No matter how loud she hummed the old tune she couldn’t distract herself from her large houseguest, the one that was currently stood behind her staring at the back of her head. It would have been clear to any other pony that she was distressed by his presence, it had been an hour and she’d only finished three dresses, that was just not good enough, for her at least.
Another thing that was bugging her was the High guard’s choice in clothing; she could safely say that heavy metal armour was most definitely not ‘in’ right now. A brave thought had come to her mind earlier, though when she truly considered it, adding sequins and ribbons to improve his look would be something that he would probably not appreciate.
Glancing backwards for a moment to ensure that he was not doing anything suspicious she concentrated as hard as she could on the dress that she was so carefully constructing. Even if he hadn’t moved from the same spot since they had arrived she still didn’t trust him, or any of the High guard, they had not made the best first impression when they defaced the front of the library or threatened Pinkie Pie and since the whole dramatic incident nothing she had seen had given her any reason to trust them, hence the reason why she was using the desk closest to the exit.
Her horn lit up as she reached out with her magic for another gem to add to her new creation, only to find a lack of the precious stones on the desk, there was no reason to panic though, she had a box full of the shinning beauties nearby. Her calm composure lasted all of about five seconds once she found the box to only contain a few minuscule shards, not even enough to make one small gem.
“Of all the worst things that could happen, this is the, worst, possible, thing!” She stopped herself from pulling out the drama couch, suddenly remembering her current company, who now had his sword ready for a fight, frantically looking around for some unseen threat. Eventually he gave up scanning around the room for the non-existent enemy.
“What’s wrong Miss?” Annoyed at the lack of gems to be found as well as knowing that she would have to trudge around in the gem fields to find more, she sighed heavily, throwing the almost empty box across the room to rest in a corner, at least that was she had intended to do. What actually followed was a number of objects being knocked off one her shelves from the misaimed toss, including a number of rocks from a failed design idea.
“I’m completely out of gems and these dresses have to be finished soon” She frowned just thinking of how long it was going to take to get the dirt out of her fur.
“Can you not simply create more, Miss?” She scoffed at the ridiculous notion, knowledge of the creation spells was reserved for only the most powerful of unicorns, a pony would need to train their entire life to just use one of them and there were only three who ever managed to cast those spells successfully.
“Sadly, I can’t perform such an advanced spell” The High guard didn’t seem to pick up on the underlining snarky tone of her words; she was fairly tired of the whole situation.
“I’ll have to go digging around in the, dirt, if I’m going to get these finished on time” She groaned, frustrated, with everything that had happened she was finding it difficult to not just go to bed and continue tomorrow. It had taken a lot from her, the surprise, frustration and confusion of Rainbow Dash’s visit that morning coupled with the almost thunderstorm at the library had left her drained of energy and it was becoming increasingly difficult to find the effort to go on.
Somehow, either because of being too enthralled with her own thoughts or by a cartload of luck, the High guard had managed to move right beside her without making a sound, she only noticed him when he reached down to grasp one of the rocks on the floor. Her heart nearly skipped a beat when she realised the sudden lack of personal space.
Frozen in shock from the heart stopping surprise she watched as he took the stone in his hands, a green glow emanated from inside his closed fingers while he moved his around the rock, affecting it in some way. A few seconds went by before the glow ceased and he opened his hands to reveal his creation to her, holding it in front of her face.
“Y-you, you can, you can, can, you can make gems!” It was the one thing on her mind, smothering everything else in a wave of excitement; if she could convince him to help her he could double her work production.
“I apologize for my naivety, I did not realise that you had not completed your engineer training yet” Whatever he may have said went unheard, she was mesmerised by the newly formed sapphire, it’s perfectly cut edges holding her attention completely.
“I hope it is good enough for your purposes” For moment she didn’t understand why he was still showing off the gem, until she realised that he had not made it for show but for her.
"Oh, Thank you, it’s beautiful” It truly was, she inspected it closer as she carried it through the air over to the nearest desk. Each edge was smoothed with a magnificent shimmer whenever the light caught it, it’s symmetrical shape was perfect for jewellery making.
