Rarity tried not to pace anxiously in place as the two princesses stared at the finished set of armor. Before she could break the silence herself, however, Luna suddenly broke into a huge grin and stamped her hooves.
“Put it on, put it on, put it on! ”
Relieved at the moon princess’s obvious glee and her sister’s resultant smile, Rarity let out the breath she’d been holding and lifted the cuirass off the ponyform. On it and the cuisses, the three largest fire opals had been shaved into circular center cabochons, ringed by the rune-carved clear opals and a pattern of white opal chips to form reverse-color versions of Celestia’s cutie mark that lay over her actual cutie marks and at the front and center of her chest.
Delicately, carefully, Rarity settled the pieces in place, fastening the latches of the cuirass under the princess’s wings after making sure they wouldn’t catch feathers. Other much smaller fire opals were nestled in the black mosaic of lightning opal chips, standing out as the forerunner stars of white chip constellations in the pattern. When she was finished with that, she went to strap on the cuisses, making sure the suns laid in place and the leather straps and metal buckles didn’t chafe or pinch.
“After Luna told me about Queen Galaxy, I was rather inspired,” she said as she worked. “Especially after I found records of the armor of the period and how they used the cutie marks of the wearers as enhancement. If I did this right, you should start feeling it becoming in tune to you as the pieces settle.”
“I believe I already am,” Celestia said, stretching out a wing to see how well she could move in the cuirass. “It’s rather warm… Like sitting in a sunbeam. I like it.”
“Oh.” Rarity bit her lip, trying to hold in the giddy swell in her chest as she picked up the two sets of golden shin guards. “That’s… that’s good . Very good. Ah- the, um, the rune design is a shielding ward, but I attuned those for Princess Luna.”
“Hm?” Luna asked from her sister’s other side where she had been inspecting the constellations in the cuirass. “You did what now?”
“Well, I- I assumed you would know much more advanced shielding magic than I did, and you did say that you wanted to give your sister some support power…” Rarity said hesitantly. “I can change it if you don’t think it’s a good idea. I think there’s still enough ti-”
Celestia stopped her by putting a gentle hoof on her shoulder. “It’s a fine idea.”
“Indeed,” Luna said, coming around to take a better look at the runes. “Since I cannot go up to aid my sister myself, being able to provide her with shields is a good second best. May I?”
Rarity nodded and stepped back out of the way, and Celestia tilted her chin up to allow her sister more light. After a bit more inspection, Luna lit up her horn. “The spellwork looks good, but a test might be in order. What do you think, Sister? A thirty second shield, just to be sure?”
“I agree, but it might be best to wait just a minute until all the armor is on. Rarity?”
“The only absolute necessities are the cuirass and the cuisses. The shin guards are just extra protection and the helmet is an additional magical enhancement,” Rarity said, holding the guards tightly against her chest.
“Just the helmet, then,” Celestia said, and Rarity nodded, laying the guards down to fetch it. Unlike those that the castle guards wore, it fully covered the face, the ears sheathed in decorated gold with little hinges to allow movement and gold brows to protect the eye holes. The opening for the princess’s horn was ringed in a carefully drilled fire opal, and the entire upper helm was decorated in panels of white and black lightning opal chips. A carefully-guarded cut down the back allowed for the flowing mane to be drawn through- with some magical effort.
“You look fearsome, Sister,” Luna said, and it was hard to tell whether the grin on her face was joking or not. “But it is beautiful work,” she added, acknowledging Rarity, and she smiled in return, nodding gratefully at the compliment. “Shall we?”
“Go ahead,” Celestia replied, standing straight and flaring her wings, and Luna touched her glowing horn to one of the runes on her sister’s chest.
Rarity held her breath again.
One by one, each rune in the ring on the cuirass lit in a soft blue glow, and then each one on the left haunch, then the right. Then Celestia’s horn flared its bright sunny aura and all of the runes switched to match, before little beams of light shot out and coalesced into three discs that grew until they met and formed a protective globe around the princess.
After thirty seconds, it shimmered, rippled, then vanished, and Luna stamped her hooves again before hugging Rarity tightly. “ Excellent .”
Rarity yelped at the tight squeeze, then started giggling almost hysterically. Shielding runes. A ward spell. A fully-functioning ward spell. She’d done it. She’d never done any kind of magic that complex before, and to pull something like that off on the first try-
Luna set her back on her hooves, and only then did she realize her eyes were wet, her vision was blurring, and her laughter was turning a little watery. “I’m sorry, your highnesses, I don’t know what’s come over me. I-”
Mindful of the armor’s catching bits, Celestia wrapped a foreleg around her and pulled her into a warm hug. Hiccuping a little and glad she’d foregone makeup for the day, Rarity buried her face into the soft warm fur until the emotional swell subsided. “Thank you,” she mumbled against the princess’s neck.
“Thank you,” Celestia said gently in her ear. “I knew I was making the right choice when I asked you to take this project, but you have gone above and beyond anything I could have expected. This is a stunning work, unmatched in both its function and its beauty.”
Rarity pulled back, trying to hide a small sniff behind her hoof. “May I stay to see it finish its job?”
Celestia smiled and brushed her hair out of her face. “I would be honored, my little pony.”
===
After triple checking to make sure that there would be no interference with the magic, Rarity opted to send Kibitz for some filling and polish to coat the armor with. After all, it wouldn’t do for something as small as a snared ethereal hair to hinder all the effort she’d put into the gem work done on the armor. A few coats to make everything even and give it some extra sheen wouldn’t hurt.
Humming an aimless tune to herself, she carefully worked the filling into every nook and cranny and crack, a feeling of contentment and pride settling in her mind as she tended to the armor. Few things were more soothing than simple maintenance of a job well done, really. And this...
Her most ambitious project for her most prestigious client, completed. How many ponies alive could say they’d built magical armor for an immortal princess? No famous name that she could think of, that was for sure.
Filling in the spelled cutie marks reminded her just what this commission was for, however, and her mood chilled, an uncomfortable itch settling in the back of her brain. As pleased as Celestia and Luna had been, she still had to hope that her efforts would be enough, after all, or the entire world would pay.
