//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Interactions 
// Story: Piece by Piece 
// by Eltirions 
//------------------------------//

10 December 1008

Rarity awoke to find a lot of blue coat-hairs in her face. She blinked, lifted her head a little, and saw Rainbow’s sleeping face.

Vaguely, she remembered Rainbow carrying her to bed, and then snuggling up against her as they talked about unimportant things. They must’ve fallen asleep together some time later.

Rarity, as quietly and gently as she could manage, tried to get out of the bed.

Rainbow noticed anyway. ‘’Five more minutes,’’ she groaned as her eyes slowly opened.

‘’Good morning, Rainbow,’’ Rarity greeted in a soft voice.

‘’Rares?’’ Rainbow’s eyes snapped open, and she groaned again. ‘’Ugh… definitely drank too much last night.’’

Rarity had a headache too, but it was a minor one. ‘’My condolences.’’

‘’Thanks,’’ Rainbow snorted. She rolled out from under the covers and spread her wings. ‘’Ah, that feels much better!’’

Rarity kept herself from pointing out that she’d told Rainbow as much yesterday. ‘’I’d imagine so,’’ she said instead, and then looked at the clock. 

9:02. More or less on time.

‘’I’ve got to have breakfast with Flurry,’’ Rarity informed Rainbow as she summoned her comb with her magic. ‘’Are you coming as well?’’

‘’Sure.’’

Rainbow, predictably, raced down the stairs, leaving Rarity to catch up with her on the ground floor. Then, they made their way to Flurry’s room.

‘’Flurry?’’ Rarity called out as she knocked on the door.

The door opened rather suddenly. Flurry stood on the other side of it, her horn glowing with magic that was, then, pulling open the door. ‘’Good morning auntie!’’ she greeted with a big smile on her face.

‘’Good morning, darling,’’ Rarity replied with a smile of her own. ‘’Did you sleep well?’’

‘’Yeah!’’ Flurry’s smile got even wide as she saw Rainbow as well. ‘’Miss Rainbow!’’

‘’Morning, squirt,’’ Rainbow greeted with a lazy grin. ‘’Ready for breakfast!’’

‘’I am!’’ Flurry nodded enthusiastically. ‘’Let’s go!’’

‘’Race down the hall?’’ Rainbow suggested.

Wait no-

Before Rarity could say anything, Flurry spread her wings and began to fly. Rainbow watched her go for a few seconds, then darted after her, leaving Rarity and a desperately-trying-not-to-laugh thestral behind.

With a huff, Rarity went after them, keeping herself restrained to a normal pace, because someone had to keep to propriety in this palace.

By the time she got to the dining room, the door was open and Flurry and Rainbow were both sitting inside, grinning at each other.

‘’Auntie, I won the race!’’ Flurry announced loudly as Rarity stepped into the room.

‘’Congratulations, darling,’’ Rarity said warmly as she sat down next to the filly, before catching Rainbow’s eye. The pegasus gave her a wink.

‘’I’ll beat you next time, kid,’’ Rainbow quipped.

‘’But first breakfast,’’ Rarity smoothly cut in.

Breakfast was delivered and eaten while the three of them had a pleasant conversation. Rainbow and Rarity both merrily danced around last night, like it never happened. Rarity did want to address it, eventually; but certainly not in front of Flurry.

‘’So,’’ Rarity asked when the meal was finished, ‘’what are the plans for today?’’

‘’Oh yeah!’’ Flurry’s face lit up, as if she’d- ‘’I just remembered. Miss Rainbow, auntie has to work. Can you play with me today?’’

‘’Sure, I’ve got the time,’’ Rainbow immediately replied. ‘’But you have to do something for me first, alright?’’

Flurry nodded. ‘’What is it?’’

Rainbow winked at Rarity again, then said, ‘’You’ve got to call me Rainbow, or Dash, or Commander if you want to. But not Miss. Makes me feel old.’’

Flurry tilted her head and was thoughtfully silent for a few seconds, then nodded. ‘’Okay, Rainbow.’’

‘’Thanks, kid.’’ Rainbow gave her the same fond smile Rarity remembered Scootaloo getting from the pegasus sometimes. ‘’Now, say goodbye to Rares, and then we can go use those wings of yours.’’

‘’Okay!’’ Flurry got out of her chair and gave Rarity a tight hug, which she eagerly returned. ‘’Bye, auntie!’’

‘’I’ll see you at lunch,’’ Rarity promised. ‘’Have fun with Rainbow.’’

