Amber Ashes

by GMBlackjack

Awakening

Beep… Beep… Beep…

This is worse than the Mesh!

Those were Rarity’s first coherent thoughts upon waking up. Her second thoughts were about how amusing those were, prompting her to laugh.

Laughter…

It didn’t feel so foreign, anymore.

She opened her eyes, discovering that she was laying in a bed with a simple blue blanket. A computer next to her was beeping in time to her heartbeat and there were a few pictures of adorable cats lining the walls. The door to the room had an orange-gold “U” on it, telling her she was in a Merodi facility.

There was a nurse in the room – a small white unicorn with pastel pink and purple curls. “Oh, you’re awake!”

Rarity smiled. “Yeah. How bad is it?”

“Well, we didn’t have to use the revive spell, so that’s pretty good.” She held up a strange, portable screen and read something off of it. “Your spirit is a little exhausted from going through so much, but it seems really strong now.”

“That makes sense,” Rarity said, finding that her smile just wouldn’t go away. She had no problem with that. “Is everypony okay?”

“Your world is safe, all your friends are alive and mostly well, and initial Merodi contact with your universe cluster is going well so far. …There was still a lot of damage we couldn’t fix in that battle under the sea.”

Rarity nodded slowly. “Mostly well?”

“Well, your Fluttershy went through some stuff near the end. She’s functional now, but not quite fully healed.”

“Can I see them?”

“They’re actually waiting for you – so soon. But the Overhead wants to talk to you first.”

“Oh. Sure. Am I in trouble?”

The unicorn chuckled. “Not at all. Don’t worry, she’s a Rarity too.”

That finally made Rarity’s smile falter.

“…Oh, you met Scarcity…” She shook her head. “Scarcity’s highly unusual. The Overhead’s nothing like that.”

Rarity nodded – deciding she’d make her own judgment.

The unicorn nurse left the room… and less than a minute later a Rarity walked in. Her form was fuller than both Rarity’s and Scarcity’s and she wore a wide-brimmed gray hat with a bow, pulled back so ponies could easily see her face. She wore pointed red glasses with a soft rose tint to the lenses – and there was a wise, understanding smile on her face.

This isn’t Scarcity.

“Hello, Rarity. How are you doing?”

“I’ve had a mysterious case of the smiles,” Rarity said, chuckling weakly.

“That’s excellent news.” She pulled up a chair and sat down right next to Rarity’s head. “My name is Renee ‘Rarity’ Jackson, Overhead of Expeditions. I am Rainbow Dash’s current boss and her lifelong friend. She speaks highly of you.”

“She’s an arrogant loudmouth with far too much of an ego,” Rarity said.

“Oh, I agree. She agrees too, if you ask her on a good day.”

The two mares giggled childishly.

“...Have you thought of what you’re going to do now?” Renee asked.

“No,” Rarity said. “But I’m not dead.”

“Not going to be, either?”

“You know, most of my life I was sure I’d drop as soon as it was all over. Now… I haven’t felt this full of energy since I was a filly learning magic for the first time.”

“Sounds like you discovered something about yourself.”

“It’s like a curtain has been lifted away. I had to get almost killed by an alternate version of myself to get it, so that’s a testament to how stubborn I am.”

“Do you think you could put it into words?”

Rarity furrowed her brow. “Maybe… You don’t need success to live a good life? Or a happy life?”

“Sounds like a regular aesop to me.”

“…What?”

“Stories that end in morals.”

“Ah.” Rarity processed this. “So my story’s over.”

“Pretty sure it is,” Renee admitted. “I had some ka specialists look you over while you were out. Your importance is dropping sharply.”

Rarity frowned. “I’m… not sure what I think about that.”

“Which is why you might want to think about what you’re going to do now.” Rarity smiled warmly. “You’re still in the spotlight. If you wanted, you could stay in it, move on to a different story. I could help you with that.”

“…Literally two days ago I would have wanted nothing more than everything to end, to just drift out of it all.”

“Now?”

Rarity grinned. “I can’t wait to get back out there. Find… something new.”

“I thought as much.” Renee stood up. “I’ll contact you when you’re better – you’ll be sure to get a team.”

“One thing,” Rarity coughed. “Are you sure you want a failure?”

Renee chuckled. “We want whoever you are. And who knows? Maybe now that your first story is over, that ‘tragedy curse’ of yours is as well. And maybe it isn’t. You’ll live and do amazing things either way, right?”

“Right.”

“Now, I’m going to open that door, and five ponies are going to flood into this room asking you a million questions. Are you ready?”

Rarity nodded but said, “nope.”

Renee smirked, proceeding to open the door with her telekinesis.

“You’re up!” Rainbow shouted first, running to the head of her bed. “See? Told you she’d be up! She’s a fighter!”

“Yay!” Pinkie cheered, sliding next to Rainbow. “Told you it wouldn’t be right without her!”

“They could have tried the revive spell,” Twilight said – walking in as an alicorn, but normal pony sized so she didn’t fill the entire room. “Nothing would have kept her down.”

“If you say so,” Applejack said, leading Fluttershy in by a hoof.

Rarity’s breath caught when she saw a blindfold taped over Fluttershy’s eyes. “Fluttershy… what happened?”