===
The moon was high in the sky and the stars were glittering merrily when she had finished polishing the last inch of the armor to a high mirror shine, and she levitated the ponyform behind her as she slipped out of her room. She hated to risk possibly waking Celestia up, but after a good half hour of debating it with herself, she’d decided it was best to deliver the final product when there were fewer ponies awake to catch her taking it through the halls.
With a mirror from the guest bathroom to help peek around corners -who said detective novels didn’t teach anything useful?- she tip-hoofed her way towards Celestia’s room. She was just about there when noises from behind the parlour door distracted her.
Visitors this late? Perhaps another emergency meeting like what Celestia had requested of her? It wasn’t very ladylike to spy, but her curiosity refused to abate. Just a teensy moment to find out what was going on wouldn’t hurt anything, would it? With a cautious glance around to make sure no one was coming, Rarity set down the ponyform and put her ear to the door, only to start back in surprise.
Twilight’s voice? In what sounded like an argument with Celestia?
Rarity swallowed nervously and took another hesitant step back from the door. Should she knock? Should she just go deliver the armor and duck back to her room before anyone was the wiser? It would probably be for the best if Twilight didn’t know she were here, so-
Before she made up her mind, the door opened and the decision was made for her as she froze, wide-eyed at the sight of her friend.
“Rarity? What are you doing here?” Twilight asked, then her eyes narrowed.
Uh-oh.
Rarity attempted to magically push the armor back around the corner out of sight, but it was too late, and the purple alicorn rounded on her teacher, ears flat. “Her? You told her about all this and not me ?”
It wasn’t as though Rarity hadn’t asked something similar when she’d been given the assignment, but the underlying derision in Twilight’s voice stung, and her own ears laid back in anger at the insult. “Now you see here, Twilight Sparkle-”
“Girls.”
There was just enough stern undertone in Princess Celestia’s voice that both of them went very still, argument cut off before it could even get started. And when the sun princess motioned them into the parlour, they meekly went, heads low like chastised foals and Rarity tugging the armor silently behind her.
“Now, Twilight, as I’ve already explained, the reason I did not bring you into this project is because of the exact reaction you’re having now. You are a brilliant magical mind, but you overthink and overstress and I did not want to force you to take on such a large workload when you have so many burdens to deal with as it is."
“But you thought Rarity could handle it,” Twilight replied, and Rarity set her teeth on edge and occupied herself with examining the armor to keep from reacting to the bitterness coloring her voice.
Celestia made a noise that wasn’t quite a sigh, and Rarity chanced peeking over one of the wing fastenings to see the the princess of the sun regarding her former student with an expression of fond exasperation, one not unlike that she often gave Sweetie Belle when the latter wasn’t listening to something she needed to. “Tell me, Twilight,” the princess said. “Had I requested magical enhancement from you for this, what would you have done?”
Rarity looked in Twilight’s direction, careful to keep her interest hidden by the armor, and the other princess’s expression was startled, caught off guard. “Well… w-well, I…” Twilight said, evidently already running through a hundred options in her head at once. “There’s the Karabair Method, or the Narym Heirglyphs...or Copper Glow’s Fire Mane spell...I don’t even know where I’d begin to choose." Staring down at the floor, Twilight began to pace. "And then there would have to be the empirical tests, and then running tests on you to see which methods work well together and which clash, and-”
And clearly Celestia’s point hit home when the other pony halted in mid-step, frozen for a moment before her mouth closed with a practically audible snap. After a moment of silence, Twilight wilted, sitting down on the floor. “And I could end up making us both exhausted or sick, or even injure you in the process of testing, and then we’d be in even worse shape than when we started.”
Celestia got up from where she had taken a seat and went to wrap a comforting foreleg and wing around her former student’s shoulders, drawing her close. Rarity chose to stay quiet in the background to let them work it out, pretending to still be fussing with the armor.
“Can’t I at least fly up with you in case something goes wrong?” Twilight asked, voice very small as she hid her face in her former mentor's wing like a foal.
“I have every faith that with your talent and knowledge, you will cut the time it took Luna and I to survive the space vacuum in half, my dear Twilight,” Celestia said gently. “However, that would still be a study of fifty years.”
The crushed look on Twilight’s face made Rarity forget all her ire at her friend, and she bit her lip in thought, then quietly made a polite cough. “If I may?” she asked, and Celestia made an inviting motion for her to continue. “The helm has no shielding on it, just the opal ring for enhancing magic. It probably wouldn’t hurt if somepony were to add a little additional protection, just to be safe.”
“One can never have too many safety measures,” Celestia agreed, giving Twilight a little nudge. That earned a small, teary smile, and the smaller alicorn got up, coming over to look over the armor. Rarity moved out of the way, letting her scrutinize the constellation patterns -”All correct,” a tiny, petty, part of her wanted to say, but she kept her mouth shut- and the rune matrices in the cutie marks.
“How long have you been working on this?” Twilight asked, putting out a hoof to touch one of the runes.
“Just shy of a month, why?” Rarity asked, then yelped when Twilight rounded to come nose to nose with her so fast that they both nearly knocked over.
“You designed and constructed a complete, functioning, accurate rune matrix from scratch in a month?! Why didn’t you ever study with me?!”
“Because I’m not a mage?” When it looked like Twilight might explode at that, Rarity quickly continued. “Twilight, darling, researching magical theory is your forte, not mine. The only reason I was able to manage at it this time was because it was for an important design. If I had to do it just for the sake of doing it, my eyes would probably cross five minutes in.”
Twilight puffed up even more and opened her mouth like she would argue, then backed up, expression calculating as she put a hoof to her chin. “That… makes sense, actually. Your talent involves finding gems and using them in designs after all. And a piece like this…” she said, waving her hoof at the armor, the gears in her head clearly still running as she scrutinized it. “It’s all coming together now. I… I’m sorry I was so short, Rarity. I understand now why Celestia picked you for the job.”
“All forgotten,” Rarity said, giving her friend a nuzzle. “Now how about we pick out that shielding spell?”
She noticed Celestia smiling faintly after them as they left.
