“What do I know about alicorns?” Rarity asked, raising a delicate eyebrow in carefully calculated disbelief. “I’m on this quest to become one, darling, I know quite a bit.”
“I assumed so,” Diana agreed, nodding with the placid calm of a pool of still water. The tall pony smiled ever-so-slightly. “I was asking for my own education. I only know a few scraps of lore.”
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, darling. The Royalty is a bit like the weather. Above us and commonly discussed, but rarely in academic terms.”
“Unless one is a pegasus,” Diana noted. Rarity’s train of thought was momentarily derailed. Part of her mind tried to imagine Rainbow Dash defending a doctoral thesis and came up entirely blank, unable to even begin sketching an outline of such a conception.
“No offense meant, but the average pegasus is more… physical and practical than theoretical,” Rarity said with the most careful diplomacy. “Besides, it’s of no matter! I’m sure I can help fill in any gaps in your education, at least as well as any mare from Equestria. I was present at the ascension of an alicorn, after all, something only a few ponies in all of history can say.”
“Yes. That’s actually what made me think. You were present when somepony else ascended - did it not occur to you to use the same method to ascend by yourself?” Diana asked.
“Of course the thought crossed my mind.” Rarity sighed and sat back into the train’s seat. The carriage rumbled under them, hitting a section of slightly rougher track. Rarity glanced outside, seeing nothing. It had been pitch black for some time, as if they were riding through black velvet.
“And?” Diana pressed.
Rarity looked back at the cloaked mare. “It wouldn’t have worked for me, darling. I could feel it. The whole event was tied to cutie mark magic and I could feel it in my bones. My cutie mark was telling me it was Twilight Sparkle’s ascension and nopony else’s.”
“How did it happen? I’ve heard vague stories from newspapers, of course, but you were actually present. I’m sure you have a personal perspective.”
Rarity nodded. “It started with an ancient spell from Star Swirl the Bearded. My friends and I were… well, I’m not sure what to call it. Twilight tried casting an incomplete spell and we were caught up in it.”
Diana nodded, motioning with her hoof to continue.
“It was… something like an enchantment, but a curse is more accurate. Our cutie marks were swapped. I was compelled to take over the life of a weather pony, and one of my oldest friends who is a darling and a hard worker but with the manual dexterity of a clump of mud and a style a hundred years out of date did her best to live my life.”
“Ah.”
“Yes, ah,” Rarity agreed. “And for fixing her own mistake, Twilight Sparkle was made an alicorn. No, that’s wrong.” She sighed again. “She did fix her mistake, by completing the spell and casting it correctly. The Elements of Harmony-- I’m sure you know what those are?”
“I’m very familiar with them,” Diana said quietly.
“Yes. They refer not just to gems but to my friends and I. It’s more of a title than anything else. The Elements hold great power, and they were the focus of the spell, but the magic itself tends to have a life of its own. The completed spell activated the magic through us, and Twilight Sparkle was… truthfully I’m not sure. The magic is primal, and part of me…”
Rarity frowned, furrowing her brow.
“I am very familiar with my friends, darling. I know her measurements to the millimeter. I know the angle of her legs when she stands. The length of her neck. The size of her hooves. These are things that don’t change, not quickly. Some of them don’t even change after a pony has left the most awkward stages of puberty behind. After she came back… she was different.”
“Yes, having wings does that,” Diana agreed.
“Not just that. In smaller ways. Subtle ways. It wasn’t that wings were simply added to her body like a mare trying on a new accessory. There were changes that only somepony familiar with her would notice, and when a mare adds them together, they tell a different story. She didn’t simply gain wings, her whole body was remade. She stands differently. Her hooves are shaped slightly differently. The ratio of her-- well, trust me, darling, there are things a professional tailor notices. She’s not the same mare she was.”
Diana nodded, not looking as shocked as Rarity thought the news deserved to make her. “What does that all mean?”
“I’m not sure,” Rarity admitted. “She acts like the same mare, but…”
“But?”
“But I’d been under a curse immediately before it happened. I thought my destiny was to take care of the weather! I was trying to work out how to make a bespoke thunderstorm! I didn’t even have a client for a thunderstorm, it would have been a terrible waste of material.”
Diana giggled.
Rarity smiled. “My point is, darling, I’m not sure how well I trust my own recall of the events. I was hardly myself in some ways.”
“I see. And what of the spell itself?”
