//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: A New Harmony 
// by The-rogue-shadow 
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Rarity looked at the calendar on the wall and sighed. The war had been going on for three months, with no end in sight and she was still being pressured for more weapons. As the head researcher, she had come up with ways of improving the war strategies. One of her first innovations was to make a way for earth ponies and pegasi to hold onto swords and blades without the use of their mouths, and still be just as effective. Rarity was beginning to get fed up with her workmates, who seemed to want no interaction with her other than to flirt or get a design approved. She felt lonely in the cluttered workshop at the back of the pony camp. She was also worrying about her friends, the war had consumed them. Battle hardened; they became flighty or distracted easily. Fluttershy concerned her the most, Rarity had woke up one morning to find Fluttershy had cut most of her mane off, and shortened her tail. All Fluttershy would say about it was;
"I can't let them down again." Rarity just wanted the war to end, to go back to Ponyville, to her store, to Sweetie Belle, to somewhere that she could groom herself properly. She turned when she heard somepony enter the tent.

"Princess Celestia, welcome, how can I help you?" Rarity asked, glad to see a friendly face.
"Hello Rarity, I am just here to see if you had any new developments." Celestia said, Rarity rubbed her eyes, lack of sleep and general boredom were taking their toll. She led Celestia over to a table that had a card on it, saying 'finished products' in fancy calligraphy.
"Well Princess, I do have an upgrade to the unicorn armour." Rarity picked up a helmet, made of a purple metal that amplified magic. "This will fit on any unicorn and, as well as the power amplification granted by the metal, the crystal horn here" She pointed to the top of the helmet, to a crystal in the shape of a unicorn horn, but hollow so that it would go over the top. "The crystal will refract the magic, giving the spell more power and allowing the unicorn to use less energy"
"Well done Rarity, this will surely be a boon to our cause." Said Celestia, smiling.
"There is only one problem Princess. The crystal is very hard to obtain, so we could only make ten helmets, plus one for you out of what we had. So I suggest giving them to your best spell casters until my team and I can make more." Rarity explained, sounding defeated and ashamed, as though she had let down the Princess.
"Thank you Rarity, I will give them to Twilight and she can distribute them as she sees fit." Said Celestia, taking the helmets and leaving. Rarity went back to her desk, tinkering over her latest design; a small blade attached to a spring that allows it to pop in and out at will. The blade would be attached to the forearm of a pony, and easily concealed. In truth the mechanism was finished, Rarity was just adding her own touch to it, patterns carved into the metal of the blade, making it look very decorative. 

"Rarity! Hurry up and finish that! I want these out on the field before the war ends." Rarity sighed and turned to the source of the remark, a skinny little yellow unicorn named Tinker. Rarity disliked Tinker a lot, mostly because of the scathing remarks he made. On her first day, Tinker had made Rarity cry, saying that she was only there because she was the Princess' pet, that she was too stupid to actually make anything. The next day, Rarity had created arrows that flew straighter and further than any had previously, all in an effort to get back at him.
"Tinker, what a pleasure. Do you need something?" She asked dryly. Tinker pushed a piece of paper into her face.
"Just sign these plans off and let me get back to work." He said, never looking directly at her. Rarity looked at the plans and laughed;
"You have got to be kidding! These will never work, and if they did, they would be too dangerous to use on the battlefield." She looked at his face which was turning bright red. The plans were for a device that launched a Pegasus pony straight at a group of attackers, in the hopes of creating a diversion for unicorns and earth ponies to get the upper hand.
"And besides, think about it, you would be putting a pony's life at risk." Rarity said tearing the paper in half.
"Yeah, a Pegasus pony." Said Tinker. Rarity narrowed her eyes at him.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" She said angrily.
"Look all I'm saying is that if we lose some Pegasi in this war, I won't be shedding a tear. I mean, look at them, acting so high and mighty, always looking down their noses at us grounded ponies. They don't care about us, and you know what? I hope the griffins tear down that cloudsdale of theirs, just to teach them a lesson." Rarity was appalled at what she was hearing.
"I think you better leave." Said a voice behind Tinker. Rarity looked over his shoulder and saw Black Diamond, his eyes burned with anger and his sword hung loosely off his back.
"Oh and what business of yours is it?" Tinker said, spitting at Black Diamond, who just wiped it off his face very casually.
"Well, my mother was a Pegasus. So how about you walk away before I stab you in the throat and feed you to the griffins." He said, again very casually. Tinker stared at him for a moment, as if summing up his chances against the dark green Earth pony. He eventually turned and walked off, mumbling something about a 'rotten half breed'.
"Thank you Diamond, darling, but I could have very well handled myself." Said Rarity jokingly.
"I bet you could have, but personally I think that chivalry isn't dead. Besides, he insulted my mother." Black Diamond smiled at Rarity, who couldn't help but be taken aback at his roguish charm. She gave him a quick kiss, and remembered the night a month earlier. Rarity had been working late on a project, and Black Diamond had entered, carrying the two broken halves of his sword. Rarity had fixed it in no time, but Black Diamond had stayed to keep her company. It had seemed like no time at all before they both gave into temptation and spent the night together. Since then, they had kept it a secret, lest it interfere with their work.

"Now darling, what was it you wanted?" Rarity asked, giving him a sly wink.
"Well, actually I'm here to see if my breastplate had been repaired." Rarity pulled his breastplate out from under her desk. The repair was completely seamless, as though it was brand new. Black Diamond smiled.
"Care to help me put it on?" He asked, making Rarity blush. It went on easily, a perfect fit for him. 
"Anything else?" She asked. Black Diamond leant over and whispered into her ear;
"Nothing we can do right now, meet me back here at midnight." He walked out of the tent, leaving Rarity with many thoughts about the night's events. She cleared her mind, focusing on the task at hoof. She finished up the pattern on the blade and placed it with the others. Deciding she needed a break, she walked out of the tent. In the distance she could see the dust of battle on the ground and the chaotic movements of aerial combat. She spotted Fluttershy on a rocky outcropping that had become known as 'archer's stage'. Fluttershy cocked an arrow and fired it a few seconds later. Rarity watched it sail high into the air, and could almost hear the scream of the griffin it hit. She watched the victim spiral down, before it went out of sight. Rarity still had trouble watching death, the crudeness of war, the way it had changed her friends. She kept walking, and spotted almost all of her friends, except for Pinkie, who had gone out on a secret mission weeks ago and hadn't returned. Rarity missed her friends, her real friends, and prayed every night that at the end of it all, when the war ended, her friends were still the same ponies she knew back in Ponyville.