===
Rarity genuinely hadn’t meant to fall asleep in the archives. But it seemed she’d gotten so used to having a pot of tea or coffee at hoof that without it, functionality had gone right out the window. She was roused by a wing nudging at her shoulder, and raised her head with a wide yawn. “Whazzit?” she asked, finding it was still mostly dark after she’d blinked away all the blur in her vision.
“After going over your notes, I think Cloud Dreamer’s Boon will be our best option,” Twilight said, a book cradled in her other wing. “It melds easily with other spells, takes only a few seconds to perform, and provides enhancement to other shields as well as acting as its own shield.”
“Excellent,” Rarity said as she rubbed her eyes, then tried unsuccessfully to smother another yawn. “I do hope it doesn’t need two horns to cast, though.”
“Just one.” Twilight offered her shoulder to lean on and Rarity gratefully accepted, as the walk from the archives back to the parlour was not a short one. On their way back, they both paused to watch the sisters lower the moon and raise the sun. Rarity felt her breath come a little shorter as the fiery orb climbed higher into the sky. It made an uncomfortable shiver go through her nerves, knowing that there were only two days left before it would be time to do or die for her work.
“You okay?” It would have been so easy to just smile and flip her hair, brush it all off with some breezy retort. Maybe it was the exhaustion that had been slowly creeping into her bones all month that spoke honestly for her instead.
“I’m afraid,” she admitted softly, then immediately regretted it when Twilight’s eyes widened. “I mean-”
“That you didn’t work hard enough,” Twilight said, expression softening, and Rarity nodded “That you’ve missed something, or made a mistake.”
Rarity swallowed, then nodded again. “The princesses keep saying my work is perfect, but if it’s not, Princess Celestia might die and the rest of us with her,” she said. She looked down at her hooves and sighed as she scraped one against the cobblestones. “The fate of the world is so much less terrifying when you’re carrying it as one of six.”
“I know.” Setting the book down on a fountain ledge, Twilight stepped forward and nuzzled her, wrapping her wings around her. “Believe me, I know. That’s part of the reason I don’t like having to just sit by and let this go without me. But trust me. I’ve studied every kind of rune magic possible, and your work is sound. I can see it. I can feel it.”
Warm and comfortable in the winged embrace, Rarity almost immediately felt better. Her head felt clearer. Letting out a held breath in a long, slow sigh, she gently butted her head against Twilight’s and then pulled free. “Thank you, darling. I needed that.”
“At least someone around here needs me,” Twilight joked as she picked up the book again, but Rarity could feel it falling a little flatter than intended.
It got the wheels in her head turning again.
===
“A what?”
“A magical warning system,” Rarity said, telekinetically holding up her notes so that Luna and Twilight could see them better. “One of the things none of us has taken into account so far is what it’s going to look like when Celestia has to go fight her own sun.”
Luna frowned, putting a hoof under her chin. “If it causes an unexpected eclipse, ponies may believe that Nightmare Moon has returned.”
“Changes to the color of the sky might cause panic that Discord has gone back to his old ways,” Twilight said, expression equally somber. “So you have a good point. What did you have in mind?”
“Well... I was hoping you two would be able to refine it into something more specific, but the general idea is that you would be able to send out some sort of signal simultaneously to key points that could alert ponies or other races to what’s going on and how bad it is.”
Twilight looked like she might say something, but Luna got there first. “Back before Nightmare Moon, there was a smoke flare system that was recognized by all countries during times of emergency. Blue for all clear, Yellow for stand by, Red for emergency, Black for death. The problem is that I don’t know who still acknowledges it.”
“We could use scrying to find out in just a couple of hours,” Twilight said, scrunching up her nose as she considered the idea. “Everyone who does, we can teleport flares to warn them based on what’s going on. Everyone who doesn’t… we’ll just have to figure something else out.” She stood up, flaring out her wings. “We've got a day and a half! We can totally do this! I am totally not going to overthink it or panic!”
Rarity hid her grin as a storm of paper and pencils flew over from a nearby bookshelf, and excused herself to go get a pot of tea.
===
“You could get some sleep, you know. The spell’s not hard to cast at all.”
“True, but I’m curious. I want to see it in action. And to see how it blends with my work, of course.”
Luna had gone to present their plans to her sister, so Rarity and Twilight had decided to take the time opportunity to get Cloud Dreamer’s Boon worked into the armor. Rarity lay with her forelegs folded on a cushion and her chin resting on her hooves, watching as Twilight blended together some sort of silver and blue sands into a glittery powder.
“Oh, of course,” Twilight said, her face falling a little as she stared into the sand. “I didn’t mean to step on your hooves like-”
Rarity frowned, then got up and went over to put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Darling, I wasn’t implying that at all. I just want to see how the shields work together. That is their purpose, is it not?”
“Right! Right…” Twilight mumbled, her mind still clearly on her earlier insult. Then she snorted and jerked away, startled, when Rarity smacked her with the same hoof. “Ow! What was that for?” she complained, rubbing her shoulder.
“Twilight, I told you it was forgotten. You were surprised, you were hurt, you said something thoughtless in anger, I forgave you. Simple as that.”
“I know, I know, it’s just… I shouldn’t have done it in the first place. I’m supposed to be better than that now.”
Rarity blinked at her in surprise. “Whatever are you talking about?”
“I’m a princess, right? That’s as ‘adult’ as anyone can get. The absolute top tier of being an adult. I shouldn’t have have been tearing you down because someone thought you were the better pony for a job.”
Rarity bit back a full laugh, but her attempt turned it into a rather uncouth coughing snort. “Oh please. I’ve been here a month. You think I haven’t seen some faults in our illustrious rulers by now?”
Twilight raised her head and stared at her. “N...no?”
Grinning, Rarity leaned in conspiratorially and tapped her friend on the nose. “I could tell you stories,” she said. “Princess Luna’s habit of spying on her sister from the ceiling tiles, for one.”
The purple alicorn pulled back and opened her mouth. Then closed it. Then set her jaw. “When all this is over, I want to hear all of them. Every single one.”
“Done.”
