In the past month quite a lot had changed in the lives of both Rarity and Twilight. Rarity spent quite a bit of time going over ideas on how to help Twilight and contacting Maud for some help. During the down time that she was not spending in Twilight’s room or meeting Maud she would accept the ever more outlandish requests of her clients. It would appear word had leaked that she had been approached by House Star so many a noble was now willing to visit her shop. While it was still mostly the same things she had been cranking out before she met Twilight she also found herself enjoying the occasional challenge. While she had started on shaky ground between Twilight’s advice, her own touch of creativity, and access to certain sections of the palace library afforded her thanks to a good word from Spike, she was beginning to earn the reputation she had falsely built for herself.
As she began to read over her latest letter from the Pie sister after a busy day she found herself wondering if Twilight would want some company. ‘It can’t be pleasant for the poor dear. I think I’ll visit her tonight. Perhaps I can take this time to begin getting her ready for it.’ She could not help but notice that Twilight did not wear any sort of adornments and the purple unicorn was going to have to get used to them if this plan was going to work. For now it would just be some earrings and a hoof bracelet or two so it was not going to be much.
“This should be fun. Perhaps make it a slumber party while I’m at it. I think Spike wouldn’t mind letting me in still.” She turned her attention back to the letter and began to read about a find of some orichalcum on a dig. Samples of such should be arriving at Rarity’s place by the end of the week so she can test them with Twilight to see if it could be of any use. Maud would be doing her own tests on some of it to determine if it could help. So far the earth pony had not found the gems Rarity was hoping for, the ones capable of eating magic at a fast rate, sadly.
Four months into the project saw Twilight looking up from her reviewing a few of the latest theories of her contemporaries relating to using ambient mana to charge machines instead of requiring a unicorn or pegasus to do so. It was fascinating stuff and potentially of use to her however their grammar left much to be desired and she needed a break before she was tempted to storm after the writer of the article.
She took in her somewhat changed antechamber around her for perhaps the first time in a month. After all how often would one really pay attention to a room they have seen every day of their lives for years? ‘When did Rarity set up a jeweler’s atelier in here?’ Of course Twilight had noticed that Rarity was here more and more often but she had not noticed the artificer setting up shop. ‘Well that would explain why she kept coming back to me so quickly when I would explain to her why the guiding wires would not channel the energy the way she wanted.’
She also noticed that a small little pile of pillows was near her friend’s work station. ‘Has she been sleeping here?’ “Spike! Spike!”
“What is it, Twilight?”
“How long has this been here?”, the magical powerhouse asked her scaly assistant.
“For the past five weeks. Geeze Twilight, I’ve always said you need to get your head out of your books but I didn’t realize it was this bad. You even helped her set it up.”
“I did?”
“Yes. Though I guess you wouldn’t remember because it was rather early in the day and you hadn’t had your coffee yet. I seem to recall you accidentally created that mass teleportation relay in that condition one morning when you found out we were out of sugar and we had to clean up after an entire plantation’s worth appeared in here.”
“Oh. Does she also sleep there then? I see a cozy spot she has set up beside it.”
“Most nights for the last two weeks. She keeps muttering about being close to figuring something out.”
Twilight pondered on how to take this situation. ‘Sure, I can adapt to this. I can almost ignore the weight of the bangles and the occasional twitches from the earrings now.’ “Spike, why would she need to sleep here. Surely she could sleep at her home.”
“Supposedly there are more resources here for her to tinker with. The stock in her shop is mostly for her average clients. The stuff she is working with for you is somewhat rarer and she can’t take those books with her when she leaves. Half of them are restricted to anyone below a rank four mage.”
“I see. You think you could see about ordering a proper second bed for her then. We’ll put it in my bedroom proper so she can sleep nearby. While that looks comfortable it can’t be too healthy.”
“I’ll get right on it.”
‘Found you.’ Rarity found what she had been looking for finally. Any jeweler or enchanter knew this book existed out there thanks to rumors that ran through the schools that taught the arts and simple history lessons about dangerous artifacts. The unicorn stepped away from the shelf filled to the brim with tomes of knowledge usually restricted solely to the grand mage or the princesses. While Spike had gotten her access to the archives even his word would not save her if she was caught with this one.
