> Diamonds Amidst the Stars
>  by Amber Spark
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Dappled Doe
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------




“Are you sure, sis? You’re still upset. I can tell.”
Astra Princess Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes at Sunset Shimmer. Her big sister probably was concerned, but that just made things worse.
“I’m fine,” Twilight snapped with more heat than she meant to. Her ears flattened as she rustled her great purple and silver wings. “I’m just tired. I’m tired of… everything. The bickering. The confusion. This… this… whole stupid war.”
“You’re not supposed to like it,” Sunset stepped up and nuzzled Twilight. “It’s been hard on all of us. But we’re part of the Royal Five. It’s our job to keep up appearances… especially when things are… well, like they are now.”
Twilight sighed.
Can’t she take a hint? All she’s doing is just making it so much more… frustrating! 
But she couldn’t just tell Sunset to go away, not with both of their royal entourages behind them. Starlight and Trixie stood at attention beside Minuette and Lemon Hearts, each wearing the armor of their respective princess. The armor of all four mares glittered faintly from the starlight above.
Sunset pulled back and studied Twilight with her piercing teal eyes. Twilight tried to avoid the gaze of the Aurorae Princess, but it was like trying to hide from Mother on a sunny day. It was simply fighting the inevitable.
As expected, the moment their eyes locked, Sunset’s vision pierced through Twilight’s feeble attempt at obfuscation.
“I hate it when you do that,” Twilight growled. “It’s not fair.”
“Count Blueblood,” Sunset all but hissed, ignoring Twilight’s protest. She stomped a golden hoof into the springy ground at the edge of the Golden Boughs park. “I should have guessed. That idiot will get what’s coming to him. Did he insult your parents again?”
Twilight gave up and hung her head.
“Commoners. He called them commoners. Called me common.”
“I swear… I will burn his coat off!” Sunset growled. Her phoenix-like wings of red and gold flared. Twilight could hear the crackle of flame leap from feather to feather. “Nopony talks to my sister like that! Especially not with half the city beyond the Diamond Wall in ruins! This isn’t the time for petty squabbling! I’m gonna bring him up on charges! Sedition, Twi.”
“No!” Twilight cried, holding up a hoof before her sister could do anything foolish. “This isn’t about him. This is about me. It’s… it’s all part of the test. Maybe, if I can finally get him to respect me, the rest of the city will too. Either way, I…” She cleared her throat and licked her lips, “I need to learn to not let things like him get to me.”
“Sis…” Sunset sighed and rubbed her temples with her forehooves. Even if she was trying to hide her exasperation, she was doing a pretty miserable job at it. “You are letting him get to you. I can help! I want to help! I’ll even hold him down for you, so you can use your starfire on him!”
Twilight’s mouth threatened to quirk up into a smile. “You’d enjoy that, wouldn’t you?”
“To see him squirm under your starfire?” Sunset let out a full-blown cackle. “Oh, that’s the stuff dreams are made of!”
Twilight couldn’t help it. She laughed. Even if it was just a little.
“As fun as that sounds… no. I just… I just need some time alone right now, Sunset. Please?”
“You’re sure?” Sunset repeated. She stepped forward and wrapped one of her enormous phoenix-like wings around Twilight. “You don’t have to be alone. I could get Cadance. I know it’s sometimes easier for you to talk to her.”
Twilight let her sister hold her for a moment before pushing Sunset away. “I’m certain. I’ll find you when I’ve had some time to think. Anyway, you should check in with Shining Armor. It’s been three days since the last raid. Considering our luck, we’re overdue. I overheard some of the guards talking about sightings beyond the Harmony Gate.”
Sunset sighed. “Fine. But I make no promises regarding the state of Blueblood’s mane if I happen to run into him.”
“And I promise to act utterly horrified when—I mean—if something happens to that fop.”
Sunset smirked. “That’s my girl. I knew you couldn’t stay all sweet and innocent forever.”
“Yeah… me… sweet and innocent.” Twilight grinned her best “go-away” grin.
For once, Sunset actually paid attention.
That’s not fair, she chided herself. She always pays attention. She just ignores it and ‘helps’ anyway. 
Still, Sunset finally nodded one last time and, with a twinkle in her eye, she turned and departed from the edge of the Golden Boughs. Twilight stifled a smile as an image of that jerk Blueblood after meeting Sunset popped into her mind. If he was lucky, he’d only be missing some eyebrows.
Minuette and Lemon Hearts followed their princess beneath the archways to the Diamond Palace, and disappeared from sight. That left Twilight with her the Astra Guard, the two mares who had been sneaking peeks at one another all evening. Twilight was in no mood for their little attempts at hiding their ‘thing.’
Especially considering how many times they’d been caught. By Twilight. Specifically.
Watching them just made her feel more lonely. Even if her stars overhead felt stronger tonight than they had in years. Somehow, that just made it worse.
“Starlight, Trixie, go on.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “I’ll send Faerna along if I need you.”
Trixie winced and Twilight forced herself not to roll her eyes. Ever since the ‘incident’ last month with Sunset’s phoenix, she’d been skittish around Faerna, even if Twilight’s phoenix had been completely innocent.
“Your Majesty?” Starlight asked, looking concerned. “We’ve been on high alert since the last attack, under orders from Lord Shining—”
“Yes, I’m quite aware of what my brother has ordered for all members of the Royal Guard, including the Astra Guard!” Twilight snapped, her wings flaring. “But I want to be alone! I can handle myself for a few hours, so just… go away! Go on, shoo!”
They were smart enough not to argue any further. The two mares immediately turned tail and trotted out the garden gates.
“And try and be discreet this time!” Twilight called after them, knowing it would make no difference whatsoever. “Ugh. Nopony ever listens to me. Why should my own guards?”
Twilight plodded into the Golden Boughs, passing beneath the mystical apple trees that dominated the park. With an idle tug of her magic, she pulled down one of the golden treats and took a bite. It was tart and slightly tangy, which suited her mood just fine.
Her eyes wandered up into the sky, thankful that the smoke rising from the city didn’t blot out too many of her stars. She needed them tonight. An hour ago, when she brought them out, she’d felt a strange sense of anticipation. It was as if something she’d looked forward to for years was only moments away. It hadn’t made sense then. It still didn’t make sense now.
She finished off the sour-sweet apple core and sighed again.
What she wished for was one of those rare moments where she could pull poise or confidence from her stars. However, ever since the shadowlords had focused their efforts on Canterlot three weeks ago, nights like that had been few and far between.
I’ve been igniting them for ten years, and I still don’t understand them. How do I get feelings from stars? Aunt Luna never said anything about special connections to them. Then again… she usually talked about how much she loved her Moon.
Twilight traced a few of her favorite constellations with her mind’s eye. I wish I could make sense of it all! Maybe you could tell me how to do this job I’m supposed to do. Huh? Anything?
She had the strange sense the stars themselves were chuckling. Twilight shook her head and forced her imagination back down.
They’re just stars. 
Twilight stopped at the great lake at the eastern edge of the park. Despite the smoke to the west, the lake remained pure. The surface was clean and clear, like a sheet of woven diamonds reflecting the starlight above perfectly. She settled down beneath the canopy of glittering arcane willows along the bank, and sighed at her reflection.
She tried to see the Astra Princess, but Twilight saw what she always saw. In the water, there sat a small alicorn with a lavender coat, a purple mane with a couple streaks of color and a simple silver circlet around her head. Twilight stretched her wings and caught the glint of starlight reflecting off the silver in them. She still wasn’t used to that, even after five years. Working with her stars each night had done strange things to her body, though she had yet to figure out why it had taken so long for her wings to shift from solid lavender to a gradient of silver.
It’s probably a sign that somepony made a mistake. I really don’t deserve my title. Harmony must have been having one of those days when she gave me wings.
There were days when she wished Mother had left her studying in her parents’ home in west Canterlot beyond the great Diamond Wall. Since the shadowkin had started their attacks against the Equestrian Realms in the last few years, those days had only increased. Now, not a single night passed when she didn’t wish somepony, anypony else had been given this responsibility.
Twilight looked up and stared at the Wall, both annoyed and glad she couldn’t see beyond it. She wondered if the black and twisted armies had devastated that part of the outlying city yet. She hoped not, but at least her family was now safe behind the Wall. And though the rest of the Equestrian Realms did not have the same level of magical defenses to protect them, the hidden shadowlords seemed determined to blast Canterlot off the face of the map before spreading their darkness. Thankfully, the only way they could do that was to breach the Harmony Gate, something that wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon.
From her spot on the shore, Twilight could just barely make out great braziers of blue fire above the entrance to the great gate. The Harmony Gate was one of the most fortified entrances ever built. The ancient wards had protected the doors for countless centuries. The sheer idea of them failing was all but ludicrous.
And yet Mother and Aunt Luna seem grimmer every day.
Still, the thought of her old home out there being destroyed by those monsters drove her crazy. She wanted to throw herself into the air and strike down every shadowkin lurking beyond the Wall. To root out the shadowlords, and erase them from existence. To do something.
But that wasn’t her role. It would be another decade until she fully grew into her power. Even then, she was no fighter. She never would be. It was her responsibility to handle the stars.
So many lives ruined... and the Diamond Palace’s newest princess couldn’t do a thing to help the suffering citizens of Canterlot.
No wonder the whole world thinks I’m just a glorified astronomer. 
Twilight hung her head and watched as a single tear fell into the pool below, sending endless ripples into the diamond-like water. She studied the patterns caused by the impact, finding some small comfort in this simple act of order in a world filled with nightmares and chaos.
It didn’t help all that much.
“My dear, I do believe you may yet be the saddest looking pony I’ve ever seen.”
Twilight leapt to her hooves and whirled, magic at the ready, prepared to face whatever trickster who thought it clever to sneak up on the Astra Princess.
But at the sight of the newcomer, Twilight’s jaw dropped and her magic faded away. She couldn’t be seeing what she thought she was seeing.
And why is my chest suddenly tight? It can’t be any sort of— No, that’s impossible. Something’s wrong. Heightened heart rate, shortness of breath… and increased sense of vulnerability?
Umbrum? No, they only cause despair. Something worse?
“Wha—Who are you?” Twilight hissed as she raised her mental shields, since her automatic reaction simply could not be internally generated. It had to have an external impetus.
Yet the strange… intensity didn’t fade.
“She speaks as well!” the svelte tones of a deerkin doe replied from the shadows. She was leaning against the trunk of the willow tree not three yards away. “And here I’d been told ponies were naught but beasts with delusions of grandeur. I find myself pleasantly surprised.”
The veiled insult was enough to shake Twilight from her stupor, though the words ended up just making her more annoyed. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Did I not?” The doe’s blue eyes glittered in the shadows. “How utterly boorish of me. One such as I, not following perfect etiquette? I do believe the very moon may fall from the sky!”
Twilight narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth. “Answer the question.”
A gentle laugh erupted from the creature, sounding like the wind flowing through the boughs of arcane willows, setting each crystal leaf to glittering. Finally, the doe stepped out of the shadows and into the starlight.
Once more, Twilight’s jaw dropped. The doe wasn’t just a deerkin. She was a virtrung, a creature Twilight had only seen in old treatises and histories of the ancient places of the world.
I thought they were hermits! Or myths! To see one in real life…!
And she suspected the newcomer was well aware of Twilight’s response by the way she posed. She fluttered long eyelashes at the princess. Twilight studied the virtrung and tried to process the impossibility of the moment.
And then she just stared.
The virtrung doe had a flawless white coat and a few faint hints of dappled arctic blue scattered over her hindquarters, right around where strange markings— her soul mark? I thought only ponies had soul marks—glowed on her flank in the form of three blue gemstones. The gemstones obviously showed some talent with gemwork or another similar field. That same arctic blue ran down the doe’s chest in a great swath, under her belly and covered the top half of her small tail. A brilliant purple mane curled around her smirking muzzle, though Twilight was absolutely positive intense glamours or physical magic had been used to create such an alluring display. Delicate patterns of swirling dusky blue wove up and down all four of her slender yet strong legs, likely the manifestation of the innate magical ability of this particular race of deerkin. At the end of each leg was a shining azure crystal hoof that reflected light like a faint prism, probably the conduit through which the virtrung channeled her powerful sorcery.
Some tiny, rational part of Twilight noted that it took her far too long to record all of these facts. Yet Twilight still did it with the same intensity and attention to detail as she did with most things. That is to say, she studied the doe until she could recreate her with the very stars themselves.
Which I might just do… Twilight thought absently. Once this thought managed to fully process, she blushed furiously and turned away from the virtrung.
“My, you do make a lady feel appreciated, darling,” the doe tittered. “Your eyes drank in the sight of me like a thirsty pony in the desert. I can’t remember the last time anydeer—or anypony—did such a thing. I must say, it’s rather invigorating.”
Twilight didn’t bother responding. This was mainly because she doubted she could respond. At least, respond with anything even vaguely coherent.
“Oh my.” This time the deer let out a full-bodied laugh that sounded like crystal goblets ringing against one another. “Here I believed myself to be simply teasing, but I may have actually flustered the Astra Princess. Granted, I hear that’s not very hard to do, yet to accomplish this with nothing beyond a mere glimpse and a few words…”
That jab earned the doe a glare from Twilight. The same strange tug on her emotions was back, so she fortified her mental shields. She was determined to resist whatever witchcraft was upon her. Since that was the most logical explanation for her mental notepad’s flights of fancy in describing her…
… admirer… err...
…visitor.
“Besides,” Twilight muttered to herself, “there’s no need to note how the doe’s coat reminds me of the early winter snow gracing the Crystal Cliffs.”
The doe’s ears perked. So did her lips.
“And I am absolutely, positively sure that I did not say that out loud. Not a single word about coat, or eyes or… slender, graceful… legs.” Twilight shook herself and rejected any notion of her mouth opening within the last sixty seconds. “What are you doing here? And who are you?” She demanded.
“What?” the doe asked innocently, holding a shining hoof to her chest. “Am I intruding on your dear personal time, in which all you appear to be doing is little more than moping alone?”
“I don’t like being teased.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed again and despite herself, her wings flared with annoyance. “Now, you either answer the question, or I’ll send you to the dungeon where Lord Armor will get some straight answers out of you!”
Magic fire erupted around Twilight’s horn as she glared once more at the doe. For most ponies of the Equestrian Realms, seeing one of their princesses call on their magic would at least give them pause.
However, this doe was not most ponies. She laughed yet again.
“Oh, I would dearly love to see you attempt that. Why, to witness such a brazen act, my dear princess...” The doe waved a hoof. “To match my skill against the Astra Princess herself would be a wonderfully entertaining diversion, even if I doubt I am as proficient in battle magic as one of the Royal Five.” She sighed and the edges of her lips crept upwards. “But there is no need. All you seek is a name, and to you, I shall give it. I am Lady Rarity, though I insist you address me as simply Rarity. Especially after that comment regarding my coat.”
Twilight was certain she had no idea what ‘coat comment’ the doe was talking about.
“Very well, Rarity,” Twilight growled, making sure her horn was still burning with magenta fire. “What are you doing here? How did you slip past the sentries?”
“Ah, that.” Rarity stepped forward to the edge of the lake and stared up at the Diamond Wall of Canterlot. “I did present myself at the gate where an odd pegasus inspected my letter of transit and ‘ordered’ me to report to the Palace. He was rather unlikable, so I decided to satiate my curiosity first. I’m sure you’re aware of teleportation, my dear, just as you know my kind practice it rather differently than you ponies, even one as gifted as yourself. It is a small matter of slipping through the cracks of space and time.”
Rarity turned, smirking at Twilight. Twilight couldn’t help but stare into the virtrung’s eyes. They reminded her of that unique color of the sky that could only be glimpsed when standing at the very summit of Canterlot Mountain. “With the chaos of the siege and the current state of your city, I’m sad to say there are many such cracks to slip through.”
“I will notify the Wardens of that oversight immediately,” Twilight snapped. “Right after I summon a proper escort to have you taken in for questioning.”
Rarity rolled her shining eyes at her. “No need for such hysterics, my dear princess. Firstly, only one of my kind could even see these cracks. Secondly, only the most subtle of casters could use them. Thirdly, I am expected before the Two Thrones before the sun sets tomorrow—”
Twilight twitched.
I have to stop that. She’s my sister! Despite all the teasing, I know she loves me! It shouldn’t bother me every time somepony says something even close to her name! Just because I’m—ugh! 
Twilight wasn’t stupid enough to think Rarity had missed the tell. However, she didn’t even react, continuing as if nothing had happened.
“—so I will happily present myself to your guards when the time is right.”
“Then for the last time, why are you here?”
“Are all ponies as single-minded as you?”
Twilight felt her mane beginning to curl at the edges as stars glittered in her vision. Tiny crackles of electrified starlight flitted over her wings.
What is it with this doe? How does she know all of my buttons? 
“Oh, don’t look at me like that, my dear princess. I’ve not said anything to warrant such a horrid stare,” Rarity once more waved a hoof. “I simply wished to be the first among my kind to greet the newest member of the Canterlot Royal Line, of course. In an informal setting.”
“Why?” 
Rarity sighed, settled herself onto the grass just beyond the water, and idly slid one beautiful crystal hoof along the still surface. Waves rippled through the lake in strangely familiar patterns.
Twilight watched for a long moment, mesmerized.
“Because it seemed like it might be fun,” Rarity stated, watching Twilight watch the ripples.
“Fun?” That brought Twilight out of her daze. “What’s… fun about watching me mop—contemplate the events of the last few weeks?”
“Be a dear and sit with me, Princess? Please?” Rarity asked in a suddenly respectful tone. “I have had a long journey. I could use some rest and pleasant company.”
“You’re in the middle of a city constantly under attack by the shadowlords. If you want rest, you picked the wrong place to be.”
“Indulge me. If not rest, then at least grace me with your pleasant company.”
“You should find that somewhere else, too,” Twilight muttered.
Yet she still found herself settling down into the grass beside the virtrung.
“Oh, I assure you, I find your company most pleasant.”
“Then I assure you that there is something seriously wrong with your head.”
