Act I:
"Charade You Are"
Chapter Five:
"Sic Parvis Magna (Greatness from Small Beginnings)"
"Oh my head," Rarity moaned as she came to, her eyes once more drifting in her sockets. Damnit, she thought, catching sight of the roughly hewn ceiling, with its dozens of diamonds and gems all glittering in the low, amber colored lights of the cave.
Her chest still ached, but nowhere near as much as it had been earlier. She could see out of the corner of her eye the brownish lump of some figure sitting at the end of her bed.
"Are you alright?" The figure asked, as it slowly came into focus, revealing the diamond dog who had been in the cave with her before. Dr. Kili was it? Rarity honestly couldn't remember.
"Ugh...do I look okay?" Rarity grumbled bitterly, gently rubbing a hoof on her sore head in an attempt to chase away the splitting headache she had.
"Well, for someone who's just had their chest blown open, sewn back together and then had their heads shoved underwater several times...I suppose so, yes." Kili said, shrugging slightly.
Rarity glared at him as best she could, given the headache. However, the diamond dog seemed unfazed, simply getting up and picking up a small bottle from the makeshift table next to her. He then opened what looked like a rickety draw to pull out two small tin cups. "Care for cider?"
Rarity shook her head slowly. "Why would I want a hangover at a time like this?" She grumbled, sitting up slightly in an effort to do something to relieve the headache.
"Well, thats all I've got," Kili said, pouring himself some cider in one of the tin cups, "Because I would avoid the water if I were you. It's terrible here. Cider is the only thing that stays good out here," he added, filling the other cup as well.
As Rarity watched the golden colored liquid pour out of the bottle and into the cup, she realized just how thirsty she really was. Now that she thought of it, she hadn't had a drink since she was back in the escort vehicle. And, inspite of her headache, she knew going without a drink, things would probably only be more miserable for her.
"Ugh," she finally grumbled, beckoning for the tin cup. "Fine, I'll take your cider. Celestia knows that I'm probably going to need quite a lot either way..." Her horn flared cooly, with her wincing slightly as the use of her horn caused her headache to flare up. The cup levitated towards her shakely, and she took it in her hooves, releasing it from her magic and taking a tentative sip.
Not that bad actually, she thought, savoring the taste of the cider in her mouth. Tad sour though... Of course, that didn't matter all that much, since at least she didn't have to risk dysentery from drinking it.
"Well," Kili said, taking a seat next to her. "I feel I should re-introduce myself, since, well, we were kind interrupted. I'm Dr. Kili, and it is a pleasure meeting you, Miss Belle." He once more extended a paw in greeting. Rarity looked at the paw, sighing as she shook it tersely.
"Yes, I guess..." She paused, raising an eyebrow slightly. "You said you were a doctor? What kind?" She asked, honestly surprised that there were even such a thing. To her knowledge, most diamond dogs were second class citizens even in their own country, and she assumed they spent most of their time digging and burrowing in the earth like a glorified mole.
"Well, I'm actually a physicist actually if you'd believe that," he answered, shrugging slightly.
Rarity nearly spat her drink out at that. A diamond dog physicist?!
"Seriously? A physicist?" She asked, not really noticing how shocked she sounded. Kili nodded.
"Yeah. Astrophysicist actually. Kinda expected you'd react like that," He chuckled. "Most Equestrians I meet do tend to be on the surprised side when they find out about that."
Rarity at first said nothing, still wrapping her mind around the idea of a diamond dog being capable of something as advanced as astrophysics. Wait, she thought, looking down at the gently humming electromagnet in her chest. "But how were you able to build this?" She asked, pointing at the magnet. Kili shrugged.
"Well, I wasn't always a physicist. My father wanted me to be a mechanic actually. 'A more practical skill', as he put it. I would probably have become one, just like him, but I got my back injured,” he then sighed, chucking again. “Kinda put an end to that job,” he finished, idly ironing out whatever imperfections he might have seen in the coat of his lap. “But don’t worry though,” he piped up. “I used this,” he said, reaching over to the table, picking up a small bottle of dark blue, syrupy looking liquid, holding it up for Rarity to see.
Rarity levitated the bottle over, squinting slightly in the amber light, wishing she had her reading glasses. The label was somewhat smeared, and whatever writing she could make out was scrawled diamond dog runes.
“What in Equestria is this?” she asked incredulously, looking at Kili.
“Well, that’s a Zebrican healing potion.” Kili replied.
“‘Zebrican healing potion’?” Rarity repeated, trying to remember where she last heard the name. It was familiar to her, but only in the vaguest way. “What does it do?” she asked, more out of paranoia than anything else. For all she knew, this supposed ‘healing potion’ was just another way to make sure she died faster.
