Fire Opals

Chapters

Rough Sketches
Stitches
Final Fitting
Backstage
Showtime
Afterparty
A Knock in the Night

Rough Sketches

Kibitz opened the door with a flourish, and Rarity peered into the guest room she’d been led to before walking in. Neat and tidy as expected, and the bed was even bigger than the one in the little tower she’d stayed in the last time she’d been in Canterlot. Passing the desk by the bed, she noticed it was much more well-stocked than one would expect for the average guest. Both quills and regular pens, paper and parchment, pencils, measuring compass…

It was almost enough to make one a little suspicious. But after a quick magical inspection of the drawers, Rarity was satisfied. This was a draftspony’s room awaiting her answer, not a designer’s room having already expected her to say yes.

The sound of a throat clearing made her remember she still had a companion, and she turned to find Kibitz had produced a pen and parchment from the pocket of his waistcoat. “I’ll be having breakfast sent up shortly,” the older unicorn said as he wrote something down. “If you’ll give me your preferences. Also a list of things you’ll be needing to get started on whatever project this is the princess has you working on.”

“Oh, yes, of course. Hm. Ah, do they have sweet orange and blackberry salad here?”

“Naturally.”

“I’ll take an order of that, please. And a cu-” she had to stop to bite back a yawn and quickly changed her mind. “Make that a pot of Saddle Arabican coffee. Extra strong. With the sugar brewed in.”

“Yes, miss.” He had the grace to at least try to hide his smile behind the parchment as he finished jotting down her food requests. “And supplies?”

Probably best to know what she was working with first… “If you could gather me some research books… Let’s see… Materials with magical shielding properties. Um… materials with magic enhancement properties.... and shielding spells. That should be enough to start with.”

Kibitz looked up over the top of the parchment, and Rarity thought she caught a brief flash of concern before he schooled his expression into formal neutrality. “I’ll see what the archivists can come up with.”

“Thank you kindly,” Rarity said, nodding politely as he turned and closed the door behind him when he left. A flash out the window to her left caught her attention, and she shifted the curtain a little to see the sun princess, every inch her normal picture of poise and grace, lift off her balcony with her horn aglow to begin raising the sun.

Impressed at how quickly Celestia had gathered her public mask back together, Rarity drew the curtain back fully to let in the light before heading to the bathroom to see what she’d been given to do some cleaning up of her own with while she waited.

After a very quick shower and a brush of her mane and tail, Rarity came back out to find that breakfast had been delivered, along with three books and a note promising more once the archivist had finished the morning organization. Fair enough, she supposed. But one more thing first…

She’d been thinking while she was in the shower, and really, if this was going to be a month’s commission of such importance, and for one of the Princess sisters no less, steps were going to have to be taken.

Skimming through the drawers again, she found the stationary and envelopes she needed and quickly began writing off notes.

The Apple Clan had taken Sweetie Belle and Opal before, though not for such a very long time… She added in the information of her expense account so Applejack could access it for Sweetie’s care and any… mishaps. Any other pony, she would be loath to pass over such a thing to, but Applejack had always been good as gold when it came to both their family and business matters.

The second went to Coco to give her full control of the Manehattan office and its deposit box for the month so she would have no need to contact Rarity for permissions.

The third went to Fleur to let her know to ask Applejack to let her into Carousel to pick up her dress since Rarity would be out of town and the boutique would be closed.

~And please, my darlings, do not ask why I am currently indisposed. You only need know that I am working on a project of the utmost importance and I will tell you what it is when the time is right. I will be home in a month.

Sincerely yours, R.~

Hn… She was sure she was probably still going to get an earful from Ponyville, but they would have to do. Sealing up the envelopes, she found a few stamps in the roll cabinet on top of the desk and addressed the envelopes before going in search of a palace worker.

===

She was nearly finished with her first pot of coffee and three hundred and fifty-seven pages into Silver Rain’s Treatise on Rune Wards when there was a knock at the door and Kibitz poked his head in, another stack of books floating over him. “Oh, good, is that my next batch?”

“Indeed, miss. Also, the delegation from the Pantheon matriarchy has been delayed, so her highness has an open hour if you would like to take measurements.”

“Ooh!” Marking her place with a napkin from her tray, Rarity snapped the book shut and set it aside, sliding off the bed. “A perfect chance to stretch my legs a little. I don’t mind research in the name of a project, but I’m afraid this is Twilight’s passion, not mine.”

The elder unicorn chuckled as he set the stack he’d brought on the bedside table and produced a measuring tape from one of his many pockets. “Yes, her highness suspected as much. I rather think she’s glad for the deviance from schedule as well. Pantheons are not known for their ability to stay on topic.”

“If it’s not too rude to query, what exactly is a Pantheon?” Rarity asked as she trotted a little faster to match his pace down the hall. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“They’re a bit like Everfree’s Deer, only much less… rigid,” Kibitz explained after clearly having to search for a polite term. “They live at the northernmost borders of Equestria and assist their highnesses by creating the dyes with which the aurorae are made. Very nice folk, and talented artisans, but just between you and me, a little absent-minded in matters that require diplomacy.”

Muffling a giggle, Rarity made a locking motion at her mouth with her hoof to indicate the secret was safe, then entered the door he pushed open for her.

Princess Celestia looked up from a stack of paperwork at her entrance and smiled, quickly waving off any attempt to bow. “Make yourself comfortable.” Rarity accepted the tape measure from Kibitz and he made himself scarce. “How are you settling in?”

“My room is lovely, your highness, and very comfortable, thank you. And Kibitz has been most helpful. I’ve already made some good headway in materials research.”

She wasn’t exactly sure how to proceed. Anyone else she would have already ordered out into the standard measurements position, but to do so to a princess was a little intimidating. Thankfully, Celestia saved her the trouble. One more quick signature, and the alicorn gracefully walked out from behind her desk, shedding regalia as she came. Fumbling a little, Rarity motioned for the stance she needed, and Celestia complied without complaint.

“He’s always been a dear. It took a little nudging to get him to quit fussing so over me so much and shift some of his time to you instead, but I think it will work out to the best of the project.”

“Indeed,” Rarity agreed. She’d forgotten to bring a pad with her, but the princess didn’t seem to mind her nicking a pen and blank piece of paper off the desk, so she went to her work with quick and neat efficiency. “He’s very concerned, but he hides it well. I’ve no doubt that anything he thinks will protect you, he’ll find the best of.”

Close as she was, she saw the faint ghost of worry cross the alicorn’s face and bit her lip, then decided it was probably best not to bring it up. “Have you given any thought to color?” she asked brightly, trying to bring a little levity to the conversation.

Celestia blinked at her, shaken out of her funk. “I beg your pardon?”

“Well, it is your outfit, darling, surely you must have some input! Would you like it in teal? Silver sequins? Perhaps with some sheer violet ruffles and neon pink streamers?” Rarity asked with an exaggerated bat of her eyelashes.

The ploy worked. Celestia smothered a loudly unladylike laugh with the hoof she’d been holding outstretched, managing to turn it into a cough after a moment. “Ah, I ruined that set of measurements, didn’t I?” she asked when she’d gotten herself back under control.

“Nothing that can’t be fixed in just a moment,” Rarity said, motioning for her to hold it out again.

She’d just finished scribbling down the last notes when there was a knock, and Kibitz peeked in.

“The Pantheon delegation has arrived.”

Celestia glanced at Rarity, who nodded.

“Very well, show them up. Rarity, do you want me to have a guard see you to your room?”

“I believe I can find my way now, your highness, but thank you,” Rarity said politely, and this time it didn’t even occur to her to bow as she made her exit. As she passed one of the open stairwells, she saw Kibitz on the floor below talking to a group of deer with dark blue coats and short white manes and bellies. Surprisingly, even the adults seemed to have fawn spots, but when she squinted, they were little golden constellations.

“Wow… So they help make the aurorae...” Rarity murmured to herself, holding the little paper she carried a bit tighter in her magic as she walked the rest of the way back to her room.

An idea was forming in the back of her mind, but first, she had more research to do.

===

A huge yawn bubbled up in the back of her throat and her magical grip on Satin Slipper’s Guide to Magical Leather Binding and her empty coffee pot slipped briefly, nearly tripping her when the book dipped low enough to tap her left foreleg. Managing to keep from yelping out loud and waking the entire hall, Rarity regained her balance and her hold, then shook her head.

Yes, definitely time for more coffee.

While her wing of the castle was snoozing, the kitchen night shift was in full swing, and the caramel-colored unicorn mare who’d been so helpfully keeping her coffee pots full cheerfully waved to her when she peeked in. “Still burning the midnight oil, miss?” Toffee Chip asked.

“Afraid so,” Rarity said with a tired smile. “Deadlines wait for no one. May I have a refill?”

“Of course! The sugar-brewed Arabican, right?”

She nodded and marked her place in the book, allowing herself a minute to just indulge in the sights and smells of the kitchen while the older mare went to wash out the pot and give her a fresh supply. There were some cranberry and honeysuckle scones just coming out of the oven that smelled absolutely divine, Rarity wondered if she might beg just one to take back with her to nibble on while she finished her last tome for the night-

A familiar booming greeting made the fur on the back of her neck stand on end, and she quickly scooted away from the door as Princess Luna entered to the amused replies of the night shift chefs.

Oh, ponyfeathers.

She’d forgotten to ask Princess Celestia if her sister knew about the project. And if Luna didn’t and caught her here, she was going to be in for an interrogation for sure.

Careful to stay well away from the princess’ line of sight, Rarity edged for the door, only pausing briefly to grab her coffee from a very confused Toffee Chip before fleeing for her room.

She hated to be a bother to the staff, but until she could catch Celestia next… maybe it would be prudent to ask that all refills be room service.

===

'Next' ended up unfortunately being nearly a week and a half into the project. A week and a half of avoiding Princess Luna. A week and a half of noticing little tensions that were beginning to nag at her. Her window, for better or worse, afforded her a very good view of both Celestia's balcony and Luna's observatory and she had been seeing things that were beginning to make her worry.

But the project came first.

She was busily struggling with stitching together the under-leathers for the armor when a hoof touched her shoulder.

"Am I intruding?"

Rarity jolted, startled out of her 'work trance', then looked up and shook her head. "Not at all, your highness. Have a seat," she said, scooting over to make room at the table she'd been using as her work space. Celestia accepted the offer, looking over the barely-organized chaos.

"When Kibitz said you had already begun the final design, I admit I almost didn't believe him," she said.

Rarity gripped the thick-spun thread in her teeth, finally yanking the stubborn thing into proper place, then made a face at the taste it left in her mouth and set the leathers down. "I confess, I wasn't sure about several of the materials. They were considered rare when these books were written, probably next to impossible to find nowadays. But your assistant really is quite a wonder. I gave him the list and he had everything ready for me to go within three days."

"May I?" Celestia asked, indicating said list, which was lying on top of the stack of note-tabbed research books. When Rarity nodded, the alicorn picked it up in her magic, and then made a soft noise of surprise a moment later. "He actually found Jackalope-Horn glue? They've been extinct for seventy years!"

"He wouldn't tell me where that came from. Ah... pretend you never saw that?"

The princess chuckled. "Forgotten already. Angha leather, that's impressive...Chrysomallus wool?"

"Enough for me to triple thread," Rarity said, indicating what she was currently working on.

"My, my. I'll certainly have to give him a raise," Celestia murmured. "And you've been working so hard as well. Castle gossip abounds."

The princess' tone was teasing, but slightly faraway, and Rarity could see the tiredness and worry in her face. "It's weighing on you, isn't it?" she asked gently. "The more progress I make, the closer the time is."

"I can feel it growing," Celestia said softly. "Like a headache slowly building. But this is a visual reminder that time is short, yes."

Rarity hesitated a moment, then reached out and covered the princess' hoof with her own. "I'll have it ready, your highness. Don't you worry."

That earned her a soft, warming smile. "Thank you. It's nice to have that reminder, too."

She squeezed a little, then let go and picked up the leathers again. Celestia seemed content to merely sit and watch, so she began working the thick leather-punching needle back through the holes she'd made to stitch the golden thread into elaborate binds.