Rarity laughed. “Perhaps. But I am the one who sought you out, am I not? All I ask of you is to simply indulge me, my dear princess.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and shook her head.
Why is she bothering with me? She’s completely crazy! She has to be crazy!
Another part of her—a part of her she didn’t listen to very often—came up with several answers. Three-quarters of those involved just what those crystal hooves of hers might be able to do.
“Bit for your thoughts?” Rarity said in an entirely too cheerful voice.
“What?” Twilight blinked. “What was that?”
The deerkin laughed that lilting, tinkling laugh of hers.
“You were staring again, my dear princess. I wished to know what had you so focused… and so very flustered.” She paused and cocked her head. “Oh, is startling somepony a common cause of flared wings?”
Twilight mumbled something and forced her wings back down. Then she finally decided to actually be a princess—for once—and take control of the situation.
“Just wondering what a virtrung is doing here in Canterlot, especially while the city is besieged,” Twilight said in a brilliant—and not at all obvious—shift in topic. “It’s been three weeks since they focused their efforts on Canterlot. Three weeks since the call for allies went out. The griffons were first to respond. They’re working directly with the rapid response teams all over the Equestrian Realms. The buffalo’s braves arrived a few days later. The zebra weavers after a week. An entire legion of diamond dogs now hold the western walls. Even the dragons sent five wings of their best combat fliers.”
“My, such esteemed company,” Rarity tittered. “How wonderful it must be to know that the ponies of the Equestrian Realms command such respect from their neighbors.”
“Sunset said that the deerkin wouldn’t answer the summons. You never have before. Why now?”
Rarity turned and once more met Twilight’s gaze. Both of the doe’s eyes sparkled like Twilight’s stars. “Because it sounded fun, darling.”
Twilight groaned.
“Very well,” Rarity sighed with a shrug. “I suppose the real answer would be revealed soon enough. There are those among the Council of the Woods who believe it is time to reestablish ties with the rest of the world. And I will admit I’ve had a—ahem—minor fascination with the pony races for some time now. This presented a sublime opportunity to see your kind at your best.”
“Yeah, because us trying to survive savage assaults while our citizens are infected with the Nightmare Pox is definitely us at our best,” Twilight muttered.
“The buffalo have an adage, my dear princess: ‘See a creature in fury, and you will know the passion of their heart.’ While we are not as savage as them, there is occasionally wisdom to be found outside of our forests. Occasionally.”
“You do realize just how egotistical you sound, right?” Twilight glared at her. “The buffalo are not savages. And you know it.”
“I do indeed. But your reaction is most telling.” Rarity didn’t bat an eyelash as she locked eyes with Twilight. “Tell me, Astra Princess, how old are you?”
Twilight froze. “I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”
“It has to do with everything. Why so reluctant, hm?”
“I’m…”
Twilight found herself nearly compelled to answer. There was no reason to, she knew that. She would have suspected some form of enchantment if she hadn’t taken a brief moment to verify that her mental shields were flawless—as usual. And yet, that subtle tug on her emotions still remained. It felt tantalizingly familiar. Where once it had been eminently noticeable, the longer they spoke, the more… comfortable it became. It was almost natural.
Twilight looked up at the stars and wondered for a moment before dismissing the errant thought.
“Astra Princess?” Rarity prompted.
“I’m… only in my thirties.” Twilight mumbled, poking at the springy grass with a hoof.
She waited for the barbs.
Rarity hummed a little as she ran her hoof through the water once more.
Twilight stamped once. “Go on.”
“Hmm?”
“Mock me. Everypony else does.”
“And why would I do such a silly thing as that?” Rarity asked in a genuinely curious tone.
“Well… Everypony else does.”
Another one of her crystalline laughs rang through the Golden Boughs and rippled across the lake. “You will quickly find, my dear princess, that I am not ‘everypony else.’ If it gives you any comfort, I am likely only a half-dozen summers older than you.” She drew closer to Twilight, whispering conspiratorially. “Though I would ask you not to spread that information around. A lady should have some secrets.”
“Could have fooled me. You have the glossy coat of somepony a decade younger...” Twilight mumbled. Her brain caught up with her mouth, and she plowed ahead before she made any other… slips. “I mean… I find it surprising because deerkin age differently than ponies!”
“Normal deerkin do,” Rarity replied with a shrug, but Twilight saw something else in the expression she couldn’t quite place. “But the virtrung are unique. And I… am more unique still. But surely you know this. I was under the impression you were a great scholar.”
“I am!” Twilight protested. “I’m just… I just don’t have time to study everything.”
“Ironic that the physiology of the deerkin happens to be a gap in your knowledge,” Rarity chuckled.
“Why’s that?” Twilight demanded. “Wait! Are you calling me… uneducated?”
A quick flap of Twilight’s wings was all that was required to put her back on her hooves. She grit her teeth even as Rarity began to laugh.
“Oh, no, no, no! Perish the very thought, darling!” Rarity got to her hooves in one, long, fluid motion. “But you are the Astra Princess. I assumed you studied all forms of magic. Though, on further consideration, your sister may know more about this particular subject… while still knowing far less.”
“And just what are you—”
“Tell me, my dear princess,” Rarity interrupted. “Why were you sitting out here alone? No guards. No friends. Nopony save yourself and your admittedly-charming reflection?”
“I…” Twilight felt herself grow warm again. “It’s… it’s nothing to concern yourself about!”
“Come now, you can tell me!” Rarity pleaded, gazing at Twilight from under heavy lashes. “I have come an awfully long way. It’s the least you can do.”
Twilight huffed and took a few steps backward until her flanks bumped into the arcane willow’s trunk behind her.
“It’s not important!” Twilight squeaked—and immediately cursed herself for doing so.
“Your tone says otherwise.”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Why are you dodging the question?”
“Because you don’t need to know!”
“But I want to.” Rarity stalked forward on her crystal hooves, a tiny smirk on her muzzle. “And you’ll find…” She all but glided towards Twilight, moving with an almost liquid grace. “I tend to get what I want.”
Why is my blood pressure extremely elevated? Why is it so very warm this evening? Why has a colony of butterflies taken up residence within me?
“I… I… I…” Twilight stammered as the virtrung doe crept closer, coming to a halt mere inches away. Her eyes seemed enormous, even though they were half-lidded. Twilight sucked in a breath, catching a hint of oak leaves and summer fields.
“My dear princess, you obviously need someone to speak to. I swear by the boughs of my home, the stars in the sky and the life in the earth that I will not speak of it to any living being.”
Twilight blinked and looked down. A wash of pale blue magic coursed over the delicate dusky blue lines on all four of Rarity’s legs, only to flash briefly once it reached her hooves. There was a subtle shift in the air around them.
That… I remember that vow. That’s the Bond of Earth… that’s a binding oath! She… she actually bound herself to that promise! To me! But… over such a small thing? Why… why would she do that?
“Because… today, somepony reminded me today of… my lineage.” Twilight whispered in a tiny voice. “Reminded me that I was common. I’ve been a princess for only ten years… but nopony cares. Nopony will ever care. I’ll never be like her.”
“And by her, I assume you mean the Aurorae Princess, Sunset Shimmer, the pureblood daughter of Solis Princess Celestia?”
This time, there was no twitch. She didn’t have the energy.
Twilight nodded, all the feelings from before vanishing in an errant breeze. A chill ran through her bones and into her chest, as the confirmation of the words struck home.
“Ah, the jealous nature of siblings.” Rarity tutted. “It is something I am quite familiar with, I assure you.”
“You?” Twilight looked up. She relaxed a little as Rarity took a few steps backward. “You have siblings?”
“Oh, indeed,” Rarity mused as she looked away at something only she could see. “My younger sister. The dear fawn is always getting into some sort of trouble or another. I admit… I have looked upon her and felt jealous on more than one occasion.”
“What could somepony—err—someone like you feel jealous about?”
Twilight couldn’t imagine anything that would make this doe jealous. Anything in the world. She looked like she had everything she had ever wanted.
“Why, her freedom of course.” A wistful smile graced Rarity’s muzzle. “At an early age, I was marked in a way that set me apart from all those around me. The divide only grew with time, and, despite my natural charms, gifts and talents, I’ve ended up quite alone. My sister has no such issue. She is as happy and carefree as any fawn in the forest.”
Rarity let out a long and low sigh.
“You sound like you miss her,” Twilight hazarded.
“Well, that’s because I do, my dear princess,” Rarity shrugged. “Despite our differences, she is still my sister. Yet, my calling was not to remain in the Day Woods and I will not shirk my responsibilities.”
Twilight nodded. It sounded familiar. Far too familiar, if she was honest. Yes, the reasons were different, but the truth was still there.
Twilight’s eyes climbed up the enormous glittering spires of the palace she’d called home for the last decade. The ramparts where the ever-vigilant palace guards watched over the great city of Canterlot. The enormous anti-air magic ballistae on the battlements that could vaporize a shadowflier at five hundred yards. She could even see half of the command dome, where her brother was likely in counsel with Mother right now.
But more than anything, her eyes were drawn to the great gold and silver tower that dominated the Diamond Palace. She could see her balcony from here, directly below Luna’s own rooms. And she could just barely make out Sunset’s balcony opposite of Twilight’s. And of course, the Solis Balcony above that.
Mother in name only… Twilight mused. Both outsiders even among family. 
“Is your family still here?” Rarity’s voice was delicate and gentle. “They have not… fallen during your battle with the forces of shadow?”
“No, they’re fine,” Twilight replied as she tore her gaze from the Tower of the Heavenly Sisters and back to her visitor. “When the shadowkin started attacking the city directly, most of the population of Canterlot were evacuated to homes within the Diamond Wall. They’re among them. The Princesses ensure they live extremely well.”
“And they would be of ‘common’ stock, I assume?” Rarity’s voice remained gentle, despite the words.
“Yes.”
“So, you’re somehow under the impression that, since they are considered ‘common’ by your nobility, they have a ‘common’ daughter?”
“That about sums it up.” Twilight’s gaze dropped to the ground. “Just a commoner with delusions of princesshood, since I’m not like Mother, Aunt Luna or Sunset. I wasn’t born an alicorn. I ascended to it. My sister-in-law, Cadance, has dealt with some of the same prejudice but…”
Rarity remained silent.
“She’s always been better at dealing with other ponies than me,” Twilight muttered. “She is the Amoris Princess, after all.”
“Ah yes, the second-newest member to the Royal Line, the one who has taken up the call of love in your battle against the Pox. I’ll admit, she intrigued me for a short time, until I learned of you.”
“Me?” Twilight looked up into Rarity’s shining blue eyes. “Why would I be of any interest? I’m just the boring princess who ignites the stars at night. I spend most of my days in libraries or laboratories.” With a groan, she collapsed to the soft earth. “Who am I kidding? I am a commoner.”
Rarity settled next to her. “You are anything but common, my dear princess.”
“How would you know?”
“Well, perhaps it is because of your soul mark… and mine. I’m surprised you aren’t—”
“Princess!” cried the familiar voice of Starlight Glimmer.
Twilight frowned and got back to her hooves. Taking just a moment to at least try to compose herself, she stepped out from beneath the willow’s branches and away from Rarity. For some reason, it felt much cooler outside of the tree’s canopy than it had a few minutes ago.
“I’m over here, Starlight!” Twilight called to the frantic-looking unicorn in silver and blue armor.
Beside her was Trixie. The armor of both mares was a great deal more crooked than they had been before their dismissal. Twilight chose to ignore that.
“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked as they galloped up. Their eyes were wild.
“Shadowkin!” Trixie squeaked, almost out of breath. “Siegebreaker! At the Harmony Gate!”
Twilight’s blood turned to ice.
“That’s… that’s impossible,” Twilight breathed. “The Harmony Gate is protected by—”
“Your Majesty,” Starlight interrupted. “There isn’t time! We need to get you to safety immediately. Lord Armor ordered us to find you at once and escort you to the Tower. This section of the city is no longer secure. They’ve opened up waygates directly outside the Wall. They’re getting legions of reinforcements!”
“My brother wants me to hide while my people fight and die?” Twilight’s wings flared with her temper. “That’s not happening. Not today.”
Starlight bit her lip and her voice dropped in volume. “Twilight, please.” Twilight was taken aback. It had been a long time since Starlight had used her given name. “Trix and I can’t take on a mass of shadowkin alone. We can’t risk anything happening to you!”
Only then did Twilight hear the sounds of battle coming from the west. The horrific roars of the shadowkin and the battlecries of soldiers.
Those were her soldiers. As much as they were Celestia’s, Luna’s, Cadance’s or Sunset’s. What’s worse… she knew the population dispersion of Canterlot. There were too many innocents near the Harmony Gate.
Who knows what would happen to the civilians if the gate was actually breached? 
She thought what the venom of the shadowkin could do to a normal pony, one without the enhancements placed upon them by serving in the Celestial Forces.
For a brief moment, she pictured her mother being consumed by the Nightmare Pox, only to be pulled away to whatever horrible fate happened to the infected in the half-ruined city beyond the Diamond Wall.
She couldn’t just run and hide. She wouldn’t. For three weeks, she’d been forced to watch as the shadowkin devoured more and more of her city.
Not tonight! Not under my stars!
“Nothing will happen to her,” Rarity said as she stepped from beneath the boughs of the arcane willow.
Both unicorn guards whirled. Instantly, spears of starlight appeared before them and they struck, running purely on instinct. Before Twilight could even speak, Rarity’s hooves flared with magic and a half-sphere of diamond appeared before her. Starlight’s spear struck diamond… and lost in an instant, shattering into ethereal magic.
“I am not your enemy,” Rarity said, looking entirely unruffled by the attempt to skewer her. “Your enemy is out there. And I do not believe your dear princess wishes to cower behind walls of magic and diamond, does she?”
Rarity’s bright eyes flicked to Twilight. In that moment, Twilight saw something beneath the arrogance, the wit and the jests. Beneath the charisma and the flirting. Twilight’s breath caught in her throat.
Beneath all that lay a core of pure diamond. And while diamond was beautiful, it was also nigh-unbreakable. It was as eternal as the stars themselves.
Twilight looked up at her stars. To her surprise, she didn’t even need to ask for their help. A surge of confidence rushed through her. It was time to stop pretending she was merely an astronomer.
“You should gather your entourage,” Twilight snapped. “You’ll need it.”
“Ah, well…” For the first time, Rarity actually looked somewhat abashed. “Therein lies a bit of a problem. A teensy little misconception, rather. That is to say—”
“We don’t have time for misconceptions!”
“Very well,” Rarity took a breath and drew herself up. “I have no entourage.”
“What.” It wasn’t really a question.
Twilight stared at the doe, who was actually blushing now.
“I’m the only deerkin the Council sent.”
“What,” Twilight repeated. There was no way she heard that right.
“Sorry?” Rarity offered. Now, she had the audacity to look sheepish! “If it’s any consolation, there is another reason I was sent.”
“One doe,” Twilight growled. She felt her mane begin to frizz. “One virtrung doe. That’s all the vaunted Council of the Woods sends us? One doe?”
“Allow me to demonstrate,” Rarity said with a placating smile. “And perhaps that may allay your concerns.”
“Your Majesty,” Starlight repeated. “We really shouldn’t—”
“Quiet!” Twilight snapped. “I need to think!”
Starlight shut up.
Rarity closed her eyes, took a deep breath and reared. The swirling dusky blue patterns on her front forelegs suddenly burned with brilliant blue light. Both Trixie and Starlight both gave cries of surprise and staggered backward, but Twilight stood motionless, lost in thought. She was still trying to process what in the world would possess the deerkin to send a single doe to the defense of Canterlot.
Granted, if it had to be one doe in particular, I don’t mind that it was this particular one but— 
Before her mind could wander down that path much further, Rarity’s eyes flashed open as a pulse of magic erupted through the air. Her crystal hooves flared with power as she slammed them down into the earth. The grass didn’t even bend at the impact.
Instead, the world bent around them.
That got Twilight’s attention.
A flowing geyser of blue and white magic swelled up from the point of impact. Strange silver-white metal flowed into the air from nothingness. Something shifted and in mere moments, the liquid metal engulfed the doe.
As Twilight watched with her jaw once more hanging open, the quicksilver-like material transformed into beautiful sheets of shimmering silver-white armor. In the space of a few heartbeats, the metal wove itself over the doe’s graceful body. Ornamented filigree dominated the center chestpiece which—to Twilight’s surprise—bore Twilight’s own soul mark. The mark burned with starlight, glittering in the doe’s magic. Similar glowing patterns of deerkin script flowed along the armor’s flanks and legs—and the armor also did a very good job of accentuating those particular assets.
A helm appeared on Rarity’s head, though it allowed most of her extravagant mane freedom through a narrow slit in the top. Finally, Rarity’s own soul marks appeared on either flank, each with the azure shine that matched the color beneath. As the armor solidified completely, Twilight was struck dumb as she realized exactly what she was seeing.
Rarity now wore not steel nor anything as crude as that. What Twilight was looking at was nothing other than starsilver. 
The ball of liquid starsilver floated to the doe’s side. Rarity looked at it and narrowed her eyes, as if concentrating. A few seconds later, an elegant tapered blade of interwoven starsilver and crystalline amethyst formed from the orb. It burned with soft lavender fire. With a nod of approval, the blade slid into a sheath on Rarity’s left flank.
After a few heartbeats—very rapid heartbeats—Twilight somehow found her voice again.
“You’re a starsilver shaper?” Twilight whispered. “A real… a real starsilver shaper?”
Rarity nodded without a sound, her eyes dancing with silent joy at surprising the Astra Princess.
“Well…” Twilight said after swallowing the lump in her throat—why is it so hot all of the sudden? “That does indeed change matters. That kind of power should help a lot. Now… we should hurry.”
Rarity cocked an eyebrow “Should you not armor yourself, my dear princess?”
“There isn’t time to head back to the Royal Quartermaster.” Twilight shook her head. “We’ve already taken too long as it is.”
“Oh, please. Who said anything about a quartermaster?”