Resolve renewed, Twilight nodded, then turned her attention back to the bowl of sands. Grabbing a bottle of some kind of white dust with her magic, she added it to the mix, then tentatively touched a hoof to the concoction.
“Is it supposed to do that?” Rarity asked when the mix clung to the underside of her friend’s hoof.
“Yep. The Sarangay Beach Sands are part of the spell, but the powdered cloud is what makes them stick,” Twilight said, dusting her other hoof before beginning to rub the mix onto her horn. After several coatings, she squinted an eye up at it, then made a rather comical face. “Um… I might need you after all. Can you make sure I didn’t miss a spot?”
Rarity covered her mouth to hide her amusement, then reared up to inspect the work. After adding a little sand mix herself, she sat back, shaking her hoof with a frown. “Not to be picky, but when does it come off?”
“After the spell’s cast,” Twilight replied as she went over the rather complicated pattern in the book one more time. Clapping the book closed, she took a deep breath and began to channel magic into her horn, the power glowing the glittery blue of the sands rather than her normal purple. Rarity watched in fascination as a thin beam of light shot out, stopping just in front of the armor’s helm, and began sketching out an arcane design, guided by subtle movements of Twilight’s head.
“Aaaaand there,” Twilight finally said, emphasizing completion with a jab of her horn. The blue pattern flared a bright white, then shrank down before melting into the fire opal horn ring. As soon as it had disappeared entirely, all of the dust on their hooves and Twilight’s horn fell, making the latter cough and snort in surprise as it got in her hair and face. “Augh!” she yelped, scrubbing at her fur.
“Are you alright?” Rarity asked in concern at the almost pained expression on her friend’s face.
“It’s so itchy! Why would a such a nice-sounding spell not have a block against that?!” Twilight wailed in disgust as she shook her head violently, trying to shake off the dust.
Rarity had to bite her lip really hard to keep even the tiniest snicker from getting out and grabbed the alicorn to stop her flailing before getting to work with some cleaning telekinesis.
===
She opened her eyes to blackness and stars. Unusual, since she remembered going to sleep on one of the lounges in the parlour.
Oh. A dream, then, she thought.
Not an unpleasant one, really. It was rather pretty to see Luna’s night and Celestia’s heavens from the point of view of being in them for a change. And here in a dream, she had no fear of falling, or not being able to breathe, or-
Her contented musing was quickly cut short when she saw a small red comet streaking through the darkness.
No, not a comet, she realized. Celestia, blazing in all her fiery glory like Rarity could remember only seeing once in the other universe’s Equestria, clad in the opal and gold armor.
And aiming for the sun.
Rarity yelped as she was suddenly dragged into the tailwind of the solar princess’s wake, and a cold fear settled into her stomach as the boiling surface of the sun came closer and closer, filling her vision in every direction but behind her. She had never given much thought to how massive the star must be up close, even when presented with the illusion Celestia had created for her, and seeing it firsthoof made her insides squirm uncomfortably.
Speaking of Celestia-
Rarity looked to her left to find the Sun Princess standing tall beside her, wings flared to their full span. The white alicorn took a deep breath and made a motion over her chest with her right hoof that Rarity recognized only from some distant memory, then brought forth Luna’s shield from the armor. The armor itself began to glow a bright gold along with Celestia’s magic, and the princess fired a white-hot band of power at the flare of fire that burst out of the sun, trying to warp it in another direction.
Nothing happened.
Nothing happened.
The fire continued on its path, unchanged and unhindered, and Celestia didn’t even get the chance to scream before it enveloped her shield and popped it as though it were nothing more than a soap bubble. Rarity screamed instead as she saw it all unfold -the crack and burst of metal and stone, the searing of flesh and bone, the vaporization to nothing -
“Rarity!”
Blue-violet feathers filled her field of vision, and Rarity felt a sharp jolt before she opened her eyes to find herself lying on the floor of the parlour, cold and shaking as she gulped in air. The feathers, she found, were Princess Luna’s wings, still partially wrapped around her in an unsuccessful attempt to keep her from falling off the chaise. Twilight stood nearby, half-asleep but worried as she scrubbed the back of her hoof against an eye. “What happened?”
“I apologize,” Luna said, gently helping Rarity up and keeping one wing wrapped protectively around her. “My dream warding on Rarity momentarily failed while I was visiting her sister’s dreams and I was not quick enough returning to stop a nightmare from slipping through.”
“Warding…” Rarity mumbled as she put a hoof to her head. “You’ve been looking after my dreams personally all this month?”
“Well, not exactly personally,” Luna admitted. “But I have put stronger protections on you than I would most ponies. With the type and degree of stress we have put you under, the nightmares that would feed on you are much more vicious than the average variety.”
Rarity couldn’t help a small shiver as she recalled the vision of Celestia being burned out of existence by the coronal burst. “Indeed. But… it was only a nightmare, correct?”
“Are you in the habit of having prophetic dreams?”
“Well... no, but-”
“Was there anything in it that didn’t match up?” Twilight asked, rounding the table to come sit by her. “Something that you know we did that didn’t appear in the dream, or the other way around?”
Rarity bit her lip, trying to think, then stomped a hoof. “The shields. The one I made for Luna to activate was the only one that appeared, not Cloud Dreamer’s Boon.”
“There you have it,” Luna said. “If it was a true prophetic dream, then it would include even the information you do not yet have. But because you have yet to see the second shield in action, it did not appear.”
“Only a nightmare, then,” Rarity said, nearly aching in relief. Twilight leaned over and nuzzled her reassuringly, and Rarity was glad to accept.
“Well, after all that, I believe a little comfort food is in order,” Luna said, finally moving her wing. Rarity missed the warmth, but the princess’s mischievous smile was infectious as well. “Shall we go see if the night kitchen has any new scone flavors for us to try?”
“Yes. Tartarus, yes.”
===
One more day left to go. Luna and Twilight hadn’t needed any help doing the actual set up for the emergency system, which left her frustratingly at odds as to what to spend the last twenty-four hours before go time doing. One could only polish and re-polish the armor so many times after all.
