Rarity had managed to remain polite and gracious towards her father, and had even kept herself from screaming at that idiot, Bladespinner too terribly much. That didn't mean however, that all of the fear frustration and anger just disappeared into thin air. Screaming into her pillows hadn’t helped, and to find that, on top of it all, she still couldn't get a certain lavender unicorn out of her mind, was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.
The mixture of the frustration, anger, and remnants of the fear she had felt wouldn’t leave her alone and her bed quickly became too small. She got up, and grabbed the nearest object, a standing lamp made from some very expensive crystals and enchanted wood, and proceeded to destroy her room with it. Her mirror was the first to taste her fury, shattering and spraying shards of broken glass across the room when the entirety of the lamp went through it. It was by no means the last thing to perish in the storm that followed; her bedposts, the door to her walk-in closet, and especially the painting of her father were all savagely beaten and left for debris while she searched for something else to take out her anger on.
By the time she was done, it looked like a tornado had raced through her room. Rarity stood in the middle, a grim smile on her face. It felt good to cut loose; necessary, even. She didn’t know how she would have survived if she didn’t let out all the frustration that built up while dealing with her father.
A small splintered stump was all that was left of the lamp. It, more than anything had felt the full reach of her anger and rage. With an almost giddy sense of relief she propelled it towards a window, shattering it and completing the destructive romp she had waited for.
After it was over, the emotions that came over her were mixed. On the one hoof she felt satisfied exhaustion; on the other, she felt bad about her behaviour, necessary though it had been. A princess didn't act in such a brash and destructive manner, and she could clearly picture the frowning face of her mother.
She put it out of her mind and focused on the pony that she couldn’t seem to forget about. Though her frustration had been diminished, the questions still gnawed at the back of her mind, and she was more determined than ever to get some answers from the mare.
The prison in the outer reaches of the castle courtyard could barely be described as such. A small though sturdy building held a grand total of three prison cells and a single desk for the ‘warden’ to sit behind; but then, any bigger and many unicorns would probably have objected to its construction. The capital city, Solaris, so named such because of the ancient order of unicorns that had borne the sun on its unending cycle. Back before the wars, and the mysterious twin sages whom had taken that power from them. Despite the bearers themselves having been rendered powerless, the city was still considered a holy site by many unicorns, which was probably the reason her father had chosen it as his capital in the first place.
And if that means that prisoners never see the capital, then so much the better, right father?There was a lot she could say about her father, most of it unpleasant, but he wasn’t stupid. Any rebellion in the making would have to contend with the fact that a majority of unicorns were uncomfortable with the idea of having to attack the sacred city, which was just another layer of protection the king had surrounded himself with.
She hook her head softly and marched onwards. Managing to leave the guards that her father had assigned to her behind had been a troublesome endeavor, but a necessary one. If either of those oafs got wind of what she was planning, her father would be standing in front of the prison before she even got there. Fortunately, Diamond, true to form, had chosen two of the biggest and strongest guards he could find. While it might be considered boorish, Rarity was of the opinion that those kinds of ponies were nothing more than dumb brutes, capable of little besides standing around and occasionally hitting something really hard.
Of course, the fact that neither of them had questioned the noise coming from her room after she had told them she needed to rest didn’t help their cause. Slipping out through the window had been somewhat of a harrowing experience, but with her linens, a little magic, and whole lot of luck, she had managed to get down to the ground with only a few minor scrapes and bruises.
The warden, a short, stocky, brown nosed stallion that, judging by the flabs on his belly, had never actually seen combat, quickly got to his hooves and bowed when the princess stepped into his little sanctuary of filth. “M-Majesty! What in blazes brings y’ out ‘ere?!”
His shrill voice was grating, but Rarity carefully kept her face from twisting in disgust. The stallion had obviously gone for too long without a bath and, just like the building itself, reeked of manure, rotting food and other excretions she’d rather not think about. “I’ve come to see the prisoner,” she told him calmly, waiting for him to get his face off of the floor.
“Which’n you lookin’ for, Majesty?” the warden asked after picking himself up. He scrambled towards the cells ahead of her before skidding to a halt and rushing back to get his keychain.
Rarity rolled her eyes and walked up to the first cell, sparing the occupant little more than a glance before feeling bile rise in her throat and quickly moved on. Whatever the stallion had done had apparently long been forgotten and he had more or less fused with his bunk, possibly contributing to the atrocious stench of death wafting out of the cell. She didn’t know which was worse, the fact that the cell hadn’t been cleaned out, or the fact that the warden didn’t even seem to care about the state of his prison. The second prisoner wasn’t in a much better shape, but was a lot, well... a lot livelier, and scarier as a result. The mare inside the second cell looked at Rarity with eyes so cold and devoid of emotion that it was easy to imagine her as a monster haunting the nightmares of foals. When the mare hissed and flung herself forwards against the iron bars, Rarity involuntarily took a step back.