She bit her bottom lip, internally debating whether or not to ask the one question that would make things a lot easier for her. On the one hoof it would be rather selfish for her to ask him to work for no sort of payment, she doubted that bits would interest him, but on the other hoof it didn’t seem to be that big of an effort, and it would mean that she wouldn’t have to spend hours washing dirt out of her coat every month on her trips to the gem fields.
“If it wouldn’t be too much to ask, could you possibly make more? If isn’t an inconvenience” When she turned back to speak properly with the High guard, she was surprised to find all of the dislodged objects back in their respective places.
“Of course, I’m ordered to do whatever you say, unless it contradicts other orders” She didn’t know what other orders he had but the idea of having a personal helper around did sound useful to her, spike was good but she didn’t enjoy having him working himself to death just to please her, the High guard, she imagined, could do the same without breaking a sweat. She levitated a box of assorted rocks over to him from the shelf along with the other empty one that she had so carelessly threw away.
The High guard began to sort through the rocks, quickly turning each one of them into a shining gemstone before placing them into the empty box. Rarity went to work as well, taking the ones she needed from the growing pile he was creating and applying them to the current dress.
Fifteen minutes into the work inspiration struck her and she began to frantically create, cutting and sewing pieces together like a madmare. Ribbons, gems, sequins and string flew through the air around her, her usual swift pace returning to her. Having regained her usual speed she quickly finished several dresses within an hour and another two fifteen minutes after that. With his help she could create any type of gem she wanted; it was a good partnership even if it was only for dress making. She would have continued on for another hour if it hadn’t had been for a bright white flash going off behind her, causing her to spin around to check on the High guard but when she looked she didn’t quite know what to say.
New red lines had been added over areas like the arms and legs, the shoulder plates had changed as well, gaining more bulk than before with added detail. His helmet had a number of new symbols covering large parts of it. Images of valiant white knights started to pop up in her mind, ready to protect the innocent from evil and save damsels from monsters, until she remembered who she was looking at.
"What happened?” He looked himself over checking out the new additions to his armour, Once he was finished he looked to the ground solemnly.
“I’ve been promoted” His tone was low, grave even, which only served to confuse her as to why a promotion would make somepony sad, she had a feeling that there something more to it than what she knew.
“Is it not a good thing?” He knew he shouldn’t be angry at her, she didn’t know, how could she?
“New positions are no longer created, if I’ve been promoted it means one of my brother’s has fallen, and I must take their place” Silence followed, neither had much to talk about after that. The High guard returned to the work and not knowing what else to say, so did she.
She tried to get back into her speedy mindset, though she found it difficult, her thoughts kept returning to the High guard, she didn’t feel right. Her friends would be there in an instant when she needed them, she would always have them to comfort her in times of need, but what did the High guard have now? A pony that didn’t trust him and a pile of rocks, she couldn’t imagine being alone at a time like that.
It began to eat away at her as they continued to work, she had to do something or else she going to feel bad for days to come. Then, an idea came to mind, it wouldn’t do much to make up for the loss but at least it was something. She busied herself with a number of the fine gems, shaping them into the design she had in mind. After some tinkering and a couple remakes later, she had her gift.
“Here, I know it isn’t much but” He stared at the expertly crafted badge, its blue and white gems shinning in the afternoon light. Behind her smile she was admittedly nervous, she was starting to reconsider trying to cheer him up after losing a brother with a trinket, she hadn’t had that much experience with loss, it wasn’t made any easier by the fact that he could be mourning and still look scary. He opened his palm for the gemstone badge and she carefully placed it into his hand.
“I do not understand Miss, why do wish for me to have this?” His voice had changed back to its usual, stern tone.
“It’s a gift, you could wear it on your, magnificent armour” It wasn’t her kind of beauty but she supposed somepony would think it looked good, besides, it wasn’t about her, it was about him.
“I don’t recognise the configuration, what does it do Miss?” Apart from look pretty she couldn’t really say it did anything special, she didn’t know how to enchant items, though she was curious as to why he assumed she could do it.