Fluttershy turned in Rarity’s direction and smiled. “I… I looked at Rx’len. I don’t exactly remember it, since Renee removed that memory with her ‘Sylph’ magic… but I lost my eyes.”

“Fluttershy was the most amazing thing ever,” Twilight said. “Flew right down the hole to save me, held out her shield, and punched Rx’len with its own fist!”

“She’ll get new eyes too, don’t worry,” Renee said, lifting up her glasses and pointing to one of her eyes that was slightly off-color. “I have an artificial one myself.”

Rarity blinked, realizing she had both her eyes. “Wait a minute…”

“Your eye wasn’t lost, but you do have a rather impressive scar there. We could remove it if you want, but I wanted to ask you about it first.”

“Can I have a mirror?” Rarity asked. Twilight created one with her magic and handed it to her.

Rarity looked at herself – slightly shocked at how… bright her eyes looked. Not different, but more… full of life. She decided that was a good thing.

The scar, to her, only seemed to frame it. Unlike Scarcity’s sharp mark, this one curved, a bit like a crescent moon.

“I think I’ll keep it,” Rarity said, feeling her stupid grin rise up her features. “Show Scarcity that, yes, I am better than her.”

There was a chorus of laughs in the room.

“…You look good, Rarity,” Rainbow said. “A lot better than… ever.”

“All it took was getting my plot handed to me by an evil twin.” Rarity paused. “Speaking of, Rainbow, I was down. How did you stop her plan?”

Rainbow chuckled. “Oh, that wasn’t me, I got my plot handed to me by Glimmer.” She pointed at Applejack. “That was all miss master mechanic over here.”

“You helped,” Applejack said.

“I was an unwitting distraction. You got in there and disassembled the whole machine and threatened Glimmer with a doomsday device! I soooo wish I was awake to see the look on her face when you did that!”

Applejack rubbed the back of her head. “It was a pretty good look.”

“See? I miss out on so much!”

Rarity chuckled. “Looks like you saved the day, Applejack. You should be proud.”

“Can I be proud and go back to tending my apple tree?”

“That what you want?”

“Yes,” Applejack said, shivering. “I am so done with all this insanity you got going on out here.”

“But you like us, right?” Fluttershy asked.

“…Sure. Yeah.”

“Awww, come here you!” Pinkie pulled her into an exaggerated hug that Rainbow and Twilight quickly joined in on. Twilight levitated Fluttershy over to Rarity, bringing both of them into the hug at once.

From the doorway, Renee laughed. “These sights always warm my heart. Though, Rainbow, dear, don’t you go making a new set of the Elements of Harmony, you hear me?”

“Hey, if it happens, it happens.” Rainbow shrugged. “Deal with it.”

“We have stolen her!” Rarity declared.

With a roll of her eyes, Renee left the six friends to get reacquainted.

Comments

[Hexan Tronic]

The Blacksmith is free of her curse, but temporaryly blind. The Immortal Alicorn got her flank handed to her, as well as a slap of humbleness. The Writer has begun to realise the scope of her abilities, and could use the wisely, or not at all. The Mechanic has played her part, and will likely return to her beloved tree, and revolutionize her world. Though the Unfortunate Thief died, her spirit lives on in the Dimension Hopper. And The Enchantress has finally moved past her gloom, and has decided to take on all challenges with a smile. All that remains, is to see the words, 'The End.'.

[Neece]

On the last chapter: AJ was awesome. And I still say that glimmer is a rather sane and reasonable pony indeed. Hope she doesn't get too screwed now.

Obviously Scarcity managed to get the hell out of dodge though, she seems like the kind whose story is far, far from over.

[FanOfMostEverything]

There was a nurse in the room – a small white unicorn with pastel pink and purple curls.

Right. This Rarity was adopted into the royal family. If there even was a Sweetie Belle in her world, she wouldn't have ever met her.

“Yes,” Applejack said, shivering. “I am so done with all this insanity you got going on out here.”

I give her a week before she gets bored.

In any case, wonderful to see everypony more or less happy after the fact. I assume tomorrow's the credits and the stinger.

[Ciber]

And then they all died

[Jalthir]

Im still suspicous., i did not count on an epilouge, if this is a true epi, then id say you are going to tie into main more securely or wind up with a sequel.

[Voltaje]

So this is just before skarn's war, sight, that means Dasha won't be with us after it T. T, the girls will be sad.

[keybounce]

There was a nurse in the room – a small white unicorn with pastel pink and purple curls. “Oh, you’re awake!”

"Nurse Belle, please report to Swip".

A very enjoyable story. Definitely spoils stuff from SotS -- I'm at 54 and this is well in advance of where I'm at now.

Looks like Rainbow goes from "Not really participating" to "Emergency Awesome Reserve" (she'll give you an ear-full of just how she's 20% more awesome at saving the day :-) to "Now I have my own team".

I really, really thought that The Empress and Scarcity were the same, just with some time-travel shenanigans. It wasn't until she got a DIFFERENT scar that this became impossible.

They're just really, really close. Like one lost her world, but not her hope, and the other lost her world, and her hope.

[RoboRed]

Glad to see that everyone's making a recovery. I treasure seeing friendship moments like these.
They don't seem to happen as often anymore...