Finally, Rarity had taken up Kibitz’s suggestion that reorganizing her notes might at least help pass time. And, well, she had created a new runic shield, hadn’t she? Perhaps it would be useful again some time in the future. Making her scribbles a little easier for somepony else to read down the line, namely Twilight or Luna, couldn’t hurt anything.
So she’d decided her stomach had gotten better enough to switch back to coffee and move all her book work to the parlour to be near her finished creation while she worked on transcribing her research. Humming softly, she floated two trays behind her as she made her way down the hall; one laden down with her papers and sketches and a fresh notebook and pens, the other with the coffeepot and cream and a plate of cucumber and dandelion sandwiches.
And perhaps a little plate of cherry iced rolls the cook had so sweetly insisted on sending along as well. Who was she to argue with such a delightful suggestion?
When she pushed the door to the parlour open, she wasn’t at all expecting to find Celestia sleeping on one of the chaises, looking even more ragged than the night that Rarity had first come to the castle. Her plans forgotten, Rarity put down her burdens on the central table as delicately and quietly as possible, then went to make sure the princess was all right.
Celestia stirred before she’d even gotten close, raising her head with a slow, sleepy blink. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be stealing your work space.”
“You’re not stealing anything,” Rarity said with a shake of her head, stepping aside as the princess started to get up. “It’s your parlour, after all. I can do transcription anywhe- oh, please lie back down,” she finished with some alarm when Celestia swayed a bit on her hooves. “You shouldn’t be out of bed looking like that!”
She wasn’t sure whether to be glad or not when the princess obliged and practically toppled back onto the chaise without argument or complaint, rubbing her forehead with a hoof. Celestia took a deep breath, then stretched, her neck and several points in her spine and wings popping painfully loudly, and Rarity tried not to wince at the sound.
“Is there anything I can get you?”
“I’m afraid not,” the princess said tiredly. “Most modern medicines unfortunately don’t seem to agree with me, and I can hardly layer on any more pain reducing spells without becoming magic-drunk.”
“Well, if it’s not too forward to say so,” Rarity started hesitantly, then continued when Celestia made a motion for her to go on. “Spending the last day magic-drunk sounds better than being too exhausted and sick to go up when it’s time.”
“Hm… You have a point.” After considering the notion a little longer, Celestia’s horn lit up for a moment, then she raised her head, looking a little less like death twice warmed over. “Not a perfect fix, but it will do for a couple of hours.”
“Glad to hear it. Sweet roll?” Rarity offered, pushing the plate over as she picked up a pen with her magic to get started on her work. Watching the exhausted princess pick one and take a bite, her mind suddenly flashed the nauseatingly horrible image of that same princess being scorched by her own sun’s flames, and the pen snapped, ink splattering the table and her face. “Ack-!”
“Hold still a moment,” Celestia said, and in a blink, the ink was gone. “Is something wrong?”
“Oh, no, no, no, I’m perfectly fi-,” Rarity started with a nervous giggle, but found the lie dying in her throat in the face of the sleepy princess’s earnestly questioning expression. “I… I had a nightmare. About tomorrow.”
“I see. My current state isn’t helping allay those fears any, I imagine,” Celestia murmured with a soft faraway chuckle as she took another bite of sweet roll. “There is one thing that might help tomorrow,” she finally said after staring into nothing for several moments of absent chewing. “It’s not a pleasant solution, but it will keep me going. I’ll have to talk to the night staff about it when the shift changes,” she murmured, before seemingly shaking herself out of a trance. “What were you working on?”
“Nothing really important.” Rarity put a hoof over her notes, trying to subtly push them aside. She was more interested in what this apparent ‘solution’ was, and whether it would be anything that would put the princess in danger. But Celestia, the “magic-drunkeness” in full effect, had apparently switched gears entirely, and picked herself unsteadily up to come take a closer look.
“Oh, your rune notes? What are you going to do with these?”
“Er, just clean them up a bit. You know, just in case they could be of some future use.”
“That’s a very smart decision,” Celestia said with a slightly too emphatic sagely nod, the motion nearly taking her entire neck to make.
“Do you have any suggestions?” Rarity asked, deciding she might as well roll with the situation. Letting the princess get some much-needed rest was just as good an idea as anything else, after all.
“Hm… Perhaps alter the user cortex a bit? Attuning them to Luna was brilliant for this mission, but making them usable for anyone in the future would be a boon for societal purposes.”
Rarity stared at the princess, her mouth opening slightly. Maybe she wasn’t so drunk after all? Or… The unicorn shook her head, deciding not to think too hard about it. “I’ll...I’ll leave that to Twilight if she wants to take a look at it. I think for now I’m just going to transcribe everything.”
“Fair enough,” Celestia said, then yawned widely and curled up on the cushions next to her, resting her head on her forelegs. Rarity was a bit aghast at the closeness for a minute, but once the princess was fully asleep, she began to find it... rather sweet.
On impulse, she gently stroked the sleeping princess’s hair with a hoof the way she would a snoozing Sweetie Belle’s, then poured herself a cup of coffee as she settled in to work.
===
“Are we ready?”
“The flares have been coordinated to the Pantheon Clans, Griffonstone, the Chineigh emperor’s palace, the central Chrysomallus Highlands, and the Zebrican consulate and are ready to be teleport-launched on our signal. Every telegraph system waypoint has been triggered via the seeking spell and is waiting for the announcement. All set to go.”
“Good. Then there’s just one more thing left.”
Rarity had just finished fastening the last catches of the armor when the utterly noxious smell of what seemed like burnt coffee, burnt molasses, burnt ginger, and burnt magic filled her nose. Fighting the urge to gag , she recoiled out of the way as Toffee Chip approached the princess, a breathing mask and goggles covering her face and a smoking bottle on a tray floating in front of her.
Luna’s expression went from determined to mild horror. “You are not serious.”
“I’m afraid I am, sister dear. It got us through the Emberstone Accords, it’ll hold me up now.”
“What… is that?” Twilight asked, somewhere between curiosity and disgust.