Rarity’s eyes glinted. Her hooves flared. There was a blinding flash of light. Then, starsilver flowed over Twilight’s body, gently caressing her every curve. Twilight gasped as she stared down in wonder as Rarity did her work. Squeaks of surprise came from behind her and Twilight managed to glance back to see similar things happening to Trixie and Starlight.
However, neither of them were blushing nearly as much as Twilight when she felt the armor tighten in… certain places. When she looked back at the doe, there was a telltale flush on Rarity’s cheeks as well.
Twilight looked away. She didn’t even bother stammering out something.
The process lasted seconds. Once solidified, each armor took on the soul mark of its bearer, though all had Twilight’s mark on the chestpiece. The one difference was the entire surface of Twilight’s armor glittered with something akin to stardust. The armor even had a thin, flexible layer around her joints so as to not impede her movement. A moment later, three more interwoven starsilver and amethyst blades floated before the three ponies. Twilight took one in her magic and there was a brief shock as she felt the blade bond with her power. A few experimental swings proved that it was better balanced than any blade she had ever practiced with.
Even Starlight and Trixie let out appreciative noises as they tried out their new weapons.
“How many can you do that for?” Twilight asked.
“Oh,” Rarity said with a shrug. “Maybe a couple dozen at a time? The blades take a bit more work, of course. Crystalline amethyst is quite tricky to work with, even when bonded with elemental starsilver.”
A piercing roar shook Twilight. Then, the first scream brought her crashing back to reality. The scream was one of fear, but not panic. It was a sad thing that she had learned to differentiate the two. But it was still not something she could simply leave unanswered.
“Princess…” Starlight pleaded one last time. “This is a terrible idea.”
“Your opinion has been noted,” Twilight declared. “But we’re going in.”
She’d never really felt like a princess before. Now that she thought about it, she’d never acted like one either.
Time for that to change.
Common or not, she wasn’t about to turn tail and run. Not again. Never again. Being a princess in the Equestrian Realms meant that every single citizen within her nation was her responsibility. Everypony. Everyone.
Not to mention my family is out there. Both of them.
“You two coming?” Twilight asked, though she knew she needn't have bothered. Trixie and Starlight were both extremely capable. They wouldn’t shirk their responsibility. Twilight’s faith was rewarded with two nods, though she could still see Starlight’s hesitation.
“I do hope you’re planning on including me in your little soirée,” Rarity said as she studied an armored leg. “It would be most inconsiderate to simply leave me behind. Especially after I crafted such fabulous armor and weapons for you all.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Twilight replied with a raised eyebrow. “After all, I need to see if the stories of deerkin superiority are all they’re cracked up to be.”
“My dear princess, that sounds very much like a challenge.” Rarity’s smirk grew and her eyebrows danced.
“That’s because it was.”
“Ah!” Rarity slipped her blade from its sheath. “Then what are we waiting for? We have a city to save, do we not?”
Twilight grinned at the doe. For the first time in years, the weight of the circlet upon her head felt right.
By the end of the day, I will earn this. One way or another.
Her horn ignited with magenta fire as she unleashed the teleport spell. The world around them went white.
A moment later, it snapped back into utter chaos.
> The Fallen Gate
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------




Twilight stumbled backward as a sticky tar-like flying thing nearly took her head off. She dodged a second shadowflier and almost fell off the ramparts of the Diamond Wall. Another aberration crashed into the top of the wall between battlements and screeched in Twilight’s face. Panic overwhelmed her. She slashed wildly at the beast’s dragon-like snout.
And missed.
The thing’s head darted forward, each black fang in its horrid head nearly as long as Twilight’s foreleg.
This wasn’t the plan!
Then Starlight and Trixie pushed in, jabbing their glittering blades into the monster’s gullet. It let out a piercing shriek so loud, it left Twilight’s ears ringing. Massive bat-like wings flapped, pushing the two bodyguards back against the far rampart. Their assault on the creature bought enough time for Twilight to get ahold of herself. With a savage cry, she darted forward and slammed her sword into the shadowflier’s exposed breast.
It twitched three times before exploding into smoke.
“A good entrance, my dear princess,” quipped Rarity, falling back to her side while fending off three smaller tarwhelps. “The landing needed work, but the follow-up was magnificent.”
“Thanks?” Twilight coughed as she blew away the mortal remains of the shadowflier with a flap of her silver-tipped wings.
“My pleasure,” Rarity cooed. In a single spinning motion, she struck down all three tarwhelps. Her careful feints and retreats had baited them into swarming so close together, all she had needed was the single swipe. “It was a valiant effort. And I suspect you’ll have many more chances to improve upon it soon!”
Starlight and Trixie rushed to the battlements, taking positions on either side of a crenel. Twilight looked up to see shadowfliers fling massive spikes into the great Diamond Wall, which shook under the assault. As they veered away, each unicorn popped out from behind their cover for a second and unleashed blasts of magic fury, tearing the shadowfliers from the sky.
“Uh… Princess?” Starlight said, concern etched on her face.
“Trixie thinks maybe a tactical retreat would be sound, Your—” Trixie ducked a smaller barbed dart from one of the fliers. Several strands of silver hair fell from her mane. “In fact, Trixie is sure of it.”
Twilight rushed to the edge of the wall near one of the great blue braziers lighting up the battlefield and peered down below into the madness outside the massive Harmony Gate. The shadowkin below resembled a sea of night, boiling in anger.
“By the Solar Winds…” Twilight breathed as Rarity joined her and gasped.
“Incoming!” Starlight called, tossing up a shield spell before her Princess.
Twilight looked up to see an entire flock of shadowfliers descending on them. Missiles rained down the battlements and Starlight grunted under the assault even as Trixie added her strength to the spell.
Idiot! Twilight snapped at herself. You get so caught up in your bravado that you teleport directly into a warzone!
She needed a second. Maybe a few. To get the lay of the land. To know what was going on. To process what she had seen beneath her. To breathe.
The whole of the Diamond Wall shuddered as something massive slammed into the Harmony Gate. Starlight refocused on the shield and Trixie launched a magical counterattack against the shadowflier swarm. Rarity pressed herself against Twilight as she tried to get a better look at the chaos below.
Twilight charged her horn as she threw together the spell. A flare of magic bubbled out from her and dissipated in a few heartbeats.
“Leaf and bramble…” Rarity cried as the colors around them faded to sepia tones like an old painting. “Princess? Is this you?”
“Sorry!” Twilight squeaked. “I didn’t mean to catch you in the periphery!”
“Not at all, darling.” Rarity’s eyes darted around, but she relaxed ever so slightly. “Whatever did you cast?”
“Accelerated perception spell.”
Rarity made a small appreciative noise. “Marvelous!”
Twilight ignored another rush of heat to her face. “I don’t know how long I can hold it, but I needed a moment!”
“Take your time, dear. If you’ll allow me, I would love to help stabilize it. While not my particular area of expertise, I am quite competent at feeding an existing spell. And, perhaps a brief respite is all we need.”
Twilight smiled gratefully at her deer companion. Then, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and fought through the panic trying to overwhelm her. It took longer than she would have liked, but eventually, she found something close to a calm center deep within her.
It couldn’t last, but it didn’t have to.
She opened her eyes. She really didn’t want to look down again, but she did anyway.
An enormous shadowbeast, something that could only be the ‘siegebreaker,’ had been pounding at the massive double doors of the Harmony Gate, beyond which lay the heart of the Diamond City of Canterlot. The siegebreaker was armored from snout to tail, with six enormous legs ending in savage talons, while twin horns curled from above its four yellow-on-red eyes. Twilight shuddered as she saw the cracks in the wall around the great gate’s hinges. The mighty enchanted gate had already begun to buckle under the assault.
The only thing in its way were two of the fiercest combatants in the Equestrian Realms. Yet even they were struggling to take down the massive thing.
Selene Princess Luna herself—as dark and beautiful as a midnight thunderstorm—had charged into battle with her Midnight Sentinel holding off the northern flank. In slow motion, the great Scythe of Selene tore through one of the beasts six trunk-like legs, but it seemed to have little effect. The wound was already reknitting itself. It would be fully healed mere moments after the damage was done. Whatever this siegebreaker was, it was made of sterner stuff than the shadowkin Twilight had heard about before.
Twilight couldn’t remember the last time Aunt Luna had looked so furious and so cold. It sent chills down her spine.
“Hm, there’s something to be said for the timeless nature of the moon,” Rarity opined as she watched through the spell’s perception field. “But I’ve always preferred a little more glitter.”
Twilight did her best to ignore her—which wasn’t very effective—as she continued to survey the battlefield. She gritted her teeth as flashes of color started to bleed into the spell. She felt Rarity funnel energy into her, and again she was struck with a sense of déjà vu.
Keep it together, Twilight. You need a good picture of this. 
She focused on Mother. Solis Princess Celestia had descended from on high to deal with the enormous monster that dared to strike directly against her city. Even as she fought, a golden radiance covered most of the battlefield, emphasized in places by the gigantic braziers set into the Diamond Wall. She bore no weapon, for Mother needed nothing so crude. The pure fire of her sunlight had already torn great gaping holes in the beast’s black armored hide. Even through the spell, Mother moved with impossible grace and speed, conjuring spears of sunfire and shields of daylight against the siegebreaker.
The sight of Mother in combat was enough to break through even Rarity’s aura of flippant nonchalance.
“Oh my,” Rarity murmured. “I never realized I would get to see the fury of the Solis Princess in such raw form…”
The sound of battle leaked in for a moment, but Twilight poured more power into the spell, doing her best to ignore the splitting migraine trying to break her concentration. She shivered and forced herself to move on. The spell was already starting to fray, and her mind couldn’t process information like this for long.
That left only Aurorae Princess Sunset Shimmer on the battlefield, as Amoris Princess Cadance was undoubtedly running a triage hospital behind the wall. While Mother and Aunt Luna were trying to take down the siegebreaker, Sunset had assembled a strike team from Mother’s Golden Legion. Sunset’s group allowed the Elder Princesses to focus on the great monster without worrying about smaller ones flanking them. They were currently holding the line against the shadowlisks and blackbulls rushing the Harmony Gate from three green-and-black waygates in what had once been the Glittering Boulevard, the great street that ran parallel to the Diamond Wall.
Sunset was handling the monsters with almost casual ease, while wielding her twin sunsteel rapiers. Minuette and Lemon Hearts were mainly concerned with making sure stragglers didn’t get through the blade wall conjured by Twilight’s elder sister, while the rest of the squad shored up any other holes in the defense.
“She is rather impressive,” Rarity commented as she followed Twilight’s gaze. Her voice was strained. “Still, she lacks a... certain charm of another princess I happen to know.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and then gasped. Colors started swirling. Sounds began to return. She was losing the spell.
“I’m sorry, my dear princess,” Rarity groaned, shivering with effort. “I’m afraid even I have my limits.”
In the center of the Glittering Boulevard, an enormous waygate hung in midair. It had to have been the one siegebreaker had emerged from. This waygate was at least three times larger than the rest. Even as she watched, great black things swept out of the maw in slow-motion, materializing out of whatever chaotic dimension had spawned the shadowkin.
The spell was collapsing now. Sweat poured down Twilight’s face as she tried to get a glimpse of anything she’d missed.
Diamond dogs were fighting to the north, stemming the tide from five small waygates near what had once been Gossamer Silk’s Auction House. Squads of buffalo were wreaking havoc against a small legion of shadowkin in the south, with the aid of a dozen or so zebra weavers. Young drakes soared through the smoky sky, drowning enemy shadowfliers in flame and tearing them asunder with their great claws.
Twilight’s horn tried to screw itself back into her skull as her brain begged her to stop the spell. The mass of incoming information was suffocating her.
But one thing didn’t make sense. Shining Armor should be here. He was Lord of the Celestial Forces, second only to the Royal Five in authority for all of the Equestrian Realms.
He should be here! What happened?
“My dear princess… I believe I’ve identified a problem.” Rarity pointed north along the top of the Diamond Wall.
Twilight turned, finally spying Shining Armor a few dozen yards away. He was on his knees, trying to fight back a huge dragon-like shadowflier. The rest of his squad was beset by attacks coming in from all sides from tarwhelps, smaller shadowfliers and other, stranger things Twilight couldn’t identity. One of Shining’s soldiers had already been struck down by the shadowkin venom. He screamed in a strange tone through the spell as molten tar crept up his legs.
In slow motion, Shining skidded on a fallen sword. The monster took advantage of the opening, and lunged forward to tear out her brother’s neck.
“Shining!” Twilight cried as she leapt into the air, the spell shattering around them like broken glass. Time immediately snapped back into motion. Without a thought to tactic or strategy, she plummeted toward the creature. With a savage roar, she crashed down upon the thing and jabbed the sword through its head in a vicious downthrust. Her hooves continued through the smoky remains until she landed hard against the stone top of the wall. The combination of breaking the spell and the landing made her stumble and slam into her brother, who stared at her in shock.
“Twily?” Shining said as he looked up, dazed. “Twily, what are you—behind you!”
Twilight spun as another slavering thing charged at her from behind. She tried to pull up her weapon, but even as she did so, she knew she would be too slow. That spell had taken too much from her. Her heart hammered in her chest, but it was as if the perception spell had been cast yet again as the thing bore down on her.
There was a subtle ripple, and Rarity appeared before her, looking entirely unconcerned as she held out her blade before her. The creature ran straight into it, impaling its chest. The thing erupted into shadow after a single twitch.
“Tsk. Not the most intelligent of beasts, are they?” She sighed as she waved away the smoke.
“Spearhead!” Shining Armor cried as he saw the infected soldier. He galloped over to the screaming unicorn and swore. Twilight and Rarity were at his side in a heartbeat.
“I… I don’t want to be… one of them…” the unicorn guard whispered.
“Nopony falls to the Pox while I’m still in command,” Shining spat. He yanked out something from a small holster across his chest and flung it at the ground. A sweet-smelling mist wafted up for a second before rushing to envelop the thrashing soldier. For a moment, the only sounds were from the raging battle around them. The mist soon evaporated, leaving behind only an unconscious—and unblemished—unicorn.
“Get him to the Healer’s Tent!” Shining shouted. “Make sure he’s cleared of the Pox by Hope!”
A pegasus in scout armor saluted, grabbed the unconscious pony and darted off the top of the Diamond Wall.
Finally, the Lord of the Celestial Forces whirled on Twilight. “What are you doing here? I gave strict orders to—”
“I know what you ordered me to do!” Twilight snapped at she glared at her brother. “And I have no intention of hiding in the Palace! I’m a Princess of the Equestrian Realms, Lord Armor. I’m not going to let my people down!”
“I believe you’ll have a few more chances to prove that momentarily, my dear princess,” Rarity quipped.
Twilight glanced behind her only to see Rarity’s blade dance through the air like a hummingbird, dispatching three beasts in an equal number of heartbeats.
“Twily, this is a terrible time to try and prove yourself!” Shining Armor levitated his own blade—a massive broadsword of thunder-iron—and cut a shadowflier in two. He snatched his shield from the ground and whirled to catch a half-dozen barbs from one of the ranged blackquills that had just scrambled up the side of the wall. The stallion grunted with each impact, but he refused to yield.
Twilight lunged as best as she could and managed to clip two fliers before she was forced to parry a few blows. A moment later, Rarity’s blade finished the job.
“I think it’s a perfect time!”
“During an invasion?”
“Yes!” Twilight snapped. Another enemy down. “After today, nopony will call me ‘common’ ever again!”
“Not this again!” Shining Armor growled and flung his shield with his magic. Six tarwhelps exploded into vapor before it came flying back to him. “This is insane! You’re rushing into battle after being called a name! Twily, at least fall back to the Ruby Gate! Cadance is holding there with the Eighth!”
“No!” Twilight cried as she ducked a flying thing’s attempt to take off her head. Rarity destroyed it with a burst of blue fire from one of her hooves. “I’m not hiding again!”
“Grah!” Shining Armor’s broadsword took out another hulking dragon-like shadowkin menacing a few of his soldiers. “Then what do you recommend, Princess?” 
“Personally, I’d recommend we concern ourselves with the waygates, or at the very least, finding the source of them,” Rarity said with a toss of her mane as she sidestepped the clumsy swipe of another shadowflier. A single upper-stroke reduced it to shadows. “Those seem to be the source of your troubles, Lord Armor.”
“I don’t need tactical advice from some lousy deerkin!” Shining Armor shot back. “We asked for help weeks ago and an hour before sunset, you march up to the gates completely alone! I read the report!” 
“Now you stop that right now!” Twilight cried as she stumbled backward out of the line of fire as a dozen heavy quills shattered the cobblestones where she’d been moments before. “Rarity’s here to help!”
“The deerkin have never helped anypony but themselves!” Shining shot back. “She came alone when we needed an army. They’re insulting us! I have half a mind to buck her straight back to the Day Woods!”
“Why, my dear princess,” Rarity said as she parried the clawstrike of a rearing shadowlisk. “You never said that your brother was such a tease.”
“I’m not teasing you, you old mule.” His shield blocked the talons of a shadowflier while his great sword cleaved through a swarm of tarwhelps.
“Now that was uncalled for,” Rarity harrumphed. She lined up a shot with her hoof and a burst of blue power tore another shadowflier from the air. “Besides, mules on the outskirts of the Great Woods make a delectable carrot-and-pansy stew. All of the ones I’ve known are as industrious and intelligent as earth ponies.” Another dancing sidestep and a swing. It was all Twilight could do not to just watch the doe move. “So I suppose I should thank you for the comparison. I shall endeavor to live up to it.”
“Twily, it would be foolish to trust she’s here for anypony save herself.” His shield again flew out and blew four tarwhelps into smoke before returning to him with a thunk. “Don’t tell me you’re actually buying this story that she’s the best defense they could send!”
“I’d almost consider that a challenge, Lord Armor,” Rarity called as she leapt out of the way of a crashing shadowflier. “But, while your dear sister could probably keep up with me, I doubt you could.”
“You think you could keep up with me throwing this shield at your head, deerkin?” Shining Armor snarled as he lifted his great shield.
“Is he always this brutish? Has he never heard of subtlety?”
