//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Empress Rarity's 250th Birthday // by Lord-Commander //------------------------------// "Rarity! Have you seen my saddlebag!?" The pony in question jerked awake with a loud snort at the sound of her name ringing out from down the hall. She sat in confused silence, trying to place where she was, when the familiarly squeaky voice called out again. "Rarity?!" "Y-yes?" mumbled the unicorn as she rubbed her eyes with her hooves. Rarity took a moment to look around the strangely lit workshop inside the Carousel Boutique, and found herself sprawled out in the midst of her 'organized chaos'. Her head felt oddly fuzzy and her tongue was dry and spongy in her mouth. Vaguely, she recalled having the most peculiar dream of an intoxicated pony singing happy birthday. To her. The half-memory made her wince out of empathy, and she immediately regretted the motion. Somehow she had a most terrible ache knotted up in her back and shoulders. A pain that felt like she had- "Rarity! I'm going to be late!" She turned to address the oncoming sound of little thudding hooves. “Inside voices, Sweetie Belle, inside voices. And no running, please!” She sucked in a breath at the unusually intense muscle pain radiating from her back. "Sorry," came her sister's musical voice, much closer this time with the sound of slowing hooves. The unicorn filly rounded the corner in a fit of some distress. "I can't find my saddlebag," the curly headed youth whined as she trotted in place. "Sweetie, I heard you the first time," replied Rarity. "Did you check your room?" "Yes,” she huffed with an eye roll. “And it wasn't there!" "Front closet?" "Not there!" "Well then, where did you see it last?" "In the laundry room." "Did you chec-" "Yes!" squeaked the soft pink filly shrilly. Rarity winced at the unexpected volume and rubbed her temples with her hooves. "Sweetie, please-" "Sorry, I just gotta find it and go soon, or I’m gonna be late!” Sweetie Belle looked at her exhausted older sister and blinked before asking the obvious. “Rarity, did... did you fall asleep in your workroom again?" Rarity couldn't help but smile at the concern reflecting from her baby sister’s face. That explains the back ache, she thought with a frown. "I guess I must have spent the night drafting up that order... I think?" Rarity glanced about in bewildered surprise. It wasn't like her to get so wrapped up in her work that she forgot what she was working on. Her workroom was so badly disorganized, that she could barely recognize it. As if it was a shadow of its former self. She put down a hoof and heard the crinkling of parchment. Rarity looked down at the only clear spot on the floor, the spot she had been sleeping in, and saw a fabulous sketch. A drawing in her own hornstyle of an elegant pony in a stunning dress. Or at least, the dress had been stunning. It appeared that some devious, uncultured, misanthropic somepony had taken to it with thick black shading charcoal, and furiously scribbled all over it. She gritted her teeth in an attempt to keep her composure. To her left, resting on a heavily smudged bolt of rare Neighponese silk, was the offending art implement. Its black cylindrical form was ruptured and broken in half. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, its remains were mashed haphazardly into the fabric that would otherwise be fit for a Queen. Or an Empress, she thought with a sudden rush of pain from her back. Despite the pain, or perhaps in spite of it, Rarity lifted a hoof and gently traced the outline of her latest sketch. Her hoof shook as she then traced the ruinous lines as well. Did I do this? she wondered to herself. As she wondered, she felt small hooves try to wrap around her midsection, hugging tightly. Rarity looked down and smiled. “Oh no! Did your drawing get ruined in your sleep?" asked Sweetie Belle. "Maybe when I get back from school, I can help you make a new one!" “Ohh, thank you, Sweetie,” replied Rarity as she gently stroked the filly’s mane. “Now, come on then. Let’s find your saddlebag so I don’t have to write Miss Cheerilee another note.” “Okay!” Rarity winced again at the volume the filly managed to reach. “Oops. Sorry. Inside voice.” Rarity stood and stretched each of her hooves experimentally before following the filly down the hallway. “Sweetie? Where did you...” The unicorn paused at the doorway that lead into the storefront and customer waiting room of her Boutique. “Oh my,” she said with noted distress. To say that it looked like Rainbow Dash was practicing her Typhoon Twirl in here... Well, that would have begun to describe the scene before her unbelieving eyes. A more apt description would probably include the mention of exploding heavy ordinance or the applications of pure chaos magic. Or a pony could say that Sweetie Belle happened. Really, it’s all the same thing. Nearly everything was either turned over or otherwise on its side, and everything not stuck to the ceiling was spread about the floor. Her favorite set of curtains -yes she has a favorite set of curtains, doesn’t every mare?