Duskfall

by Celestial Swordsman

Convergence

Chapter 22: Convergence

General Armor strode angrily out of the research wing of the academy, pursued by the Director of Magic Development and a team of confused analysts. Ignoring them, he rendezvoused with the Chief of Imperial Intelligence in the courtyard and demanded, “Find Starcatch! Doctor Sparkle has taken the subject and the dragon and gone rogue, she will need to be apprehended.” He fumed, but stopped to translate his blinding rage into orders. “Operation Starcatch is over, kill the subject. The Solar Scouts are at your disposal.”

The chief questioned, “What if the Doctor resists? Isn’t she your…”

“I said bring her back!” he snapped. “Alive or dead, bring her back.”

The chief nodded and relayed to his own assets, “Locate Starcatch and Sparkle. Dispatch agents to all known associates and put a bolo on that dragon. Solar Scouts are standing by to intercept on your call.”

The pursing research head objected, “Kill the subject?! We’re talking about Celestia!”

“Celestia is dead!” General declared. “It is useless to me.”

“I’m contacting the Interim Council, you have no authority to make a decision like this,” the director threatened. “Will you stop and listen to me!?” he called as the General continued to the radio officer.

“Lieutenant Garrison, have you secured the palace grounds? Is the Council aware of its new place?” the General calmly asked.

A voice crackled through the box, “Yes sir, all members have been detained and we await your orders for reorganization.”

The gold-plated warrior turned to the shocked director and announced, “I am now in control of Equestria.”

“The Admiral might think differently,” the director shot back.

General Armor glared at him and countered confidently, “Not with my marines on his flagship.”

The director turned pale and stammered, “But, the sun—we need the sun!”

“We survived before she came,” General dismissed.

“The secrets of the ancient unicorn lords died with them,” the head magician reminded. “This is madness!”

“Recover them or devise your own solution,” the young ruler ordered. “You might find new inspiration now that your survival depends on it. In any case, the few and the strong will survive, and my Empire will endure under any sky. I have an invasion to finish.”

He looked up at an approaching transport and prepared to teleport aboard. In a low tone, he said the wind, “Don’t resist, sis.”

---

Rarity sauntered down the busy sidewalk of Fortune Avenue. Within a day of the trouble, more lights had been discreetly installed. The streets of the Old District glowed with cheerful colors. Here the threat of eternal night was wished away, and the show went on. Her mane and tail were cast in stark relief. The ostentatious curves glistened purple above and carried a heavy shadow underneath. Her dress continued the purple line down her back but was mostly black with red ruffles. She stared up like a moth at the fluorescents and neons as she passed underneath. They annoyed her, but obviously she had to keep her chin up. It got brighter near the Fortune Sun casino. “Mustn’t go there,” she told herself.

She heard a whimper that seemed oddly out of keeping with the well-to-do traffic around her. “Why, oh why, are my ears so sensitive to this kind of thing?” she thought, but stopped anyway. Head still high, she glanced down to see a naked and disheveled earth pony. Worse still, it was a mother sheltering her young filly. How did a beggar make it all the way in here? She must have been desperate. “Please,” she called out weakly. She had started off louder and more insistent, but hope was wearing thin. Rarity considered the bits in her purse. There weren’t as many as she would like. Still, she wasn’t heartless, at least not yet. Some of the bits began to rise to the top of the purse.

Filigreed shoes clicked on the cobblestone next to her. Galinda Riser struck a haughty pose to flaunt her own showy dress and jested, “Oh, Rarity, I’m sorry to interrupt you and your gutter friends.” Bits dropped back to the bottom of the purse. The downtrodden mother sighed as she became mute and invisible.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rarity fibbed, “I was just on my way back to my boutique.”

“By stopping, yes,” Galinda said sarcastically, and flipped her pearls at her target. “You should always make friends in the arena you are headed to next. I don’t know if the rumors are true, but just from what you’re wearing I can tell you’re headed to the back alley.”

Rarity absorbed the blow with a steady face and returned, “How do you say such things, sporting something so tawdry?”

“Tawdry, hm?” Galinda replied, unconcerned. “I would take an insult like that seriously, if it was from a serious competitor.”

There was little left to say, but Galinda took a stance as if she had always meant to be there and would certainly not be the one to walk away. Rarity paused, looking for a way to deny her the satisfaction, but the other unicorn held all the cards. Rarity snorted and marched on, trying not to hear Galinda say, “I thought so.”

Her hooves trod the cobblestone for a few blocks and brought her to the Carousel Boutique. She had moved her shop to Canterlot after the troubles, not out of allegiance but simply to pursue a greater status in the fashion world. After her friends split up, there was nothing to keep her in postwar Ponyville. The well-styled exterior had set the shop apart from the quaint country town, but here it was another pea in the pod. Apparently, there were too many peas already.