This time, it was Twilight’s turn to raise an eyebrow at the doe. “Have you?”
Rarity’s eyes glittered. She jabbed her blade behind her and skewered another beast through the gullet without a backward glance. “Oh, I’m blatant with my attention around the ones I actually like.”
Twilight couldn’t help but swallow.
Why in world did Rarity make this armor so tight?
“If you’re so determined, the both of you can help hold the top of the wall!” Shining Armor shouted. “The ballistae on the Palace can handle any fliers who get past us, but if we lose the Wall, they’ll swarm down into the city within minutes! I don’t need you to go rushing out there! It’s not safe. Let Celestia handle—”
The cry halted all debate. The golden light suddenly faded from the battlefield. Twilight, Rarity and Shining Armor shoved their way to the gap between crenels and looked down.
Sunset screamed first. Luna screamed second. Shining Armor roared. Twilight’s voice caught in her throat.
The siegebreaker had just crushed Celestia into the enchanted gemstone of the Harmony Gate, leaving a massive divot in the center of the doors. It roared in triumph, pounding its talons against the ground as every waygate surged wider and unleashed a flood of smaller shadowbeasts, tarwhelps and shadowfliers. Naga-like shadowlisks slithered forward, spitting tar at Sunset’s forces. Charging blackbulls rushed at the Midnight Sentinels. From everywhere, imp-like creatures swarmed forward as the siegebreaker continued to bellow its victory over the Solis Princess.
“No…” Twilight mumbled. Even from this height, Twilight could tell Mother’s two left legs were shattered.
Luna tried to dart forward, only to get bowled over by at least a half-dozen shadowfliers. She let out a shriek of defiance, and tried to carve a path through the flying tar pits. More joined the fray. Slowly, inexorably, they pushed Luna back.
“Mother!” Sunset shrieked.
The Solis Princess raised her head in defiance, but no magic came from her horn.
The imp-things charged forward for the kill.
A blazing comet of red and gold streaked through the line of imps, as Aurorae Princess Sunset Shimmer surged to her mother’s defense. With twin sweeps of her rapiers—now burning with holy sunfire—she destroyed an entire line of shadowkin. Once more, light burst across the battlefield, but this was the dull crimson of an angry dawn, produced by the daughter of Celestia herself.
The siegebreaker roared once more, this time in fury.
It intentionally backed away to let the little ones finish Celestia off… why? Twilight thought desperately.
Twilight’s eyes swiveled and she met Rarity’s gaze, who was studying the conflict with the same intensity.
“Diversion,” Rarity snapped. Blue eyes darted left and right. “There should be…”
Twilight watched as Rarity suddenly stiffened, her mouth opening in horror. Twilight followed her gaze to the great spire that had once held the Royal Treasury of the Diamond City of Canterlot. Half of the spire had been torn apart, leaving most of the interior open to the elements. It was directly opposite the Harmony Gate across the Glittering Boulevard. Before now, it hadn’t caught Twilight’s attention.
However, the sudden appearance of a swirling waygate at least as big as the one that had birthed the siegebreaker… That did catch her attention.
“It’s the master waygate,” Rarity whispered.
“How do we stop it?” Twilight demanded.
“No!” Shining Armor said beside them. “Don’t even think about it! Anypony trying to get through that by hoof or by wing would be ripped apart! We can’t teleport through their lines! Those waygates are throwing off enough dark magic to make even fireballs go wild!”
The master waygate only grew with every word.
“Rarity, what do you see?” Twilight squinted through the crimson gloom, but she couldn’t see through the swirling black magic nor the twisted shadows. “It’s all a blur to me.”
“I can see some sort of… generator or device directly beneath it,” Rarity muttered. “It’s hard to make out, but I’m certain something is there.”
Twilight whirled and stared at Shining Armor. “And if we destroy that, all the waygates will destabilize, right?”
Shining Armor shook his head. “They don’t just vanish. Only the… largest… ones…” He trailed off, staring horrified at something looming behind Twilight.
“My dear princess, I believe we are about to have additional company.”
Twilight’s eyes darted back to the waygate. Her heart almost seized in her chest.
“Solar Winds…” Shining Armor murmured beside them.
Something massive was pushing its way through. The gate itself swelled in size, trying to accommodate it. The boundary began to lick the edges of the shattered Royal Treasury. Stone and wood blistered where the corrupted magic touched. Then, with a great rush, part of the gargantuan monster came through.
“Since when do the shadowkin have Ursa Majors?” Twilight cried.
The thing was half again as big as the siegebreaker now pounding against Sunset and Aunt Luna’s magic. Twilight guessed the colossal beast had managed to get a quarter of the way through until whatever foul magic fueling the waygate had bottlenecked, forcing it to slow down. Various shadowkin flittered beneath the waygate, but the sheer chaos made it impossible to identify any of them with certainty. She tried to cast a vision spell, but the shadowkin had recovered from their brief pause and now surged forward in a frenzy, striking with wild abandon.
Still, Twilight tried to get a glimpse at her fallen mother.
Luna now stood at Sunset’s side, fending off wave after wave of shadowy claws and teeth with her great scythe. The siegebreaker was backing up as if preparing to ram them… which it almost certainly was about to do.
I need to trust Sunset and Aunt Luna to handle the siegebreaker. And I’ve seen Mother get back up from much worse than that.
“Shining!” Twilight whirled as Rarity, Trixie and Starlight held the line. “What would happen to that thing if the waygate collapsed while it was trying to go through?”
“It would get ripped right back through into their realm!” Shining shouted over the battle. He paused and glared at her, understanding. “No! Twilight, it’s too dangerous!”
“More dangerous than if that thing makes it through? If that happens, we’re doomed!” Twilight shot back. “That thing could level half the Diamond Wall by sneezing! You can’t get to it in time, Shining. We can. There’s no other option.”
“No, Twilight!” Shining Armor screamed, a note of panic making his voice crack. “You’d never make it! Your magic won’t work through all of that! And I refuse to let you do something this stupid just to impress some doe!”
The noise of the battle seemed to fade. Twilight blasted a shadowflier off the wall a few paces away, never breaking eye contact with her brother.
“Who said anything about her?” Twilight said flatly. “This is about me doing what’s right.”
She paused and looked at the doe who had just impaled two tarwhelps. Trixie and Starlight were fending off a pair of shadowquills.
“That is…” Twilight said. “If you can do it?”
Rarity peered at the waygate before nodding. “It will most definitely not be a pleasant ride, but I can get a small group in. Though, as a word of caution, I admit I’ve never teleported out of such a place before.” She smirked, her brilliant eyes glittering. “Not precisely what I had in mind for our first evening, but a little excitement never—”
Twilight cocked an eyebrow at her.
Rarity chuckled. “Point taken, my dear princess.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. Again..
Light flared below them as Luna conjured a massive shield to stop the siegebreaker’s next charge. It roared in defiance, as another wave of shadowfliers descended upon the Diamond Wall. Soldiers screamed and shouted, but never broke. Shining Armor’s troops were well-trained and they refused to back down against the onslaught.
“Shining, we’re going.” Twilight stared at her brother. “Though… I’d appreciate a distraction.”
A dozen emotions raced across her brother’s face. Starlight let out a battlecry from somewhere on Twilight’s left. Arcane fire erupted in the sky. The magical ballistae of the Palace open fire on a group of shadowfliers who had managed to pierce the aerial defenses of the Diamond Wall. The wall beneath her hooves bucked as something slammed into it.
“I won’t be able to help you, Twilight.” Shining said. “Please, at least let me go instead.”
Twilight shook her head, smiling just a little. “I can’t keep your soldiers alive. You can.”
“But you’re my sister.”
Twilight adjusted her circlet.
“I’m also the Astra Princess. Don’t you think it’s time I acted like it?”
Shining Armor blinked first.
“Deerkin!” he shouted. “You keep her safe or you’ll answer to me, got that?”
A genuine smile graced the doe’s lips.
“Be safe, Twily,”
“You too, Shiny.”
“While I’m usually all for a reconciliation, perhaps we could leave the familial bonding for another time?” Rarity called as the blade started to whip around into figure-eights to fight a wave of two dozen tarwhelps as Starlight and Trixie were forced backward. “For instance… anytime other than during an invasion of nightmarish abominations?”
“Right. Good call,” Shining Armor said, once again all business. He turned to his squad. “Ponies! Our Astra Princess needs a diversion! Anypony feel up to the challenge?”
A ragged cheer went up from Shining Armor’s soldiers. They were battered, bludgeoned and bruised… but they were far from defeated. A surge of pride rushed through Twilight for her brother.
“Oh, and Lord Armor?” Rarity called. Twilight watched as the doe tossed something at him. Shining Armor instinctively caught it in his magic. “I mean no offense to your armorer, but your current shield appears somewhat bedraggled.”
It was a shield, hexagonal in shape, and crafted from starsilver and amethyst, just like the blade Twilight’s retinue now wielded. Shining Armor glanced up and inclined his head just enough to show respect, latching his other shield onto a holster on his left flank.
“Cost eithel, aras allui,” Twilight’s brother said with a nod.
‘Fight Well, Friend Deer’ in loamtongue? Twilight blinked. Since when does Shining speak loamtongue?
“Cost eithel, ponui allui,” Rarity replied with the same nod. Her eyes glittered.
“And you?” Shining Armor said, turning to his sister. “Go kick some flank. But if you get hurt, I’m going to kick their flank, then yours, and then hers.”
“My, he is an irrepressible flirt, isn’t he?” Rarity chirped.
Twilight couldn’t help but smirk. Something about Rarity’s presence made it feel like she was swimming through stars of confidence. “Trixie! Starlight! Fall back!”
Rarity sidled up to Twilight as her battered bodyguards let Shining Armor’s squad draw the enemy's’ fire. Shining Armor flared his magic, unleashing wave after wave of arcane fire at the siegebreaker, while the unicorns on his squad blasted shadowfliers from the sky.
“My dear princess,” Rarity said in a hushed whisper, “please do not take offense, but exactly how much combat experience do you have?”
Twilight’s ears went down. “Ah… I’ve done a great deal of training exercises. I do know a great deal on the subject.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow as Trixie and Starlight took up defensive positions.
“And how, pray tell, do you know so much about the subject of warfare?”
“Books! I’ve read several on the subject.”
“Heru en' i' kela, vara sina amada inya ar' he` leuthil,” Rarity muttered.
That couldn’t have meant what I thought it meant… 
“What was that?”
“Just… an old deerkin blessing.” Rarity said with a slightly wavering smile.
Twilight suspected it was something else entirely, but her eyes locked upon the gargantuan ursa-like monster creeping out of the master waygate. There wasn’t time for games.
“Rarity?”
“Yes, my dear princess?”
“Let’s go.”
“Prepare yourselves!” Rarity called as the tendrils of magic began to flow from her. She narrowed her eyes on the base of the waygate.
Twilight couldn’t help but think her eyes looked rather intense like that. In fact, it wasn’t too different to how the doe had been looking at her only a few minutes ago. Maybe she should—
The world blurred for just a moment. This felt nothing like any teleport spell she’d ever experienced. It was subtle and quiet, like stepping from one room to another. One second they were in atop the wall, the next they were at the base of the waygate, directly beneath the massive beast’s bulk.
Rarity staggered, the blue magic of her hooves fading as she nearly stumbled to the rubble at their hooves. Twilight reached out to steady her companion.
A slithering half-serpent beast slammed into Twilight’s side, and sent her whirling to the ground. She let out a pained grunt, but Rarity’s starsilver armor had saved her from being dashed to pieces. She moaned as she tried to stop the world from spinning. All she could see was the armored tar-like plates of the shadow-ursa.
Then something far more hideous filled her vision.
It vaguely resembled an upright corrupted quarray eel. Its maw was a cavern of fangs, crooked, sharp, and broken, flanked by blackened mandibles on either side. Its eyes held Twilight’s attention in all the ways Rarity didn’t, shifting from color to color.
“Princess!” Starlight shouted, but she sounded like she was on the moon. Twilight couldn’t look away.
The eel-thing reared up and struck. Belatedly, Twilight tried to buck it in the face with her hindhooves, but she was too slow. With horrible precision, the shadowlisk’s jagged fangs bit directly into a lightly armored knee-joint on her right hindleg. Instantly, that leg was engulfed in icy numbness, the other one going dead seconds later. Twilight spasmed and twisted around, staring out toward the Harmony Gate and her two unicorn bodyguards.
“Twilight!” Trixie screamed as charged forward, only to be bowled over by a shadowflier. Above them all, the giant ursa-like monster continued to crawl out of the enormous waygate.
Twilight could feel the infection starting to ravage her. Her wings flared and spasmed. Her forehooves kicked uselessly. Her sword dropped. She let out a scream of her own.
The shadowlisk reared back one more time as it aimed for Twilight’s head. She looked up at her death… or worse.
And then, once again, Rarity was there.
“You shall not touch her!” Rarity bellowed in a decidedly unladylike tone.
Her hooves flared with silver-blue fire and she slammed them into the ground. There was a brief pause as every beast within a dozen yards staggered. That was all the time Rarity needed. Eschewing her sword, she unleashed a single savage buck at the eel-thing. The impact of Rarity’s hooves shredded the shadowlisk into shadow.
Instantly, Trixie and Starlight were at Twilight’s side. Starlight’s horn flared as her turquoise shield enveloped the four of them. All sorts of gibbering horrors rushed forward, but Starlight’s barriers were second only to Shining Armor’s and Twilight’s. The shield held even as the darkness pressed in around her vision.
“Help…” Twilight gasped as she felt her wings go rigid. She refused to turn her head and look at what the venom was doing to her. She didn’t even know if she could be saved. In Twilight’s haste, she had forgotten to grab any of the antitoxin.
I am such an idiot… just a commoner trying to impress a doe I barely know. 
If she was going to be consumed, she might as well be honest with herself. Impressing Rarity was at least thirty-two percent of the reason she had charged out here.
“Hush,” Rarity commanded, her eyes still blazing with power. “Shadowkin infections are frightful indeed, but I will not allow something so horrid consume somepony so beautiful.”
Despite the freezing sensation crawling up her body beneath her armor, Twilight blushed. In fact, it was the only thing she could feel. Her entire body had gone numb.
With a flare of power, Rarity removed Twilight’s armor and set it aside. She swore something in deerish and put her hooves on Twilight’s face.
“You fight this thing, you understand me?” Now, there was nothing but diamond in Rarity’s eyes. “I have several much more scandalous flirtations that I’ve not gotten to use on you and I refuse to let you mess things up by being consumed by this Pox! Not before we fully explore all your shades of red!”
Twilight couldn’t even nod, but apparently Rarity saw something in Twilight’s eyes that told her all she needed to know. The doe closed her eyes, and Twilight watched as the lines of her forehooves ignited in oddly familiar silver fire. Rarity let out a grunt of pain, but she didn’t let up. The light was nearly blinding, but Twilight couldn’t close her eyes as she felt the icy sensation began to skitter up her neck.
Rarity’s eyes opened. They were sky blue, without iris or whites, as the deerkin stiffened under the effort of her channelling. She touched one hoof to a spot just below Twilight’s horn. The second went to Twilight’s chest.
The virtrung’s hooves erupted in power. Distantly, she heard both Trixie and Starlight gasp, but all she could really feel was the heat pulsing through her. It felt like her whole body had been thrust into the furnace of gentle warmth.
Then, her entire mind was bathed in beautiful warmth. Visions filled her mind, ones she remembered and ones she did not, yet both familiar in ways she couldn’t define.
Her terror at the strange power that had enveloped her after the sun had gone down and the strobing lights spinning around her sobbing body.
Her being mocked before the artisans of the Floral Courts for her latest gown design.
Celestia teaching her how to fly… and just how many times she faceplanted behind the Diamond Palace.
Wielding the Deep Magic of starsilver before the High Master Shaper and his expression of shock.
Mom and dad hugging her close, telling her how proud they were of her, that they’d always be there for her.
Her Confirmation Ceremony where she was inducted into the sacred Order of Starsilver.
Shining Armor’s rather silly statement about his tears being something called ‘liquid pride.’
The forging of her first crystal and starsilver blade, a gift for Father before he departed for the Southern Hills of Darm’sha’len.
Sunset’s whoop for joy at finding out that she had a sister other than Cadance, something she’d wanted for decades.
Learning the delicate balance of working the starscape with Aunt Luna.
The pride of watching her younger sister finally gain control of her magic, aided by a griffon chick and an earth pony filly.
The unexpected appearance of her three diamond soul mark as the stars realigned after three nights of having only the moon for company.
Her catching Trixie and Starlight—again—in one of the broom closets. 
The strange looks she’d received after the fateful night when the stars had returned.
The latest procession through the streets of the fortress city of Manehattan… and how everypony had watched every princess, save for her.
The call to the Council, and the announcement of her departure.
Staring at the tired alicorn in the lake and wondering if she would ever be anything else.
The glimpse at the dejected alicorn at the water… and seeing the alicorn’s soul mark. The mark she’d been seeing in her works for years. 
The icy feeling vanished. Sensation returned to her body. Her wings were able to move first, then her forelegs, and then her hindlegs. Finally, her vision returned and she stared into two blue diamonds. They were mere inches away.
“I… ah… I may have put too much… into that spell…” Rarity gasped, her ears back and her cheeks red. “I do hope… you’ll forgive any impropriety…”
Twilight blinked a few times, and finally cracked a smile. “It’s a little late for that.”
Rarity looked about to laugh when a resounding crack sounded through the small shielded dome. Both of them jumped at Starlight’s cry of pain.
“I can’t hold this much longer, Twilight!” Starlight cried. “I’m getting swarmed!”
A living carpet of black tar-like shadow had swallowed the surface of the shield. The ground below them shook as the great beast outside took a step.
We’re out of time.
Twilight gritted her teeth. “Starlight, get ready to blow the shield. Everypony—everyone else, I want diversions. Beat them back so we can destroy that generator.”