Loop, loop, through, and back. The princess was so quiet that it was hard not to let herself go back into her working trance, and Rarity finally found she couldn't let herself keep the question in any longer, lest she accidentally let it slip her mind. "Does Princess Luna know what we're doing?"

There was a sigh, and then a shift, and Rarity looked up to see that Celestia had moved to look out the window. "No. No, she does not."

Rarity bit her lip, worried she'd caused offense, but before she could apologize for questioning out of line, Celestia continued. "My sister has enough on her plate trying to find her way back into Equestrian society. If she knew that this was caused by my taking on her duties while she was gone, she would find a way to blame herself for it. I can't put that kind of weight on her."

"That's awfully big sisterly of you," Rarity said before she could stop herself, and then shoved her hoof in her mouth when she realized what she'd said. "Er, permission to speak freely?" she asked in a tiny squeak when Celestia looked over her shoulder with a wry smile.

"I'd forgotten your friendship reports mentioned a little sister," Celestia said with a little laugh. "Go ahead."

"I fully understand wanting to protect family from the darker aspects of the work you have to take on. Cele- er, Tartarus knows I do it with Sweetie Belle all the time. But... I think something like this, you're going to eventually have to tell her. If for no other reason than because she's going to find out. If not before it happens, then when it does. Wouldn't you rather it be in the way that she won't assume the worst?"

That drew another pause, and Rarity held her breath. Then Celestia put a hoof on her shoulder. "You make a good point. Breaking it to her gently would probably be the best course of action. And it would give her some peace from trying to spy it out of me," the princess added much more loudly, and Rarity jumped to her hooves in surprise and dropped her work on the floor when there was a muffled crash from the ceiling, followed by an impressive string of cursing.

"What in the-"

A panel opened and a very ruffled Princess Luna dropped down to land on her hooves, shaking her feathers back into order before glaring at her sister. Rarity covered her gaping with her hooves, then felt herself slowly breaking into a grin. It seemed big sisters and little sisters didn't much change from ordinary ponies to royalty.

Celestia, for her part, didn't seem at all fazed, and simply motioned for the younger princess to take a seat at the work table. "All right, let's all get on the same page, then."

Stitches

Silence clouded the room.

Rarity fiddled with the wool threading as she looked back and forth between the solemn-faced princess sisters, and it was all she could do to keep from letting herself nervously undo the golden cord she had spent three and a half hours so carefully braiding together.

After what seemed like an eternity, however, Luna finally let out a long breath that seemed to take all the tension in the room with it. “I see,” she said quietly. “I...cannot say I’m happy that you waited so long to tell me-”

“Luna-”

“-but I understand why you did so,” Luna finished, holding up a hoof to stop her sister. “And I am glad you told me now.”

Rarity hated to interrupt, but she tentatively raised a hoof. “Does this mean you’ll be able to help draw off some of the energy before the storm can burst?”

“Unfortunately not,” Luna said with a sigh. “As the realm of dreams is solely mine, so there are properties of certain heavenly bodies that fall only to Celestia. I can raise and lower the sun in a pinch, though it is sorely taxing, but this level of power manipulation, or shielding the world from it, is beyond my ken. However, any support power I can lend,” she added, leaning forward to tap the tip of Celestia's horn with her own, “-I will give.”

Celestia’s relieved smile was so bright it almost hurt to look at. “And will be most welcomed, sister. As is any input you may have in this project.”

“Agreed,” Rarity said brightly. Normally having somepony looking over her shoulder would have gotten her artist’s hackles up, but for a commission this vital, she was willing to let her pride take the blow for once. Especially when that somepony was a pony as knowledgeable in old magic as Princess Luna was bound to be.

She still had a lot of questions if she was going to make this perfect.

===

By nightfall, her stomach finally forced her to trade out the coffee for black tea. Thankfully, the seemingly never-sleeping Toffee Chip had proven to be quite helpful on that front as well, and the brown sugar sweetcake-flavored blend the kitchen mare had sent up with the last tray was quite delightful. Even so, Rarity was yawning a bit as she finished the last stitches on the under-leathers and got up to answer a knock at the door.

“Ah- your highness, do come in,” she said, trying not to squint sleepily when she found Princess Luna waiting on the other side.

From the alicorn’s faint grin, she’d been caught anyway. “I will not keep you up long,” Luna promised as she entered. “I just wanted to get a better look at what you have so far, since there was no chance to do so before normal duties interrupted our last meeting.”

“Oh, of course.” A quick shuffle rearranged her notes, sketches, and lists back into the order she’d had them in to show to Celestia, and she settled the finished leathers onto a makeshift ponyform she’d made to work with for the time being. “I should be able to begin the metals stage in the morning.”

“You do your own metalworking?” Luna asked, sounding impressed.

“Only a little,” Rarity said with a blush. “I do a bit of embellishment; I’m not a smith by a long shot. But I really only need basic shapes out of the forge, after that, it will all be magic-worked.”

“Hm, still rather remarkable. And are these runes going to be etched or painted?”

“Actually, I have a question for you about that.” Luna looked over the sketch at her with a raised eyebrow, and Rarity coughed politely before continuing. “Well, see, I happened to catch a glimpse of the Pantheons when they visited, and it has me wondering. I realize that both you and your sister are very busy, but why exactly would you need special dyes to help make the aurorae? Aren’t they just a light show?”

“Ah.” The princess laid the sketch down, but rather than chiding her for her question, Luna merely took a seat on a cushion and indicated for Rarity to do the same. Once Rarity had made herself comfortable, the alicorn folded her hooves on the table, resting her chin on them. “That is a story older than our reign.”

“You see, in between the times of Clover the Clever and Starswirl, there was short reign by a unicorn queen named Sunsparkle, who was, as they were, known as a great scholar of the heavens. And it was she who first learned that stars such as the Sun could be as much threat as they were life-giving.”

“Like the storm we’re facing now.”

“Exactly. Sunsparkle found that the best way to protect the world from such random events in space was to create a shield that drew life from the world itself. But ponies could not create it on their own. Unicorn magic was not powerful enough, nor was it the correct type of magic. So Sunsparkle sought the aid of the Pantheons to the north and the Zebras to the south, convincing them that all had to work together in the interest of all.”

“And the aurorae are that shield. I get it now. But then why do only you and the Pantheons maintain it now? Surely the Zebras would still-”

“They would if they could.” Luna sighed and straightened up. “For a time after Celestia and I came to rule, they did, and the shield was at its strongest. Then the Inkanyamba, the serpent who destroys all, attacked, and all the records on the spells the shamans had drawn up with Sunsparkle were lost.”

Drat. That cut off a promising shielding spell… But she did still have the one opening. “The Pantheon dyes… Do they only come in the colors of the aurorae, or could you possibly get them in any tint? Say a yellow or gold?”

Luna looked at her, a glint of challenge in her eye. “I believe I could find out.”

===

Rarity made a miserable little whine as her back protested even the tiniest little stretch when she collapsed onto her bed. Even with her magic to aid her, shearing and beating the sheets of enhanced gold into the shapes she needed had taken much more strength than her muscles wanted to give, and everything hurt.

Blowing out an exhausted sigh and wiping her mussed, sweaty mane out of her face, she rested her head on her forelegs and closed her eyes, not even bothering to pull over a pillow. Just a little nap, then she would-

Something bumped her horn, and she jumped with a squeak, nearly rolling off the edge of the bed. A floating pillow wrapped in a golden aura caught her, and she looked up sheepishly to find a concerned Princess Celestia. “Oh- my apologies, your highness. I didn’t hear you come in.”

“It’s quite alright,” Celestia said, gently settling her back on the bed. “Luna told me you were going to be going to the forges this morning, and since I managed to finagle a few minutes before dinner, I wanted to come see if you were okay.”

Touched by the princess’ worry, Rarity managed a tired smile. “Nothing a little rest and a long bath before I get back to work won’t fix,” she said a little more airily than she actually felt, but couldn’t keep in a small wince when she tried to follow up with a sweeping hoof motion.

“So I see,” Celestia said, amused, then set down the small bag that she had bumped Rarity with when she came in. “In any case, I have something for you that may help with that.”

“Oh?” Rarity lifted out the package inside and made a noise of surprised delight when she saw the familiar emblem of Wheat Grass and Flax Seed’s little cosmetics company blazoned on it. “Oh!”

“Consider it a little thank you for convincing me to pull Luna into the project. The entire castle feels lighter without that secrecy between us.”

Rarity laid the package back in the bag. “I didn’t mean to tell you how to be a big sister or anything…”

“I meant it when I said you had made a good point then. I may have been a big sister for a very long time, but a different perspective on the matter does me good every now and then,” Celestia replied, pulling over a cushion to take a seat. “The length of one’s experience doesn’t always mean one has all the answers, as you saw.”

“I suppose so.” Feeling her weariness beginning to come back, Rarity laid her head back down. “Speaking of sisters, I wonder what Sweetie Belle’s been up to while I’ve been here. I’ve been able to send a few small report notes to Applejack, but nothing that would warrant any reply.” She swallowed a yawn, eyelids heavy. “I suspect she’s been splitting her time between gallivanting with the Crusaders and grouching about me not telling her why I’m away.”

She could have sworn she felt a hoof soothingly brush over her mane. “Would you like Luna to check up on her?”

Already slipping off to sleep, even with the princess still in attendance, Rarity made a faint hum of agreement. “That would be lovely,” she murmured, before she dozed off entirely.

===

When she cracked an eye open again, it was dark out and Celestia was gone. A pot of tea and a clean cup had been left on the bedside table, but when she painfully scooted over to investigate it, she found it had long gone cold.

She must have been sleeping a good several hours at least, then.

Very slowly, one hoof after another, she eased herself down off the bed and popped all of the kinks that had formed in her back, then took hold of the bag the princess had given her, heading for the bathroom to open her present.

Celestia must have made a mention whom the gift would be for, Rarity noted when she looked at the little bottles. Everything was in the pear blossom and honey mix she always ordered. A little giddy, she filled the tub with water as hot as she could stand it and climbed in, every muscle seeming to twinge gratefully at the relaxing heat as she sank in to the tip of her nose.

===

Clean and refreshed, Rarity floated the teapot ahead of her as she trotted to the kitchen. She hated to waste the tea, but as old as it was, there was really no saving the flavor. She was just going to have to ask Toffee Chip for a refill, if the mare was on duty.

And indeed she was, Rarity found when she pushed the kitchen door open. And Princess Luna had already arrived, having settled herself on a stool to sample a couple of sweets. The alicorn noticed her and waved her over, pushing a plate with a stack of tempting-looking sugared scones in front of her when she came to the counter.

“Cherry and chocolate chip with spiced sugar glaze,” Luna said, then leaned down and held up a conspiratorial hoof. “I would be most grateful if you refrain from telling Kibitz. He always gets in a fluff about my sugar intake.”

Rarity covered a giggle as she set down her teapot and took a seat. “My lips are sealed, your highness.”

“Excellent.” Luna took another bite before continuing. “I met with Sweetie Belle in her dreams tonight as Celestia requested. You will be happy to know she is enjoying herself with the farmers.”

“I feel there’s a ‘but’ in there.”

“She does miss you, and she does somewhat resent the secrecy of your assignment… Which I understand entirely, given my own feelings on the matter when Celestia was hiding it from me. I did my best to impart the importance of your work-” Luna quickly held up a hoof when Rarity’s ears pricked forward in panic, “while using the abstract nature of dreams to keep the true danger hidden.”

Rarity let out a sigh, jangled nerves calming. “And you think that did the trick?”

“She seems to be soothed, for now. I will keep looking in on her.”

“Thank you, that’s very kind of you.”

“Well, if the big sisters are going to continue to band together, it only seems fair that the little sisters do the same,” Luna teased, surprising a laugh out of her. As Rarity got herself back under control, she saw Toffee Chip steal up out of the corner of her eye and whisk her pot away. “Back to more serious matters,” the princess said. “I have acquired your dye.”

“Already? That was remarkably fast.”

“Pantheons may not be masters of politics, but they are masters of their craft. I will have the jars delivered to your room. Is there anything else you’ll be requiring?”

Rarity picked up a scone and took a bite, absently chewing as she focused fully on work. “For now, no. I don’t want to get my workspace too cluttered, as I still need to finish the metalworking, and get the armor and the leathers sealed together. I’ll confer with Kibitz when I’m ready to move to the next stage.”