Rarity entered, and locked the door behind her. She did not turn on the lights; she knew every inch of the shop that was her dream. She moved fluidly through to the designer’s stool, the seat of her power. She climbed upon the padded stool with a graceful spiraling motion. No one was watching, but it would have interrupted her to carry herself any other way.

She took a lighter out of her purse before she put the bag away. She willed a long cigarette out of the open pack on the counter of her vanity and lit up. She knew it was bad for her, but it was fashionable and helped her be fashionably numb. She turned on the light above her without looking up. It shone a narrow beam down in front of her so that she could see the smoke and watch how it moved.

In the still air, it billowed slowly up, pushing past itself until it spread away out of sight. She wished she was so free. Within her four walls, she could pretend that she was self-contained, and that she could rise up and take her hopes with her own persistence and fabulosity.

A strong draft from a broken window blew across her. It killed her that she could no longer afford to fix it properly. Dainty trails of smoke are at the mercy of any wind that finds them, to be smeared into featureless smudges and carried away before they can dance. Where did it come from, the wind that pushed her away? It couldn’t be Galinda. That one’s work was clearly inferior, and her social skills were not so attuned as to make up for it.

Another cigarette allowed her thinking to go farther as Rarity reminisced on her creations. She had done good work, and it should have paid off. Did she do bad business? No, business had simply gone bad. The unicorn had assumed that her skills would take her far, especially since she had previously garnered royal attention. All her best clients had so suddenly left her. It was as if some conspiracy would not allow her to be fulfilled.

There was a knock on the door.

Could it be a client at this hour? What hour was it, anyway? The heavens were so irresponsible these days. She got down from her stool but didn’t let go of her thoughts just yet. She pulled back the corner of the drapes to peer at the newcomers. She was not greeted with a particularly promising sight: two, no, three hooded figures, but two were short. They didn’t look like clients. Could more beggars have actually braved high-class territory to track her down? Uncertain, she remained silent.

The tall one knocked again, forcefully, and called out, “Rarity!”

At the moment, she couldn’t think of three beings who knew her name that she wanted to encounter. She took a breath and replied anyway, “What is it? Who’s there?”

“We’re friends,” said a familiar voice.

It brought back a mixture of warm and painful feelings, but didn’t everything important? She opened the door a crack and took a better look. She locked onto the tall visitor. “If it isn’t Twilight Sparkle—or should I call you Doctor Sparkle now?” she greeted unenthusiastically. She let her whole body into the opening but still did not offer entrance. “I hope you haven’t come to bring me into Imperial business, you know how I’ve kept out of such matters.” Another glance and she could not avoid commenting, “On second thought, if the Division needs help with those dreadfully unflattering hoods you’re wearing, I would be compelled to oblige.”

“Not this time, Rarity,” Twilight answered. “I’m in a lot of trouble. Can Spike come in?”

The smallest figure tipped back its hood with a clawed hand to show the glint of a sharp smile. “Oh, hello, Spike,” Rarity reacted with a softer tone. The stylish unicorn huffed slightly at no one in particular. “I forget my manners. Of course you can all come in.”

The three filed into the shadowy storefront, eager to disappear from the street’s eyes. Twilight had not come by often enough to know the layout and stopped when she bumped into a mannequin. Spike once again impacted her hindquarters, but the third visitor could see well enough to dodge the pile-up. “Are you gothic now?” Twilight complained, and covered a cough.

“I could never limit myself to black. I thought you would like it this way,” Rarity jabbed. She waved her horn at the overhead lights to reveal the gilded pink interior. “Please tell me you didn’t bring a fourth guest.” She motioned a hoof in the air to indicate an indistinct presence. “Spike, dear, has she kept your rule?”

“Yeah, but I still have to remind her,” the little dragon replied.

“I still have to remind YOU that what we do is classif—“ Twilight coughed again and saw the haze that hung in the room. She fanned the air in front of her with a hoof and asked, “How do you live with this?”

“It’s culture. Besides, how would I live without it?” Rarity casually admitted.

The fire-breathing runt piped, “I don’t have any problem with it.”

The other gray pony carefully removed her hood and added, “It doesn’t bother me.” She breathed the smoky air as if it was more natural. Although she worried herself with this kind of thing, she wouldn’t keep herself from enjoying the perks.

“Who are you?” Rarity asked neutrally, but then gave a low cry and jumped back. She demanded of Twilight, “Is it possessed?!”

“Not very. It’s the eyes,” the stranger explained, “and it’s a mare.”

“Excuse me,” Rarity offered reflexively.

“She’s…” Twilight attempted to moderate their communication, but froze up.

“Dusk,” the grey one curtly replied.

“Yes, Dusk, she isn’t… she’s Dusk,” Twilight said, to herself as much as Rarity.

Rarity glanced skeptically from the stuttering researcher to the unnatural pegasus. “Did you say not very possessed? Doctor Sparkle, what have you done to this poor girl?”