‘’We will,’’ Rainbow quipped as she got out of her own chair. ‘’Good luck with work, Rarity.’’

‘’Thanks.’’

They parted outside the room, and Rarity made their way back up the stairs to her office, and the stack of documents that awaited her inside.

She needed to delegate, that much was obvious. But to who?

There’s no one. The Empress needs everyone down in Manehattan, so I can’t poach from there. And there’s probably not a single pony with a talent for this in the Crystal Empire.

Or maybe there was. But they probably already had an important job, and Rarity didn’t feel comfortable taking someone like that away.

But this couldn’t continue. Rainbow had made that abundantly clear last night, between their soft reminiscing.

‘’Rarity, you and I both know you throw yourself into your work,’’ she’d said. ‘’But it’s not healthy.’’

Rarity had smiled wanly. ‘’I think I’ve had this talk before.’’

‘’And clearly,’’ Rainbow had flicked her wing against Rarity’s side, ‘’you’ve not listened.’’

‘’I’m sorry-’’

‘’Don’t be sorry,’’ Rainbow had cut her off. ‘’Just… promise me you’ll try to work on it?’’

‘’I promise.’’

But now was not the time for reminiscing. Rarity grabbed her notebook from her desk’s drawer. ‘’Qualifications for secretary,’’ she read aloud as she wrote it down.

This was going to take some time.




|-x-X-x-|




10 December 1008

The air in the Crystal Empire was as clear and cool as it was in Cloudsdale, the main difference being that Cloudsdale was quite a bit higher up.

Rainbow let herself soak in the rays of the morning sun, wind blowing through her mane and feathers. She wasn’t even in the air, and it already felt glorious.

‘’This is nice,’’ Flurry commented next to her.

Rainbow turned her head slightly and chuckled. Flurry was mimicking her stance: standing straight, head tilted a little back, wings spread open but not too wide. Her mane was a lot curlier and shorter than Rainbow’s, but it was affected by the wind all the same, and her wings never failed to impress.

‘’It is, isn’t it?’’ she agreed with an easy smile. ‘’Do you like flying?’’ she asked a few seconds later.

Flurry turned her head and nodded. ‘’It’s nice,’’ she said. ‘’I used to fly a lot with Mummy, when she wasn’t working.’’

Rainbow wasn’t really sure how to respond to that, but years of interacting with Scootaloo allowed her to make an attempt anyway. ‘’That must’ve been nice,’’ she said softly. ‘’And lately?’’

It took Flurry a moment to reply. ‘’Sometimes, I fly with my guards. But it doesn’t happen a lot.’’

Rainbow faked a smile, and decided to steer the conversation away before it turned even more sad. ‘’Well, I’m going to make you a promise. Every Sunday starting this one, I’ll go fly with you for at least an hour. How does that sound?’’

An hour on Sunday wasn’t nearly enough practice for her, but they’d have to start somewhere. And since Flurry didn’t live in a cloud city…

‘’Really?’’ Flurry’s eyes were wide, astonished.

‘’Really,’’ Rainbow confirmed.

Flurry threw herself forward and wrapped her legs around Rainbow’s forelegs in a tight hug. ‘’Thanks so much, Rainbow!’’

Rainbow put her wings around Flurry, stroking the filly’s feathers in a way she remembered her mother doing a couple of times. ‘’No problem, Flurry,’’ she said softly.

Flurry broke the hug after a few more moments. ‘’Can we fly now?’’ 

Rainbow grinned. ‘’Of course.’’ She spread her wings, and leapt up.

The northern wind swept up under her, cold but not too cold. Rainbow climbed about ten meters in the air, then paused and looked down to see Flurry wasn’t on the ground.

‘’I’m here!’’

The fuck?

Flurry was hovering roughly five meters to Rainbow’s right, while she’d been on her left on the ground. ‘’That was fast,’’ she said.

It hadn’t been fast by any stretch of the word, but sure. ‘’It was,’’ Rainbow lied. ‘’How high do you wanna go?’’ she asked a moment later.

Flurry looked away from Rainbow and up towards the Palace. ‘’There.’’ She pointed at one of the lower towers. ‘’That balcony.’’

‘’On the top floor?’’ Rainbow asked for confirmation.

Not too high for her, but still quite a distance. Good pick, kid.

‘’Yeah.’’

‘’Good choice,’’ Rainbow complimented the filly. ‘’Race you there?’’

‘’’Kay!’’ And Flurry was gone.