The warden was almost as quick, jumping in front of his princess and banging on the cage. “Quiet y’! Don’ make me come in ther’” Whether it was the noise he made or some history Rarity wasn’t aware of she didn’t know, but the pony inside the cell slunk back, hissing softly. The warden turned around to Rarity and bowed again. “Sorry ‘bout that, Princess. Nopony knows what’s gotten into ‘er, but if y’ ask me, th’ poor mare’s been possessed.”
Rarity suppressed a shiver and quickly moved on to the final cell which had to hold the only reason for her presence here. The third cell was clean, for a prison’s definition of clean. It didn’t have so much as a single stalk of straw on the floor, but then, such things could be considered food if one was desperate enough, and Twilight had been placed on a no food interment. The unicorn mare herself, however, made the stallion in the first lockup seem rather lively by comparison; It made Rarity seriously reconsider her idea.
Calling Twilight Sparkle a shadow of her former self would have been generous. Though Rarity had only seen her once before, she couldn’t remember Twilight having quite this many injuries when she had left the training field. The former guard was huddled in the far corner of her cell, her mane and tail listlessly hanging around her. The rags of what had once been a prison uniform covered little but had apparently offered the mare what little protection it could. In the spots where cloth was missing Rarity could easily make out scabs and even open wounds; Twilight legs, back, and neck, were all covered in grime and blood. Being led away in chains after her supposed victory had obviously only been the start of her hardships.
“What happened to her?” She asked the warden, affecting a dispassionate tone while she silently gnashed her teeth.
The stocky stallion spat on the ground and glared the prone unicorn. “She got what she deserved ‘s what happened, Majesty. Ain’t been an hour gone by that she’s not had a beatin' from 'visitors' wantin’ ta make sure she don’t forget what shes done.”
“That’s what I thought,” Rarity replied coldly. She swept a hoof towards the door and leveled a glare at the warden. “Leave us, and the keys.”
“B-but, Majesty, I gotta—”
Rarity scowled at him, though it probably had more in common with a death stare. “I said leave. Go have a drink and don’t come back here before noon.” The warden looked between her and his keyring before laying the thing down on the floor and bowing before hastily making his retreat. Only after she could no longer hear the clopping of his hooves did Rarity relax, slightly. She sighed out loud and turned back towards the mare on the other side of the bars. “Twilight Sparkle?”
The mare cringed, slowly unfolding herself and spinning around while she got up. She landed in a defensive stance, which unfortunately only held for a few seconds before one of her hind legs gave out, dumping her face first on the floor. She blinked tiredly and stopped moving, apparently having resigned herself to another beating.
It made Rarity’s blood boil.
Aegis is going to have a lot to answer for if he allowed this to happen. She thought grimly, sweeping up the keys with her magic and opening the door. She did not even consider the possibility of a ruse until it was too late. The moment she stepped into the cell, Twilight charged forward from her prone position, swinging a hoof at Rarity’s head. Rather than receiving the blow she flinched for, Rarity found herself without breath when the former guard ducked and delivered a low blow to her ribs instead. After that, she quickly found herself overpowered and hogtied with her own cape.
In some ways it was impressive that Twilight could still function like that after having gone without food for several days. Mostly Rarity was furious that the pony she was about to show mercy had dared treat her like this. The biggest part of her, however, was screaming in utter revulsion at the dirty floor her face was being pressed into.
“What are you doing here, Princess?” Twilight's angry voice asked her from somewhere above her, which would have made her do a double take had she been able to move.
It took a few moments, but eventually Rarity managed to gather her thoughts. Rather than answer her captor’s question however, Rarity asked, “Why didn’t you run away? You could have been long gone by now.”
Twilight Sparkle snorted. “Run away? In this city? The guards would catch up to me before I’d even set a hoof outside the castle walls, even if I was well rested. Now, why are you here?”
Rarity bit the inside of her cheek, wondering what would happen to her now. “I came to see you how you were faring, but I can see now that it was a mistake.”
“To see me? So you can what? Gloat? Take a few potshots at me yourself? What?!”
She’s insane. Rarity thought to herself. Or is she? How would I feel if I’d been thrown in prison and beaten non-stop? “I... uh...” Rarity cleared her throat uneasily. “I wanted to see how you were doing. Traitor though you might be, as a Princess I care for all my subjects.”
She had hoped to placate Twilight Sparkle with her words, but the derisive snort told her that they had missed their mark rather badly. “Try again, Princess, I’m sure you can come up with way more convincing lies than that one. Unless you want me to snap your neck.”
“You wouldn’t!” The words were out of her mouth before she had time to reign them in, and she cursed herself for her stupidity. She ineffectually scooted around a little using her shoulders until she could look at the singular window which Twilight had moved towards, looking even dirtier than before.