Starlight’s gaze met Twilight’s as the Astra Princess rose to her hooves. Rarity joined her. Trixie remained by Starlight’s side, but her blade jittered in the air as if she was itching for something to skewer. She probably was. Rarity cracked her neck. Twilight flexed her wings. Trixie adjusted her stance. Starlight closed her eyes.
“Now!”
Starlight’s shield erupted into a wave of pure force, blowing back the mass of shadowkin swarming over the barrier. They flew through the sky like dust, but a second group had been ready and waiting. A dozen shadowlisks immediately rushed in for them all.
Starlight blasted two of them into nothingness with a surge of turquoise magic. Trixie cut down another pair in the space of a second. Rarity teleported behind them and slipped her blade through five heads before they even realized what was happening. Twilight unleashed a torrent of starfire from her horn while flinging her sword forward, bringing down four.
Then there was nothing but smoke around them.
“Take out the waygate!” Twilight commanded and leapt forward.
To Twilight’s horror, she realized that the ursa-like beast had three legs out of the waygate. All that remained was a fourth limb and some sort of tail. But she couldn’t handle that thing. Nopony could. They needed to deal with the waygate itself.
There were still things guarding the base of the waygate. Gibbering things that shifted and changed with every eyeblink. Amorphous and dark, they left trails of slime with each twitching motion.
Twilight’s retinue didn’t even stop as they charged straight over them, pounding them to shadows beneath their armored hooves. A screech went up from one of them just before Twilight trampled it. The great monster above them paused. Twilight looked up just as the giant thing looked down with six enormous molten yellow eyes.
Oh, Stars and Sun, save us.
“Trixie, Starlight, keep them back!” Twilight commanded as they skidded to a stop at the base of the thing generating the waygate. Starlight and Trixie both conjured up curved horizontal shields to protect them, but even as Twilight turned to the waygate generator, the shields began to crack under the onslaught of the charging shadowkin.
Her purification had left her too drained to even consider something like the perception spell, so Twilight was forced to think fast. The generator was a massive bowl of living shadow and gray metal. There were strange blinking lights, odd displays and other bizarre pieces she couldn’t identify. Black magic poured from the thing, making Twilight sick to her stomach. In the center of it was a pulsing bulb of sickly purple with the texture of congealed slime. A beam of pure darkness rose from the bulb to the center of the waygate above them. Twilight could feel it attempt to repel and attract them simultaneously. Her vision blurred as the device screeched with some sort of hideous alarm.
“Any… ideas?” Twilight cried over the deafening sound.
“Not as such!” Rarity shouted, looking positively green under her armor. “I’m afraid black magic isn’t in style this season!”
Twilight rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the device. In desperation, she jabbed at the thing with her sword, but to no avail. A shield of green fire erupted around the generator, and she stumbled backward. She searched around for any ideas when she spied Rarity’s flanks and the three star-like gemstones on her—
That’s it! Stars!
“How much starsilver can you conjure?” Twilight called.
“Darling, I’m insulted. It would take more than these paltry foes to drain my reserves!” Rarity shouted as the monster above them roared. Its final leg was free. Only its massive dragon-like tail remained in the waygate.
“Can you create a sphere around the generator?”
“Not with that much energy pouring out of it!”
“And if I contained it for just a second?”
Rarity’s eyes went wide and she nodded. “Do it!”
Oh, I’m going to regret this…
Twilight called upon the power of her stars. They were faint through the haze of sickly magic in the air, but they answered. It took all the magic at her disposal, but Harmony and the cosmos hadn’t granted her the flight of pegasi and the strength of earth ponies because she’d been an accountant. Her talents lay within the magic of the stars. This was her domain. When she had ascended and became an alicorn, part of the Ancient Powers once held by Aunt Luna had flowed into her. She knew the stars like none before her. What they were to this world… and what they were beyond this world.
She put every ounce of herself into a single spell and then cried out to her two trusted bodyguards of ten years.
“Starlight! Trixie! Shield convergence! Now!”
They didn’t hesitate. Even as the monsters rushed in at them from all sides, both unicorns recast their spells directly at her. Twilight focused, caught their magic and funneled it into her own. Rarity’s hooves slammed into the ground and the starsilver sphere appeared once more.
Twilight concentrated with all of her might and a single blinding point of light came into existence before them all. She compressed Starlight and Trixie’s shields as tightly as she could around the spot of light… and then shoved the entire thing directly into the path of blackness.
Shadow, meet star.
Light met dark as the feedback knocked Twilight off her hooves. She landed upright and skidded back a couple of yards. The war between forces was blinding, but she forced herself to watch. For a few seconds, the interference of the tiny newborn star was just enough to banish the dark magic around the generator. The waygate above them flickered. The pause lasted only a few moments before Twilight’s star began to fray and crack beneath the fury of the black magic.
That was all Rarity needed.
Rarity drew in a deep breath. The magic pattern on her legs blazed with blue and silver light once more… and the entire globe of starsilver surged into motion. It took less than a second to bend it into a half dome, then Rarity’s magic plowed beneath the generator. Dirt and stone flew everywhere. An eyeblink later, a giant sphere of white and silver encased the generator. Twilight felt her star implode and she collapsed to the ground in exhaustion even as she heard Starlight and Trixie once again engage the enemy.
“It’s pretty,” Twilight mumbled as the waygate above them destabilized.
Rarity teleported to her side. “Not my finest work, but it shall suffice on such short notice. I even have a little left over.”
With the black magic of the generator contained within the starsilver bubble, the waygate’s magical matrix began to unravel. The enormous beast screeched as it slid backward into the unstable vortex.
Uh… maybe we shouldn’t be here…
But if the magical interference had been bad before… Twilight didn’t have a prayer of getting off a teleport spell now.
“Out! Get us out of here!” Twilight shouted as she scrambled to her hooves. Starlight and Trixie fell back, their swords flashing as more things rushed at them all in retribution. The ursa-thing roared so loud, pieces of the great broken spire crashed down around them.
“Can’t!” Rarity cried as she lunged and sliced through a shadowflier. “I’m good, darling, but I’m not that good!”
“You said there were cracks in reality!” Twilight shouted back as her own sword impaled another shadow dragon.
“Yes, my dear princess.” Three short strokes, six puffs of shadow. “And we’re standing below a rather large one right now. It is rather hard to ignore in these matters, especially when it’s fraying like a poorly knit scarf!”
“Well, horseapples,” Twilight swore.
“Horseapples, indeed,” Rarity agreed.
The ursa-thing was already halfway back through the waygate. Twilight looked beyond it and let out a ragged cheer when she saw the combined magic of Mother, Aunt Luna and Sunset finally blast the siegebreaker apart. As the smoke cleared, Twilight's heart lurched when she realized half of the Harmony Gate had been shattered. But with the siegebreaker gone, the shadowkin didn’t have a chance at overtaking the fury of three alicorns.
Well, at least we won. 
The wind was picking up. A slithering thing rushing at Twilight suddenly flew into the air, only to be consumed by the collapsing waygate.
“Ever wonder what’s on the other side of these things?” Twilight asked her doe companion. She parried another blow and threw a point-defense shield up to block all four of them against a missile barrage from a blackquill flying overhead.
“I assume it would be rather… icky,” Rarity opined as her blade continued to dance. “I try not to dwell on it.”
“I don’t think you’ll be able to avoid it for much longer.”
“We’ll see.”
The ursa-thing only had its head and a single massive leg still outside the waygate. Its bellows of rage nearly deafened Twilight, yet she found herself still able to hear Rarity as if they were chatting over tea.
Something I would much rather be doing than waiting to be sucked into the shadow abyss…
“This is not what I had in mind for tonight,” Twilight muttered to herself.
Rarity nodded. Twilight didn’t even ask how or why the doe could hear her. It wouldn’t matter much longer.
“I hadn’t planned on it either,” Rarity admitted. “I had much more entertaining things in mind for tonight’s activities!”
Starlight let out a yelp as a flying creature crashed into her. For a moment, it seemed as if she would go soaring up into the abyss, but a flash of magic from Trixie slammed her to the ground. Starlight gave her a grateful smile, but even as the two mares held each other down with their telekinesis, Twilight knew the unraveling waygate would disrupt their magic any moment. Rarity clutched a fallen support beam. The world shuddered around her, Twilight clung to a jagged piece of masonry for dear life.
Dear life… Twilight mused as she felt her own hooves begin to slip.
“Rarity!” she shouted. “Use your starsilver to anchor us!”
Rarity’s eyes went wide and a wicked grin appeared on her muzzle. Her hooves flared with power and snakes of starsilver metal surged from the vibrating sphere below the center of the maelstrom. Twilight cheered when Starlight’s hindlegs were entangled just as the magic around her faded. The starsilver held fast. If it was strong enough to contain the black magic of the generator, it was strong enough to hold a pony against the dying waygate.
Another strand burst out and snatched Trixie around the waist. Trixie smiled at the two of them gratefully.
Another pair of silver streaks erupted from the starsilver sphere and shot toward the alicorn and the doe, but she could tell Rarity’s magic was finally beginning to wane. They slowed to a crawl as the virtrung grunted with effort.
Just a bit more and I’ll be completely safe, bound up in Rarity’s magic.
Twilight went red as her mind ran to strange places with that thought.
That’s when she saw the shadow of the monster’s paw come crashing down toward Rarity. Without thinking, she charged forward and shoved Rarity aside just in time to take the full brunt of the ursa-thing’s blow. Twilight didn’t even get a chance to scream. She saw a single snake of starsilver twist around Rarity’s left forehoof just as Twilight was flung into the air.
She tried to flap her wings. Something black and oily crashed into her. Then another. Then another.
She heard Rarity shout something.
The paw came around for one last crushing blow.
Just before she blacked out, Rarity shouted her words again.
“She’s mine!”
Huh… that could have been fun…
Darkness claimed her.
> The Starbound Bond
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------




Astra Princess Twilight Sparkle woke up, gently floating in an ocean of starlight.
“Well, well. Fashionably late, my dear princess?”
Rarity hovered before her, wearing nothing but a smile.
“Am I dead?” Twilight asked. It seemed like the most logical assumption.
Rarity laughed. With each note, a star in the infinite expanse around them pulsed musically. Nebulae of radiant violet, gray, purple and red spanned the blackness above them, the colors shifted with each tone, weaving into one another like threads in a tapestry.
“Hardly,” the virtrung replied. “You’re safe and sound within the Diamond Palace.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “So I’m dreaming, then.”
“After a fashion.”
“Which means, not only am I dreaming, but I’m delusional,” Twilight sighed as she rubbed her forehead with a hoof. “Because there’s no way a virtrung could be in my dreamscape unless I put her here. So, you’re just a figment of my imagination.”
“Is that so?” Stars glimmered with laughter all around them.
“Oh yes,” Twilight shook her head in annoyance at herself. “I find it hard to believe that any virtrung, even one as stunningly gorgeous as the one I based you on; who can conjure massive spheres of starsilver, weave intricately complex blades of crystalline gemstones and mystical metals, the champion chosen by the Council of the Woods to represent her kind, and who single-hoofedly saved Canterlot from destruction with her magic can dreamwalk as well. I must have taken a significant blow to the head to be conjuring up this fantasy. The sheer concept is ludicrous.”
Her dream version of Rarity had flushed red within the first few words of her description, which only confirmed her theory.
Please, Twilight thought. Praise like that wouldn’t phase the real Rarity. Not for a second.
“‘Stunningly gorgeous?’ Really?” she asked in a quiet little voice. She blinked a few times, not quite meeting Twilight’s gaze.
Twilight laughed, and entire galaxies blossomed into existence around them with flashes of ivory and lavender.
“I think the real Rarity is stunningly gorgeous. And outrageously flirtatious. And supremely confident, talented, gifted, and... simply everything I’m not.”
Twilight slumped to an invisible ground as the nebulae around them dimmed.
“She’s the real hero of that battle. Not me. She’s the one who saved the city. Saved me when I went in like an idiot trying to prove that I wasn’t just some stupid astronomer who accidentally became a commoner princess.”
The sound of hoofsteps on gemstone approached her, despite there being no surfaces in sight. Rarity sank to her knees before Twilight and lifted her head with a hoof. Once again, diamond shone in the doe’s eyes.
For a long time, the two of them sat there like that without a single word. Twilight waited, wondering what her version of Rarity would tell her.
“You don’t actually believe that,” her echo of Rarity finally said. “I can see it in your eyes. In your heart, my dear princess. Plenty around you hold you in high esteem. Trixie and Starlight nearly died several times defending you today. They did it without hesitation or remark. Yes, they did it out of duty, but also, more importantly, out of love.” Twilight watched the reflection of stars in Rarity’s enormous blue eyes. “You stood up to your own brother in the middle of a battle. You interrupted that horrid magic long enough to allow me to put the sphere around the waygate generator. Those are not the actions of a common filly playing make-believe. These are the actions of somepony with more courage than the whole of the Council of the Woods put together.”
“Right. Just what I’d tell myself. You really are just some ego-driven part of me.” Twilight muttered. “You’re not actually here. The real Rarity can’t actually dreamwalk.”
“You’re quite right, of course,” Rarity said with a nod. “I cannot dreamwalk. But I recently met somepony who can. You may have met her.”
In the distance behind Rarity, a few dozen stars shifted to form a very familiar face of the princess who once held Twilight’s power. She winked at Twilight, then vanished into stardust.
Twilight blinked a few times.
“She wouldn’t.”
“She would.”
“She couldn’t.”
“She did,” Rarity tittered.
Twilight blinked, watching her carefully proven logic dissolve into shards of wishful thinking. “But… why?”
“She’s actually quite proud of you.” Rarity smiled. “As is her sister and your sister. And your other sister. Princess Sunset thinks you were being quite foolish, but even as she ranted, I could see the pride in her eyes. She doesn’t hide it well. Ironic, as she first struck me as the jealous type. I saw a little of myself in her.”
“No, that’s not possible,” Twilight insisted. She shook her head. “You aren’t here.”
“Well, Princess Luna got rather tired of seeing me pace outside the doors to your charming Grand Master Healer’s office demanding updates, so she decided to do something about the matter. I must admit I simply jumped at the chance. Finding myself unable to tease you was akin to torture.”
“…You aren’t here,” Twilight repeated. Why is it so warm in here? Especially since this is a construct of my dreaming mind. “You. Aren’t. Here. This is just my mind playing tricks on me.”
“I daresay I find myself in a bit of a predicament,” Rarity continued idly, lowering her hoof and staring off into the distance as if pondering some great truth of the universe. “The sheer thrill I get upon seeing you blush may have turned into an addiction for me. I know, how silly for one to develop over such a short time. But that is the nature of such things. They happen when you least expect it.”
Twilight knew her face was bright crimson. “No. This is just my fantasy. Aren’t here. All in my head.”
“Oh, this is all in your head. That is quite accurate.” Rarity’s voice dropped into a purr. If dark chocolate had a voice, this was it. Her eyelashes danced as she peered into Twilight’s soul. “But just because it’s in your head doesn’t mean it isn’t real.”
With that, Rarity smiled, leaned forward… and before Twilight could react, she booped the Astra Princess on the nose.
Twilight’s face matched the color of several red giants in the distance.
“Oh my,” Rarity released an ecstatic, almost delirious sigh of pleasure. “That does it. I am shamelessly addicted to seeing you blush. The color is quite fetching. I think I have found my true calling in life.”
“You’re… you’re actually here?”
“It’ll be a hard life, perhaps,” Rarity mused. “I shall forever be seeking new ways to turn you shades of that color. Luckily, I happen to know a few ways that do not require…” She paused, rolling her tongue around each syllable. “…verbal teasing. Several actually.”
“You are here.”
Rarity’s eyes glittered, flashing through every flutter of the doe’s eyelashes. “Dozens, really. Not that I’ve had the chance to try most of them out, of course. But you have a reputation as an eager student. One who greatly enjoys field research.”
“I said all that to you and you’re actually here.”
“In fact, at least five of those ways indeed require a field, though a meadow would be preferable. There’s always room for flexibility. But don’t worry, I am absolutely positive you will turn the proper color. In fact, I look forward to documenting just how many different shades of red I can coax from you.”
Twilight was in a strange land beyond embarrassment, mortification and horror. It was oddly serene, like the eye of a hurricane.
“So, instead of dying to a shadowkin,” Twilight said slowly. “I’m going to die in my dreams to embarrassment.”
Rarity’s smile became positively malicious. “Don’t worry, my dear princess. You’re not going to die anytime soon. Not if I have anything to say about it. However, I make no promises about the possibility of you passing out. Due to words or… well…”
“Oh dear.” Twilight stared into those twin blue stars.
“Now you’re getting in the spirit of things!” Rarity cheered. “However, it does appear that our time is just about up. I would ask that you do me a favor: next time you say those two words, put a little more passion into it, darling.” She paused and her smirk grew. “Actually, now that I think of it… you’ll need some tutoring. Thankfully, I happen to be an excellent teacher.”
Rarity faded away until there was only her smile.
It suggested a great many things.
Then Twilight woke up.
The concerned face of Radiant Hope, Grand Master Healer, stared down at her. “Hm. Odd. The healing treatment should have banished any fever, yet I’m sensing a huge spike in temperature. How are you feeling, Princess?”
“Hot,” Twilight gasped. “Very… hot.”
“Would you like some water?”
“Yes, please,” she squeaked.                                                                             



“—and once the master waygate disintegrated, the others just came apart! Our allies crushed the remaining shadowkin. Dragons and teams of pegasi took down the tarwhelps and the shadowfliers. Diamond dogs got pretty much everything north of the Harmony Gate. Buffalo and zebra forces tore up their army to the south and managed to get a huge section of the docks cleared too!” Sunset laughed, her red and gold mane dancing in the light of the rising dawn through the medical ward’s windows.
“It can’t have been that easy!” Twilight protested.
“Oh, Twi.” Sunset waved her hoof with another laugh. “You worry too much! Yeah, we found some things like lesser versions of those generators scattered throughout the outskirts, but we hunted every one of them down.”
