Chapter 1: Lights in the Darkness
Rarity couldn't see a thing. She turned her head to look around, but all was pitch black. She could tell that the floor beneath her was earth, but she didn't dare move until she managed to get her bearings. The unicorn closed her eyes in concentration and her horn sparked and lit up, casting a soft glow a few feet all around her.
She opened her eyes and looked about, but it was still too dark to see anything off in the distance. All she could make out was herself and the dirt floor she stood on. Suddenly, she saw a light illuminate in the distance, then a ways off another, and another, and another, closer and closer until four lights upon the corner posts of a little wood bridge lit up just a few yards away from her.
Eyes awide, and seeing nothing else of obvious interest, she took her first steps toward it. Glancing about, she saw water gently rippling beneath the chestnut brown construct, and it seemed that the lights in the distance were mounted to the tips of buoys scattered across the horizon, reflecting serenely off the water. Having passed over to the other side of the bridge, Rarity paused for a moment, now feeling the distinct touch of grass beneath her hooves. She narrowed her eyes at a rather large, rigid silhouette in front of her. The unicorn took a step forward, only to flinch as the silhouette turned to stone fountain abruptly shining out, adorned with bright fairy lights. Lamp posts burst into radiant glow to reveal the park they lined, the fountain the centerpiece. It appeared that the bridge had led her to a small island surrounded by water.
Rarity let out a quiet gasp at the sight that lay before her, allowing her horn's light to dim and fade into nothing. She took a few hoofsteps forward and looked down at her reflection in the fountain. Her eyes widened. Her lavender mane was done up elegantly, with a long, loose curl hanging down along each side of her face. A silvery diamond tiara sat upon her head, adorned with several deep blue sapphires to match her eyes.
"A vision of loveliness," came a voice suddenly.
Rarity turned her head at the sound, seeing a figure beginning to emerge from the shadows into the light. The stallion stood a few inches taller than her, his coat a shiny silver, and his sleek, ebony mane tied back. He wore a blue dress-coat with gold edging and a gray sash. His eyes were a subtle gold, and the way he held himself appeared confident, but in an oddly quiet, unassuming sort of way. He also seemed to be quite young despite what his more mature demeanor might lead one to believe.
"W-Who...?" Rarity cleared her throat softly and began again. "Greetings, good sir. I am Rarity. It appears I've gotten a tad turned around. Is there any chance you could point me in the direction of Ponyville?"
His eyes widened in realization. "Good evening, Your Highness," he replied with a slight, unpretentious bow. "I am Eventide Swell, captain of the ship Mooncrest in the Equestrian Royal Fleet. You must forgive me, for I have served the princesses many years, but it appears I have yet to be informed of the newest addition to the royal elite."
"I... beg your pardon?" Rarity asked, a bewildered expression playing out on her features. "Oh!" She chuckled in realization. The stallion was obviously complimenting her further by pretending to mistake her for a princess. "Why, thank you, captain," she said coyly, playing along. "But I'm afraid you mustn't let the finery fool you. I assure you I am but a humble unicorn and a passionate designer of fashionable wear."
"Unicorn?" Eventide repeated incredulously, raising an eyebrow. "Your Highness, I do not mean to contradict. But surely you jest? Your Highness is clearly an alicorn!"
Rarity tittered. "Me? An alicorn? Come now, darling! I appreciate the flattery as much as any mare, but you needn't overdo it! And enough of this 'Your Highness' business. My name is Rarity — you should address me as such."
Eventide Swell's eyes were awide with shock. "But... Your Highness—"
"Rarity~," she corrected in a sing-song voice.
"Princess Rarity—"
She barely managed to stifle an irritated groan.
"Please, Your—" He had to swallow to stop himself from finishing the title. "As a captain in the Equestrian Fleet it would be improper for me to address a princess in such a—"
"I'm not a princess!" Rarity shouted, suddenly feeling a touch at her sides. She looked over her shoulder to see she had partly flared out a pair of white wings. She gasped deeply and her eyes bulged, her mouth dropping wide open. After a moment she closed her maw and cautiously reached a forehoof up around her shoulder, and then she quickly tapped a feathery wing several times in quick succession, pulling her hoof away quickly after. It seemed real. She did a few little turns like a puppy chasing its tail, trying to get a better look. After a few seconds she stopped and breathed heavily in place, her legs slightly splayed out as she panted. "I have... wings?!" she exclaimed.
"Your Highness is... surprised?" the captain asked her. She didn't need to answer after that display, it was just difficult for him to believe.
