Chapter 61 - The Diamond Princess
The guard posted near the bedchambers hadn’t come back. Royal Guards were usually punctual, and Rarity waited several minutes before an ugly furrow reared itself across her forehead. It took much effort to wipe it out with her left hoof so as prevent any wrinkles from forming. How dare she be stood up for not having a simple request fulfilled? Where was Captain Shining Armor?
After remembering her session with a holistic shaman, Diamond Princess Rarity eased out all her negative energy from the pit of her stomach and out from her sighing lips. It would do no good waiting for the guard or anypony to attend to her needs. She had already sent all her maidservants away anyway, and with the recent news of her father’s assassination, stallion guards were all over zipping left and right in search of the assassins and to secure against all possible attempts at the remaining Royalty. Yet what they were doing would hardly be called protection. It felt more like imprisonment. Two Geosense guards tried to persuade her to return to her room. First they tried blocking her. Then they tried reason.
"You mustn't pass," said the first guard. "The fugitive assassins are out there on the loose."
“Good sirs,” she said, “as dangerous as the current situation is, I do wish to venture outside for some fresh air. Surely you wouldn’t deny this privilege to a lady, let alone a Princess, would you?”
The two guards looked at each other with unease, as if trying to silently deliberate their next course of action. Just as their thinking increased, they cringed upon an onset of an unseen head trauma. For a brief moment, Rarity could swear that she had seen their eyes glow green.
"Certainly my lady," said the first guard. "So as long as you do not leave the castle grounds."
"We even put up a barrier to protect the castle from the assassins, should they ever dare to return," said the other.
A barrier? Certainly this was Shining Armor's work, and Rarity had seen it deployed moments before Spike's sudden arrival to her room. She had hoped that the Captain had been using it as a demonstration for the late King, and yet those guards hinted a contradiction in their words: the barrier was put up before her stepfather’s assassination.
Rarity had to see Shining Armor's barrier and test it out. The trek down to the ground level beneath the castle proper presented her with more guards and, to her ease, the Crystal Heart floating and shimmering between its polar control points. She gravitated towards the sacred national treasure in the hopes to soothe her heart with its emotional warmth. Yet she wasn’t even a few feet away when the harmonic alarm bells rang. A cylindrical wall of milky crystal surrounded the Crystal Heart and its two conic control points. The whine of the enchanted machinery preluded the rapid ascent of the Crystal Heart through the main floor of the Castle.
“Apologies, my Princess,” said a passing Magic Corps guard. “The Crystal Heart had to be moved to the Spire for safekeeping.”
Well, it would stand to reason that the sacred national treasure be secured against terrorists. Yet, why now? They could have done it when the Crystal Rebels had attacked the castle several nights before.
Still, that wasn’t why she came here. Rarity pretended to be discreet as she cantered over to the magenta barrier to give one tap on its solidly magic surface. Her hoof buzzed with magic energy, which, while not painful, would surely prevent her from leaving. Surely they would be taking extra precautions for her safety, even if the Royal Guards were exempt from this fact. So many of them passed back and forth with ease. They couldn’t really do their job if they were trapped like she was.
That furrow appeared again. Who was she kidding? Somepony made her a prisoner in her own castle. She should have followed her first instinct and sought out her stepmother, the Crystal Queen.
But first, she needed to find her sister and Sir Spike. Rarity rushed back up to the main floor and galloped up the stairwell to the Royal Bedchambers.
"Sweetie Belle!" she called out upon entering her room. "Sir Spike!"
They weren't in her bedroom. They weren't in one of her dressing rooms. They should be back in her Secret Dressing Chambers, hopefully, heaven forbid, trying out the gaudy and out-of-fashion dresses she had designed during her shut-in years. When she arrived, her fears came true. Neither the baby dragon nor the filly princess was there.
She began to find it difficult to compose herself as butterflies churned relentlessly in her stomach, causing almost all her limbs to feel noodly. It was a simple instruction to give to the young ones, but of all things, they had to escape through Sweetie Belle's favorite pastime of sneaking around the castle unseen. No, Rarity had herself to blame. She shouldn't left them to confirm, in her wishful and yet foolish naivety, that Shining Armor had nothing to do with the conspiracy unfolding before her eyes. She wanted to believe that her own Empire would have another thousand years of peace. She wanted to believe that everything was just a misunderstanding.