Sunset’s eyes sparked with fire and her grin became almost transcendent. “The best part is, whatever was controlling these things apparently sent their full attack force into that single assault. When we broke their lines, we broke the whole dang army! There’s probably still some stragglers, and we haven’t found all of the infected yet, but Shiny is almost certain Canterlot won’t be seeing another shadowkin attack for months!” Sunset flipped her mane back and grinned. “By Mother’s Mane, sis, you and that doe of yours really know how to get stuff done!”
Twilight bit her lip. “How is Mother?”
Sunset leaned back in her chair and rolled her eyes. “Oh, she’s already up and about. Y’know, making proclamations, planning speeches, medals, awards, the whole shebang. Radiant Hope wasn’t really happy about it, but you know how she is. Always doing the whole ‘mother hen’ thing.”
“I’m right here, you know,” said the crystal unicorn mare from a few beds away, currently tending to a wounded soldier. She shot them both a stern glower, but there was no real heat behind it. “You could at least pretend you have some decorum, Princess.”
“You know I love you, Hope!”
“Princesses,” Hope sighed and trotted back down the ward. “They never change.”
“Why do you love to antagonize her?” Twilight glared at her sister. “You and her mother?”
“Oh, Countess Amore and I get along just fine. I just like teasing Hope. She’s fun. Definitely more fun than Cadance.”
“Not a good idea to annoy our best healers, Sunset.”
“Thanks for the tip, Twi.” Sunset stuck out her tongue at Twilight. “I’ll manage things. Though not nearly as well as you, apparently.”
Twilight blinked a few times. “You’ve lost me. How does that one work, Sunny?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Sunset waggled her eyebrows with a grin. “Maybe it has something to do with that doe who’s been nipping at your fetlocks. And, if I were to guess… at a few other things.”
“Sunset!”
“Am I wrong?” Sunset fluttered her eyelashes. Then she leaned forward, but all that did was emphasize her smirk.
“That…” Twilight stammered, face once again going hot. “That is… that’s none of your concern!”
“So… you’re telling me the answer to my question is definitely a...” Sunset tapped her hoof on her chin and waited for several long seconds. “‘Yes.’”
Twilight groaned and did her best to bury herself under the bedsheets. Sunset’s magic quickly removed that little obstacle. Twilight glared at her.
“You’re almost as bad as she is.”
“Twi, I love you, but not like that. That would just be… creepy. Even if we’re not technically related.”
“You do realize the pony in your chambers is a direct contradiction of that fact, right?”
“Details, details,” Sunset scoffed, waving a hoof. “She’s not related at all. She’s not even from this universe. Anyway, Moonie likes her. The three of us are good together.”
Twilight glowered at her sister. She put all the force she could muster into a single sustained burst of glowering.
Sunset laughed so hard she nearly fell out of her chair.
“Yeah, yeah.” Twilight crossed her forelegs. “Laugh it up.”
That’s exactly what Sunset did, before she finally managed to get herself under control.
“Oh come on, Twi,” Sunset smiled. “You can’t blame her. You're pretty much destined to be together. Have been for years.”
Twilight blinked a few times. “What now?”
Sunset peered at Twilight, cocking her head as if trying to figure out if Twilight was being serious or not.
“You… you mean you don’t know?” Sunset sounded incredulous. Her eyes went wide. “How could you not know?”
“Not know what?”
“Twi, she put your soul mark on your armor’s chestplate! Did the same thing for Trix and Star!”
“That’s because I was there. They were my bodyguards!” Twilight shook her head. “You’re not making any sense.”
“Yeah, so why is it emblazoned on the shield she made for your brother?” Sunset challenged with a raised eyebrow.
“Huh? It was? Why would she do that?”
“That little star pattern was also stamped on the hilt of each of the swords she made for the three of you.” Sunset laughed again, her eyes positively dancing with glee. “I seriously can’t believe you don’t know!”
“Don’t know what?” Twilight demanded. “Stop playing games, Sunny! Why would she put my soul mark on all of her weapons and armor?”
“Because she doesn’t even think about it! It’s instinctual. It’s like an artist’s signature mark.”
Twilight rubbed her temples with her forehooves. “If you get near a point, make it!”
Sunset sighed, and her horn ignited. There was a brief pop, and a large dusty tome appeared on Twilight’s lap.
“A In-Depth Study of the Magic of the Deerkin,” Twilight read aloud.
“Flip to the page about the virtrung’s bond-magic.”
Twilight shrugged and did as she was told, opening the book with a brush of her magic and flipping through the pages. Sunset had always been the one who knew more about the non-pony species than Twilight. After all, she was the diplomat, while Twilight was the scholar.
That was fine though. Twilight preferred the hard sciences. And while she could have just demanded the information she wanted, she’d happily do a little digging if it would get her answers without the teasing.
She’ll likely tease me anyway. Maybe this will result in a net loss of teasing. 
“Bond-magic… bond-magic… okay… here it is…” Twilight ran a forehoof along the page. “‘Bond-magic is one of the few types of magic unique to the races of the deerkin. While all forms of deerkin posses this particular magic, it is most prominently seen in the virtrung. At a certain point in a virtrung’s life, it is common for he or she to suddenly become fixated on a symbol or sign. According to historical texts provided by virtrung scholars, this most often relates to their future… their future…’”
“Finish it,” Sunset said in a singsong voice. 
“This can’t be right.”
“Finish it, Twilight.”
“‘…Their future mate,’” Twilight squeaked. “What… this is… not possible! This can’t—”
“Keep going!” Sunset sounded like she was seconds from bursting out laughing again. “I can’t wait to see your expression on the next part!”
“‘Though the symbol’s meaning may not become apparent for many years, it will weave itself into a virtrung’s everyday life.’” Twilight’s voice was all but a monotone at this point as she tried to process the words she was reading. “’This is most prominent in those virtrung who choose a crafting trade, as the mark will invariably end up in all finished products.’”
“Come on!” Sunset crowed. “Stop dragging your hooves! Get to the good part!”
Twilight forced herself to keep reading through only a supreme act of will… and not wanting to see the expression on Sunset’s face.
“‘The rarest example of bond-magic is called ‘mark mirroring.’ While it has no direct analogue in pony magic, the closest theory is the concept of ‘soul-mates.’” Twilight squeaked. She was reading on full automatic now. “In the extremely uncommon case of a virtrung becoming deeply involved—either as friend or mate—with any member of the pony races, a soul mark will appear on the virtrung’s flanks. It is almost invariably tied to the special talents and gifts possessed by the pony in question.’”
Twilight stared at the page. She stared at the words. At the imperfections in the copy. The creases in the parchment. The delicate filigree of the header. The—
“Yup!” Sunset cried with a laugh so loud she got shushed by Radiant Hope. “Don’t you get it, sis? Deerkin don’t normally have soul marks!”
“But… that… she has… the three… can’t be… that would…”
“Don’t forget to breathe there, Twi.”
Twilight tried. At least somewhat. A few gasps of oxygen were inhaled for the continued operation of her brain. A few more were then added for good measure.
“Deerkin… don’t have… they don’t have…”
“Not unless they’re bonded to a pony,” Sunset clapped her hooves with a completely inappropriate level of glee. “Personally, I think your little ambassador went a bit overboard. I mean, I get the whole soul-mate thing. That’s cool. But setting things up like this? Permanently bonding yourself with one of the members of the Royal Line? It seems excessive, but who am I to judge?”
“This… this is impossible. Nopony would get bonded with me—”
“I’m afraid your sister is quite right, my dear princess,” a silken voice purred.
Twilight tried to dive under the covers. Sunset’s teal magic and Rarity’s blue magic instantly pulled the covers away.
“You’re all evil!” Twilight grabbed her pillow and tried to hide again. Sunset’s magic flung that away from her. She hid under her hooves, but was lured out by the siren laugh of the doe, who now sat on the bed next to Twilight’s. She was positioned in just the right way to show off the three gemstone soul mark on her flank. And to show off the flank itself.
“Hiding won’t make me go away, my dear princess,” Rarity cooed. “It’ll only encourage me to come after you.”
Sunset let out a little squeal of inarticulate delight. She also showed no sign of leaving.
“Sunset!” Twilight groaned as she glared at her sister. “Go away.”
“But…”
“Get out!” Twilight snapped.
“But I wanna see how red she can make you!”
“I assure you,” Rarity declared with an utterly shameless smirk. “You may not want to see that. Adopted or not, she is your sister after all.”
Sunset jittered on her chair, unable to decide. Finally, Twilight had enough and vaporized Sunset’s chair with a flash of starfire. Her big sister dropped to the ground with a plop.
“Ow!” Sunset protested as she rubbed her flanks. “That hurt!”
“Did not,” Twilight said.
“Did so!” Sunset shot back.
“Did not!”
“Did so!”
“Did—” Twilight almost screamed. “Go away Sunset!”
“Fine,” Sunset pouted as she leapt into the air with a sweep of her phoenix wings. “But I want to compare notes later! If she qualifies, I might need to visit the Council of the Woods sometime soon for a…” Sunset coughed, “diplomatic exchange.”
This time, both Twilight and Rarity glared at her. But Sunset didn’t even look slightly abashed. She just laughed and teleported out with her customary golden flame.
“Don’t think this means you can start up again, Miss Rarity,” Radiant Hope said from somewhere behind them. “I’ll remind you two that you are in a medical ward. Don’t get any ideas.”
“Hope!” Twilight squeaked. “Not you too!”
“I wasn’t born yesterday, Princess. I’ve had to deal with her moping around your bed ever since you were admitted. I’m surprised that doe there didn’t tackle you the moment she came in the door.”
“Everypony in this palace is crazy!” Twilight groaned as she flopped back onto the bed and tried to hide inside of her wings.
“Awww…” Rarity pouted from somewhere beyond the purple shield of feathers. “I thought for certain that I’d warrant inclusion in the crazy.”
Twilight peeked out to glare at the doe. “You’re the worst of the lot.”
“That’s better. I do so enjoy proper recognition for my efforts!” Rarity beamed with pride as she leapt off of her bed with the grace only a deerkin could possess. “I always try to excel in all that I do.”
To Twilight’s surprise, Rarity didn’t add anything else. She was just strangely silent for a bit before gently settling on the bed, Twilight peeked out from her wings, sat up and folded them.
Rarity was giving her plenty of space. If anything, she looked bashful, completely unable to meet Twilight’s eyes.
“I had hoped to tell you in a somewhat different fashion,” Rarity admitted. “For all the joy I get out of seeing you blush, my dear princess, I admit this moment has filled me with a great deal of trepidation. I’m not quite sure how you might react… so I may have spent a significant time distracting you.”
“Those things I saw… when you saved me from the Nightmare Pox…” Twilight mumbled, fiddling with her hooves. “Those memories were yours, weren’t they?”
“As I said at the time, I put too much into that spell. I… er… well, I panicked seeing you being… devoured like that. The shadowkin have not struck our Woods for a long, long while, but we have stories. Considering the nature of the enemy, I made sure to research our cure to the Pox before I left, just in case. I… didn’t expect to have to use it on you.”
“I’m glad you did. I don’t even want to think of what would have happened if it had taken me.”
“Nor do I,” Rarity replied. She twirled a bit of her purple mane with a hoof, and flicked it over her shoulder with a very ladylike sound of annoyance. “Perish the very idea of it.”
“That was a nice change in subject, by the way,” Twilight pointed out. “I almost pointed out how idiotic I was in rushing off to fight them without getting several bottles of the cure.”
“I wasn’t going to mention that little faux pas.” Rarity shrugged.
“And you’re still trying to change the subject. Almost doing a good job, too.”
“You think so?” Rarity commented, still not meeting Twilight’s gaze. “Nothing too overt, I hope?”
Twilight snorted at the sheer absurdity of the question coming from the doe who had been teasing her since they had first met. Her snort bubbled into laughter as she thought about the absurdity of her bonding with one of the nigh-mythic virtrung. At dealing a lasting defeat to the shadowlords. At… everything.
Rarity joined in, and their laughter echoed musically around the medical ward.
“Yes,” Rarity replied with a sigh. “They were indeed my memories. The deerkin cure to the Pox channels one’s inner light and connection to Harmony. Both the caster and the recipient always get flashes of memory. Usually, it’s only key moments of their own lives… but if one overcharges the spell…”
“…the thoughts become intertwined?”
“Our mages call it ‘The Interweaving of Colours.’” Rarity kicked her hindhooves a little. “We usually think of one’s inner self in terms of colors. The emotional wavelengths, you see, red for anger, yellow for fear, pink for love… And—"
“—And you’re trying to change the subject. Again.”
Rarity let out an exasperated sigh, and peered at Twilight out of the corner of her eye. “Forgive me, my dear princess. Flirting is a great deal easier—and much more fun—than this sort of conversation.”
Twilight nodded absently, but the question rattling around inside of her mind refused to settle.
“Tell me when you got your soul mark.”
“You already know the details,” Rarity pointed out. “You saw it.”
“I know what I saw,” Twilight replied. “But I don’t have any context. Tell me about it. Please?”
Rarity was silent for a time, so long Twilight wasn’t sure she was going to answer. Finally, the doe began to speak.
“It was during the Three Long Nights. Despite the fear coursing through our glades, the Elders had consulted the Spirits of Branch, Leaf and Stone, but found no new dark presence hovering over the land.” Rarity smiled faintly. “To our surprise, they said that a new divinity had ascended. Of course, we knew of the High Divine Princesses, Solis and Selene. The newest pair we called the Daughter Divine Princesses, Auroae and Amoris. It didn’t take long to figure out the title of the latest one would be Astra.”
Twilight nodded. She remembered those days all too vividly. The confusion. The bewilderment. The sheer power. It had been overwhelming, even after her adopted family had come to save her from her newfound influence over the night sky.
It had been the worst and best night of her life.
All I ever wanted to be was an astronomer…
Twilight chewed her bottom lip, but didn’t interrupt.
“On the third night, I felt a strange pull through my magic. My hooves wouldn’t stop glowing. Something called me out of the forest. After a short while, I found myself upon a lonely hill above a waterfall. I looked up at the night sky, and wondered when the stars would reappear. I missed them. You see, my dear princess, I have always loved the stars. I remember thinking how lonely the moon must be without her friends.
“And then… the stars surged into the sky. It was… beautiful. Unlike anything I had ever seen. As if Harmony herself had taken a handful of gems and scattered them over the night. That night, I saw something unique. No other deerkin had witnessed what I had. Something I’d… well, I’d always doubted my recollection of that night, until I saw your soul mark.” A fire ignited inside Rarity’s eyes for a moment. “And what a canvas it rests on!”
“Enough about my flank,” Twilight shook her head, though she didn’t feel even a spark of real annoyance. “What did you see?”
“You’re no fun,” Rarity pouted. Then, like the sun bursting through clouds, she giggled and continued. “I saw a single, brilliant magenta star surrounded by five white stars burning like embers in the night.” Rarity stared at her hooves as if in shame. “And for a split second, I saw three stars shift in the sky. They stood in front of the magenta star and took on an azure radiance… becoming…”
Rarity’s eyes drifted to her own flank. “Well… they became those.”
“Then…” Twilight said as she studied Rarity’s soul mark. “They aren’t gemstones?”
“Gemstones of the night,” Rarity replied with a sigh. “My blessing… and my curse.”
Twilight reached out to run a hoof along her flank. Rarity’s coat was incredibly soft, beyond any fabric Twilight had ever felt. Rarity shivered at the contact and Twilight yanked her hoof back.
“Sorry!” she squeaked. “I didn’t mean—”
Rarity shivered one more time, a blush spreading across her muzzle. “No… no need to apologize, darling. After all, they are the reason I am here.”
Twilight paused, studying the doe. She could see that Rarity was still holding back. “But that’s not all there is to the story, is there?”
Rarity shook her head, her ears flat. “No. You have to understand… back then… well, among my kind, contact with outsiders was looked upon as being… uncouth, to say the least. And I was High Master Shaper in the Day Woods. For one in my position… for me to suddenly return with the mark of a pony upon my flank…” She sighed and frowned at the floor. “It was not well-received. I am only glad that the ire of the Council remained solely upon me. It did not impact my dear sister, nor my parents.” She let out a sigh and shifted her stare from her hooves to the ceiling. “Though, ironically, my sister ended up discovering her magic with a young griffon chick and an earth pony filly, so she had some small manner of social stigma anyway. Still, nothing approaching my own.”
“I’m sorry,” Twilight said, putting her hoof on Rarity’s shoulder. “I didn’t know.”
“How could you possibly know, darling?” Rarity said in a cheerful voice that didn’t fool Twilight for a second. “No reason you should. I confess…” Rarity swallowed. “Earlier, I made it sound as if my departure from the Day Woods was a great sacrifice by my people. Nothing could be further than the truth. When the call came to assist Canterlot, while there are those in the Council of the Woods who do indeed wish to speak to outsiders again… it was not their vote that sent me away.”
Twilight bit her lip. It sounded all too familiar and it hurt. Being alone in a crowd. Being forced into a change you weren't sure about. Being forced into a change you never wanted. Being subjected to the whims of something far greater than yourself.
“Do you miss her? Your sister?”
“Oh, quite terribly,” Rarity confessed. “But she’s on a different path than I. She is to be one of our greatest Songbirds. I couldn’t be prouder. Leaving her was hardest thing I’ve ever done. I do hope I’ll see her again soon.”
“I promise, you will.” Twilight replied. Twilight was only a little surprised that she meant every word.
Rarity looked up and Twilight caught a glimmer of liquid in the doe’s great blue eyes. “You can’t promise such a thing, my dear princess, though the thought is greatly appreciated.”
“I am the Astra Princess of the Equestrian Realms,” Twilight said, drawing herself up. “The Council of the Woods cannot deny an audience with one of the Royal Five. It would be the greatest of insults.”
Rarity’s great blue eyes softened and a tiny trickle fell down her cheek. There was no diamond in her gaze now. Only unabashed gratitude. Slowly, her hoof shaking, she reached out to touch Twilight’s forehoof. “You would really do that for me?”
“After all you’ve done for us?” Twilight almost laughed out loud. “It’s the least I could do! You’re a hero, Rarity.”
