Fire Opals

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.