“It’s exactly what it says on the tin. I used it so you wouldn’t bleed out all over the floor during surgery. It was all I had.” Kili replied, rubbing the back of his neck slightly.
Rarity simply blinked, still taken aback that her entire life was being held together by a car battery, a magnet and a vial of some sort of mysterious Zebra healing potion. “You know,” she said, shaking her head. “Maybe I’m just a little tired, but I honestly don’t want to know anymore about how this stuff works,” she stood up slowly, her legs weak-kneed and wobbly. In fact, they were so wobbly that she nearly toppled over, a spike of pain running through her as the cables linking the magnet to the battery once more went tight. However, Kili practically flew out of his chair, grabbing Rarity and propping her up right before she had a chance to fall completely.
“You okay?” he asked, his voice concerned. Rarity nodded, levitating the battery beside her.
“Yes, I’m fine, thank you. I’m not some old pony you know, I can handle myself,” she said, steadying herself and standing upright. She let out a breath, satisfied that she had found her footing. She scanned the room, her curiosity piqued as she saw large pile of half-assembled weapons of various sorts, mostly missiles, along with another pile of tools, all piled in the corner. Disturbingly, they all carried the unicorn and diamond logo of her company.
They can’t seriously believe I’d do what they said? she thought as her eyes landed on the manila folder resting on the table next to the tin cups.
She levitated it over, not saying a word, more focused to get a better understanding of what it contained. She paged through it, muttering to herself under her breath. With a strange sense of both relief and disappointment, she found that it consisted almost entirely of the designs and blueprints for one of the more advanced missile designs of hers. She sighed, dropping the folder onto the bed and putting her head in her hooves. The pile of materials, the tools and various other half-assembled pieces of her technology all made sense now. They were all variations on her missile design.
"What am I to do?" She moaned, shaking her head. She was in a cave, hundreds if not thousands of miles from home, forced into building a weapon of her own design for people that would assuredly use to for some sort of brutal and savage attack on some innocent town or village. But most importantly, her life was hanging by a thread. She looked down at the magnet again, and then at the battery. She reminded herself of the amount of time Kili had given her.
Three days. And she had idea how long she was actually unconscious. "How long was I unconcious?" She asked, looking directly at Kili. Kili glanced up at the clock on the wall. She followed suit, hoping that the clock was accurate. She wished she had known what time it was when she had woken up the first time, as it would have helped her calculations. Of course, she didn't even know the clock was there in the first place.
Kili must of had the same worry, as he reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a weathered black book. He opened it, scanning the pages briefly before resting a finger on an entry and quickly glancing at the clock. As casually as possible, Rarity glanced over his shoulder, trying to see what the book was. She could make out several dates with various entries, and quickly guessed that it was some sort of journal.
"I think it was the 25th," he finally said, looking back at Rarity. Rarity nodded.
"That makes sense. The conference was on the night of the 24th, so it makes sense that they brought me to you the next day..." she halted, any unfinished calculations resolving themselves with the new information she had. Her eyes widened and she put a hoof to her mouth. "Oh no..." she said, her voice hushed. "I only have a day..."
She looked at the battery again, the device taking on a malevolent air as she realized just how little time she had left, and that, in less than twenty-four hours, she would suffer what was guaranteed to be an incredibly painful and excruciating death. "I'm going to die," she finally said, tears welling in her eyes. "And I'm alone," she added, the tears now flowing down her cheeks. She covered her face with her hooves, unable to do much more then sob. She finally realized the truth. Her entire life was pointless.
Her sobbing was interrupted however, when she felt herself pulled into a gentle hug. She tensed up, quickly realizing it was Kili who was hugging her. She wasn't exactly okay with some random stranger, a diamond dog no less, hugging her. "Wh-what are you doing?" She asked, pushing against him slightly.
"You need this," he stated simply. Rarity simply continued to push out of the hug until he released her, subconsciously brushing away the dirt that now stained her coat and clothes.
"No. I don't need a hug. Hugs aren't going to magically cure me." she was quick to add, scooting a little closer to the battery. "Not like your hugs are going to stop my heart from exploding in a day..." she then let her shoulders slump. "Nothing can stop that."
"Are you serious? You're just going to accept this fate like that?" Kili asked, his voice incredulous. Rarity looked towards him sullenly. His expression now looked more like a disappointed parent who had just seen their child throw a tantrum.