“No, I’m not.” Rarity said as another tear fell from her face. “I am no hero. My motives were not what they should have been.”
“What are you talking about?” It was Twilight’s turn to move her hoof over Rarity’s. “You charged into that battle without a single thought to your own well-being!”
“Not to save your people. Not to save your city. I did it because I wanted to make sure you were safe. Not because you were the Astra Princess. Because… because I felt the stars telling me that you had to be saved. Beyond that… nothing else mattered to me at that moment aside from the pony I had somehow become bound to. After I finally found you… after I finally found the reason… I couldn’t let anything happen to you.”
Twilight’s heart did several complicated acrobatic maneuvers that would require serious magic or an exceptional flying skill.
“That’s not—”
“Princess!” Rarity cut her off with a slash of her free hoof as tears fell from her eyes. “I am a selfish, vain creature. I did what I did out of self-interest and a desperate quest to find my purpose in life. Bond or no… one such as you deserves a creature who serves a greater purpose than her own desires.”
Rarity tried to get up. Maybe she was even trying to leave. Twilight couldn’t risk that. Not with answers so close. With a surge of magic, she shoved Rarity back down onto the bed. She probably let her emotions funnel through her magic a bit too much, because Rarity actually yelped and rubbed her flank.
“Sorry!” Twilight squeaked. “I didn’t… I mean… please don’t leave.”
“You deserve better.”
“No, I don’t!” Twilight snapped. “I teleported us into the middle of a warzone. I was nearly killed within the first three seconds of that fight! Then, I rushed that waygate with next to no actual combat experience. If I had done that against a trained enemy and not the mindless shadowkin, I would have been torn apart. And if you had been struck down by the Nightmare Pox, I couldn’t have done a star-forgotten thing to help you because I was too busy showing off!”
Rarity continued to shake her head. Twilight wasn’t sure the doe was even listening. “You deserve better than I, Astra Princess. I have done nothing but tease you and play with you since I first revealed myself. Not only that, but I—”
“And I liked it!” Twilight cried. She closed her eyes and forced herself to breathe. Yet even with her eyes closed, she knew Rarity sat there stock-still. “I loved it, actually!”
“You… you did?” Rarity sounded completely incredulous. “But I…”
“For most of my life…” Twilight interrupted, still unable to open her eyes to look the doe in the face. “I have been terrified of other ponies. Of being seen. Even after ten years of being the Astra Princess, I’m still terrified. Everypony always stares at Sunset, Cadance, Aunt Luna or Mother. The only reason Sunset’s not constantly beating back suitors is because she’s got her eye on the Lady Archivist, Moon Dancer and an… understanding with somepony else. Cadance is safe because she’s married to my brother. And ponies are just too terrified of Mother and Aunt Luna to approach them.”
“I… I’m afraid I don’t follow, darling.”
Twilight finally opened her eyes, took a breath and grabbed both of Rarity’s hooves in her own.
“You’re the first one who ever made me feel like a mare… a pony others might like.” Twilight licked her lips. “I am always overshadowed. The strange one who plays with the stars. Who’s usually more comfortable in a library than at court. I never wanted to be a princess! I wanted nothing more than to be an astronomer! That’s it! I’ve been hiding from this role as best I could for a decade! It was working too! Everypony was just… ignoring me. And you trotted in, shattered all of that and flirted with me! Me!”
Some part of Twilight knew she was being a fool for shouting this in the middle of the medical ward, but she didn’t care. This had been bottled up for far too long. Now that Rarity had poked a hole in her shields… it wouldn’t stop. It couldn’t.
“That’s because you are a singularly radiant pony, Astra Princess,” Rarity replied, blushing even as she clutched at Twilight. “I admit, after I learned it was you who was responsible for the stars, I did all within my power to study you from afar… and became rather smitten as a result. No, you aren’t like your sisters or your aunt or your mother. You are you. And you’re perfect as you are, even with all your imperfections. Especially with all your imperfections.”
“You…” It was Twilight’s turn to flush red, but she couldn’t refute the comment without destroying her own argument. “Rarity, please don’t leave. Stay with me.”
Rarity blinked a few times, obviously trying to process what Twilight had just asked.
“Are you asking—”
“Yes,” Twilight answered immediately. Some part of her was screaming to stop, but she told that part of her to buck off. For the first time in her life, somepony other than her family cared for her as she was. “Every version of that question. Yes.”
“But… this is all rather sudden. We only met face-to-face for the first time two days ago!” Rarity balked. “I expected the flirting to be fun… not to actually… not to be welcomed.”
“You are welcome. Because… I… haven’t been honest with you, Rarity.” Twilight looked away, but didn’t let go of the doe’s hooves. “What you described on the third night? I saw that. I thought… I thought it was part of me that just wanted attention. I was ashamed of it. Even as Sunset whooped and cheered at the little display, I turned away.” Twilight took a deep breath before plunging onward. “But I did see the three blue gems. And some piece of me just knew that part didn’t come from me. It wasn’t even for me. It was for somepony else. Well, somedeer else, I guess.”
“You… you did?”
Twilight had to admit that some part of her enjoyed seeing Rarity on the defensive. Twilight also suspected she wouldn’t be seeing it very often in the future. If ever.
“I almost never talk about it,” Twilight said. “But… every night when I bring the stars out from their slumber, I can feel them. Sometimes, when I need it the most, I can find a star that fills me with courage or confidence. And for a split second when those three gems appeared in the night sky… I felt like I belonged. The only other time I’ve really felt that was back in the Golden Boughs. I’m so, so sorry. I had all but forgotten about it, until you mentioned it and I didn’t even make the connection when I saw your soul mark! That night was so crazy for me, and I can’t believe I forgot, and I feel like such an idiot when my soul mark is all over every piece of armor, and every single weapon you’ve made since that night, especially since that night was ten years ago, and I can’t understand why that happened, or why this is happening, or—”
A warm crystalline hoof pressed against Twilight’s muzzle, forcing her to stop. It was a gentle touch, insistent but kind. Every muscle in Twilight’s body stiffened. Her face exploded into a blush.
I can’t believe I just went into such a freaking ramble she’s going to think I’m such a crazypony and…
“Hush,” Rarity cooed. “Because if you continue ranting like that, I won’t be able to stop myself.”
How can a crystal hoof be so warm and so soft? Twilight could feel the potent magic in the virtrung. It swirled inside the doe, eager to be released in bouts of pure creativity. This deerkin held the very magic of creation within herself… and for some unfathomable reason, she said she was smitten with Twilight.
“Stop…” Twilight pulled away just far enough to be able to speak, even if she had to lick her lips a few times before she could say anything. It had absolutely nothing to do with faint taste of lavender and sugar that lingered there. “Stop you… stop you from doing what?”
Rarity took an enormous breath. Her brilliant blue undercoat swelled and lines of blue magic wove down the doe’s legs. Her ears flicked a few times. Her mane shone in the firefly lamps of the medical ward. Twilight’s breath caught in her throat as Rarity leaned forward.
“From doing… th—”
“And that’s enough of that!” barked a voice from no more than two feet away.
Twilight’s wings flared as she leapt into the air, her heart trying to explode from her chest. Rarity let out a squeal and jumped back with the inequine grace of a deerkin, soaring back half a dozen beds before landing bolt upright on one, a quarter of her mane suddenly frazzled beyond measure.
There was a flare of blue magic. Both Twilight and Rarity were yanked into the air by Radiant Hope’s vise-like telekinesis.
“I warned the two of you there will be none of that in my ward!” the healer snapped. “I have half a mind to teleport the both of you into the palace moat! But considering how the two of you have been going on, you might just boil it away!”
“Um…” Twilight said in her most diplomatic voice.
“Err…” Rarity declared in her whimsical and ethereal voice.
“Well, it seems you’ve healed enough to fly once again, Astra Princess,” Radiant Hope muttered with a shake of her head. She marched along the medical ward’s central walkway with Rarity and Twilight floating along behind her. “You can do that—and anything else—somewhere other than my ward! As for you, young deerkin…” She speared Rarity with her most stern glower. And coming from Radiant Hope, that was enough to melt gemstones. “You can find somewhere else to play. Now shoo! Both of you!”
At the door, Radiant Hope shoved both of them out. They landed with a thump on the marble floor outside the medical ward. Radiant Hope’s glower vanished and she smirked at both of them.
“Twilight, dearest?”
“Um… yes?” Twilight mumbled, unsure as to what had just happened.
“Be more subtle than your bodyguards, okay?”
The door closed with a soft click.
Rarity opened her mouth and raised a hoof as if to say something. Then she closed it and blinked a few times. She turned to Twilight. Twilight turned to her.
“So… um… that just happened,” Twilight commented.
“Indeed it did,” Rarity agreed.
They stared at each other for a few more seconds, leaning ever closer to each other.
They both fell over laughing.
> The Jeweled Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------




Twilight felt Rarity’s eyes on her as the Astra Princess brought out the stars for their evening engagement. The moon had already begun its ascent through the sky, shining out over the gleaming gemstone city of Canterlot. With each new swath of stars Twilight moved into place, the light beyond the great Diamond Wall burned a little brighter and allowed both Rarity and Twilight to look out over the city. Months of occasional attacks and three weeks of focused assaults by the shadowkin had not been kind to Canterlot. Many of the city’s ornate spires and domes were broken or outright destroyed. Smoke still rose over several sections of the old entertainment district and the airship docks.
However, there were no longer any lurking shadows in the city below.
After the ceremony celebrating the fall of the shadowkin waygates, the united strength of the Celestial Forces and the allies of the Equestrian Realms had charged out of the repaired Harmony Gate. While none of the shadowlords had been caught, in the ensuing raid nearly a thousand lurking beasts from the broken army had been found and destroyed.
More importantly, they had finally located those lost to the Pox.
Deep beneath what had once been the Royal Treasury—the very place where Twilight and her companions had destroyed the master waygate—the shadowkin had gathered the victims of the Nightmare Pox. Some had been there for months with the Pox eating at their minds, but the ponies of the Equestrian Realms and their allies were strong. Though there had been a scuffle with a maddened dragon and several infected ponies, Shining Armor’s team had secured the captives with no casualties on either side. Amoris Princess Cadance, Radiant Hope and her mother, Countess Amore, had taken a veritable army of healers down into the catacombs that once housed Canterlot’s wealth. Nearly three hours had passed before Cadance, Hope and Amore stepped out with the first of the survivors.
Twilight’s eyes fell upon the hollow tower of the old Royal Treasury, remembering the pride she had felt upon seeing those poor souls returned to sanity. She had shivered when she realized she could have been among their number… and what had almost emerged from that place.
“Considering your enemies?” Rarity asked from behind her. “I can see you staring at that tower, my dear princess.”
“Perhaps,” Twilight replied. Starlight danced between her feathers as she wove more gems in the sky, arranging the constellations to celebrate her brother and the soldiers under his command for their acts yesterday. “I worry about the shadowlords. To retreat so rapidly… I wonder if they were even in the city when the master waygate opened.”
“Who can say?” Rarity commented. “What matters is that you won the day, my dear princess. Yes, I am quite sure this conflict is far from over, but you finally broke their lines. They committed everything they had and you defied them. You stood upon the shore like a rock against the sea, battered but never breaking.”
Twilight glanced behind her to see the virtrung lounging in one of Twilight’s patio chairs, sipping a flute of delicate cider with a little smile.
“You were a big part of that rock.”
“It’s not proper for a lady to boast,” Rarity said with a flutter of her eyelashes.
Twilight shook her head and returned her attention to her beautiful sky, remembering all the little lessons Aunt Luna had taught her over the decades. With a gentle touch, she nudged the stars into position, calling them forth as a warm silver light poured from her horn. It was the only time her magic ever changed color. It matched the patterns on her wings. She found she liked it.
And once, I hated it with every fiber of my being. 
She could still remember the cheering. Her eyes wandered to the Royal Promenade below, where Rarity and Twilight had been presented by Mother to the population of Canterlot as the heroes of the day. Twilight had tried to get Starlight and Trixie up there, but they had conveniently vanished right before the ceremony. For all of Trixie and Starlight’s showing off, they always got a little strange around the big events.
Or maybe they just found a convenient bush somewhere and lost track of the time.
Twilight blushed at the thought. She blushed harder when her mind conjured a deer and a different pony in their places. But she at least managed to keep her wings down.
Half the sky was illuminated now, but Twilight could still hear the crowd. And as she heard crystal hoofsteps beside her, she was sure Rarity could hear them as well.
“What do you say, my dear princess?” Rarity asked as she bumped Twilight’s flank with her own. “Still think yourself to be nothing special? To be nothing more than a common pony?”
Twilight wanted to say yes, but the roar of the crowds in her memory drowned out the protest. They had shouted their names. Originally, it had been both of their names, but after Rarity took up the chant and focused it on Twilight… they had all shouted Twilight’s name and her name only. Twilight had gone crimson with embarrassment, but after seeing the proud look on Mother’s face, the gleeful grin of Sunset, the delight of Cadance, her Aunt’s expression of serene contentment and the mischievous glint in Rarity’s eyes… she realized maybe… just maybe… she did actually deserve at least a little of it.
She had done something remarkable yesterday. It was true, she hadn’t been alone. Rarity had been just as much as hero as she was, but Rarity had constantly redirected the praise back to Twilight, no matter how many times Twilight tried to squirm her way out of it.
Twilight smiled up at the sky, making sure the constellations showed the soul marks of Trixie and Starlight as well. She even shifted the color of the stars to make them properly reflect her two brave bodyguards and friends.
“I think they’d like that.”
“They’ll likely never see it,” Twilight said with a shake of her head.
“Oh, I think they will.”
Rarity pointed a hoof down at the Golden Boughs park and the lake where Rarity had first found Twilight. There, two chairs had been set up by the shore. Twilight could just barely make out the blue and lilac colors of the two unicorns. From what Twilight could see, they were just holding one another, staring up at the sky. Twilight smiled. They were good for one another, even if they each tended to get the other into trouble now and again.
“I’m sure they’re enjoying the show.”
Twilight couldn’t really disagree. She continued her work, but the cheers never left her ears. Nor did the simple presence of the doe beside her. Rarity seemed to burn with warmth. It was strange sensation to be so close to her, knowing that they would have no interruptions this evening. They could do anything they wished. They could finally speak without interruption. Twilight could find out everything she wanted to know about the Day Woods. Learn about the virtrung and their customs. About Rarity’s family and friends.
But most importantly, Twilight could finally learn about Rarity.
The doe let out a soft sigh as she rested against the railing and looked up into Twilight’s sky. It was a sigh of pure contentment, something that flowed around them both like an errant breeze.
That’s when Twilight looked over to Rarity and the suspicion that had been nagging at her since she had woken up in the medical ward came to the forefront of her mind. She thought about the confidence she had in facing down the enemy. Yes, part of it was simply to impress the doe. But it wasn’t only that. She had fought to help save her people and to prove that she was worthy of the circlet atop her head.
It may not have been the noblest reason for a charge behind enemy lines, but it wasn’t a horrible one either.
And yet… if this had happened a week ago, Twilight was positive she never would have done something so reckless. A week ago, there had been no great font of courage coming from the sky. In fact, a week ago, there had been little more than abject loneliness and fear as she worked on her stars.
The visions from when Rarity had saved her from the Pox once more came back to her as she put the final touches on starscape above the eastern horizon.
“Gemstones of the night,” Twilight murmured.
“What was that, my dear princess?” Rarity asked.
“You can touch them, can’t you?” Twilight whispered. It wasn’t really a question. “That’s what your mark really means… your ‘gemstones of the night.’”
Rarity seemed to glow at that moment, fulfilled in some strange way by Twilight’s insight. She nodded with a delighted little smile.
“Since that night, I’ve always been able to touch the stars,” Rarity replied with a serene air, as if finally releasing a great secret. “And every night, I found something there. Sometimes, it was the gift of intense focus as I worked with starsilver. Occasionally, it was a burning passion to be the absolute best in anything I did. And once in a while, I ended up staying awake the entire night pouring through every tome on ponies we had. Those were special nights.”
Twilight swallowed. It wasn’t hard to make the connection. “What about the other nights?”
“The rest of the time?” Rarity licked her lips. “I just felt warmth. Or love. Or passion. Or laughter. Or joy. Sometimes confusion or sorrow or pain. But I always felt something. There were also a few other effects. Like a desperate need for validation. Or a rather intense attention to detail… something I can appreciate.”
Twilight smirked just a little.
Rarity smiled wanly. “Perhaps these sound familiar?”
Twilight nodded.
“Tell me, my dear princess… what do you feel when you work on your stars?”
She swallowed again, wondering why the lump in her throat wouldn’t go away.
“Well, usually it’s just a desperate need to get it right.” The alicorn shrugged. “To make Mother, Aunt Luna, Cadance and Sunset proud of me. And my parents of course. Then there’s making sure that the constellations are correct and—”
“My dear princess, you know exactly what I’m asking… and you are deliberately avoiding the answer.”
There was a brief silence as Twilight tried to come up with an answer… but in the end, only the truth would do.
“That’s what I felt inside of me when I was doing it,” Twilight admitted. “But I’ve always had a sense of something else on the other side while I’ve worked with my stars. They inspire me. They give me creativity. They give me the fine control I need to make a constellation just so. And occasionally, after my work, I’ll find myself with the grace and poise to handle nearly anything that comes my way. It rarely lasts. But it’s often there. In fact… the only other time I’d felt anything like that was with you before we teleported to the top of the Diamond Wall.”
Rarity nodded. “I suspected as much. Please understand, my dear princess, I didn’t know until two nights ago that I’d been touching you this entire time.”
Despite herself, Twilight’s wings twitched.
Rarity, of course, noticed.
“No teasing meant this time, darling.” Rarity giggled beside her. “I simply spoke the truth. In fact, even before this mark appeared upon my flank, I always did my best work at night. When I crafted something from starsilver, I would reach out and find the right star. I would call upon just a hint of magic… and it would just flow down into whatever I was working on. After it appeared, that connection grew ten-fold. Be it sword or shield, chestplate or helm, the star-touched pieces would last forever. They never failed… unless an enemy was supremely lucky, as was your assailant yesterday evening.”