“What do you mean?” He pointed to one of fluttershy’s dresses that she had been fixing after an incident with a bear and a certain bunny in which Fluttershy had ended up inbetween the two of them.
“That layout appears to be for protection from animals” That would explain how she hadn’t gotten a scratch from the fight but she had no idea about configurations or layouts or whatever he was talking about, she just made high quality dresses, though she would never say that to another pony, that would be pretentious.
"It is?” She watched as he walked over to the dress, touching a hand to one of the many gems that decorated it. After a second the dress lit up along it’s decorative lines, gems and seams, illuminating itself in a green glow that would look spectacular on the shy Pegasus, it stopped when he removed his had from the dress.
“I had no idea they could produce such a magnificent glow” All this time and she hadn’t known that the gems she put into every single dress actually could do something; she allowed her mind to fantasy over all the spectacular clothing that could be made with glowing gems.
Her thoughts quickly moved away from all the designs she could make when she remembered that the dresses needed to be fixed by tomorrow and she was all out of the correct sewing string, she would have to go buy some more.
While the High guard attached the badge onto his chest plate she levitated her saddlebags onto her back, making sure that they were securely in place. In her rush earlier she had forgotten to attach them properly, which ended a rather nasty incident where the entire contents of her bags had been spilled across the ground. Remembering the embarrassing moment that morning only reminded her of how forgetful she had been when she passed by the very stall that had what she needed without so much as a passing glance.
She paused when she got to the front door, it was unlikely that the High guard was going to not want to follow her. Perhaps they could just make one quick journey to town, if they acted calm they could probably avoid attention of the entire town, she liked the idea, she really didn’t feel like dodging between the back alleys to stay hidden again and it couldn’t be that bad if they were seen, could it?
“Hey, oh wait, I don’t know your name?” That would have been a good question to ask when they had first arrived instead of if enjoyed sewing, she couldn’t be too hard on herself though it was where she started with most strangers.
“Dhelweard, Dale if it easier” An odd name if she ever heard one but it was no reason to say anything.
“I’m going to go get some more sewing thread for dresses, are you coming Dale?” There was no need to question it, she already knew what the answer would be which was good for her, she didn’t wish to let him out of her sight; earning her trust was not an easy task.
He nodded and they were out the door, strolling towards the Ponyville market. Unsurprisingly they drew quite the bit of attention as they walked side by side, turning heads like she had dyed herself pink or something as odd, though there were a higher number of ponies around than she had hoped. Thankfully the market wasn’t too far from her house.
Dale followed her as she moved past the first stands, already knowing which one had what she needed. It wasn’t a very impressive stand, the wood old and the sign had lost its colour over the years of its use. Cottonbud’s fashion materials, read the sign. Being one of the oldest stands there, Cottonbud’s small business was very well known by all of the fashion designers of Ponyville, as was its infamous owner.
If it were possible she would avoid buying there, sometimes however, it was the only place that had what she needed and today was one of those times. Cottonbud wasn’t a bad pony per say, he was just very difficult when it came to business, often raising prices at random when the demand was higher. She stopped before moving into the stallion’s line of sight, with a hushed voice she politely asked for the High guard to wait there, she did not want to make it any harder for her to get what she needed.
Cottonbud didn’t say anything when she approached, he just held the same stern scowl that he always wore, sometimes she would wonder if he was so mean because of some pony’s snickering at the mention of his name, though she wouldn’t think about it for long.
“Could I please purchase these colours of sewing thread?” A written list found its way in front of the stallion, along with a number of bits that would cover the cost. He scanned over the list before looking to the small gathering of bits, then finally back to Rarity.
“That’ll cost yah fifteen bits, you’ve only given me ten” Repressing a sigh she prepared herself for a lengthy argument, practically every time she bought from him his prices always seemed to jump up whenever she drew near.
“It was only ten bits last time” Though it was mainly a fruitless effort she wasn’t going to give up five extra bits without a fight.