"What else am I going to do?" She replied, her voice still thick with emotion. "I'm going to die, or did you just assume that when this little gizmo of yours finally puckers out and dies, I'd just magically evaporate into a golden magical mist like some cheap sci-fi tv show?! Because it won't be that way! I know for a fact I'll probably be awake when that happens, and I'll feel every accursed fleck of metal slowly piercing my heart and ripping it to pieces. I'll die in agony!" She bitterly turned away, her vision watery from her tears. She looked up, gazing at the gems and diamonds in the rock.
She braced herself, expecting to get some kind of response from the diamond dog. She glanced towards him, only to see that he now carried a sad look, as if he had seen something incredibly terrible happen.
"What is it?" She asked, her voice bitter. "Did you expect more from the fabulous Rarity Belle? Because if so, I'm sorry to disappoint."
"To be honest," Kili answered. "I did expect more from you. I've heard stories about how smart and charming you were, and how you would never take no for an answer. And I honestly thought that maybe, just maybe, you were really like that. But instead, all I see is an arrogant mare who won't admit that she should at least accept this with some kind of grace instead of simply curling into a ball and letting it defeat you."
"Oh please, like you've had worse!" Rarity scoffed, her patience for this diamond dog having worn thin.
"As a matter of fact I have had worse," Kili said bluntly, his face bitter. "I had a wife and two beautiful children whom I loved deeply. Than these...these monsters come, take them from me and throw me in this dark hole. I have every reason to give up and surrender, let them break me. But that would mean they have achieved just what they wanted. And I can't abide by that." He finished, sitting back down tersely.
Rarity said nothing, instead looking at the ground, a feeling of intense guilt cutting through her. All I've have made were a bunch of glowing rocks and killing machines, she thought, And what sort of legacy is that?
She took a breath, sadly looking around the room. The glimmering diamonds and gems in the ceiling above provided the only source of beauty in the filthy cave, and Rarity couldn't help but wonder what wonderful new machine she might had been able to craft from them had things been different. She wondered if, had things been more in her favor, if any of these gems might had been good enough to power the automaton she was working on back home.
Hold on, she thought, looking towards one of the half-assembled missiles. The gears in her head started to turn as a memory from what she had been speaking about at the conference stood at the forefront of her mind. She quirked an eyebrow, her horn glowing softly as she attempted to levitate one of the missiles off the ground, grunting in effort.
“Damn it,” she huffed, as her headache kicked in again, her hoof rubbing her forehead in pain. “Kili, can you bring that,” she asked, pointing towards the missile she had tried to move. “I need to check something.”
“Check what?” he asked, walking towards the missile.
Rarity continued to rub her forehead. “Please, just give it to me,” she said, her voice strained from the headache. Kili sighed, leaning down and dragging the missile over to Rarity.
“Put it on the cot,” she said, motioning towards a spot on the cot next to her. Kili nodded rapidly, obviously putting quite a bit of effort into lifting the heavy missile. He finally reached the cot, dropping it unceremoniously onto the cot. He let out a loud sigh as he sat down next the missile, panting slightly.
“Ow...my back,” he murmured. Rarity meanwhile, had already begun to disassemble the missile with her magic and a nearby screwdriver, occasionally setting aside several pieces of dark colored metal on the table. As she worked, she felt a smile slowly spreading across her face.
Yes…yes! she thought as she removed another piece of the dark metal, gently placing it alongside the others.
"You okay?" Kili asked, his voice laced with a touch of concern. Rarity nodded, her eyes once more watering slightly. But these weren't tears of sorrow or loneliness. These were tears of joy. She had been given a revelation, and, if it worked, a possible way to freedom.
"I'm more than okay," she said, looking directly at Kili. "I've had a revelation!" And with those words she turned from the half-disassembled missile and started searching frantically for something, anything for her to draft up a sketch of the design that was now forming in her mind. “I need paper! Something to draw on right now!”
Damn it I need paper! she thought, glancing at the bedsheets of her cot, her horn flaring as she tore away a swath of fabric. She glanced towards Kili. “Do you have a pencil? Anything to write and draw with?”
Kili hastily reached into his coat pocket and fished around for a second, pulling out a weathered pencil. Rarity took it in her magic and leaned over the sheet, beginning to mutter under her breath as the idea emerged onto the makeshift blueprint.
Kili stood rather awkwardly to the side, unsure if Rarity was in fact, still sane or if the waterboarding and her imminent death had finally gotten to her and that she was, in fact, now insane. She was constantly writing and erasing what looked like dozens of various calculations and design sketches, every so often pausing to glance at the pile of vibranium on the table or a clump of gems in the ceiling before turning back to the sheet, and continuing to scribble.
“Um...what are you doing?” he asked, raising an eyebrow slightly. Rarity shook her head and shushed him, her eyes intensely focused on the makeshift blueprint she was drafting up. all of a sudden, she stopped, sitting upright with a beaming smile on her face.
