Chapter 71 - Re:Storation
In darkness, she floated endlessly. The avarice of the Element of Empowerment had finally taken her life, and at least she knew, before her last moments, that the Crystal Heart had been recreated. An overwhelming worry befell her soul over the fate of her little sister and her stepmother. They weren't with her, but the rules of death and the afterlife was still poorly understood, even amongst the greatest unicorn sages. It was Rarity who entered Empowerment's Sacrifice Barrier. She should be the one who sacrificed the most and the one who should have died.
When she righted her orientation, she saw a dim light deep into the darkness that she gradually floated towards. She could almost make out in the distance a magnificent gate of pearl and gold swinging open, and from the inside two regal ponies stepped past its heavenly boundaries to greet their visitor.
She couldn't believe it. She rubbed her eyes and even bit her own front hoof to make sure she wasn't dreaming. There they were, the late King Magnum and Queen Pearl beaming their loving smiles upon their daughter, the Diamond Princess. Rarity couldn't resist smiling or even crying in happiness. She was like a little filly again, and she was reminded of her father's regular roughhousing at the annual Crystal Fair Games. In jousting, he was king--both figuratively and literally. The mustached king would also throw off his lavender cloak and jump into the middle of the rugby games with the other stallions, who always allowed him to win.
Her mother--bless her heart--lacked the talent and fashion sense as her daughter, the Diamond Princess. Her cooking was the worst, but all ponies forced themselves to eat them. It wasn't appealing to say the least, but thinking back, Rarity misses the fun day where she drank burnt toast. There was also the one time she paraded in the Fair wearing Flim and Flam's patented "Illusory Dress" that granted the wearer the ability to allow anypony see what they wanted see on the Queen. Whether the enchanted dress didn't work or Flim and Flam misled the Queen, it drove a filly Rarity on a quest to design the perfect dress for her mother. It took her a long time since she rejected any help from all the royal dressmakers. The filly princess had toiled day and night, making countless mistakes stemming from her youthful experience. In the end, she never got a chance to deliver her first finished product to her first customer. Rarity completed her first dress on the night before her mother's untimely death.
The nostalgic thoughts filled her smile, but then Rarity started falling away from her parents. She tried swimming against the invisible pull while crying out with her voice drowned by distance and darkness.
"It's not your time, my Princess," said Pearl. "There is still so much for you to give."
Rarity cried out once more and stretched her foreleg as far as she could until the gates and the surrounding light became nothing larger than a speck. Then it vanished into the darkness.
She woke up with an effeminate breath covered beneath the silken sheets that draped her body night after night. The warmth of her bed and the sweet air of her room confirmed that the Element that now rested over her neck did not take her life. It took something else instead, a trait she had been proud of throughout her life. Rarity remained a unicorn, but she lost the half that made her part Crystal Pony. Try as she might, the Diamond Princess could not find any speck of sparkling luster embedded at the roots of her fur.
Aside from her clean bed, her bedroom was a mess. This mess wasn't the usual kind that was a part of her work-in-progress designs her personal sewing room. She floated in a bed-boat in a sea of disaster, as if somepony shot a cannon of icky white porridge over all the walls of ceiling. Rolls of soiled bandages snaked over the bedposts and other furniture, and dirty towels littered the floor. If this was Blueblood's doing, then that was understandable but nonetheless unforgivable.
Then she looked to her side and saw, undisturbed, a silver platter with a crystalline goblet of milk and a fine plate of cake on her nightstand. Leaning against it and snoring rather adorably was Sir Spike the young baby dragon suckling on his own thumb. Surely he might be the cause of this mess, but seeing him made her heart flutter a bit. Such a doll. She couldn't be angry with him in the end. He didn't appear to be shivering in his sleep, but Rarity magicked from one of her dresser drawers the first cloak she pulled out and laid it over his small body.
Around the time she finished her food, Doctor Stable and Nurse Redheart came into her room with her blessing. They bowed, exchanged short greetings, and wheeled in a cart of various medical implementations meant to check Rarity's current vitals. To relief, they only used the safe and shiny ones, and left the technologically intimidating ones in the cart.