“Yeah well, now it’s fifteen, there’s a high demand for these goods right now and I got many left” The stand was not large enough to conceal the large quantities of materials that sat not too far behind him, including what she needed.
"That is ridiculous! I can clearly see that you’ve got more than double what I need” Early on she realised that some ponies had a tendency to charge more than usual whenever she was in the market, it was the curse of financial success she supposed.
“If yah don’t like ma prices yah can buy from somewhere else then, I’m sure you’ll find what yah need at another store” Her face contorted into a angry glare along with dissapointned frown, there was nowhere else she could get what she needed and he knew that. The victorious smile upon his face disappeared at the sound of two large stomping feet moving closer.
“Is this one troubling you Miss?” She smirked as he wilted under the intense gaze of the High guard looming over him and his stand.
“No! Err, there’s no problem, I j-just remembered, there’s a sale on, and err, everything’s half price” It was amusing to see the usually cocky businesspony shake and stumble around behind the counter, gathering everything she had asked for quickly. The High guard reached behind himself, getting dangerously close to the handle of his sheathed sword. At that point Cottonbud froze before snapping his attention back to Rarity, having gathered together everything on the list in front of him.
“On second thought, it’s on the house, like yah said I got plenty anyway, just take ‘em” She did, placing them into her saddle bags along with most of the bits, leaving at least five for Cottonbud, it was funny to see his sudden generosity but she didn’t wish to take them without at least some payment, that would be stealing even if he did say was okay. Dale didn’t understand the stallions’ reaction, he had only been tightening his sheath’s joining attachments.
When they turned away from Cottonbud Sweetie Bell came into sight, accompanied by Scootaloo. They waved and she did in turn as well, they didn’t seem to notice or mind that Dale was stood next to her at all. Sweetie Bell started towards them while Scootaloo sat were she was staring up at the clouds.
“Hi sis, I needed ask you something from Pinkie Pie” She began to cross road that separated them when a cart came barrelling over the far off hill with a brown stallion coming up behind it, failing to keep up with it.
“Watch out! Run away cart!” He shouted after it as he ran. Sweetie Bell caught sight of it and froze stiff in its path, too afraid to move out its way, she could only stand there with her eyes wide in terror. The cart was fully loaded with bricks, a much larger than usual one.
“Oh my Celestia, Sweetie Bell move!” Rarity went to sprint forward but was almost knocked off balance by a gust of wind generated by the sprinting High guard. Dale positioned himself in front of the cart’s path with his shield forward, ready to take it head on, he wasn’t about to let it move past him. The car smashed into him with great force but he didn’t budge, his legs locked in place as he took the brunt of the impact.
Everypony looked on in amazement as Dale removed his shield from the cart’s wooden frame, he brushed off the splintered wood that had separated from the cart on impacted and pushed his shield arm back into its natural position with a crack. Rarity ran over to her sister to embrace her in a tight hug.
“Sis, it’s okay I’m fine! Please stop, you’re crushing me!” Unable to help it she continued to hild her sister, she was overjoyed that she hadn’t been hurt, though she eventually let go due to the bear hug pushing most of the air out of her sisters lungs, she gasped once she released her.
“I’m so glad you’re alright, thank you so much Dale” He nodded to them, quickly looking away from the pair to find that there were many eyes currently watching them, or more specifically, him. The stallion that had been chasing after the runaway cart finally managed to reach them, though he was panting heavily from the exertion.
“So...Sorry about that, it, got away, from me” He spoke inbetween breathes which made it slightly harder to understand him but the only thing Rarity really cared about was that her sister was safe, shouting at those to blame could come later. Dale reached underneath the carts main harness and dislodged something strange.
“This harness is damaged, I recommend repairing to avoid future accidents such as this one” The stallion nodded without saying a word. One of the mare’s from the crowd walked up to Rarity, eyeing Dale as she closed in.
“Rarity, is he with you?” Suddenly going through the centre of town seemed like a bad idea with all the attention they were drawing in, she had to make something up, something that wouldn’t give away the fact that he was some creature from a species nopony had seen before and had only appeared when Dash had become an alicorn, she was fairly sure that the Princess wished to keep that quiet for now.