- was reduced to rags, glue, and macaroni. Rarity watched as a pincushion rolled pasted her hooves like an Appleloosan tumbleweed before disappearing beneath a mostly-disassembled chiffonier. Honestly, she was more than a little surprised that nothing was on fire. “On second thought, let’s just send you to school,” called out Rarity, “I’m sure Ms. Cherrilee will forgive your missing bag given the… circumstances.” She gingerly waded into the room using her magic to clean as she went. Levitating a row of loose knitting needles back into their case, here. Pulling a distraught Opalescence out of an upturned basket of hat pins, there. But before long, her cleaning progress was cut short when the bell to the front door went off with a little ding. “Howdy Rarity,” came an achingly familiar voice, “I just… Whoa.” “Hello, Applejack,” said Rarity to the farm pony as her magic reached out again to straighten one of her many toppled Equinnequins. “What brings you in this morning?” “Uhh, you know,” said Applejack as she stepped over a bolt of faux leather as it rolled by. “What the hay happened in here? Sweetie Belle?” “E’yup,” replied Rarity absentmindedly straightening her mane. “I’m sure she must have set a new record.” With a defeated sigh, she added, "I'm not sure if I can get this cleaned up on my own." Standing up the runaway bolt with a deft flick of the tail, Applejack tossed a grin over to her distraught friend. “Yeah, well, I bet I can help with that.” “Rarity! I can’t fin-” Sweetie Belle stopped dead in her tracks and squinted at Applejack. "Oh. It's you. I didn't think you'd be here." “E’yup,” said the farm pony with a grin. “I need to help out yer big sister.” “She doesn't need your help,” replied the little filly, a certain protective edge to her voice. “I can help her just fine.” “Sweetie Belle, that is no way to talk to Applejack,” reprimanded Rarity as she frowned at the tattered curtains in her hoof. “This is going to take quite some time to make right, and you need to go to school.” “But I can’t find my saddlebag!” “That’s cause ya went and left it at the farm after yesterday’s crusadin’.” replied Applejack with a quick glance at the clock above the door. “Apple Bloom took it on over to school for ya, so you best run along before yer late.” “Well, that was awfully generous of her, wasn’t it Sweetie Belle? said Rarity obliviously, as she organized a rat’s nest of wire hangers. “Now come on then, off to school wi-” “But I can’t go yet!” protested Sweetie, “I have to stay and help clean up the mess!” “Now don’t worry about that,” said Rarity as she crossed the room and ushered the little unicorn to the door. “There’ll be plenty of mess for you when you get back.” “But I- “ “No buts! Now off to school with you, young lady.” Sweetie Belle gave a final groan in protest before the front door closed behind her. “Thank you for coming Applejack,” said Rarity as she turned her attention back to the mess. “And thank you for finding Sweetie Belle’s bag. I just... Applejack?" "Yes, Rarity?" "Why are you hugging me around the waist and... pulling me towards the stairs?" Applejack offered her friend a smile of support. “Ya got bigger problems to worry about.” “Bigger problems? Applejack, can’t you just see the state of my Boutique?” protested Rarity, with a poignantly pointed hoof. She tried to stop the earth pony by becoming dead weight in her grasp, but that only succeeded in slowing them both down. “It’s a complete disaster! I need to fix as much as possible before it’s time to open!” "Rarity, hold yer horses and look at me." She did. "Do ya know where we are?" She did. "Don't be ridiculous," she scoffed with a toss of her mane that reminded her instantly of her back pain. "W-we're in the Boutique. In Ponyville." Applejack released her hold and turned to look her right in the eye. "Rarity..." she said as her tone of voice took on a dramatic edge, "You haven't been to Ponyville in over a hundred years. This isn't real, and this ain't Ponyville. You collapsed in yer palace in the Crystal Empire." "W-what?" Applejack turned away from her and took a deep breath. As she did so, Rarity couldn't help but watch as the world around them began to dissolve from the edges of her vision, inward. "No," Rarity said softly. "No I don't believe you." "Rarity. Look at your hoof." She began to protest, but her words trailed off, freezing her her throat as she looked down and saw the familiar frost that clung to her coat. The Crystal Empress looked up to ask why, but there was nopony there. There was nothing there. The Boutique was gone, and so was Applejack. A breeze tickled across her muzzle, and the air smelled of salt. She blinked, and before her was a sight the likes of which she'd seen long ago. She was standing on familiar cliffs of an island, and below her was the ocean. It’d been so long since she last saw these waters. The first time had been as a filly with her parents, back when her grandparents lived north of Manehatten. It's usually calm and peaceful waves churned and foamed over as grey clouds boiled in the sky above, blocking the