“Princess,” Twilight said tiredly, “my captain has already told me I’m to be executed. Do you know what they would do to me if I murdered you?" Rarity remained silent, trying not to consider the implications of Twilight's words. "They’d execute me,” Twilight continued, laughing coldly without a trace of humor before looking at Rarity over her shoulder. Now that Rarity could see the guard’s eyes, she added ‘exhaustion’ to the list of ills Twilight suffered from. Her eyes were bloodshot and had bags underneath them the size of which inadvertently made Rarity shudder to think about. “Please tell me, Princess, why shouldn’t I be done with you now? I’m as good as dead, anyway. They might even kill me quicker.” Another humorless laugh. “Would at least put an end to the beatings wouldn’t it?”
“Is that what you want, Twilight?” Rarity replied as calmly as she could. “Do you really want to die? Do you really want to kill me?” This wasn’t how she wanted to die, alone with a desperate mare on a dirty floor. “I don’t think you’re a murderer, Twilight Sparkle. I think you’re just as scared as I am, and that you would like nothing better than to simply go home to your family and forget about the whole mess.”
For a moment Twilight’s eyes softened, and Rarity could swear she saw tears, but the unicorn angrily shook her head and looked back at the window. “And then what? You were my last chance to prove myself. I don’t have a family anymore.”
“And then...” Rarity huffed into the dank dirt of the cell floor, uncertain how to persuade the tall unicorn. “Look, this is terribly uncomfortable, do we have to talk like this? I think you’ve made your point, my life is in your hooves. Is it really necessary to keep me tied up?”
Twilight didn’t move for the longest time, and only spoke just as Rarity started to think she was being ignored. “I suppose not.” The larger unicorn spun around and walked towards her, biting down on a knot and unraveling the bonds with an almost gentle tug on the cape. “There. Better?”
“Much.” Rarity said, as she stood, rubbing her hooves against the chafed parts of her legs where the cape had bound her. “I won’t try to run, I promise.”
A tired grunt was all the response she got. Twilight sat down on the spot, apparently no longer bothered by the fact that Rarity could likely outrun her if it came to it.
“Well then. I...” Rarity hesitated. “I’ll take my leave, assuming you don’t intend to actually take my life, that is.”
Twilight let out a long drawn sigh and lowered her head onto her hooves. All the fight seemed to have drained from the lavender unicorn. Her posture, which had been intimidating moments before, deflated like a badly made souffle and the tail end of her imposing presence was a strangled laugh. "I don’t think I could take another step, much less stop you if you decide to run," She said, rolling over onto her side. An act of submission Rarity realised. She’d learned all about it in the academy her father had sent her to. Tales of soldiers exposing their weak points to their enemies, a plea for a swift death. “I’m sorry for what I did, Princess. Just... don’t make it last too much longer okay?” Twilight swallowed heavily and closed her eyes. “I don’t think I could take much more of this.”
“There will be no execution,” Rarity declared with all the gravitas she could. “I’m not about to allow such barbaric behavior when I’ve taken the throne, and I can tell you for a fact that my father wouldn’t approve of it, either. Regardless of whether that poor stallion is crippled or not, nopony deserves this kind of treatment.” She made her way to the least dirty part of the cell, laying her cape down to sit upon.
The former guard laughed another bitter laugh. “Your father wouldn’t?” She pushed the keys towards Rarity with a hoof and left them lying there. “He ordered my execution himself, but it’s nice to imagine that the country will have a kinder queen in the future.” The sarcasm in her voice was so thick it dripped off the sides, and it took Rarity all of her willpower not to kick the mare in the guts and leave her to the noose. Why don’t you? the insidious part of her mind whispered. It’s not like she’s done you any favors.
Because it would be wrong. I’m a better pony than that. She told herself with determination, only for the little devil on her shoulder to laugh. Oh yes, look at benevolent princess Rarity, saving a mare from an execution to suit her own needs. You were going to let her take the brunt of it as soon as her presence got your father good and mad. She gritted her teeth in suppressed fury. I would never do that.
Twilight smiled weakly as though Rarity’s private thoughts were an open book to her. “Doesn’t matter what I think, Princess. Even if you are better, it’ll be too late for me anyway.” She punctuated the end of her sentence with a cough and closed her eyes, that infuriating resigned smile never leaving her face.
Wants to be like that does she? Fine. Being her mother’s daughter —a born and bred diplomat— several lines from inspiring speeches made themselves available to her, but perhaps there was more of her father in her than she would like, as the only words that actually made it as far as her lips were: “Get up, and follow me.”
She marched out of the cramped cell with her head held high, despite all the dirt and grime that clung to her coat; Will have to get back at her for that sometime. and made it as far as the entrance to the building before she realised that Twilight wasn’t doing as she had been told. She marched back to the cell, growling softly. “I said, follow me!”
Twilight refused to move, or perhaps she simply didn't have the strength. Damnit.