“Fair enough,” Luna said, magicking over a clean plate and piling on a few scones. “Take a few of these with you, though. It is almost time for the sun to rise, and you have more than earned some sweets for breakfast.”

Rarity looked up and found her teapot had been returned with fresh tea while she wasn’t paying attention, and smiled as she accepted.

Time to get back to work.

===

Squinting in concentration, Rarity slowly manipulated the metal centimeter by frustrating centimeter. Rolling the sharp edges around themselves, raising the scrollwork, dimpling in the divots where the centerpiece stones would be set.

Her head was pounding so much by the time she finished the cuirass that she thought she might throw up. Panting, she released the magic and let the piece drop to the cushion below it, sitting heavily on the floor herself just a moment later.

Maybe learning some advanced smithing wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all, she decided as she squeezed her eyes shut against the pain. Surely the physical strain she’d felt earlier wasn’t as terrible as this.

A soft clink made her open her eyes to find Kibitz setting a medication bottle next to her teacup. “For the magic stress,” he informed her kindly.

“Oh, bless you,” she mumbled, slowly hauling herself to her feet to stumble over to the table. The first swig of the liquid tasted foul enough to make her shudder, though it was quickly chased away by the sweet tea, but she could feel the effects almost instantly. “Bless you indeed.”

The older unicorn chuckled and bowed, leaving her another bottle of the stuff before he made his exit, and she took a deep breath, then magicked up the cuisses.

===

Another week down.

A week and a half left before the deadline was up, and Rarity stood before the ponyform looking at her progress. The under-leathers and outer armor were finished, attached to each other, and grooved and coated with the powdered Jackalope-Horn Glue in preparation for the gems. Arming doublets were stitched and in place, the attachment straps had been stitched on…

All that was left was to prep the gems and get them on.

All right.

She could do this.

Kibitz, as always, had retrieved the necessary tools with preternatural speed, and she looked them over as she instinctively sorted the gems Celestia had left to her use by color and size. The tiny diamond-tipped drill didn’t bother her too much, but it was hard to make herself look at the rock hammer.

To have to destroy so many rare gems…

When they had been gifts to the Princess…

All that hard work by so many mages...

But all of the research books had been very specific. Black lightning opals worked better as mosaic pieces, not as whole gems.

Finally, she sighed and picked up the hammer. Swallowing thickly, she squeezed her eyes shut, braced herself, and approached the pile.

*CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK*

Rarity tentatively opened one eye, then blew out her breath at the pile of shimmering black chips of wildly varying sizes before her. Okay, as far as she was concerned, the worst of it was over. Tossing the hammer back into the toolbox, she went to the pile of clear opals next.

These would require a much finer touch, but be much easier on her nerves, she was sure. From the toolbox, she called the drill, a jeweller’s magnifying glass, and a tiny syringe, and from her work table, she summoned the jars of pantheon dye and her notes on shielding runes.

She could do this, she kept telling herself as she carefully shaved each opal perfectly circular and then etched the tiny runes deep, deep into the center before injecting the magic dye into them.

One.

By one.

When she finally looked up from her finished work, eyes itching and aching enough that she was considering amending her former opinion that breaking the black gems had been the worst task, night had fallen once again.

And the back of her neck was prickling.

“No peeking!” she shouted with all the instincts of a big sister, and was rewarded with a laugh and a half-disappointed “Aww,” from that same panel that Luna had appeared from once before the prickling feeling went away.

She went to bed tired, but with an odd feeling of satisfaction.

===

With three days left to her deadline, her mane a mess, and her right eye itching again, she called both princesses just after the sun had been lowered and the moon had been raised.

“The piece is complete.”

Final Fitting

Rarity tried not to pace anxiously in place as the two princesses stared at the finished set of armor. Before she could break the silence herself, however, Luna suddenly broke into a huge grin and stamped her hooves.

“Put it on, put it on, put it on!”

Relieved at the moon princess’ obvious glee and her sister’s resultant smile, Rarity let out the breath she’d been holding and lifted the cuirass off the ponyform. On it and the cuisses, the three largest fire opals had been shaved into center circles, ringed and patterned by the rune-carved clear opals and white opal chips to form reverse-color versions of Celestia’s cutie mark that set over her actual cutie marks and at the front and center of her chest.

Delicately, carefully, Rarity settled the pieces in place, fastening the latches of the cuirass under the princess’ wings after making sure they wouldn’t catch feathers. Other much smaller fire opals were nestled in the black mosaic of lightning opal chips, standing out as the forerunner stars of white chip constellations in the pattern. When she was finished with that, she went to strap on the cuisses, making sure the suns laid in place and the leather straps and metal buckles didn’t chafe or pinch.

“After Luna told me about Queen Sunsparkle, I was rather inspired,” she said as she worked. “Especially after I found records of the armor of the period and how they used the cutie marks of the wearers as enhancement. If I did this right, you should start feeling it becoming in tune to you as the pieces settle.”

“I believe I already am,” Celestia said, stretching out a wing to see how well she could move in the cuirass. “It’s rather warm… Like sitting in a sunbeam. I like it.”

“Oh.” Rarity bit her lip, trying to hold in the giddy swell in her chest as she picked up the two sets of golden shin guards. “That’s… that’s good. Very good. Ah- the, um, the rune design is a shielding ward, but I attuned those for Princess Luna.”

“Hm?” Luna asked from her sister’s other side where she had been inspecting the constellations in the cuirass. “You did what now?”

“Well, I- I assumed you would know much more advanced shielding magic than I did, and you did say that you wanted to give your sister some support power…” Rarity said hesitantly. “I can change it if you don’t think it’s a good idea. I think there’s still enough ti-”

Celestia stopped her by putting a gentle hoof on her shoulder. “It’s a fine idea.”

“Indeed,” Luna said, coming around to take a better look at the runes. “Since I cannot go up to aid my sister myself, being able to provide her with shields is a good second best. May I?”

Rarity nodded and stepped back out of the way, and Celestia tilted her chin up to allow her sister more light. After a bit more inspection, Luna lit up her horn. “The spellwork looks good, but a test might be in order. What do you think, Sister? A thirty second shield, just to be sure?”

“I agree, but it might be best to wait just a minute until all the armor is on. Rarity?”

“The only absolute necessities are the cuirass and the cuisses. The shin guards are just extra protection and the helmet is an additional magical enhancement,” Rarity said, holding the guards tightly against her chest.

“Just the helmet, then,” Celestia said, and Rarity nodded, laying the guards down to fetch it. Unlike those that the castle guards wore, it fully covered the face, the ears sheathed in decorated gold with little hinges to allow movement and gold brows to protect the eye holes. The opening for the princess’ horn was ringed in a carefully drilled fire opal, and the entire upper helm was decorated in panels of white and black lightning opal chips. A carefully-guarded cut down the back allowed for the flowing mane to be drawn through- with some magical effort.

“You look fearsome, Sister,” Luna said, and it was hard to tell whether the grin on her face was joking or not. “But it is beautiful work,” she added, acknowledging Rarity, and she smiled in return, nodding gratefully at the compliment. “Shall we?”

“Go ahead,” Celestia replied, standing straight and flaring her wings, and Luna touched her glowing horn to one of the runes on her sister’s chest.

Rarity held her breath again.

One by one, each rune in the ring on the cuirass lit in a soft blue glow, and then each one on the left haunch, then the right. Then Celestia’s horn flared its bright sunny aura and all of the runes switched to match, before little beams of light shot out and coalesced into three discs that grew until they met and formed a protective globe around the princess.

After thirty seconds, it popped like a soap bubble, and Luna stamped her hooves again before hugging Rarity tightly. “Excellent.”

Rarity yelped at the tight squeeze, then started giggling almost hysterically. Shielding runes. A ward spell. A fully-functioning ward spell. She’d done it. She’d never done any kind of magic that complex before, and to pull something like that off on the first try-

Luna set her back on her hooves, and only then did she realize her eyes were wet and her laughter was turning a little watery. “I’m sorry, your highnesses, I don’t know what’s come over me. I-”

Mindful of the armor’s catching bits, Celestia wrapped a foreleg around her and pulled her into a warm hug. Hiccuping a little and glad she’d foregone makeup for the day, Rarity buried her face into soft warm fur until she could get herself back under control. “Thank you,” she mumbled against the princess’ neck.

“Thank you,” Celestia said gently in her ear. “I knew I was making the right choice when I asked you to take this project, but you have gone above and beyond anything I could have expected. This is a stunning work in both its function and its beauty.”

Rarity pulled back, trying to hide a small sniff behind her hoof. “May I stay to see it finish its job?”

Celestia smiled and brushed her hair out of her face. “I would be honored, my little pony.”

===

After triple checking to make sure that there would be no interference with the magic, Rarity opted to send Kibitz for some filling and polish to coat the armor with. After all, it wouldn’t do for something as small as a snared ethereal hair to hinder all the work she’d put into the gem work she’d done on the armor. A few coats to make everything even and give it some extra sheen wouldn’t hurt.

Humming to herself, she carefully worked the filling into every nook and cranny and crack, a feeling of contentment and pride settling in her mind as she tended to the armor.

Her most ambitious project for her most prestigious client, completed. How many ponies alive could say they’d built magical armor for an immortal princess? No famous name that she could think of, that was for sure.

Filling in the spelled cutie marks reminded her just what this commission was for, however, and her mood turned more serious. As pleased as Celestia and Luna had been, she still had to hope that her efforts would be enough, after all, or the entire world would pay.

===

The moon was high in the sky when she had finished polishing the last inch of the armor to a high mirror shine, and she levitated the ponyform behind her as she slipped out of her room. She hated to possibly wake Celestia up, but after a good half hour of debating it with herself, she’d decided it was best to deliver the final product when there were fewer ponies awake to catch her taking it through the halls.

With a mirror to help peek around corners -who said detective novels didn’t teach anything useful?- she tip-hoofed her way towards Celestia’s room. She was just about there when noises from behind the parlour door distracted her.

Visitors this late? Perhaps another emergency meeting like what Celestia had requested of her. It wasn’t very ladylike to spy, but her curiosity refused to abate. Just a teensy moment to find out what was going on wouldn’t hurt anything, would it? With a cautious glance around to make sure no one was coming, Rarity set down the ponyform and put her ear to the door, only to start back in surprise.

Twilight’s voice? In what sounded like an argument with Celestia?

Rarity swallowed nervously and took another hesitant step back from the door. Should she knock? Should she just go deliver the armor and duck back to her room before anyone was the wiser? It would probably be for the best if Twilight didn’t know she were here, so-

Before she made up her mind, the door opened and the decision was made for her as she froze, wide-eyed at the sight of her friend.

“Rarity? What are you doing here?” Twilight asked, then her eyes narrowed.

Uh-oh.

Rarity attempted to magically push the armor back around the corner out of sight, but it was too late, and the purple alicorn rounded on her teacher, ears flat. “Her? You told her about all this and not me?”

It wasn’t like Rarity hadn’t asked something similar when she’d been given the assignment, but the underlying derision in Twilight’s voice stung, and her own ears laid back in anger at the insult. “Now you see here, Twilight Sparkle-”

“Girls.”

There was just enough stern undertone in Princess Celestia’s voice that both of them went very still. And when the sun princess motioned them into the parlour, they meekly went, heads low like chastised foals and Rarity tugging the armor behind her.

“Now, Twilight, as I’ve already explained, the reason I did not bring you into this project is because of the exact reaction you’re having now. You are a brilliant magical mind, but you overthink and overstress and I did not want to put that additional burden on you when you already have so many duties keeping Equestria safe.”

“But you thought Rarity could help,” Twilight replied, and Rarity occupied herself with examining the armor to keep from reacting to the bitterness in her voice.

Celestia made a noise that sounded like a sigh, and Rarity chanced peeking over one of the wing fastenings to see the white alicorn regarding her former student with an expression of fond exasperation, one not unlike that she often gave Sweetie Belle when the latter wasn’t listening. “Tell me, Twilight,” the princess said. “Had I requested magical enhancement from you for this, what would you have done?”