rays of the sun and casting the world in a grey sickly light. A storm was upon her and she could see the build up of black clouds in the distance. Lightning danced above the clouds and illuminated everything beneath it. The surf crashed hellishly below with such intensity that she could feel the spray slash across her barrel from her rocky perch. The clouds grew fat on the howling winds and, before she could think to seek shelter, began disgorging themselves of rain, winds, and anything else it could throw at her. In the ever-shortening distance, the lightning flashed brighter and the thunder roared louder with each strike into the waters below. "Why?" muttered the now soaked Crystal Empress as she turned around and began her trek into the interior of the island. Other than the sounds of the wind and the rain beating down on her, Rarity's mind was blank as she listened to her crystalline hooves clink along the stony ground as she went on. The island was, for the most part, dead. A collection of rocks, some ruined buildings, and a few traces of vegetation that still clung bitterly to life. Despite their dire straits, it was clear to her that the island had seen better days. She wondered at its remembered former glory. The lush greens, the bracing sea air... She knew that at one point it was a lovely destination, full of hope and excitement for each new day. Hope, she thought miserably as she looked up at the storm-cloud-blocked sun. Everything felt so wrong to her, fuzzy and thick at the same time. A settling depression threatened to overwhelm her and she struggled to think clearly. She felt a reassuring hoof pat her on her aching withers, and she turned her head and smiled at her friend's sudden reappearance. “Applejack, what is this dismal place?” asked Rarity as she took in the surroundings. "Well... We're in yer head, all meta-physical like." "Like a dream? Are... are you real?" asked the Empress, studying the orange pony before her. "You can't be. I gave your eulogy." Applejack stopped where she stood as the rain beat down on her weathered hat, her eyes opened wide with a growing look of concern on her face. "No? Wait, yes? I feel real. Shoot, now I dunno." She looked over at her icy friend and her worry melted away. "I don't suppose I ever had a mind to sit around and think about what's real er not, Sugarcube. But I do know when a job needs doin'. And right now we gotta get ya outta here before somethin' else gets you." “Something else?” questioned Rarity as both ponies started walked along the path again. Applejack nodded and picked up the pace. "Well... We ain't exactly alone, but the less said about The Other and his ilk, then all the better." Rarity said nothing for a time, letting the rain whip and splash about them. Finally she looked down at a puddle and asked the question weighing down on her heart. "That wasn't Sweetie Belle, was it?" Applejack shook her head. "Oh hay, come on now. No time fer mopin'. We gotta get to yer metamajestical core thingies in the middle of the island." "My cores?" asked Rarity as she hurried along side her friend, "Applejack, what’s wrong with my cores? What are you on about?" The two old friends, soaking wet but otherwise unfazed, hurried off towards the center of the island, paying as little heed to the encroaching darkness or the strengthening shadows that pooled behind them. * * * "Yes, I know it's important, it's just... Well there are other things going on at the moment." said Sapphire as she found herself trotting down towards the throne room again. Her pet fennec fox, Severus, sat across the strap of her saddlebags and offered up a series of short squeaks and accusatory barks back at her. "I can't believe we’re arguing about this," she muttered to herself. "I'm not forgetting my duties as her seneschal, Sev. Organizing the Empress’ party is one of those duties." With a determined nod, she added, "One that must be executed perfectly, if we are to prevent a wa-" Lady Sapphire’s words were cut off as she rounded the corner and walked right into a well polished breastplate. Before her was a small army of guard ponies moving from room to room. The stallion she bumped into she recognized as the young soldier, Garnet Tower. “L-lady Sapphire.” he greeted her without a smile, “A General Evacuation Order has been given. You have to leave the Palace.” She looked away from the nervous stallion, and watched as other ponies were being ushered out of their rooms and herded towards the nearest Palace exits. Sapphire was about to ask her question, when the Royal Medical Team rushed past her. Taking a left towards the Throne Room. “Oh no,” she said, fearing the worse. Sapphire galloped forward until she was stopped by a sudden firm grip on her tail. Looking over her shoulder, she frowned. “Garnet Tower, I must insist that you let me go! The Empress needs me, I’m her senes—” “I know who you are.” He said with a grimace as he fought to hold on to her tail, “Look I’m sorry. This order comes straight from Commander Onyx. All nonessential personnel and civilians have to evacuate the Palace until further