Rarity stared at her, at a loss on how to respond to such behavior. Finally, she cleared her throat, and in a commanding voice, said: “Twilight Sparkle, as your princess I am ordering you to stand and come with me!”
That got a response, even if it was just a confused mare clumsily scrambling to her feet through deeply ingrained training.
“Good, now you will follow me out of this cell, and we are going to get you cleaned up.”
Twilight merely looked at her incredulously. “But... they’re going to execute me—”
“No, they are not. Now come with me!” Rarity held out a hoof, making clear she expected Twilight to take it.
“But—I don’t understand! They’re going to kill me, princess, you can’t stop them!”
Rarity stood tall and proud as she could, trying to imitate her dear mother. “You wouldn’t take my life earlier, even though you could have. But you are a criminal, one who has struck down a fellow soldier, and now you’ve struck your princess as well.”
Twilight winced. “And that’s why they are going to kill me!”
Rarity merely looked down at her impassively. “I’m afraid that’s impossible. You see, as princess, I am far more important than a lowly soldier. You were right to fear what would happen to you.”
“So you’re going to make this hell last even longer out of spite?” Twilight asked, eyes downcast. It was an unbelievably rude thing to ask, but there was no fight in her words, so Rarity skipped past it.
“No,” she replied. "As a matter of fact, I am going to make it your responsibility to make sure nothing happens to me from now on.”
Twilight looked up at Rarity as if she was a snake about to bite her. “W-what? You... you can’t be serious.”
“Oh, but I am.” Rarity replied without a hint of humor. “I have some sway with my father. I’ll tell him what you’ve done and that I’ve decided on my own punishment. He will listen.” Her eyes twinkled in the darkness, and she held out a hoof. “Now, you can come with me, live a life of purpose, or die here with none. What exactly do you have to lose?”
Twilight still looked unsure, but hesitantly took the proffered hoof, nodding her head in acquiescence. “My life is yours, Princess.”
“And mine is in your hooves, or will be once we sort this out. For now lets get you someplace to bathe, and possibly sleep and eat as well.”
In the back of her mind, Rarity knew that she was being rash. Pardoning a prisoner who hadn’t been sentenced yet was one thing, but defying one of the kings rulings was a different beast entirely, one she wasn’t sure would work out well for those concerned. Yet, when she compared the image of Twilight Sparkle Soldier first class—the one that had gotten stuck in her mind—to the pony giving up on life and nigh on begging for a swift end out of sheer misery, her blood boiled. She would be damned if she let something like that happen if she could prevent it.
She came to a halt in the doorway once more, agonizing over a sensible way to get Twilight to her chambers. Overruling a single overweight warden that wasn’t well informed, or smart enough to know about regulations, had been a calculated risk, helped by a good amount of sheer luck. Most of the guards, however, knew that the king would protect them if they disregarded her orders to maintain the defense of the castle; and many of them would, as her father was at least more popular among the soldiers than she was.
The rattling of the keys made her ears perk and she turned around just in time to see Twilight at the second cell door. Twilight unlocked it and stepped back, letting the crazed mare out of the cell. The mare eyed her suspiciously, then cautiously moved past her before knocking Rarity to the side in her mad dash for the exit.
“What in Equestria do you think you’re doing?!” Rarity yelled at her companion. “She was imprisoned for a reason! She’s dangerous!”
Twilight shrugged, looking every bit as tired and worn down as before, with the exception of her eyes; they shone with a renewed vigor. “Good. That means that more guards will leave their posts to chase her.”
“Why would you eve— Oh...” Rarity found herself at a loss for words, which wasn’t something she was used to. She didn’t like it. “Well, perhaps you could inform me the next time you’re about to do something stupid.”
Her outrage was met with a tired smile. “My apologies, Princess,” Twilight said, bowing lightly. She almost fell over when her hind leg buckled, but managed to recover before Rarity stepped forward in worry. “Shall we go?”
Rarity put the hoof she had extended back on the ground and nodded. “Let’s.”
Some time later, after many harrowing near misses with panicked guards ponies who had to be fended off with orders from the princess to search various parts of the castle (Parts which were conveniently far from where Rarity herself was.) they arrived at last at the final obstacle. Her own personal guards, standing between her and her bedroom. All this time, and they were still under the impression that they were still guarding her.
“Any ideas for this one, Sparkle?” Rarity hissed, cautiously peeking around the corner. The guards were presently dozing against the walls near her door, which boded well for her safety if there ever truly was an attack on her person in the middle of the night. Perhaps father is right. I do need a bodyguard, the rest of these fools are useless. She looked back at Twilight who did not prove to be much more adequate. The unicorn was slumped against the wall she was supposed to be hiding behind, only half managing to stay upright in her fight with fatigue. Then again... She mentally chided herself. Don’t kick a mare when she is down, Rarity. Lest we forget that is why she is so fatigued.