Rarity looked in Twilight’s direction, careful to keep her interest hidden by the armor, and the other princess’ expression was startled, caught off guard. “Well… w-well, I…” Twilight said, evidently already running through a hundred options in her head at once. “There’s the Karabair Method, or the Narym Heirglyphs, or Copper Glow’s Fire Mane spell...I don’t even know where I’d begin to choose. And then there would have to be the empirical tests, and then running tests on you to see which methods work well together and which clash, and-”

And clearly Celestia’s point hit home when the other pony’s mouth closed with a practically audible snap. After a moment of silence, Twilight wilted a little. “And I could end up making us both exhausted or sick in the process of testing, and then we’d be in even worse shape than when we started.”

Celestia got up from where she had taken a seat and went to wrap a comforting foreleg and wing around her former student’s shoulders. Rarity chose to stay quiet in the background to let them work it out, pretending to still be fussing with the armor.

“Can’t I at least fly up with you in case something goes wrong?” Twilight asked, voice very small.

“I have every faith that with your talent and knowledge, you will cut the time it took Luna and I to survive the space vacuum in half, my dear Twilight,” Celestia said gently. “However, that is still fifty years.”

The crushed look on Twilight’s face made Rarity forget all her ire at her friend, and she quietly made a polite cough. “If I may?” she asked, and Celestia made an inviting motion for her to continue. “The helm has no shielding on it, just the arrangement of opals for enhancement. It probably wouldn’t hurt if somepony were to add a little additional protection, just to be safe.”

“Safety’s always important,” Celestia agreed, giving Twilight a little nudge. That earned a small, watery smile, and the smaller alicorn got up, coming over to look over the armor. Rarity moved out of the way, letting her scrutinize the constellation patterns -”All correct,” she wanted to say, but kept her mouth shut.- and the rune matrices in the cutie marks.

“How long have you been working on this?” Twilight asked, putting out a hoof to touch one of the runes.

“Just shy of a month, why?” Rarity asked, then squeaked when Twilight rounded on her, nose to nose.

“You designed and constructed a complete, functioning, accurate rune matrix in a month?! Why didn’t you ever study with me?!”

“Because I’m not a mage?” When it looked like Twilight might explode at that, Rarity quickly continued. “Twilight, darling, researching magical theory is your forte, not mine. The only reason I was able to manage at it this time was because it was for an important design. If I had to do it just for the sake of doing it, my eyes would probably cross five minutes in.”

Twilight backed up, expression calculating as she put a hoof to her chin. “That… makes sense. Your talent involves finding gems and using them in designs after all. And a piece like this…” she said, waving her hoof at the armor, still deep in thought. “It’s all coming together now. I.. I’m sorry I was so short, Rarity. I see why Celestia picked you for the job now.”

“All forgotten,” Rarity said, giving her friend a nuzzle. “Now how about we pick out that shielding spell?”

She noticed Celestia smiling faintly after them as they left.

===

Rarity genuinely hadn’t meant to fall asleep in the archives. But it seemed she’d gotten so used to having a pot of tea at hoof that without it, functionality had gone right out the window. She was roused by a wing nudging at her shoulder, and raised her head with a wide yawn. “Whazzit?” she asked, finding it was still mostly dark after she’d rubbed her eyes.

“After going over your notes, I think Cloud Dreamer’s Boon will be our best option,” Twilight said, a book cradled in her other wing. “It melds easily with other spells, takes only a few seconds to perform, and provides enhancement to other shields as well as acting as its own shield.”

“Excellent,” Rarity said, then tried unsuccessfully to smother another yawn. “I do hope it doesn’t need two horns to cast, though.”

“Just one.” Twilight offered her shoulder to lean on and Rarity gratefully accepted, as the walk from the archives back to the parlor was not a short one. On their way back, they both paused to watch the sisters lower the moon and raise the sun. Rarity felt her breath come a little shorter as the fiery orb climbed higher into the sky. It was a little nervewracking, knowing that there were only two days left before it would be time to do or die for her work.

“You okay?”

It would have been so easy to just smile and flip her hair, brush it all off with some airy retort. Maybe it was the exhaustion that had been creeping into her all month that spoke honesty for her instead.

“I’m afraid,” she admitted softly, then immediately regretted it when Twilight’s eyes widened. “I mean-”

“That you didn’t work hard enough,” Twilight said, expression softening, and Rarity nodded.

“The princesses keep saying my work is perfect, but if it’s not, Princess Celestia might die and the rest of us with her,” Rarity said. “The fate of the world is so much less terrifying when you’re carrying it as one of six.”

“I know.” Setting the book down on a fountain ledge, Twilight stepped forward and nuzzled her, wrapping her wings around her. “Believe me, I know. That’s part of the reason I don’t like having to just sit by and let this go without me. But trust me. I’ve studied every kind of magic possible, and yours is sound. You did great on that armor.”

Warm and comfortable in the winged embrace, Rarity almost immediately felt better. Her head felt clearer. Letting out a held breath in a long, slow sigh, she gently butted her head against Twilight’s and then pulled free. “Thank you, darling. I needed that.”

“At least someone around here needs me,” Twilight joked as she picked up the book again, but Rarity could feel it falling a little flatter than intended.

It got the wheels in her head turning again.

===

“A what?”

“A magical warning system,” Rarity said, telekinetically holding up her notes so that Luna and Twilight could see them better. “One of the things none of us has taken into account so far is what it’s going to look like when Celestia has to go fight her own sun.”

Luna frowned, putting a hoof under her chin. “If it causes an unexpected eclipse, ponies may believe that Nightmare Moon has returned.”

“Changes to the color of the sky might cause panic that Discord has gone back to his old ways,” Twilight said, expression equally somber. “So you have a good point. What did you have in mind?”

“Well, I was hoping you two would be able to refine it into something more specific, but the general idea is that you would be able to send out some sort of signal simultaneously to key points that could alert ponies or other races to what’s going on and how bad it is.”

Twilight opened her mouth, but Luna stopped her, then tapped her hoof on the table in thought. “Back before Nightmare Moon, there was a smoke flare system that was recognized by all countries during times of emergency. Blue for all clear, Yellow for stand by, Red for emergency, Black for death. The problem is that I don’t know who still acknowledges it.”

“We could use scrying to find out in just a couple of hours,” Twilight said, scrunching up her nose as she considered the idea. “Everyone who does, we can teleport flares to warn them based on what’s going on. Everyone who doesn’t… we’ll just have to figure something else out.” She stood up, flaring out her wings. “We've got a day and a half! We can totally do this! I am totally not going to overthink it or panic!”

Rarity hid her grin as a storm of paper and pencils flew over from a nearby bookshelf, and excused herself to go get a pot of tea.

Backstage

“You could get some sleep, you know. The spell’s not difficult at all to cast.”

“True, but I’m curious. I want to see it in action. And to see how it blends with my work, of course.”

Luna had gone to present their plans to her sister, so Rarity and Twilight had decided to take the time opportunity to get Cloud Dreamer’s Boon worked into the armor. Rarity lay with her forelegs folded on a cushion and her chin resting on her hooves, watching as Twilight blended together some sort of silver and blue sands into a glittery powder.

“Oh, of course,” Twilight said, her face falling a little as she stared into the sand. “I didn’t mean to step on your hooves like-”

Rarity frowned, then got up and went over to put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Darling, I wasn’t implying that at all. I just want to see how the shields work together. That is their purpose, is it not?”

“Right. Right…” Twilight mumbled, her mind still clearly on her earlier insult. Then she made a small snort of surprise when Rarity jabbed her in the shoulder with the same hoof. “Ow! What was that for?” she complained, rubbing her shoulder.

“Twilight, I told you it was forgotten. You were surprised, you were hurt, you said something thoughtless in anger. I forgave you. Simple as that.”

“I know, I know, it’s just… I’m supposed to be better than that now.”

Rarity blinked at her in surprise. “What? Why?”

“I’m a princess, right? That’s as ‘adult’ as anyone can get. I shouldn’t be tearing you down because someone thought you were good.”

Rarity bit back a full laugh, but her attempt turned it into a rather unladylike snort. “Oh please. I’ve been here a month. You think I haven’t seen some faults in our illustrious rulers by now?”

Twilight raised her head and stared at her. “N...no?”

Grinning, Rarity leaned in conspiratorially and tapped her friend on the nose. “I could tell you stories,” she said. “Princess Luna’s habit of spying on her sister from the ceiling tiles, for one.”

The purple alicorn pulled back, opened her mouth, then closed it. Then set her jaw. “When all this is over, I want to hear all of them. Every single one.”

“Done.”

Resolve renewed, Twilight nodded, then turned her attention back to the bowl of sands. Grabbing a bottle of some kind of white dust with her magic, she added it to the mix, then tentatively touched a hoof to the powdered concoction.

“Is it supposed to do that?” Rarity asked when the mix clung to the underside of her friend’s hoof.

“Yep. The Sarangay Beach Sands are part of the magic, but the powdered cloud is what makes it stick,” Twilight said, dusting her other hoof before beginning to rub the mix onto her horn. After several coatings, she squinted an eye, then made a rather comical face. “Um… I might need you after all. Can you make sure I didn’t miss a spot?”

Rarity covered her mouth to hide her amusement, then reared up to inspect the work. After adding a little sand mix herself, she sat back, shaking her hoof with a frown. “Not to be picky, but when does it come off?”

“After the spell’s cast,” Twilight replied as she went over the rather complicated pattern in the book one more time. Clapping the book closed, she took a deep breath and began to channel magic into her horn, the power glowing the glittery blue of the sands rather than her normal purple. Rarity watched in fascination as a thin beam of light shot out, stopping just in front of the armor’s helm, and began sketching out an arcane design, guided by subtle movements of Twilight’s head.

“Aaaaand there,” Twilight finally said, emphasising completion with a jab of her horn. The blue pattern flared a bright white, then shrank down before melting into the fire opal horn ring. As soon as it had disappeared entirely, all of the dust on their hooves and Twilight’s horn fell, making the latter yelp as it got in her hair and face. “Ugh!” she yelped, scrubbing at her fur.

“Are you alright?” Rarity asked in concern at the almost pained expression on her friend’s face.

“It’s so itchy! Why would a such a nice-sounding spell not have a block against that?!” Twilight wailed in disgust as she shook her head violently, trying to shed the dust.

Rarity had to bite her lip really hard to keep even the tiniest snicker from getting out and grabbed the alicorn to stop her flailing before getting to work with some cleaning telekinesis.

===

She opened her eyes to blackness and stars. Unusual, since she remembered going to sleep on one of the lounges in the parlour.

~A dream, then~ she thought.

Not an unpleasant one, really. It was rather pretty to see Luna’s night and Celestia’s heavens from the point of view of being in them for a change. And here in a dream, she had no fear of falling, or not being able to breathe, or-

Her contentment was quickly cut short when she saw a small red comet streaking through the darkness.

No, not a comet, she realized. Celestia, blazing in all her fiery glory like Rarity could remember only seeing once in the other universe’s Equestria, clad in the opal and gold armor.

And aiming for the sun.

Rarity yelped as she was suddenly dragged into the tailwind of the solar princess’ wake, and a cold fear settled into her stomach as the boiling surface of the sun came closer and closer, filling her vision in every direction but behind her. She had never given much thought to how massive the star must be up close, even when presented with the illusion Celestia had created for her, and seeing it firsthoof made her insides turn uncomfortably.

Speaking of Celestia-

Rarity looked to her left to find the Sun Princess standing tall beside her, wings flared to their full span. The white alicorn took a deep breath and made a motion over her chest with her right hoof that Rarity didn’t recognize, then brought forth Luna’s shield from the armor. The armor itself began to glow a bright gold along with Celestia’s magic, and the princess fired a white-hot band of power at the flare of fire that burst out of the sun, trying to warp it in another direction.

Nothing happened.

Nothing happened.

The fire continued on its path, unchanged, and Celestia didn’t even get the chance to scream before it enveloped her shield and burst it as though it were mere bubble gum. Rarity screamed instead as she saw it all unfold -the crack and burst of metal and stone, the searing of flesh and bone, the vaporization to nothing-

“Rarity!”

Blue-violet feathers filled her field of vision, and Rarity felt a sharp jolt before she opened her eyes to find herself lying on the floor of the parlour, cold and shaking as she gasped for breath. The feathers, she found, were Princess Luna’s wings, still partially wrapped around her in an unsuccessful attempt to keep her from falling off the chaise. Twilight stood nearby, half-asleep but worried as she rubbed her eyes. “What happened?”