Eventide reached for a chalice on the edge of the fountain and filled it hurriedly. Approaching the hyperventilating alicorn, he held it out for her, and she took it into her magical grasp and greedily gulped down the full contents. She dropped the chalice and sat on her haunches.
"I'm an... alicorn?" she repeated.
Eventide began cautiously. "Since... Since you have just made this discovery, I suppose it would be alright for me to call you by name. I am only required to address coronated princesses, I believe. Rarity, was it?"
The white alicorn nodded.
"Rarity," he said with a small smile. "This is quite the honor, for a humble captain of the Navy to happen upon a new alicorn upon her first earning her wings. Might I ask, what grand feat did you accomplish to gain them?"
"I—" Rarity's mouth went dry despite the water she just drank. "I don't know!" she admitted. "I don't even know where I am! How did I get here? Where's—"
"Breathe, breathe, Your H—Rarity," he corrected himself. "It is an easy enough matter to set straight."
"What do you mean?!" she demanded, stomping a hoof and causing him to recoil slightly. "I'm an alicorn! This means a LOT of very BIG things, and I don't even know HOW I got here!"
"Calm now. Calm," he began gently. "Whenever somepony becomes an alicorn, it is through accomplishing a great feat. Perhaps your memory is a bit fuzzy at the moment due to the transformation, but one is unlikely to undertake something so great as to be worthy of alicorn-hood without impressing the event upon others quite strongly. In a short while your memory should return, or we will find somepony else who knows. All shall be answered in time. There is no need to panic."
"No need to!—" She took a deep breath to regain her composure. "Yes. Yes, there's no need to panic. I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for all of this. Perfectly logical..." She manage to force her breaths to even out. "Captain Eventide," she began anew. "I require your assistance."
"But of course, Your Highness." He winced slightly, realizing too late he'd started using the title again.
"Ponyville," she told him. "I need you to show me the way there!"
"I can't," he replied simply.
"Why not?" she asked. "Do you not know the way to the palace where the Princess of Friendship resides?"
"I can navigate my way on the sea, Your Highness. But on land I am at a slight disadvantage, especially without the stars to light my way."
"Stars?" Rarity repeated.
"The constellations," he clarified. "I use them to ascertain which direction I should go." He pointed a hoof to the sky. "You see?"
Rarity looked up into the black abyss. Not a single star was visible, and yet strangely enough there were no clouds to be seen. It was all just utter darkness.
"Well that's strange," Rarity commented. She gasped. "What if something's happened?! The princesses! Oh no! We have to get to Canterlot! That's where my friends would be at a time like this!"
"Your h—"
"We must do something!"
"Your h—"
"Cease use of that title!" Rarity snapped.
"No, Rarity! Your horn!"
Rarity turned to look at her reflection in the fountain. Her horn had lit up with a myriad of colors. "Eventide!" she called out in a panic. "What's it doing?!"
"Calm yourself, Rarity," he told her. Perhaps her emotions were what was bringing this into effect.
"Would you please stop telling me to be calm?!" she cried.
Suddenly a beam of brilliant white light shot from her horn and into the sky, causing Rarity to yelp. The sky's stars slowly began to emerge, their gleaming forms appearing in full and suddenly the trail of light ceased its surge and diminished into nothing. Rarity fell back on her haunches, her horn smoldering with an audible sizzle.
Eventide helped her to her hooves. "Are you alright?" he asked her.
Rarity seemed dazed. "Uhh... What was that?" she asked, sounding bewildered and rather worn after the exertion.
"You," Eventide replied simply, pointing a hoof to the sky.
Rarity looked up with a gasp as she saw the shimmering canopy of twinkling stars were now perfectly visible, along with a luminous full moon. "Did... did I do that?"
"Indeed," he verified.
The alicorn touched a hoof to her horn in amazement, it was still warm.
"Well it appears I'll be able to navigate now," Eventide said with a wry smile. He looked up and lifted a forehoof, tracing over the constellations as he tried to work out the direction they should go.
"Oh dear..." Rarity said suddenly. "I just realized. Even if we do find our way. How will we get off this island? At least, I think it's an island," she added that last bit hastily. "I crossed over a bridge to get here."
Eventide Swell smiled. "The bridge you crossed merely leads to another smaller, dirt island. I have a small boat, that's how I came to be here. Sometimes I just can't help but feel the need to get out on the open water for a while. It truly makes a seafarer's soul feel free."
"Oh?" Rarity raised an eyebrow. "And just where is this vessel of yours?"