"Oh, my dear sister!" she proclaimed. "Oh where, oh where have you gone off to?"
"Ow, ow!"
Her ears tuned to the sounds of success thuds. A ball of scaly purple came tumbling down the long stairwell that led down to the Secret Chamber, and it unrolled to its natural baby dragon form. Wobbling on his feet dizzy and scratched, Spike was safe. Where was Sweetie Belle?
His eyes met hers, and the baby dragon became teary eyed as she stepped back to kowtow before the Diamond Princess.
"Princess Rarity!" cried Spike. "I failed you! I failed in protecting Princess Sweetie Belle! I am not worthy for your love and generosity!"
"No need to be so melodramatic, Sir Spike," said Rarity. "Please, you must tell me what happened."
"Well, I tried to stop your honorable little sister in trying to reach the Queen. I almost caught up to her, but then this huge crystal monster came out of nowhere and--"
Snip. Scuttle. Snip. The sounds were still distant, but it froze Rarity and Spike all the same. The steps the unseen force sounded like a hundred hammers nailing a hundred spikes in rapid succession. Rarity heard what sounded like two massive swords sliding against each other. She might not have the sensitivity of the Geosense Corps, but she knew that she had to act or else the thing was going to skewer her and the baby dragon once it breached the passageway.
That presented a dilemma. She didn't want to chip a hoof when she would jump out of the way, and she wouldn't have time to swing Spike to safety with her magic. A large and comfy lavender pillow caught her eye, and Rarity tackled Spike off his feet so that the two of them landed softly right as a metallic blur shot out from the passageway.
The thin and multi-jointed crystal arm pulled back, snipping its scimitar claws as it prodded walls for its prey. Good. The thing was still blind. Quite frankly, this arm and claw looked rather fabulous, worthy to be added to the Empire's arsenal. Rarity would seek out its main body, hoping that its appendage was just as beautiful as its arm, except that this thing was trying to kill her and Spike. Add that to the list of the most beautiful and yet deadly things in the world, such as dragonesses and poisonous tree frogs.
"Sir Spike," whispered, Rarity, "what am I about to ask of you, please do not tell anypony about it. I want you to ride me."
"Um, Princess, what are you implying?"
The second appendage shot out from the secret passage and reeled back like a poised viper. It too was made out of crystal, and attached at the end was an oblong sphere resembling an eye. The arm stopped thrashing once the eye whirred its focus on Rarity and Spike.
"Do it now!" she yelled.
Aside from her sister, a lady never lets anypony ride on her back, but this was a desperate exception. Once she felt the baby dragon's weight upon her, the Diamond Princess sprinted out of her Secret Chambers and eventually out of her room. Even outside, she felt the impact of the metal claw's lunge cracking the walls as it searched its prey.
She thought she could relax here, but the claw and its accompanying eye made its return when it burst through the ceiling, followed by another set bursting through the floor grate. Rarity ran. She wasn't used to running, at least not during dreadful physicals and self-defense training, and nothing she had been taught before would have prepared her for this monstrosity chasing her and her little dragon companion out of the Royal Bedchambers. Finally, she found two of the many Geosense guards patrolling the main floor. It was going to be a risk with Spike riding on her back, and she fluffed her mane hoping that none of them would notice him behind her head.
"Guards!" she cried. "Guards! Help us!"
The guards turned towards her too deliberately. Now something was really off, because their piercing eyes glowed green.
"All traitors to the Empire must be executed," they said in sinister unison.
The scimitar claws and their accompanying eyes burst through the walls behind her, and more guards began their slow advance towards the Diamond Princess.
"How dare you!" cried Rarity. "I am Diamond Princess Rarity! I command you to stand down at once!"
"All traitors to the Empire must be executed," the guards repeated.
"This is getting us nowhere. Sir Spike, do you have any ideas?"
"Me?"
"Don't you have any experience dealing with these kinds of things in the outside world?"
"Maybe I do."
He rummaged through what sounded like a leathery wallet or a purse. He didn't have anything on him. He wasn’t wearing anything, but it was possible that he had pockets folded within his scaly body. Pockets? Rarity had no knowledge of dragons aside from their known reputation of being living weapons of mass destruction. Granted, Spike was still, according to Twilight's words, just a baby, and Rarity hoped that even at his age he could find a way to dispel the foes surrounding him and her.