“A lot, but I undid most of it,” Twilight returned. “I was supposed to take her all the way; that’s actually why we’re here.” She took a couple steps towards her old friend and tried to meet her eyes, but looked down. “Listen, Rarity. I was wrong about some things, a lot of things. I’m sorry for how we left off. You were right not to use your magic for the Empire.”

“You think that’s where we left off?!” Rarity objected. “We were done when you split the six of us up like we were just YOUR friends. They were still my friends, but you couldn’t handle that, could you?” Her pitch rose with her temper. “You just kept pushing and pushing until I was all alone again! Even in Ponyville, every pony would look at me so alien, and gape at me, because I was TWILIGHT SPARKLE’S friend.” She finished in a tremble, propelling another cigarette to her mouth and puffing hungrily.

Twilight received this all while staring at the floor with her ears down. “I don’t… I’m…” the magician fumbled, before choking up. “Shit.” Doctor Sparkle doesn’t cry, and she held back tears successfully.

The parlor was hushed for a time that seemed rather long.

Rarity held the cigarette out of her mouth and started to consider that the other unicorn might be genuine, though terrible at expressing herself. “Since I’m already alone, what could it hurt to be Twilight Sparkle’s friend again?” Rarity wondered. It could hurt very much, she realized. “I must be demented,” she thought.

She broke the silence, conceding mercifully, “Well, it appears you’re doing something good now.” She breathed deeply and asked, “What trouble are you in?”

Twilight calmly informed, “I was supposed to…” she glanced to the salt-and-pepper puzzle standing close by and recalled the words, “—kill Dusk. It was very important. I escaped with her, and now if we’re caught by any Imperials they will kill us. You’re the only pony I can trust; all of my associates would turn me in.”

“What do you expect me to do?” Rarity asked honestly. “Are you here to hide out?”

“Not most of us, we need to travel, and quickly,” Twilight corrected. “Spike needs somewhere to stay though. Dragons are the only secure line of communication, so they’re quite valuable to the Empire. Spike can’t leave Canterlot due to some anti-theft measures.”

Usually, the valuable dragon would be offended at being discussed as property. This time his growing grin showed his approval for the course of conversation.

Dusk’s eyes shot from unicorn to unicorn. It was quite clear how she had gotten from Twilight to Rarity, but something else unnerved her. Not long ago she had seen Applejack and Pinkie Pie in the Lunar camp, and was captured by Rainbow Dash. Now here were two more of them. There was something about these six ponies, before she knew them and even now. Then it struck Celestia: “It’s like something I would do.” But she hadn’t done it.

“A word with you?” she requested of Twilight. They stepped to the corner and “Dusk” whispered, “We need Rarity. Is there anything you can say to her to get her to come with us?”
“I didn’t know you had a plan,” the Doctor muttered, analyzing the situation quickly.

“I think I just borrowed one,” Celestia replied cryptically.

“I don’t know if she will,” Twilight cautioned, “I think she hates me.”

Celestia didn’t like to speak as herself, but it was only too relevant. “No, student, she hates that she loves you.” Twilight frowned at the experienced manipulator, who returned an expression that was sad but still insistent.

Rarity caught Spike’s gaze and gave him a smile, but looked after the other two guests when his gaping demeanor was too intense. She enjoyed his company. He was cute and at times adorable, and dragons are fabulous by definition. However, they had become slightly complicated by the end of the Ponyville days, and she could not define their relationship. She was getting the impression that it might mean something else to him, and being trapped in a secret lab didn’t make him more stable. She was unsure if she was ready to hide him with her for an undefined time.

Twilight approached Rarity sensitively, and laid out their situation, “We need someone else to get a ride out of here. I’m sorry, but you might not be safe here, and if you don’t come with us…” She continued with a softer tone and pleading eyes, “I may never see you again.” She thought bitterly to herself, “It’s stupid that I have an ulterior motive, I really care about that.”

“Alright,” Rarity replied simply. Twilight stood stunned; it shouldn’t have been that easy. Rarity gave one last blunt appraisal to the stalled dream around her, and concluded, “Allow me to slip into something more appropriate.”

“Rarity, we don’t have much time,” Twilight objected.

Dusk overruled, “If it’s important to you, go ahead. Thank you for your help.”

“PLEASE do,” Spike added with hungry eyes.

As Rarity turned to change, Twilight stepped in between her and their smaller companions. She glared at them accusingly, and scolded, “Control yourselves, both of you.”

Spike growled his irritation, but the secret alicorn affected innocence.

Comments

[Kolwynia]

This continues to be terrific. Wow, that chapter with the book was intense. (!) And scenes like this one show how well you write the voices of the different characters. You totally nailed Rarity. Er... her characterization, that is. Honestly, there is some really great dialogue here. I'm loving this story.