The stallion led her to a somewhat shadowy edge of the island where the lamp light didn't touch, and he reached down and parted some tall grass to reveal the small wooden boat. "Just large enough to hold the two of us!" he told her with satisfaction. He held a hoof out to assist her into the craft. "May I?" he asked, smiling.
Rarity smiled and took his hoof. "You may indeed."
Chapter 2: Fanciful Notions
The water sloshed lazily against the finished wood siding of the little vessel, and the rhythmic sounds of splashing with each push of the oars as Eventide sped the boat along, all contributed to the pleasant lull as the two ponies journeyed beneath the dazzling night sky. Even given the perplexing circumstances, Rarity had to admit that there was a certain something romantic to the whole concept of a princess and a handsome sea-captain adventuring out into the night in search of answers, all the while surrounded by the beauty of the open water reflecting the moon and the stars above. She had to stifle a girlish giggle. It was like a page out of one her novels!
But the alicorn would not allow herself to be swayed by fanciful notions. She was a princess now, and as such she told herself she would behave with all the grace and decorum befitting a royal lady of the crown. The crown! Oh, it was such a lovely crown! Or tiara as the case may be. So shimmery and beautiful! She briefly wondered if tiaras and crowns were considered two entirely different forms of headwear or if tiaras simply fit into a subcategory. She was a fashionista, after all. She should know these things.
"You seem cheerful," Eventide remarked with a small smile as he rowed. He was seated across from Rarity, his words quickly drawing her out of her private musings.
"Hmm?" Her cheeks blushed lightly as she chuckled. "Well, I suppose this is all rather exciting, wouldn't you agree?"
"It certainly would seem so," the captain affirmed. "But I suppose this will change a lot for you, turning into an alicorn after having lived so long as a 'humble unicorn', as you so put it."
"Yes, I suppose it will," Rarity replied absently. "I do so wish I knew what I'd done to deserve the honor though. This lovely tiara, these fabulous wings!" She extended the feathery appendages, admiring them. "Aren't they simply divine?!" she cooed. Rarity usually wouldn't have been so forthcoming in front of a stallion, but none of her mare-friends were about and she simply had to share her excitement with somepony!
Eventide smirked in amusement at the fashionista's foal-like delight. "They are as an angel's wings," he told her. "But their divinity applies just as much to the wearer they adorn as to the wings themselves."
Rarity blinked and blushed deeply, folding her wings, she turned her head away demurely while raising a forehoof to hide her widening smile.
"My apologies, Princess," the stallion said softly. "I had imagined somepony so beautiful would've been accustomed to such praise."
It was true that she'd had her fair share of admirers, but the compliments she'd received were often either very simple or delivered with an air that revealed the speaker to be too practiced to be anything more than distantly sincere. This felt... different somehow. The words came off as not merely an excerpt from a rehearsed repertoire, but as the genuine sentiments of a poetic soul admiring another with wonder. His eloquence had been apparent in the way he had spoken to her from the beginning, but even so she felt a bit embarrassed for allowing his sweet words to affect her so.
Rarity cleared her throat in as ladylike a manner as she could manage. "Why, yes, of course," she replied, doing her best to regain her composure. "I receive praise quite often. My work as a designer affords me much positive attention." She winced inwardly. She'd been trying to sound confident and was sure she just came off as arrogant.
"Ahh, yes, you did say you were a designer," Eventide said, seeming unperturbed. "Do you intend to continue on with your profession now that you've become an alicorn?"
Rarity blinked. "I... Well..." She hadn't even considered the sacrifices she might have to make in light of these latest developments. She'd never heard of an alicorn being a fashionista before. She sputtered. "Of course I'll still design!" Rarity insisted quickly. "My friend Twilight didn't give up doing what she loved when she earned her wings! And it'll certainly be the same for me!"
"As you say, princess. I hadn't meant to upset you with the inquiry. But..." Eventide paused suddenly. "Princess, surely you didn't mean Twilight as in the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle?"
"One and the same," Rarity told him distantly, pretending to inspect the nail polish on her forehoof. "It appears that Ponyville shall now be home to two princesses. The Princess of Friendship, and... the Princess of Generosity." Rarity suddenly gasped, bringing her forehooves to her mouth. "Does this mean I get my own palace?!" She squealed and bounced in her seat, rocking the boat slightly. "A palace, a palace! With curtains and draperies and carpets and spires and!—"
"Princess!" Eventide pleaded, afraid that the vessel would capsize.
The alicorn stilled and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry," she whispered. "This is all just so exciting!"
The captain simply shook his head, smiling.