Instead, he just threw over her unicorn horn two gray and green balls, both of which rolled between the hooves of the zombified Royal Guards.
"Are you expecting them to play fetch?" Rarity asked. She couldn't decide if she should be angry at his lack of seriousness or frightened at the inevitable. She thought of running. She took one step, and the two claws protruding from the secret passages embedded in the way reeled back and lunged at her like an arrow.
Then she heard something akin to a belch, and felt heat above her rump and tail. The two little green balls exploded open and sent the crystal claw bouncing around the walls, scattering and knocking out the guards in its wake. The balls snapped close, severing the claws, leaving a few guards for the Diamond Princess to rush in and punch their lights out.
"Bravo!" Rarity huffed whilst cracking her hooves. "Bravo! Sir Spike, you are quite an admirable tactician!"
He was most deserving of a reward, but she couldn't go back to her room to give him gold or jewels. No, these things were mere baubles for his heroics. He deserved more, and so she planted her royal lips on his cheeks.
He froze, and then he fainted. Oh dear. Somehow he melted in her hooves. Certainly anypony would faint upon such gratitude, but this wasn't the time for him to space out. She shook him, and gave a few whacks to his face with her magic, much to her regret. He eventually awoke with red and puffed cheeks, which made appear more adorable than usual.
"Sir Spike, I need you..." she said, "...to help me rescue my sister and your pets."
"Sorry, Princess Rarity," said Spike. "Unfortunately, I don't know where to begin. If we had Twilight with us..."
"Yes, you're right. Lady Twilight strikes me as a very knowledgeable unicorn, and I would have mistaken her as a princess of Unicornia based on her wisdom alone. But we can't escape through the barrier. I tried. Unless..."
"Unless what?"
"The catacombs. We haven't used it in ages, at least not to my knowledge. It was built during King Sombra's dark reign, but I know for certain that there are tunnels that will lead us out of the castle. Hopefully, your pony friends would have found a way to escape, and I hope that is where they took my dear sister. Sir Spike, come with me."
Free from the weight on her back, Rarity's dainty hooves carefully stepped over the unconscious bodies of her once-loyal guards and the severed arms of the crystal claw creature as she headed downstairs to the multi-purpose hall used mainly for storage and, until recently, an infirmary for the recent terrorist attack. It was empty now, and it appeared somewhat dark and cavernous. Gaudy green drapes and other equipment from the popup infirmary lay neatly organized at the far corner, a perfect cover for sneaking into the ancient catacombs. Now if she could only find where the hidden switch was...
"So you know where the catacombs are," said Spike. "Have you been in there?"
"Once," said Rarity. "When my mother, the former Queen, died after giving birth to my little sister."
"I'm sorry they imprisoned you."
"No, nopony imprisoned me. I went inside out of my own volition, out of my cowardice because I couldn't even look at the foal responsible for my mother's death."
"You blamed your little sister? But you two are so close."
"Back then, I was a shy, selfish, and spoiled princess. Lord Umbra married my mother after my father died, and I didn't like it. Then my mother died only to be replaced by a mare who's barely older than me. With everypony important to me gone, I wanted to run away, but I didn't just want to run away from the castle; I wanted to run away from the Empire."
"What made you come back?"
"I saw something beautiful in the sky... Ah, here it is."
She pushed a switch barely obscured by a column-wall, and not too far from her and Spike, a hard panel on the floor slid to reveal a stairwell leading to darkness. Dust and years of cobwebs gathered on the steps. She wanted to gag or throw up in disgust, but a lady and a princess was above such vulgar displays. She didn't remember the passage to the catacombs being this dirty. Then again, her memory of her time there was hazy and influenced by depression.
Yet this was no time to be disgusted by a little uncleanliness. A lady must do all that she could to save ponies in need, especially her own little sister. But a lady must also know her limits and when to call for help, and she needed to find the only ponies who could face off against an entire Empire with the Elements of Creation; ponies who she, for a long time in a while, call friends. Diamond Princess Rarity ignited a light spell on the tip of her horn. She gulped hard, and took her first step in.