...and a perfect sister doesn't force their vision of perfection on their little sister...”

“Then what does a perfect big sister do?” Melody asked, giving a smile.

Rarity gave a small one of her own. “...She inspires...she's perfect in her sister's eyes...perfect in a way that makes them want to try to be better...to reach a higher mountain top...”

“And if her little sister falls down?” Princess Rarity asked.

“Then she helps her up and helps her do better next time...helps her take one step closer towards perfection...”

“And if she made the same failing in the past?” Failings asked.

“...Then she accepts it and uses it as an example for her sister that the failing can be overcome and grown from...”

“And what does a perfect sister never do?” Rarigreed asked.

“...Throw the things that made her sister love her away...or make her sister throw away what she loves about the little filly.”

The five personifications all gave a smile.

“Perfection exists not to discourage but to inspire,” said all five, beginning to glow.

“Perfection encourages others to strive, not discourage them for not being born perfect. It does not pretend it was always perfect, and uses it's past failings to show others those same failings can be overcome. Perfection throws nothing away, it is merely being whole.”

The glow grew into a white light. One very different than what had covered Nightmare Charity. Instead of being one of blinding beauty, it was a warm glimmer of beauty and perfection. Instead of a beauty that made you want to do nothing, it was an inspiring beauty that made you want to try and be more.

“And most of all...perfection is relative. Now that I accept all of me, I can see that...A perfect song, a perfect rainbow...each part of me knew a different definition of perfection, but I can't call any of them wrong...Cadence, now I know what you meant...Heaven has many houses and that each is perfect to it's owner. Each is unique. Each is no less perfect than another...”

The five personas each turned into a beautiful purple light. Nightmare Charity's light became the outline of a diamond, Melody becoming one corner, Princess Rarity another, Rarigreed a third, and Failings the last piece.

The symbol became a flawless, shimmering purple Diamond. Light exploding outwards, blowing away the darkness like a bright light lit in a dark room. Nightmare Charity's lair broke apart, flying outwards and forming into countless kingdoms, one a dress maker's paradise, another a memorial to a little sister, still another a pair of embarrassing, but loving parents hugging their two foals. It went on for eternity. But each one's border merging perfectly, seamlessly into the next one.

And the sun shined bright, skies were blue.

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I looked down on my soul...I...Sweetie Belle...I'm sorry for what I did in your name. For never getting to be the perfect sister you saw me as...My greatest failure was never losing you...it was not letting you see how much you really meant to me before I did...If only I could...

“Rarity?”

I turned around to see...it...it can't be...

“S-Sweetie Belle?”

Her eyes teared up and she galloped forwards, hugging me. Sweetie Belle... “It's me! I knew you could do it!”

I slowly smiled and hugged her with my new wings...wings? Oh my, I'll need to redo all my dresses...Not important right now. “...Thank you. Sweetie Belle...I'm sorry that you had to see your sister do this. Especially in your name...I wasn't a perfect sister...”

“I forgive you, Rarity...I missed you...”

“I missed you too...I know...you probably can't stay but...”

“We can hug as long as we want, Rarity...this is your soul after all...”

I hugged tighter. “Thank you, and I know...Perfection after all. I just didn't want to intrude on you.”

“...You're not intruding, Rarity...I couldn't rest till I knew you were alright.”

“Thank you...”

We merely stood there. Hugging at long last in the depths of my soul.

Sweetie Belle...I love you.

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