“I apologize,” Luna said, gently helping Rarity up and keeping one wing wrapped protectively around her. “My dream warding on Rarity momentarily failed while I was visiting her sister’s dreams and I was not quick enough returning to stop a nightmare from slipping through.”

“Warding…” Rarity mumbled as she put a hoof to her head. “You’ve been looking after my dreams personally all this month?”

“Well, not exactly personally,” Luna admitted. “But I have put stronger protections on you than I would most ponies. With the type and degree of stress we have put you under, the nightmares that would feed on you are much more vicious than the average variety.”

Rarity couldn’t help a small shiver as she recalled the vision of Celestia being burned out of existence by the coronal burst. “Indeed. But… it was only a nightmare, correct?”

“Are you in the habit of having prophetic dreams?”

“Well, no, but-”

“Was there anything in it that didn’t match up?” Twilight asked, rounding the table to come sit by her. “Something that you know we did that didn’t appear in the dream, or the other way around?”

Rarity bit her lip, trying to think, then stomped a hoof. “The shields. The one I made for Luna to activate was the only one that appeared, not Cloud Dreamer’s Boon.”

“There you have it,” Luna said. “If it was a true prophetic dream, then it would include even the information you do not yet have. But because you have yet to see the second shield in action, it did not appear.”

“Only a nightmare, then,” Rarity said, nearly aching in relief. Twilight leaned over and nuzzled her reassuringly, and Rarity gratefully accepted.

“Well, after all that, I believe a little comfort food is in order,” Luna said, finally moving her wing. Rarity missed the warmth, but the princess’ mischievous smile was infectious as well. “Shall we go see if the night kitchen has any new scone flavors for us to try?”

“Fabulous idea.”

===

One more day left to go. Luna and Twilight hadn’t needed any help doing the actual set up for the emergency system, which left her frustratingly at odds as to what to spend the last twenty-four hours before go time doing. One could only polish and repolish the armor so many times after all.

Finally, Rarity had taken up Kibitz’s suggestion that reorganizing her notes might at least help pass time. And, well, she had created a new runic shield, hadn’t she? Perhaps it would be useful again some time in the future. Making her scribbles a little easier for somepony else to read down the line, namely Twilight or Luna, couldn’t hurt anything.

So she’d decided her stomach had gotten better enough to switch back to coffee and move all her book work to the parlour to be near her finished creation while she worked on transcribing her research. Humming softly, she floated two trays behind her as she made her way down the hall; one laden down with her papers and sketches and a fresh notebook and pens, the other with the coffeepot and cream and a plate of cucumber and mango sandwiches.

And perhaps a little plate of cherry sweet rolls the cook had so nicely insisted on sending along as well.

When she pushed the door to the parlour open, she wasn’t at all expecting to find Celestia sleeping on one of the chaises, looking even more ragged than the night that Rarity had first come to the castle. Her plans forgotten, Rarity put down her burdens on the central table as delicately and quietly as possible, then went to make sure the princess was all right.

Celestia stirred before she’d even gotten close, raising her head with a sleepy blink. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be stealing your work space.”

“You’re not stealing anything,” Rarity said with a shake of her head, stepping aside as the princess started to get up. “It’s your parlour, after all. I can do transcription anywhe- oh, please lie back down,” she finished with some alarm when Celestia swayed a bit on her hooves. “You shouldn’t be out of bed looking like that!”

She wasn’t sure whether to be glad or not when the princess obliged without argument or complaint, rubbing her forehead with a hoof. Celestia took a deep breath, then stretched, her neck and several points in her spine and wings popping painfully loudly, and Rarity tried not to wince at the sound.

“Is there anything I can get you?”

“I’m afraid not,” the princess said tiredly. “Most modern medicines unfortunately don’t agree with me, and I can hardly layer on any more pain reducing spells without becoming magic-drunk.”

“Well, if it’s not too forward to say so,” Rarity started hesitantly, then continued when Celestia made a motion for her to go on. “Spending the last day magic-drunk sounds better than being too exhausted and sick to go up when it’s time.”

“Hm… You have a point.” After considering the notion a little longer, Celestia’s horn lit up for a moment, then she raised her head, looking a little less like death twice warmed over. “Not a perfect fix, but it will do for a couple of hours.”

“Glad to hear it. Sweet roll?” Rarity offered, pushing the plate over as she picked up a pen with her magic to get started on her work. Watching the exhausted princess pick one and take a bite, her mind suddenly flashed the nauseatingly horrible image of that same princess being scorched by her own sun’s flames, and the pen snapped, ink splattering the table and her face. “Ack-!”

“Hold still a moment,” Celestia said, and in a blink, the ink was gone. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, no, no, no, I’m perfectly fi-,” Rarity started with a nervous giggle, but found the lie dying in her throat in the face of the sleepy princess’ earnestly questioning expression. “I… I had a nightmare. About tomorrow.”

“I see. My current state isn’t helping allay those fears any, I imagine,” Celestia murmured with a soft faraway chuckle as she took another bite of sweet roll. “There is one thing that might help tomorrow,” she finally said after staring into nothing for several moments of chewing. “It’s not a pleasant solution, but it will keep me going. I’ll have to talk to the night staff about it when the shift changes,” she murmured, before seemingly shaking herself out of a trance. “What were you working on?”

“Nothing really important.” Rarity put a hoof over her notes, trying to subtly push them aside. She was more interested in what this apparent ‘solution’ was, and whether it would be anything that would put the princess in danger. But Celestia, the “magic-drunkeness” in full effect, had apparently switched gears entirely, and picked herself unsteadily up to come take a closer look.

“Oh, your rune notes? What are you going to do with these?”

“Er, just clean them up a bit. You know, just in case they could be of some future use.”

“That’s a very smart decision,” Celestia said with a slightly too emphatic sage nod.

“Do you have any suggestions?” Rarity asked, deciding she might as well roll with the situation. Letting the princess get some much-needed rest was just as good an idea as anything else, after all.

“Hm… Perhaps alter the user cortex a bit? Attuning them to Luna was brilliant for this mission, but making them usable for anyone in the future would be a boon for societal purposes.”

Rarity stared at the princess, her mouth opening slightly. Maybe she wasn’t so drunk after all? Or… The unicorn shook her head, deciding not to think too hard about it. “I’ll...I’ll leave that to Twilight if she wants to take a look at it. I think for now I’m just going to transcribe everything.”

“Fair enough,” Celestia said, then yawned widely and curled up on the cushions next to her, resting her head on her forelegs. Rarity was a bit aghast at the closeness for a minute, but once the princess was fully asleep, she began to find it... rather sweet.

On impulse, she gently petted the sleeping princess’ hair the way she would a snoozing Sweetie Belle’s, then poured herself a cup of coffee as she settled in to work.

===

“Are we ready?”

“The flares have been coordinated to the Pantheon Clans, Griffonstone, Chineigh, the Chrysomallus Highlands, and Zebrica and are ready to be teleport-launched on our signal. Every telegraph system waypoint has been triggered via the seeking spell and is waiting for the announcement. We’re all set to go.”

“Good. Then there’s just one more thing left.”

Rarity had just finished fastening the last catches of the armor when an utterly noxious smell of what seemed like burnt coffee, burnt molasses, burnt ginger, and burnt magic filled her nose. Fighting the urge to gag, she recoiled out of the way as Toffee Chip approached the princess, a breathing mask over her nose and a smoking bottle on a tray floating in front of her.

Luna’s expression went from determined to mild horror. “You’re not serious.”

“I’m afraid I am, sister dear. It got us through the Emberstone Accords, it’ll hold me up now.”

“What… is that?” Twilight asked, somewhere between curiosity and disgust.

“Starswirl’s Bottled Resolve. Triple-filtered double sugar-brewed Arabican mixed with twelve different pickup spells and a drop of lava straight from Tartarus. It will last approximately twenty-four hours.”

“Don’t you dare,” Rarity warned the moment it looked like Twilight would ask how it was made, and the purple princess backed off sheepishly. She felt her stomach churn in sympathetic pain as Celestia picked up the bottle in her magic and tossed it back like a shot, then the princess held her breath and braced herself.

For about a minute, all was quiet.

Then they practically saw Celestia's heart skip a beat before her pupils shrank to pinpricks and her mane and tail exploded into flames.

Toffee Chip understandably shrank back in terror, ducking back to hide behind Luna as a protective shield, and it took every ounce of will Rarity had not to follow her. The heat from the flaming princess was nearly unbearable as Celestia struggled to get herself back under control, stance wide, wings flared, and body heaving.

Finally, however, Celestia inhaled sharply and straightened, standing tall and almost unnaturally serene in her wreath of fire. “Luna?”

“Right.” Gently dismissing the cook to go hide behind Twilight instead, which Toffee Chip gladly did, Luna stepped forward to activate her part of the shield. It went off without a hitch, the bubble surrounding her solidly. Then Celestia reached for Cloud Dreamer’s Boon, and little splotches of blue-violet magic rained out of her horn to coat the inside of the bubble before the whole globe shrank, becoming a second skin of the armor in an iridescent shimmer.

“Oh,” Rarity breathed at the sight, both awed by the beauty of the spells' final effect and relieved at the confirmation that yes, her dream before had been wrong.

Celestia caught her expression and gave her a reassuring smile, then looked up at the sky. “Here we go.”

Showtime

Rarity’s heart fluttered in her chest as she watched the sun princess rise into the sky along with her star, and then streak off in an arc of fire.

This was going to work.

This was-

“Why isn’t this working?!” came Twilight’s frustrated snap from behind her, and that feeling of hope froze in her chest before she turned to find the purple princess stamping on the activation array of the waypoint spell in agitation. Toffee Chip had apparently fled back to the kitchens, but Princess Luna had all their notes spread out in the air, scrutinizing them with a dark scowl.

“Everything is exactly the same as when we did our trial run. It should be running perfectly.”

“But it’s not!”

“Deep breaths, darling,” Rarity said as she went to look over Luna’s shoulder. Maybe two pairs of eyes would have more luck than one. She didn’t get more than the briefest peek at the diagrams, however, before there was a flash of plaid-colored light and suddenly the crystal in the middle of the array was sporting a mismatched new decoration.

“My, my, my, I wasn’t expecting such a spectacle to greet me planetside. What’s this ambitious little science fair project of yours, hmmm?”

Luna lowered the spread of papers a faction, arching a single eyebrow. “And where have you been all this time?” she asked flatly.

“Vacation, of course,” Discord said with a long, leisurely stretch that draped himself far enough over the crystal that his upper half was hanging upside down from it. “Since dearest Fluttershy decided to take a couple of weeks to visit the roc cliff nesting grounds and the little fashion plate was holed up here, I thought I might keep myself from dying of boredom by checking up on a couple of lovely little planets that have been flourishing since my last...er...foray in the world of the living. I brought everyone keychains!”

A little trinket popped into space dangling from Rarity’s horn, and she caught it in her magic before it could fall into her face. It turned out to be a very strangely shaped little teacup on a chain, delicately filigreed and jeweled. It was actually rather attractive, and she was rather touched he’d considered her tastes. Judging by a glance at Twilight’s expression at her tiny book keychain, it seemed she was thinking the same.

Then Twilight coughed and ruffled her wings, getting herself back on course. “Yes, well. That’s very thoughtful, but now’s really, really not the time. This ‘science fair project’, as you called it, has got to be up and running right now, and we can’t fix it with you using it as a couch.”

“And why, pray tell, would you-”

They were all interrupted by a bright pink and green ripple of energy that cracked across the sky the way the normal aurorae would at night with a thunderclap that made them all jump. “For that!” Princess Luna snapped as Discord fell off the crystal.

"Good heavens! What in the-"

“Rarity, give him a quick rundown of what’s going on, would you?” Twilight asked as she and her fellow princess both grabbed the diagrams and struggled to light up the array.

Rarity nodded and grabbed Discord’s paw to pull him away from the crystal. By the time she’d finished telling him the abbreviated version -sun was overloading, planet was about to be cooked, Celestia asked her for foci armor and had gone up to deal with it, and now they needed to stop the panic- there was a triumphant yell from Twilight.