“Kili, you said I should just give up and let all this defeat me right?” she asked, looking towards Kili and motioning around the cave. “Well...take a look at this,” she said, her voice carrying a foal-like giddiness, as if she were showing off a brand new box of chocolates to a close friend.
Kili walked over, looking down at the makeshift diagram scrawled onto the torn up bedsheet. Her narrowed his eyes slightly, squinting to better make out the somewhat sloppy and hard to make out writing.
“It looks like you're planning to make a miniature self-sustaining power source.” he said, looking towards Rarity. She nodded admittedly.
“But,” Kili said, gently taking the pen from her magic, “Wouldn’t the gem explode? I mean look,” he leaned down and used the pencil as a makeshift pointer in order to better pinpoint the calculations he was talking about. “Wouldn’t the input/output ratio make the gem to overheat and the contained magic inside to spontaneously combust, destroying the gem?”
“Yes, that would normally be the case,” Rarity said, taking the pencil back in her magic. “But look here,” she pointed towards a ringlike shape that ran along the outer edge of the diamond. “This outer ring will be made of that refined vibrainium,” she pointed towards the small pile of vibranium on the table top. “Therefore, when I cast the special spell I’ve just created, it won’t cause that overload you mentioned.” she motioned to some other scribbles of various symbols that Kili knew to be Equestrian shorthand for magical spells and formulas.
“So basically what you’re saying is that we’re going to take the vibranium there, and turn it into this?” Kili asked, pointing at the design. Rarity nodded.
“Well, technically, we’ll only need a small amount, since this outer ring need only be about half an inch thick or so, probably less than a pound or so, which I believe we have. It’s finding a gem big enough to properly process the spells and hold them long enough for the vibranium to absorb the energy and then keep the metal in my chest from moving.”
“But how will that work?” Kili asked, sitting down next to Rarity.
“That, my friend, will be another spell, carefully interlinked with the first one, that not only prevents the metal in my chest from moving any further than it already has, but it will also function as a sort of life energy battery. It will take my body’s natural magic reserves, absorb them, and then re-emit them at approximately three times the power,” she paused, looking back down at the design. “However, the natural magic reserves in question will only be related to my body’s natural healing process, so it’s not like I’ll become Captain Equestria or anything.”
Kili nodded in understanding. "So, how do we set about building this?" He asked. "Because the best place would be in an actual laboratory, and not a cave."
Rarity put a hoof to her chin, thinking for a moment. "Well, we have a work table," she said, motioning towards the small table by the bed. "But no jeweling tools...unless..." She paused, her eyes scanning the walls of the cave, her horn glowing softly as she enacted her patented Diamond/Gem Finding Spell. All around her, the various gems and diamonds embedded in the walls of the cave lit up with the pale blue aura of her magic. "There we are," she chimed, her magic focusing on a particularly large diamond embedded in the rock. "Kili, can you dig that one out?" she asked, pointing towards the diamond in question.
Kili looked towards the diamond. "I'll do my best," he said, walking over to where the diamond was, reaching up with his paws and starting to claw through the rock as best he could. "I’ll have you know that I’m a physicist, not a miner.” he said, grunting in effort as his lean arms pulled away layer after layer of rock. It didn’t take long though, as the rock around the diamond was surprisingly brittle, with the diamond coming loose rather easily.
Rarity was quick to levitate the diamond over to her makeshift work table, holding a hoof out expectantly. “I need a diamond to use to cut this one, mind getting me one?” she asked, pointing her hoof towards another diamond in the wall of the cave.
Kili sighed and turned towards the diamond, digging it out of the rock and handing it to Rarity, who took it and immediately started to slowly chip away at it. Kili sat down next to her, unsure of what to do next. He was a physicist, not a geologist, so the properties of rocks were not a topic he was well versed in. But, even so, he knew that it would probably take quite awhile for her to carve the diamond into the shape she had drafted up on the blueprint. He got up, digging another diamond out of the wall, and sat down opposite from her, silently beginning to chip away at the diamond as best he could.
Rarity looked up from her work when she heard the sound of another diamond striking the rock, to see Kili, not saying a word, but simply carving away, occasionally glancing down at the blueprint.
“Um...I really don’t think I’ll need your help on this,” she said, her voice carrying none of the haughtiness it would have normally carried in a conversation like this.
“Figured that this is probably going to take a while, and you’ll need help anyways. Diamond’s don’t carve themselves you know.” Kili answered simply, shrugging slightly. Rarity bit her lip ever so slightly as she felt another blow to her already weakened pride.
I guess he’s right, she thought, picking her makeshift pickaxe back up and once more chipping away at the diamond.