"Your condition is now stable," said the doctor as he retracted his stethoscope. "You have lost a bit of weight, but if you resume your regular eating habits, you should be able gain it all back--if you so desire, my Princess. Oh, and please try not to use your Element of Empowerment in the near future; at least until I run a few more tests on you."
"So I'm not dead then."
"If you were, we wouldn't be talking. Is there something wrong?"
"No, not really," said Rarity as she peered longingly upon her own flat-colored fur once more.
"Look, I don't know what to say about your crystal coat. I consulted with a visiting foreign 'scientist' as they call her who ran this 'molecular DNA tests' on your hair samples. Um, what was it called? 'Genes' they call it, which is supposedly something deeply ingrained in all of us that makes us what we are. I barely understand it myself, but the bottom line is that you're still you."
"Oh, don't worry my dear Doctor," smiled Rarity. "All that glitters is good, but even flat colors like myself can shine in a sea of radiant jewels. I will miss my crystal coat I inherited from my ancestors, however, but that is a better sacrifice than that of the lives my sister and stepmother. How are they doing by the way?"
"They are both fine. Like you, they have lost their crystal coat in their noble sacrifice, but your mother the Queen… I only heard this from some other pony, but they say she has sacrificed her alicorn longevity to save you and your sister. She is now as mortal as you and I."
"I see."
"Well, Nurse Redheart and I better not hold you up for too long. There's a long line of guests dying to see you. By guests, I mean friends."
The doctor and the nurse barely left when the bedroom door burst open. Pinkie Pie bounced in with Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy behind her, and she immediately stopped when she spotted the snoring Spike. She gestured everypony else to be quiet.
"GOOD MORNING RARITY!"
"Pinkie Pie!" hissed Rarity. "Spike is still sleeping."
"But I just couldn't contain the excitement of seeing you awake! You've been asleep for a day!"
"Do you need your pillow fluffed, Diamond Princess?" asked Fluttershy. "Or a refill of your milk?"
"No, I'm quite fine," said Rarity. "I really should get up and move about. I say, this Element of Empowerment is quite fashionable--and functional."
"I'll say," said Applejack. "To be honest, that's very selfish of you to up and use your Element to save the Empire with your life. If not for your stepmother, you would've been killed. I mean, gosh, we almost lost an Element bearer."
"I had planned to bequeath the Element of Empowerment to somepony else with my last breath. But this is a surprise; you said that I saved the Empire. Is everything okay?"
"It is," nodded Twilight. "You see--"
"It was awesomerific!" Pinkie interrupted. "Your mom came in and she was all like, 'You can't take my daughters' lives--I give up my immortality!' And then--boom! The Crystal Heart reappeared. Your mother flew it down and then said to everypony, 'The Crystal Heart has returned. Use the light and love within you to ensure the restoration of the Empire'. All the Crystal Ponies got their sheen back, the Spire Cannon stopped firing, the barrier stopped the blizzard, and castle is shinier than ever. You should've been awake to see it!"
"Er, what she said. Wow, good job imitating the Queen's voice."
"I can imitate Fluttershy's voice as well. So, Rarity, are you able to get up?"
"She shouldn't," said Fluttershy. "The Element of Empowerment drained so much of her energy and it took away her Crystal Coat. The doctor said she needs rest."
"There is no rest for the fashionable," Rarity declared. "The Empire may be saved, but there are still things to do to ensure its eternal brilliance."
After rolling out of bed, Rarity wobbled her hooves, but gestured everypony to sand back until she balanced herself as healthy as a horse. After a low applause, the room became quiet once more. Too quiet. The tightened grin on Pinkie Pie's face had put the Diamond Princess at unease. She had this weird vibe that if she didn't say something, Pinkie's puffy mane and tail might suddenly fall flat before committing mass murder.
"I'm up," said Rarity.
Pinkie's smile exploded into a squeal, and she leapt high up clicking her back and front hooves together in a big hurrah before crashing down. The floor rocked, dirty towels and soiled bandages flew off the floor, and Spike jumped up awake and screaming in surprise.
"Then this calls for a party!" Pinkie yelled.