“Have you got it?” Rarity asked, looking away from Discord’s uncharacteristically serious expression.

“We just needed to shave a little more off the crystal. We’re good to go! Ready, Luna?”

Luna tapped her hoof against her mouth in thought, then shook her head. “No. No, it should not be me. If we could have gotten it going before the sky started showing any signs, then we would have had no problem. Now it is likely to be as we feared and there will be those who believe Nightmare Moon is making a push.”

“But you’re not Nightmare Moon.” Rarity protested.

“That matters little. There are still ponies who will believe I am. It will have to be you, Twilight.”

“But- but I can’t do the Voice! I don’t have anything prepared!”

“We can just use the same speech we prepared for me and substitute your name. You will do fine.”

Rarity went to put a foreleg around her friend’s shoulders, mindful of her wings, and squeezed. “Use your megaphone spell. And you can lean on me if you feel nervous.”

Twilight looked between both of them, then to Discord, who gave her a thumbs up, but still looked oddly distant. Swallowing, she put a hoof to her heart, then took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said, magicking up the page with the speech on it. “Fire it up.”

Luna stomped on the activation node of the array, and Twilight lit up her horn before pulling up a small globe of magic that she caught in her hoof and touched to her throat.

“Creatura of all sovereign nations! This is Princess Twilight Sparkle of the Equestrian Ponies! We have been monitoring a disturbance in deep space, and it is currently being dealt with by our Princess Celestia. This may result in some distortion of the sky. Please do not panic. You are in no danger presently. We will alert you if any further action needs to be taken.”

Luna turned off the array and Rarity caught her friend as Twilight coughed painfully, deactivating her spell. “Ow,” she rasped. “It takes a lot more out of the throat when you’re projecting across the waypoints like that,” Twilight muttered, then blinked as a glass of water flashed in front of her face. “Oh, thank you.”

“You’ve been rather quiet,” Rarity said, looking up at Discord as he toyed with the claws he’d snapped to produce the glass.

“Indeed. Normally you would be cheerfully rubbing our noses in all the ways you could use this to your advantage that we cannot,” Luna pointed out archly, which only made Discord’s fidgeting increase.

“Um, she didn’t mean it like that,” Twilight said, waving off Luna’s mutter of “Yes, I did,” as Rarity helped her over to the draconequus. “But I saw you toss the sun and moon about like marbles when you took over Equestria. How is this any different?”

Discord pursed his lips, then blew out his cheeks, clearly not wanting to say whatever it was that was bubbling in the back of his throat. And then Rarity felt a sort of spark of realization and dread.

“It’s because you can’t mess with this, can you?” she asked, voice quivering a little at the thought of a chaos god being stymied by the power they’d had to send Celestia up to fight. “Whatever it is the sun’s doing, you can’t stop it.”

Luna and Twilight both looked at Discord, Twilight opening her mouth to say something, and Discord finally made an irritated whine, yanking on his horns in frustration. “Ugh, why did you have to be the perceptive one?!” he snapped. Before Rarity could get offended at the sleight to her intelligence, he continued. “Yes, I can move the sun with a snap. That’s the easy part. That involves acting against its orderly little orbit and Celestia’s orderly little spells.”

Twilight blinked at him. “Then… the power in the sun is chaotic? That’s why you can’t mess with it?”

“Bingo!”

Discord produced a little living model of the sun similar to the one Celestia had shown Rarity that first night, only it had vertical lines drawn all the way around it. Balancing it on the tip of a claw, he gave it a spin, and as they watched, the center of it spun faster than the poles, twisting the whole thing tighter and tighter, until the whole thing… squinched, for lack of a more scientific term, forming small arcs of fire all over the globe like the one that was threatening their planet.

“It does this all the time,” Discord said, scowling at the model as it snapped itself out of the twists and began twisting itself up again. “I don’t even know how it didn’t roast the planet before Her Shiny Hineyness came along to start absorbing the excess, because I know I can’t. I’ve tried before. I thought it’d be delightfully funny to set up the world’s biggest marshmallow roast and got myself exploded for my efforts. It took almost a month to put myself back together.”

“But- why?”

“How should I know?! I’m the Master of Chaos! It’s a chaotic process! It should be bending to my every whim! But this is the only reason I can come up with that it doesn’t work!”

“That makes no sense!”

“Can we try and figure it out later? Saving the world now, please,” Rarity stressed, waving a hoof urgently as it looked like the two were about to go nose to nose. Discord huffed, but pulled back and poofed the model out of existence.

Twilight rubbed her head. “Okay. Okay. You can’t absorb the power. But… could you redirect it?”

Discord looked like he was about to give a sarcastic answer, then he stopped and put a paw to his chin. “You know… that’s a very good question. I never tried.”

“Redirecting the fire into empty space or shielding the planet. We have no idea which one my sister went with, but if you could help her with either, it would double the chances of survival and success,” Luna said, all traces of antagonism gone.

“Hmph. I suppose I could give Ye Olde Sunbutt a hand. She did go to the effort of inviting me to the Gala after all. Alright then, hold these,” he said, tossing a clawful of keychains to a startled Luna before blazing off into the sky in a plaid-colored streak.

Rarity blew out a relieved breath and sat down heavily. Twilight took the keychains from Luna, then came to join her, and Rarity shifted her weight to offer a shoulder for the magically tired alicorn to lean on. “Well, hopefully, that will take care of the sun,” she murmured, tipping her head back to watch as another swath of pink and green and now orange washed across the sky, thankfully without the thunder this time.

“Yeah,” Twilight mumbled. “Wish Discord had left the glass of water, though.”

They both snorted small giggles as Luna made a check of the waypoint array to make sure it was still in ready shape if they should need it again, then trotted over to them. “I can summon one of the kitchen staff up with drinks if you like.”

“Nah. Better not scare them with-”

“Death arrives from the sky!” bellowed a male voice from below, and all three groaned.

“Oh, what now?” Rarity muttered, heaving herself to her feet and shoving Twilight up as well in the process. The princess squawked and flapped awkwardly as she nearly overbalanced, but managed to get her footing back, and they both followed Luna to peer over the garden wall.

A level below them in the city was a purple-cloaked earth pony raising his forelegs to the patterns Celestia’s battle had left in the sky, the cloak covering most of his face. The back of it bore a ringed planet with an eye in the center embroidered in gold and a design of silver stars surrounding it. On seeing it, Luna put her face in her hooves with a very unprincesslike whine.

“For crying out- The Order of Saturnus? Truly? These idiots are still around?” she asked, tone somewhere between annoyed and despairing.

“The who of what?” Rarity asked, looking to Twilight for answers, but the purple pony looked just as confused as she was.

“The Order of Saturnus. Back when the three tribes united, there was a faction of earth ponies convinced the pegusi and unicorns were going to ‘bring down the wrath of the heavens’ to kill everyone by unbalancing the natural order and formed an underground doomsday cult. Biggest pain in my a- backside when I first became princess.”

Twilight’s lip curled a little. “Oh. Joy. They sound like a lot of fun.”

“And apparently they have decided to come out from under their rocks again to start up a panic. Rarity, you are coming with me.”

“Er- wait, what?!” Rarity asked in surprised alarm as she was suddenly pulled along by the princess’ magic. “Why me?! Twilight’s much more versed in combat magic, why not-”

“Twilight has to stay with the waypoint array to make any announcements if an emergency situation does crop up. Do you know any subduing spells?”

“Only the ones they teach you in babysitting classes,” Rarity said with more than a little embarrassment as she got her feet under to run alongside Luna, no longer needing to be dragged. “You know, for dealing with unruly little unicorn sisters.”

“With your precision and enough will behind them, that will be good enough. We just want them out of the way, not injured..” Luna stopped at a side gate to the city and lit up her horn, and Rarity felt the magic washing over her. “This will keep you hidden for half an hour. If you feel it wearing off before you get back to the castle, find me.”

“How will I be sure we’ve gotten all the Order members?”

“I will attach a seeking spell to the cloak of the first one I stun that will mark every one in the city. Once all of them are out, it will deactivate.”

Ooookay, this couldn’t be too hard, Rarity told herself as Luna opened the gate just enough for them to slip through, and then took to the air. Sure, spy novels weren’t really her thing, but she could do this. Really.

Biting her tongue to keep quiet as she wound through the ponies who were either going about their business or stopping to stare at the light show in the sky, she made her way through the Canterlot streets as quickly as possible, keeping her eyes and ears perked for loud voices, purple cloaks, or whatever sign Luna had prepared for her.

She spotted the first one blocking the door of a little patisserie that Fluttershy had been fond of the last time they’d visited and was a bit incensed that he’d ruin the appetites of its guests in such a manner. Sneaking close, she took a deep breath -Precision and will, precision and will- and swiftly left him dazed with a pulse of magic, then pulled him out of sight before anyone was the wiser.

Now for number two.

===

She had stunned eight when Luna’s sigil, a glowing blue filigree moon and star, vanished. Relieved and exhausted. Rarity gave her last catch a pat on the head and stretched the knots out of her back before unsteadily making her way back to the castle gate.

As she walked, she felt the invisibility spell fade off, but she was too tired to do more than wave to the street sweeper who yelped in surprise at seeing a white unicorn ghost in out of nowhere. Horse apples, her head hurt.

“We did it?” she asked once she was inside the gate and Luna landed beside her.

“All accounted for. Good work,” the night princess said, offering a shoulder, and Rarity gratefully accepted, letting the alicorn lead her back up to the gardens. “We heard no announcements, but anything to report?” Luna asked Twilight.

“It hasn’t gotten any better, but it hasn’t gotten any worse,” Twilight said, watching the streaks of light. “I’m taking the latter as a good sign so far.”

“Indeed. With any luck, all there is left to do is continue monitoring the skies until this is all over.”

“Don’t jinx it,” Rarity muttered tiredly as she slid away from Luna’s shoulder to sit down with a thump, resting her head on the bench she’d meant to sit on. The lunar princess chuckled and rubbed her back with a hoof.

“Both of you rest. I’ll take over monitor duty for a bit.”

“How does she still have the energy?” Rarity complained as Luna walked away and Twilight came to lie down on the bench. “It’s almost noon and she’s been up forever.”

“Maybe she took some of the bottled resolve too and we just didn’t see her do it,” Twilight said with a grin as she stretched her wings, then curled up comfortably.

Rarity snorted at the thought and closed her eyes, dozing off as she wondered what Luna’s reaction to the stuff would have been.

===

“Up! Both of you up! *Right now!*”

The roar of the Canterlot Royal Voice had her jolting awake with a shriek, nearly banging her chin on the bench she’d been sleeping against when her hooves tangled up under her, and Rarity opened her eyes to a flurry of purple feathers as Twilight crashed back down from her terrified flapping. Before they could get themselves back in order, they were snatched up in a wave of blue magic, and Rarity rubbed her eyes to find Princess Luna dragging them towards the main courtyard.

“What in the-”

“Incoming!” Luna pointed up and ahead, and Rarity and Twilight looked past her outstretched hoof. There was indeed a meteoric blaze of red falling from the sky, but it was coming in far too steep and far too fast.

“Oh dear,” Rarity said quietly.

Twilight freed herself from Luna’s magical grip with a flap, now fully awake. “Sky Rocket’s netting spell, triple strength! We’ve got to snare them before we can slow them down!”

“On it!” Luna dropped Rarity on her hooves, and the two alicorns shot off into the sky, a complicated sparking of magic weaving itself between their horns as they dove back and forth under the incoming fireball.

She had to shield her eyes from the resulting flash burst when magic met magic, and when she tentatively cracked them open again, Luna and Twilight were already activating some other complex spell to counteract the weight and speed of their burdens.

But something slipped right through their net, and Rarity had a sinking fear in her stomach as she watched the small red splotch of fire plummet towards the courtyard. Fear and instinct leant her speed, and though she was no genius at spells, sewing she could do, and she quickly wove a catch net of her own, diving to grab the falling object.

*CRASH*

“Owwww, ow, ow, ow, oh Tartarus, that smarts…”

Being upside down and half in a dining cart was not at all her idea of a good time. Wincing at all the bruises she was undoubtedly going to have. Rarity tentatively uncurled herself out of the protective ball and onto her side and found herself cradling a cat-sized Discord. Extremely singed and grey, except for where he looked rather green in the face, the draconequus raised his head, eyes swirling in different directions.