“Starswirl’s Bottled Resolve. Five-time-filtered double sugar-brewed Arabican mixed with twelve different pickup spells, a crushed bolt of lightning, three crushed moonstones, and a drop of lava straight from Tartarus. It will last approximately twenty-four hours.”
“Don’t you dare,” Rarity warned the moment it looked like Twilight would ask how it was made, and the purple princess backed off sheepishly. She felt her stomach churn in sympathetic pain and put a hoof over her mouth to keep from heaving as Celestia picked up the bottle in her magic and tossed it back like a shot, then they all held their breath as she braced herself.
For almost a full minute, all was quiet.
Then they all practically saw Celestia's heart skip a beat, and quickly took a step back from her before her pupils shrank to pinpricks and her mane and tail exploded into flames.
Toffee Chip understandably shrank back in terror, ducking to hide behind Luna as a protective shield, and it took every ounce of will Rarity had not to follow her. The heat from the flaming princess was nearly unbearable as Celestia struggled to get the flames, and herself, back under control, stance wide, head down, wings flared, and body heaving.
Finally, however, Celestia inhaled sharply and straightened, standing tall and almost unnaturally serene in her wreath of fire. “Luna?”
“Right.” Gently dismissing the cowering chef to go hide behind Twilight instead, which Toffee Chip gladly did, Luna stepped forward to activate her part of the shield. It went off without a hitch, the bubble surrounding her solidly. Then Celestia reached for Cloud Dreamer’s Boon, and little splotches of blue-violet magic rained out of her horn to coat the inside of the bubble before the whole globe shrank, becoming a second skin of the armor in an iridescent shimmer.
“Oh,” Rarity breathed at the sight, both awed by the beauty of the spells' final effect and relieved at the confirmation that yes, her dream before had been wrong.
Celestia caught her expression and gave her a reassuring smile, then looked up at the sky. “Here we go.”
===
Rarity’s heart fluttered in her chest as she watched the sun princess rise into the sky along with her star, and then streak off in an arc of fire.
This was going to work.
This was-
“Why isn’t this working?! ” came Twilight’s frustrated snap from behind her, and that feeling of hope froze in her chest before she turned to find the purple princess stamping on the activation array of the waypoint spell in agitation. Toffee Chip had apparently fled back to the kitchens, but Princess Luna had all their notes spread out in the air, scrutinizing them with a dark scowl as they floated captive in her magic.
“Everything is exactly the same as when we did our trial run. It should be running perfectly.”
“But it’s not!”
“Deep breaths, darling,” Rarity said as she went to look over Luna’s shoulder. Maybe two pairs of eyes would have more luck than one. She didn’t get more than the briefest peek at the diagrams, however, before there was a flash of plaid-colored light and suddenly the crystal in the middle of the array was sporting a mismatched new decoration.
“My, my, my, I wasn’t expecting such a spectacle to greet me planetside. What’s this ambitious little science fair project of yours, hmmm?”
Luna lowered the spread of papers a fraction, arching a single eyebrow. “And where have you been all this time?” she asked flatly.
“Vacation, of course,” Discord said with a long, leisurely stretch that draped himself far enough over the crystal that his upper half was hanging upside down from it. “Since dearest Fluttershy decided to take a couple of weeks to visit the roc cliff nesting grounds and the little fashion plate was holed up here, I thought I might keep myself from dying of boredom by checking up on a couple of lovely little planets that have been flourishing since my last...er... foray in the world of the living. I brought everyone keychains!”
A little trinket popped into space dangling from Rarity’s horn, and she caught it in her magic before it could fall into her face. It turned out to be a very strangely shaped little teacup on a chain, delicately filigreed and jeweled. It was actually rather attractive, and she was rather touched he’d considered her tastes. Judging by a glance at Twilight’s expression at her tiny book keychain, it seemed she was thinking the same. Then Twilight coughed and ruffled her wings, getting herself back on course.
“Yes, well. That’s very thoughtful, but now’s really, really not the time. This ‘science fair project’, as you called it, has got to be up and running right now, and we can’t fix it with you using it as a couch.”
“And why, pray tell, would you-”
They were all interrupted by a bright pink and green ripple of energy that cracked across the sky the way the normal aurorae would at night with a booming thunderclap that made them all jump. “For that!” Princess Luna snapped as Discord lost his balance and fell off the crystal.
"Good heavens! What in the-"
“Rarity, give him a quick rundown of what’s going on, would you?” Twilight asked as she and her fellow princess both gathered up the diagrams and struggled to light up the array.
Rarity nodded and grabbed Discord’s paw to pull him away from the crystal. By the time she’d finished telling him the abbreviated version -sun was overloading, planet was about to be cooked, Celestia asked her for foci armor and had gone up to deal with it, and now they needed to stop the panic- there was a triumphant yell from Twilight.
“Have you got it?” Rarity asked, looking away from Discord’s uncharacteristically dour expression.
“We just needed to shave a little more off the crystal. We’re good to go! Ready, Luna?”
Luna tapped her hoof against her mouth in thought, then shook her head. “No. No, it should not be me. If we could have gotten it going before the sky started showing any signs, then we would have had no problem. Now it is likely to be as we feared and there will be those who believe Nightmare Moon is making a push.”
“But you’re not Nightmare Moon.” Rarity protested.
“That matters little. There are still ponies who will believe I am. It will have to be you, Twilight.”
“But- but I can’t do the Voice! I don’t have anything prepared!”
“We can just use the same speech we prepared for me and substitute your name. You will do fine.”
Rarity went to put a foreleg around her friend’s shoulders, mindful of her wings, and squeezed. “Use your megaphone spell. And you can lean on me if you feel nervous.”
Twilight looked between both of them, then to Discord, who gave her a thumbs up, but still looked oddly distant. Swallowing, she put a hoof to her heart, then took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said, magicking up the page with the speech on it. “Fire it up.”
Luna stomped on the activation node of the array, and Twilight lit up her horn before pulling up a small globe of magic that she caught in her hoof and touched to her throat.
“Creatura of all sovereign nations! This is Princess Twilight Sparkle of the Equestrian Ponies! We have been monitoring a disturbance in deep space, and it is currently being dealt with by our Princess Celestia. This may result in some distortion of the sky. Please do not panic. You are in no danger presently. We will alert you if any further action needs to be taken.”