“Sorry... Princess.” Twilight replied, clearly on the brink of collapse. “I’m no good to you like this. Maybe if you turned me in your father would—”
“Enough of that!” Rarity snapped back. “This is my will, and I will not be balked at by anypony. Not even my father. He wants a strong heir, so he’ll get one.” She surreptitiously peeked around the corner again, trying to think of something, anything to get past them.
Like any plan, all of hers seemed to fall apart the moment they came into contact with the enemy; with the enemy in this case being those two brutes that had been foisted upon her. Even if she wasn’t impressed with their intelligence, not even they would simply let it slide that the Princess they thought they had been guarding came back to the room she was supposed to have been in. They were going to need help, and quickly.
Unfortunately, it seemed like everything would come crashing down. Her ears picked up rapid hoofsteps coming up the stairs; even if it wasn’t a guard, a maid screaming her lungs out would doom them just as surely. Skilled as she might be, Twilight was in no state to overpower anypony, and Rarity herself was demonstrably bad at combat in general. I really wish I had taken those combat lessons now... Twilight blinked tiredly before dropping into a combat-ready stance with a soft grunt.
The hoofsteps stopped and Rarity could easily picture a guard with his ears perked in their direction. Slowly the hoofsteps began again, and it wouldn’t be long before they came face to face with the pony that could end all Rarity’s plans with nary a sound.
Three steps. Rarity took a deep breath and held it, trying to keep as quiet as she could.
Two steps. Twilight tensed and lightly shifted her shoulders in preparation.
One last step.
Everything happened all at once. A pony with a soft yellow coat and a long flowing pink mane jumped up the last step, brandishing a sleek silver dagger. Fluttershy! Twilight moved before Rarity had even opened her mouth, jumping towards the perceived threat and shoving her into a wall. Or at least, that had been her intention. At the very last moment, her hind leg gave out and she ended up merely knocking Fluttershy aside before hitting the wall herself.
Fluttershy stumbled but managed to regain her footing and shifted the dagger to one of her wings with a dexterity that made Rarity gawk. Twilight wasn’t as fast; she slowly got back onto three shaking legs, clutching her head with the last one and blinked a few times, trying to clear her vision.
Do something! Rarity’s mind screamed at her, so she did. Fluttershy took a hesitant step back, keeping the dagger between herself and Twilight who was swerving from side to side dangerously. Somehow the Pegasus managed to look brave and deathly afraid at the same time. Before she could turn and run for help however, Rarity stepped forward, interposing herself between her friend and her... bodyguard, she supposed. Fluttershy stiffened for half a moment before she realised who she was looking at.
“Rarity?”
Rarity put a hoof to her mouth. “Shhh, not so loud.” She stepped forward and smiled a disarming smile. Fluttershy looked past her at Twilight and only put the knife away when Rarity shook her head. “Hello, darling. What brings you up here?”
“I uhm...” Fluttershy trailed off. She looked at Twilight with a mixture of pity and anger, before shooting a questioning glance in Rarity's direction.
Surely she isn’t still angry about that whole crippling thing? “Yes?” Rarity prompted her, putting a hoof to her cheek to focus Fluttershy’s attention on herself.
“I overheard that somepony had escaped from the prison, and I thought...” The Pegasus leaned in and shielded their conversation from Twilight with a wing before whispering: “I thought she was trying to get her revenge on you. Are you alright?” Her eyes flicked back in the direction of Twilight again, although the pity had won out over anger.
"Darling?" Rarity turned Fluttershy's face towards her once more. "Twilight needs someplace to rest and clean up, but we cannot get into my chambers with those two oafs in the way."
"Two oafs?" Fluttershy asked curiously.
Rarity nodded. "My father was 'concerned for my safety' and now there are two big burly stallions in front of the door. I had to sneak out through the window before I could even-"
"Out the window?!"
Rarity hastily silenced her friend with a hoof, peeking around the corner to see if either guard had been alerted by the outburst. They had not, though one of them snorted and shook himself, standing up a little straighter. She slowly removed her hoof from Fluttershy's mouth and whispered, "Yes, out the window. But that isn't important right now. Could you distract them so I can get my new bodyguard inside?”
"Your new b-hmphf!?"
Rarity's hoof returned before Fluttershy could give them away. "Later," she hissed. "Really, darling, all you have to do is use a few of those flirting techniques I showed you. They'll be eating out of your hooves in no time."
Fluttershy paled, but before she could say anything Rarity shushed her. Fluttershy nodded in understanding before urgently whispering, "I-I... I can't do that. What if they want to do... things? What if I have to..." She paled even further. and looked as if she was about to be sick.
There was a moment of silence while Rarity thought about her friend's response. I should really have seen that coming. She's probably the only pony that wouldn’t be comfortable with a little social flirting.