“Euuuooogh, but Officer, I swear Mr. Rubber Ducky had his license when we left the house,” he mumbled woozily, looking, if anything, even greener before he went limp in Rarity’s hold. Shaking her head and pretending it didn’t hurt a lot to do so, she gently petted him between the horns and settled him around her neck before heaving herself to her feet and ignoring the stares of the castle staffponies as she went to go see if Luna and Twilight had fared better in catching Celestia.

The sun princess’ mane was no longer in flames, but it hadn’t yet regained its normal colors and was instead a seething mass of reds, oranges, yellows, and pinks that made it look like a boiling sunset. The armor was still pristine, and she was talking to Luna much more normally than Discord had, at least from what Rarity could see from her distance as she approached. She even smiled and waved to all the concerned staffponies and Kibitz rushing from the castle to greet her.

And then as Rarity was almost within calling distance, Princess Celestia collapsed into an unconscious heap.

Afterparty

A yawn bubbled up in the back of her throat, and Rarity didn’t even bother to swallow it back before sleepily raising her head to find she’d gained a new boa during her nap. It seemed Discord had decided she was his new favorite perch, she noted with dry amusement before she unwound the sleeping draconequus and settled him on a pillow.

He’d regained regular size once during the week that he and Celestia had been recuperating, but after quite literally vomiting rainclouds and -he swore- accidentally causing all of the inkwells in the room to turn into exploding purple mushrooms, he’d promptly shrunk himself back down and announced he was going to stay that way until he was back at full strength.

The princess had yet to wake at all.

After stretching the kinks out of her back, Rarity passed a snoozing Twilight and went to go see if there was still any warm coffee left in their pot. She was disappointed to find only the last dregs, but poured it into a cup anyway and added some cream to cover any stale taste before trotting over to send the pot down the parlour’s dumbwaiter to the kitchen for more.

Both shifts of staff knew exactly what to send up, especially since she’d gotten Twilight to start favoring both the sugar-brewed arabica and the brown sugar sweetcake tea.

She was pretty sure it was a running joke by now, actually.

Sipping at her coffee, Rarity looked around the parlour at their books and paperwork and her sleeping friends, then decided to go check in with Luna.

It was nearing sundown, so she didn’t bother with the usual diplomatic places and went straight to Celestia’s room. Sure enough, the lunar princess was there, forelegs folded on the bed and her chin resting on them as she quietly kept vigil.

Rarity knocked on the doorframe to announce her arrival, then approached the bed when Luna raised her head and waved her in. “Do you need a shift change?”

“I will be fine until morning yet,” Luna said, but there were some threads of tiredness evident in her voice, and she admitted them a moment later. “However, if the offer is still valid after sunrise, I may accept.”

“Of course.” Magically pulling over a chair, Rarity settled herself in, just in case Luna was a little over exhausted after switching the heavenly bodies, but politely averted her gaze while the princess did so, so as not to be accused of hovering. Celestia’s color-changed mane seemed to glow in the dimming light, and the vivid reds and oranges, so different from the usual greens and blues, caught her attention. “Do you think that will be permanent?”

“Hm?” Luna asked in an almost huff as she finished her task and shut off her magic, a little breathless. “Will what be permanent?”

“Her mane. The coloring’s rather pretty, but it’s a big difference.”

Luna muffled a snort and rested her head on her forelegs again. “Oh, that. No, it will go back eventually. Took about a month a last time.”

“Really? Did yours do anything?”

“I cannot really remember.”

Silence settled back over the room, and Rarity found herself beginning to nod off again. Just as it was getting really hard to keep her eyes open, however, there was a rasping croak, so soft she almost missed it-

“She’s lying. Her mane and tail turned to steam clouds at first and stayed white all month.”

Starting fully awake, Rarity stared, and beside her, Luna was doing the same.

She looked like absolute death, normally deep and bright magenta eyes glassy and dull, and deep bags under them only making them look worse, but Princess Celestia was awake and smiling faintly at them both..

Luna recovered first, wiping wet eyes. “You were not supposed to tell her that!” she said, laughter watery, then promptly flung herself at her sister to hug the air out of her.

As the two of them clung to each other, Rarity slipped out of her chair and snuck out of the room as silently as possible. There were a hundred things she wanted to ask, and Twilight would want to know, of course. But that could wait a little while. Sister hugs came first, after all.

===

“The storm was even larger than I had been anticipating. Flares normally do not formulate in the same space directly after another, but there was a second burst right after the first had already spent the shields I had built. I was in the process of getting a second one up, but if Discord hadn’t arrived when he did to shunt a good deal of the radiation around the planet, I doubt I would have succeeded in time.”

“Your redirection suggestion worked, it seems, Twilight,” Luna said after she’d swallowed her sip of tea. All of them, Discord included, though he was still mostly snoozing, had convened in Celestia’s room for breakfast after the sisters had taken the night to get some rest together. A spread of fruit-dotted oatmeal, sugared toast, blackberry and orange salad, cream cheese-stuffed strawberries, and tea had been brought so Celestia wouldn’t have to get out of bed.

“Lucky for us,” Twilight muttered as she nibbled on a piece of toast. Rarity wasn’t feeling much better. She didn’t really want to begrudge Discord for his efforts, especially after how hard it had been for him to come to the side of good, but it was still frustrating. All the hard work she’d put into the armor, and in the end, it hadn’t-

A hoof gently touched her shoulder and Rarity raised her head from staring -not sulking, thank you very much- into her blackberry and orange salad to find Celestia giving her a warm, proud smile.

“I have to give you my thanks once again,” the princess said. “You too, Twilight.”

Rarity felt her chest clench, and swallowed. “Us?”

“Had it not been for your armor and spells, I might not have survived when the second burst broke through. I might not have even had enough power to hold the shields long enough to weather the first.”

Rarity was sure her heart stopped. In her mind’s eye, she was seeing the nightmare’s Celestia, seared, roasted, vaporized before she even had a chance to scream. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.

“Rarity?” Twilight asked, and the concerned expression on her friend’s face only earned a small croak out of her throat. Before her shock could give way to tears, however, Celestia gently wrapped her in golden magic, lifting her safely over the food and into a warm hug after shifting the sleeping Discord to a pillow.

“It’s alright,” the princess soothed, holding her tight and nuzzling her ear gently, voice soft enough that no one else would hear. “Luna told me. But it didn’t happen. You know it didn’t happen. I’m still here because of all your efforts. The armor was perfect, you know that.”

Rarity clenched her jaw, then let out a slow, shaky breath and wiped the tears pricking at her eyes. “Right… right. Thank you. I’m okay now.”

Celestia gave her a little squeeze of reassurance, then let her go, and Rarity hopped off the bed to go back to her seat, smiling brightly at Twilight when the purple alicorn gave her a questioning look. ‘Later,’ she mouthed.

As breakfast back to its normal comfortable silence, Discord raised his head and yawned, jaw unhinging like a snake, then slid off the pillow to go wrap himself around a piece of sugared toast and munch sleepily. “Oh, we’re all here. Mornin’ Glowin’ Hind, it’s about time you woke your lazy self up,” he mumbled around a mouthful.

“That’s rich coming from Bite Size,” Celestia teased back before taking a sip of her tea, and Rarity and Twilight shared slightly incredulous glances before shaking their heads and muffling their giggles.

===

“Rarityrarityrarityrarity!”

She didn’t even get the chance to get fully turned around before she was bowled over by a small streak of lavender, pale pink, and white, the two of them rolling across the hall into the plush curtains. “Oof. Hello, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said dryly before returning the small filly’s enthusiastic hug.

“Land sakes, filly, it’s almost like you ain’t seen ‘er in a month or somethin’,” teased a familiar drawl, and Rarity managed to half-weasel herself out of her sister’s death grip enough to see an upside-down and grinning Applejack approaching with Apple Bloom at her heels. With much more effort, she managed to get herself and Sweetie upright and reached out to accept the offered hoof bump. “How you holdin’ up, Sugarcube? Twilight’s invite didn’t tell us much.”

“Tired, but accomplished, my dear. I hope everything went well in my absence?” Rarity asked, not failing to notice the nervous smiles and shuffling by the two small fillies.

“Nothin’ we couldn’t handle,” Applejack said with a casual left hoof wave that was their code sign for an earful later. Rarity inwardly sighed and hoped that said tale would at least come with a mug of cider, and the other mare seemed to pick up on her dread, because Applejack patted her on the shoulder and leaned in close. “I snuck along some special vintage in our overnight bags.”

“Bless you,” Rarity muttered back, then raised her voice back to normal level. “Princess Celestia has said she’ll be bringing the finished work to the party tonight when she makes the announcement about the sky lights.”

“Aw, can’t we see it now?” Sweetie Belle asked before Apple Bloom kicked her hind leg lightly in an apparent reminder that they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves just then. Rarity pretended not to have noticed, both to let them believe they were being clever and because she wanted to go just a little longer in recovery mode.

Applejack just snorted. “I think we’ll take that as our cue to go get ready for tonight’s shindig. C’mon, girls.”

===

Rarity softly hummed along with the quartet’s music as she meandered through the party crowd. She’d checked in with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie- ah, had taken control of the hors d’oeurves table. Sweeping neatly around some chatting elites, Rarity made her way over and accepted a glass of wine from a beaming pink pony, her own mouth quirking into a smile at the tiny gaudy umbrella in the glass. “Found a way to enjoy yourself with the fancy food, I see.”

“Uh-huh! And look at this! The kitchen staff are letting me have unlimited party favors to give out as long as I don’t load the punch with sugar this time! Discord went to get the next box since this one’s almost out.”

“As long as that doesn’t mean umbrellas raining from the ceiling, I’m fine with that,” Rarity said, smile widening as she twirled the little umbrella with her magic, then tucked it behind her ear.

“Cute! That shade of blue looks really good on you-ooooh.”

At the awed expression on Pinkie’s face and the sudden hush of the party music, Rarity turned to the dais and her breath caught in her throat.

The Princess Sisters had made their entrance, but rather than bringing the armor along on a ponyform as Rarity had expected she would do, Celestia had chosen to wear it, color-changed mane and tail ember-glowing in the ballroom’s lighting and reflecting off the gem chips and stones in little glitters. Beside her, Luna was dressed in formal gown and regalia, faintly smug expression conveying to Rarity that choice to put the armor on had been her idea.

And whatever effect Luna had been expecting, it seemed to have worked. Glancing in either direction, Rarity saw so many faces reflecting Pinkie’s starstruck stare and her heart fluttered a little. She took another sip of wine and subtly edged around the table to stick close to her friend, the motion nudging Pinkie out of her trance.

“Is that what you were here making?!” Pinkie asked in an excited whisper, then squeezed her fiercely with a squeal muffled in her mane when Rarity managed a nod over her glass. Before either of them could say anything else, however, Celestia cleared her throat above the crowd and smiled.

“My dear ponies. I’m sure all of you have heard the rumors by now of the apocalyptic cataclysm of my doing that is coming to doom us all from space. You will all be happy to know that it has already been dealt with.”

Rarity prided herself on reading a crowd. Purple robes or no purple robes, there seemed to be quite a few guilty faces and muttering among the applause, and not all of the shadows were from earth ponies. While Pinkie continued to lean on her and smothered giggles with a hoof as the princess’ clever insult, she hid a snort by finishing off the wine and setting her glass down.

Celestia gently motioned for silence, then continued. “However, the effort to protect Equestria and our fellow nations was a joint one, and I must recognize the work put in by those who aided me. Not the least of which, for her vision and toil in designing and constructing this very armor, is our own Rarity, Element of Generosity.”

All heads turned in her direction, and Pinkie quickly let go with a squeak of embarrassment. Rarity flashed her a quick grin of no hard feelings, then walked out from behind the table to nod politely to the acknowledgment and applause. She would have been a liar if she hadn’t admitted that she felt a little smug about a few particular jealous faces in the crowd, but nothing warmed her like the affectionate pride on the faces of her friends and the princesses, and the delighted squeal from her little sister.