“A part of me is absolutely sure it would only work for Twilight Sparkle, and it was left unfinished just for her, as part of some greater destiny, but… even at the best of times I am hardly an expert at magical matters, darling.”
“Surely she tried casting it again,” Diana prompted.
“After the incomplete casting cursed us?” Rarity scoffed. She rested her chin on her hoof and looked through the window. They were silent for a moment, with Diana watching Rarity’s expression. “I asked,” Rarity eventually said.
“She said no.” Diana said it as a statement, not a guess.
“She wanted to study the spell. And then she met with Princess Celestia, and they talked, and then it wasn’t discussed again. The scroll is locked in some archive.”
“It seems a bit rude to do that.”
“Yes, well. Apparently she fears we’d lose our connection to the Elements of Harmony if we strained it again,” Rarity said bitterly. “I am no fool. I know when a mare says ‘later’ or ‘perhaps’ that they mean to say ‘no’, but without offending the listener. That spell will never be cast again. Not in my lifetime. Perhaps it was even destroyed instead of being locked away.”
“I’m sorry,” Diana said quietly.
“For what?”
“For your friends. If it affected all of you, perhaps it could have been used to help them as well. You’ll never know for certain.”
“I hadn’t even considered that,” Rarity realized. She felt guilty. “Anyway, I have to assume it’s for the best. I do love and trust Twilight. I do! She’s one of my best friends, and it was all set up so perfectly for her.”
“To use you as a tool?”
“She wouldn’t think of it like that.”
“You do.”
“Yes, but I am a spiteful mare sometimes, and jealous and full of envy even though I’m the very spirit of generosity,” Rarity joked. “I am allowed a few bad habits alongside my good ones. The important thing is to know when one’s feelings are best kept tamped down. Envy isn’t a good look on any mare. Anyway, we’re going in circles. The point is, it was a huge magical event. Practically an explosion sending her into another world. I’m still not certain if she was teleported or disintegrated.”
“I see. It reminds me of what happened with Princess Cadance.”
“Ah yes, I remember reading about it,” Rarity nodded. “It was another rather large magical explosion for her, wasn’t it? Some kind of artifact exploding in her face after she saved her family and town from an evil witch.”
“That is my understanding,” Diana agreed. “I wish I’d been there to see it.”
“Perhaps I simply need to find a rather large magical accident and stand in the middle of it,” Rarity sighed. “I’ll either become Royalty or die trying.”
“I’m sure it’s not always like that,” Diana said. “Princess Celestia and Luna were born alicorns, you know.”
“Born alicorns?” Rarity raised an eyebrow.
“Yes. They were part of an entire tribe.”
“But… I never knew there were others. Where are they now?”
“An excellent question,” Diana agreed. “Perhaps we’ll find others from their tribe as we travel. Of course…” She shrugged. “It’s not likely.”
“Why not, darling? I thought most Realms we were likely to visit had some sort of immortal ruler.”
“Because to make a Realm, a pony has to have vision and ambition,” Diana said. “I believe that’s why Celestia and Luna remain in Equestria. They lack that drive.”
“Darling--”
Diana held up a hoof. “You’ve met ponies born into the nobility, Miss Rarity. How many of them were ponies with direction and motivation?”
Rarity saw, very clearly, Prince Blueblood in her mind’s eye. It was easy to encompass his entire self, because it was petty and tiny.
“Not enough of them,” Rarity admitted.
“Without some desire to improve a pony could never ascend, and being born an alicorn… well, Celestia especially doesn’t have any real motivation, does she? She spent a thousand years simply letting things happen. She’d simply go on vacation forever if she could.”
“That’s a bit presumptuous. I didn’t think you knew here, darling.”
“I know enough,” Diana said. “Luna, at least, had some drive. She wanted to surpass her sister. It’s a bit bare as far as desires go, though.”
“Like the moon itself?”
“Perhaps. Empty.”
“Do you think my own motivations are that…” Rarity looked aside, guilty.
Diana sighed. “Rarity, if you weren’t a pony destined to succeed, you wouldn’t be here. This train isn’t for ponies who can’t make use of it.”
“I hope you’re right,” Rarity said.
“Don’t lose sight of what you want, and you will get it,” Diana promised. “Remember that. Even if the journey there is long, there is something at the end. This train always takes ponies on the trip they need, and sometimes the destination isn’t right until they’ve gone the long way around.”