She was about to tell Fluttershy to forget about it, but Twilight made it rather difficult. The purple Unicorn had dragged herself back to their little alcove, but was finding it next to impossible to stay upright. “Princess...” She did not need to finish her sentence for Rarity to get the gist of it.
“No.” Rarity said determinedly. “If Fluttershy cannot create a distraction, then I shall simply have to do it myself.” She turned to her friend, smiling apologetically. “Sorry, darling. I should have realized it would be too much for you. Could you please take Twilight into my room instead? I am about to get myself into a lot of trouble with my father but I need somepony I can trust to make sure that Twilight Sparkle gets a little bit of rest at least.”
Fluttershy bit her lip, looking between her determined friend and the sickly looking guard before shaking her head. “No, I’ll do it.”
“Are you sure?” Rarity asked. “You know that—”
“I’m sure. You’d get into trouble right?”
“Well, yes but...”
Fluttershy took one last look at Twilight before shaking her head vehemently. “I said I’ll do it, blow out the candle.” Before Rarity could even ask her what her plan was, she stepped out of the alcove quasi-confidently; the trembling of her legs barely noticeable.
There was nothing left for Rarity to do but blow out the candle and hope that her friend wouldn’t bungle her distraction action. Twilight had fallen over with a soft thump, and while she’d had the presence of mind to curl up in the darkest part of the alcove they had been hiding in, Rarity wasn’t sure how much longer she would remain conscious. Any successful plan required her to stay hidden in the natural shadows, yet she couldn’t help but wonder if her friend was doing alright, and found herself peeking around the corner before her mind could come up with a proper reason why she shouldn't.
"Oh my goodness!" Fluttershy exclaimed when she rounded the corner into view of the guards both of which immediately righted their posture. "Please, you have to help me! A crazy mare almost hit me downstairs in the hall! I think she escaped from the dungeon! And now...” Fluttershy hesitated briefly. “Now... she’s after me!”
To Rarity, the guards once again proved their less than stellar intelligence when they didn’t ask Fluttershy any questions or even stopped to consider the validity of what she was saying. Instead, the princess had to press herself against the wall to avoid being spotted while they ran past the alcove. She waited a few more moments to be sure that the guards were far enough away before telling her companion to follow her and stepping out of the shadows. She walked up to her demure friend and smiled. “Marvelous thinking, darling,” she said, looking back over her shoulder to see what kept Twilight. "That should keep them busy for a while at least."
When Twilight did not emerge from her hiding spot, Rarity groaned and walked back, only to find that she had been right in her assessment of the guard's condition. Malnourishment and sleep deprivation had taken their toll on the unicorn, though thankfully, the shadows had obscured her unconscious form from the guards.
Rarity lit up her horn and pulled the unconscious pony from her hiding place with a grunt, which roused Twilight enough to make her eyes flutter open.
"Sorry, princess," she mumbled faintly.
"Apologise later," Rarity snapped, hoisting Twilight up to her hooves and supporting her until she had found her footing, which took longer than she would have liked. "For now, I'd rather you pony up and walk the last few feet to my room, can you handle that, soldier?"
Twilight nodded mutely, and limped along to the best of her ability, leaning against Rarity's side every step of the way.
Rarity's ears perked when the ominous sound of four pairs of hoofsteps came up the stairs. They had barely even made it halfway across the hall and would surely get caught if they didn't get some form of help. Things were simply moving too slowly and Twilight was too big and heavy to simply pick up. "Fluttershy," she whispered urgently. "Stall them!"
After half a second of indecisive fidgeting, Fluttershy nodded and made her way towards the noise, and Rarity heard her say "Oh my goodness! I thought she had snuck past you somehow. Did you find her?" Before she could hear the responses from what she assumed were her guards, however, the door to her room closed with a slam. Rarity let loose the breath she had not quite realized she was holding, relieved that she and Twilight had managed to reach safety without being caught.
When they finally came to a halt inside her room, Rarity’s first thought was to make sure Twilight took a bath. The mare reeked of prison, exhaustion, and more prison, and she was hesitant to allow Twilight anywhere near her bed. At least, until she smelled herself and had to resist the urge to scream, throw up, or both. How do ponies manage to live through such an experience? Looking over at Twilight, she had to come to the conclusion that many of them probably didn't.
After that the decision became much simpler; Twilight got the softest spot in her bed (The maids could always clean it up afterwards) while she herself took a much needed bath. Perhaps, after washing the smell of incarceration from her coat, could she come up with a new plan to hide Twilight whilst the mare recovered.
Already, having a bodyguard was proving to be as big a hassle as she'd always feared.