Before she could bask in them too long, however, a loud whistling noise made her jump, and she whipped around to find a wide-eyed Pinkie pointing at Discord, who was holding a box under one arm and a noisemaker in the other. Grinning unapologetically, he spun it again, and along with the piercing whistle, it made a little ‘CONGRATULATIONS’ in sparkly rainbow fireworks and spat flower-shaped confetti. Rarity rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help her smile coming back as she turned to hear the rest of Celestia’s speech.

===

The party was still in full force, but Rarity found she was getting quite tired. Mostly of being crowded by ponies demanding to know the secrets of how the armor had been built and how it worked. The latter, at least, had easily been pawned off on Twilight, who was more than happy to spout the magical processes of the rune wards until they no longer wanted to hear about them and probably wouldn’t ever again.

For her own part, she had taken her fifth glass of wine and escaped to one of the platform balconies, doing her best to radiate a ‘bother me and I will end you’ aura as she sipped at the sparkling liquid from her seat.

Someone apparently didn’t get the message, sitting down beside her, and she turned her head to give them a piece of her mind, then started in mild surprise when she found it was Celestia. “Oh! Ce- Your Highness,” she corrected herself, remembering they still at a public function. “I wouldn't have expected you to still be able to sneak up on me in that.”

“Another testament to your talent, I think,” the princess said with a smile, stretching out the wing facing away from her. “Light as a ballgown, silent as a whisper. Now that I’ve worn it three times, it’s more comfortable than my normal regalia.”

“Oh, now you’re just teasing,” Rarity said, looking into her glass as she swirled her wine.

“Only a little. It really is very comfortable. Is something the matter?”

“Nothing, really. Just… I thought I would enjoy going public with it more than this. And yet listening to everypony talk about it is just giving me a headache. They don’t understand. They don’t care. It’s just a shiny bauble to them. And it feels so wrong, because this isn’t just fashion, this is-”

A wing gently covered her shoulders and Rarity leaned into the warmth, not caring what it would look like in the gossip mags in the morning. “I know,” Celestia murmured gently, and it was all she needed to say. Rarity closed her eyes for a moment, then let out a slow breath, feeling some of the tension in her head ebb.

“Some of the nobles are discussing the name,” Celestia said after giving her a few moments to just relax. “Black Sun is a favorite.” She chuckled at Rarity’s noise of derision. “I told them that as the creator of the armor, you had proper first rights.”

Without opening her eyes, Rarity considered that. In her mind, she let her thoughts sift through words, rolling over the things she had seen while she had worked, the materials she had used, the purpose she had made the armor for. She made a soft hum as she thought, then her eyelids fluttered open. “Auroral Flame.”

“The Auroral Flame Set.” Removing her wing, Celestia tapped the tip of a feather to her mouth, then smiled. “Very poetic. I’ll make it official before the night’s out.”

“Thank you, your highness.”

“Now, there is one more thing. My offer from the beginning of last month still stands.” When Rarity blinked up at the alicorn in confusion, Celestia tapped her hoof with her own in reminder. “I offered you payment of your choice, remember? I know you said this was a free commission, but I still feel rather terrible about taking you away from your actual career from an entire month.”

“Oh. Well, there’s really no need. I’m happy to have done it. I may be taking another week or so until I go back to the fashion world, however; I think I’d like a little de-stressing time first.”

“Well… If you aren’t entirely sick of this place by now, why not take your vacation here in the castle? I’m sure Toffee Chip would be happy to spoil you silly, and you could take advantage of guest privileges in the gardens and some of the city sights. That could be your payment.”

Rarity stared up at the princess, surprised. “You… you wouldn’t mind?”

“Of course not. And I’m sure Luna would be thrilled for the company.”

Rarity looked over to where the three Crusaders had pulled the Night Princess out onto the floor and were doing their best to figure out some kind of swing dance to the slow quartet music. “Sweetie Belle does have spring vacation coming up next week, and they do get on like a house on fire… I… Yes. Yes! I accept!”

“Excellent. We can start planning the arrangements later this week. For now, should we rejoin the party?” Celestia asked, offering the wing that had covered her.

Applejack was waving to her from the refreshments table, where Pinkie and Discord were building a giant ‘house’ of party favors while Fluttershy tried to catch any that fell off. Rarity brightened. “We should,” she said, and they walked down into the crowd together.

A Knock in the Night

*TOK TOK TOK*

Rarity grumbled quietly under her breath as she made her way down the stairs, muffling a yawn with her hoof once she reached the bottom. Whoever was beating on her door at this unseemly hour of the morning was going to get a very loud piece of her mind-

-or not, she quickly amended when she opened the door and found one of Celestia’s guards standing outside with a small, unobtrusive biga that was quite different from any other royal vehicle she had ever come across. As for the dark leather stealth armor he wore, she had only seen it once in her lifetime, and being presented with it in front of her now was more than a little unnerving. “Er- may I help you?” she asked politely, trying not to let her voice waver.

The guard said nothing, but presented her with a rolled up and sealed letter that she quickly accepted and opened with her magic.

Please come immediately to Canterlot for a private meeting.

All will be explained there.

~Princess Celestia

The hinted urgency made a little chill go down the back of her neck, and Rarity glanced up at the guard again as she rolled the letter back up. If he knew how important his assignment was, he gave no indication of it, his expression as placid as any other's. “Might I have just a moment to leave a note for my little sister?”

“I don’t see why not.”

Leaving the door open so as not to be rude, she grabbed up one of the blank receipt papers from the shop and a quill.

Minor emergency with a client. Had to leave before breakfast.

There are blueberries, blackberries and cut up strawberries in the fridge; also cream. Don't forget your homework on the kitchen table.

Have fun at school, love you.

~Sis

Rarity quickly stuck the note to the fridge and turned to go, then caught sight of her reflection in the shine of one of the pots hanging by the stove and winced before shaking her head. She’d have to just let it go for now. The wind would ruin her mane further anyway, and she could give it a quick magical style when she got to Canterlot. Grabbing her saddlebag as she passed back into the front hall, she took a deep breath. “Alright, I’m ready, she said as she locked the shop door and made sure the ‘closed’ sign was in place.

The guard nodded, then stepped back and crouched to get himself back into the harness of the biga. Rarity stepped into the back and braced herself to hold on, trying not to worry about what she was getting into.

There was a jolt and then they were aloft, and she huddled down behind the biga’s main wall to keep from being buffeted by the wind.

“If you like, you can try and get some sleep on the way,” the guard called over his shoulder as they passed over the town hall. “It’ll take awhile with just me flying.”

“Thank you,” Rarity yelled back as politely as she could manage over the noise of rushing air.

She doubted between her concerns and the wind she’d get much rest, but she curled herself nose to tail to try for a small nap anyway.

===

To her own surprise, when she opened her eyes again and peeked over the edge of the floor, they were flying over one of the market districts of Canterlot.

She must have still been more tired than she expected, she thought with some embarrassment as she stood up and arched her back a little to stretch a kink out of it. The spires of the castle were only a short distance away, and the sky was still dark. To think Princess Celestia would still have been awake all night when she should have been resting to get ready for raising the sun… “The princess… didn’t happen to mention what she wanted to meet me for, did she?”

“‘Fraid not.”

That didn’t help her nerves any. And the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach only knotted tighter when she looked down at their landing spot near Celestia’s balcony and saw the princess’ majordomo -Kite? Kipper? Kibitz? That was it, Kibitz.- anxiously pacing about.

“Right this way, miss,” the unicorn said almost before the wheels of the biga had even touched the ground, and Rarity didn’t dare argue or grumble, trotting after him at a brisk pace. She quickly ran a wisp of her magic through her mane as they passed through one set of doors, then another, trying to at least make herself look presentable, and nearly crashed into his back when he suddenly stopped at a set of doors she recognized from travel guides as Celestia’s bedroom, rather than the parlour she typically received guests at. “Here we are.”

“Here?” Rarity asked in confusion, but when the door opened, she obediently entered.

The sight she was met with was alarming.

Rather than the calm, graceful, elegant princess presented to the public, the Celestia that paced slowly in front of the low-burning fireplace looked exhausted, almost sick. Dark shadows ringed under her eyes, and her mane and tail, while they still waved and flowed magically, had lost their sparkle and dragged the ground. She wore no regalia, and instead had a simple blanket draped over her shoulders.

Rarity put a hoof to her mouth in shock. No wonder the letter had been so urgent. “Your highness?” she asked hesitantly.

Celestia raised her head, and the smile was tired, but welcoming. “Come in. And don’t bother, please,” she added when Rarity belatedly remembered she ought to bow and started to dip her head. “I apologize for dragging you out of bed at such a terrible time of the night.”

“O-oh, it’s nothing!” Rarity said with a quick flip of her hoof, trying to interject a little giggle. “Nothing at all! Who could say no to an invitation from a princess after all?”

Her attempt at levity managed to at least earn a smile that was a bit brighter, then Celestia took a deep breath and let it out before gesturing for her to take a seat anywhere she liked, and the weight settled back in Rarity’s stomach as she complied.

“I won’t waste time with small talk,” Celestia said, using her magic to pull a large, plain-looking chest out of a closet from the other side of her bed. “There is a very dire situation at hoof that has been rising for some time. One that only you can help me with.”

“Me, your highness?”

“You.” The chest settled between them, and then a ball of magic generated above it, becoming a small model of the sun. “You see, the Sun isn’t just magically controlled. It’s an energy powerhouse in and of itself. However, that means sometimes it can generate too much energy.”

Rarity watched in fascination as the simulated sun pulsed and writhed like a living thing. She’d honestly never given much thought to the heavenly bodies beyond the fact that the princesses moved them. Seeing the sun in this kind of detail would have been kind of delightful under other circumstances. “But you can deal with that… can’t you?”

“Normally, yes,” Celestia said with a small sigh. “Unfortunately, with my having had to maintain both the sun and the moon, I haven’t had the power, nor the time to siphon off that excess energy as often I should have been. It’s been building up. And the amount I was able to remove in the time that Luna has been back has been far too little.”

Rarity looked at Celestia in wide-eyed alarm. “The Sun’s not going to explode, is it?!” she asked, panicked, and Celestia blinked at her in surprise before snorting out a small laugh that she politely hid behind a hoof.

“No, my little pony, it’s not going to explode. But there is still a storm coming because of the excess.” She gestured with a hoof to the illusion of the sun, and a wide flaring arc of fire whipped out of the sides of it to a small illusion of their planet that had popped into existence. “It’s called a coronal burst. And it’s going to be strong enough that even I’ll need a magical boost to protect our world from it.”

The chest’s lid opened, and Rarity made a tiny gasp. Inside were piled mounds of small and medium-sized opals. Clear, white, red fire, and- “Black lightning opals! How in the world did you get so many of these?”

“The majority of them were gifts over the decades. Mages seemed to think the best way to prove they were worth their salt were to create and send me these. And they will all be at your disposal.”

Rarity blinked up at the alicorn, then her eyes widened as she clued in “Foci clothing. That’s why you called me.”

“Indeed.”

“I- I’m honored. But, again, why me? Surely for a magical focus aid, Twilight would be more qualified to-”

The princess shook her head and held up a hoof. “Twilight is exceptional, I will not dispute that. But I chose you for your specific talents. Besides your abilities as a seamstress, no unicorn I have ever met has the finesse at telekinesis that you do. And I have seen your gem work in clothing before. Whether you’ve been aware of it or not, you are a natural at constructing gem magic matrices.”

She could feel her face heating at the praise. Magic specialities where she was more qualified than Twilight? By the princess’ specifications, no less? Wow, now that was a compliment. “How long would I have if I agree?”

“A month.” Celestia stood up, and the illusion sun and planet vanished. “That is the longest I can continue to siphon off energy and hold off the burst. You would have access to any information you need, full room and board, and all materials will be procured at your request,” she said, staring into the chest of gems before looking back at Rarity. “I’ll pay anything you ask when you’re finished. Will you do it?”

Rarity bit her lip. A month was shaving it… awful close for something of this magnitude. Supposed natural abilities or no, a magical matrix would take study… and she would need materials that had shielding effects…

But Celestia had said ‘will’, not ‘can’. Celestia believed she could do it. And Celestia needed her to do it.

Rarity stood up and puffed herself up, holding her head high. “Your highness, I'll accept this commission for free!”