Rarity sat down and began to pour over the tome on esoteric methods once employed by a unicorn known simultaneously as the foremost enchanter in history, the one who practiced the least restraint in how he did it, and in some ways was creator of at least half of the cursed artifacts sealed in rooms similar to the one Twilight lived in. As she began to realize that a lot of it was over her head she did catch something disturbing hinting at sacrifice being needed to achieve truly powerful results. This was going to be harder than she expected and she would need help understanding it. Time to slip it out of the archives and to Twilight’s.
It had been seven months and all she had managed to do was help her friend mellow out a bit. Twilight was getting less stern and more open to herself and anyone who had reason to meet with her. It still took her and Spike far too long to calm Twilight down if someone offended her somehow but she was no longer fearful that Twilight would turn her to stone with an errant look while angry. ‘Now then, how to distract the guard?’
“Sister, do you really think we should have allowed her to take that book?” Luna asked Celestia as they observed the visitor to the archives make a beeline for Twilight’s mansion.
“Normally, no. But with Twilight helping her I think it was a safe choice. Besides things are starting to get desperate. You and I both know what is coming and we are going to need Twilight when it happens. It is perhaps time to start looking at more unconventional solutions.” Celestia bit her lip watching what was happening before turning to look at her sister.
“You think Twilight will recognize the book? Won’t she just turn her in.”
“No, I don’t think she will. She will protect her friend even from us.”
“Good. It gladdens my heart to see she finally has one outside of us.”
“GET OUT OR DIE, CRETIN!” A white unicorn mare sporting red eyes and flaming locks glared down upon the cowering unicorn stallion before it. The desk that had started out in between them now only a pile of ashes as was the chair the mare had sat upon. Slagged metal running from her ears and down her hooves some how being less noteworthy to an observer in the moment.
Spike and Rarity stayed off to the side watching the events proceeding before them. Rarity mostly still in shock that Prince Blueblood had come to marry Twilight with a business proposal. No romance or an attempt to couch it as if he cared about her but a pure proposal for a consolidation of the resources of both their houses. He had made no attempt to hide that it was purely a power grab with his words indicating he expected to inherit the mutual resources when Twilight inevitably blew up. Spike merely was waiting so he could try and soothe Twilight as this was hardly the first time he had seen this song and dance.
As the prince turned tail and fled Spike and Rarity moved in to calm their friend. Twilight began to go through breathing and focusing exercises she had learned over the years so as to avoid destroying everything around her. Normally her upset would be at his attempt to use all her family had earned and gained simply to aggrandize himself rather than to help others as Twilight’s family had been doing for centuries but this time it was because he had slandered her friend and Spike at every chance he had. She had never noticed how insulting he was to everyone before for some reason she was not comfortable analyzing. ‘Why was there a new section of his bid about no mistresses being allowed for me for that matter?’ She had no delusions whether the prick would keep some for himself of course.
While the calm was setting in and her friends were cleaning up her mess Twilight began to work out the reason for that condition. ‘Perhaps because I have a friend who has been living with me for the last nine months?’
Rarity got Twilight’s attention and took her mind away from that line of thought rather quickly however. “Darling, you are a mess. All that soot in your coat and it is going to take hours to clean all that metal off of you. Please let me get some ponies I know in here to help me get you sorted out. I know that with their help we can get you more relaxed than you have ever been in your life.”
“Sorry that you had to see that Rarity. I know I’ve been getting better at staying calm but something about that… that flank wipe just hits that primal part of my brain that tells me it needs to be destroyed. Sorry to you too, Spike. Because of me you have another mess to clean up.”
“That is alright, Twilight. In this case I believe it was perfectly understandable. Now you let Rarity help you while I sweep all this up, alright?” Spike soothed. “I’ll be back with a broom and dustpan.”
“Twilight, I’ll be right back after I send a message through Spike, alright?”
Twilight nodded to Rarity as she followed Spike out the door. Likely to get him to send a letter for her. ‘Oh and I destroyed Rarity’s work too. I was beginning to like the earrings.’
Outside the room Rarity wrote up two letters and had Spike send them for her before he returned to sweep up the mess. The first letter would insure that the head attendant at the only spa in the city Rarity trusted would be arriving shortly to help her pamper and clean up Twilight while the second would make sure Maud knew that they would need something more than just orichalcum since Twilight would melt through it during an emotional moment.