Having a bathroom adjacent to her bedroom—especially one that came with an extra large sized bath—was a blessing, one she had never fully appreciated until the moment the tub was full and she lowered herself into the warm water. Washing away all of the grime and dirt would take some doing, but for the moment she was happy enough simply relaxing for a little while; It had been an exciting enough morning, even without the life threatening situation, after all. Recalling Twilight standing over her with a killer's intent in her eyes made her sigh heavily and put question marks behind everything she'd done. What am I even doing making a mare like that my bodyguard? I should have just—
Her thought was interrupted by a soft knocking on the door followed by Fluttershy cautiously peeking around it. Rarity belatedly realised that she hadn’t actually closed the door to the bathroom, but let the oversight go with another sigh. “Do come in, darling, but close the door would you?”
Fluttershy did as she was asked and sat down near the edge of the tub. It, like everything in the bathroom, was a display of opulence. The entire floor was made of inlaid marble slabs, each of which had a ruby at its center. The gemstones in turn housed a small heating spell, making sure that one never got cold hooves in the room. Further extravagance came in the form of a mirror that spanned the entire back wall of the bathroom. Even the bathtub itself, rather than being furniture, had been hewn straight into the rock. It allowed for a much bigger bath and made it easy for ponies to sit and talk to the occupants if they did not feel like getting wet.
More than one of the parties Rarity had held for her friends had been spent entirely in the bathroom.
It didn't take more than a moment after Fluttershy had sat down for the tension to spill out of her. "Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe I lied to those nice stallions like that!"
Rarity couldn't help but smirk. "And you were marvelous, darling! I’d go so far as to say that you're a natural at the whole ‘cloak and dagger’ thing.” When Fluttershy paled and furiously shook her head, Rarity laughed. “Don’t fret, darling, I’m only teasing. There actually was a madpony that escaped around the same time. You were doing them a favor by alerting them to the danger.”
“Is she—” Fluttershy inclined her head towards the bedroom. “— mad, on top of everything else? Why would you ever make somepony like that your bodyguard?”
Rarity’s bout of levity was short lived and she shook her head with a sigh. “No, Twilight Sparkle is not mad.” She let her mind wander for a moment before thoughtlessly adding, “Although the pony she let escape most certainly was.” She broke the water’s surface to hold up a hoof. “I know what you’re going to say, but it was for the best. That mad mare can’t have gotten far, and we needed the guards to chase her if we wanted to have any chance of making it back here.”
The way Fluttershy felt about her—and especially Twilight’s— actions was clearly written on her face, but the fact that she did not vocally disagree only made it that much more difficult for Rarity to justify her own actions to herself.
“I did what I thought was best,” Rarity said, huffing softly. “You wouldn’t have been able to simply leave her there if you’d seen what they were doing to her.” At Fluttershy’s uncomprehending stare, she continued, “You haven’t taken a good look at her, have you? She was being beaten, and denied food or sleep for three whole days! She could hardly stand when I arrived, and yet she managed to make it all the way back here on her own power.” There was an admiration in her voice that she couldn’t, or perhaps wouldn’t suppress. Twilight might not have done much to prove that she was worthy of being her bodyguard just yet, but she had certainly proven herself to be resilient and resourceful when the situation called for it.
“What are you going to do now?”
Fluttershy’s question dragged Rarity out of her musings and she shrugged before realising that it was probably hard to see with her shoulders underwater. “Make sure she recovers, I suppose. If I want her to become my bodyguard, she has to be able to protect me.”
"Even though she's injured somepony?"
It was Rarity's turn to look indignant. “I'm not saying that she is a saint, Fluttershy, but I do not believe that she deserves to be executed for what could easily have been a training accident."
Fluttershy lowered her eyes to the floor, looking cowed by the ferocity in Rarity's voice. "But it wasn't an accident, was it?"
"So you would rather see her killed?"
"I didn't say that, but..."
"But you don't want her to get away with it without being punished?" Rarity asked, waiting for Fluttershy to nod before she continued. Fluttershy needn't have responded. It was a rhetorical question, Rarity already knew the answer. "How would you punish her then? Cut off her legs as well?"
“No!”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know!” Fluttershy snapped back, in as close to a yell as Rarity had ever heard. “All I know is my best friend has broken a traitor out of her cell and wants to make her a bodyguard, and I’m worried! Why would you do that?”
“I already told you—”
“No, you told me you saw her beaten and sleep deprived in a dirty cell. I want to know why would you go to a dirty cell to begin with? What would possess you to do something so dangerous?”
Rarity was glad she hadn’t told her friend exactly how dangerous the situation had gotten. Rather than acquiesce, however, she drew herself up to her full length, for all the good that it did in a bathtub. “Because I admired her skills. If I have to choose a bodyguard, I want it to be somepony who knows their craft as well as I know politics.” And not at all because I got a mental image of her stuck in my head.
“That’s it?” Fluttershy demanded. “You broke her out of prison because you think she knows what she’s doing? Rarity, if she knew what she was doing she wouldn’t have injured her opponent!”