notice." She sat with a petulant thud and the desperately gripping guard followed her silver tail down to the floor. She twisted in place to glare at him. “I’M NONESSENTIAL?!” The guard blinked in amazement, released her tail, and reverse belly-crawled away from suddenly very scary mare. Determination and anger radiated from the not so merry Merry Sapphire, as she shot the guard a look that would haunt his nightmares for nights to come. “What’s going on here?” "Lieutenant Dash!” cheered Garnet Tower, turning his head up to look at his hovering savior. "Ma'am, I was just informing Lady Sapphire about the General Evacuation Order and that she needs to lea—" Silver Dash landed and looked at the stewing Lady Sapphire. "It's cool. She can come through." "But the Commander sa-" "If the Commander has a problem he can take it up with me, got it?" interrupted Dash. "You're dismissed." "Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma’am!” he said as he snapped a pitiful salute from the floor and then ran off. "I'm sorry about him, Lady Sapphire," said Silver Dash with a sigh as she gestured for the crystal pony to follow her with her wing. The crystal pony eyed her escort suspiciously, but followed her nonetheless. Sapphire didn't trust the other pony as far as she could… well, she just didn't trust her at all, not after it came to light that the Lieutenant was a spy working for Blueblood. "What's going on?" demanded Sapphire as she trotted next to Silver Dash. “Not here, come on,” ordered Silver Dash. She lead Sapphire through the hall to the iced over doors of the Throne Room. The crystal pony found herself chilled by the cold air that spilled out of the small opening somepony had managed to create. Sapphire paused in the antechamber before the throne room and gazed about. What surprised her wasn't the cold or the foreboding black crystals that jutted out of the door before them. It was the lack of anypony else. As busy as they were outside, there was only herself and Lieutenant Dash in here. "The Empress collapsed," stated Silver Dash as if she was talking about the weather. "I'm sorry, I wish I knew more. A medical team just ran in.” she added as she pointed at the opening in the frozen doors ahead of them. “They’re with the Commander and the Empress right now. Come on,” she added as she began to fly towards the doors. "Just a moment, Lieutenant." The mare in question turned and landed in front of the silver maned pony with her head cocked. "What's up?" "Before we go in there I need to know. Did you or Blueblood have anything to do with this? Silver Dash broke out into a sweat. "I-I don't know what you're talking abou-" "Ms. Dash, now is not the time for games," said the crystal mare staring down the wilting pegasus. "I... How do you kno-" "MS. DASH!" growled Sapphire with a stomp of her hoof, "We don't have much time. Please. The truth." The pegasus swallowed nervously and glanced left and right to ensure the antechamber was empty before dropping her chin to the floor. When she answered, she spit the words out in shame. "I didn't have any part in this." Sapphire's shoulders slumped, and she sighed in relief. "But..." said the other mare, causing the tightness to return to the crystal pony's muscles. "Some of the other guards. They said that Blueblood ran out of there with his tail between his legs when this all started." She wanted to ask more, but a haggard voice came bellowing out of the opening beyond. "Dammit Commander," it shouted, "I'm a Doctor, not a Goddess of Magic!" Silver Dash quickly motioned for the pony to follow her inside and took off into the air. Sapphire cursed herself for being so easily distracted and letting the pegasus slip away. Without wasting another moment, she jumped up and ran off into the freezing throne room. The usually spacious throne room was filled with a forest of crystal jutting this way and that, and she quickly lost herself on what should have been a straight trot to the throne. "You know what I’m asking," said a voice ahead to her left. Sapphire's ears perked up at the sound and she changed her course to locate the speaker. Eventually, the mare found herself in a clearing of sorts, empty of the crystal spires that otherwise filled the throne room. A massive black crystal sprouted through the floor, with broken pieces of wood scattered about it. The Imperial Throne stood nearby and untouched for the most part, in clear contrast from the rest of the furniture. But her attention was brought to the small gathering of ponies in light green scrubs, the medical team by the looks of it, that stood around the unconscious form of the Empress laying just before the throne. Sapphire identified an EKG machine and at least a half a dozen other medical devices being attended by ponies. Some were beeping, others were not, but each of them gave some sort of reading on the Empress’ status. Sapphire made to run over to the fallen Empress, and she tried to push her way past the other ponies. Empress Rarity was a mess. Her once marshmallow white coat now held a slight blue tint to it and her breathing