Rainbow caught up with her in moments, of course. Flurry was fast for her age, owing to the size of her wings most likely, but Rainbow hadn’t been selected as Commander of the Crystal Shadowbolts if she couldn’t even outfly a four-year old filly, no matter if that filly was an alicorn princess.

Still, she allowed Flurry to reach the balcony first, lagging just a second behind her. ‘’Congrats, you win,’’ she declared as they both settled on the balcony.

Flurry’s cheeks were already starting to look a little red from exhaustion, but it only made her look more adorable. ‘’This is great!” she cheered. ‘’I never do anything like this with my guards!’’

Yep, Rainbow was definitely going to ‘request’ some Shadowbolts from Equestria. And the guards were going to get a scolding. This was honestly a disgrace.

‘’Well, we can do a lot more,’’ she said instead of the curses she’d thought up for those thestrals. ‘’But a lot of my tricks require training.’’

‘’Training?’’

‘’Yeah.’’ Rainbow flicked her wing. ‘’Using your wings a lot, building up stamina, knowing what you can and can’t do, you need to do all of that to be the best.’’

Flurry was definitely impressed by that, if her look was anything to go by. ‘’Like you?’’

Well, of course. ‘’Yes, like me.’’

Flurry beamed. ‘’Cool!’’

Rainbow nodded slowly. ‘’Cool.’’




|-x-X-x-|




10 December 1008

Sunset Shimmer was very much unamused.

‘’I have a very bad history with the Crystal Empire,’’ she couldn’t help but remind Nightmare Moon.

The alicorn raised an eyebrow. ‘’And this means?’’

‘’That I don’t like being there,’’ Sunset explained with a well-hidden groan. Talking to Nightmare Moon was, at times, more exhausting than talking with Celestia. At least she wasn’t Nightmare Moon’s student.

Nightmare Moon didn’t look any more impressed.

With a sigh, Sunset tore her gaze from Nightmare Moon, and looked around her solar. Everything was in shades of dark blue and black. On the roof, stars shone, with the main light coming from the magical recreation of the Moon. The chairs they sat on were velvet, plush but not too much, balancing comfort with Nightmare Moon’s otherwise comfortless rooms.

It wasn’t like Celestia’s had been. Celestia’s rooms had been warm and inviting, just like her. Nightmare Moon wasn’t cold, per se, but she was- actually, she was cold, just not so much to Sunset.

The fact Sunset had prevented Twilight from reaching Celestia probably had something to do with that.

‘’So?’’

She looked back at Nightmare Moon. ‘’So what?’’

Nightmare Moon’s eyebrow came up again. ‘’I could give you an order,’’ she mused.

‘’And I’d disappear before reaching the border,’’ Sunset pointed out. Escaping custody had been one of many skills she’d acquired on the other side of the mirror.

‘’Not if I’m going with you,’’ Nightmare Moon rebutted, and that was probably true.

‘’Maybe.’’ Sunset picked up the cup of tea from the table. It was one of the blends Celestia had liked; Sunset liked it too, and Nightmare Moon probably knew both of those facts.

‘’Maybe,’’ Nightmare Moon agreed.

Silence came to the room again. Sunset busied herself with her tea, enjoying the flavour, if not necessarily the memories that came with it.

‘’Sunset,’’ Nightmare Moon spoke up after a minute, ‘’I won’t force you to go. It wouldn’t work. But I am asking you to go.’’

‘’As the Empress?’’ 

That sounded harsher than I intended.

‘’As Flurry’s aunt,’’ Nightmare Moon gently but firmly corrected her.

Sunset nodded, slowly. That made sense.

Nightmare Moon was far more pragmatic than Celestial propaganda gave her credit. Celestia was more pragmatic than many ponies expected too, but in a different way; where Sunset had expected Nightmare Moon to be crazy and rageful, she’d found a calm and collected leader, capable of compassion when necessary.

Celestia’d had that pragmatism too, but she had warmth, and more compassion than Nightmare Moon. But also a darker side, scheming and manipulative. Unless Nightmare Moon was even better at hiding than Celestia was, Sunset thought the solar alicorn beat out her sister in that department.

Then again, Nightmare Moon organized the civil war… but that wasn’t really manipulative.

But she was straying.

It made sense that Nightmare Moon would ask her. 

But Sunset wasn’t sure what her answer would be.

‘’I’ll think about it.’’

‘’I’ll need an answer before the 21st,’’ Nightmare Moon curtly informed and dismissed her in the same sentence, though she left the latter unsaid. 

‘’Of course.’’