“Forget about that then,” Rarity said. “I wanted to ask why she did what she did, but rather than explain she begged me to...” She hesitated, unsure whether or not she even wanted to repeat what Twilight had told her. “She begged me to end her life because she couldn’t go on,” she said at length, frowning at the water. “It just made me so... angry.” Even thinking back on the state Twilight had been in made the anger spark in her chest once more. “Call me sentimental if you wish, but I refuse to leave anypony to die like that.”
Fluttershy frowned in worry. “Fine. So you couldn’t stand to see her die. What are you going to do now? You can’t hide her forever, and your father won’t just say it’s okay for her to be a traitor just because you want her to be your bodyguard.”
“My father promised me he would support my decision, so after Twilight has had some time to recover, I’ll present her to him and then...well... I suppose I shall just have to convince him that she’s worth it, won’t I?”
Keeping the injured unicorn hidden while she recovered was more difficult than it should have been. After news of Twilight's 'escape' reached the king's ears, the entire castle was subjected to a thorough search for the escaped traitor. Rarity only managed to hide her bodyguard to be by claiming that she was going to take a bath whilst they searched her room, and threatening anypony that might have gotten the bright idea to take a peek in the bathroom with beheading.
There were questions as to why her room was such a mess, obviously, but those were quickly laid to rest when she told the ponies asking them that she was the cause of it, and that she would demonstrate how she created it on their faces if they did not leave it be.
Fluttershy did not ask as many questions, though Rarity promised she would explain everything at a later date. Despite her original objections to what Rarity was doing, she quickly mellowed out when Rarity had asked her to help take care of the unicorn. Within the span of a few hours, she had independently decided that Twilight needed to be cleaned up and gotten a sponge. Minutes after that, she was already holding a one sided conversation, expressing her outrage for what had happened in the prison and her apologies for expressing her doubt in the first place.
Twilight awoke from twenty-eight straight hours of sleep with a grumbling stomach, looking much more capable. Procuring enough food to stave off starvation without arousing suspicion, however, still lay outside of those capabilities.
Even with Fluttershy's help smuggling in some extra food whenever she came to visit, and Rarity doing what she could between crucial appointments, they could not keep up with the voracious appetite of a large pony that hadn't had any food in close to four days.
They got a much needed reprieve when King Diamond threw a big banquet for a delegation that heralded the subjugation of the northern neighbours of Unicornia: the Empire of the Frozen Crystal. It was a party of such importance that, as a princess, Rarity could not afford to remain absent. She was supposed to sit beside her father when he gave his victory speech, and was expected to say a few words herself; while it prevented her from taking any food to Twilight, it tied up her 'guards' which were supposed to go where she did, giving Fluttershy a free run of the palace.
Fluttershy ate for three that night, making many a dish disappear from the buffet table and returning them completely devoid of the food they had held. While a few of the staff must surely have raised their eyebrows at the missing food later in the evening, it didn’t look like anypony was any the wiser.
By the time Twilight felt mostly fit again, they were nearing the end of the week, and with it the deadline the king had set for Rarity. Which was just as well. Rarity was getting rather sick of the state of her room. Having kept maids out for almost a week meant that it wasn’t as pristine as it could have been— meaning that it was a mess. It also meant that she personally had to make certain that Twilight appeared before the king at least somewhat presentable, though she found that she actually enjoyed that part more than she thought she would have.
“Stop squirming, darling,” she said, smoothing out a few crinkles. “You’ll ruin the dress, and quite possibly your hair.”
Her only response was an agonized expression that bordered on a scowl. Although Twilight—in Rarity’s opinion—looked quite fetching, she also looked extremely uncomfortable. She was wearing a beige dress that Rarity had picked out for her; and while she had outright refused to even touch the high heeled boots that came with it, calling them unmaneuverable, it hadn’t stopped Rarity from dolling her up and making her wear them anyway.
Her coat shone due to the half dozen conditioners that Rarity had poured onto it in the bathtub during the several vigorous scrubbing sessions she had undergone—another experience Twilight hadn’t been comfortable with— and her mane had been done up in a stylish ponytail; that much was at least efficient, although she had no idea if she was even going to be able to move quickly enough in the dress for it to matter.
“Are you sure this is necessary, Princess?” Twilight asked, squirming despite Rarity’s admonishment.
“Absolutely,” Rarity replied, letting the comb she was holding rake through Twilight’s tail one last time. “The biggest part of anything to do with royalty is decorum, and I’ll not have you looking like one of those oafs while I convince my father that you’re deserving of being my bodyguard.” She finished up the last stroke and put the comb back onto the dresser. “Now then, are you ready to go?”
Twilight bit the inside of her lower lip. The small part of her that appreciated looking beautiful after the trials she’d faced, was drowned out by the rest which screamed that everything she was wearing restricted movement and wouldn’t protect her from attacks any better than a wet paper towel. “If I must,” she groused in reply.
“You must,” Rarity said decidedly. “Come along now.”
“As you command, Princess.”