Luna turned off the array and Rarity caught her friend as Twilight coughed painfully, deactivating her spell. “Ow,” she rasped. “It takes a lot more out of the throat when you’re projecting across the waypoints like that,” Twilight muttered, then blinked as a glass of water flashed in front of her face. “Oh, thank you.”
“You’ve been rather quiet,” Rarity said, looking up at Discord as he toyed with the claws he’d snapped to produce the glass.
“Indeed. Normally you would be cheerfully rubbing our noses in all the ways you could use this to your advantage that we cannot,” Luna pointed out archly, which only made Discord’s fidgeting increase.
“Um, she didn’t mean it like that,” Twilight said, waving off Luna’s mutter of “Yes, I did,” as Rarity helped her over to the draconequus. “But I saw you toss the sun and moon about like marbles when you took over Equestria. How is this any different?”
Discord pursed his lips, then blew out his cheeks, clearly not wanting to say whatever it was that was bubbling in the back of his throat. And then Rarity felt a sort of spark of realization and dread.
“It’s because you can’t mess with this, can you?” she asked, voice quivering a little at the thought of a chaos god being stymied by the power they’d had to send Celestia up to fight. “Whatever it is the sun’s doing, you can’t stop it.”
Luna and Twilight both looked at Discord, Twilight opening her mouth to say something, and Discord finally made an irritated whine, yanking on his horns in frustration. “Ugh, why did you have to be the perceptive one?!” he snapped. Before Rarity could get offended at the sleight to her intelligence, he continued. “Yes, I can move the sun with a snap. That’s the easy part. That involves acting against its orderly little orbit and Celestia’s orderly little spells.”
Twilight blinked at him. “Then… the power in the sun is chaotic? That’s why you can’t mess with it?”
“Bingo!”
Discord produced a little living model of the sun similar to the one Celestia had shown Rarity that first night, only it had vertical lines drawn all the way around it. Balancing it on the tip of a claw, he gave it a spin, and as they watched, the center of it spun faster than the poles, twisting the whole thing tighter and tighter, until the whole thing… squinched, for lack of a more scientific term, forming small arcs of fire all over the globe like the one that was threatening their planet.
“It does this all the time,” Discord said, scowling at the model as it snapped itself out of the twists and began twisting itself up again. “I don’t even know how it didn’t roast the planet before Her Shiny Hineyness came along to start absorbing the excess, because I know I can’t. I’ve tried before. I thought it’d be delightfully funny to set up the world’s biggest marshmallow roast and got myself exploded for my efforts. It took almost a month to put myself back together.”
“But- why?”
“How should I know?! I’m the Master of Chaos! It’s a chaotic process! It should be bending to my every whim! But this is the only reason I can come up with that it doesn’t work!”
“That makes no sense!”
“Can we try and figure it out later? Saving the world now, please,” Rarity stressed, waving a hoof urgently as it looked like the two were about to get in each other's faces. Discord huffed, but pulled back and poofed the model out of existence.
Twilight rubbed her head. “Okay. Okay. You can’t absorb the power. But… could you redirect it?”
Discord looked like he was about to give a sarcastic answer, then he stopped and tugged at his beard in thought. “You know… that’s a very good question. I never tried.”
“Redirecting the fire into empty space or shielding the planet. We have no idea which one my sister went with, but if you could help her with either, it would double the chances of survival and success,” Luna said, all traces of antagonism gone.
“Hmph. I suppose I could give Ye Olde Sunbutt a hand. She did go to the effort of inviting me to the Gala after all. Alright then, hold these,” he said, tossing a clawful of keychains to a startled Luna before blazing off into the sky in a polka-dotted streak.
Rarity blew out a relieved breath and sat down heavily. Twilight took the keychains from Luna, then came to join her, and Rarity shifted her weight to offer a shoulder for the magically tired alicorn to lean on. “Well, hopefully, that will take care of the sun,” she murmured, tipping her head back to watch as another swath of pink and green and now orange washed across the sky, thankfully without the thunder this time.
“Yeah,” Twilight mumbled. “Wish Discord had left the glass of water, though.”
They both snorted small giggles as Luna made a check of the waypoint array to make sure it was still in ready shape if they should need it again, then trotted over to them. “I can summon one of the kitchen staff up with drinks if you like.”
“Nah. Better not scare them with-”
“Death arrives from the sky!” bellowed a male voice from below, and all three let out agonized groans.
“Oh, what now?” Rarity muttered, heaving herself to her feet and shoving Twilight up as well in the process. The princess squawked and flapped awkwardly as she nearly overbalanced, but managed to get her footing back, and they both followed Luna to peer over the garden wall.
A level below them in the city was a purple-cloaked green earth pony raising his forelegs to the patterns Celestia’s battle had left in the sky, the cloak's hood covering most of his face. The back of it bore a ringed planet with an eye in the center embroidered in gold and a design of silver stars surrounding it. On seeing it, Luna put her face in her hooves with a very unprincesslike whine.
“For crying out- The Order of Saturnus? Truly? These idiots are still around?” she asked, tone somewhere between annoyed and despairing.
“The who of what?” Rarity asked, looking to Twilight for answers, but her fellow element looked just as confused as she was and shrugged.
Luna didn’t raise her head. “The Order of Saturnus. Back when the three tribes united, there was a faction of earth ponies convinced the pegasi and unicorns were going to ‘bring down the wrath of the heavens’ to kill everyone by unbalancing the natural order and formed an underground doomsday cult. Biggest pain in my a- backside when I first became princess.”
Twilight’s lip curled a little. “Oh. Joy. They sound like an absolute load of fun.”
“And apparently they have decided to come out from under their rocks again to start up a panic. Rarity, you are coming with me.”
“Er- wait, what? ” Rarity asked in surprised alarm as she was suddenly picked up and carried along by the princess’s magic. “Why me?! Twilight’s much more versed in combat magic, why not-”
“Twilight has to stay with the waypoint array to make any announcements if an emergency situation does crop up. Do you know any subduing spells?"