came in rapid, shallow breaths. Small wires and clips were taped to her body, feeding back data to the medical equipment. Sapphire could feel the magic radiating off of the crystal coat of the Empress. “Oh no, not now. Empress Rarity! Wake up!” Rarity whimpered in response. Lady Sapphire felt a hoof grab her side and pull her away from the fallen ruler. She fought against the hoof until she noticed it was Commander Onyx. “Let them do their work, Merry,” sighed Onyx with concern written across his face as he dragged her away from Rarity. “How did you get in here?” “I let her in, sir.” Silver Dash landed on the other side of the Commander, not daring to look Sapphire in the eyes. “It seemed appropriate.” He nodded in agreement and gestured over to two arguing doctors; a crystal mare, and a unicorn stallion as they approached. “Doctors, this is Lady Sapphire. She helps the Empress in her day to day activities,” he said. “Sapphire, these two are Rarity’s Doctors, Do-” “Dr. Mendelin. Dr. Groans,” said Sapphire greeting the two ponies respectively. “Yes, I know them. I schedule all of Empress Rarity’s check ups. What happened?” “Rarity… The Empress,” Onyx corrected, “Lost control of herself in an argument with Blueblood. Something about a ‘poison pill’ bill that he threatened would destroy the Empire’s economy. I found her sitting on her throne and we talked. But when she tried walking out of here, she collapsed. We’re trying to figure out what to do, bu-” “But somepony isn’t a qualified medical professional,” snapped the unicorn, still frustrated over the last conversation. “Although he thinks he is." “Look,” said the Commander in a carefully neutral tone, gesturing to the fallen Empress. “The Empress is a unicorn and a crystal pony, right? You are a unicorn,” he said pointing at Dr. Groans. “And you are a crystal pony,” he shifted focus to Dr. Mendelin, respectively. “So go on. Fix her. Figure something out.” “It’s not that easy, soldier boy,” snapped the old yellow unicorn, brushing past Commander Onyx. “The Empress is not a unicorn or a crystal pony. She’s something else altogether. A hybrid. Her body works on a whole different level that we just don’t understand yet.” Dr. Mendelin nodded her light purple head. “Not to mention that her anatomy is completely different than any other creature known to medical science. What’s ‘normal’ for her would kill any other pony.” “Such as?” asked Sliver Dash. “Well for starters,” said the unicorn, glaring at the pegasus, “Her body temperature can fluctuate from freezing to the same as yours or mine without any apparent negative effects.” “Huh. I thought she was just casting cold magic like… All the time.” “No,” said Dr. Mendelin as she brushed a hoof through her muted cyan mane. “And that’s another thing. She doesn’t have to use her horn to cast magic. Not to mention her two extra cores.” “Cores?” asked Silver Dash. Dr. Groans slapped himself in the face with a hoof, and muttered a number of unkind things about pegasi under his breath. “Okay, let’s keep the basic pony anatomy lesson short. Cores. I have one, you have one,” he said with an accusatory poke into the lieutenant’s breast plate. “All living ponies do. It’s what lets us use magic. Unicorns, clearly, have the larger, more defined cores for controlling the vast complexities of magic. Pegaus ponies have a less defined core, but its more noticeable in the wings and operates on a passive system, meaning they are always on. Earth ponies have cores, but are very small, more like auras and are also passively active. For simplicity’s sake, let’s just say that ley lines and cutie marks are involved.” Silver Dash cocked her head at that. “But, I can’t use magi-” “You can fly, can’t you?” asked Dr. Groans. “You think those little wings of yours can keep you in the air all on their own?” “Sure! I mean I-” “Ever wonder why birds can’t walk on clouds?” “Now that you mention it, I-” “Ever survive what should have been a fatal fall with just a scratch and bragging rights?” “Yeah I-” “Congratulations, you have a core,” he said sarcastically before turning his attention to the other ponies standing around him. “Next question?” “She’s had core feedback episodes in the past and she’s always come out of them on her own,” reasoned Sapphire. “Do you think she’ll just wake up again?” “Maybe. If her brain doesn't explode first,” muttered the unicorn doctor. “But like we said earlier, we really have no idea,” chimed in Dr. Mendelin in an effort to defuse the staring contest between Commander Onyx and her fellow doctor. “Commander, we’re doing our best here. Please, give us some time. There is so much we don’t know about her. The first and last comprehensive study done on her was by Princess Twilight Sparkle over two centuries ago.” For a moment, there was silence, and then Dr. Groans spoke up again. "Now, if there are no other questions, the good doctor and I need to see to our patient," he said as he and Dr. Mendelin began to walk over to the rest of the medical team. "Uh, yeah I got one." said Silver Dash looking all around her. "Where did Lady Sapphire go?"