Chapter 3: The Wonders of Flight
Both ponies safely on land, Eventide commenced to pull the boat up onto the shore. Rarity had made an offer to assist him, but he had told her there was 'no need'. Choosing to permit the captain his chivalry despite her new-found powers, the alicorn stood a short distance away and watched. She saw that a forest sat just at the inner edge of the beach - lining the sandy expanse into the distance. She looked over her shoulder and observed the tide as it rose and fell. The silhouette of the island they'd left was still visible from this spot, as the lights of the heavens now ruled the night once more. Satisfied that the tide would not steal away his vessel, Eventide Swell left the boat and returned to Rarity's side.
"Princess," he said, holding out a map he'd kept aboard his craft. "If you would be so kind as to cast your light, I will use it to ascertain which way to..." He blinked. "Pardon me, princess, but did you say you wanted to go to Canterlot or Ponyville?"
That gave Rarity pause. "Well... I wish to reunite with my friends. At first I thought Ponyville because it's where they live, but then I thought Canterlot because I couldn't see the moon or the stars, knowing they'd likely go to the princesses to investigate... but then, I did fix that so perhaps they haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary at all. Which one is closer?"
"Well..." Eventide glanced down meaningfully at the darkened parchment.
"Oh! Of course!" Rarity chuckled nervously and lit her horn, the light more than enough for him to read by.
A short while passed before the captain spoke. "It appears that Ponyville is the nearest. Just several hours journey in..." He pointed a hoof to a path between the trees. "That direction," he finished.
"Hmm. Come to think of it, Ponyville is perhaps the most advantageous choice," Rarity thought aloud. "The map in Twilight's castle will likely tell us where the others have gone if they aren't there."
"That's settled then," Eventide stated, folding up the map. "Does the princess wish to commence the journey now, or should I set up camp on the shore for the night?"
"Goodness, no!" Rarity said waving a hoof. "I can walk a few hours if it means I get to sleep in a nice warm bed instead of on an old beach! In fact..." She glanced down at her wings and smiled. "Perhaps I could even fly there!"
The captain's eyes widened. "Are you sure you could manage that? You've never flown before, and you would have to make the journey from here on your own if you succeeded."
Rarity rolled her eyes. "Please, darling! I'm an alicorn now! I moved the stars and the moon without even trying! Even Twilight can't do that! I shall easily carry you in my magic as I fly!"
"Princess, I don't think—"
"Pish posh! Stand aside, good captain!" She waved him away.
Spreading her wings out while crouching down into position, her eyes narrowed in determination. It was all just as she'd so often seen Rainbow Dash do it. With a glint in her eye, she took off running and flapped her wings, rising from the ground below.
"There, you see, captain, I'm flYYYIIINNNNNGG!"
Rarity cried out as she careened off-course, just narrowly missing a tree. Abruptly the majestic alicorn somersaulted through the air and landed face first in the sand. Eventide cantered quickly over to her side, assisting her in extricating her head from the sand with a popping sound not unlike a cork when pulled from the tip of a new champagne bottle.
"Oh my! Princess, are you alright?!"
Rarity spat out a mouthful of sand and coughed. "Of course, captain," she said, forcing herself to grin. "Just a... minor setback."
He helped her to her hooves. "Princess, I really don't think you should try that again without proper instruction."
"That's a good idea," Rarity agreed readily. "Would you mind giving me some?"
"My apologies, princess. I'd be happy to assist in that if I could, but I'm afraid I'm no pegasus. In respect to matters of flight, I'm sorry to say I am quite ignorant."
"Well, so much for that idea," Rarity remarked flatly. "We'd best start moving if we want to reach Ponyville before sunrise, assuming there is a sunrise."
Author's Note
This old story. Yeah, I really should've updated it to be cancelled a long time ago. I had writer's block and held out vague hope I might get inspired to finish it one day. I knew how I wanted to start this story and how I wanted it to end, but the middle part stumped me. Since it's unlikely I'm ever going to finish it: I might as well just tell you the ending.
The whole thing is a dream. Rarity wakes up after having this adventure just a plain old unicorn, feeling a deep sense of loss since she had bonded with the stallion she met, only to now believe he was imaginary. But in the morning she receives an invitation from Cadance to The Crystal Empire. Once Rarity is at the palace she is met by Cadance and Luna - it turns out that the stallion Rarity met is real.
Cadance, in an effort towards matchmaking pestered Luna into fusing the dreamworlds of Rarity and Eventide so she could see if the two had chemistry when they interacted - if things went poorly then the two would wake from the dream never knowing the other pony was real. Rarity is lead out onto the balcony where Eventide waits and the two happily reunite. The End.