“Only the ones they teach you in babysitting classes,” Rarity said with more than a little embarrassment as she got her hooves under to run alongside Luna, no longer needing to be dragged. “You know, for dealing with unruly little unicorn sisters.”
“With your precision and enough will behind them, that will be good enough. We just want them out of the way, not injured.” Luna stopped at a side gate to the city and lit up her horn, and Rarity felt the magic washing over her. “This will keep you hidden for half an hour. If you feel it wearing off before you get back to the castle, find me.”
“How will I be sure we’ve gotten all the Order members?”
“I will attach a seeking spell to the cloak of the first one I stun that will mark every one in the city. Once all of them are out, it will deactivate.”
Ooookay, this couldn’t be too hard, Rarity told herself as Luna opened the gate just enough for them to slip through, and then took to the air. Sure, spy novels weren’t really her thing, but she could do this. Really.
Trying to ignore each electrifying ripple of colors that burst across the sky and biting her tongue to keep quiet as she wound through the ponies who were either going about their business or stopping to stare at the light show above them, she made her way through the Canterlot streets as quickly as possible, keeping her eyes and ears perked for loud voices, purple cloaks, or whatever sign Luna had prepared for her.
She spotted the first one blocking the door of a little patisserie that Fluttershy had been fond of the last time they’d visited and was a bit incensed that he’d ruin the appetites of its guests in such a manner. Sneaking close, she took a deep breath -Precision and will, precision and will- and swiftly left him dazed with a pulse of magic, then pulled him out of sight before anyone was the wiser.
Now for number two.
===
She had stunned eight when Luna’s sigil, a glowing blue filigree moon and star, vanished. Relieved and exhausted. Rarity gave her last catch a pat on the head and stretched the knots out of her back before unsteadily making her way back to the castle gate. As she walked, she felt the invisibility spell fade off, but she was too tired to do more than wave to the street sweeper who yelped in surprise at seeing a white unicorn ghost in out of nowhere.
Horseapples, her head hurt.
“We did it?” she asked once she was inside the gate and Luna landed beside her.
“All accounted for. Good work,” the night princess said, offering a shoulder, and Rarity tiredly accepted, letting the alicorn lead her back up to the gardens. “We heard no announcements, but anything to report?” Luna asked Twilight.
“It hasn’t gotten any better, but it hasn’t gotten any worse,” Twilight said, watching the streaks of light. “I’m taking the latter as a good sign so far.”
“Indeed. With any luck, all there is left to do is continue monitoring the skies until this is all over.”
“Don’t jinx it,” Rarity muttered tiredly as she slid away from Luna’s shoulder to sit down with a thump, resting her head on the bench she’d meant to sit on. The lunar princess chuckled and rubbed her back with a hoof.
“Both of you rest. I will take over monitor duty for a bit.”
“How does she still have the energy?” Rarity complained as Luna walked away and Twilight came to lie down on the bench. “It’s almost noon and she’s been up forever.”
“Maybe she took some of the bottled resolve too and we just didn’t see her do it,” Twilight said with a grin as she stretched her wings, then curled up comfortably.
Rarity snorted at the thought and closed her eyes, dozing off as she wondered what Luna’s reaction to the stuff would have been.
===
“Up! Both of you up! Right now!”
The roar of the Canterlot Royal Voice had her jolting awake with a shriek, nearly banging her chin on the bench she’d been sleeping against when her hooves tangled up under her, and Rarity opened her eyes to a flurry of purple feathers as Twilight crashed back down from her terrified flapping. Before they could get themselves sorted back in order, they were snatched up in a wave of blue magic, and Rarity rubbed her eyes to find Princess Luna dragging them towards the main courtyard.
“What- what the-”
“Incoming!” Luna pointed up and ahead, and Rarity and Twilight looked past her outstretched hoof. There was indeed a meteoric blaze of red falling from the sky, but it was coming in far too steep and far too fast.
“Oh dear,” Rarity said quietly.
Twilight freed herself from Luna’s magical grip with a flap, now fully awake. “Sky Rocket’s netting spell, triple strength! We’ve got to snare them before we can slow them down!”
“On it!” Luna dropped Rarity on her hooves, and the two alicorns shot off into the sky, a complicated sparking of magic weaving itself between their horns as they dove back and forth under the plummeting fireball.
She had to shield her eyes from the resulting flash burst when magic met magic, and when she tentatively cracked them open again, Luna and Twilight were already activating some other complex spell to counteract the weight and speed of their burdens.
But something slipped right through their net, and Rarity had a sinking fear in her stomach as she watched the small red splotch of fire plunge towards the courtyard. Fear and instinct leant her speed, and though she was no genius at spells, sewing she could do, and she quickly wove a catch net of her own, diving to grab the falling object.
*CRASH*
“Owwww, ow, ow, ow, oh Tartarus, that smarts…”
Being upside down and half in a dining cart was not at all her idea of a good time. Wincing at all the bruises she was undoubtedly going to have. Rarity tentatively uncurled herself out of the protective ball and onto her side and found herself cradling a cat-sized Discord.
Extremely singed and grey, except for where he looked rather green in the face, the draconequus raised his head, eyes swirling in different directions as he swayed back and forth.
“Euuuooogh, but Officer, I swear Mr. Rubber Ducky had his license when we left the house,” he mumbled woozily, looking, if anything, even greener before he went limp in Rarity’s hold. Shaking her head and pretending it didn’t hurt a lot to do so, she gently petted him between the horns and settled him around her neck before heaving herself to her feet and ignoring the stares of the castle staffponies as she went to go see if Luna and Twilight had fared better in catching Celestia.
The sun princess’s mane was no longer in flames, but it hadn’t yet regained its normal colors and was instead a seething mass of reds, oranges, yellows, and pinks that made it look like a boiling sunset. The armor was still pristine, and she was talking to Luna much more normally than Discord had, at least from what Rarity could see from her distance as she approached. She even smiled and waved to all the concerned staffponies and Kibitz rushing from the castle to greet her.
And then as Rarity was almost within calling distance, Princess Celestia collapsed into an unconscious heap.