“Yes, he’s err...My personal, body guard, the princess wished to give me a guard to keep me, err, safe when I’m not with her ” Not entirely a complete lie, he was sent by a Princess just not the one they were likely thinking of.
“Wow Rarity, I didn’t realise you were so close with the princess” If the golden mane was anything to go by she believed she was talking to Gold Dust, one of the few upper class ponies residing in Ponyville, who was well known for her connections in Canterlot.
“Oh yes, I speak with her often” The crowd was starting to grow and she knew they would have to get out of there soon, lest somepony start asking too many questions. She needed an excuse to leave.
“In fact I’m on my way to Sugercube corner right now for her and we really must be going, come along now Dale” Dale’s gaze lingered on one of the rooftops for moment before he nodded to her. With a growing urgency to leave soon she swiftly walked away from the crowd with Dale following closely behind her. They were almost out of the crowd’s circle when Sweetie Bell galloped up to Dale and hugged his leg with her forelegs.
“Thank you Dale” She smiled up at him, which surprised him, seeing such a young filly not afraid was a first.
“You are most welcome” She let go and He sprinted away to catch up with Rarity who hadn’t stopped moving away from the crowd.
Her mind turned to Dale once more during their walk, considering what he had done; she found it hard not to trust him at this point. In the little amount of time he had been around he had already done so much for her, maybe she could trust him after all, maybe even become friends. She shook her head at the last thought, it would just be weird, it wouldn’t work out, then again, Fluttershy was friends with the lord of chaos so perhaps it wasn’t entirely impossible.
A mild burning sensation fluttered into her chest, causing her to shiver as her chest tingle, she was worried by the strange feeling but was distracted from it by a white glow next to her. They continued to walk forwards, both watching the white glow emanating from the crystal on his gauntlet change it from a dull grey to a brilliant white before it died down, similar to how the feeling in her chest did.
She didn’t have time to question as she soon reached the door of the party pony’s workplace; she guessed it was where she would be right about now. She tapped on the door with a hoof, finding it to be unlocked she ventured forward into the bakery.
“Oh hey Rarity how are you doing? I needed to see you because I wanted you to try out some of these delicious cupcakes I made with my new awesome friend over there his name is Tazeral but I just call him Taze and I bet you’re gonna think they’re really tasty” Inside the bakery it was nothing short of an utter mess, the floor, walls and somehow ceiling was splattered with some kind of cake mixture as well as a number of other things such as sprinkles.
“I am mixing cupcake batter” Seeing the state of the Bakery wasn’t exactly shocking, seeing a High guard wearing a chief hat and an apron over his armour was. Taze held a bowl of the sugar filled batter in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other, slowly mixing the ingredients around while Pinkie rapidly dumped ingredient after ingredient into her bowl, stirring them at what could only be described as Pinkie speed.
“Hey watch this!” Pinkie picked up the four trays of cupcakes on the counter and threw them into the air over Taze. Immediately he dropped the bowl onto the desk to catch the falling trays, he grabbed three with his hands and balanced the fourth on his leg with great balance.
“Tada!” Pinkie grinned happily, Rarity smiled at the spectacle, seeing Taze making Pinkie so happy settled her indecisive mind, she would trust them for now, as long as they didn’t do anything bad then she didn’t care. Dale looked to her, confused by his brother’s actions. Even with his helmet on she knew what he was wondering.
“She has that kind of effect on you” She couldn’t stop herself from smiling once she considered how much there was to be happy about.
Taze suddenly and randomly seized up, going stiff, thankfully after the trays had been placed on the counter again. His eyes shone in a dark blue light that pierced through the helmet so that all present could see their bright glow. He looked around for a moment, checking where he was for some unknown reason. Rarity was confused again, left wondering why Taze was staring at his hands as if it were the first time he had seen them. To her surprise his head jerked forward to stare at her with his two soul piercing eyes.
“Guess who Marshmallow” Only one pony in all of Equestria would ever call her that.
“Rainbow Dash?”