“The stars possess a powerful magic,” Twilight admitted, her tail twitching slightly and brushing against one of Rarity’s hindlegs. “Even I—”
“I was never touching the stars,” Rarity chided as she put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “And you know it. I was touching you… your soul… even half a world away.”
For a time, silence descended upon the alicorn mare and the virtrung doe. Twilight had completed her nightly work. Now, they could simply enjoy the glowing gems in the night, basking in the radiance filled the entire world. Slowly and softly, Rarity brushed up against Twilight’s side. The alicorn’s wings attempted to flare up once more, but she managed to keep some semblance of control. Instead, she just shivered. Rarity let out a soft giggle at Twilight's involuntary reaction, which was completely and totally unfair.
But to hear Rarity giggle was good enough.
“You’ve never really had anyone appreciate you for you, have you?” Rarity sighed.
Twilight could feel the doe staring at her, but she couldn’t bear to look her in the face.
“No. I already told you. I’m the weird one with books and an obsession with the stars.”
“It’s not that, darling,” Rarity replied, her voice seemingly sad for some reason Twilight couldn’t comprehend. “It’s just… unfair, really.”
“Unfair?” Twilight blinked. This was not a line of reasoning she had been prepared for. “Why?”
Rarity tapped a crystal hoof on the railing. This hesitation finally got Twilight to look at the stunning doe who was—in defiance of all reason—somehow on her private balcony. With her. Alone.
I never even arranged for her ambassadorial quarters, Twilight realized, flushing. She hadn’t been thinking that far ahead. But Mother, Aunt Luna, Cadance or Sunset should have thought of it. Even Raven, the Seneschal of the Diamond Palace, should have suggested it after tonight’s feast! There was only one possible reason for such an oversight and that was—
Twilight yanked herself away from that line of thought. She had known this doe for only a short time. Such thoughts were unbecoming the Astra Princess—no matter where her mind had wandered over the course of the last two days.  But even as the proper part of her balked, a deeper part pointed out that for ten years, they’d been touching the same stars. Feeling one another across the world. They’d never met before, not really.
But maybe… that didn’t matter. Because they had already met innumerable times amidst the stars.
So what if their bodies had never been tog—
Twilight once more yanked herself away from the images that statement conjured. Still, her wings once more wanted to explode. There were days she hated her wings.
“I’m… concerned about something.” Rarity’s words once more brought Twilight back out into the real world. Rarity was blushing as she nibbled on her lip, like she was weighing some great and horrid confession.
“And that is?”
“You may find it rather silly of me, I’m afraid.”
Twilight couldn’t stop herself from giggling. “After all you’ve put me through in the last two days, now you worry that you might appear silly?”
“Well!” Rarity huffed and stomped a hoof on the balcony in a supremely petulant fashion. “There is a difference between acting coy and acting silly.” She hesitated. “I am also afraid you might take this the wrong way.”
Now it was Twilight’s turn to be worried. “Rarity… what are you talking about?”
To Twilight’s surprise, the virtrung took a few steps away from her and released an enormous breath. She sat down on the marble balcony and faced the Astra Princess. The faint hint of jasmine and apple blossoms wafted up from the gardens below.
“I… confess, before this soul mark appeared, I gathered my fair share of suitors,” Rarity mumbled, unable to look Twilight in the eye. “Some of them were quite wonderful. But they never lasted. Yet, I admit that… I got rather used to the attention being lavished upon me.”
“Are you concerned that… I might have a problem with you being with somepony… err… somedeer else?”
“Well, I wasn’t a moment ago,” Rarity groaned. “But I am now.”
“Don’t,” Twilight said simply. It was her turn to lift Rarity’s head with a hoof. “That doesn’t bother me. You’re the first one to ever appreciate me. Even if you do so in a completely shameless way.”
Rarity snorted at that. “Well, I couldn’t help myself. You are far too cute when blushing—yes, just like that!”
Twilight swore to herself that she would find a spell that would grant her some sort of immunity to blushing.
But then Rarity would pout about it until I removed it…
Not worth it.
“But… therein lies my problem, my dear princess,” Rarity said, scuffing a hoof against the marble of the balcony. “I fear that you are responding to my admittedly shameless advances because no other creature has ever approached you in such a manner. Indeed, one of the reasons I tended to be so brazen was due to simple fear.”
“Fear?” Twilight scratched her head. “I’m confused. Why were you afraid?”
Rarity smiled, as if amused by Twilight’s confusion. “You must understand, the only reason I was not ousted from the Day Woods years ago was due to my skill as a starsilver shaper. Yet there were many who still wanted me gone. When I came here and found you…” She swallowed, took a deep breath and plunged onward. “When I found you, I was afraid you might reject me outright. Think my tale ludicrous or some sort of deerkin game. I daresay the reputation the deerkin have for ‘playing’ with the pony races is not undeserved, as your handsome brother pointed out quite succinctly.”
Twilight blinked a few times as Rarity continued.
“So… in a desperate attempt to not be rebuffed, I panicked and went with the most direct route of ingratiating myself to you. And… you’ve seen the result. Please understand that it was not an act and I do find you quite fetching. Nothing I have said has been a lie. And yet… I find that I must ask you a difficult question: are you responding simply because you’ve never had such attention?”
Twilight blinked as the concept hit her like a concussive spell to the head. She flopped to her haunches with a thump. While it was true nopony—nor any other sort of being—had ever shown the slightest bit of interest in her as a mare, that had never been something she’d thought about. She hadn’t cared. The idea of any sort of romantic entanglement had been impossible to imagine. Even now, she still had trouble even making friends. Now that she was presented with another being that was indeed interested—and then some—she found it rather intoxicating. But… there was more to it than that.
“I… can’t answer that honestly,” Twilight admitted. “But… Rarity, answer a question for me?”
“Anything,” Rarity replied without hesitation.
“Are you my friend?”
Rarity seemed taken aback by the question. She paused for several seconds to consider it.
“I admit to being no great master of friendship,” she said slowly. “But… I would like to say yes.. If you’ll have me as one, at least. We do share several common things. Attention to detail, dedication to perfection… and occasionally unhealthy obsession with our work. And that’s putting aside the the fact that I find you positively radiant.” Wings twitched. Rarity smiled. “And while my experience in friendships has dwindled in recent years, I believe commonality is traditionally an element that is usually required.”
Twilight chewed her bottom lip for a short time and spat out the next question.
“And if I decide I’d prefer for us to be nothing more than friends?”
Rarity froze. Twilight hated asking the question. But she needed the truth… even if she didn’t really want it. She probably should have asked this earlier, but here she was.
A few long seconds passed before the doe licked her lips and found her voice again. “Then I shall be disappointed, but I shall respect your wishes and endeavor to be the best friend I can be for you. Though I make no promises to ease up on the flirting.”
Twilight giggled. “I’d be disappointed if you did.”
“There are some things that simply cannot change, my dear princess. Asking me to stop such a delightful act would be like asking this mountain to get up and walk to the sea.”
Time stretched out over the balcony as the subtle sound of the city at night washed over them.
Twilight looked up at the stars. So did Rarity.
Then, she made her decision.
“Then that’s a foundation I can start with,” Twilight stood back up, fixed her wings and nodded. “You already admitted the reason you charged into battle was for my sake and not anypony else’s. You might think that’s bad, but I don’t. I’m… flattered. And that’s putting it mildly. We also both know I did something all too similar trying to impress you. And you supported me in defending my city. Saved my life. Even more… you’re willing to be my friend before moving any further with this… this… thing we have.”
Rarity giggled.
“No, I’m not experienced with anyone telling me I’m attractive. But even if I was… you said it yourself. Every time you touched the stars, you were touching me. And every time I put out the stars, I was feeling you. And we’ve been doing this for a long time, Rarity.”
Twilight approached the doe cautiously and held out a hoof.
“I think that’s a better place to start than most have, don’t you?”
Rarity stared at her hoof for a short eternity before finally nodding and allowing Twilight to pull her up. Then, to Twilight’s surprise—and probably Rarity’s—Twilight grabbed the doe and pulled her into a hug: forehooves, wings and all. Rarity simply melted into it as if she were nothing more than a large minky blanket. Both doe and mare shivered at the contact, simply relishing the newfound realization that they were not alone.
Finally, Twilight opened her eyes… and happened to glance forward toward Sunset’s balcony.
“Twilight?” Rarity asked in reaction to Twilight’s sudden twitch. “Whatever is the matter?”
Rarity pulled away to follow Twilight’s gaze.
“Um…” Rarity said.
Sunset grinned with a grin so wide it could probably be seen from the surface of the moon. Beside her, wrapped within one of Sunset’s great phoenix wings, was a familiar-looking unicorn. Her mane was different. Even her soul mark—though she always insists on calling it a cutie mark—was different. But the most noticeable difference was the glasses.
“Twilight… who is that with your sister?”
“Her name is Twilight Twinkle,” Twilight sighed. “It’s… a very long story.”
“She looks like…”
“Oh yes, I know exactly who she looks like.” Twilight glared at her sister and her sister’s companion. The unicorn tried to hide beneath Sunset’s wing. “Long version or short version?”
Rarity paused for a moment. "I believe I'll take the short version."
“They met after some sort of magical accident sent Sunset through a weird space-time rift. Happened before I became the Astra Princess.”
“Ah.”
“I’ll tell you… it’s made things awkward more than once.”
“I… see.”
“No, you don’t.”
“No, I don’t,” Rarity admitted. “But I have an excellent imagination.”
“Goodnight, Sunset!” Twilight called out.
Sunset winked at both of them, mouthed something that looked vaguely like ‘have fun,’ and retreated into her chambers. Twilight held her breath for a few moments, making sure her big sister wouldn’t make a reappearance at exactly the wrong time, before turning to Rarity once more.
“Sorry about that,” Twilight said with a shrug. “She means well… I think.”
Rarity smiled up at her. “She cares for you a great deal, you know. I can see it in her eyes.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Twilight grumbled. “I just wish she’d keep her muzzle out of my affairs.”
“You know you love the attention,” Rarity concluded with a self-satisfied smirk.
“I do not!” Twilight protested, even as she felt her face glow with warmth.
“Oh, you definitely like the attention,”
“You know, I could speak to Raven to have your private quarters arranged. I never got around to that.”
It was an idle threat. They both knew it. And the fact that it was an idle threat made them both blush as they were forced to acknowledge where they would be spending the evening.
That’s when Twilight decided she didn’t care.
Well, that wasn’t strictly true. She did care. But she was going to do her best not to care. At least for the rest of the night. Despite all logic, all reason, and everything that should have been rational… she did have some rather strong feelings toward this gorgeous flirt of a doe.
So, Twilight turned and looked up at the stars once more. Rarity sidled up to Twilight. The alicorn wrapped one of her enormous lavender and silver wings around the doe. Rarity gasped at the contact and shivered when Twilight delicately ran her feathers across the doe’s soul mark.
“You know…” Rarity said in a slightly shaky voice. “I do happen to know what that particular custom means.”
“Good,” Twilight replied. This time, she was definitely, absolutely, positively not blushing. Because she was totally in control right now. Completely confident. She knew what she was doing. “I’d hoped you would.”
I have no idea what I’m doing. But… this whole thing is crazy, so might as well make it up as I go along! 
That’s when the idea came to Twilight. It was another crazy idea,… but it seemed right.
“Help me,” Twilight asked in a breath before she could change her mind.
“Whatever do you mean, my dear princess?” Rarity cocked her head.
“Help me finish the night sky.”
“I was under the impression you had completed it. I think it’s the most beautiful display of stars I’ve ever seen.”
Twilight glanced down at the doe’s soul mark and then glanced at her own.
“No,” Twilight said as conviction filled her. “I missed something.”
Rarity followed Twilight’s gaze. A few seconds passed before the doe’s eyes widened.
“Are you sure?”
“Completely,” Twilight replied.
“But… I don’t know how. I’ve touched them… but never controlled them.”
“I don’t control them, dear.” Twilight said with a laugh.
“Please tell me you didn’t just call me ‘dear.’” Rarity raised an imperious eyebrow at the alicorn princess.
“You’re the one who’s been calling me ‘my dear princess’ ever since we met!” Twilight protested. “I think it’s only fair!”
Rarity sighed. “I happen to know you can be a lot more creative than that.”
“I’ll work on it… if you help me.”
Rarity took a deep breath. Twilight found it rather alluring to see the doe nervous. It was a strange thing. They were both having the most fun when the other was slightly—or in Twilight’s case, extremely—awkward.
“What do I need to do?” Rarity asked.
Twilight smiled. “You have to trust me.”
Rarity looked up into the alicorn’s eyes. “I trusted you before I even met you.”
“And now that you’ve met me?”
“Now… I trust you with all my heart.” Rarity put a hoof on Twilight’s chest. “There’s a phrase in deerkin: ‘fea niasa.’ Most ponies translate it to ‘soulmates.’ But I prefer the traditional translation of ‘old souls:’ souls that remain together throughout time. In our language, it can mean anything from friends to confidantes to family to…” Rarity blushed. “…lovers.”
Rarity didn’t say a word when Twilight’s wings had miniature seizures caused by Twilight forcing one to remain down and the other to remain wrapped around Rarity.
“O-okay.” Twilight swallowed. “Then… just relax. This… might feel a little strange.”
Twilight’s horn ignited. Magenta power shifted quickly into the silver aura of her star magic while Rarity looked on in wonder. Then, gently, Twilight leaned down and touched her horn to Rarity’s head. The doe let out a sharp heated gasp and shuddered in delight as Twilight’s magic wove its way through her body.
Then, all four of the virtrung’s legs began to glow with magic. The patterns didn’t burn with the same blue as Rarity’s eyes. Instead… they were like lines of silver fire. Rarity let out a sound of awestruck wonder as she stared up at the stars.
“I… I can feel them… what… what is this…?” Her voice was husky and full of wonder.
“This… is how Aunt Luna taught me,” Twilight whispered in an almost reverent tone. “This was how she taught me to control my powers and call on them. To ask them to work their magic. She… she warned me it was an…” Twilight coughed. “…intimate experience. I didn’t realize just how… powerful it was.”
“Intimate?” Rarity’s eyes reflected nothing but stars as her crystal hooves shone silver. “You mean…”
“I may have had a tiny crush on her for a week or two after. Don’t worry. It passed. She thought it was… cute.”
Rarity laughed. It sounded like the laugh of the stars themselves. Maybe it was. Magic was strange like that.
“And what about now?” Rarity asked. “Why… give this to me?”
“It… just feels like the right thing to do,” Twilight answered. “Don’t ask me how I know that… I don’t know. But I know I have to do this. They belong to us both now.”
“And we belong to them,” Rarity whispered. “Leaf and Stone, Twilight… I can almost hear them singing. It’s beautiful. I’ve never felt anything so lovely before. It’s like every moment I felt you, magnified a thousand times over.” Her voice hitched as tears ran down her face. “I… I can’t thank you enough…”
“You don’t need to,” Twilight murmured as she tightened her wing around the doe. “Now… ask them.”
“Ask them what?”
“You already know.”
Rarity only hesitated a second. Then she closed her eyes and the light around her legs and hooves became like the light of the moon. Still, Twilight didn’t look away from the stunningly gorgeous doe wielding Twilight’s own magic. She didn’t even see Rarity’s work until Rarity’s eyelids fluttered open and Twilight saw the reflection of the night sky within those great blue eyes of hers.
Finally, Twilight tore her gaze away from the doe and looked up into the sky.
A brilliant magenta star shone over the city, surrounded by five white stars burning like embers in the night. Somehow, Twilight knew that those stars would be there every night for as long as she drew breath.
…and probably long, long after.
Rarity shivered again, almost overcome with the power.
“They’re… they say it’s your turn,” she whispered. “Please, my dear princess, if you would?”
Twilight closed her eyes and focused. It required almost no thought at all. The stars had been waiting for this moment. She could feel their smiles—or the closest thing to smiles—as she brought forth three very special blue stars in the midst of the ones Rarity had brought out.
Then she opened her eyes.
Both mare and doe watched in wonder as the two soul marks suddenly ignited in the night sky. A single shining magenta star surrounded by five white stars. Three blue gemstones. But now, instead of just constellations, they were full images. Both intertwined in the night sky above the great gemstone city of Canterlot.
Twilight wasn’t really sure who kissed who first. After further thought, she realized it didn’t really matter all that much. After even further thought, she decided to stop thinking about it.
All that mattered was the moment. The taste of Rarity’s lips upon her own. The desperate hunger within each of them, clawing its way forward.
Some tiny rational part of her knew that she could very well be completely and madly in love with this doe she had met less than two days ago. That rational part of her balked at such sentimental nonsense, for she was a pony of science and magic, reason and logic, order and precision. But she couldn’t deny that every one of these elements paled in comparison to the passion in this single kiss.
It didn’t take long for that tiny part of Twilight to just accept it as the rest of her mind focused on the gorgeous doe before her.
They broke apart. Twilight saw stars in Rarity’s eyes. She knew Rarity saw stars in Twilight’s eyes.
It was what had bound them together since Twilight’s ascension. It was what had bound them together through Rarity’s trials in her Day Wood.
Rarity’s right. We are old souls. 
And nothing could be more beautiful than that.
Rarity came out from under Twilight’s wing and stood before the Astra Princess, breathing heavily. Finally, after several long seconds, the doe threw herself once more into the mare’s embrace. This kiss was just as passionate, but not nearly as desperate. The first kiss had been the dam breaking. This kiss was the flow of the river as it began its eternal journey to the sea. It held the promise of a thousand, thousand more.
But all that could wait. For now… it was just Twilight, Rarity and their stars.
It wouldn’t be until three days later on her throne that Twilight would learn their soul marks burned throughout the night. It would be Rarity that told her the correlation between what they had been doing and when their marks had been the brightest in the sky.
That would be the first time Astra Princess Twilight Sparkle actually lit the carpet on fire as a direct result of her embarrassment.
It wouldn’t be the last.