Fire Opals

“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.”